Beck (manga): Difference between revisions

[[File:Beckx_1950.jpg|frame]]

 

 

Ryuusuke is also setting up a band, which eventually gets named Beck, after the dog. After Koyuki has learned to play the guitar to a somewhat passable level, he gets accepted into the band. There he impresses everyone with his fantastic voice. From then on, the whole story is mainly about Beck's struggles to become famous, both nationally in Japan and internationally. Well, that and Koyuki's romantic troubles with Ryuusuke's sister, Maho.

 

The other members of the band are:

* Yoshiyuki Taira: The bassist of BECK. As the oldest, he is the most mature member and has a large history of music (his father was the bassist of a jazz band.) He has no problem with staying in the background, but will speak up if he feels he needs to. His play style is based off Michael 'Flea' Balzary of The Red Hot Chili Peppers fame. He also has bleach blonde hair and doesn't wear a shirt on stage.

* Yuuji 'Saku' Sakurai: The drummer of BECK, and a transfer student. He quickly befriends Koyuki through the music of The Dying Breed. Not one to conform, he is unafraid to speak to Koyuki after a school-wide silence is imposed on him. He is surprisingly talented, and the moment the band hears him play, they recruit him.

 

 

Essentially the Manga is a [[Seinen]] in [[Shounen]]'s Clothing.

 

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* [[Aloof Big Brother]]: Ryuusuke.

* [[Author Appeal]]: Creator Harold Sakuishi is a very big fan of the [[Red Hot Chili Peppers]], so it's no surprise that Taira is pretty much modeled after RHCP bassist Flea.

* [[Bishonen]]: Ryuusuke, Eiji's band, Yoshito, Eddie Lee. And depending on your point of view, Koyuki.

** Koyuki's more like a cute little boy, in the anime at least (he's 14 when the story starts, after all).

* [[Burger Fool]]: Hiromi used to work at a donut joint when Koyuki met her. She was fired for making a mistake (which is [[Noodle Incident|never described]] or brought up again).

** Averted in the opening sequence, where a number of [[Real Life]] casino logos had to be censored in the American release for legal reasons (including the ''fake'' Coca-Cola logo, just to be safe).

* [[Big Damn Heroes]]: Ryuusuke has a bad habit of making impossible bets. {{spoiler|In the finale, when he pulls another Greatful Sound and wagers that Beck will get the most viewers, everyone else goes out of their way to help. Matt Reed flies Koyuki in with [[Beyond the Impossible|his helicopter]] when it seems like Koyuki will be late for the show, and colleague band Room 13 tells people to go to their performance. Even Hyde, a popular American artist, tells his fans to head to the show. Unfortunately, it doesn't quite work out.}}

* [[Chekhov's Gun]]: "Devil's Way", Eddie Lee's unreleased song. From playing it privately to Koyuki over the phone, it becomes an important plot point late in the manga.

** Remember that fabled helicopter of Matt's that was offhandedly referred to in an earlier chapter? The one that Ryuusuke said was just gossip written for the tabloids? {{spoiler|Well, it exists. And it shows up just in time for a [[Big Damn Heroes]] moment.}}

* [[Corrupt Corporate Executive]]: The boys meet a few along their career. Ran, Leon Sykes, Victor Slater... It gets to [[Sorting Algorithm of Evil]] levels in the manga.

* [[Downer Ending]]: Averted. Especially because, in the anime, it does ''not'' happen in the final episode, but in the penultimate. And the story moved on in the manga.

* [[Eyes Always Shut]]: Saku. Naturally averted in the movie.

** Lampshaded when Saku justifies not showing his driver's license to Koyuki: he says the photo didn't come out good because he had to open his eyes. But since said photo is neer seen, the trope's still in effect.

* [[Face of a Thug]]: Taketoki Kanemoto, the frontman of Shiboyugi, may look like a cross between [[Scary Black Man]] and [[Yakuza]], but he's an overall nice guy (just like the rest of his band, in fact) and close buddies with Chiba.

* [[Fan Service]]: Maho definitely has her moments, Usually for Koyuki. Also, [[Shirtless Scene|Taira]] for the [http://www.mangareader.net/291-20693-10/beck/chapter-76.html male side].

* [[Fascinating Eyebrow]]: Jim Walsh has one of these virtually every time he's pictured.

* [[First Girl Wins]]: Averted with Izumi.

* [[Gangsta Style]]: Frequently employed by the actual gangsters who appear in the manga.

* [[Gratuitous English]]: The lyrics to Beck's songs are full of it, though not completely ("Spice of Life", for example, does have verses in Japanese).

** There's also Koyuki singing in English without knowing the language. To be fair, he sings well, it's only his accent that sucks (for example, his "gently" in "Moon in the Water" sounds like "gent'''r'''y").

* [[Hot Teacher]]: Momoko, for whom Saitou falls.

* [[Ho Yay]]: A bit between Koyuki and Ray in the beginning.

* [[Jerkass]]: Ryuusuke, especially later in the manga.

** Also, Kevin in the manga. He does everything to push the members of Beck (rather, MCS) around while they are touring the USA as the opening act for F.V.E. (the band for which he and his brother, David, who is sympathetic towards the guys, play) just for the hell of it. But then again, he justifies this by the fact that MCS' performances in USA are subpar (which they had been, until Ryusuke rejoined them in Seattle). From what David tells Ryusuke later on, this may be simply prejudice since {{spoiler|Kevin had a Japanese girlfriend in high school, but she cheated on him.}}

** Heck, any prominent character under Ran's wing (including Ran himself) is one of these. Eiji seems to enjoy looking down on Beck as a whole, while Yoshito outright ''hates'' Koyuki just because of Maho. As for [[Corrupt Corporate Executive|Ran]], well...

* [[Large Ham]]: Saitou, Koyuki's swimming teacher-slash-guitar teacher-slash-employer. The man is just about as hammy as a middle-aged Japanese man can get, or even more.

** Chiba could also count. He is, by far, the loudest of the members of Beck.

* [[Male Gaze]]

* [[Narm]]: ''GET THE FUCK OUTTA HERE!!!'' (Ryusuke calling out on Koyuki, after the latter unintentionally breaks a guitar the former had given him in an early episode. {{spoiler|Turns out that the guitar, which Ryusuke cherished for thinking it belonged to Eddie Lee, was a replica of Eddie's usual one, and all was good between them again.}}) It's only funny because of Ryusuke's accentized English.

* [[Never Learned to Read]]: Maho can't read kanji, making her almost completely illiterate.

* [[No Celebrities Were Harmed]]:

*** Actually that band is called "the Heroes" which when written in Japanese katakana is almost the same as the "the pillows" except for an accent mark, so its more of a [[Captain Ersatz]] situation.

*** Does Koyuki's dream (which the others also had) count here?

** Hype's frontman Dexter Adams looks like a cross between [[The Police|Sting]] and [[Coldplay|Chris Martin]].

** Earth's vocalist and guitarist are highly reminiscent of [[The Who|Roger Daltrey and Pete Townshend]], down to the stage antics.

* [[One Steve Limit]]: Why they're known as Mongolian Chop Squad overseas.

* [[Psychic Dreams for Everyone]]: Except Chiba.

** Actually, {{spoiler|it's revealed in the manga that Chiba does see the same vision, and even more of it, when Ryuusuke is in the States and everyone is there touring and trying to find him.}}

** As a matter of fact, we learn in the manga that, of the five members of Beck, Ryusuke is ''the only one who can speak English'', which leads to loads of lost-in-translation when they go to the USA. And it's rather ironic, since Chiba sings mostly in English. So he wouldn't have a clue of what the songs mean if Ryusuke didn't explain (assuming that he did)?

* [[Rushed Inverted Reading]]: Koyuki and Maho were spending time together, thinking they were alone in the fishing hole. [[Moment Killer|Cue Chiba and Taira's arrival]]. They then quickly clothed themselves while all sweaty along with forced expressions (Koyuki is reading a book upside down and Maho is wearing her shirt inside out.) [[Hilarity Ensues]].

** And Leon Sykes isn't too far behind his own henchman. He might as well be ''scarier''.

* [[School Festival]]: Koyuki gets roped into helping organise a choir for one and performs with his guitar at another.

** {{spoiler|The day of the Avalon Festival is the one definite Point were this Trope is probably invoked. (She wanted to go to Japan a few chapters earlier and packed her Lingerie)}}

* [[Shirtless Scene]]: The way Taira usually plays.

** Also Tetsuo, the vocalist of Room 13, who always takes the stage wearing only ''his underwear'' (or a Speedo, whatever's more probable).

* [[Shoot the Dog]]: {{spoiler|Victor Slater kills Keith to try and intimidate Leon Sykes.}}

** Several in the manga: many of the opening illustrations of the chapters allude to album covers, single covers and even screenshots from music videos. Movie posters are referenced as well.

** The scene where Koyuki [[Music for Courage|plays a DyBre song]] over the school PA system, later alluding to [[The Shawshank Redemption]] to explain himself to his teacher.

** Taira is one to [[Red Hot Chili Peppers]] bassist Flea, from the playing style to the bleached hair.

*** Pretty much expected since Sakuishi is apparently a big [[Red Hot Chili Peppers]] fan.

** The name BECK is more than likely an obvious reference to the musician of the same name.

** The rail platform where {{spoiler|Maho and Koyuki have their reunion}} happens to be the exact same platform in Dartford where Mick Jagger and Keith Richards had their famous reunion in 1961, a meeting that eventually led to the formation of the [[Rolling Stones]].

** Also, aside from rock, another of Sakuishi's great passions is soccer. That can be seen by the soccer player names scattered about in the backgrounds, especially in the late chapters (for example, there's a bookstore named after Arsenal's Spanish midfielder Cesc Fàbregas, and one of the new opening acts at the underground club where Beck started off is named Aguero, after Atlético de Madrid's Argentine forward Sergio Agüero).

* [[Squee]]: Koyuki has something of a guy version when he sees Eddie from Dying Breed in the crowd at a gig.

* [[Start My Own]]: Both Ryuusuke and Eiji, disbanding Serial Mama and starting Beck and Belle-Aime, respectively.

* [[Supporting Leader]]: Although Ryuusuke started the band, Taira, as a [[The Leader|Type II leader]], functions as this. He's involved in all of the important decisions made for the band, especially whenever Ryuusuke goes AWOL.

* [[Surprisingly Good English]]: The voice-acting of some of the extras in the anime. The main characters, unfortunately, not so much. It could be a lot worse, but Ryuusuke and Maho supposedly grew up in the US, and their grammar and pronunciation really don't show it.

* [[True Companions]]: No matter what hardships they come through, BECK will always come together when it really matters.

* [[Tsundere]]: Maho, in a slightly more deredere way than usual.

* [[Up to Eleven]]: Ryuusuke's amp can go this high.

* [[Vitriolic Best Buds]]: Chiba and Ryusuke.

 

{{reflist}}

[[Category:Music Stories]]

[[Category:Anime]]

[[Category:Manga]]