‘Beck’ by Harold Sakuishi

I am currently rather busy and have not read much manga, and not much that I feel like blogging about right now. It will come, once I’ve collected my thoughts and all.

I have read 17 volumes of ‘Beck’. When I started, and for the first couple of volumes, I loved it. There was something refreshing about the story, and after a little while of getting used to, I really liked the artwork, too.

But I won’t be reading anymore, and it’s not because the series has changed too much and I don’t like it anymore. That happens a lot with manga, my most prominent example being ‘Naruto’. Wasn’t it great in the beginning, when it was still about those three kids learning to respect each other and work together as a team? Yes, it was. ‘Beck’ lost my interest for the opposite reason: everything stays the same, moves too slowly, and gets repetitive.

‘Beck’ is the story of a struggling band. The emphasis is on struggling - these boys must never, ever get a break. Every success must immediately be followed by a setback. Everybody must be against them, and even their supporters in the industry, who are few, must be unfriendly, rude and make them understand that they must fight every step on the way.

Every now and then, the band will be challenged to a bet: if you sell so-and-so many CDs, you will be allowed to stay with our label. If you don’t manage to get so-and-so many people to visit your concert, you’ll never work with us again, and can forget your career, muahahahaha. They will always bravely accept the bet, and they will never manage to fulfil their side of the bargain – but they will somehow have impressed the other guys anyway, and will still be granted a second chance. And I yawn.

‘Beck’ believes that to be good, a band must be Indie, and must be struggling. Actually, ‘Beck’ has very definite ideas of what a respectable band must be like, and what attitudes its members must hold. They have to be poor and hard-working in menial jobs to finance their lifestyle, they have to admire all the famous English and American rock stars. Very, very much.

The virtuous members of ‘Beck’ are contrasted with another character, Eiji. He used to be in a band with one of the main characters, but now he’s a sell-out: he is with a very successful Japanese band, he is rich, does commercials, can trip around the world and wear expensive clothes etc. Of course, the musical quality of his band is relatively low. He’s mostly paraded through the manga to make sure the reader admires the members of ‘Beck’ and wrinkles his nose at the alternative career path, this rich prettiboy who isn’t really a musician because he doesn’t understand what music is really about.  When asked whether he visited some legendary club in an American city, he replies that he did, but was kind of disappointed by how small and dirty and not at all amazing it was in real life. “Really?” the other guy asks. “The guys from ‘Beck’ said they were completely in awe!” After all, this is where this-and-that legendary band had their legendary concert. This makes the place special, right?

See? Eiji doesn’t GET it. Funnily, I agree with Eiji when it comes to these things. You do not have to worship the toilet John Lennon took a dump on in order to deserve respect as an artist and musician. You can even dislike a certain famous singer out of personal taste, and still be “genuine”. Actually, what’s genuine about blindly adoring the entire Who-is-who of rock music?

I find it cheap of ‘Beck’ to have this character by the name of Eiji, whose sole purpose is to make the main characters look good with his supposed ignorance. I’m not holding out hopes to see his character will develop into something more. ‘Beck’ isn’t so big on character development anyway. Surely the main characters have grown a bit and maybe we know some more details of their backgrounds (in some cases), but when you think about it, they are still pretty much the same as in the beginning. Combine this with what I’ve mentioned earlier, that the story takes one step forth only to take two back, and maybe you understand why I’ve grown tired of this manga. It’s not bad, it’s just always the same.

Oh, I know, I know. Anna is writing another negative review! She is - what was it someone wrote in a comment? – “just overreacting and cant appreciate anything.” Yeah, sorry about that. Much like Eiji, who dislikes a music club despite its fame, I am not wild about ‘Beck’ even though a lot of people are. I have explained why, and you can either agree or disagree. You can also go on angry tirades like the ‘Psyren’ fan who wrote “Give the thing a chance you bitch”.

Speaking of Eiji, have you noticed that in ‘Bakuman’, they also introduced a rival for the main characters, one we’re obviously not supposed to root for, because he is nothing but a selfish, evil brat, if his introductory scene is any indication? And his name is also Eiji.

Tags: beck, harold sakuishi