Pretty much everyone has at least a passing interest in music and its instruments. To be a good musician, more than passing interest is need. It is necessary true dedication to music. Beck is the story of someone who only had a passing interest in music that comes to adore it and becomes a great musician.

Beck is a music drama manga that was serialized between 200 and 2008. It was written, illustrated and created by Harold Sakuishi, and doubles as his first work of note.

Yukio "Koyuki" Tanaka is a 14-year-old who hasn't anything going for him: he isn't in any clubs, his school scores are average at best and he isn't particularly sociable. Until a chance meeting with the guitarist Ryusuke Minami and his dog, Beck, sets him on a new path. He starts to play the guitar with the hopes of working with his newly found idol.

Eventually, he does play with him in their band, Beck. With, as well, the drummer Saku, Koyuki's school friend, the funky bassist Yoshiyuki and the vocalist with rap background Chiba. Together, the band aims to become great musicians and achieve success.

While the setting and even some of the developments are fairly standard, Beck's strength lies on the way the story is told. Apart from the slow start, the pacing is great. Differently, from most other manga, the band is not easily catapulted to success, but still evolves in a pleasant-to-read speed.

The story heavily evokes the importance of music, making good use of its cast to illustrate various possible relationships with music. Koyuki's finds in it excitement and friends, while for Ryusuke it is a way of life, for example.

Moreover, the cast itself is wonderful. Each character has its own clear personality and is throughly explored. Even Koyuki, who is at first a generic and self-insert, protagonist, goes through changes and develops his own personality and new desires.

Beck even has some interesting side stories, for example, Lucille's. To the non-initiated, Lucille seems to be a terrible guitar riddled with bullet holes, but it actually is a legendary guitar once owned by likewise legendary bluesman. And Ryusuke stole it right under the nose of an important businessman.

The conclusion of Beck leaves a lot of room for imagination, but its focus isn't the destination, it is the journey. And what an incredible journey it was. Not lacking in quality, it creates meaningful and emotional plot threads and develops them until its conclusion.

The art of Beck is best described as realistic. There is a lot of care put in each panel to portrayal something visually appealing, but realistic at the same time. This is particularly evident both during close-ups of the instruments, which are wonderfully detailed down to the most minimal imperfections, and the two-page spreads, which are minuciously planned and almost pieces of art.

An interesting characteristic of Beck is the way that the music is portrayed. Rather than trying to half-ass the lyrics, Sakuishi chooses to focus on the emotions to convey sound. And this gamble worked perfectly. Emotions are much more tangible in imagery rather than in words, moreover, the impactness of lyrics is too chaotic. Whenever there were music scenes, it was impossible not to feel something.

Beck is a music epic, as in a journey of huge proportions through the world of music. It is a trip through music and what it can mean to a multitude of people.

At this point, it is needless to say that I recommend it to basically anyone. However, I should still go through formalities: If you have at least a passing interest in music, you will find a lot to like in Beck. On the other hand, if you despise bands, music and everything they stand for, you will probably hate it too. Also, if you are indifferent to all of that, Beck still is a great drama with fun and deep characters that doubles as an emotional journey.