I began reading this manga after marathoning the anime adaptation over two days and finding myself left wanting more, as the anime ended all too quickly for my liking.

Story:
Beck follows the life of 14 year old Tanaka Yukio (Koyuki to his friends) as he grows from a shy, directionless teenager (with terrible taste in music) into an ambitious young musician. After a chance meeting with talented guitarist Minami Ryusuke, his life starts to change and gather momentum as he discovers music's ability to affect people. He begins to learn the guitar, and there is the budding romance with Ryusuke's sister, Maho. He joins Ryusuke's band, Beck, and the series follows the band's struggle to achieve success, both in Japan and the rest of the world. Because this is predominantly a slice of life style manga, many of the minutiae of Koyuki's and Beck's day to day life are covered, but the manga spans 5-6 years, which allows the various characters and their relationships to properly develop. The one aspect of the story I felt should have been developed a bit more was Maho and Yukio's relationship, it was very well done when it came up, but I think it should have been given a bit more development over the course of the manga.

Art:
Sakuishi Harold has a fairly distinctive art style in Beck, which I found a refreshing change from much of the overly disproportioned characters found in many manga and anime. I thought his more realistic style perfectly suited the realistic tone of the manga. His full page frames of the band's performances perfectly captured the spirit of a 'live', and were a personal highlight in the artwork of this manga.

Character:
In a manga of this length (both in chapters and period of time covered) there is real space to develop and flesh out both the main and some of the supporting characters. Koyuki's character develops beautifully over the course of the series, from an apathetic teenager into a determined young man. The other characters don't develop in the same fashion, Ryusuke's background is fleshed out and provides much of the conflict in the series, and while more time could have been spent developing the rest of the band members, especially Saku and Taira, they all have their moments during the series which give them real depth.

Enjoyment:
As I said at the start, I read this manga after finishing the anime adaptation and found myself wanting more. This was the first time I have watched an anime and then gone on to read the manga, as well as one of the first manga I have read, and I was unsure if I would be able to enjoy reading it as much as I enjoyed watching it. Turns out there was nothing to worry about, and I even rate the manga higher than the anime, predominantly because I feel the story reaches a much more satisfying conclusion.

Overall:
To anyone who loved the anime, I thouroughly recommend reading the manga, as it has everything the anime had, as well as a complete storyline. I would also recommend this to anyone who is a fan of rock, or music in general, as it is the only series I have come across that deals with music in such an in depth and genuine way.

Best read with the OST playing in the background, just like this review.