Beck (manga)
| Beck | |
First tankōbon volume cover, featuring Beck (front) and Yukio Tanaka (back) | |
| Genre | |
|---|---|
| Manga | |
| Written by | Harold Sakuishi |
| Published by | Kodansha |
| English publisher | |
| Magazine | Monthly Shōnen Magazine |
| Original run | July 1999 – June 2008 |
| Volumes | 34 |
| Anime television series | |
| Beck: Mongolian Chop Squad | |
| Directed by |
|
| Produced by |
|
| Written by | Osamu Kobayashi |
| Studio | Madhouse |
| Licensed by | |
| Original network | TV Tokyo |
| English network | |
| Original run | October 7, 2004 – March 31, 2005 |
| Episodes | 26 |
| Video game | |
| Beck: The Game | |
| Developer | Sun-Tec |
| Publisher | Marvelous Interactive |
| Genre | Adventure, Music |
| Platform | PlayStation 2 |
| Released | March 31, 2005 |
| Live-action film | |
| Directed by | Yukihiko Tsutsumi |
| Written by | Tetsuya Oishi |
| Released | September 4, 2010 |
| Runtime | 145 minutes |
Beck is a Japanese manga series written and illustrated by Harold Sakuishi. It was serialized in Kodansha's shōnen manga magazine Monthly Shōnen Magazine from 1999 to 2008, with its 103 chapters collected in 34 tankōbon volumes. It tells the story of a group of Japanese teenagers who form a rock band and their struggle to fame, focusing on 14-year-old Yukio "Koyuki" Tanaka, who until meeting guitar prodigy Ryusuke Minami was an average teen with a boring life. Beck won the 2002 Kodansha Manga Award in the shōnen category, and has sold over 15 million copies.
It was adapted into a 26-episode anime television series, titled Beck: Mongolian Chop Squad, by Madhouse and aired on TV Tokyo from October 2004 to March 2005. A live-action film adaptation was released in 2010 and stars Takeru Satoh as Koyuki and Hiro Mizushima as Ryusuke. The series has also spawned three guidebooks, four soundtracks, a video game and a line of guitars.
Beck was licensed for an English-language release in North America by Tokyopop. The first volume was published in July 2005, but the series was discontinued after the release of volume 12 in June 2008. ComiXology released the series in English digitally between July 2018 and February 2019. Kodansha USA will begin publishing the manga in North America in fall 2026. The anime adaptation was given an English-language release by Funimation from 2007 to 2008.