Synopsis: Yukio, known by his friends as "Koyuki", is a regular 14-year-old Japanese boy who enters junior high school with two childhood acquaintances. One is a pervert, and ironically the other is a highly sought after female student. Koyuki's boring life is changed when he saves an odd-looking dog, named Beck, from some kids. Beck's owner turns out to be an emerging rock musician, Ryūsuke Minami, who soon influences Koyuki to start playing the guitar, and even gives one to him. The story focuses on the trials and tribulations of their rock band named BECK, and Koyuki's relationships with the members of the band, in particular Ryûsuke Minami and his sister, Maho Minami.
Newby Review: The best way to describe this anime is that it is an anti-anime anime. No, it doesn't trash talk anime, it's more anti-anime in the way it is made. Everything from the way the story progresses, to the art style, to even the characters voices and the way they speak are nothing like what you would find in your usual anime. It is very much grounded in the real world, with some fiction thrown in. They use mostly real locations, and the story line is very much believable. The English dubbed version has some difficulties expressing when there are misunderstandings between characters due to language barriers, which gets a little confusing once or twice if you aren't familiar with the story, but was done well for the most part.
For anyone who has not read the manga, this is a great anime to watch. I should note that even those who are not familiar with the story will occasionally get aggravated at some points when they skip over something that should have clearly been given more attention. Outside of that minor gripe, it is definitely worth watching.
Veteran Review: For those of you that have read the manga, you just might want to avoid this anime. Even though the style is interesting, and the story is well done, there is just SO MUCH missing that was in the manga! And to complicate things, they completely change the way some things happen. Koyuki never writes a song ( Which was a huge deal in the manga. ), GSSS is held in Japan ( Which if I recall right, it was held elsewhere. ) and their tour is just something they tacked onto the end of the last episode with some images and voice over.
In the end, way too much is removed from this series for it to be very enjoyable, but if you are somehow able to put that aside, you'll probably like it to some extent.
Manga Review: I only have one word that can describe the manga. INSANE! Why? The story goes into an insane amount of detail which makes it read very much like a novel ( A good thing in my opinion. ). As far as art goes, the backgrounds and characters are drawn extremely well which almost makes you feel like you are right there seeing the scenery and watching the story unfold.
Each chapter is roughly 60-70 pages, and because of that you get tons of background history on almost all of the main characters. It is also why so much was left out of the anime, as every 2 chapters could easily make one anime episode.
If you have not read this manga, I would highly recommend it to everyone, regardless of what your manga preferences are. This story has something for everyone ( Unless you for some reason hate realistic and detailed stories. ).
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