BECK:Mongolian Chop Squad Volume 1 (Beck: Mongolian Chop Squad (Tokyopop)) [Paperback]

Harold Sakuishi (Author)

Book Description

Series: Beck: Mongolian Chop Squad (Tokyopop) | Publication Date: July 12, 2005

Fourteen-year-old Yukio Tanaka is one heck of a boring guy. He has no hobbies, a weak taste in music, and only a small vestige of a personality. His shy and somewhat neurotic personality makes him his own worst enemy. Little does he know that his life will be forever changed when he meets rocker Ryusuke Minami, an unpredictable sixteen-year-old with a cool dog named Beck. Ryusuke has just returned to Japan from America, and when he inspires Yukio to get into music, the two begin a journey through the world of rock 'n' roll dreams!Lace up your Docs and head to the mosh pit--Harold Sakuishi's highly addictive manga series that spawned a hit anime has finally reached the States!

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

Manga has its share of bildungsromans that follow the path of an unathletic kid who, by dint of practice, mentorship and unstoppable will, becomes a top basketball/tennis/baseball player. Beck belongs to this genre, with the interesting twist that its nerdy 14-year-old hero, Yukio Tanaka, is on a journey from zero to rock-'n'-roller. In the beginning, Yukio knows nothing about rock and is a fan of Okinawan pop music (which, it is implied, is very uncool). Yukio meets Ryosuke, a 16-year-old rocker who was brought up in the U.S., where he played guitar in a garage band. Yukio starts going to rock clubs, listening to rock music and hanging out with his beautiful classmate Izumi, Ryosuke and Ryosuke's sister, Maho. But not until the very end of this volume do readers get a hint that playing rock music is in Yukio's future. This appealing tale is marred slightly by the inclusion of a silly and clichéd peeping-tom subplot, but Sakuishi's characterizations have a strong identification factor, aided by a sharp and funny translation. The book is aimed at older teens, and there is some profanity. The clean, easy-to-follow art resembles a slightly less manic version of Eichiro Oda's art in One Piece. (July)
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

From School Library Journal

Grade 10 Up–Yukio, 14, alternately worships his dream girl, Izumi, from afar and curses his general meekness. Enter Beck, a hybrid dog with stitched-together fur–the only fantastical element in this enjoyable book–and Beck's owner, a sullen, street-fighting, American-raised teen who plays in a rock band. Conveniently, the band has recently lost its lead guitarist. Although the setup is pretty clear, the story lines are engrossing enough to make readers forget how long it may take Yukio to realize his rock 'n' roll dream. With hard-edged scenes of drunken American GIs wandering Tokyo streets and encountering the resentful Japanese, references to both Japanese and American music, and a refusal to use standard manga devices like magical beings or juvenile artwork, Beck stands out. The treatment of male friendship is also fresh, and Izumi seems poised to be one of the classic manga heroines. If John Hughes wrote manga, he'd have written Beck. Because of the dark tone in scenes with GIs and startingly aggressive fight scenes, this is for older teens. An absolute surefire read, thankfully the first in a series.–John Leighton, Brooklyn Public Library, NY
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

Product Details

• Paperback: 224 pages
• Publisher: TokyoPop (July 12, 2005)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1595327703
• ISBN-13: 978-1595327703
• Product Dimensions: 7.3 x 5 x 0.8 inches
• Shipping Weight: 7 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (2 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #259,175 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

6 of 6 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Beck is a great series, July 8, 2005

By 

Alex (Toronto) - See all my reviews

This review is from: BECK:Mongolian Chop Squad Volume 1 (Beck: Mongolian Chop Squad (Tokyopop)) (Paperback)

Beck: Mongolian Chop Squad is a must read for all Manga or Music lovers. I must warn you though the first 4 or 5 volumes are progress quite slowly but after that the series becomes highly addictive. I pulled an all nighter just to read the first 19 volumes.

The series is still on going in Japan. The 23rd volume will released in Japan in July. Harold Sakuishi is a brilliant storyteller and he throws in tons of real life refrences in the series, like the osbournes in one the pages in the series.

I know Tokyopop did a good job with bringing it over to North America becuase they hired the translator who were doing the scanlations of Beck. For those of you who do not know what scanlation is, It is when people scan the japanese manga and translate it into another language and release it for people to read. I could go on and on about how good the series is but you have to read it in order to believe it.

2 of 6 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars YaY!!!, July 20, 2005

By 

Blitz "The Blitzkrieg has spoken" (Redland, Florida) - See all my reviews

This review is from: BECK:Mongolian Chop Squad Volume 1 (Beck: Mongolian Chop Squad (Tokyopop)) (Paperback)

It was AWESOME!!! It was so original, for manga. Most mangas are about some japanese super-hero who falls in love with a girl... blah, blah, blah... or else theyre about teens in school... Wh00t! come on ppl we go to school everyday! Beck, however, showed the life of an average kid, not a, super-hero or a perfect-bodied high-school kid. No, Beck is about the music BEHIND those perfect-bodied people. IT'S ABOUT ROCK AND ROLL!!! WOOHOOO!!!!Watever. i love manga, so im probably prejudice. Beck was great and i cant wait for the second one. YOU'LL LOVE IT!!! in fact im gonna go read it again... hmmm... :)