Beck

Yukio "Koyuki" Tanaka wasted away his middle school days listening to Japanese pop music and apathetically trudging through life—until a casual run-in with the enigmatic guitarist Ryuusuke "Ray" Minami. Through this encounter, Koyuki realizes what he has been missing all this time as Ray introduces him to western rock music and jumpstarts his desire to play guitar.

Although various struggles plague his path to rock fame, Koyuki refuses to abandon the passion that gave his life purpose, balancing it together with school, work, and friends. Beck tells the story of the love and trial that accompanies pursuing a professional career in music as Koyuki and Ray work toward realizing the guitarist's dream of the ultimate band.

Beck won the 26th Kodansha Manga Award in a tie alongside Sakigake!! Cromartie Koukou in the Shounen category in 2002.

The first 12 volumes were published in English as BECK: Mongolian Chop Squad by Tokyopop from July 12, 2005, to June 10, 2008, before the publisher's license expired. Kodansha USA later published the full series digitally from July 5, 2018 to February 27, 2019.

A promotional soundtrack titled Greatful Sound: Tribute to Beck featuring several different artists performing songs from the manga was released on November 15, 2002. A live-action film adaptation directed by Yukihiko Tsutsumi was released nationwide in theaters on September 10, 2010, and it received the Japan Academy Prize for Outstanding Achievement in Music.