i went on a manga binge recently and read three series about music! the first was beck, which is about a normal 14 year old boy who, after a run in with a very strange dog named beck, discovers a passion for rock music and joins a band! it has a it's also a coming of age manga (of course it is) about our main guy's first dealings with love and other puberty stuff (ew, not like that dude come on). like there is some good, down to earth melodrama here. it's awesome. the art is really great, and like all great art can is a little unusual (pretty much everybody is drawn with lips all the time. there are few exceptions). it's also neck deep in that late 90's/early 2000's aesthetic if you're into that (i know i am). like all good manga it has that sticking power. like, when you read a chapter you can't just stop there, you have to read the entire rest of the thing. here's a splash i showed jack a while back (hosted on discord, i know i know):
the next was blue giant, which follows a similar pattern. a mostly unremarkable middle schooler is suddenly impassioned to play music, but this time it's jazz! and i was in jazz band in high school so i get an extra kick out of this cause i can sort of understand parts of it for once (unlike, i dunno, haikyuu. which is still great but i can't really relate to the volleyball strats). our main guy, dai, who's name is really easy to remember for once, plays tenor sax, and every day he goes to practice at this riverbank in his town. he has no conventional training or knowledge, barely being able to produce different notes. but he has a distinct, 'big' sound and thru the course of the series (with lots of hard work and help) learns to read sheet music and play solos and take care of his sax. he starts a band with some friends too! it's great. the art isn't as good as beck's (it's a little indistinct) but there's a nice sketchy quality to the whole thing. i can actually look at it and tell how it was made (a lot of the time i look at manga and have no idea how it was even produced). here's a double page splash of our boy practicing:
the third i read was kids on the slope. it's about this rich introverted kid transferring to a new school in a small town. his pretty face and general demeanor attract the attention of the class delinquent who is determined to befriend him. they are joined by the class rep, who our main protagonist immediately falls for. except the class rep has a crush on the delinquent, her childhood friend (gasp!!!!). so you get this immediate love triangle that is mined for so much melodrama. like, so fucking much. it's crazy. really, kids on the slope is all about that coming of age and teen feelings and melodrama, and jazz is just the backdrop (oh yeah it's also about jazz btw). our main guy knows classical piano and the delinquent is a gifted jazz drummer, so they end up jamming out together. despite this comic being like, a yaoi goldmine (seriously this is on some kirk and spock level stuff) i ended up being pretty taken with the main romance between the protagonist and class rep, and the end of the series was pretty satisfying. the art is more simple and cartooned than the other two (it makes me think of one piece actually), and is generally pretty distinct! i don't think i've seen many other manga that look like this. maybe i need to read more romance manga or something, which this basically is. anyways here is a page:
(see what i mean? yaoi fucking goldmine, people)
