Beck 3. Better. Although I don't think I'll sound like it was in my review....it was. I've just been coming off as really annoyed lately, even though I'm not. So. I'll start by telling you....I LIKED IT. It's worth a read. Ok..that said....here we go:

So, if you remember at the end of last volume Koyuki and Maho were swimming naked in the pool. This means that we start this volume with Koyuki and Maho still swimming naked in the pool. I like how the series is so continuous like that actually. A lot of time passes WITHIN each book, but they don't jump time from one book to another. It picks up EXACTLY where we left off. This is nice. Also, I was starting to wonder if each book was going to end with Koyuki and Maho hanging out while doing something kinda weird and singing "Moon on the Water", but it doesn't appear that way. Any rate, what we learn more of from this opening scene and throughout this book is how HUGE of a crush Maho has on Koyuki. And how HUGELY oblivious Koyuki is to it. If I may use an outside reference....this may supercede Saki/Kohsaka proportions. Or maybe not, but at least Kohsaka in his obliviousness ACTED as though he valued Saki. Not that Koyuki is capable of treating anyone like crap, he just totally thinks of Maho as just another person. Though it seems like MAYBE his thing for Izumi has gone away.

Speaking of Izumi....she's in this book like 3 times. She does nothing. There was little to no character development outside of Maho and Koyuki and the new guy they introduce, Hyodou (I know his name from the soundtrack, but I don't remember what song is his), who's really just a complete ass....and a petty one at that. I guess Chiba gets a LITTLE development, but not much. I mean, things HAPPEN, Ryusuke's band (BECK, remember) is recording and playing shows....but you don't really see that. The only thing you see of the band is like 4-6 page spreads of them rocking out. Which is ok, but in a manga doesn't really do anything for you. There aren't even lyrics on the pages...just pictures of them rocking. Now, I know it's hard to do this in a manga. Gravitation got around it by the fact that they hardly focused on the band actually performing in the manga. They just made mention of the performances and counted on the boy lovin' and the hilarious dialogue to get them through. And that worked for them, but Beck doesn't have that to fall on...so we endure 5 pages of slightly over the top facial expressions and Ryusuke looking like he's at the verge of orgasm. The other thing we see a lot of is Koyuki getting the shit kicked out of him by one person or the other. Usually having something to do with Hyodou. We also get to see Koyuki breaking even more guitars. Sometimes that kid does REALLY STUPID things. He's avoiding seeing Ryusuke until he gets the guitar fixed that he broke. Which entails him working for Saitou-san for more or less free for like the rest of his life. But it's cute really, and Koyuki defends Saitou-san in the face of all adversity, so he's being a loyal student and friend. Which I like. I also like that this means that when Maho drags him to Ryusuke's shows he goes in disguise. Which more or less looks like he's wearing full ninja dress. It makes me laugh every time. Anyway, the big thing here, which I did see coming, is that the guitar is fixed and immediately Koyuki takes off (running with the guitar again....he almost deserves to drop it again...idiot) to take it to Ryusuke and before he gets there it gets broken again. This time because he ran into Hyodou and his super bully friend Rikiya (Koyuki broke Rikiya's guitar too, but he broke it when Hyodou tackled him and Rikiya doesn't know cause Hyodou made Koyuki his servant to ensure that Rikiya doesn't find out). Hyodou wants to play the guitar....yeah, see where this goes. Only Hyodou doesn't break it, Rikiya breaks it cause he really really sucks and Koyuki was trying to hold in his laughter and failed. I've SO been there. So....now poor Koyuki is SUPER depressed and thinks he'll never see Ryusuke again. But....there is of course redemption. And it comes in the form of Minami Maho. So, we come back around to her.

Things I didn't like:
-Koyuki's facial expressions again.....TERRIBLE
-The story is moving REALLY SLOWLY. Like I know Koyuki eventually sings for Beck, but.....so far he sings with NO ONE.
-The substitute teacher the middle school music class gets.....too much information sometimes. Too much with the drawings. She's a TEACHER for the love of God.
-Hyodou
-Ryusuke's guitar with the bullet holes being named "Lucille". They BETTER explain that reference instead of making themselves look cool for coming up with that. It's sort of disgraceful if you don't honor the man.

Things that amused me:
-Return of Koyuki's pervy friend
-Scene 2 after Taira meets Chiba he goes to tell Eiji that he's joining Beck based on "intuition" and the "magic he's been searching for"---or Chiba, either one. This, of course, is going to cause the shit to hit the fan, cause why wouldn't it.
-Koyuki seems to finally have shaken that negative attitude that he'll never be anything important. This is good and kinda like me this semester, so I like it. However, him saying that makes you know that he's setting the tone for failure and/or complete misery. Enter Hyodou
-The "Kiyaki Against the Machine" band poster that's in the recording studio. This is funny, cause one of the bands in the anime TOTALLY sounds like Rage. Completely. Absolutely.
-Koyuki giving the "gomen" pose to the teacher when she asks him to take control of her class because she can't.
-Maho picking Koyuki up from school
-Koyuki in ninja-wear
-Maho in general

Ok...see, the positives outweigh the negatives. This was a good book. I'm now the proud owner of the anime on real DVD's instead of burned CD-R's so I think I should start watching it. Though I don't want it to skew my manga reviews. So maybe I'll hang on for like 20 more weeks while we review the manga........maybe not.