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Beck's Harold Sakuishi Launches New Series to Commemorate Monthly Shonen Magazine's 50th Anniversary
posted on by Anita Tai
The December issue of Kodansha's Monthly Shonen Magazine revealed on Tuesday that Beck author Harold Sakuishi will launch a new series THE BAND in the January 2025 issue to commemorate the magazine's 50th anniversary on December 6.
The series is a new band story following a young man who sets off on a music journey when his soul is set aflame after discovering a guitar.
Sakuishi had relaunched his Gorillaman manga under the title Gorillaman 40 as a two-chapter manga in 2020 as part of the 40th anniversary celebrations for Weekly Young Magazine. He then continued the manga in the same magazine starting in March 2022. The manga ended in August 2022. Sakuishi's Gorillaman 40 manga debuted the Family Arc spinoff manga in December 2023.
Sakuishi launched the original Gorillaman comedy manga in 1988 as his debut work, and the manga had 19 total compiled book volumes. The story centers on Sadaharu Ikedo, or the titular Gorillaman. He transfers into a new high school, and even though he's very shy, he for some reason gets along with the delinquents in his class. His classmates nickname him Gorillaman based on how he looks. Gorillaman 40 follows Sadaharu at 40 years old.
The original manga inspired a two-episode OVA in 1992-1993.
Sakuishi put his 7-nin no Shakespeare: Non Sanz Droict (Seven Shakespeares: Not Without Right) manga on indefinite hiatus in April 2020. Sakuishi launched the sequel manga of Seven Shakespeares (7-nin no Shakespeare) in Kodansha's Young Magazine in December 2016. Digital reading platform Comixology launched the original Seven Shakespeares manga on the service as a Comixology Original in July 2018.
Sakuishi launched the Beck manga in the July 1999 issue of Kodansha's Monthly Shōnen Magazine, and ended it in 2008. Kodansha published 34 volumes for the manga. Tokyopop published 14 volumes of the manga from 2005 to 2008. The manga inspired a 26-episode television anime in 2004, as well as a live-action film in 2010.
Source: Monthly Shonen Magazine December issue
