Dragon Voice a little known manga
I'm not surprised most people don't know about this series, still its a bit disappointing given that it pretty much is a precursor to shows like Uta no Prince-sama. Seeing how things have changed one would think that this series could get a revival but for those of you who missed out on this awesome manga that feels much like Skip Beat and some of the better sports shonen series out there, lets take a look at what Dragon Voice is really about.
Dragon Voice is a 2002 shonan manga by Yuriko Nishiyama about a boy band called the Beatmen. Yes that is right, its about a boy band and it came out 8 years before Uta no Prince-sama. So this concept isn't that new, but unlike Uta no Prince-sama, Dragon Voice does things quite differently.
First we have our main character Rin Amami. He's a 15 year old street dancer, and in that regard he is very good at what he does. But Rin actually doesn't want to be a dancer he wants to be a singer like his mother, but Rin has a problem...the guy has a voice like a bullfrog.
This is the reason he can't sing, or so he thinks. Through a chance encounter with the singing group Beatman he becomes the accidental fifth member of the all boy band. This is because of the Boss of the Beatman thinks Rin is the legendary Dragon Voice a voice that has "demonic charm and godlike brilliance," according to the Boss.
The entire manga follows Rin and his rise, fall, and rebirth with the Beatmen. Its interesting to see a manga take on a subject like this, and while it soesn't really show the darker side of the Japanese music industry it doesn't sugarcoat it eather. Rin has to go through a lot of training not only in vocal performance but in his dancing as well. He has to deal with the band becoming broken up by a rival company and their struggles to put the Beatmen back on the charts. Rin has to learn how to get along with some of the other members and actually learn to harmonise with their voices. He also has to deal with family problems for a few chapters because his father doesn't want him to become an idol because of what happened with his mom. The manga shows how hard this industry can be and how mean and ruthless some companies can be as well as how some fans can be fickle.
But this manga really shines with its characters, especially its main cast. Shino, Yuhgo, Goh, and Toshio along with Rin, feel like real people with real emotions. They pull together no matter what and its actually kind of interesting to see how these guys first started and how none of them got along at the beginning.
Seiko (the groups manager, stylist, voice teacher, and dance teacher) comes off as very likable and encouraging. She wants these guys to succeed and will help them in anyway she can. And the Boss...oh my god the Boss. You thought Shining Saotome was crazy this guy takes the cake. His first interaction with Rin involves grabbing his ass...don't look at me like that there is a reason for it.
It should be noted that like in the shonen manga there are competitions with rival groups, particularly, Privee which comes from the S-Field media company and Baby Naked a band from the states with a mysterious young singer named Siren who, may or may not be the girl Rin has a crush on, Sara. There's action in there as the boys learn to become super sentai heroes, and even have a run in with a possible twin of the late Pavarotti. What's really interesting about this series too is how the creator of it Yuriko Nishiyama not only talked to musicians and took a whole course on music writing so that she knew about the way the industry worked, but also went to the sets of music shows, went behind the scenes for Gaoranger to get to know how those series are created.
It ran for 11 volumes, but Tokyopop only released 10 because they closed before the final volume was released. It was actually supposed to come out the month after they closed, and whats even sadder was they were actually promoting it. You can still see the link for the English volume at Amazon.com and Barns and Nobel's website.
From what I could tell this manga was actually quite popular, but why didn't it get a anime or even a drama cd? Most manga of this type usually get something like that so why not this one?
I think I know the reason why and its very simple, its because of Rin's voice. The character is supposed to have a very distinct voice and I think its actually very tricky to find someone who sounds like him and can sing. Its actually quite sad because in the first volume Yuriko Nishiyama actually has a omake that describes the character's voices.
If you can I encourage you to buy this manga. Its well worth looking for and most copies are actually inexpensive. And if you like singing manga or anime, or just Uta no Prince-sama in general I think you're going to like this.