Genre Music Published by Kodansha Demographic Shōnen | Written by Yuriko Nishiyama English publisher Tokyopop (former) Magazine Weekly Shōnen Magazine | |
Dragon Voice (ドラゴン ボイス, Doragon Boisu) is a manga series by Yuriko Nishiyama. It was serialized by Kodansha in Weekly Shōnen Magazine and collected in 11 bound volumes. The manga was licensed in North America by Tokyopop, but the license was dropped after publishing 10 volumes. The story centers on a Japanese pop-singing group called Beatmen and focuses on the life of Rin Amami, the unlikely fifth member of the group who was foretold as the bearer of a legendary unique singing vocal called 'Dragon Voice'.
Contents
Story
The main character is 15-year-old Rin Amami, a gifted street dancer. His dream was to become a singer like his mother, but he has a harsh and unpleasant-sounding voice. However, his chance encounter with the idol singing group Beatmen opens the path to the music industry to him.
The head of the small idol agency called Redshoes (who manages the Beatmen) is certain that Rin's voice is the legendary 'Dragon Voice.'
Rin Amami
Rin is a good-looking and smart-mouthed street dancer. He can remember and copy any dance routine just by watching them once. He started out as a teenager who dislikes boybands. Ironically, Rin's hidden desire is to be a singer like his late mother, but decided to give up his dreams because of his bad voice, which was often referred by his schoolmates to 'resemble the voice of a bullfrog'.
Shino
Shino is the kind and responsible leader of the pop-singing group. Very professional, he often pushes himself hard at work even though he has an asthmatic condition. He is the most enthusiastic and optimistic member of the group. He acts as the "glue that sticks the Beatmen together".
Yuhgo Etoh
Yuhgo is the often quiet member of The Beatmen. He's been involved in the music industry since he was very young. He occasionally writes lyrics, and is the most technologically adept member of the group. His straight attitude sometimes make people think of him as being arrogant, though it is mostly because of his difficulty in expressing his own feelings.
Goh Iwaki
Goh is the "wild" member of the bunch. He was brought up in a family of kabuki actors and was supposed to succeed the family occupation, but rebelled in order to perform his own kind of music with the Beatmen. He has a younger brother who carries on his family's kabuki heritage in his place.
Toshio Tamura
Toshi is the delicate and flamboyant member of the group. He is a bit of a coward. Hailing from a wealthy family, he was trained as a classical pianist, but decided to throw his lot in with the Beatmen.
Manga
Chapters are called "#"s, written and illustrated by Yuriko Nishiyama, published in Japan by Kodansha, published in English in North America by Tokyopop