[Categories: Anime Reviews]
Beck 6-10: I fought the law but the law won
It’s been dealt with time and time again but the “I’ve been there too!” moments go a long way to explaining why realistic fiction (a.k.a. slice-of-life) anime is so popular, this show included. I don’t just mean the girl trouble and beaten-up-by-bullies bits, although I’ll get to that after the cut. Nope, I’m brazenly admitting to the Guitar Pr0n appeal that this show holds for me and the related issues. Granted, Beck: Mongolian Chop Squad offers more, much more than that. Still, it’s a chance I can’t afford to pass up. I dig this show as a guitar geek as well as finding it entertaining from an anime drama viewer’s perspective. And yeah, it does look prettier than the screencaps suggest - VLC likes to interlace the images and generally make them look worse than they are for some reason.
To save you boredom I’ll leave the Guitar Geek Corner (a feature that I can see appearing in all my Beck DVD reviews from now on) to the end - a lot happens in this volume, although the series still plays out at a pace so relaxed that some viewers will find it frustrating. Anime is supposed to involve flights of fancy and cuts backwards and forwards in time; Beck makes you feel like you’re living the life with the characters, enduring every setback and impatient wait in real-time. The band Beck FINALLY forms, Koyuki’s in it and they play their first shows. Now we can get on with following their inexorable rise to fame, right? Not quite yet, folks.
Practise, practise, practise
This is going to be one for the long haul; not that I mind of course. In ep #6 or so, we see our hero being pushed around by the school bullies who everyone fears but by ep #10 he’s actually fighting back - no mean feat when the bully in question is twice his size. Granted, Koyuki was cornered but as anyone who’s been at the receiving end of such schoolyard intimidation (that will be most of you, I’ll wager) will know, it takes balls to stand your ground against the class tough-guy. The slow pacing of the show is explained in scenes like this - the protagonist is growing and developing, and such personality changes take time. I personally am glad that the series is prepared to invest that time.
In terms of the band itself, it’s formed through those little coincidences and chance meetings that so often govern such things. The drummer leaves, and by chance Koyuki’s new best mate is a handy stand-in…and the said best mate only got talking to him after his neat stunt with the school’s PA system (Shawshank Redemption reference FTW). It seems like a convenient plot device but then, how do rock bands form? Reading biogs and interviews from famous bands that I listen to, quite a lot form at school or through chance meetings between friends and acquaintances; the writer(s) of this show must have had experiences similar to those portrayed in this show because it feels so real and the rock and roll spirit is so infectious.
Euphemistically termed ‘creative differences’
I can see the band taking shape now, and taking on a collective identity that makes good use of its component parts. Taira is a damn good bassist (he reminds me of Flea from the RHCPs, which is probably no accident), Chiba has that unpredictable edge and stage presence, Ryusuke has the angsty, mysterious thing going on (plus an intuitive feel for what works musically) and Koyuki’s vocal style offers that crucial element required for when they perform softer numbers. Going off at a technical tangent here, his VA can really sing - he managed to sound nervous and unsure of himself, but effectively conveyed the raw yet definite talent that his character shows. The song itself was great too by the way.
Beck is a great series in terms of slice-of-life drama but its rock music themes are, for someone like me who plays an instrument and has experienced the amateur band thing first hand, an added bonus. If you have sat in your bedroom practicing chords and scales to pay tribute to your heroes, you’d be even more acutely aware of Koyuki’s frustration and embarrassment when you’re a beginner, but also aware that the satisfaction you get when you get it right is really something. These episodes are a brilliant testament to what it takes for an ordinary kid to do what he or she loves through overcoming those little setbacks in life (bullies, studying, practising) - even when, at the time, those little setbacks feel like mountains. If I were to give him a bit of advice at this point, the first year is the hardest - thousands of wannabe guitar heroes follow this same path. I can carry on with my own hobby despite any lack of star quality talent because I remind myself that even Hendrix, Kobain and Clapton were ordinary, weedy nobodies like us once…and more importantly, rock and roll is fun.
Speaking as a short-assed concert-goer, this view is better than most
Guitar Geek Corner
The Fender Jaguar is, as Koyuki points out, an old fave of the late Kurt Kobain. Kurt however also played Fender Mustang, and occasionally played an instrument that used the neck of one and the body of another (colloquially referred to as the Jag-stang). Jaguars and the related Jazzmaster model were popular guitars with the surfer-era bands such as the Beach Boys but they enjoyed something of a resurgence with 90s indie and grunge. Kevin Shields for example made use of the unusual vibrato bridge design and extra-long whammy bar to get the swirling mid-chord strum pitch dives that made his recordings with My Bloody Valentine so distinctive. The Jaguar’s vibrato bridge was intended to allow the strings to stay in tune when using the whammy bar but the design was so user-unfriendly some players strapped it up with tape or replaced it with a Mustang bridge to prevent the strings slipping out of the bridge saddles. Needless to say the more conventional Stratocaster bridge is more popular but the Jaguar still has an appearance that sets it apart.
Someone in one episode also commented on Ryusuke’s unusual guitar sound - apart from being inspired by RATM/Audioslave’s Tom Morello, I can’t see anything weird about the equipment he uses. The Marshall amplifier is a common choice, as is the Gibson Les Paul guitar (although his Lucille has very distinctive bullet hole damage) - the effects pedal is a strange one but it is a recognisable model made by Roger Mayer (it looks like an Octavia unit, as used by Hendrix). My guess is that Ryusuke’s either extremely talented or his gear has been modified in some way after he bought it.
Posted on January 9th, 2008 @ 12:22 am
Ahhh Beck, good stuff.
I thought that was an interesting point you made about how coincidences in the “plot development” of real life occur much more frequently than we realize. As you said, biographies of many famous people read in very much the same fashion. For all the importance of planning and the like, bands hit or bust, people meet and connect, and wars are won and lost through sheer blind luck as often as anything else.
Posted on January 9th, 2008 @ 3:05 am
Lucille? They must have changed the name for the translation because I remember when it was on muchmusic the guitar with the bullet holes was called Prudence
Posted on January 9th, 2008 @ 4:53 pm
I watched the FUNimation dub first and the guitar is called Prudence for the dub and Lucille in the original. FUNimation does not let down for this show, They have done a fantastic job throughout.
A great review Martin, This is slowly becoming a all-time favourite for me, the slow pace is really great and suits the show well. Embarrassing towards me, Until one of the episodes on this volume I thought Izumi and Mao were the same person. Now I know the difference =/ I really like Mao’s character, Especially when she is with Koyuki (Ryuusuki’s Condom comes to mind). Their relationship is something I’m definitely looking forward to in the upcoming volumes..
C’mon RevFilms.. Speed it up.
Posted on January 9th, 2008 @ 6:35 pm
@Orion: yeah, it’s funny how these things start. Apparently Nirvana were actually second in line for being the next big thing at the time - it’s questionable that they’d have made their big break had Mother Love Bone not split. Even that was caused by a tragic heroin O/D which claimed the life of the MLB frontman.
PQQ: the guitar is indeed called Lucille in the subtitles. I can’t say much about the dub though, since listening to the Engrish in the Japanese audio is so much more entertaining!
@Jayme: on the other hand, I really ought to try the dub because Funi apparently put a lot of effort into making it convincing. As for the Koyuki/Maho relationship, I’m finding it to be really quite sweet. The only thing he needs to watch out for is that she’s the sister of his bandmate…if they fell out for whatever reason, things could get a bit awkward! That condom scene for instance had me laughing and cringing all at the same time!
Posted on January 12th, 2008 @ 5:15 am
ConcreteBagder: true that the engrish accents are more entertaining to listen to but sometimes good English singing > Engrish