[Anime Reviews]

Beck 6-10: I fought the law but the law won

Posted by Martin  [Tags: Beck]

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

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[Anime Reviews]

Beck: Mongolian Chop Squad 1-5

Posted by Martin  [Tags: Beck, realistic fiction]

“I was made to hit in America!”

In my previous post I outlined how important it is for viewers to be able to relate to the characters in anime; it’s especially important in slice of life, such as in the coming-of-age drama of Beck. I prefer the term ‘realistic fiction’ in this case because it is a thoroughly realistic show; that is to say, the adaptation could have taken the live-action route and come out looking, sounding and feeling pretty much the same. Fortunately my heroes Madhouse were in charge of this so it looks and sounds downright marvellous.

So then, the characters themselves are the main event of the story, which unfolds at a relaxed pace - they’re a varied and likeable bunch who I’d quite happily hang around and jam with anytime! The cover art sums up the personality of the central character, Yukio ‘Koyuki’ Tanaka: clutching his beloved Telecaster, he gazes out with a vacant look of bored indifference. The whole premise of the story revolves around this shy, ordinary fourteen-year-old whose life takes an unexpected turn after a chance meeting with charismatic rock musician Ryusuke Minami and his discovery of rock and roll; what follows in these five episodes is the introduction of the characters and their relationships. There’s already the establishment of a love triangle or two, but since Beck’s director’s chair is occupied by Osamu Kobayashi, the one behind Kimugure Orange Road, I believe the rom-com aspect is in safe hands.

Koyuki is too cool for school

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