Marval Movie

There are a lot of Anime's (understatement of the decade). They are the Japanese style of cartoons, and they have become so popular that they are virtually a part of western culture.

Many people know or at least can recognize the big ones like Bleach, Naruto, One Piece, Dragon-Ball Z etc. but one of my favorite's is a very underrated slice of life anime called Beck - Mongolian Chop Squad, its about a bunch of kids that start a grup band (I shall attempt to keep the spoilers to a minimal).

Beck starts with Koyuki, a fourteen year old boy in high school who already feels like his life is at an end, he has no interest in school work, is socially awkward and both doesn't know or care where he is going and I think if you look at a few brief scenes it demonstrates that he's a little sexually frustrated. I identify a lot with Koyuki, when I was fourteen I was all of these things as well as being a little more that a bit depressed, I had bully problems, liked a girl that I couldn't talk to and was failing school and didn't even care.

Then as if by an act of fate he encounters what can only be described as some sort of Frankenstein dog, being abused by a few kids, he defends the dog and then the owner, a sixteen year old boy arrives to get him.

We then learn that the dog is named Beck and the boy is named Ryuske. Ryuske is confident as well a talented Guitarist who introduces Koyuki to the world of music, and after hearing Dying Breed (a fictional band) he decides to learn the guitar. This is made possible because Ryuske lends him his old L-48 acoustic guitar.

Koyuki then starts to learn to play and it doesn't come easy as anybody who has learned to play it will tell you, his fingers hurt and he has a lot of problems getting the F chord. Meanwhile Ryuske, after breaking up with his old grup band (Serial Mama) decides to assemble a new grup band (named Beck) and we are introduces to a wide array of colorful characters.

Ryuske himself is pretty chilled back, he's good and he knows it as well as knowing a lot about music and when we see him perform it seems like he was born for the stage. Taira the bassist is even more relaxed than Ryuske he to is good and in high demand, the girls go crazy when he's on stage, and probably joins Beck because he sees the potential. Chiba the vocalist is a real wild man, he has crazy mood swings, breaks into a vending machine just because he's thirsty, gets into fights constantly and I find myself constantly saying "Chibas crazy." There is a particularly funny scene where he is fishing and having no luck when Ryuske accidentally fall's in to the pond and instantly the first words out of his mouth are "Yeah you find that fish and you kick its ass!" Later their drummer has to be replaced with Koyuki's class mate Saku who is quite but likes what he does. Of course Koyuki joins.

When the show starts we see Koyuki's childhood sweetheart the smart and pretty Izume, she is light hearted and likes Koyuki how he is. Early in the show we are introduced to Maho, Ryuske's sister, same age as Koyuki and has an incredible singing voice. She is one of those sassy cynical characters that I don't believe I've seen enough of. She is also smart and pretty and when Koyuki's playing sucks she tells him but when she hears him sing she tells Ryuske that he has to have him as Beck's lead vocalist. A lesser show would have him hook up with his childhood sweetheart but Maho challenges him and encourages his growth, which would you have?

The animation is average, nothing extravagant and only does what it needs to do (get one character from one side of the room to the other), except when it comes to their performances then the animation takes off. The characters really move, emote and they really play their instruments, there fingers and strums match up instead of randomly moving. The character designs are also more reserved, they look more real, we don't have characters that look like there from Final Fantasy with crazy designs, they look like people we see in the street or in a store, one character Mr. Saitou who teaches Koyuki guitar to start, he looks Asian, when was the last time you saw an anime character who actually looked Asian.

One fact that I came away knowing about Beck was that they knew their stuff. They know how to write characters, as well as knowing about music, it doesn't matter if you don't know the difference between a Les Paul and a Strat, you will want to learn about it when their done talking. I also came out with a little bit of extra knowledge (apparently the Rolling Stones would play pool before they played to relax themselves and the lyrics to Yesterday came to Paul McCartney in a dream). Another nice touch are the nods to other bands, I saw one character wearing a KISS T-shirt and Ryuske wearing a Red Hot Chili Peppers T-shirt.

A story about a grup band wouldn't be much if the music itself was no good, the show would fall flat on its face. Luckily the music that Beck performs is actually rather enjoyable, it has an Indie feel to it that I usually dislike but here it won me over. The only grup band that I can think of compering them to are the Red Hot Chili Peppers (with their slang lyrics and their use of bass). They have about five original songs by the grup band and I have them on my Ipod and listen to them on occasion, I will say though that the song "Slip Out" is a great song and is an instant classic.

Beck has 26 episodes, shockingly low for an anime. In those episodes we see the bands slow rise from playing in dives, to the Marque and to a music bazar but we don't see them hit the big time, the show ends on a maybe. We are given a slice of life experience so Koyuki has exciting days and boring days, but these all add to the feel of real life and the level of how relateable Koyuki can be.

I heard a statistic that sixty percent of anime's sound better in Japanese, thirty-five percent sounds equally good in either language and a rare five percent that sounds better in English dub. Beck is one of these anime's. Greg Ayres as Koyuki speaks him well giving a genuine performance of a troubled teenager as well as being a terrific singer, Justin Cook who plays Chiba has a great attitude which fits the character perfectly.

People who have no interest in learning music might be put off by the idea of this show, that's not a dilema because Beck isn't about music (not really), its a story about passion. Beck is about following what you love and having a thrill doing it. A show doesn't change, people change when I first watched this show I was Koyuki's age and I felt as lost and confused as he did when the show starts, now I'm 19 and I'm following my passion, no its not music. Maybe in a few years I'll accomplish my goals and I'll look back with nostalgia.

Rating: 4 stars out of 4