I'm a Rocker. I Rock Out.

Review: Beck
Updated: 02/07/05

Anime/Manga/Fandom

Reviewed by: Bad Jew

Title rating: PG-13 for the manga & anime. They lead a rocker's lifestyle.

-21+ volumes of manga (?-present), still running, licensed for upcoming release from Tokyopop
-26+ episodes of anime (2004-present), still running

Normally, I hate musicians. It's not just because they get the chicks. Oh, don't worry on that account: girls flock to the writers of minor anime review sites. No, it's because musicians have...emotions. When I'm watching an anime or reading a manga, I don't want to see emotions--I want pulse-pounding kung-fu action. Because of that, I've avoided most titles involving musicians. The closest I came to watching one was Furi Kuri, which involves a bass guitar, but it's used as a club/dimensional-portal so that worked out well.

As a result, I wasn't expecting much when I started watching Beck. I just watched the first few episodes to see if the American folk singer/songwriter Beck would be in it (he's not, by the way). That being said, I was blown away by this series. Like all great things, I can't pin down what makes it so great--it's funny, but not any more then most shows; the animation is fine, but not mind-blowing; the music is well done, but one would expect that from a music-based show.

No, it's really the characters that make Beck, something we haven't seen in a while. Instead of having some sort of crisis of the week to keep people interested (like the beginning of Full Metal Alchemist), action scenes (like Samurai Champloo), or long discussions of philosophy while fighting cyber sex dolls (Ghost in the Shell 2), Beck is driven by the characters. They could be fighting crime or piloting giant mechs, and the show would be just as good.

Manga

Koyuki Yukio is a middle-schooler who's a loser with a capital SUCKS. No interests, no life to speak of. Lacking any kind of talent, he's a strike-out with the girls, even when his long-time classmate Izumi takes him out with some of her friends. Luckily, on his way home from this failure of socialization, he runs into a crazy, Frankenstein-like dog Beck (can that be some kind of *gasp* foreshadowing?) and his owner--the guitarist Ryuusuki.

Ryuusuki just broke up from his last band after a tiff with its leader. Both of them made the promise to create, wait for it: the best...band...ever. Koyuki becomes fast friends with Ryuusuki, and is then introduced to the amazing world of underground Japanese rock. Wishing to learn more about music, Koyuki studies under the tutelage of Saitou, a swinging 40-year-old bachelor, who is also teaching him to swim competitively (yah, you heard that right). But in order to develop his voice, Koyuki must undergo arduous tasks, complete the 32 rooms of Shaolin, and overcome the Pagoda God. Or just go to a lot of concerts, I forget which.

The story of Beck revolves around the band's attempts to make it big, despite various issues involving self-confidence and budgetary issues. As the story progresses, Koyuki becomes an acceptable guitarist, an amazing singer, and a member of Beck. He also meets Maho, the hot, age-appropriate sister of Ryuusuki and the right angle to the Koyuki and Izumi love triangle. The real fun of the show is watching him deal with the life of a band. The mangaka somehow made a young, developing character who goes through life without angsting about every little thing that happens. It's amazing.

It's true that at its heart, this manga follows the same "I'll be the best *goal* ever!" shounen formula as One Piece, Naruto, or even Dragon Ball Z. The only difference (besides the notable lack of pushups and flying) is that Beck doesn't rely on long, drawn-out battles. It relies on that little thing that's been lacking in so many manga recently: character development. Of course, this doesn't mean that there aren't any battles of the bands. That's actually one of the (few) weak spots of the manga. Too many storylines revolve around some bet that Beck will attract more audience members than the other band, or that they'll fill the mosh pit, or whatever. It gets a bit hackneyed after awhile.

The history of Beck will be written by the losers.

To explain my one problem with the manga, I'm going to go off on an extended metaphor, because that's sort of my thing now. Imagine, if you will, a manga about a lad in the 18th century who wishes to be perfumer to Louis the XV, the perfumed King himself. Now this is a serious manga, like Beck, so to visually describe the smell the mangaka can't resort to showing smells that blast you off to the moon (like Yakitate Japan). Instead, the most amazing smells conceived of by man are illustrated using lines of amazement. The young boy, against all odds, has completed the trails ordered by the evil Cardinal de Fleury, and has created the perfume that when given to the King will cement his place in the court. The king opens it...and...LINES OF SCENT!

Yes--out of necessity, Beck has to resort to image shots of the band playing, surrounded by lines which I assume implies perfect sound. It's not that this is necessarily a bad thing...it's just that by the 19th volume, seeing the same shot of Koyuki singing against a black background, with the next shot being of a slack-jawed audience, many members of which just sustained spinal injuries from their necks snapping around so fast to watch him, gets a bit old.

But don't let that stop you from devouring this surprisingly good manga. Like I said before, it's not because of anything in particular that makes it good--the plot isn't that original, the art is only decent, and the dialogue isn't going to win any awards. Rather, it's the chemistry between all the characters that sucks you in. I recently read the first 19 volumes; about midway through I sped up my reading of it, entranced, but by two-thirds through I slowed down. I'd realized that once I finished it, I would never get to read it for the first time again. If that pouring of emotion from me (wow, throw some thick-rimmed glasses on me and call me emo) doesn't get you to read the manga, maybe me shaking my fist at you will.

Anime

Let's go back to that perfumer metaphor again. Imagine that "Joseph the Perfumer" has been picked up by TV Tokyo. And, in an attempt to please not just the sight and sound senses but even the olfactory ones, the network distributes scratch and sniff stickers to the audience. When the big scene comes and Joseph uncorks his test tube, the show tells you to scratch sticker 7. And you know what it is? Lavender.

The problem with the anime is not that it deviates from the manga in any way--for all intents and purposes it's exactly the same. The problem is that we no longer get the suspension of disbelief that Beck is somehow this world-changing band. The premise of the story is that the band is unparalleled in Japan, that they have a sound as foreign to the island as Perry's Black Fleet. When we actually hear the music, it isn't mind blowing, it doesn't change the way you live, alter the orbit of planets, or allow cats and dogs to live together in harmony. It's decent, but it's nothing special. (Ed note: The Kaikan/Sensual Phrase anime suffers even more notably from this.)

Still, there are definite highlights of the show. The first is the opening theme--it kicks so much ass that watching it may end you in the hospital for treatment of your now-severely-kicked ass. Hell, check out an episode just to watch the opening credits.

The second is the truly horrible English. Theoretically, Maho and Ryuusuki were raised in America, and so they speak proficient English. That works all well and good in the manga where you can't here them slur their words, but not so much in the anime. Maho's first line: "Who the f*** are you?" sounds so absurd that it brings me to tears of laughter every time I hear it.

Fandom

The word "none" comes to mind. Remember that this show is so cutting edge that I'm making a nice deli-style ham sandwich with it as we speak. While the manga has been out for awhile, the anime is just up to 18 episodes in America--and even if it were a bit older, Beck just isn't a show that would get much online fandom (as it lacks cute girls in robots and bishounen in the rain). If you need another review, you could check out the one at anime.mikomi...but to be honest, mine is much better.

There was a little drama with the manga, however. Mangascreener was the scanlator of the Beck manga until volume 19, and they did a pretty good job with it. However, it seems that not only did Tokyopop license the comic, they also hired Steven Paul, the scanlator, to do the translation. It's nice to see this happening--who better to translate the manga for legal domestic release than someone who's already translated it? Of course, this saddens me because I won't get to read a new volume for about 3 years, but Tokyopop's got the right idea: co-opting the fan community instead of suing it.

Overview

The Beck manga is simply amazing. It has characters, and they develop and everything. Read it. The anime is a nice compliment to the manga, and deserves your viewing if you really enjoy the manga or enjoy nice things.

4 out of 5 stars.