Beck (Beck: Mongolian Chop Squad)

Fourteen-year-old Yukio "Koyuki" Tanaka is a dispirited young boy with no goals in life. However, this all changes when Koyuki saves a strange-looking dog named Beck from being harassed by a group of local kids. The dog's owner, 16-year-old Ryuusuke "Ray" Minami, is an emerging guitarist and the former member of a popular rock band.

After Koyuki meets Ray again in a diner, the older boy leads him to his former band's meeting place and dazzles Koyuki with his amazing guitar skills. Slowly becoming interested in the glamour of western rock culture, Koyuki decides to start playing the guitar while helping Ray achieve his dream of leading the ultimate rock band. Together with Ray's younger sister Maho and a few other members, the two boys launch their career into the world of rock by forming a band called BECK. Beck follows the group's struggles and successes as they spread their fame across Japan.

[Written by MAL Rewrite]

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Beck

More characters

Characters & Voice Actors

Tanaka, Yukio

Main

Namikawa, Daisuke
Japanese

Minami, Maho

Main

Saiki, Miho
Japanese

Minami, Ryuusuke

Main

Ueno, Yuuma
Japanese

Chiba, Tsunemi

Main

Oohata, Shintarou
Japanese

Taira, Yoshiyuki

Main

Nojima, Kenji
Japanese

Sakurai, Yuuji

Main

Nara, Tooru
Japanese

Lee, Eddie

Supporting

Vickers, Jamie
Japanese

Saitou, Kenichi

Supporting

Okite, Porche
Japanese

Reed, Matt

Supporting

Masuoka, Hiromi

Supporting

Yamakawa, Kotomi
Japanese

More staff

Staff

Cook, Justin

Producer

Harp, Clarine

Producer

Nakajima, Yoshimi

Producer

Kobayashi, Osamu

Director, Episode Director, Script, Storyboard, Series Composition, Character Design, Animation Director, Key Animation

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Opening Theme

"Hit in the USA" by Beat Crusaders

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Ending Theme

	1: "My World Down" by Meister (eps 1-20)
	2: "Moon on the Water" by Sowelu (eps 21-25)
	3: "Slip Out" by Beck/Mongolian Chop Squad (eps 26)

Reviews

Feb 24, 2023

VibesonFleek

Recommended

Beck is an original shounen where music is a central focus that is starting to show its age but remains a wonderful experience once the viewer adapts to the slower pace. The story is classic shounen. A young boy who is weak, lonely, and a bit of an outsider finds his purpose and meaning in rock music. He meets a senpai (mentor), a girl, new friends, and embarks on a journey to fulfill a mission and a lofty goal through hard work, pluckiness, and a never-give-up attitude.

Let's start by looking at something important for a music anime which is the music. Beck is an anime ... primarily about music, more so than any other "music" anime I've seen. Musical development and growth is the primary focus of the show and there's a clear passion in the writing for classic rock and punk. The show is full of references to classic rockers and famous musicians.

The original music performed in the show is excellent and better than any other I've seen but this brings up a kind of interesting element which is the differences between the sub and dub versions of Beck. I always watch the sub versions of shows. Dub voice acting tends to be more over-the-top and comical while the sub voice acting is typically more natural and enjoyable. I watched Beck's sub version but there's a downside and an upside to doing so. A lot of the music features english lyrics sung by japanese people and there's quite a bit of broken english in the sub version. This was a slight distraction at first but it grew on me as the show went on and quickly faded to a non-issue. The music is very good, even with somewhat non-nonsensical lyrics. The advantage to watching the show subbed is more clarity in scenes where characters are talking in both japanese and english. Some characters don't know english and only japanese while other characters are bilingual and speak both english and japanese. Certain characters not understanding English in certain scenes plays a narrative purpose. I believe these scenes are clearer to understand in the sub.

Beck has a very strong and memorable romantic storyline with some iconic and touching scenes that rival the very best slice of life romantic animes. That said, romance is not the focus and there are far more frustrating moments from a romantic perspective than there are satisfying scenes. Still, the romantic scenes that land absolutely blew me away and were extremely heartwarming and touching.

Beck is an extremely good anime but it's also flawed. The biggest thing holding it back is it's age. Beck released in 2004 which is almost twenty years ago now. For its age, there's still some wonderful high quality animation but there are things that make it clear the anime is older. The first is the pacing. After watching any recent, modern anime, the pacing of beck is extremely slow. The pauses between characters and lingering static shots last 3x to 4x as long as anything I've seen released post 2010. Thankfully, this becomes less noticeable as the series goes on and the viewer adapts to the slower pace.

There's also some scenes where musical performances are depicted with random shots outside of clubs and city streets instead of showing the performers. I believe these were probably done this way for budget reasons but I would have preferred to actually see the performers. That said, these scenes aren't detrimental by any means but they stood out as something I would never see in a modern anime.

Beck is also an anime with a high level of inconsistency. The first eight episodes were just okay. Things were happening extremely slowly and there's no really strong hook until episode 8. However, after episode 8, which is about 30% through the series, Beck really comes into its own and takes off. The middle 8 episodes of the series are an easy 10/10. However, the quality started to taper off in the last third. The ending was pretty good but not as good as it could have been. Some things that happened seemed slightly contrived.

Overall, Beck is a very original shounen in terms of content but not structure. The music in Beck is the best of the best in terms of musical animes. Best of all, Beck is a music anime that really focuses on the music. The age is starting to show in Beck but it's still worthwhile and definitely a fantastic series.

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Dec 20, 2021

DontReadPls

Mixed Feelings

What is this anime?
Boy sings good. Joins band. Learns guitar along the way. Not the stereotypical "hey lets make a song"... "yay! we made a song"... "wow we are famous"... " yay friendship!" Delves into relationships and struggles of bandmates with a little romance in there.

Did I enjoy it?
The series seemed to have flown by now that I've finished it. But the story somehow felt slow and dragged on as I was watching (I even dropped it for a while). Despite that, it was an enjoyable story; especially if you have a love for music. I watched the dub of this series (before I would ...

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Jun 26, 2023

ThatAnimeSnobRE

Not Recommended

Funny

Beck is a slice-of-life/romance/motivational show about everyday teenagers aiming to become *random shounen lead pops up* THE BEST MUSIC BAND IN THE WORLD! Now before I start I have to clarify how slice-of-life is for me the dullest genre imaginable. What saves face is when they try to mix it with something else besides that. Romance is the easy way most of them head for. We can’t have a series about everyday people who can’t have love problems, right? And since this is an anime, we just can’t have a show without an indecisive lead or the world will come to an end. Ok, we ... might as well throw in some youths who want to accomplish something great and awesome that will inspire the audience to cheer for them. All that sound just fine and we can have something good if all go well.

… And guess what, they didn’t. It is a fine romcom of a show if this is all you ask for, which is at best a completely average anime for me. Teen flicks are not exactly the brightest or most well made shows, you see. Reasons?

The production values are messy. There is a huge quality gap in several episodes and the result just makes you think they were running out of money half the time. It is also very confusing to see them looking cool in one scene and like stupid caricatures in another. Something which does not count as artistic choice but plain laziness.

The songs are not as awesome as they are supposed to be. For a series about a band that claims to aim for the top and doing pretty well in terms of popularity, the songs don’t exactly excuse it. They don’t sound as amazing as they are supposed to. In fact, most sound pretty average so you can only think they are popular only because people with no taste cheer for them.

Their English pronunciation plain sucks! They aim to be the best in America when they can’t even talk properly. Maho in particular is supposed to know it perfectly and she obviously can’t speak English. I know that the songs and the language are “supposed” to sound great and that the viewer is “supposed” to suspend his disbelief long enough to accept a series where the band is a lot better than it sounds. But come on, it’s not like we couldn’t get a far better soundtrack or proper English-speaking voice actors. This again feels lazy.

The romance part is completely useless. Seriously, it is there but it never seems to matter. EVER! This is the story of some teens who want to be the best in the world and not to score with some girl (who conveniently is in the same band). In fact, they can get all the romance they want from groupies as soon as they succeed. Instead of that we get this juvenile romantic triangle of sorts which doesn’t matter. It’s also counter-productive for many, since idols have to be virgins and pure for their fans to like them.

The main lead is too indecisive. Seriously, Yukio is shown to be antisocial and reluctant most of the time and yet we are supposed to think he wants to show his worth and cheer for him as he struggles for acceptance. Sorry but I can’t suspend my disbelief that much. People who want to take over the world (at least the musical one) are supposed to be cocky sons of bitches and not these frail chickens.

The story is very simple and is even left incomplete. Well, there is no need to further analyze that; simple stories are easy to get over and incomplete ones are extremely annoying. Yes, you can still read the continuation in the manga but this is a review of the anime.

The anime is not very motivational. Seriously, it ain’t. If its goal is to make you cheer for some simple guys who aim for the top, then the whole thing is done lazily. Just compare it to the far greater response other music band anime had. Detroit Metal City, Suzumiya Haruhi, K-on, shows that inspired thousands to either start their own band or at least scream in joy every time they hear one of their songs. Beck didn’t have this effect because the songs weren’t that good and the protagonist was neither a death metal king of demons nor a cute loli. HE WAS A CHICKEN!

The anime is not realistic. In case you wonder “It’s anime, of course and it isn’t” I just have to mention this because most people who like it keep yapping about its realism. The above anime I mentioned are to them too unreal but Beck is down to earth for having average everyday people. That is so sweet; too bad they are drawn lazily half the time, their songs are not that great, their English is terrible, the romance is out of place, the lead is a chicken, the story is incomplete, and I don’t dance like an idiot every time I hear them perform. And for Pete’s sake, WHAT DOES A MOTIVATIONAL SHOW HAVE TO DO WITH REALISM? They aim to take over the music world; does that sound like something everyday normal people would do? Normal people just want a job, money, sex, and/or lots of time wasted on their hobbies. Jeez, get your facts straight already.

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Poll: Beck Episode 26 Discussion ( 1 2 3 ) aero - Aug 18, 2008	138 replies	by cprv19 »» Aug 19, 8:34 PM
Poll: Beck Episode 1 Discussion ( 1 2 ) aero - Aug 11, 2008	66 replies	by DarkInsomnia57 »» Jul 25, 9:24 PM
Poll: Beck Episode 8 Discussion aero - Aug 17, 2008	40 replies	by Ja_yk »» Jul 23, 5:37 AM
Why does Maho... cjayyy - Apr 19, 2022	6 replies	by barisu »» Jun 30, 4:31 PM
Poll: Beck Episode 25 Discussion aero - Aug 18, 2008	42 replies	by _untitled »» Jun 21, 7:04 AM

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