The height of anime in the '90's is over. Shows with massive impact on the industry are long gone, but certainly not forgotten as they are still fresh in the minds of many. You need a fresh idea to get the viewer's blood pumping in order to make your mark on the industry. What do you do? You create Beck.
**BACKGROUND**
For those of you who don’t know, Beck is a shounen anime that aired in 2004, and was produced by one of today’s most well-known anime studios, Madhouse. It was directed by Kobayashi Osamu, who also directed the animation, wrote the script, worked on character design, and key animation. Kobayashi also directed Paradise Kiss. It was licensed by Funimation, who dubbed it in English, and released the DVDs from 2007 to 2008. A live action adaptation was released in 2009, and was directed by Yukihiko Tsutsumi, who is most known for his film adaptations of 20th Century Boys.
**PLOT**
I will assume that you've read the description above. The synopsis itself isn’t really original; a kid with no direction meets the person that will change his life forever. That’s not where this anime shines. It’s all about execution. The realism presented is incredible; everything from the sweat dripping off of the performers to the underground live houses the band perform at. The story moves forward at a very nice pace; not too slow, but slow enough where the characters, mainly Koyuki, can receive enough development so that the story itself is even more realistic. The interactions between characters as well brings more life to the story and doesn’t take away from the immersion. Every event fit well together, and, while events with Ryusuke later on were a bit odd at first, it made sense in the end and worked out well.
**CHARACTERS**
This is the core of what’s great about this show. The show is mostly character-driven, with the pacing being as slow as it is to allow realistic development of the core character, Koyuki. He’s the “main” main character of the show. The first half mainly focuses on him coming into his own and becoming more outgoing as he discovers a whole new world in music outside of the idols he listens to. As these events occur, however, I noticed that he always wore a hat. I’ve come to the conclusion that this is a symbol of Koyuki’s shyness. As he begins to rehearse with Beck before he joins, he’s always wearing a hat during the rehearsals. This represents his hesitation to let loose and be himself. Even during the first few performances of the “ultimate Beck” (Beck with its five core members), he wears his hat. But, as the story progresses, he learns to open up and comes into his own at the end. Koyuki is a very good POV character because you feel like you’re growing WITH him, rather than just seeing him grow.
The other 4 bandmates are less of a focus, but you see development throughout the show as they become closer as bandmates and let that chemistry flow through their music. No band member is completely useless. While they do mostly serve to develop Koyuki, you also grow to care for them through their actions and passion for music. Chiba, while loud-mouthed, cares deeply for his friends and has a passion for rapping. Taira is the quiet but funky bass player who is the support of the band. Saku is a happy-go-lucky drummer who shares the same passion for music as Koyuki. And Ryusuke, while rebellious and oftentimes gets mixed up in bad business, has a passion for playing guitar that even Koyuki can’t rival. This makes Koyuki stand out less, but in a good way. If Koyuki was the sole character receiving a fuckton of development, it would create a massive rift in the characters. Instead, the characters presented play off of Koyuki’s development, so he can blossom into who he was meant to be, while the others can develop as well. This creates a nice balance and chemistry that is felt both in the music played, and in character interactions outside of the live house.
The other main character, Minami Maho (Ryusuke’s little sister) kind of acts as a catalyst for Koyuki’s passion. Here’s a person that just started learning about a whole new area of music, and this beautiful girl walks into his life. This, mixed with his budding passion for music, gives Koyuki that extra push into his stage of latent talent. While her confliction of actions towards Koyuki were a bit (and at times, very) frustrating, it serves a purpose. He was unknowingly dependent on her to constantly give him that extra push to be brave and stand up on stage, but she cut him off at times. He begins to learn how to stand on his own throughout the story, and she does serve her purpose in the end as one of Koyuki’s trusted friends.
I know it sounds like ¾ of the characters are plot devices, but they stand on their own very well. The main focus of the story is Koyuki and his development into a beautiful vocalist and guitarist. But, as you move through the story, you can feel the characters’ passion for music oozing out of the songs they produce, and how they act. While you don’t really delve into what they’re thinking since it’s from Koyuki’s point of view, the execution of the plot and how the characters influence the progression is incredibly realistic.
**ANIMATION**
The animation is very dated. It did come out in 2004, but the drastic changes in animation quality are quite obvious, even for the less keen of eye, like myself. The CG guitars blend quite well, surprisingly. When the show does try, the animation can be BEAUTIFUL for its time, especially during the opening sequence. While it is sad that Beck suffers from the “We-kind-of-have-a-low-budget-but-here’s-an-awesome-OP-to-increase-viewership-in-order-to-cover-up-our-failures” syndrome, the bad quality only stands out on very rare occasions, most of which are at points where it doesn’t really matter.
**SOUND**
The music was OUTSTANDING. I cannot express my love for the music enough. If that isn’t good enough for you, towards the end, they have an insert song by The Pillows (more than reason enough to watch this gem). However, the same song or two is repeated during many of Beck’s performances, since they only put out a few songs over the course of the show. It’s all worth it during the last performance though, I swear. The songs are super catchy and I’ve been humming the opening song for days. Basically, if you like the OP, you’ll like the show. That much is a guarantee. The only complaint I do have is that you don’t really get a taste of other band’s performances, except when it serves a purpose.
Also, there is A LOT of Engrish. For the most part, it’s actually very well done. The Americans sound American, and the VAs for Maho and Ryusuke do a very good job at speaking English. However, with a Japanese anime trying to speak as much English as Beck does, there comes A LOT of grammar mistakes, especially in the songs they sing, which are primarily in English as well. Don’t let this stop you though. By the time you realize the grammar mistakes, you’re already immersed in the song. Koyuki’s VA in the subbed version has a good voice (he also voices Hisoka in HxH 2011 and Oikawa in Haikyuu. Who knew?), and does a very good job of capturing the audience both in the anime and the viewers watching.
**FINAL NOTES**
I watched this show over the course of 3 days, and may I say, it was the greatest 3 days of my life. Everything felt real. I was drawn in by the music and the characters, and everything felt necessary and properly executed. Yes, it has its flaws. Every show does. But these flaws, in my opinion, can be very easily overlooked. Beck is a coming-of-age story that isn’t just character development through certain “wake-up calls” or crazy-ass metaphors for sexual frustration. The change is felt through music, which I’m certain we can all get behind.
