Beck

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]

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

Cook, Justin Producer

Harp, Clarine Producer

Nakajima, Yoshimi Producer

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

Reviews

Sep 4, 2007

lowell

Recommended

I ended up rewatching this series recently to kill some spare time, and -- I don't know why -- I found that I liked the whole series a lot more the second time around. I mean, I liked it the first time... but the second time, I really liked it.

It's about this middle school kid named Koyuki, who finally connects with the world around him through music and what eventually becomes a band called Beck... blah, blah, blah.

Story-wise... it's a little kooky. I don't know how other people viewed it, but being from the U.S., well, I had to remind myself a few ... times to take it with a grain of salt. I really enjoyed the slow development of Koyuki and the band and the relationships between everyone... I thought that part of the story was really well done. It's just that (especially in the second half), you have to be prepared to suspend your disbelief a little and accept the oddness of the whole Lucille subplot.

The art? I really liked looking at it. There was something very appealing about it. I think I especially liked how the everything was kind of gritty and muted looking to match the mood of the underground music scene. Also, the color palette they chose fit really well with the tone and vibe of the main characters and the story line, I thought.

Okay, the music really, really grew on me. I thought I was going to hate it and I have to admit that the grammar kind of bugged me at first... but I totally hum/sing a bunch of the songs to myself without thinking about it now. Even the opening song is catchy and fun. And even though you do hear bits of a few songs over and over again, it's nice, because I felt like I was getting more and more familiar with their sound... and it gave me a chance to become a "fan" of the band. ;) Also I thought that the people who were singing Koyuki and Maho's parts did a *great* job.

Character-wise... I don't think you get to know anyone as well as you get to know Koyuki. In fact, I think you only get to know everyone else as well as Koyuki himself does. But that's one of the nice things about the show, actually. They don't always like each other. They're bandmates and they aren't each others' whole lives. ...So, it felt okay to be irritated with or irked by some of the characters. And personally, I really prefer characters who are flawed and honest and real, so I really didn't mind not always liking the people on the show because it felt so much more... authentic, in a way.

And I don't know if this is character or story, but I also liked the way the series kind of kept us updated on Beck's rival band and used their story as a contrast to the main story.

I would say though, that if you're not used to the way heavily accented English sounds, listening to some of the conversations and the songs might be a little jarring at first. It didn't bother me since I was watching it w/ subs anyway and I'm used to thick accents, but I know some people who found it distracting... they couldn't concentrate on what was going on because they were too busy listening and trying to figure out what they were saying.

Overall, great show. It's different from your typical perky, funny, energetic sort of high school shows... it's sort of more of a "My So-Called Life" type show, without all the drama and with a band. ;) So, this probably isn't what you're looking for if you want sort of a funny, light-hearted high school slice of life show; it's ...quieter than that. But if you're looking for a break from all the sugar, this is a really nice change of pace.

Reviewer’s Rating: 9

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Mar 2, 2011

Bdiah

Mixed Feelings

Beck tells the story of a young high school student who picks up a guitar and begins a journey of growth, music, and friendship within a rock band.

While you don't see many serious depictions of rock bands in anime, the story and characters somehow don't really stand out. Koyuki, in particular is as bland as can be, but many of the other characters such as Ryusuke and Maho really don't have much to their personalities either. The story fits the characters and plods along in no real hurry to make a point. Many episodes felt like they ended simply because they were ... out of broadcast time.

The two most important elements of this show, though are the art and, of course, the music.

I have never seen as bipolar a series where animation is concerned than Beck. For the vast majority of each episode, the animation is very low quality. Characters have almost no features to them, backgrounds are uninspired and dead, and occasionally, you'll see atrocities like characters with webbed fingers (didn't bother to draw the lines in the hand). One the other hand, the producers of this show clearly threw all of their money into the animation of the musical scenes, which are incredible. Incredibly fine detail is used when showing the most technical elements of their musical performance. The way fingers move while picking a guitar is so convincing, you might believe that it was rotoscoped (I do not believe this is the case). The only problem, is that this pristine animation tends to last only a few seconds at best. A little more balance would have made the show much more tolerable to watch.

As you might expect, the real highlight of this show is the music, which really shines, though they repeat songs quite frequently, and their original productions are rather uninspired. The music is not the usual jPop fare, but a refreshing mix of punk rock and hip-hop. What is most intriguing is that the music actually improves over the course of the series. The last four episodes have a wide variety and display polished songs that have developed over the course of the series. Without a doubt this is the strongest point of the series

While the beginning of this show seems very promising, it ultimately fails to deliver anything above mediocrity. The generally poor animation combined with unengaging story and characters creates a series that is burdensome but punctuated with the occasional impressive music performance. Anyone would be no worse for watching this, but it is difficult to imagine that people other than ardent music fans would love this.

Reviewer’s Rating: 5

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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.

Reviewer’s Rating: 5

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