(Great parody image, or greatest parody image?)
(Also, of course, just want to remind everyone about tomorrow's movie meeting.)
14-year-old Yukio "Koyuki" Tanaka is the prototypical teenager, bored with life. But his life's direction changes once he saves a strange-looking dog, Beck, from a group of kids. The dog's owner, Ryusuke Minami, is a talented guitarist whose rough personality has long kept him from forming the perfect band. However, he encourages Koyuki to take up the guitar, and after much hard work, Koyuki teams up with Ryusuke and an eclectic group of musicians to shoot straight to the top of the Japanese music scene.
What impresses me most about BECK is that it is simultaneously realistic and unrealistic. Its realism comes in the effortless way the series depicts teenagers. A lot of fiction that have teenage characters tend to overemphasize certain traits -- reliance on slang, rigid caste systems, sexuality, etc. After a while, they become complete caricatures rather than flesh and blood people. BECK doesn't do this; its teens feel like actual teens, for better or worse.
They swear, they slack, they concentrate on their dreams instead of keeping their minds on what is practical. They have quick tempers, but are also capable of idealistic kindness. One moment they are petty, and the next they are totally forgiving. They know what they want to do, but they have no idea how to get there. The BECK characters feel like real teenagers without ever shoving that teenage quality in the face of the viewer.
Part of what really helps with that is BECK's fantastic English dub. I initially began with the Japanese audio, because I heard there was tons of Engrish (and I do love me some gratuitous Engrish), but once I switched to the English audio to sample it, I never went back. The acting is completely natural, particularly in how the characters play off each other in that way that seems unique to teens, where sarcasm is like breathing, but they haven't quite mastered it yet, so it's more like their natural mode of communication instead of something to use for emphasis. Great work by the dub actors that totally heightens the series.
Where BECK is a bit less realistic is how it depicts the process of the titular band's rise to the top. Now, they're not immediately great -- the show takes a lot of care in showing how much work the band puts in to even sound mediocre at first, much less great. But BECK's success is not really indicative of most bands' experience; they catch fire, and it's one magical ride until the end.
However, the lack of realism on this front is not a fault by any means. BECK is meant to capture and reflect the pure spirit of rock, to make the viewers feel the ultimate high that comes with catching lightning in a bottle and riding it as far as you can go. It's sort of like an anime version of Almost Famous -- except Koyuki not only gets the opportunity to hang out with his heroes, but he also gets the opportunity to be like one of his heroes, to experience the pure, distilled dream of rock.
BECK's story also takes an unexpected turn around the midway point, adding a strange sort of musical urban legend/conspiracy storyline to go along with Koyuki's rock and roll joyride. I had somewhat mixed feelings about this; I loved the idea of it, but the way it is resolved is not totally satisfying because the band obviously gets the majority of the story. There's another part of the story that feels a bit rushed at the end, as well, but the way the story is conveyed there actually worked decently well for me.
But how successful would the series be if its music sucked? Most of BECK's music is pretty good for the most part: I like the OP and love the ED, and the music the band comes up with is pretty catchy for the most part, if not really spectacular. (But, really, I think that's a common problem in fiction -- stuff characters come up with is never as great as anyone in the story thinks it is.) The only real problem I have with the music is that I wish there were a bit more variety. There are a fair number of songs throughout the series, but you often hear the same one or two. Kind of frustrating.
Maybe the biggest problem of the series is that its animation is often disappointingly cheap. I imagine Madhouse spent a good portion of the budget on the music and had to make due with what was left. There are an untold number of still shots with characters talking over them that last anywhere from a few seconds to a minute or two. It honestly gets really ridiculous after a while. BECK isn't a show that needs flashy animation, but I wish it didn't have to resort to such blatant shortcuts.
Regardless of those ultimately small shortcomings, BECK is a very good series that pays wonderful homage to rock. Sometimes it's just great to lose yourself in a story of success, and Koyuki's success is a story worth telling.
If you like this, then watch ... : Can't really think of many series too similar to BECK. Maybe Nodame Cantabile for a classical spin on it, or Detroit Metal City for the metal version (although the latter focuses much more on comedy than success in the metal scene).
