Anime Review | Beck: Mongolian Chop Squad (Lights, Camera, Action!) Page 1

Anime Review | Beck: Mongolian Chop Squad (Lights, Camera, Action!)

Beck: Mongolian Chop Squad (UK Rating: 15)

There are plenty of anime series that, for whatever reason, never made it to the UK, such as Beck. The series was originally shown in Japan in 2004 and although it later received a full release in North America in 2007, the UK's release was never finished. Receiving one of the old fashioned style releases with a DVD containing only a handful of episodes, fans were left waiting halfway through the story and would still be waiting today. Once again All the Anime comes to the rescue. Having already brought some special licences to the UK now it's bringing this complete collection in English and Japanese on 12th September.
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Beck is a coming of age tale, following a group of Japanese teenagers as they form a band and work towards a dream of making it big in America. 14-year-old Yukio "Koyuki" Tanaka is the protagonist of the show; a seemingly unremarkable boy whose life changes when he saves a patchwork mongrel from some torturous kids. The dog - Beck - turns out to be owned by Ryosuke Minami, a talented guitarist who once played with one of the biggest rock groups, Dying Breed. This new friendship ignites a passion for music within Koyuki and the story follows the pair as they bring together a group of unique misfits into a rock garage band with dreams of worldwide fame.

What makes Beck stand out from so many other slice-of-life shows is that this is a real character-driven piece, following the day to day of Koyuki and the rest of the group, making it easy to get invested in their lives. It does mean the story feels slow at times, as it really takes its time in following Koyuki developing from his first plucks at a guitar and attempts at chords, to plucking up the courage to perform on stage. Koyuki has more to worry about than learning the guitar and stage fright, as his day-to-day school life gets difficult when he falls into the sights of the school bullies and the town delinquent, not to mention he has to reconcile his feelings between Izumi, the childhood friend he's always had feelings for, and the new exciting girl in his life, Ryusuke's little sister, Maho.

Izumi isn't a particularly interesting character - an older sister type that does more for Koyuki than he realises, but Maho is by far one of the best characters in the show. Maho is only 14 and lived through the same rough childhood as her brother, but has come out so much stronger for it. She, of course, has the usual issues to work through as all girls her age, but she is portrayed as a strong, smart and independent girl instead of the usual two-dimensional love interest. Maho's older brother is another centrepiece to the story. Ryusuke comes from a rough upbringing in New York. He brought a special guitar and Beck back with him to Japan and both are more than they seem to be. A simple mistake brings that past crashing back to him fast, all because of a CD cover, and it could end up costing Ryusuke his life. Ryusuke, too, is a complex character, seemingly like an horrible hipster at first, yet it's quickly evident that there are layers to this kid, and just how much he cares about his music and his friends.

There are other members of the band who are enjoyable enough but are very much just supporting cast characters. A surprisingly good addition is a middle-aged ex-Olympic swimmer named Kenichi Saito who Koyuki finds himself indebted to. The friendship struck up between the two is natural and charming, with plenty of memorable moments. The series doesn't cover the full story from the manga, however, ending instead with something that feels quite sudden. Even worse, the manga never finished being released in English either, as it was being released by doomed publisher Tokyopop.

With the series being over 10 years old, the video quality is understandably representative of its time, only available on DVD, not Blu-ray and with 4:3 aspect ratio. It's not just the age of the series that impacts the presentation, either, as it's quite evidently a low budget series, and while care was taken to capture the style of the manga, it often looks cheap. Whilst the visuals are lacking, the soundtrack is ridiculously good, though. This is the sort of series where it's worth grabbing the OST for some of the superb tracks. From the opening theme of Hit in the USA to the superb original Face. Similarly, the voicework is top tier, and stop reading here sub-only fans! The English dub is actually better than the Japanese. Sacrilege? Nah, if Trigun can do it, so can others. One of the main reasons for the English being better is the songs; the aforementioned "Face" is a perfect example, as the Engrish just can't live up to the actual English.

8/10

Great - Silver Award

All the Anime has delivered another must-see series to British shores in Beck: Mongolian Chop Squad. Even with low-quality visuals that show their age, and a rushed ending, this is one of the best slice-of-life shows out there. The pacing may be slow but Beck is filled with compelling stories, genuinely funny moments, characters an audience will care about, and real heart.