Customer Reviews

Beck: Box Set (Viridan Collection)

5 star:		(17)
4 star:		(4)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

"Beck: Mongolian Chop Squad" is easily one of the finest animated series I've ever watched. In many ways, it may actually be the best. I don't believe I've ever seen a work of fiction that captures the energy, emotion, and passion of rock music in a more authentic way. Every person who had a hand in creating this show and bringing it to America should be extremely proud of themselves. If you've ever truly loved music, then don't hesitate to check this show out.

Koyuki is a puny, shy typical geek with no passion in his life at all until the day he meets a jacked-up dog named Beck. The dog's owner happens to be a shining star of the local rock scene and introduces him to a band named Dying Breed. It changes his life. The pop idol fanatic is instantly struck and begins learning to play guitar. It will be one hell of a journey. Beck's owner Ryusuke's (Ray for short) band has just fallen apart and the wannabe pro is on the lookout for the members to build "the ultimate band". Koyuki tags along and immerses himself in the local music scene, meeting Ray's gorgeous, charming, jet-setting sister Maho, who is a singer. The two hit it off, and the relationship will have it's ups, down, and hot and cold spots throughout the series. Eventually, the band BECK comes to be with a ragtag lineup that is impossible to resist. Ryusuke: the hot-as-lava lead guitar phenom. Taira: the ice cold pro on the bass. Chiba: local maniac with a rap-influenced vocal delivery on the mic whipping crowds into a frenzy. Saku: self-taught drummer and Koyuki's backbone. Koyuki: green as grass beginner whose vulnerable rhythm guitar and emotional singing will make BECK a sensation....if they can stay together. The cast of characters in the is series is amazing. There's even a rockin' cockatoo ( I call him a rockatoo) who shrieks "A$ZHOOOOOLE!!!!" constantly. Gotta love that. Each character is brought to life in the art, animation, and performances as lovingly as each beautiful musical instrument featured in the show. And once you see the close-ups of Ray's bullet-ridden Les Paul (which has a wild subplot all its own), you will see the artists are very much in love with guitars. I can relate.

If there is a single weak spot in "Beck", it's the anime cliche of a romance that never goes anywhere. I don't know how these things go in Japan, but where I come from, you don't only kiss a girl twice in three years and pretend nothing's there when there's almost instant electricity between you and nothing to stop you. There are other love interests, but they never go anywhere meaningful either. I was really excited by the prospect of a more mature look at romance from a show that is extremely mature in every other sense, but it didn't pan out that way. But I can say that I was pretty riveted by the whole thing which is to say that even the one negative turns into a positive when the storytelling is as effective as this show's and the characters are so fantastic.

Honestly, I was amazed at how realistically the music scene in "Beck" is portrayed. Anybody who has been in a band or had friends in bands and sat in on practices and gone to the local gigs should be floored by how the whole vibe is captured so perfectly. This show was very obviously created not only by music fans, but by serious musicians. It brought back a ton of great memories for me and made me wish more then I have in years and years that I had had the talent and commitment to start a band. Some of the best music you've ever heard is likely being played in front of a dozen or so drunks a few blocks from your house in a garage or bar and the band will probably break up with only a select few ever knowing how great they were together. That's the scene that this show portrays and the cast of characters could have come from any city in the world. It's ridiculously relatable.

After a staggering series of events "Beck" eventually climaxes at Japan's biggest music festival in one of the greatest performances I've ever seen from a band. And considering this band is animated and I couldn't begin to count how many non-animated performances I've watched that is saying a hell of a lot. The energy and passion is just amazing and I couldn't even stay in my seat; I really felt like I was watching a legendary performance from an amazing rock band. I've never, ever gotten that from a television show, live action or not. BECK hit it out of the park. I was sad to see it end and I can't wait to watch it all again and again.

The English dub on the American DVD's is better then the Japanese track. I said it. It's true. While the subtitles are a more literal translation and much of the dialogue is actually in English which leads to some issues with characters who speak different languages speaking the same language on the dub, the American cast, writers, and producers did a phenomenal job at punching up the dialogue to sound very natural and adding a lot of extra swear words to boot. Some may take offense, but the fact is that's how these sorts of people talk so it only adds to the realism in the end. There are some commentaries with the cast that are completely off-the-wall insane as well. Almost as funny as the show is. Each disc also has a BECK music video, all of which are sweet as hell.

"Beck: Mongolian Chop Squad" is everything an anime should be. It's anything any show can strive for. It strikes every chord perfectly, lays down a beat that'll make you want to follow it anywhere, and screams "WE WILL, WE WILL ROCK YOU!" At the top of it's lungs. It ain't lying, either. It's jam-packed with references to legendary bands and even has some cameos. The band shares a dream at one point featuring the likes of John Lennon, Sid Vicious, and Freddy Mercury among others. If you love rock music and are open in any way to animated entertainment then there is no excuse to pass this by.

And yeah, the music ROCKS. Japan is seriously kicking our a$z right now.

I had mixed feelings about this show after I finished watching it last night; on one hand it isn't a perfect series and has some really obvious flaws that kept popping up over and over again. On the other hand those flaws seemed rather insignificant when compared to the overall quality of the show. Docking this show a star because of those flaws almost felt like taking a star away from Cowboy Bebop because ED was an unrealistic character. I mean, who cares?

Beck is undoubtedly one of the most entertaining shows I've ever seen. Apart from Cowboy Bebop I don't think I've ever seen an anime that was as much fun as this one was. It has a lot in common with Bebop in fact; both share similar strengths (although Bebop doesn't really have a weakness and Beck does), namely great characters and soundtrack.

Kyukee is a middle school boy meandering through life without a sense of purpose. He, like many his age, lacks anything to be passionate about or any real hope for the future. That all changes one day when he runs into an ugly mutt named Beck and his owner, Ryuskee, who introduces him to the world of rock and teaches him how to play guitar. From that point on Kyukee is a driven young man who spends his every waking moment honing his skills. Ryuskee meanwhile has just broken up with his old band and is on the lookout to form the perfect band. The end result is Beck, or the Mongolian Chop Squad as it's known in America.

The music is far and away the best part about this show. If Beck were a real band, I'd probably be a fan, and you can bet that I'm going to buy the soundtrack for this show. From the soft melody "Full Moon Rises" to more hardcore rocker songs like "Typhoon" (which was a bit silly with its whole "Typhoon twenty four, twenty four seven" lines but it sounded great) almost every song is amazing; which helps disguise the limited animation it had. It even defeats Bebops jazz music, a shocker I know considering how amazing Bebops music is, but I honestly think Beck has it beat, at least if you like rock music. Otherwise I'd skip this show completely. This is a show you'll want to watch in English, and trust me the dub is as great as any show out there. The mouths don't match the words when their singing (so it's like watching a Godzilla movie almost) but that's a small price to pay for the great music you'll get.

At times during the show it annoyed me that when the bands were playing they wouldn't play the whole song and would stop them mid way through. Well don't let this bother you too much because each volume has its own music video with the complete song just for your listening pleasure.

Along with the music the characters are the second best part of this show, with my favorite being the lead singer, Cheeva. No matter what kind of person you are there will be someone in this show you'll be able to love. Tiara the bass player who's really quiet and introspective, the crazy and charming older friend to Kyukee (sorry, can't remember his name right now), it doesn't matter; most of the main characters are great. But there is also a problem with the characters; there are too many and lots of them don't play any special role or add anything to the overall story. Many characters that are important in the opening volumes suddenly disappear later on, leaving the viewers wondering just what happened to them. A lot of back story is put into some of these characters and a lot if time is invested into them only to have them dropped completely. Izumi is a good example. During the first volume she serves as a love interest for Kyukee and takes up a lot of time, which led me to think she would play an important role during the rest of the show. That wasn't the case however. After the second volume she only made one more brief appearance and its one of those blink and you'll miss it kind of deals. Another character that didn't make much sense was Hiro, who apparently was yet ANOTHER love interest for Kyukee, to go along with Izumi and Mahoo (Ryuskee's younger sister who's also fourteen). Her character didn't do anything during the show, didn't make the main characters grow at all, and really didn't do anything, and yet a lot of time is invested into her. Why? Why bother dropping an already well established character and introducing anther one? Some characters play really important roles yet only show up a handful of times; others play an insignificant role and yet show up almost every episode. Now what's the deal with that?

Also one more oddity I found was the age of all the characters. Kyukee is only fourteen years old at the beginning of the show, while the older members of the band are sixteen, and yet there is no sign of any parents, they act as if they were much older, and are even allowed into bars. The absence of parents was a bit unusual because you'd hear Kyukee's mother all the time and yet you'd never actually see her and she'd never do anything. She never even went to hear him sing. This was probably done on purpose but it was still a bit weird. If all the characters involved were just two years older all those problems would have been solved, but as it was I couldn't help but remember that even the most mature characters in this show are three years younger then me.

It might sound like I didn't like the show, but I really did and it's probably one of my favorites, but I have to point out its flaws for those thinking about buying it. It's a great show, with amazing music and some really great characters. It's very similar to Bebop in so many ways, and yet has some flaws that I could not ignore. Overall it's a great show though and I could not recommend it enough.

Pros.
-Great rock music.
-Some really interesting characters.
-The best dub since Cowboy Bebop.
-Very funny at times.

Cons.
-Characters are too young, there are too many of them, and many great ones are dropped while the bad ones are kept on.

Replay Value; EXTREMELY high.

That's the question I asked myself before slipping the disk into my dvd player. Honestly, I expected to struggle through a slice of life with limited action and amateur music.

HOW WRONG I WAS. The series grabbed me from the first second to the last. To give you a quick rundown,

Pros:
-Character Development- The main character was very realistic and likable. You feel how he feels while he's getting bullied, has his first kiss, has a fight with a good friend, etc. Not to mention how much you see him grow and mature throughout the series. Your with him every minute that he practices his guitar. As some of the previous reviews suggest, the support characters also have their own distinct personalities that set them apart from the norm. They each have their own distinguishing qualities that will make you love each and every one.

-Music - It was surprisingly good. I found myself humming "blue moon sways" for weeks after I watched the series... bah...I'm humming it now.

-Realistic - The characters are not masters of everything, each has their own strengths and weaknesses comparable to real-life individuals.

-Action - For an anime without any...it sure had alot. There were the constant intermingling conflicts with band members, record producers, mysteries of the past(Beck), and of course girls. Never did the series feel boring or drab.

-Dubbing - as the previous reviews suggested...amazing

Cons: I did have a few minor quips with the series...

- Ending? - It came too soon and the last two episodes were rushed. Seems to be an excellent setup for a season II.

- Mysteries revealed? - There were many things that were never revealed in the end. What significance did the two oddly colored dogs have (one of which being Beck of course)?


In conclusion, The series went far beyond all of my expectations. It kept me enraptured in the many plot twists and character developments. I loved every second of it and I'm sure you will to. Don't prejudge the series until you watch it and you should watch it. An excellent piece of anime that will surely become a classic.

This version of the Beck anime is from the S.A.V.E. line of box sets, which means it is bare bones. You'll get all the episodes of the series, but you'll miss out on special features and extras. If this isn't a concern for you, you'll be getting a really good deal on a good series.

The series itself is about a young boy who finds himself drawn into a crazy chain of events that leads him to joining a band. For anyone who loves music and loves anime that are more realistic (think the slice-of-life genre), this anime is easy to recommend. You won't find over the top battles here. What you will find is likable characters, realistic drama, and even some good music.

Picture quality on the DVD is good, and you'll get the option of the original Japanese with subtitles or the English Dubbing. I prefer the original Japanese myself, but the dub work is quite well done (even the songs), and I don't think you'll miss much by viewing them that way.

One small note: On the American release of this series, you will find that Beck plays a different song during one of the final episodes' crucial moments. In the original series, the song done is a Beatles' cover. Unfortunately, this song did not make it to the American version (even the japanese language track on the DVD has it missing) and it is replaced with another song. This isn't a huge deal, but if (like me) you had seen the show before you might be dissapointed by the replacement.

As mentioned in my title this anime delivered a great flow, great music, and an abundance of style... so what more could you ask for? You'll never want to route for a better underdog than Koyuki in your life. The storyline starts out with Koyuki, being an average kind of guy, who soon discovers his passion for music turns himself into an extraordinary guitarist. As you follow him on his journey of joining a band, meeting new people, and doing new and exciting things you'll fall in love with all of the quirky characters. I recommend this anime and the soundtrack.

This is one of the best anime series that I have seen in a long time. I had accidentally stumbled upon this on television, and after seeing practically every episode, I went to my local DVD store and purchased this box set. This show does an impressive job of portraying some of the trials and tribulations of being in a band, from the squabbles between band members, the late-night food runs, playing show after show in front of small crowds in hole-in-wall venues, working many late night shifts just to make any money, making it big, breaking up, and the reunion.

The character development in this series was done extremely well. Watching Koyuki struggle in the beginning with learning to play the guitar only to blossom into a young star was beautifully portrayed and made you pull for him throughout the entire series. The band's leader, Ryusuke, is a quiet guy and his back story with his guitar (a Gibson Les Paul named Prudence) was woven into the story phenomenally. Yoshiyuki, the band's bassist, is who actually made me personally interested in playing the bass. Watching him play "Last Dinosaur" by The Pillows in one of the later episodes gave me goosebumps. Tsunemi is Beck's singer with a loud stage presence and a huge appetite for ramen. Last we have Yuji, the drummer and Yukio's close school friend.

Another plus to this series are the musical and pop culture references that are peppered throughout - both obviously and subtly. Koyuki's t-shirt says "Ramonne" (subtitled "Johnny"), a dream sequence with dead rock stars (Kurt Cobain, Jimi Hendrix, John Lennon, Bob Marley, Sid Vicious and Freddie Mercury), mock covers of popular albums, real albums seen on the floor in various scenes, characters who were named after multiple musicians (Such as George Graham, the "king of funk" - possibly named after George Clinton and Larry Graham), and so on.

This series is recommended for everyone. Musicians will appreciate the portrayal of being in a band with its ups and downs, fans of pop culture will have a blast finding all of the various references, and even those who don't care about music will enjoy this down-to-earth story with a complete resolution at the end.

First, Beck is an absolutely essential show for any music and/or anime lover. The story line is excellent and inspiring, many times I've watched an episode and been compelled to pick up my guitar. Secondly, Funimation's SAVE series is the sweetest blessing that any studio can bless its viewers with at nearly 1/5th the price of a normal complete series set, I no longer have to resort to out of country companys to get my shows at non-insane prices.

This is one of the few music oriented animes and it is a great one. If you ever have a chance give Beck a try.

Well, I must admit that I wasn't too crazy about this series. I started watching it on the FUNIMATION channel at night and got hooked! I caught the last few episodes, so when it was over, I had to get the DVD set and watch from the beginning. I ordered and received the DVDs right before Christmas and I haven't been able to stop watching!!! It's not the acting that has me hooked -- it's the band members and how they interact with each other. I've never been in a band, but I've always been a music lover of all types of music! (Guess it has something to do with me being an Army brat growing up in Germany!) The songs are amazing -- I am now a lover of the bass guitar -- been on the internet looking for all the CDs this anime references (Jimi Hendrix, Red Hot Chili Peppers, Kurt Cobain, Nirvana & hell, maybe even Rage Against the Machine).

This anime is not for very young kids; I would say teenagers and older and that's only because they use the work f*** and as***** alot!!!!

For those of you who love music with heart and meaning, this series is for you!!! For those of you who have ever been in a band, wanted to join a band, or been a fan of those obscure, unknown bands playing in some dive, you'll love this series even more so!!!

I almost stopped watching halfway through the first episode. Can't remember why now, but I decided to continue on. It was worth it. Maybe my favorite anime yet. I usually like to listen to the Japanese dialog and read the subtitles to get a better flavor for the emotions and pacing. The Japanese track is great on this series as well, but I think the English cast really nailed their delivery. I almost never caught myself thinking that this was a dub.

I was also surprised by how good the original music is--or at least it appealed to my tastes. I finished watching the series on a flight from Europe to the US and had to watch the music video of Slip Out a bunch of times. Just fell in love with it.

The characters are all great. There are a lot of them but the main core group are well sketched out, believable, and I found myself pulling for BECK as a band and the individual musicians as soon as the band formed. You really want these guys to succeed, and that's half the fun of watching the series with all the twists and turns and dead ends they face along the way. I never got bored.

The animation is good enough so that it just fades into the background allowing you to follow the story. Smooth and believable. The segment of the live concert for The Dying Breed was very well done. It completely captured the difference in energy between a professionally produced concert for an internationally known band vs. the bar/club scene where BECK spends most of its time performing.

The language is rough, so it's not for little kids. But it was interesting to note that the major character, Koyuki, very rarely slips into bad language (maybe never--I can't remember). It's fun to watch him grow into his musical talent and interact with the underside of the music business, but he never loses his innate expression of goodness. It's not a self-righteous thing but upon reflection, his embrace of the music business just takes the good in Koyuki and amplifies it. In the end of the journey, he's a much stronger, more centered person.

Anyway, I could only watch so many giant robots (don't get me wrong, I love giant robots), and this series was a great and fulfilling surprise. If you like music or ever dreamed of being in a band, this is worth checking out.