Beck: Volume 4 (UK)

Introduction

I waited 17 years before I could drive, waited 18 years for a Labour government (bit of a let down that), waited 16 years for a Star Wars prequel, hell 25 years for the definitive director's cut of Blade Runner, and I still don't understand why waiting just 3 months for the next volume of Beck should be so agonising. Still, serial anime should arrive with a little more haste than a movie sequel, and Beck is the sort of anime that once you are hooked, you need it all right now. Fortunately, I've had a haemorrhoid of a DVD backlog to review, so my separation anxiety from volume 4 hasn't been too disabling.

It's a problem common the world over, the disaffected, disillusioned and rebellious teenager who wants to get away from the reins of authority and do something meaningful with his or her life. That means picking up a guitar and starting a band of course. That's before realising that they'd have to learn how to play, and most instruments are gathering dust within a month. There are some brief bursts of raucous glory, bands of Wyld Stallyns calibre, which provide a summer or two of memories, and tales of rock and roll excess to tell the grandchildren. But once in a while there emerges someone with genuine talent, someone who really can perform and has charisma. Then they have to deal with the fickle music industry, the adulation, and the groupies, all the while avoiding those pesky creative differences. Beck tells the story of Koyuki Tanaka, a daydreaming student who wandered into the wrong side of town one day, and had his future opened to world of possibilities.

This fourth disc of Beck-Mongolian Chop Squad, entitled Strike A Chord, comes with four episodes. Previously on Beck, the Dying Breed came to Japan, and the band had their first brush with fame, especially Koyuki who got to sing on stage with the Breed. But fame is fickle, and they managed to offend the wrong people, which saw some inviting doors suddenly slammed shut. It was back to the hard slog and word of mouth, and the band scrimped and saved enough to get a batch of live CDs pressed.



15. Back to School
The relentless march of time continues, and Koyuki heads to high school. Before saying goodbye to his old school, he has one final tussle with Hyoda, but it's a lesson in creativity and the two part on good terms. But a new school brings new bullies, and it looks like Koyuki's educational woes will continue. But fortunately Ichieda Academy has among its students one Chiba, Beck's no nonsense frontman, who has no patience for bullies. To support his education, Koyuki has got a job at a restaurant, and he's saving up for his own guitar. It's about time too, as on a shopping trip with Ryusuke, he falls in love with a yellow Fender Telecaster. Higher up in the Rock chain, Eddy of the Dying Breed is getting bullets in the mail…

16. Indies
Eddy gets an intimidating visitor, asking for the thing that was 'stolen'. Soon Ryusuke gets a phone call telling him to keep 'Lucille' under wraps. It also means that the concert footage of Koyuki singing at the Breed gig has to come out of the documentary. It's a shame too as Beck needs all the promotion it can get right now, their self published CD isn't selling, and Eiji's producer Ran is putting a lot of effort into keeping Beck down. Koyuki's personal life is on a downturn too; Maho's hanging out with soap opera boy Yoshito, and Yoshito is keen on putting Koyuki down as an uncultured plebe. It also turns out that someone else is interested in that Telecaster that Koyuki desires, and he may not have a chance to buy it. Then at their next gig, Frank Albin, head of an independent Canadian label happens to be passing…



17. Three Days
Beck could have their overseas debut before they make it big in Japan. Frank Albin calls to mention that the CDs are selling like hotcakes, and they are even going to press some more. It's just that Ryusuke has made a terrible mistake. Koyuki's got a guitar, and he doesn't need to borrow Mr Saito's anymore. He's in seventh heaven, even if working at the restaurant means putting up with constant abuse. He's also met a new girl at his high school. Hiromi Masuoka also works at the doughnut shop opposite the restaurant, and she wants to learn how to play the guitar. Maho's finally ditching soap opera boy to spend some time with Koyuki, but when she sees Hiromi hanging around Koyuki after a Beck gig, it's her turn to get jealous.

18. Leon Sykes
It's another step up the rung for Beck, as they get the chance to play one of Japan's top venues, the Marquee. It's a daytime audition, but it is a start. The trouble is that the manager of the Marquee recognises the guitar slung around Ryusuke's neck. Koyuki's nerves are proving hard on his guitar strings, but his confidence is growing, and he starts to pen a few songs. His personal life seems to be going nowhere though, Maho's got a big deal with a talent agency, and she's hardly around anymore, while Koyuki is spending more time with Hiromi, teaching her how to play guitar. Trouble is looming though, as Ryusuke gets a look at the new CDs being pressed in the US. They were expecting the name to change, and their US incarnation will be Mongolian Chop Squad, but what Ryusuke wasn't expecting to see was him dead centre of the cover, playing Lucille. It's no surprise that there is soon a new visitor to Japan, Leon Sykes, and he's looking for a certain treasure.

Picture

Beck gets an unproblematic 4:3 transfer. The image is clear throughout, the colours are strong, and there are no signs of obvious artefacts. That's with the exception of the credit sequences. The credits are re-versioned to show the English cast and crew in addition to the original crew, and when overlaid on the credit animation, the image suffers from strong aliasing. Fortunately the jagged lines are absent from the textless credit sequences in the extras, but it still looks poor in comparison to the main animation.

Madhouse studios provide the animation for Beck, and it is strong, vibrant and dynamic. The world design and the character designs are distinctive, and the singular feel of the show is palpable. As with all modern anime, CG and traditional 2D animation combines to make a pleasing whole. Here it is the guitars that are given the digital makeover, and the care taken on animating the instruments really adds a dimension to the anime.

Sound

You have a choice of DD 5.1 and DD 2.0 English, along with DD 2.0 Japanese and optional translated subtitles and signs. Naturally, given that it is a music heavy show, you can expect some serious j-rock tunes to nod your heads to. The sound design is more impressive in the 5.1 track of course, but it's pretty standard for a television anime. Given the music content, it's a shame that the Japanese couldn't have been a 5.1 track as well.

There is an extra dilemma in choosing languages this time around. Beck is a show about cultural differences, with everyday school kid Koyuki entering a new world of music. This difference is most apparent in the language spoken. In the Japanese dub, while Koyuki and his friends speak Japanese, Ryusuke and his circle are more used to speaking English (Ryusuke and Maho were raised in America), so for all the Japanese dialogue you'll be reading subtitles for, there is a fair bit of English too (the songs are mostly in English). The trouble is that fluent English spoken for a Japanese audience by Japanese voice actors, isn't fluent English for an English audience. Accents vary, with Ryusuke's VA quite good, while Maho's accent is strongly Japanese. Understandably then, the English dialogue is subtitled as well.



For the English dub, the cultural differences remain, but the script is reworked to lose the difference in language. It's understandable why this is done, and you don't have to suspend that extra bit of disbelief. It's like Arnold Schwarzenegger's perfect Arabic in True Lies. The thing that I am not quite au fait with yet is that the songs are rerecorded for the English dub as well. On the one hand you have performances by Japanese bands for the show, on the other you have voice actors rerecording those songs, and I'm not sure that is necessary in all cases. Regardless, you have both versions to listen to here, and you can make your own mind up as to which are better.

Extras

The usual animated menus, jacket picture, and trailers for School Rumble and Moon Phase, and textless songs are here. It's fun watching the end credits to see how many of the manga style music icons you can recognise.

There is another 'A Life On The Road' music video, this time it is, "Brainstorm (Big Muff)".

Conclusion

That three-month wait between volumes is nasty. I even tried rationing this one out, one episode a night. It didn't help. Beck really is a show that is best appreciated with episodic regularity. This intermittent burst of excellence doesn't help when the key points of the previous volumes are beginning to fade from memory. The obvious solution would be a re-watch of the previous volumes before each new one, although it would mean that by the end of the series, you'll have seen volume 1 five times. As it is, the first ten minutes or so of each volume have to serve as a quick summary of who is who, and what the main plot points are.

With a show as outstanding as Beck is, you'd think that 'more of the same' would be an ideal description of each subsequent volume. More of the same quality animation, more of the same well-written narrative, and more of the same brilliant characterisations, would all seem signs of another exemplary volume. Except what you get here in volume 4 really is more of the same, with four episodes that don't immediately add much more to what has come previously, and the imperceptible disappointment of a series that appears to be coasting. I have to come to the paradoxical conclusion that a show like Beck has to keep moving forward just to stay in one place. If you're going to have a slump, then mid-season would be the somewhat clichéd place for it to happen, and with the band still slogging away at the music, and Maho and Koyuki's non-existent relationship still failing to ignite, you'd be forgiven for thinking that you had seen it all before. Except with a show as addictive as Beck, you can forgive it for taking a breather, and there is still enough going on to keep you on tenterhooks. What's more important is that it really feels as if the show is poised, building up to something special. There is an air of anticipation to the story, like in chess, when you move all the pieces into position, wait for the right moment and… (Dear God! I'm quoting from Independence Day now!)



If the fourth volume suffers from anything, it's a lack of Maho. She's not in the final two episodes, which is a shame as her relationship with Koyuki is much of the show's charm. As it is, Koyuki gets another female admirer in Hiromi, a schoolmate who wants to learn guitar. Saku is interested in her, but she only has eyes for Koyuki. Typical! Girls always prefer guitarists and vocalists to drummers. It's early days as yet, but it's obvious this will turn into a source of friction for the two friends. Meanwhile, Koyuki is moving up in the world, starting high school and getting a job. It looks like he's gotten past his problem with bullies, when it turns out that Chiba is at the same school and he'll keep Koyuki out of the line of fire. But the restaurant where he works isn't the most conducive of environments to inner calm, while Maho's actor friend Yoshito looks down on Koyuki and is determined to come between him and Maho. Beck isn't doing too well at the start of the volume, with Eiji's manager Ran looking to get even with the band for wrecking Eiji's big break at the Dying Breed concert. Doors in Japan are being closed to them, but fortunately there is still America, especially when a foreign producer attends one of their gigs and seizes the opportunity. Soon their CDs are selling out on the other side of the Pacific, but it sets off a new problem, and the one major development in this volume. Ryusuke's guitar is striking and memorable, with its bullet-ridden body. It turns out that Lucille has a past, and there are people looking for that guitar, angry people, dangerous people. It leads up to one of those pesky cliffhangers at the end of the disc.



I love Beck, even when it's coasting as it is here. The characters and situations certainly counteract the relative lack of plot development, and it's still a joy to watch. I'll simply reiterate that it is one of the top anime series being released right now. Besides, if you're going to coast, what's wrong with coasting in a Ferrari? If only the releases were as fast as one…