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[Reid]

This anime looks really interested. My favourite manga right now is called, Beck and it's about a Japanese indie band working at coming up in the music industry.

It's being made into an anime for the fall season so I'm very excited to see what it's like. The animation in the manga is very offbeat but the way the mangaka, Harold Sakuishi draws concert scenes and understands the dynamics of playing an instrument or being in a band is really good. I'm curious to see how the show will be animated but this will probably be one to look out for, especially if you're into music.

I don't know how they're going to wrap up the show because the manga is running at (I think approximately) 18 or 19 volumes now and there's still a lot of story to be told. The anime is estimated at 26 episodes I think so it's possible there will be a second run.

Anyway, check it out. It should (hopefully) be really good.

[merylsilverburg]

I've seen this manga around the bookstore I go to...I think the drawings are quite nice, but I've read a lot of band/music stories, so I decided not to pick it up. I thought the title is quite interesting though. What's it about overall? Or is it just about an indie band trying to make it?

[Reid]

Well, it starts off with a junior high student named Koyuki who doesn't have much interest in anything until he meets the guitarist in a respected indie band named, Ryusuke. Koyuki starts to learn guitar and as the story continues he becomes the rhythm guitarist/vocalist in their band, Beck. The story is really about Koyuki growing up and follows his relationships with the band members, a few girls and his dreams.

The real charm of this one is how well Sakuishi writes the feelings of starting an instrument and being part of a struggling band. I think he must've had experience in it because he writes it so convincingly. Even not being a musician the story would probably still be pretty interesting as the characters themselves are well crafted and develop realistically over the course of the story.

So, while it is, when simplified a story about an indie band trying to make it it's also a piece about the main characters lives and a look at the Japanese and American underground music scenes.

[merylsilverburg]

Mm, those stories are always nice to read...especially if they're so realistic. I just might pick up the first volume the next time I go to the Japanese bookstore. Thanks Reid!

[Reid]

I watched the first episode of Beck today and was pretty glad with how it's looking to turn out.

The first episode was pretty good and covered a decent amount of ground. The only problem was that the manga paints Beck to be something of a legendary band and Koyuki's voice to be the so incredible that people are blown away when they hear it. While the band hasn't played yet the music in the show has been sort of typical Japanese indie rock with artificial "cool" injected through the use of bad English. The opening and ending songs are good enough though so their may be hope. I'm just waiting to hear Beck play . . . and see if the comments about the "incredibly funky" bass player hold up.

The voices are well done. Koyuki sounds like he's 15, which he is when the story starts and Ryusuke has the interesting kind of voice that I thought they'd give him. The parts in the show where the characters speak English are a bit rough, however. Ryusuke's accent is pretty bad considering he's supposed to be incredibly fluent and the American characters from the first episode speak very accented English as well.



The animation is really neat though and the way the story is being told seems to be pretty good. This should definently be one to follow.

[merylsilverburg]

Originally Posted by Reid

The only problem was that the manga paints Beck to be something of a legendary band and Koyuki's voice to be the so incredible that people are blown away when they hear it. While the band hasn't played yet the music in the show has been sort of typical Japanese indie rock with artificial "cool" injected through the use of bad English. The opening and ending songs are good enough though so their may be hope. I'm just waiting to hear Beck play . . . and see if the comments about the "incredibly funky" bass player hold up.

This is actually the problem when it comes to band/music animes. What the audience expects, especially us foreigners, to hear the type of music being played/sung in an anime is completely different from maybe what the Japanese's interpretation of what "cool" sounds. In manga, it's always easier to overexaggerate a character's abilities and make them seem like the coolest thing on the planet, but when putting it out for an actual animated form, with sound and visuals, sometimes the image we have in our head doesn't get portrayed on the screen. I'm not arguing with you Reid, but perhaps the typical Japanese indie background music of Beck (and maybe even the band songs themselves) is what the Japanese interpret as "cool" (now I'm just repeating myself ). Perhaps when Koyuki sings, it won't live up to your expectations because what you imagine is different from what they imagine? Again, I'm not arguing with you, I'm just curious. For example, there was this one other anime called Kaikan Phrase which was based off of a shoujo manga my sister reads. Apparently, the band called Aucifer/Lucifer (which is based off of a real J-Rock/Pop band) has a killer singer called Sakuya. He's just so great and so terrific and his voice is supposed to be something "godly." Of course, I do like the music, so I was still like "Okay, not bad" but in your ears, perhaps you might've poured acid in them. Definitely not what most people would call "godly", let's just say that.

[Uchiha Sasuke]

I just got into the anime recently and its probably one of the best I've seen in awhile. For the longest time I waited for an anime that captured my mind like this one did. Now that I'm almost done with it, I'm always thinking about the good moments in the anime and how moving they were. Definately one to purchase when it gets released in the good old US.