Beck: Mongolian Chop Squad Review (Anime)

I think the time is right to review what has become one of my absolute favorite anime series of all time - Beck: Mongolian Chop Squad.  The time is right because I'm all horny for playing guitar at the moment (the show is about a rock band, after all) and I figure it is about time I show people I watch anime other than just those that feature girls with big boobs as the main characters. I gots depth, man.

Review Revised July 4th after a third watch of the series (hint: I liked it even more the third time).

Beck is a show, basically, about a group of teenagers who form arguably the greatest rock band Japan has ever seen.  The main character is nicknamed Koyuki.  He has no determination or drive and is generally unremarkable.  A chance encounter with a crazy Frankenstein monster-looking dog and the dog's owner, Ryusuke, leads Koyuki down a path that changes his life.  You see, Ryusuke is a musician who wants to create the ultimate band.  Koyuki becomes friends with Ryusuke and through him learns how to play guitar and eventually they create the band known as Beck.

Why is the series called Beck: Mongolian Chop Squad?  Well, in Japan the band was known as Beck because that was the name of Ryusuke's dog.  When they released an album in America, the record label made up a new name for them without asking them because they couldn't release a new band with the name of Beck (since there was, y'know, already a kickass artist called Beck in the U.S. already), so they were stuck with "Mongolian Chop Squad" as their new name.  Weird, and kind of cool.  

Back to the show -To start with, Koyuki doesn't have a clue how to play guitar, has crap taste in music, and is kind of a dork who stands out like a sore thumb in the world of underground club rock that the series focuses on.  By the end, however, with the help of a bunch of other characters, Koyuki not only plays the guitar incredibly well, but can write songs and sing and is truly the heart and soul of Beck.  This character growth from timid little talentless Koyuki at the beginning to the super skilled rock star at the end is what makes Beck such a great show.

It is remarkably realistic as it shows Koyuki's school life and dealing with bullies, work life with the strange Mr. Saito (an avid collector of porn magazines ... who also happens to be the one to really teach Koyuki about music and playing the guitar), and his relationship with Ryusuke's sister Maho.  The show is filled with great, interesting characters brought to life through amazingly good English voice acting and well written dialogue.  This isn't cheesy, corny, super Japanese-y anime bullshit.  It is a show that real musicians and music fans in general will appreciate.

For a show about music, this is one area I'm kind of torn on.  Some of the songs are really, really great - "Moon on the Water" is one of the most beautiful songs I've heard in a long time, and others like "Face", "Slip Out", and "Follow Me" are pretty incredible as well.  Some of their other songs, such as "Brainstorm" and "Spice of Life" aren't quite as good, but they grow on you. 

One interesting thing you'll notice is how Beck (the band, not the anime) greatly improves over the course of the series. They play the same songs over and over again, but they aren't quite the same exact songs from episode one on down to episode twenty six.  Beck's original lineup only had one guitar, but when they add Koyuki on rhythm it makes a huge difference in the quality of the music.  It is a much richer, fuller sound with two guitars.  After that, they get better at performing those songs, they get older (Koyuki is 14 when the series starts, and by the end his voice is a little deeper and he sings a lot better), and just plain sound better by the end.  It is a pretty fascinating transformation to watch.

The music that the other bands beside Beck play is mostly really generic and shitty.  When the music is good, it is really, really great.  But when it is bad, it is cringe-worthy.  One thing I want to say is that the English versions of the songs are easily 1000% better than the Japanese versions, yet there are crazy weeaboos out there that insist the Japanese songs are better.  Sorry, but you kids are high as fuck if you think that... YouTube videos of some of the songs are embedded below the review.

One other aspect about Beck that is kind of cool is that it is sort of a Japanese take on Western rock music.  Pretty much all of the original music created for the show has specific bands that the songs were designed to emulate.  "Follow Me' is clearly an early Beatles sound alike.  "Spice of Life" is exactly like Rage Against the Machine.  The ending song, "My World Down" by Dying Breed, sounds exactly like an Oasis song.  Other songs have unmistakable touches of Nirvana and Soundgarden and Pearl Jam.

Another fascinating "music history" aspect of Beck is that at one point 4 of the 5 members of the band have the exact same dream - that dead rock stars including John Lennon, Kurt Cobain, Jimi Hendrix, Freddie Mercury, and many more are cleaning up the garbage after a Beck show.  There are little things like this all over the place in Beck where it is fun to just try and identify the classic rock and roll references that are being tossed at you pretty much constantly.  Between the music that sounds like someone else or the visual references, this is just a fun show to watch for classic rock fans.

Perhaps the only thing I could say I'm negative about the show on is the art style.  The art is very simple and the animation is very limited.  The lips of the characters were also drawn in, which is sort of a pet peeve of mine.  Lips on cartoon characters just stand out too much and look stupid.  Visually, the series isn't stellar.  But everything else more than makes up for it.

I know I haven't done the series justice with this rambling article, but it is hard to write about something when you love almost all of it and want to share it all with the world, but at the same time don't want to give too much away so as to spoil the experience for someone.  The last thing I want to say about Beck: Mongolian Chop Squad is that it is an absolute must watch.  It is a great series that music fans will love even if you aren't a huge anime fan.  There is quite a bit of Japanese culture-stuff that non-anime fans might not get, but the story is good enough the I highly recommend anyone to watch it.  It is that good.

You can buy the full 26-episode Beck: Mongolian Chop Squad series at Amazon for less than $20. Beck: Mongolian Chop Squad - The Complete Series

Beck: Mongolian Chop Squad gets the first perfect score I have given anything on Eric Reviews Everything so far.  A 10/10, or one room full of guitars (drooool) -