|
|
Home
|
R2 DVD Reviews
|
|
Written by maehara
|
|
Thursday, 10 January 2008 16:00 |
 The ongoing story of one boy and his seemingly endless string of smashed-up guitars (probably a good indicator that Koyuki's destined to be a rock star), BECK gets down to the real business of making music - although there are problems for Koyuki to deal with along the way. He hasn't exactly been smashing all those guitars himself...
6 - Hyodo and the Jaguar
Seems Maho & Koyuki are getting closer to becoming an item, especially after she gives him one of her most treasured possessions - the guitar pick used by Dying Breed's guitarist. Ryuusuke's quest to get a band together continues - he's managed to pick up a singer & a guitarist so far. That's two more people than Eiji, his old bandmate from Serial Mama has got, and Eiji's pissed enough to go looking for a little revenge. Meanwhile, Koyuki has a new music teacher (the happy-to-flaunt-it Momo-chan), who turns to him for a little help when she has trouble getting the class to listen to her, while Koyuki ends up in trouble after breaking another guitar...
7 - Prudence / Lucille
Maho's getting a bit fed up with the way Koyuki keeps avoiding Ryuusuke, until she finds out why - Koyuki doesn't want to see him until he's raised the money to repair his broken guitar. Makes for an interesting disguise when he goes along to see BECK's first live performance. When he finally gets his hands on his repaired guitar, though, there's a problem, when he runs into one of the school hard-men who's been trying to take advantage of him. Koyuki's been trying to stand up to him lately, so he's looking for a way to teach him a lesson - and a freshly-repaired guitar makes a good target. Although it seems that it wasn't as important a guitar as Ryuusuke first made it out to be...
8 - Broadcast in the School
Time for a new school year, and it's not shaping up to be a good one - Momoko-sensei's taking an interest in what he's doing outside school, Izumi's graduated, and he's still being bullied in class - this time, he has a few days to come up with 50,000 yen or he's in real trouble. Looking on the bright side, Saitou's given him another new guitar (how long will this one last, I wonder?), while Ryuusuke's talking to him again - and he's impressed by how much Koyuki's playing has improved...
9 - The Night Before LIVE
BECK's running into the problem that all new bands must face - a shortage of money. How are they supposed to get any bigger if they can't even afford to arrange gigs? There's also a rumour that their drummer may be about to quit. Back in school, Koyuki's tormentors pick on a new way to bully him by entering him in pretty much every event in the school swimming gala - but when Maho offers to do anything he wants if he can come out on top, it gives Koyuki a whole new incentive to do his best...
10 - Face
It's Koyuki's first live as a member of BECK, and to call him nervous would be an understatement - although a little encouragement from Maho seems to go a long way to calming him down. After the performance, though, he's convinced that his performance wasn't good enough for Ryuusuke to want him to play again. Guitar playing isn't Koyuki's only talent, though, and when he finds a new song that Ryuusuke's been working on that doesn't really work with Chiba's punk-style vocals, he asks for a chance to sing it himself - and as soon as they hear him, the rest of the band know they're onto something big...
What is it with this boy and guitars? He can't seem to lay his hands on one without having it damaged in one way or another. The scene where his newly-repaired guitar is destroyed is a bit like watching a slow-motion train-wreck - you know exactly what's about to happen, but you just can't stop it. It's almost a touching moment, as you can feel just how much the guitar means to him and what's going through his head as he sees it being smashed. Ouch.
The comedy award for these episodes goes to Maho, and her reaction when she catches Koyuki carrying a condom. Cue Koyuki in a world of pain - although with all the bullying he suffers at school across these episodes, having Maho beat up on him as well is probably they last thing he needs. There's something about the way the 'good' of his life outside school with Maho & the band interacts with the 'bad' that he's suffering in class that just adds to the compulsion to watch more of BECK - it really is the relationships that make the show, with the music almost being a secondary backdrop to that.
That said, I still wish Koyuki and Maho would stop messing about and become an 'item' already - there's another area where Koyuki could really use a little backbone, perhaps? Likewise, a run-in with one of his tormentors during episode 8 raised the very real possibility of another broken guitar, until Chiba saved the day. I think I'm going to start taking bets on when the next one is smashed...
Finally seeing Koyuki accepted as a full member of the band was the real highlight of the disc, though, as his hard work over a year of 'real' time finally pays off. The boy, he got talent. With the band now being properly formed, I'm expecting the story to shift slightly towards their efforts to hit the big time, with less of a focus on the everyday life - although with 16 episodes still to go, don't expect it to happen in a hurry.
BECK's pacing is almost perfect - it's got a leisurely feel to it without leaving you feeling that it's drifting into filler. Add that to an excellent cast of characters, and it's a show that you really can't stop watching. Great stuff.
|
|
