“With a Little Help from My Friends” Cast and Director Commentary
“A Life on the Road” Music Video
Textless Opening and Ending
Everybody says that making it as a band takes massive luck, but for Koyuki Tanaka, it feels like much more of a fate-type thing. It has to be fate when a rock star reaches down and lifts you up onto the stage! That fever dream placing you among the company of legends has to be destiny! The undeniable power of Beck can't be circumstance. He may keep screwing it up with the ladies, but the band is growing stronger. Maybe it's not luck or destiny... Maybe the music is bigger than both.
Koyuki faces more tough challenges, but things are looking up for both him and Beck.
Audio:
For my review, I alternated between the English 5.1 and Japanese stereo track. The 5.1 mix is quite well done from the most part, although the dialogue mostly comes from the centre channel and also is a bit too quiet. This means that sometimes it’s a bit overpowered by the music, which can be distracting and lead to constant readjustments in volume. Having said that, the music, which is so important to this series, packs an excellent punch on this track. The stereo track is a bit more standard but still sounds good, and I didn’t notice any technical problems with either track as I watched the show.
The English dub is superb, with excellent performances by from all the leads, especially when singing the songs.
Video:
The video for this volume is an improvement over the last, with the show getting a much higher average bitrate that reduces the blocking and the moving nature of the backgrounds significantly. The colours are well reproduced, although the palette for the show is quite dull overall, and this is now a far more solid transfer than the first two volumes.
This release doesn’t feature alternate angles like many recent FUNimation and Revelation UK releases, instead only presenting the English language credits and title cards. Subtitles are in a nice yellow font, and I noticed no spelling or grammatical errors.
Packaging:
The front cover features Chiba singing on a green background, with the series logo and volume number at the top of the cover. The back cover is a bit of a mess, featuring what looks like someone’s junk on a desk (guitar picks and such) and fits the show well. You get the standard series description, as well as an episode list and extras. Though there’s no technical grid, all the information is clearly presented, though the runtime is exaggerated since it includes extras. The reverse side features a poster-size image of the front cover of Chiba.
Menu:
The menu fits perfectly with the theme of the show, taking the form of the front of an amp. The show’s logo and volume information, as well as clips from the show are at the bottom of the screen, while the buttons on the amp form the selection menus. The sub-menus are all in-theme and static, while different background music plays over each menu screen. Access times are fast, and the menu in general is one of the better ones from FUNimation.
Extras:
This volume sees the welcome return of the commentary, this time entitled “With a Little Help from My Friends”, with Christopher Bevins (ADR Director) taking one half with 3 cast members, and Taleisin Jaffe taking the other half with another 3 cast members. Each half was recorded several months apart, and mostly both just make out with the groups having a bit of a laugh and cursing a lot. It’s not as interesting as the first one, but it’s fun nonetheless. The other extra this volume is the
Next instalment of the “A Life on the Road” music video, featuring the full performance of “Face” set to various scenes. The textless opening and ending also make an appearance to round things out.
Content: (please note that content portions of a review may contain spoilers)
With summer break upon them, all the members of Beck are working to support the costs of the band. When they hear Dying Breed are coming to town for a gig, they’re ecstatic. Meanwhile, Koyuki gets a bit closer to Maho and takes her out on a date, while Ryusuke goes to watch Eiji’s band perform, but leaves unimpressed with a lack of passion. It’s time for Beck’s latest gig though, and this time there’ll be some famous faces from Dying Breed in the audience. This gets everyone even more pumped up, but during the performance the sound messes up. Chiba is a bit unsettled, so amidst growing crowd trouble Ryusuke tells them to rearrange the set and Koyuki steps up to sing.
The performance is a massive hit and even Eddy from Dying Breed tells Koyuki that his voice is good and he could be great with more practice. In an effort to keep him grounded, when Maho translates for Koyuki she tells him that Eddy said his guitar could use more work. Things are going well though, and Eddy invites Ryusuke and Beck to their show. But the rivalry between Ryusuke and Eiji is far from over, as Eiji’s new manager gets Dying Breed to let Belle Ame play a song at their gig. All of the members of Beck, as well as Maho, go to the Dying Breed concert, and after a few great songs Eiji is invited on stage as a guest. The crowd are less than pleased, and Matt burns his guitar, and tells him that his singing won’t save anyone.
It’s then that Koyuki gets his moment, as Matt invites him up on stage. He asks what Koyuki’s favourite Dying Breed song is, and gets him to sing it. Despite a rocky start, with a bit of reassurance, Koyuki belts one out and goes down a hit. All this newfound interest sees Izumi come back on the scene, and when Koyuki goes skinny dipping with her and Maho spots them, there are a few rocky patches ahead. But with newfound confidence and some great performances, things move forward with Beck at a blistering pace, and Koyuki even gets to win some popularity with his classmates through his musical skills.
The thing that really struck me while watching the four episodes on this volume, was the great job that the creative team has done with showing us the lives of these youngsters, and how they evolve and grow as time goes by. It really made me think when at one point in episode 12 it’s mentioned that it has been a year since the last school festival. By moving forward at such a rapid pace, it really feels like we’re getting to see snippets of Koyuki and the others’ lives, and watching them grow up. There’s so much evolution in the characters even within these episodes that it just makes it so brilliant to watch.
Koyuki’s defining moment really comes in the moment when he steps up on stage with Dying Breed. This is the same Koyuki that could barely bring himself to sing in front of others a while ago, who then wowed the audience at the Beck gig, and now is stepping up on stage with one of his favourite groups and is singing with them. From the moment he messes up before Matt’s look of reassurance, you’re just willing him on to succeed, and when he starts to sing with all the passion we know he has, it’s hard to not smile and be pleased that he’s succeeded, because we’ve seen him grow to this point and it’s like a culmination of all his hard work.
It’s this emotional connection with the characters that works so well with Beck. We follow them through the ups and downs, like Koyuki’s later dilemma when Maho sees him with Izumi, right up until he runs after Maho when he realises that she is the one he likes. Even with the other characters like Ryusuke and his obsession with Erica Blige’s death, and Chiba helping Koyuki out again with the Rikia situation, it’s like you’re with the characters as everything happens to them, and you feel every step of the way.
As for the story, that takes some interesting twists and turns as well. Beck’s popularity grows throughout the course of the four episodes, and Koyuki’s little side project with Ciel Bleu improves his personal favour with his fellow students as well (Ryusuke’s little speech about him performing in the gym was a nice touch too). Koyuki’s relationship with Maho reaches a head with the Izumi situation, but they soon move forward, and the volume ends at a nasty point with Beck having just finished recording their first album and personally, I can’t wait to see where the group goes now.
In Summary: Beck is so easy and almost relaxing to watch, thanks to a cast of characters that are so easy to relate to, and a brilliant coming of age story that is completely believable. There are a lot of developments in this volume, with Koyuki in particular growing both as a person and an artist on his quest to become a great musician. And with Beck having recorded their first album, things can only get more interesting with the rest of the series. Beck is a brilliant show that I can’t recommend enough.
Samsung LE40M86 1080p HDTV, Philips DVP 5980 region free DVD player upscaling to 1080p via HDMI, Pioneer HTP-GS1 5.1 Surround Sound System.
![[Valid RSS]](/images/nav/rss.png){kind=small}