Ask John: What is John’s Opinion of Beck?

Question:
I wanted to know if you have ever seen an anime called Beck. If so, what are your thoughts on it?

Answer:
Since I’ve only watched the first 8 or 9 episodes of the 26 episode Beck TV series, I normally wouldn’t address it. But I think I have to make an exception in this case because Beck is a topic of such vital concern to its American fans. I see an unusual amount of discussion and uncertainty surrounding the Beck anime series among American fans, so I feel that my limited knowledge and opinion on the show may be interesting and valuable to a number of American anime fans.

Beck is a slice of life show set in contemporary Japan and focusing on the lives of Japanese teens and a pair of Japanese/American siblings, all of whom share a particular interest in rock music and becoming musicians. I’ve seen a lot of praise of the show based on the fact that the show is unlike more typical anime dealing with giant robots, aliens, or romantic sitcom situations. I’ve also seen a lot of debate and surprise over the spoken dialogue in the series. Two of the Japanese teens that spent time in America tend to slip back and forth between speaking English and Japanese, and their broken English is peppered with obscenities.

I believe that the first third of the series that I’ve had time to watch, is good, but not revolutionary nor the best anime series of its time. The Beck anime has a lively energy and a realistic look and feel that are different from the brightly colored fantasy of contemporary giant robot and harem anime. But just being unique doesn’t automatically mean that something is better. For example, the Beck, Gankutsuou and Zipang anime series all aired their first episodes on Japanese television within three days of each other. In my opinion and experience, Gankutsuou is more creative and unique looking than Beck, and its story is more gripping and intriguing. Zipang, likewise, achieves a much stronger sense of characterization and depth much faster than does the Beck anime. So while Beck may be good, it’s not the best show of its season. The Beck anime is novel because it provides an alternative to the more common fantastic themes of anime. The show is also appealing because it has characters that are interesting because they’re grounded and believable. But through the first third of the series, the characters and their situations don’t arouse very much empathy. Since the characters and their personalities aren’t particularly unique or fascinating, and the show has no dramatic conflict, it doesn’t convey very much impact or meaning to the viewer. As a slice of life show, the characters should be interesting enough to make viewers want to spend time with them and learn more about them. That’s not really evident in the first third of Beck. The characters and situations are mildly fun, and certainly different from what we typically expect out of anime, but these factors are primarily a result of our reaction to the show, not qualities that the show itself intentionally creates. I find it ironic that Beck feels like a version of Kacho Ohji (known in America as “Legend of Black Heaven”) intended for younger viewers. While Beck is quite popular among American fans because it’s a relatively realistic slice of life rock and roll drama, Kacho Ohji isn’t popular precisely because it is a relatively realistic slice of life rock and roll drama.

Since the Beck manga has been licensed and FUNimation has surreptitiously expressed interest in the anime series, there’s been a lot of speculation among American fans over a possible American release of the anime series, and debate among fans over how the show could be translated. Specifically, I’ve seen a lot of speculative debate over whether or not the show should be dubbed in English. Since I’m a purist fan, I believe that all forms of film should be watched in their original language. I’m not a proponent of dubbing from any language into any other language. It’s certainly possible to dub any anime from Japanese into English, but I can’t imagine any possible way that the Beck anime could be dubbed into English without sacrificing a major component of the show’s identity. Two of the characters speak predominantly Japanese because they are native Japanese characters living in Japan, but they speak broken English because they’ve recently relocated to Japan from America. English dubbing normally involves just one language, but these characters are bilingual. More importantly, any alteration of their speech patterns fundamentally changes their characters. It would be easy to simply transpose the English and Japanese and have the characters predominantly speak English in the dub and occasionally slip into poor Japanese, but it makes no sense for Japanese characters in Japan to only occasionally speak Japanese. Likewise, the surprised reactions of other characters to Japanese natives speaking English is logical, but it wouldn’t make sense if Japanese characters speaking dubbed English were surprised by other Japanese characters actually speaking Japanese. Simply put, I can’t conceive of any possible way that the Beck anime can be dubbed into English and still have its story make logical sense. Two of the characters speak Japanese and broken English. Changing that in any way fundamentally alters the entire background of the characters and the show’s setting.

Getting back on track, based on the first third of the Beck anime that I’ve watched, I consider the series mildly entertaining, but it’s not a masterpiece. The fact that the show is a realistic contemporary drama doesn’t mean that it’s exempt from needing interesting characters and story. In my opinion, there are other anime of similar vintage that have superior story and character development, and which are more appealing visually. There are also numerous shows of the same vintage that are inferior to Beck. I try to prevent myself from giving Beck excess credit just for being “alternative,” which is why I consider the show good, but not outstanding, at least based on the amount of it that I’ve seen.