BECK: Mongolian Chop Squad

This is the anime for music-lovers! It follows a group of teenage, Japanese musicians as they try to make it big in America. The lead character is a fourteen-year-old loner who is catapulted into a phenomenal world of music when he saves a dog named Beck from some kids. Beck’s owner, Ryusuke, is in the process of forming a band, however, he takes the time to teach Koyuki a little about music. Later, they discover that Koyuki has an amazing voice and he joins the band. This anime has an atrocious amount of language, some violence, and a bit of nudity. That’s your only warning.

The music of BECK is described as punk and rapcore, which is a fusion of hip-hop, hardcore punk, heavy metal, alternative rock, and a little funk. There are all sorts of references and homages payed to modern day bands and musicians from the past. The Pillows make a cameo appearance, with portions of three songs played in the final episodes by a band that mirrors them. In the ending theme, a picture of Kurt Cobain appears with the words “Kurt 1994.” Beat Crusaders perform the opening theme, “Hit in the USA,” along with numerous other songs for the soundtrack. During the Greatful Sound Festival, a visitor walks by with the word “BECR” on his shirt, paying homage to Beat Crusaders. The Band Typhoon 24 also wrote and performed many of BECK’s songs.

Bands featured in BECK:
Beat Crusaders - Single
Hit in the USA – opening theme
Super Collider
B. A. D.
Moon On the Water

Meister - Single
Above the Clouds – ending theme
My World Down

Soundtracks:
Original Soundtrack 1: Beck
Original Soundtrack 2: Keith
BECK Tribute – Greatful Sound (Purposefully misspelled…Why, you ask? Nobody seems to know…)

Funimation has liscenced BECK, which means that there is a phenomenal cast! Christopher Bevins and Tallisen Jaffe are the directors. Jaffe moved to Fort Worth for a year and crashed in a voice-actress’ living room to direct this anime. According to him, he saw the Japanese version of BECK before. Then, Chris called him up and said, “Hey, you know that anime BECK?” “ Yeah, I pity the poor bastards who’ve got to adapt it.” “ How would you like to come to Forth Worth and help me do it.” “ What the hell…why not.” It was an impossible undertaking, but they came out with one of the best anime dubs to date. We wouldn’t expect anything less from an amazing studio such as Funimation.
They decided to translate and adapt all of the music in Beck. Some of the songs were in English already, but they still chose to adapt it with their own voice-cast. Fortunately, most of the voice actors are also musicians and understood the way they needed to play their roles. Jerry Jewel plays the same instrument as his character, the bass, and so he was able to play it for his role as well as voice-act. Greg Ayres was able to sing perfectly for Koyuki. This truly is an all-star cast! Mike McFarlane was called in to be the director of music. Some of the songs that were to be adapted didn’t have voiceless, or karaoke, versions. Fortunately, Mike found a guy who helped them to recreate the music itself. If the original musicians used a Gibson, he would pull out a Gibson and play. This adaptation is incredible!

Characters and Voice Actors:
Yukio (“Koyuki”) Tanaka – Greg Ayres (Second guitar and second vocalist…usually for their slower songs.)
Ryusuke (“Ray”) Minami – Eric Vale ( Lead guitarist and founder of the band. Modeled after Jimmy Hendrix…or at least his hair was.)
Ken’ichi Saitou – R. Bruce Elliot (Koyuki’s guitar and swimming teacher.)
Maho Minami – Brina Palencia (Ryusuke’s sister and fantastic vocalist.)
Izumi Ishiguro – Colleen Clinkenbeard ( Koyuki’s childhood friend.)
Yoshiyuki Taira – Jerry Jewel (1st recruited band-member. Plays a Music Man StingRay. Resembles Flea, the Red Hot Chili Peppers’ bassist. Plays like the bassist from Rage Against the Machine.)
Tsunemi Chiba – Justin Cook ( Lead vocalist.Named the band BECK after Ryusuke’s dog.)
Yuji Sakurai – Johnny Yong Bosch (4th band-member. Followed Ryusuke from his old band Serial Mama. Drummer.)
Momoko (“Momo”) Ogusawara – Gwendolyn Lau
Eiji – John Burgmeier (Ryusuke’s rival from Serial Mama. His new band, Belle Ame, is also BECK’s rival.)
Eddie Lee – Jason Liebrecht ( Lead Guitarist for the famous Dying Breed. A childhood friend of Ryusuke’s, who made it big in America. He helped Ryusuke steal Beck and Lucille(Ryusuke’s guitar, also called Prudence in the English version.)
Mark Reed – Daniel Katsuk ( Lead singer for Dying Breed.)
Beck – Christopher Bevins (Modeled after Tim Burton’s Frankenweenie.)

I hope you all enjoy BECK: Mongolian Chop Squad! The First DVD and boxset came out today (06/26/07). The box is shaped like an amp and decorated with travel stickers from all over the world. It also comes with BECK guitar picks and stickers. The second DVD comes out 08/14/07. Support Funimation. They are the only dubbing studio working hard to give us QUALITY voice-work. Their translations are always top of the line. I hope you enjoy the English and Japanese versions of this fantastic anime.

Here's the opening scene of the anime:


Written by: Stacey