 | "Beck" by Konstantin
(2006-02-21) |
Between this season's slowness and a large chunk of the interesting shows from the last one (specifically
Mai-Otome,
Shakugan no Shana, and
Noein) being shown in club, I've had plenty of time to make some headway against the To Watch pile. There've been quite a few shows which either lost their subbers and then regained them much later, had the misfortune of coming out during a very busy season, or simply failed to appeal to any of the friends with whom I usually watch anime. Finally got around to finishing off
Emma, which I thought was a beautiful show with great characters that ended up covering too little ground in its 12-ep run to truly live up to its potential, and then, much to my surprise, ended up plowing through
Beck in the course of a week.
I've actually watched about halfway through that show as it was coming out, then it got pushed out by Mahoraba as the show to watch by myself, and I never got around to resuming it until now. Which is too bad, since I think Beck picks up quite a bit in the second half, climaxing at the festival and then sort of trailing off in the last couple of eps. In the end it proved to be somewhat uneven, at times frustrating, but altogether fun and worthwhile. It had two big things going for it that made it rise above all the other band-themed anime I've seen to date: a rockin' soundtrack and voice actors who could actually sing (even if it did require a singing double for the main character). Of course it doesn't hurt that the show's musical preferences tend to veer towards the mid-90's, with noticeable grunge and pop-punk influences in most of the songs, and that gets bonus nostalgia points from me.
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