BECK "Mongolian Chop Squad" (Review) # 4

• Yukio Tanaka ó Koyuki: He is our hero, so to speak, he is a rather withdrawn music lover but unable to do it himself out of fear of the big crowds, in the whole series he is better known as Koyuki then, when he was in school in his class There were two Yukio and the classmates of both did not know how to differentiate them. Given the case, the smaller Yukio Tanaka was given the prefix Ko that is small in Japanese, a nickname that in itself follows him until the end of the manga, he never I listen to other bands outside the country, limiting it enough in their musical tastes because I only knew what Japanese pop or K-pop is, but everything changes after meeting Ryusuke Minami.

• Ryusuke "Ray" Minami:Founder of the band Beck, is a very loose person without encouragement of anything but who is incredibly a talented artist, composer and ... if it was not enough Guitarist, is one of the most important characters in the series because it is the one that influences our protagonist main to sing, introduced him to the world of international music and his band. Ryusuke takes with him a Gibson Les Paul called Lucille, a guitar that, around the series and the manga, carries with it a rather dark secret, as the bullet holes in his body make it look somewhat disturbing, however for some reason they give him a peculiar and quite powerful sound.

• Tsunemi Chiba:The funny and funny Chiba, is one of the members of Beck being him, the second singer besides Koyuki, with his great Afro and animated lyrics is one of the vocalists in songs more "Rap" or "Punk" of the group, since you know ... those pretty strong songs, Eminem or Pink style, his personality although animated is very intrepid you never get to retract anything being the first to fight if you have to fight, help your family in a ramen shop in your spare time .

• Yoshiyuki Taira:Although somewhat apathetic and carefree is the mediating person of the group since in its interior it really cares about its members, Yoshiyuki is one of the most important characters in history, being the bassist of the band, giving a very soulful sound to Beck , he was recruited by Ryusuke in the first chapters of the anime and manga, because he was looking for an excellent bass player with his style.

• Yuji Sakurai o Saku: He is the percussionist of the band, he was brought to the band by Koyuki because they discovered both the pleasure of listening to international bands like "The Dying Breed" both classmates, his personality is quite Zen and quiet being thus one of the silent members of the band but do not let anyone mess with him because he has his past like everyone else. He is the best friend of Koyuki and his confidant coming to tell his problems on several occasions.

• Maho Minami: The beautiful Maho sister of Ryusuke, she is a pretty carefree and popular girl, she is the typical girl who loves rock and she shows it with her rather casual way of dressing, she is quite beautiful and she is interested in our protagonist getting to have pretty moments "Rise of tone" in the manga and anime, at first he did not like Koyuki for being very shy but they prove to be a great couple throughout the story, getting to sing together more than once and swimming in a pool naked ( In my opinion the best scene) she and Koyuki end up in a somewhat complicated relationship in the middle of the story, but little by little she realizes that the truth cares for him, getting him to choose between another singer more famous than Koyuki, the which I even gave her her favorite shirt that nobody else ever wore.

• Kenichi Saitou: The old pervert in the corner, although at first Koyuki confuses him with a great pervert taking him almost to the police, he is a subject that influenced his life a lot because he is a lover of old rock music called "The Beetles" The Rocket Boys "he is a member of a band full of elderly people who enjoyed more than one occasion a typical touch in public places, is so to speak the master of Koyuki since he makes him sing in public to eliminate his stage fright.

• Beck: The dog Frankenstein, something important in the series for its bizarre appearance of dog with skin patches of other races, was found in his childhood by Ryusuke and a friend in America along with Lucille, is quite loved by the group and by Ryusuke himself .

Like all good manga, it has an animated adaptation which was released in the 2004 to 2005 flourishing era of Japanese animation, although with differences and cuts it became very popular at the time counting on 26 glorious episodes full of music, drama and slice of life. It was directed by Osamu Kobayashi and animated by Madhouse, directed by Takeshi shukuri along with Yoshimi nakajima, with a beautiful soundtrack and some great songs that any rock lover will love.

Notably, the anime only shows the adventures of the band to some extent in Japan, ending at Gratefull Sound Festival a well-known place where independent bands play for a large number of people.

The soundtrack of the anime was created by the band Beat Crusader, which gave a great touch to the anime, getting to compose songs like Super Collider, BAD and Hit in the USA but, not only surprised us with this great soundtrack but also they also brought out a fictional band called Beck to promote the anime even more, which features songs as epic as, I've got a feeling, Slip Out, Journey or Face, however songs like Moon on the Water (The best of the series), were created by a group called "The Dying Breed".

Of course, this is not so, if the truth you love the anime, you can not miss the manga, and our young artists are not children, the 14 and 17 years go by clear of course, and Beck does not want to be a band known only in Japan but internationally as their idols "The Dying Breed" although I do not want to explain thoroughly to not ruin the story, I will simply comment on its main plot.

In the part where the anime ends in the manga everything is different, not everything is laughter and celebrations in the band, you can see our characters more mature with their music, here they focus on more mature themes like the Lucille's mystery and the problems between group members, also the relationship of Maho and Koyuki begins to improve a lot reaching the point of even being full time lovers. Not only this, the songs are already more mature than ... although you can not listen (Because it is a clear manga ...) you can imagine the way by which the thing goes. Our heroes even get hired in a famous British firm and come to publish their first album as a band.

My personal comment of Beck: Mongolian Chop Squad, is that it is a great anime to see even though it is a bit old, one gets to get quite into the plot since not only do they present you a story but a masterpiece, you will be frustrated You will thrill perhaps you will be sad in some parts. What anime does that do? Of course, as good aspects also have the bad, the personality of the characters is somewhat predictive, there is always the cold, the fool, the shy and the animated, but come on ... today the anime industry is quite strange for sure you are tired of see the typical student with the beautiful neighbor or even worse the typical children with super powers or the quite overrated Yuri strange that they do today, believe me when I say that seeing this, they will thank me. "You do not need to be a great singer to be a great artist."