The Sophomore Slump if you will (and I will)
So, I know Bri already alluded to most of the things I'm going to say, but....Beck volume 2 was a huge letdown compared to volume 1. I know I have hope in that what I've gleaned about the series things seem to redeem themselves ok, but....I think you'll find this review a bit more critical than most of my reviews. Here are my thoughts:
So, we start out with the rememberance that Koyuki had accidentally joined the swim team to cover up for his pervy friend (who ironically enough is nowhere to be seen). Thanks to this, he goes to the city pool to practice and meets supporting character #1 of the volume...Saitou-san. The only reason I knew at this point that Saitou-san would be rather important is that on the soundtrack there is a cover of another song on the soundtrack (which happens to be one of my favorites and many of you may know it simply as 'I got believe in you') where the artist is listed as "Saitou-san band feat. Koyuki Tanako and Minami Maho". So...this man is not the sort of person I picture as having a band. Or as the olympic swimmer that he supposedly was. He's a fat slob. And everyone at the pool tries to avoid him cause he's super hardcore about swimming. Poor Koyuki gets caught up with him and has to endure a brutal swim workout....and I definitely didn't like Saitou-san at this point either. Though he turns out to be completely harmless in real life and he totally saves Koyuki's ass after he breaks Ryusuke's guitar (which we will discuss now).
Post pool (and post Izumi's friend implying that Izumi likes Koyuki--they fuck with that boy so much) Izumi and Koyuki go see Ryusuke...cause that's what they do I guess. Ryusuke gives Koyuki this old beat up guitar in his closet. He claims he does this because Koyuki has been getting interested in all different kinds of music lately and he thought he might want to practice. I read it as Izumi and Maho's evil brainwashing of Ryusuke scheme to get Koyuki to be a rockstar. The brilliant foreshadowing here is Koyuki saying, "What I had no idea of at the time was that this guitar would be the source of a very big problem." It's also once again adorable that no matter what Ryusuke does Koyuki is completely enthralled. He's like a 5 year old seeing Mickey Mouse...I swear. So, he's all geared up to practice with his guitar and he realizes that he has no idea what the symbols in the book mean. Ok, so I remember a time in my life when I felt like that too...but it's seriously not that hard, this kid is SLOW. Anyway, this comes later, but....Koyuki breaks the guitar by dropping it off a bridge into the street while CHASING CICADAS!!! WTF?!?!?! Who the hell RUNS to catch CICADAS while holding a GUITAR???? You deserved to have it fall into the street! I don't blame him for thinking Ryusuke would be mad at him. What none of us knew was that this guitar was very special to Ryusuke cause it was given to him as a gift by the only person who befriended him when he too was a hapless idiot like Koyuki....very similar to how Ryusuke is befriending Koyuki now. So...yeah, Ryusuke is pissed and Koyuki is depressed (see quote: "I doubt if I'll ever grow up to be a normal adult.". Again the girls try to act on his behalf, but....
Ok...on to things I completely hated.....Why in the hell would there happen to be FOUR incredibly talented musicians along with a doofy, awkward, middle school kid at a bar league softball game??? You think you could have made that less believable??? Oh...Ryusuke needs to start a band....oh...here are a bunch of people. Oh, but his rival is here too and he's trying to scope the people too. Seriously, this is over the top. And speaking of over the top....facial expressions....WTF?? WAY WAY overboard. On ALL the characters this time.
Anyway, so...Saitou-san has this parrot that likes to sing with recordings of the Beatles live performances and he finds Koyuki with the broken guitar and he teaches him to play. They enter in the music fest. Here's where I have a slightly embarrassing story about myself to tell you. I already talked about Rocket Boys and Bri mentioned it in his review, so I won't really go into that...what I will talk about are Beatles songs.......So. There's a track on the soundtrack with Koyuki singing that's titled "I've Got a Feeling". It's what I refer to as one of the "Special Olympics" tracks where they make Koyuki sing in english even though the guy singing for him (and Koyuki's character in the anime) can't really speak english.....at all. But I really like that song. It's cute. Koyuki really tries to sing it...he tries really hard, and I've always been attached to it. So, I'm home one weekend and my mom (who LOVES the Beatles as all good young women in the 60's did) is watching this Paul McCartney concert on TV. I was in and out and I was talking to her and all of a sudden he starts singing this very same "I've Got a Feeling" song. And I look at mom and with very confused words managed to ask her where that song was from. She's like, "It's a Beatles song. I don't remember which album, one of the early-middle ones I think." I'm like, "Did I listen to it??" She says, "I don't know...why??" So I play her the track and she says something to the effect of "that sucked". And I laugh and say, "Yeah, well I didn't know it was a Beatles song or I would have thought that about it too." So yeah.....totally didn't know that was a Beatles song. I'm now one of THOSE people that I make fun of so much. I hang my head in shame.
Ok, so again we end with Koyuki and Maho singing "Moon on the Water"...this time while swimming naked in the city pool. Yay!
This ends my review. Still worth a read, give it time...it's not that bad. And the series will get better. Or well, it ought to. I don't imagine they would have made it into a successful anime if all the manga but book one sucked.
So, we start out with the rememberance that Koyuki had accidentally joined the swim team to cover up for his pervy friend (who ironically enough is nowhere to be seen). Thanks to this, he goes to the city pool to practice and meets supporting character #1 of the volume...Saitou-san. The only reason I knew at this point that Saitou-san would be rather important is that on the soundtrack there is a cover of another song on the soundtrack (which happens to be one of my favorites and many of you may know it simply as 'I got believe in you') where the artist is listed as "Saitou-san band feat. Koyuki Tanako and Minami Maho". So...this man is not the sort of person I picture as having a band. Or as the olympic swimmer that he supposedly was. He's a fat slob. And everyone at the pool tries to avoid him cause he's super hardcore about swimming. Poor Koyuki gets caught up with him and has to endure a brutal swim workout....and I definitely didn't like Saitou-san at this point either. Though he turns out to be completely harmless in real life and he totally saves Koyuki's ass after he breaks Ryusuke's guitar (which we will discuss now).
Post pool (and post Izumi's friend implying that Izumi likes Koyuki--they fuck with that boy so much) Izumi and Koyuki go see Ryusuke...cause that's what they do I guess. Ryusuke gives Koyuki this old beat up guitar in his closet. He claims he does this because Koyuki has been getting interested in all different kinds of music lately and he thought he might want to practice. I read it as Izumi and Maho's evil brainwashing of Ryusuke scheme to get Koyuki to be a rockstar. The brilliant foreshadowing here is Koyuki saying, "What I had no idea of at the time was that this guitar would be the source of a very big problem." It's also once again adorable that no matter what Ryusuke does Koyuki is completely enthralled. He's like a 5 year old seeing Mickey Mouse...I swear. So, he's all geared up to practice with his guitar and he realizes that he has no idea what the symbols in the book mean. Ok, so I remember a time in my life when I felt like that too...but it's seriously not that hard, this kid is SLOW. Anyway, this comes later, but....Koyuki breaks the guitar by dropping it off a bridge into the street while CHASING CICADAS!!! WTF?!?!?! Who the hell RUNS to catch CICADAS while holding a GUITAR???? You deserved to have it fall into the street! I don't blame him for thinking Ryusuke would be mad at him. What none of us knew was that this guitar was very special to Ryusuke cause it was given to him as a gift by the only person who befriended him when he too was a hapless idiot like Koyuki....very similar to how Ryusuke is befriending Koyuki now. So...yeah, Ryusuke is pissed and Koyuki is depressed (see quote: "I doubt if I'll ever grow up to be a normal adult.". Again the girls try to act on his behalf, but....
Ok...on to things I completely hated.....Why in the hell would there happen to be FOUR incredibly talented musicians along with a doofy, awkward, middle school kid at a bar league softball game??? You think you could have made that less believable??? Oh...Ryusuke needs to start a band....oh...here are a bunch of people. Oh, but his rival is here too and he's trying to scope the people too. Seriously, this is over the top. And speaking of over the top....facial expressions....WTF?? WAY WAY overboard. On ALL the characters this time.
Anyway, so...Saitou-san has this parrot that likes to sing with recordings of the Beatles live performances and he finds Koyuki with the broken guitar and he teaches him to play. They enter in the music fest. Here's where I have a slightly embarrassing story about myself to tell you. I already talked about Rocket Boys and Bri mentioned it in his review, so I won't really go into that...what I will talk about are Beatles songs.......So. There's a track on the soundtrack with Koyuki singing that's titled "I've Got a Feeling". It's what I refer to as one of the "Special Olympics" tracks where they make Koyuki sing in english even though the guy singing for him (and Koyuki's character in the anime) can't really speak english.....at all. But I really like that song. It's cute. Koyuki really tries to sing it...he tries really hard, and I've always been attached to it. So, I'm home one weekend and my mom (who LOVES the Beatles as all good young women in the 60's did) is watching this Paul McCartney concert on TV. I was in and out and I was talking to her and all of a sudden he starts singing this very same "I've Got a Feeling" song. And I look at mom and with very confused words managed to ask her where that song was from. She's like, "It's a Beatles song. I don't remember which album, one of the early-middle ones I think." I'm like, "Did I listen to it??" She says, "I don't know...why??" So I play her the track and she says something to the effect of "that sucked". And I laugh and say, "Yeah, well I didn't know it was a Beatles song or I would have thought that about it too." So yeah.....totally didn't know that was a Beatles song. I'm now one of THOSE people that I make fun of so much. I hang my head in shame.
Ok, so again we end with Koyuki and Maho singing "Moon on the Water"...this time while swimming naked in the city pool. Yay!
This ends my review. Still worth a read, give it time...it's not that bad. And the series will get better. Or well, it ought to. I don't imagine they would have made it into a successful anime if all the manga but book one sucked.
posted by Ubiquitous Leader SK at 2:17 PM
2 Comments:
this review both rather sucked us of our will to write. that's highly unfortunate, but we'll do better next time. plus i get to write my next review on your computer!!! yay!!
. . . i would chase cicadas while wielding a guitar . . .
. . . i like cicadas . . .
*hangs head in shame*
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