Beck - 01

There comes a time in every young man's life when he just can't take being the small, weak one anymore.  There comes a time when you need to grab your guitar, find a guy with long hair, and start a band.

Beck: Mongolian Chop Shop begins with the dreary life of young Tanaka Koyuki.  Koyuki is your standard wussy high school anime guy.  He's not too smart, he's not too strong, and his best friend is this really creepy-faced guy.  In regular style, he's childhood friends with the pretty, popular, kind girl whom he's too much of a wuss to ever ask out.  He's the type that gets dragged around by his friend's shenanigans and suffers the consequences of it.

Yet after getting beat up by thugs he can at least keep kids from bullying a dog.....a really weird dog.  Here we meet the long-haired punk owner of said dog, Ryusuke.  He seems to be a nice guy, but speaks somewhat brutish English.  Often the ability to speak another language defines a certain quality of a character in an anime.  At times this shows a character to be more cultured, but often speaking English in an anime is attributed to being a delinquent.  Considering his rather colorful use of the language later in the episode, the latter likely defines him.  To top it off, he belongs to a punk band.

Before long (again in classic anime style) a situation presents itself where beefier delinquents (clearly delinquents given they speak only English) harass Koyuki and friends.  Koyuki of course steps out of his wuss shoes and tries to tell the brutes to politely buzz off to little avail.  Ryusuke, of course, swoops in to save the day by luring the brutes into an alley to fight proper, then pulling out a gun and heavy amounts of expletives (in English) to try to scare them off.  Koyuki again tries to be a big man and go help Ryusuke only to find that he got pounded when the yankees (anime term for American-ish delinquents) discover the gun was a toy, but at least he tried.

One note this show suffers from is what the anime viewer refers to as Engrish.  The use of the English language makes a point but is performed somewhat awkwardly.  Granted, the original audience of this show (the Japanese) would likely not pick up on it being awkward English as well.  In addition, this is a foreign language to them so they have to speak slowly, clearly, simply, and loudly so that the Japanese viewer has time to translate it in their head.

For the start of a series this show is very stereotypically driven.  Boring guy with hot childhood friend meets interesting guy and then boring guy goes on to be less boring, theoretically.  This start of a show is just a bit too run-of-the-mill, but it does reinforce the fact that he's a boring guy.  If it weren't for the opening, one would never know from the first episode what the show is really going to be about.

The opening is rather spectacular though.  It truly gives you the feel of a garage band of misfits hitting the road to make a buck and play some tunes.  Whether you're a fan of the musical style or not, you ponder the possibilities of becoming a "hit in America" yourself (though this line has a bit more meaning to the normal viewer of this show in Japan).

If you long for the road to musical stardom, check out Beck on Funimation's youtube account here.

Sengoku Basara -01

Imagine, if you will, a battle crazy samurai in blue armor riding a horse with motorcycle handles. Then imagine him leaping off this horse, drawing his six katana, and lunging into battle against a dual trident wielder in red armor who shoots fire.  Then imagine that these are just two of the main characters.

Sengoku Basara is an anime set in the period of Japanese history defined by massive conflict between samurai warlords.  Classically this is done between massive armies masterfully positioned by expert strategists, but sometimes anime and video game titles will jazz it up a bit with over-the-top generals wielding crazy weapons and explosive power.

Sengoku Basara is no slouch in this area with a plethora of peculiar and powerful looking generals and warriors.  From the effeminate swordsman, to the giant axeman, to the scantily clad female ninja, this anime covers the rainbow of feudal era anime warrior archetypes.  Even Nobunaga, classically depicted as a demonic general that everyone inevitably fights against, appears as a...demonic general that everyone eventually fights against.

The action is just as surreal as blue samurai and red samurai literally fly around, strike each other faster than the human eye can see, then cause giant blue and red explosions.  In the first episode, one of their clashes of power causes an explosion that produces a mushroom cloud that conflicting armies a mile away could see.

While the story likely loosely (and I mean very loosely) follows the historical sets of conflicts, one really doesn't care much.  If you like swords, explosions, and the occasional really weird set of armor, then Sengoku Basara deserves a look.

Check it out on FUNimation's youtube account here.