Beck

There seems to be a lull in really watchable new shows this season, so I've been loading up some of last season's shows that I've missed, plus Gundam Seed Destiny. GSD is actually a mixed bag, with episodes that are painful to watch about twice as frequent as those that are really satisfying, but I've already invested in the startup cost for getting into the series and this is one of those shows that I feel provides value by making me informed about the scene.

On contrast to this, although still shounen, is Beck. Beck is in the "band" genre, which means that it covers the formation and development of a musical group. While fairly well represented in manga, few of these titles are animated. Thus among its animated peers, I can only cite Kaikan Phrase (a TV series) and To-Y (a much older OVA), although there are possibly more which I do not know of. I find shows of this type interesting because it's a male-oriented genre that is less apt to get embroiled in the adolescent power and sex fantasies that are so common with this audience. Even series that I like such as Naruto and Hunter X Hunter are at their core, vehicles for boys who feel powerless to empower themselves in their imaginations. A similar motivation exists at the core girl-oriented titles like Ichigo 100% (need I spell it out for you more explicitly?). Since they strike their target audience at such a basic level, it's no surprise that these genres dominate the scene.

Beck is a refreshing change from this onslaught. The story focuses on a high school boy who meets an American-raised Japanese guy with an impressive history and future band aspirations. The main character, who has no musical experience, gets starstruck and becomes embroiled in the long and difficult process of learning to sing, play guitar, and all the stuff it takes to make a band. But really, watching Beck also makes me wonder why this genre seems to be a better vehicle for dramatic and realistic storytelling compared to other shounen genres.

One of the things that has attracted me to this genre after seeing To-Y is that shows in this kind expand the boundaries of anime awareness beyond the stereotypical robots/magic/girls definitions while at the same time presenting a different kind of storytelling and focus than female-targeted titles. And I wonder, why is this the case? One possibility is that despite being about music, manga is a silent medium and song production is fairly expensive for anime. Thus, without the ability to directly represent the core content theme, creators need to take an indirect approach and put their efforts into making the writing represent the effect that music has upon its participants.

In contrast to this, shoujo manga, which faces a similar task of indirectly representing emotions and dramatic tension, often draws upon visual cues like background changes or character deformations for indirect expression. Of course that begs the question of why band anime do not draw heavily on visual cues. Since my band anime exposure is limited to 3 titles and my manga exposure is almost nonexistant, I don't even know where to begin to answer that question.

So, what band titles should I read and watch?