by Mike Favila, Reporter

It’s been many years since I’ve sat down and watched Beck (or as it’s known here, Mongolian Chop Squad) and I was really excited to rewatch it and see how well it had held up. Would it be like visiting an old friend whose since become a massive rock star? Or would it be going down to the grocery store, and watching his band play acoustic nights in front of the cheese aisle? Luckily, the series is still an exciting ride, always willing to thwart your expectations when you’ve decided you already know how things will end.

For the uninitiated, Mongolian Chop Squad is about Koyuki, a 14 year old kid trying to figure out his future. He meets Ryusuke, a older guitarist who encourages and grows his love of rock music and the power it can hold.   It also chronicles his love life, starting from his first love, all the way up to Maho, Ryusuke’s sister.

Dubbed the S.A.V.E (Super Amazing Value Edition), the box set includes all 26 episodes at a ridiculously affordable price.  The packaging is very streamlined, with no booklet and a sturdy single disc case that holds all 4 discs.  I originally saw Beck with subs, but the dub is pretty hilarious too. The voice actor that plays Koyuki does a great job of conveying how truly young he is, especially compared to his older bandmates and his future paramour Maho.

Highlights

E10: Face. Koyuki joins the band!

E17: Three Days. Koyuki finally buys that Telecaster he’s been lusting for. I can totally relate.

E24: Third Stage. This was the last episode I watched many years ago. As far as I know, this is where the movie ends. The band plays their triumphant last show and wins over the crowd against the odds. A great contrast to the darkness of the previous episodes leading up to the show, and the sad ending that followed.

Special Features

Textless Songs (Hit in the USA, My World Down, Moon on the Water, Slip Out)
Trailers (but do those really count?)

Audio

The music and dialogue were very clear, and full of weight. This is especially important for a music show. In my basement, I felt like I was watching a cartoon version of the Palladia channel. Not a ton of spatial distance, but I don’t know how much of that is really necessary.

Video

Obviously, the video is a lot clearer than the fansubs that I watched a decade ago, but it wasn’t perfect. Overall, very clean transfer. I was hoping they could do a little more to sharpen it up though.

Overall

Honestly, Mongolian Chop Squad captures multiple angles of the band life very well. From being in a band, being in love with music, having your first crush, it’s all done very subtly and slowly.  As somebody that plays in a band, Beck doesn’t feel fake at all. Even if the timeline is a little compressed, it manages to hit every bit of the experience.  Even the fact that a lot of the time of the story takes place during rehearsal is a great indicator of how well the creators were in touch with the process. To some degree, what makes it feel so real is how slow some of the passages are. Just saving for the guitar and the adventures in between took forever! Just like in real life.

The nuanced storytelling feels even more jarring with the impending violence at the end of the series. It almost feels like its a mismatch, but maybe that’s just because I enjoyed the music parts so much. I also didn’t like how the last episode wrapped up the story in a nice way, but without actually animating it.  I was expecting to see more of the reunion with Ryusuke, it almost seemed like a postscript instead of an ending.

Rating:  guitars to the sky for Mongolian Chop Squad S.A.V.E Edition. This song still rocks and it’s ringing in my head.

Grab your copy of Mongolian Chop Squad S.A.V.E Edition at Amazon today!

[AMAZONPRODUCT=B007NU546U]

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