Beck Summaries v.20+

Posted: Thu Jan 27, 2005 4:51 am

By popular demand, here you go.

Volume 20
Chapter 58

One day at the fishing hole, Chiba, Saku and Koyuki receive a call from Take-chan about his new concert series, 36th Chamber. The line-up is to include Shiboyugi, Beck, Room 13 and a band called Chinese Bookie. One day while handing out flyers for 36th Chamber, Koyuki spots a girl staring him down rather menacingly. The night before 36th Chamber, Ryusuke calls to say he will be flying back the next day. When the show starts, Koyuki is surprised to see the same girl again at the show, but he goes inside to see the opening band before he can find a chance to talk to her.
The openers are Chinese Bookie, a three-piece comprised of two goofy-looking brothers and a pretty-boy guitarist. They're not a very good band technically or creatively, but their passionate performance is so infectious that it's hard not to like them. After their set, Koyuki finds out their guitarist Yuta is actually a big fan of his. Apparently CB has only been together for 2 months before this show.
Room 13 arrives and Kuroki wants to know where Chiba is. At this time, Chiba is meeting Ryusuke at the airport. When Ryusuke emerges from the gate, he says he's been drinking for the entire flight, but Chiba is too relieved to see him to give him any trouble.

Chapter 59

When Chiba and Ryusuke meet up with the rest of the band at 36th Chamber, he's barely capable of balancing on his own feet, much less playing guitar. Still, he manages to pull himself together enough to get up on stage when it's Beck's turn to play. Before Chiba can announce their first song, Ryusuke grabs the mic and gives a speech in English, saying that they'll be playing (the Rolling Stones') "Street Fighting Man," and that he's dedicating it to an old friend. The band lurches into the cover song, feeling the power of being a 5-piece once again, until Ryusuke remembers quotes from Eddie and Jim, and suddenly snaps. All of a sudden Ryusuke is blazing on the guitar, the rest of the band can barely keep up, and Chiba is rapping the Stones' classic number. The crowd, Chinese Bookie and even Shingo are amazed at this performance that sounds nothing like the original. Sasagawa comes over to say how impressed he was by Take-chan's event, and pledges to help repeat it soon, in several cities this time.
At a bar after the show, the topic of conversation turns to a Beck full-length album. They all wonder if Kawakubo has any ideas up his sleeve. The next day, Kawakubo tells Yamapi that Lust for Life Records has no intention of putting out a Beck album, and for that reason, he is quitting the company.

Chapter 60

Kawakubo has conversations with Beck and Yamapi, discussing what the band needs to do for now, and what it will take for them to get the recognition they deserve. In a few small interludes, Koyuki finds out that Saito is suspicious of some man he thinks Momoko is having an affair with. Koyuki also runs into Kawakubo and his wife and newborn baby girl, who is named... Koyuki!
When Chiba and Koyuki hang out after a Shiro & Maggies show, he sees the mystery girl again. Everyone runs off to catch the last trains of the evening, but Koyuki has a bit of bowel trouble with something he ate. When he emerges from the bathroom, he sees that the girl has waited for him. Koyuki and Sayaka (as she introduces herself) are now left behind by themselves. Koyuki takes her to a restaurant he knows, but he has flashbacks of a time he visited with Maho and Ryusuke, forcing him to realize how much he misses his girlfriend.
Earlier, Kawakubo had been saying how there was no label in Japan that would put out a Beck album now, perhaps prophetically. Ryusuke tells him that he sent out demos and Naff Records, the biggest indie label in England, expressed an interest in meeting them. To add to the excitement of possibly being signed to Naff, Hiromi reminds them all that if Eddie never played that last song to anyone else, the only place it exists in the entire world is in Koyuki's head, and that Beck is the only band that can possibly play it now. Koyuki falls asleep that night reliving the conversation he had over the phone that day...

Posted: Thu Jan 27, 2005 4:52 am

Volume 21
Chapter 61

Kawakubo flies to English to meet Wayne Bridge, the owner of Naff Records, on behalf of Beck, with Maho as his interpreter. When they're told Wayne is out of his office, they go to a restaurant nearby. While they're there, a creepy-looking sunk-eyed mofo starts bugging Maho, who has no patience for such weirdos. Of course, it's not until after she kicks him in the nuts that they find out he is Wayne Bridge.
Meanwhile, Koyuki hangs out a few times with Yuta from Chinese Bookie, who is starting to be obnoxiously fond of Koyuki, asking him to teach him guitar. Kishimoto, the president of Lust For Life, meets Sasagawa (the president of Shiboyugi's label) at a bar. He expresses his disillusionment with the state of Japanese music and leaves a warning that dealing with Beck will make you some unwanted enemies. But surprisingly enough, Kawakubo managed to get the deal signed! Naff gives the band some money (not much) to record their album. Wayne tells them that he feels a historic significance in Beck's music, a hunch that he always acts on. Not always successfully, however.
At another Beck show, Koyuki notices that something in Ryusuke's style has changed, as if he's lost something that he might never regain...

Chapter 62

Yamapi is feeling deep misgivings about his current life. He even goes to a mixed-gender get together, where he gets rejected by an available woman for not having a stable income/job. Saito gets into more mischevious mishaps on the trail of Momoko's secret boyfriend.
At the second 36th Chamber, a journalist from a major music magazine comes to cover the concert, but she has no idea who Beck is. As a joke, Take-chan tells her that they're a band of Mongolian boys who came to Japan, and that Chiba was the #1 Mongolian youth sumo wrestler. The band themselves carry the joke further, assuming that nobody will read the article anyway.
After 36th Chamber part 2, mole-faced engineer Madoka re-enters the story and the album recording session begins!

Chapter 63

This time Madoka's recording plan is to make it sound as live and impassioned as Beck's stage show. It is revealed that one newer song on the album is called "Electric Sheep." Meanwhile, Eddie Lee and Erica Blige's duet tape is released into the music market, complete with major artist appearances and remixes. Ryusuke is naturally disgusted, and believes that Leon Sykes is back on his feet again.
After the recording, the owner of the Marquee live house asks Beck to headline the Marquee's 20th anniversary showcase. The boys are astonished and flattered. During Chinese Bookie's set at the show, Saku remarks that Yuta has completely adopted Koyuki's singing style (in addition to his wardrobe). Beck starts off their set with "Electric Sheep," a song that Madoka calls "proof of their growth as a band." After they're done playing, Kawakubo shows them the magazine article they were interviewed for, and sure enough, the writer bought their ridiculous story hook line and sinker.
At 9:30 A.M. on the next day, Koyuki spots a newspaper article announcing that Jim Walsh is visiting Japan, but only for a scant 23 hours. He arrives at the airport at 11:00 A.M. and leaves at 10:00 A.M. the following day. Ryusuke says they'd never get to meet him anyways, much less within a 23-hour span. But those words are apparently the beginning of a very long day...

Posted: Thu Jan 27, 2005 4:52 am

Volume 22
Chapter 64

That morning, Tamayo tells Ryusuke about a conversation she had with someone over the phone in English. Her English is quite rusty so she could barely tell what he was saying, but he did say his name was Jim. A bit belatedly, Ryusuke realizes that it could have been Jim Walsh, and manages to squeeze the name Morrison Hotel out of her. Inside the hotel, Jim once again flat-out rejects Ran's offers. Ryusuke has to run an errand or face losing his job at the fishing hole, so in his stead, Koyuki goes to the hotel, and with the help of Shiratori, the ditzy editor of Solid Rock magazine, sneaks in under the guise of a press writer. Koyuki is forced to pretend to interview Cindy Blackwell, an actress in Jim Walsh's new movie. She was once a child actress who played a famous role that Koyuki knows well, but now she's a crass, dour-faced smoker with "girl power" kanji tattoos. When Cindy says that "A Life on the Road" is her favorite movie, Koyuki gives her the new Beck CD. That night, Jim calls Ryusuke again; Cindy gave him the CD and he wants to meet the band. Unfortunately, they're just about to start their video shoot. The label's wrung enough money for them to just scrape together a video, and they can't possibly back out on that; therefore Ryusuke has to decline Jim's request. Instead, Jim and Cindy decide to come down and meet the band at the set! Chiba, who still isn't aware of the unfortunate demise of his heartfelt and passionate letter to Jim, thinks he's come to direct their video, as Taira attempts to break the news to the poor guy. Jim still hasn't heard the CD, so he asks to play it right there. After listening to several songs, Jim offers to direct their video. He's got business in Osaka the next day and he'll ultimately have only 6 hours to work with them. That's really pushing it, but they all decide to give it a shot, before Jim changes his mind.

Chapter 65

The video shooting is going slowly because of the boys' nervousness around Jim. When Koyuki mentions that he invited Sayaka to come, since she loved Cindy's famous childhood movie "Emma & the Dolphins," Chiba offers Koyuki a condom. When things are looking particularly bad, Jim calls for some beer and a quick break. While they get relaxed, Jim plays back the video of Chiba giving Koyuki a condom to help loosen the mood. Meanwhile, Ran is still fuming over Jim's rejection. When he finds out that Jim has chosen to go and meet a "Japanese friend," he panics and begins thinking: if Jim wouldn't do a video for $5 million, then whoever he went with is obviously paying him more! As the boys slog through the video shooting, Jim tells them the idea he decided to go with for their video was one he was originally going to use for Dying Breed. They're not as polished as DB, but Beck has the same heart and soul to it. "You can't go up without being down first. You can't go left without going right. You can't know joy until you know despair." More and more people file into the room to watch the shooting (as Ran frantically drives aroudn Tokyo searching for Jim), and they finally finish as the sun is coming up. Even Chiemi Kuniyoshi, shooting a video of her own, stops by and compliments Koyuki on his singing. Chiba tells Koyuki to forget about Maho and start hitting on Chiemi. Despite ruining his final plans in Japan, Jim has no regrets helping Beck with their video. Before he leaves, he says he wants to give Ryusuke something.

Chapter 66

As Jim and the guys prepare to leave for the hotel to get Jim's "gift," Kawakubo prods Ryusuke to discuss Jim's payment, so they don't get hit with an extravagant bill later. Jim's item turns out to be a guitar: the acoustic guitar Eddie used to write his songs. Matt wanted Ryusuke to have it because he heard a rumor that Eddie last played his new song on the phone to a "good Japanese friend." Naturally, the first person who comes to mind would be Ryusuke, but of course, it was actually Koyuki, and Ryusuke hands the guitar to him. As they are leaving the hotel, one of Ran's goons comes to attack Jim, but Chiba crushes him with some drunken fist action. Jim laughs and says that he'll call on Chiba if he ever makes a kung fu film (after he leaves, he ends up not charging them for the video, instead using Chiba's salary from the hypothetical kung fu movie as payment). Finally, weeks later, the album is done and they receive finished copies in the mail. It's Beck's first album, to be sold all over the world. Shiratori also assures them that Solid Rock Japan will be heavily promoting the band. The volume ends with Jim telling Ryusuke over the phone that Beck is being considered to play at the reunion of the legendary Avalon Festival this summer...

Posted: Thu Jan 27, 2005 4:52 am

Reserved

Posted: Thu Jan 27, 2005 4:53 am

Reserved

Posted: Thu Jan 27, 2005 4:53 am

Reserved

Fan Boy Joined: 24 Jan 2005 Posts: 4

Excellent!!! Thanx alot for ur efforts! Very Happy

I am sure the true beck fans will appreciate ur summaries!

Posted: Sat Jan 29, 2005 9:01 pm

stephen wrote:

Ryusuke tells him that he sent out demos and Naff Records, the biggest indie label in England, expressed an interest in meeting them.

Wasn't it Koyuki that sent the demo to Naff Records (obviously modeled after Rough Trade)?

Posted: Mon Jan 31, 2005 5:34 am

I appriciate your summeries. hell yeah i do! good summeries. it interests me that much, that i read the summeries being flashed like reaqding the manga - but it doesn't take so long.

Good job. Thanks

Street Musician Joined: 23 Jul 2003 Posts: 302

The Internet is faster at information.

Street Musician Joined: 16 Feb 2003 Posts: 530

Summer Soldier wrote:

stephen wrote:

Ryusuke tells him that he sent out demos and Naff Records, the biggest indie label in England, expressed an interest in meeting them.

Wasn't it Koyuki that sent the demo to Naff Records (obviously modeled after Rough Trade)?

Yeah it was Koyuki. Page 183 or abouts.

Posted: Mon Jan 31, 2005 5:26 pm

My bad, doggies. I guess that's what happens when you attempt to read and summarize 60 pages in less than 5 minutes. Now if you'll excuse me, I need to mad gruffle some Domino's. (not really)

Posted: Wed Feb 02, 2005 2:58 am

Hey, stephen, congrats on getting hired by Tokyopop. Finally a good translator. I hope stress and deadlines don´t make your work like what you get normally in translated manga Very Happy

Too bad for Beck though... I can´t afford buying any more manga Sad

Street Musician Joined: 23 Jul 2003 Posts: 302

Think the "terrible" translations from manga companies are largely exaggerated, and probably a layover from early Funimation anime days when they weren't sure there would be a market in a late teen/young adult audience.

Now, and especially with the popularity of Adult Swim in that age group, however, I think these companies are starting to become more aware of their market. Funimation is even improving.

Posted: Wed Feb 02, 2005 2:34 pm

I really wouldn´t know about newer translations, but there was a time when I could buy manga translated in the US and it sucked. I read a lot of manga which wasn´t translated in the appropiate tone, and sometimes I think that the translator didn´t know what thing meant and he just translated literally. It just sucked.
So thank god if they are improving Very Happy