What was the deal with the animation in the first half of this episode? Sure, I've seen the style before, but I've always wondered: is it intentional, or is it about cutting corners? I've never known Madhouse to be a corner cutting studio, but I have to admit, Beck has looked pretty bad at times.

Anyway, with the release of the show's soundtrack this week, I've already had the opportunity to hear Koyuki's new song in its entirety. And, unfortunately, it suffers from the same nasty Engrish that plagues "Face". Actually, it's worse. I know it's hard to believe, but it's true. I'm not sure what to look forward to anymore.

I'm guessing Beck didn't have that great of a budget, so my bet is that the studio is saving as much resources as they can for the final episodes, which will be spectacular beyond belief. That's the hope anyway...

I think Beck is trying too hard to be too many different things. It has its slice-of-life moments, which are usually my favorite, but it also has that pesky shounen plot element that kinda undermines the rest of the show.

Actually the animation reminded me of Windy Tales. I like the style, but it just doesn't mesh with the rest of the show well.

Koyuki really needs to learn Engrish or always keep Maho nearby to translate for him. And learn everybody else is out to screw with him! Gah.

Well, the amazing bike scene made up for it, really...

I could not stop laughing when Koyuki got booed, they should have thrown a brick at him instead, it would have knocked some sense into him and given him a cool scar. I reckon Maho would dig a scard Koyuki.

The animation was definitely spotty in this episode, but I agree with robert as far as the animation budget being saved for the "Greatful Sound" concert sequences. I would gladly take the spotty animation of this episode, along with the other places it shows up in the series, if it means that the anime ends on a spectacular note.

As far as Koyuki's new song goes, I have to disagree that it's all that bad. Sure, it's "Engrishy", but I've heard worse; for instance, the version of the song on the "KEITH" disc of the OST, which has a real band performing it. Somehow, that guy manages to have more trouble with the English than Koyuki's voice actor from the actual series. Between the new song and the Beatles cover on the "BECK" disc of the OST, I'm hopeful about their performance.

I guess the biggest complaint that I *can* lodge about Koyuki is that he can't speak or understand English hardly at all, yet most of his singing (if not all of it) is done in English for the band. Bit of a logical gap there, unless we're meant to assume that he's learned enough (or has been taught enough by the band) to know what to sing.

I found that this episode was cool, and the bike scene was pretty good.

But what i can't stand is how Maho dissapears and reappears randomly, and messes around with koyuki's mind.