Bocchi the Rock!

Yearning to make friends and perform live with a band, lonely and socially anxious Hitori "Bocchi" Gotou devotes her time to playing the guitar. On a fateful day, Bocchi meets the outgoing drummer Nijika Ijichi, who invites her to join Kessoku Band when their guitarist, Ikuyo Kita, flees before their first show. Soon after, Bocchi meets her final bandmate—the cool bassist Ryou Yamada.

Although their first performance together is subpar, the girls feel empowered by their shared love for music, and they are soon rejoined by Kita. Finding happiness in performing, Bocchi and her bandmates put their hearts into improving as musicians while making the most of their fleeting high school days.

[Written by MAL Rewrite]

Gotou, Hitori Main

Aoyama, Yoshino Japanese

Yamada, Ryou Main

Mizuno, Saku Japanese

Ijichi, Nijika Main

Suzushiro, Sayumi Japanese

Kita, Ikuyo Main

Hasegawa, Ikumi Japanese

Hiroi, Kikuri Supporting

Senbongi, Sayaka Japanese

PA-san Supporting

Koiwai, Kotori Japanese

Ijichi, Seika Supporting

Uchida, Maaya Japanese

Gotou, Futari Supporting

Watada, Misaki Japanese

Gotou, Naoki Supporting

Majima, Junji Japanese

Gotou, Michiyo Supporting

Suegara, Rie Japanese

Umehara, Shouta Producer

Kobayashi, Hiroyuki Producer

Ishikawa, Tatsuya Producer

Saitou, Keiichirou Director, Episode Director, Storyboard, Key Animation

Reviews

Dec 24, 2022

KANLen09

Recommended

Well-written

HeroAca and Blue Lock? Sorry...I don't do Shonen stuff.
Spy x Family? Even though I have a family, I don't fall into that category.
Mob Psycho 100? Great conclusion from the manga that's finally translated to the anime, but I'm not all that psychic to begin with.
Bleach: Sennen Kessen-hen a.k.a Thousand-Year Blood War? I'll let you have your moment of glory just right behind Fullmetal Alchemist: Brotherhood.
Do It Yourself!!, Yama no Susume? We can be buddies in the same theme, just doing different things!
Chainsaw Man? OVERTAKEN and DETHRONED. LIKE A GLORIFIED MIC DROP.

The Fall 2022 season has really seen its fair share of past and new juggernaut ... glories: from Tite Kubo's Bleach's decade-long wait for a triumphant return still being one of the Big 3, to the much-anticipated Tatsuki Fujimoto's Chainsaw Man being studio MAPPA's massively high-profile equivalent to Ufotable's Demon Slayer in terms of story and animation prowess. However, there are certain shows that as humble as they come initially being an afterthought, to then unexpectedly and shockingly take the sweeping crown, those are the shows that we the anime community can call it special to begin with. It's more impressive even, when such a stacked season as this manages to live up to the hype, that it gets overshadowed by the mainstream being a hidden diamond gem in the works. And my friends, that show is mangaka Aki Hamaji's Bocchi the Rock!, easily the most anticipated of CloverWorks's produced shows of the year when the initial teaser trailer dropped to leave a vague message of its 2022 release in December last year, only to leave us hanging in nerve-wrecking-ness until the PV's release just right before the Fall season started rolling.

Before I dive deep into this unexpected, hype-deserved acclaim of a masterpiece show that deserves more than being reduced to an excellent adaptation, I feel like I need to clarify something which the anime community has more often than not, got some facts wrong. Despite Bocchi the Rock! being serialized in publishing company Houbunsha's Manga Time Kirara magazine (that's where all of the 4-koma manga come from) promoting its CGDCT theme, it is NOT considered as a genre, but rather a SUB-genre of Slice-of-Life, the same as how Isekai is a subgenre of Fantasy. It's actually more of a motif or theme because it uses a set of tropes and archetypes that separate it from other Slice-of-Life shows that makes it distinct, but thanks to the modern anime community that we have these days (and so much so that I'm a victim of it because I REALLY love CGDCT shows, albeit specifically), we sort of treat it as its own unofficial distinct genre: the human fault we call recency bias. And to be clear, Bocchi! the Rock! is not necessarily a CGDCT anime, but rather, a parody of both the CGDCT theme and the SoL genre, since it's given genre of comedy reflects it as such: a culmination of traits already done and perfected by other SoL and CGDCT anime.

But still, you can't deny that the show pays an homage to one of the greatest CGDCT anime of all time: the legendary monumental classic and moe-blob phenomenon that is K-On!, serving the same SoL genre for the anime community, both past and present respectively. So figuratively, while we can call Bocchi the Rock! the GOAT CGDCT of the modern day, as a collective whole, I feel that there're better CGDCT shows than this: say this season's Do It Yourself!!, and while not quite moe-blob as one trait that defined SoL, is still very enjoyable. CGDCT fans are really eating REAL GOOD in 2022, especially considering that it's CloverWorks leading the charge, from the likes of Winter's Akebi-chan no Sailor-fuku a.k.a Akebi's Sailor Uniform that unfortunately had the confirmation bias of "animation carried the show" to Spring's Kunoichi Tsubaki no Mune no Uchi a.k.a In the Heart of Kunoichi Tsubaki which turned out decent, along with other returning classics like Machikado Mazoku a.k.a. The Demon Girl Next Door, Yuru Camp△ the Movie (which is arguably the best of the series yet) and Yama no Susume a.k.a Encouragement of Climb.

Let's be real: social anxiety IS a thing, and it culminates in the form of Social Anxiety disorder (SAD) a.k.a social phobia, characterized by sentiments of fear and anxiety in social situations, causing considerable distress and impaired ability to function in at least some aspects of daily life. These fears can be triggered by perceived or actual scrutiny from others. Individuals with social anxiety disorder fear negative evaluations from other people. And this is what exactly happens to a certain pink-haired Hitori "Bocchi" Gotoh trying her best not to shit herself socially, but from the outset, her growing-up life has been met with nothing but insecurities: from the lone effort of making friends to being a ghostly outcast in school, so much so that she becomes a closed closet Hikikomori a.k.a acute social withdrawal, referring to both the phenomenon in general and the recluses themselves: described as loners or "modern-day hermits", regarding themsleves as being totally withdrawn from society and seeking extreme degrees of social isolation and confinement, which in the real-life context of Japan, is a seriously grave issue, especially if you have seen Spring 2019's Hitoribocchi no Marumaru Seikatsu, being the show with the most acute similarity. To counteract from being a Hikikomori, Hitori engages in the online spectrum hoping to find friends there in the veins of YouTube being the illusive ever-so-slightly-named alias "guitarhero" that amasses a respectable subscriber fanbase for her guitar plays that are uploaded every once so often to satisate her followers.

That is, until Hitori steps out into the real world where and she is submitted to the harshness of reality slapping her face in both directions, as much as she herself wants to get out of this rut and at least make a life-changing decision for herself. That decision comes in the form of a person: the blonde-haired Nijika Ijichi, who saw Bocchi juat lazing with her guitar and without words of explanation, forcefully dragged her to the underground livehouse that is STARRY as a last-minute replacement for the guitarist that abruptly left the group before their performance. And together with Nijika and the blue-haired bassist bandmate Ryo Yamada, the performance might have been a total wrecking ball of a complete poor failure, and at the very least Hitori knows that both are fans of her "guitarhero" YouTube persona, but with her social anxiety preventing any further conversation and ultimately withdrawing into the same recluse as she was before. Sure, Hitori might've gained her "Bocchi" nickname not because it rhymes with the "hitoribocchi" a.k.a All Alone pun, but it's a sign that at least acknowledged her presence more than anything. This is further cemented with Ikuyo Kita, the vocalist-cum-guitarist and initally Bocchi's classmate, when the latter requests her help to improve on her guitar playing skills, and the deal is struck since the former has an overwhelming infatuation on Ryo. Thereby, which was learnt later that Kita was the one that Nijika had Bocchi hurriedly filled in at the very last minute because she was not being honest with her feelings and fled the "crime scene" after the realization that Kita's guitar playing was not up to snuff. Together, the 4 girls make up Kessoku (lit. Zip Tie) Band: the center band of the series, and their endeavours together are a sight to behold, other than the highlight that is Bocchi's exaggerated, over-the-top, visual medium crossovers of her inner thoughts exemplified at the highest, most extreme degrees of insanity that exudes overflowing creativity of nonchalant acerbity that's some one-of-a-kind talent that you don't normally see in AniManga, let alone the manga chapters that if you read alongside the anime, each and every chapter title page paying homage to famous bands and their songs' music video. Also, there're tons of references plastered throughout the anime, even more than Chainsaw Man's OP, and that's saying quite a lot. So have fun in figuring out this too!

To really understand how much Bocchi the Rock! got all of this deserved hype that we're only seeing right now, we have to go back in time to even before the anime was ever a thing:

The year was 2019, and mangaka Aki Hamaji's work was just 2 years old at this point with only Volume 1 being released and Volume 2 set to be released the very next year. The debut chief animation director and character designer that was a nobody at the time, Kiyoki Rikuta a.k.a Kerorira was just about in the anime industry for little over a year or two doing key animations for a large variety of shows, most of which was under CloverWorks about months since the separation of the studio from A-1 Pictures, that still is under the Aniplex brand. Normally when an anime project is announced, the director or producers will be pushing forth and calling people up for the task, but in the case for Bocchi the Rock!, it was the key animator himself who pushed for the project, so much that it’s worth noting that it wasn’t a particularly shocking reveal. Since being open about his love for the series, Kerorira has gushed to the point of sharing short, animated clips of it on social media a.k.a Japanese Twitter. And when it came time to find people to helm the project, he went to the long-time veteran producer Shouta Umehara requesting people that he'd like to work with, such is the case for a certain Keiichiro Saito, that like Kerorira, he is also working in key animation and has become quite the veteran for years, that with this show, marks his official debut has series director. But if you know anything about the anime industry, especially when it comes to freelance works, it's talent and drive that makes the shows work, and without the help of Shouta Umehara and his exceptional scouting abilities, plus the boldness to bet on fresh, young and unproven talent while managing Aniplex's woeful corporation slavery management, Bocchi the Rock! really wouldn't have turned out the way it is today.

Even I have to admit, it is a HUGE RISK betting shows on unproven talent. And speaking of Keiichiro Saito, his experience as a key animator whether in theme songs or episodes, these don't often typically give opportunities for people to train to be better as the grind of seasonal shows gleam along with none the wiser. It's only until Saito-san himself has an opportunity to work with the legendary director Shingo Natsume on his own experimental creation in the form of Summer 2021's Sonny Boy, that he is given the chance to learn the ropes and showcase his indomitable idiosyncrasy's worth of talent, such as the case where he contributed a lot to the anime for Episode 8. Back to Bocchi the Rock!, when Saito-san was offered the chance to read Aki Hamaji's manga with its only premiere volume out, by the time he'd finished reading it, his impression had changed, and found it to be a smart work in many ways: succeeding at both humor as a slice-of-life comedy and depicting its characters as a coming-of-age drama, with sharp jokes. This immaculate delivery would just not work based on one person's effort alone, and this is where scriptwriter and series composer Erika Yoshida steps in to help him visualize the vision that despite Bocchi the Rock! not being a fundamentally transformative adaptation, simply tweaking the orignal work with Yoshida-san's help certainly was a match made in heaven, most presumably when anime detracts out of its medium to do a 4th wall breaking on animation prowess that includes some live-action footage, because the hell why not, while focusing his directorial efforts on enhancing the themes that the original work could never develop. An amusing gag series about a lonely girl is now animating loneliness, giving the original work a whole new layer of emotional resonance to it while maintaining its original fun that's only possible in the hands of an exceptional animation team like the one that has surrounded this core team, and with promises such as the fully 2D live performances that involve 3D-ish rotoscoping (as an example) used to its maximum potential.

For an unproven team of supposedly misfits, Bocchi the Rock!'s shining moments are with its staff team, and it certainly can't be imitated outright on this kind of insane magnitude. One key phrase that Keiichiro Saito shared is that starting out as a key animator, his eye for craftsmanship on how people and objects move elevates the anime by giving it massive attention for its many poses. As an example, there’s a scene after their first live performance where Hitori creeps up closer to the others (this is in Episode 1 of the anime), and where Hitori is moving in an eccentric manner, how can the staff team make it funnier and bring out more of her personality? He spent a lot of time thinking about how it could be made funny in animated form, and not forgetting that for the performance scenes, using footage of real-life actors performing as the base for the animation, and solely requesting them to keep in mind the characterization, as well as replicating the performance itself. Even more so regarding the orignal source's 4-koma format, there is a lot to fill in along the lines, and along the way, both Saito-san and Erika Yoshida found out that by inserting realism into the anime, it loses the gloss and charms of the original work. So, by adding in methods and approaches exclusive to animation, as well as adding supplementary gags for connecting scenes with help from the manga staff, it helps give the anime a life of its own that doesn't discredit where it came from. Truly, all of this sounds like a passion project, and yes, it is. It's talent that you only see once in a blue moon, and for that it is commendable.

Easily the character on note, Hitori "Bocchi" Gotoh is the one that everyone in the production staff team is looking out for, being the weird oddball that's different from everyone else. Of course, trying to manage expectations on how to be sure on animating Bocchi's 1001 expressions is no easy task, so a balance is necessary, because while Bocchi inflicts us the audience being oh-so-freakishly relatable with her poor communication skills, making sure not to come off too strong or otherwise, making those watching feel bad. One thing about Hitori is that she also possesses extraordinary skills, so Saito-san and his team strived to depict both her positive and negative traits as a character in a memorable way, making the audience laugh when she does something weird, but also make her especially captivating when she shows off her cool side from time to time. This is especially for Kerorira, making his debut as both character designer animation director, that the obscene fan of the manga has a lot on his plate to consider as well. It's not just the extreme introvert herself that he has to contend with, but also considering the others as well (Ryo, Nijika and Kita) in their unique expressions as well. One thing that Geoff Thew of Mother's Basement actually captured when it comes to character designs, comes with the characters' hair positions that tell us something about them: Nijika’s antenna, for example, is a simple triangle, and Hitori’s tied-up hair isn’t actually connected. This is due in part to depicting anime-like designs that aren’t possible in reality and was a major necessity to create character designs that look appealing at first sight than those that conform to reality.

But Bocchi the Rock! isn't so much about Hitori herself, it's the others that help Bocchi be a better girl that as socially inept as she is, it's a growing journry that fits the confines of a coming-of-age melodrama in the most hilarious way possible. Starting with Nijika Ijichi herself, the founder of Kessoku Band and the group's drummer, she stands as one of the most understanding and caring members of the group being the general extrovert, and always constantly holds Bocchi together in helping her deal with her social anxiety. It helps that her older sister Seika is also coincidentally the manager-cum-owner of the livehouse located in Shimokitazawa, so the livehouse is actually treated like their main home when gigs are always in abundance. For the band's bassist Ryo Yamada, other than the requirement not to date the 3Bs of "Bassist, bassist, bassist", Ryo may seem like an introvert, but she is in fact a loner by choice (get the distinction right, folks). The aloof, quiet and mischievous girl with a cool demeanor and a bisexual appearance, she is the epitome of cheap molasses, as everything in life is served to her palate, be it food or allowance money, even to the point of eating weeds just to survive. Last but not least, the band's vocalist-cum-(formerly) guitarist Ikuyo Kita herself, the extreme extrovery with her oh-so-gleaming "Kita~aura" that it's hard to resist her claims, especially when shoved towards Bocchi's face. But her real reason of escapism from Kessoku Band because of her infatuation with the bisexual-looking Ryo and the general expectations from people to promise them like a people-pleaser, man it just hits hard when even Kita herself is vulnerable to the human conforming mindset that really, no character is 100% perfect, and each and every member's SWOT Analyses are what band the rag-tag group together as they aim for stardom. Oh, and for the eagle-eyed of you who are into Anisong, did you notice something striking? Just look into the family names of the 4 girls, and you'll soon realize that they're derived from one of the legendary J-Rock bands of all time: AKFG a.k.a Asian Kung-Fu Generation, with their instrumental roles being an obvious match: Hitori like Masagumi Gotoh on rhythm guitar, Nijika like Kiyoshi Ijichi on drums, Ryo like Takahiro Yamada on bass, and Ikuyo like Kensuke Kita on lead guitar, but also being lead vocals.

A special mention would be the side characters, most particularly Kikuri Hiroi: the alcoholic who spends her money on booze (or beer as is known elsewhere), encountering Bocchi and striking out a deal with her to do a live, impromptu performance out on the streets, taking a chance for the extreme Hikikomori herself to overcome her fears in front of the general public. What you may not know is that the psychedelic rock band SICK HACK's lead bassist and vocalist herself, like Bocchi an the rest, they do share their last names with another real-life band: 88Kasyo Junrei a.k.a 88Kasyo, with Kikuri herself being like Margaret Hiroi, adjectively described as "the bassist, singer and the gang's mastermind". Not to be outdone, Hitori's family shold be given credit here as well for their role in bringing up the once-labelled Hikikomori herself: father Naoki, mother Michiyo, younger sister Futari (which means two people) and the pet dog JimiHen. If you have to start a comedy somewhere, why not from the family itself? Futari is easily a savage character in front of her Onee-san, and as much as she wants to gush of Hitori's greatness, it comes at the cost of the older sister's warped mentality to respond to things that she doesn't mean literally.

CloverWorks has done a fair few SoL shows in that regard (see Slow Start and this year's CGDCT offerings), but Bocchi the Rock! has got to be the studio's biggest undertaking since its separation from A-1 Pictures, and even then, it's only on the cusps of people relations and knowing who to find and perfect this ordinary looking 4-koma manga adaptation. I've already gushed at how utterly and brillantly magnificent are the production team's efforts at elevating Aki Hamaji's manga, and for the first-time debuts like Keiichiro Saito and Kerorira, if not for producer Shouta Umehara having that fine level of trust that young-uns can make it into the industry (a level that was once had for the controversial Wonder Egg Priority) with relative experience under their belt, it's like the adage of "nothing ventured, nothing gained". It's a risk, but a risk that while the reception in Japan is lukewarm to say the least, it bombed everywhere else outside of Japan. In a glorifyingly great way to end 2022 as THE golden year for CGDCT anime.

The one oddity is that while series director Keiichiro Saito's team has full creative control of the anime, the OST is where things could've gone awry. And especially since this is an Aniplex-produced show, tensions run high since the music production falls into the hands of Aniplex themselves, and Saito-san had to be careful with his consultation with the music team on what works and what doesn't. Because even such a minor slip-up can cause the biggest of headaches that potentially could detract the viewing experience, and hearing this from producer Shouta Umehara himself, the biggest issue with the completely separated entity was whether the musical direction that the mangaka Aki Hamaji had envisioned for Bocchi the Rock! and Kessoku Band could be carried out, and thankfully that’s one area in which Aniplex really gave it their all. And it sounds absolutely fantastic, from the OP/ED theme songs and even the insert songs when Kessoku Band is called to enact performances.

A few ways to really describe Bocchi the Rock!'s overall stupefying quality is of these examples:
- It’s like they gave K-On! to someone who adored Hitoribocchi, coupled with stupidly good animation, and a dash of Pop Team Epic sensibilities, combining animation with live action settings and other forms of mixed media.
- Hitoribocchi no Marumaru Seikatsu is a much better comparison. Komi-san wa, Comyushou Desu. a.k.a Komi Can't Communicate's Shoko Komi's introversion is so over the top to the point where it's no longer even believable. Especially since everyone simps for Komi just for existing. But in Hitoribocchi, Hitori Bocchi is a loner, but wants to make friends and break out of her shell. Hitori Gotou in Bocchi the Rock! is the exact same way.

But if there's one takeaway about Bocchi the Rock!, something to really drill in the mind is that in the typical/average project, you would probably expect someone in such a position to draw less than 100 cuts of key animation, but Kerorira’s in charge of somewhere between 500 and 600 cuts, an incredible amount for a key animator that has been in the business now for 2-3 years and growing, now being a monumental figure of the staff team itself. We can say that Kerorira single-handedly carried the anime due to his love and passion that has grown from just social sharings to a full-blown anime production with support from the people he had hoped to work with. His dream is finally realized, and not a lot of people have that tenure of grace to ever be in a totally completely complete directive control of their own anime, say Akane Kazuki with his own created series Hoshiai no Sora a.k.a Stars Align that got the axe at the eleventh hour. Everything else, as they say, is akin to the phrase "Having the world at your feet".

A simple-as-molasses story, ceremoniously hoisted to the impeccable degree with absolute precision and sophistication. Bocchi the Rock! is not just a marvel of how far CGDCT anime have come thus far, but now a symbol/icon of a gold standard in resourcefulness, dedication and passion, just like the other shows in the Fall 2022 season that got their growing reputations respectively. Truly a hidden gem that has long awaited to rise up towards reaching out for the masterpiece medal, and it clinched with many hurdles to overcome, but it eventually did while reaching its intended finish line, cementing itself as the Pinnacle of the Best CGDCT of all time (if by MAL scores alone).

Anime of the Season and Year material? ABSOLUTELY.
Even better than Chainsaw Man? YOU BETCHA.

Reviewer’s Rating: 10

What did you think of this review?

Nice 0

Love it 0

Funny 0

Confusing 0

Informative 0

Well-written 0

Creative 0

More reviews by KANLen09 (809)

Show all

Read more

Show less

Open

Gift

Report

Dec 24, 2022

Gsarthotegga

Mixed Feelings

BtR! is a CGDCT anime that has a little bit of a different focus. While these series usually have a specific character who gets more emphasis than the rest, it's not uncommon for the authors to deprioritize our main squeeze in favor of the group, and the stories are largely carefree and relatively plotless. I guess if you were to look to literature, most of these stories would roughly fall under third-person objective as a narrative style. Most of the information conveyed is through character action and dialogue, and it's rare to be subjected to internal monologues at length; in contrast, BtR!—aside from occasional observations ... from the other three characters, when Bocchi spaces-out—would most likely be an intensely personal first-person story, reading like a locked diary with embarrassing secrets tucked away. We're constantly inside of Bocchi's head, being exposed to bizarre daydreams and hyperbolic tangents that sometimes spill out for the public and her friends to witness.

First-person narrators are often unreliable narrators, and you can expect a person with extreme social anxiety like Bocchi to be about as unreliable as you can get, for when the behavior is so pronounced, there's a tendency to overthink about... well, everything, especially if it pertains to social interactions. It leads to a lot of mental stimulation that can be overwhelming, which is presented pretty well in the scene where Bocchi plays guitar and sings to memorize basic things most people would just remember without trying—or if they didn't, they wouldn't worry about it so much. There are a lot of aspects to the depiction of social anxiety that are pretty accurate, but it's often heavily exaggerated for comedy, and Bocchi has developed a number of eccentricities and general weirdness that goes beyond mere social anxiety, though these tendencies may have been cultivated due to her isolation. Like, the doggie role-play moment was a tad gross.

While comparisons to K-On! are common because BtR! has a similar skittles-colored high school girl moeblob quadruplet starting a band setup, the hyper-focused navel-gazey themes of self-improvement, and the social anxiety-based and self-deprecating comedy are far removed from the fluffy and light "I'm going to eat the last slice of cake and not get fat" tone of K-On!. However, the comparison is a little more serviceable if you lump in a little Tatami Galaxy for its milder anxieties, frequent first-person monologues, and imaginative segues. Just crank up the social anxiety to 11.

Everything begins and ends with Bocchi. It's all about Bocchi. Let's all love Bocchi! The other girls are a little thin in comparison and are mostly there to serve as fiddles and foils for Bocchi to bounce off of and to fulfill her need for friends. Most of what we learn about Bocchi is through her perception of the world or a visual gag—often imagined—and she accounts for most of the humor. Comedy may be subjective, but the nature of the humor here is highly repetitive, and while mining the many layers of social anxiety for humor is not uncommon in anime, I've rarely seen one milk the cow dry to this extent, leading to a few segments becoming predictable and flatter than Bocchi's face after that creepy sandpaper scene that I don't understand and want to forget. I'm often not convinced the timing is optimal at various points, but the series is decently humorous and more creative than most anime billed as comedy.

The greatest asset to the humor and what makes BtR! a lot better than it would otherwise be are the production values (reception to the manga has been more lukewarm from what I've seen) and the strong character acting. The latter is fine for most of the girls, with probably Nijika receiving some of the better moments, but the animators are quite a bit more inventive with how they handle Bocchi. She'll get more wobbly and moeblobby than usual and even turn into goop; she'll flop around on the ground like a fish, glitching-out to the point that the characters have to reboot her, and I wouldn't bat an eye if they used a windows reboot sound effect as a joke; she gets her face Mr. Potato-headed and molded into a cubist painting; there are also a lot of stylistic shifts during the daydreams and imaginative sequences, which will occasionally involve experimentation with different mediums, including painting, stop-motion figures, live action, and intentionally dated CGI segments; and so on. In recent memory this is one of the few mainstream anime series that has done anything similar, along with Mob Psycho 100. I need to be clear that I might not have finished the series if not for how well the animation complements everything, which already places this above most CGDCT anime in my mind. The creativity enhances the amusement of the scenes far beyond what I would have expected, even when I don't find it to be overly funny.

The other thing is how embarrassing—or cringe, as has often been said—a lot of the scenes are meant to be, which is a double-edged sword. Yes, you can have the characters behave in a way that is so disgustingly gross that even the viewers feel the need to take a shower and scrub until the skin is raw, and this factor can work for humor; or, as an alternative, the authors can present the character as inept, leaving room for self-improvement. Bocchi kind of grapples between the two. She makes a constant show of how much she values her friends, behaving in a ridiculous way that only someone who is naive and has thus far been fully deprived of friendship would behave.

The embarrassment I feel for Bocchi snowballs into absolute disgust on numerous occasions, and sometimes, it's just a bit much. Is Bocchi not only a rock, but did she also live under one? Does something ever become so exaggerated that it just feels forced? Episode 7 being a perfect example, as Bocchi really overdoes everything and has that dumb costume on, and these scenes drag on to no end with unadulterated slow-burn cringe. She truly soars through the heavens on a rollercoaster of cringe, and I can only hope her ride will terminate into a cannon, and she'll be shot into an active volcano (this is actually in the spirit of the show). It's not a very humorous episode, and it doesn't appear the intent was to promote character growth. The episode was not only cringe, but it was practically throw-away cringe. If you gaze for long into cringe, the cringe gazes also into you.

Most of Bocchi's character growth pertains to her becoming a bit more confident playing as part of a band, such as with episodes 6 and 8, leading up to a final performance with a larger audience—as is typical of these kind of stories. She'll improve little by little with other activities, but they keep it slow and with a number of "relapses." I find it hard to be anything but indifferent to Bocchi as a character, as I feel like her personality isn't a whole lot more than a hyper-condensed version of moe social anxiety—which would probably be fine, but we're forced to guzzle so much of it so fast and with so little deviation for 12 whole episodes that I feel like I'm as drunk on social anxiety as the series' alcoholic is on booze. The unique presentation of a very familiar subject makes this more compelling than most portrayals of social anxiety—probably also more charming, due to its visual humor, lighthearted nature, and moeblobber aesthetic, etc. However, in the end, it's just Bocchi taking another metaphorical step up her never-ending daydream staircase toward being a teensy bit more confident.

As for the music, I'll start with Ryou's bit to Bocchi on being yourself and not self-censoring with summertime happy-go-lucky lyrics, when that's not what represents you, and having the integrity to not sell out. Listen, you ice-cold weed wacker, you might have left your old band because they were too sell-out for you, but you're just a little less of a sell-out with your generic j-pop/rock guitar/drum/bass high school moeblob band, which we already have plenty of. Extreme conventionality aside, nothing about what Bocchi does in terms of music is a flaw of the series—other than... I suppose one could argue for Kita's speaking/singing voice being so different and possibly the recordings may not feel as natural or well-integrated as certain other music-based films or series, but there aren't any serious issues in this respect. Some of the songs are catchy, and a few EDs in particular have pretty nice synergy with the simple comic-like visual aesthetic they employ in those instances. The background tracks also fit the scenes well, and the chippy video game sounding one is memorable.

In the end, some of what I found to be not so appealing about Bocchi was in part what made it more watchable than most CGDCT anime: while BtR! was perhaps a bit narrow in focus as a comedic character study depicting social anxiety, the direction felt more purposive. Oddly, I get the same synthesization of style with the other CGDCT anime that aired this season: Do It Yourself!!, because while that series was also meant to be fun and lighthearted, there is a touch of thematic anxiety and a bit more of a guiding hand as well. There is something in the both of them that grounds either from being overly directionless, light, fluffy, and calorie-free as most CGDCT are, yet in totally different ways, and maybe that's a positive shape of CGDCT to come.

Reviewer’s Rating: 5

What did you think of this review?

Nice 0

Love it 0

Funny 0

Confusing 0

Informative 0

Well-written 0

Creative 0

More reviews by Gsarthotegga (160)

Show all

Read more

Show less

Open

Gift

Report

Dec 31, 2022

againn

Not Recommended

Bocchi the Rock! is an unserious CGDCT show that is mostly famous for having tricky animated segments that make good twitter memes, and a JUST LIKE ME protagonist! This is Bocchi za rokku! It totally rocks! I've been told many good things about this one: Firstly that its the only anime to get musicians right, and secondly that its the most unique looking anime ever. ALL TIME BABY.

i dont like it

While other CGDCT usually handle their characters more flippantly to focus on *other* details, Bocchi the Flop expects you to take a cast of cotton-candy-hair colored waifus wholeheartedly. They are really good characters though, with ... distinct personalities. I know this because its shoved down my throat. Also a really neat detail is all of them have different eye colors, it really makes them stand out.
This shows humor is really bad. Many of the jokes don't translate well or at all into English, but even the ones that do aren't funny at all.
"I am the tsuchinoko of Shima-Kitazawa" .. wtf does this even mean? You'd have to be lying to think this is funny. You aren't Japanese, and that's okay.
Speaking of that scene, it is just completely unintelligible and demonstrates the most annoying aspects of Bocchi's character. How would anyone perceive you as an attention whore? You have no friends anyways, nobody cares about you. The character writing is so bogus.

I just want to be real:
Bocchi is not just like you. Bocchi is a cute, high school girl with friends and is in a band. She may be a caricature of someone with social anxiety, but she has charisma. She has huge boobs that didn't make it apparently to the anime. She has a dog, a cute little sister and a nice mother and a father who we can't see his eyes because this show is deeply unserious.
Imagine that, imagine taking a show seriously when the only non-joke male character in the universe is being censored like he is in some porn to avoid some dissonance of my cute girl utopia. ITS HER FUCKING DAD. Look, I understand the desire to see through your own character flaws by projecting them onto cute anime girls, in that way they don't' seem like flaws anymore, more like cute quirks. But even though I get it, I find it saddening in a way.

Reviewer’s Rating: 5

What did you think of this review?

Nice 0

Love it 0

Funny 0

Confusing 0

Informative 0

Well-written 0

Creative 0

More reviews by againn (4)

Show all

Read more

Show less

Open

Gift

Report

Highest Rated Anime Of The 2020s (No Sequels/Donghua)

by eroguy

50 Entries · 57 Restacks

For those that have good taste | Elitist Reviews

by naxypoo

28 Entries · 53 Restacks

Moeblobs

by GrumbleDango

43 Entries · 81 Restacks

Second Season of 'Bocchi the Rock!' Announced

The Kessoku Bando ZEPP TOUR 2024 "We will" announced a second season for the Bocchi the Rock! television anime on Saturday. The official website also revea...read more

Feb 15, 2025 8:48 AM by DatRandomDude | Discuss (42 comments)

Aniplex Announces Lineup for Aniplex Online Fest 2024 [Update 9/13]

Aniplex announced the schedule and lineup for its annual Aniplex Online Fest event on Friday. Aniplex Online Fest 2024 is set to begin on September 16 at 12:00 p.m....read more

Aug 19, 2024 9:01 AM by Snow | Discuss (5 comments)

	Poll: Bocchi the Rock! Episode 4 Discussion ( 1 2 3 4 5 ... Last Page ) KANLen09 - Oct 29, 2022	288 replies	by Jorminster »» Dec 23, 2025 7:22 AM
	Poll: Bocchi the Rock! Episode 12 Discussion ( 1 2 3 4 5 ... Last Page ) KANLen09 - Dec 24, 2022	817 replies	by Drenier »» Dec 18, 2025 11:56 AM
	Bocchi VA's live vocal. animelatonina - Dec 10, 2025	0 replies	by animelatonina »» Dec 10, 2025 6:35 AM
	Poll: Bocchi the Rock! Episode 10 Discussion ( 1 2 3 4 5 ... Last Page ) KANLen09 - Dec 10, 2022	252 replies	by DmonOfKombat »» Dec 10, 2025 1:59 AM
	Poll: Bocchi the Rock! Episode 1 Discussion ( 1 2 3 4 5 ... Last Page ) KANLen09 - Oct 8, 2022	497 replies	by ydsurluvhsm »» Dec 7, 2025 2:01 PM