"It was perfect, perfect, everything. Down to the last minute details.” I've always wondered about what would be the manifestation of this very quote and in the form of visual-storytelling art, "Bocchi the Rock!" might be one of the closest answers I know. Comedies, cute girls doing cute things, struggles of a socially anxious person, even music. The 12 episodes show has it all, but that's not exactly the amazing part. What's more is how it did them right, all together, even set beyond-reach standards for each of the aspects. Bocchi the Rock! drew its starting line by solidly introducing Bocchi and her social anxiety
...
that comes as a problem to her. The first minutes show how she always failed to be part of the crowd, while wanting to be one, due to her difficulties in facing social situations. Bocchi's situation was briefly and concisely described with spot-on scenes, enough dia/monologues, and creative animations as the cherry on top, making the introduction of the anime, the main character, and the show's main driver all at once, a perfect ten.
Bocchi the Rock! then continues its flawless beginning with the adventure of Bocchi in overcoming her social problems and I love how so many struggles of her as a socially anxious person were shown, an important aspect that I found similar anime in the past lacking. How she always easily assumes that people are thinking negatively towards her, how she always wanted to change but it's very hard to, how she constantly gets worried and dwells over her problems, and so on. These details played a crucial role in understanding her character.
Throughout Bocchi's adventure, there were several factors impacting her growth but there was one that I found very interesting and want to point out. It's the dynamics between her and the characters surrounding her. For instance, Ryo wanting to be alone made Bocchi distinguish between "lonely" and "solitude" and Kikuri pushing Bocchi persuasively to be brave results in Bocchi trying to take steps forward. Bocchi's inner monologues after which show her thoughts about those moments, including her realizations regarding how they helped in pushing her change, put another plus point to her writing. "I've never had any enemies, it's just my imagination" was on point and hits hard, no? With such writing that deeply immersed me in Bocchi, her resolve and acts in fighting and overcoming her problems feel very natural, reasonable, and satisfying. What's more, I also love how her realistic characterization doesn't stop there. While she did grow, she didn't magically solve all her problems and became the "perfect" person already. It's shown how she still often struggles in facing and talking to people and all even in the last episode, the point where she has changed and grown a lot.
Moving on, the anime has also other characters who were done justice with a lot of screen time (even ones without Bocchi's appearance), A LOT that I was made confused at first if the anime was really meant to be centred on Bocchi. The good part about this is every screen time was effectively used, like to explore the characters and build their role to both Bocchi and the story. Even when the "serious" part of the characterization is set aside, the screen time was used for god-tier gags and trivials. On top of enough exploration that pushed my understanding and immersion of them, they also have distinct characters which were carried out consistently throughout the show with acts and dialogues fitting their respective personality, fusing the anime with even more colours. Lastly, at least that's how I think, each of the characters, even the ones who only appeared for a mere minute was very lovable and interesting to the point that I believe if there were side stories about them, the community would absolutely feel enthusiastic, every time. For example, how kessoku band members apart from Bocchi never once judged her while knowing her quite deeply made me adore their chemistry, lack of PA-san and Kikuri backgrounds interests me in knowing, wholesomeness of the first two kessoku band NPC fans curious me, and so on.
All that has been said, I need to remind you that Bocchi the Rock! is a COMEDY and CUTE GIRLS DOING CUTE THINGS (CDGCT) anime. While it may be the main plot driver, Bocchi's journey and everything around it is only one part of the show and actually took a minor amount of minutes. Now, an anime that explores a character's hardships deeply must be a typical serious drama-focused, no? What can it do with something that might ruin its core theme: comedies? If you ask that to Bocchi the Rock!, I can imagine an answer of "We can do, a lot!" or the like of it. The comedy itself—setup and punch line, can't be said as revolutionary because I've seen ones with the same formula and even to some degree, funnier. How they're delivered with a groundbreaking animation, however, brought me an entirely new humour experience. What's so special about the animation is it has fresh and unexpected art styles that I never thought could come out of an anime. Not just that, the said art styles were also varying throughout the show. Live-action footage, pencil-drawn objects, pixel-styled frames, even 3Ds. The art styles were like I'd never seen and the show keep bringing them new variations in each comedy episode to episode like it's nothing. It's like the anime isn't satisfied with just one "Woah, damn".
Actually from the first episodes, I've kind of noticed that the anime must be an adaptation of something like 4-panel manga from how the jokes were delivered. After knowing the fact that it's indeed adapted from a 4-panel manga, I came to appreciate the show even more. The very reason is how it can carry out the jokes with such direction, one that surely needs a lot of effort and is unique of its kind, one that I think if every 4-panel manga were to be adapted like this, then the people behind will be having the hardest time of their lives.
Already having godly animation in comedies, I really thought that the staff would be already too tired to put lots of effort into the other aspects, just for me to be proved wrong in the end. Animation in all aspects outside of the comedies was also done extraordinarily and consistently, from the composition in portraying dramatic scenes, the overall motion and facial expressions of the characters, to the angles in music scenes.
Wait, did I just mention "music" before? Oh yeah, Bocchi the Rock! is actually an anime about music too! Well, it does have "rock" in its title. For this, I can say that the songs are technically well-made and the meanings meant to be expressed were seized well by the lyrics. But most importantly, were they good? This is a very subjective matter but at least for me, the typical Japanese Rock songs the show has composition-wise are beauties to the ears in different degrees for each song. Some I'm literally addicted to, some I never listened to at all. On the overall sound outside the music, I found that the voice acting and sound effects were very remarkable, especially in the comedy scenes. The former was splendidly performed while the latter was unique, both put the comedies to life by complementing the animation so well.
At the time this is written, Bocchi the Rock! is almost a year old but the hype around it is still as lively, at least to the niche community. I then wondered and found my best answer that might not just answer the hype's longevity, but also why people like it in the first place. Godly comedies with cute girls—which made the show and characters in it "meme-able" and love-able from the start. The community got a huge supply to keep the hype train going or even grow with this, which it succeeded in as can be seen from the memes, fanarts, to discussions. I personally got into the wave mainly on Twitter and Reddit and they talk literally about anything from the show but the ones that appeared day in and out were memes derived from the funny-cute-idiotic the anime is. Very wholesome and I'm (we're) loving it.
While Bocchi the Rock! was perfect overall, I do have some (minor and unimportant) criticism like how Kita was initially recruited as the main vocal but the anime never really talked about it. It's also seen how lots of people love her singing (which indicates her vocal is at least improved from unbearable) but the rest of the band members or any other characters still didn't talk about it. I wish the show could've handled this detail better at the high level it's at. I also have another complaint: I would love it if there were more conversations about music in kessoku band as it was the one that unites them at first and in the early stages of the band when their friendship wasn't that advanced, I think music is the best topic to talk about. Besides that, I also was going to whine about some other small details but in the end, they were always explained clearly, like when I thought guitarhero's channel was forgotten as a plot device but then it's explained that Bocchi is too busy to be active there. Lastly, WHERE IS PA-SAN WHY IS HER SCREEN TIME SO LITTLE SHE'S TOO PRECIOUS TO BE ABANDONED LIKE THAT. Oh yeah, I also love how pure Ryo's dumbness is, the purest of the purest dumbness. Hence, I hope the anime's continuation, if there will be any, would give more of those two.
Perfect directing, writing, comedy, animation, even music. It's like everyone behind Bocchi the Rock! in each respective role was having fun in making such quality production. After wondering about the word "perfect", now I wonder what drives one to put that word into reality. With the pace where things were explained slowly and detailed, there's a huge space that can be filled by the show's continuation. If there be any, I hope it'll be touching, hilarious, and amazing at the same time again.
By the way, "Guitar, Loneliness, and Blue Planet" clears your favourite anime song.
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Oct 9, 2023
Bocchi the Rock!
(Anime)
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"It was perfect, perfect, everything. Down to the last minute details.” I've always wondered about what would be the manifestation of this very quote and in the form of visual-storytelling art, "Bocchi the Rock!" might be one of the closest answers I know. Comedies, cute girls doing cute things, struggles of a socially anxious person, even music. The 12 episodes show has it all, but that's not exactly the amazing part. What's more is how it did them right, all together, even set beyond-reach standards for each of the aspects. Bocchi the Rock! drew its starting line by solidly introducing Bocchi and her social anxiety
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Feb 8, 2023
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With the premise stated strong and bold, continuation to that premise felt a bit off. Instead of responding properly to Lanzhu (where she doesn't like the idea of being an idol of the ... 
Jan 10, 2021
Tsuki ga Kirei
(Anime)
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Tsuki ga Kirei (As The Moon, So Beautiful) is a really enjoyable and refreshing piece that has been years staying still on my plan-to-watch list until today, and I regret a little bit for not watching it earlier.
It is a school-life romance, it is light, but it's not bad, rather it's very good, so good that I finished the twelve episodes in two sittings (will be one if it's not for restroom and evening pray). I used to think that the show is just a generic drama and romance packed in a school life setting. Well, it's still a romance story between school student characters ... |
