ぼっち・ざ・ろっく！
Synopsis
Bocchi the Rock! is about 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.
Review
There is much to be said about this year’s fall lineup. After years of waiting for it to be adapted, the near legendary Chainsaw Man was finally adapted into an anime. Many, including myself, have been eagerly waiting every Tuesday for a new episode, and so far it has been an amazing experience. This month has had some other great seasonal as well, including Eminence in Shadow, Do it Yourself, To Your Eternity S2, More than a Married Couple, which have all been quite fantastic. Now how does all of this relate to Bocchi. I have been most looking forward to new episodes for this series more than any any other seasonal this Fall. There are reasons behind this, both on the anime itself and through personal connections, so here they are.
The anime itself is nothing we haven’t seen before. Music focused CGDCT is something that we have all seen plenty before with shows like K-On!. The main catch with this is that the main character is a extreme social anxiety ridden guitarist who tries to join a band. Hitori Gotou (nicknamed Bocchi, her name literally means “alone”) is set up as a character to relate to. Her struggles with school and social ineptitude are things that a lot of past and present students can relate to. Her mannerisms and her personality really drive this series, which makes her very likeable. It’s not like her supporting cast aren’t well rounded as well, all three of her bandmates all have their quirks and interests that make them stand out and add much needed diversity.
The art style is more unique than what you’d think at first. It has a mix between actual realistic depictions and absolute absurdity, making the whole anime have a quirk to it that I find really appealing. Mixing that with each of the characters really creates a funny disposition. For real, this show is hilarious. In regards to the realistic depictions (basing this off of my own musical knowledge), the instrument playing is spot on. It isn’t going to be put on a new Stevie T guifaker video anytime soon. The instrument companies and instruments themselves are also picture perfect to their real life counterparts. Actual attention to detail is put into the presentation, which adds nicely to the experience.
Music focused anime must have a good soundtrack, and Bocchi does not let up at all. The songs created for the band are all really good. There’s not much to say in the way of this since it’s up to personal preference, but it is all well produced and is actually released under the in-universe name (Kessoku, or “ziptie” in Japanese). The performances in the anime that the band does perform are expertly crafted in terms of animation and music, which makes them a treat to listen too.
Overall the anime is a great entry on it’s own. It’s funny, it’s entertaining, and it’s relatable. What sells this anime more for me is through personal connections. As a fellow social anxiety ridden bedroom guitarist, this show panders to me in a way that is almost uncanny. It touches on subjects that I myself struggle with, which really makes it that much better. Through these liaisons and the show’s great content, I find myself earning for more. I am very excited to see what the next episodes have in store, so I will patiently wait for those grueling Saturday’s to come so I can tune in again.
I originally posted this a week or so, but I wanted to add a bottom part here to address what is undoubtedly the worst part of this show. This isn’t within the media itself, but what it has brought upon it. I’m talking about the fans. Look, I love this anime. It really is a contender for best of the year for me, and the fact this is almost neck and neck with Chainsaw Man is nothing short of mind blowing. But I have noticed that those who rank this highly are way too outward about it. I’m guilty of it too, but I can tell when people go overboard on it. The top review for this show as of now is a negative one, and the person who posted it has had his comments spammed with hateful messages. I personally don’t agree with it, I think comparing K-On! to Bocchi is a poor way of judgement, but do they really have to harass him. I get pretty much any anime fanbase has these issues, but due to Bocchi’s relatively small viewer base, it’s more prominent here. Ranting aside. I hope the fanbase doesn’t deter, because Cloverworks really has something special here, and I’d hate for anybody to miss it because of other’s problems.
