Unless you’re a completely new anime fan, you’ve probably heard of Bocchi the Rock!. If you’re a new fan, welcome! When it debuted in fall 2023, it was an easy crowd-pleaser thanks to the way it combined a cute-girl anime aesthetic with classic indie rock sensibilities, with a touch of humor. understandable social anxiety and cross-media visual style.. Over a year later, Crunchyroll has finally seen fit to grant it one of its rare physical releases. But is it worth the money to have it on the shelf, or should you keep streaming? EH….
Original story published on Manga Time Kirara Max. This seinen magazine launched during the moe revolution of the mid-’00s and has steadfastly maintained its image, along with its sister magazines, as the go-to source for manga about cute working girls. This means Bocchi the Rock! published in conjunction with series such as Is the order a rabbit? and Stella’s Magic. Without going into my personal feelings about the genre, their typical fare appeals to what is now a niche audience. So what makes Bocchi the Rock! A breakout hit?
The plot description sounds like any other moe girl band show: Hitori Gotoh has social anxiety so severe that she’s never actually had a friend. One day, while watching TV, she saw an interview with a rock band, and the frontman described that when he was in school, he used to sit all day in the back of the room, never talking to anyone. . Hoping to repeat his success, she borrows her dad’s old guitar and gets really into rock music, hoping it will help her gain friends. But she’s still not good at talking to people, so she ends up hunkering down in the closet to practice. Therefore, she may not make friends but she is famous on YouTube for her guitar playing skills.
Her life changes when she sits in the park with a guitar, feeling sorry for herself and unable to make friends, and another girl her age runs up to her and introduces herself as Nijika. Her band, Kessoku Band, has a gig coming up, but they just lost their guitarist and desperately need a new one, at least for the evening. Hitori agrees, but she is too afraid of being seen on stage. Her new friends, Nijika and Ryo, give her the nickname—Bocchi—and let her hide under a box of mangoes while she plays. But that’s not exactly a recipe for a successful show.
Based on the description alone, I would never have imagined that the series captivated me with the way it ended. The first thing that caught my attention was the music, which was a far cry from the poppy, idol-driven tunes that characterize the majority of girl band shows. Instead, the Kessoku Band’s main influence is the Asian Kung-Fu Generation. This long-running rock band has been one of my favorites throughout my time as an anime fan, as shown by the characters’ last names, which are all taken from the band members. The club they played at, Starry, looked like the dark spots I used to attend as a teenager in Los Angeles, where I saw bands like The Pillows and Rilo Kiley. The music is also reminiscent of that time, solid rock music with a bit of an indie, garage feel but also promises to have mainstream appeal.
There’s also an appealingly acerbic tone in the humorous writing and characters that prevents any creepy hints of schmaltz and keeps things grounded. Bocchi’s crippling anxiety is more than just a cute joke, making her an easy entry point for audiences unfamiliar with indie rock. It goes much deeper than stage fright and awkward stammering; She has a tendency to spiral and become a disaster even when making small social mistakes, which can be painful for some but also enjoyable at the cost of suffering. your loss towards others. She can be downright bitter about her inability to connect with others and has a kind of romanticized youth (left in the subtitles as “seishun”, a translation decision I honestly disagree with ) is featured all over Instagram and is prominent in popular culture. The story often attempts to comment on the emptiness of that ideal, juxtaposing it against the Kessoku Band’s struggles with the realities of being in a band, occasional personality conflicts, and social missteps. other societies, even as they mature as musicians and deepen themselves. friendship. At times, things can go so far as to laugh at Bocchi’s anxiety, which can add to the level of discomfort for those involved with her illness. It’s fun to laugh at the story but not feel funny.
The visual presentation is one of the most unorthodox and creative I’ve encountered outside of intentionally offbeat comedic anime like Pop Team Epic. Under the guidance of relatively new director Keiichirō Saitō, the animation team used a variety of techniques to express Bocchi’s mental state in visually innovative ways. Each episode is cleverly storyboarded, using unusual camera angles and framing. There are also the usual flourishes for anime with a penchant for music and cute girls: close attention to body language in musical scenes that incorporate hand-drawn animation and three-dimensional models, Exaggerated facial expressions in a humorous and detailed, realistic way. performances of musical instruments give any interested viewer a starting point if they want to pursue their interests in real life. They are very well done and some of Bocchi’s expressions have been worthy of being iconic since it aired, but the really special flourishes come when Bocchi has some of her biggest crises . As reality collapses around her, the animation takes drastic changes, using techniques such as stop-motion, felting, and a zoetrope. Best of all, everything is done with purpose and not too much for the sake of redundancy.
I’m a big advocate of buying physical copies of your favorites whenever possible, especially since Sony controls a scary part of the anime market and Blu-ray releases are becoming increasingly rare. rather. That alone is reason enough to buy Bocchi the Rock! for like-minded people. However, if you need attractive rewards to better the deal and give up some of that precious space, I suspect there won’t be enough here to sway your heart. For one thing, there’s no dub. I understand this, considering the unique challenges of dubbing music and the Japanese cast doing a great job, but having only a subtitled version creates accessibility problems. near. The extras are completely uninspired: sanitized versions of opening credits, ending credits, and commercials. A show like this is calling for staff interviews, a feature on unusual animation techniques or even just cleaned-up versions of the insert songs. However, streaming isn’t forever, so if you want to enjoy Kessoku Band’s music or Bocchi’s anxiety attacks forever, go ahead and get this.