This may not surprise you, but I suffer from some social anxiety. I have gotten better in communicating as I grow older, but the pain in my chest constantly worrying about doing something wrong never goes away. I am far from the only one who suffers from this, and some anime have noticed that too. Hitori Bocchi and Watamote come to mind. While the former is a cute comedy and the latter is... a comedy, in terms of a good representation of social anxiety is and feels like, anime hasn't quite reached that yet... until Bocchi The Rock.
"Society is too scary!" - Bocchi
Bocchi follows a social anxiety ridden girl who learned guitar to join a band and become famous, but when the time comes that she actually joins a band she quickly realises that it ain't easy being a social anxiety ridden girl in a band. We then follow the story of the Kessoku Band in their quest to become popular. Most of this specific what you expect from a high school band trying to get big, which is why this is only a part of the anime. Yes, Bocchi The Rock isn't really about the Rock: It is about Bocchi.
Bocchi is the show. We follow her POV most of the time, the comedy is mostly centered around her, it is her story, and she is amazing. She is incredibly socially anxious and constantly monologues in her own head as a coping mechanism. What makes a difference between Bocchi from Bocchi The Rock and other socially anxious protagonists from other anime like Hitori Bocchi and Watamote is that Bocchi is 1. she is hilarious (we will get to that) and 2. she is genuine about her dreams and thus you really empathise with her. While her instincts constantly want her to run away, there is always a sliver of wanting to change herself, even if she overexagerates that sliver in her head. It isn't just that the circumstances around her got her into where she is, but she pushes with the little will she has to do what she knows is right. She learns to talk to people, to look them in the eyes, to ask others to hang out. The character development she gets in this season is subtle but means so much following her story.
And she is only able to get that development with the rest of the cast, which is equally amazing as her. What makes the main four so compelling is that each does so well the represent different character types that you would realistically find in real life.
The yellow haired Nijka is the most dependable of the group. She takes the initiative to really get the band going, and she basically acts as the balancer of all the different personalities in the group (even if that means to tease others). She is just a bowl of sunshine in which we really see how deep her passion and dreams are.
The blue haired Ryou is the quiet loner of the group, by choice that is. She loves doing things by herself, and thus has little interest in other people. She is still able to deliver great comedy, with how she tries to hide how truly incompetent she is in certain life aspects by her cool exterior (especially in money). Even if she feels like a distant figure sometimes, you really come to like her for also her deep rooted passion and just goofiness.
Then we have red haired Ikuyo, the trendy lesbian (like seriously over half her jokes are about how she is down bad for Ryou). Out of the three, she has the most layers as even though she acts as a trendy extrovert with lots of friends, the social anxiety beneath it all slips through. She is still a very genuine character, wanting to support Bocchi not just because she admires her but because she wants Bocchi to succeed too.
The side characters are also amazing, with each of them bringing something unique to the table. Seika, Nijka's big sister, is the adult of the anime, being really blunt but still compassionate. Kikuri is the alcoholic bassplayer who I might relate a little too much with at times. The entire family of Bocchi is are also so eccentric, especially Futari, Bocchi's little sister. I love Futari for being such a bringer of chaos but always doing that out of a childish love for her sister. Her antics are some of the highlights of the show I swear.
Now let's get to the thing you have all been waiting for: the comedy and production. Much of the humor of this show revolves around Bocchi's extreme social anxiety and the scenarios she makes up in her head. It is the classic staple of taking something small and overexagerating it to ridiculous proportions, and the way they over exagerate here is to create some of the best animated scenes of the year, holy crap.
It is quite amazing how they are able to have a joke like "Bocchi is scared about making a social media account" and animate it into Bocchi having a panic attack on the ground with her glitching in reality which cuts to a Junji Ito-esque animation showing why she is scared to make a social media account. This is only one example of how wild Bocchi's imagination gets visualised. The best part about this is that they don't just get creative of how they represent Bocchi's imaginations, but also creative in what animation medium they present it in. It is close to Pop Team Epic how multi-mixed media they get in this show, and it creates some of the most visually impressive and funniest scenes of the year.
But these visuals wouldn't work if the jokes weren't there to back them up, and they back them up. Despite most of the jokes surrounding Bocchi and her antics (which small critique can feel samey), they make them hopelessly relatable and develop them over the course of the anime. It is funny how the cast barely recognise Bocchi's anxious state in the beginning and gradually start to acknowledge and accept it until they get sucked into her anxious state too. Instead of constantly one-upping themselves, I always feel like the comedy in this anime gradually develops with the story and is able to branch out into other characters humor.
One thing I feel like is nearly not enough talked about is the sound of this anime. Holy fuck does this anime sound good, and that isn't just in the music.
Firstly, the voice acting is amazing. You really feel like the characters are talking to each other. Bocchi's voice actress Yoshino Aoyama is especially amazing, doing some incredibly impressive and funny screams of anxiety.
But the real star of the show is the sound design during the musical performances. Okay, the music? Really good, the tracks are pretty catchy and fun to listen to, but when the band performs them the sound design elevates their performances to god tier status'. Instead of just playing the song in full, the production went out of their way to make special performances of the songs. This way they can tell the story not just with the characters lines, not just seeing them visually perform them, but also listening to the mix of the songs. The way that their earlier performances sound sloppy with the intrustements being a bit off key but still hearing that glimmer of something special. Then comes episode 8. Going full into spoiler territory here,
Spoiler, click to view
but when their hyped up public performances comes around in episode 8, and that with their first song you just here how off key and off tempo the band is, it really gives such an uneasy and uncomfortable experience that highlights the low point of the band. So when before the second song Bocchi drops into a solo that makes the whole room silent, and that solo dropping into the song while during the song you hear how good Bocchi's guitar is.. oh my god it gives me feelings I have never felt before during anime watching.
Bocchi The Rock feels like the planets alligned to make this show. An extremely tallented team who were enormous fans of the source material coming together to share their crazy creative ideas to elevate the anime into something funny, memorable and special. I freaking love this anime. I can talk about the little nitpicks I have like the pacing of certain episodes or not all of the comedy hitting, but I don't care it is absolutely perfect. It is perfect enough for me.
This may not surprise you, but I highly recommend you to watch this show. I am sure you will love it too.