BOCCHI THE ROCK!
a review by lnamaru
a review by lnamaru
Honestly, I don’t really think I can verbalize how much I love BOCCHI THE ROCK! and what made me love it so much. Well, I will try my best on it.
With that being said, here we go, a quick review of my Anime of the Season, BOCCHI THE ROCK!
Adapting a YonKoma manga from Manga Time Kirara with the same title by Aki Hamaji, BOCCHI THE ROCK! is a story about Hitori (Bocchi) Gotoh, a lonely pink-haired girl who has some social anxiety which kind of inhibits her from interacting with other people and socialize with her classmates.
In this given situation, when she felt impossible to say hi and started a convo with her classmates, what do you think she would do?
Yes, waiting for someone to start a convo with her.
But, to actually have a good convo, it’s ideal to have the same interest in a particular topic to talk about. Like hobbies, idols, films, or anything. Fortunately, Bocchi is inspired to become a guitarist after seeing an interview on TV with a guitarist of a band saying that he used to be the guy who pretends to read in the corner of the classroom and had no friends, but, even introverts have a chance to shine in a band. Electrifies with a sort of relation to him, Bocchi took an interest to became a guitarist herself.
Then, someone would start a convo with her when she shows that she loves rock bands you think? Nope. She spent all her mid-school days without someone even bothering to talk to her even when she brought A LOT of rock band goods and even his dad’s guitar.
That’s all and all, until a certain yellow-haired -topped with a Doritos- girl, invites her to replace a guitarist in her band who happens to be a runaway.
And the rest is history …
Finding a fragment of oneself in a media grew some kind of relations, connections, sort of shootouts, and validations, that what actually one felt, experienced, and thought, is actually real. That one is not the only one. That one is not alone. Hence why, when it comes to media/works that actually one finds relates to them, it’ll hit different.
That is what BOCCHI THE ROCK! is all about.
The social anxiety gestures, traits, and behaviors that this anime shows maybe sometimes were kinda over-the-top and exaggerated. But most of it, maybe not on that dramatic level, is actually related as f*ck, and felt like a personal attack. The way Bocchi walks back and forth in front of Starry, the way she overthinks what she should say when came to a restaurant on how to open the door and how to order, the way she procrastinates laying in her room with smartphones, the way she overthinks inside her head when interacting with someone, the way she reacts and thinks on social media. Most of them so felt like ‘she’s just like me fr fr’. Little details, small acts, that often overlooked by the majority of the community, but when it is felt by those who actually do the same, it hits different.
Fall 2022 is a packed season of anime. A lot of great anime airing this season, like you mention it, the long-awaited BLEACH: Thousand-Year Blood War, Chainsaw Man whose fans had hyped it like crazy when it was announced, My Hero Academia reaching its climax, the popular Spy X Family having its second cour, the final arc of Mob Psycho 100, Blue Lock, etc etc. And are you telling me that an unknown anime called BOCCHI THE ROCK! finds its way to be one of those anime that stands on top this season according to many anime rating media on the internet? Why the heck is this happening?
Bocchi the Rock! is now the highest rated non-sequel anime of Fall 2022, passing Chainsaw Man! ?
Like we’ve seen many many many Kirara adaptations. This year, we have Slow Loop, Machikado Mazoku 2-choume, and RPG Fodousan. But they never actually climb their way up in the community to be talked about here and there. The last thing we have is K-On! many many years ago. What on the earth makes BOCCHI THE ROCK! so special?
The thing is its production value.
You see, this anime is slapping you week in and week out this season with full of creativity and stunning stuff in all production aspects. Like, you name it, smooth animation, distinct art style, photo-realistic background, astonishing camerawork, bold directions, stop motions, background music, sound directions, and many more. Enhancing and elevating emotions, feelings, thoughts, gags, convos, and the storytelling itself into the next dimension. Generally, I tweeted about this each week on my Twitter, check on them if you’re interested. Thus, I won’t talk about that in detail, especially what actually happened in the production kitchen. Well, let’s leave that part for sakubuta bros to handle.
All of that while also having reference-rich details as the cherry on top. Like you see, all of Kessoku Band members are actually named after Asian Kung-Fu Generations (Ajikan) members. The same as 12 episodes of BOCCHI THE ROCK!. All of them are named after Ajikan song titles except for episode #08. And if you see it properly and you are well-known about Japanese Rock, most of the band posters on the wall in this anime reference something, like Kana-Boon, Radwimps, Ajikan, and many more. Furthermore, they did some anime and real-life TV shows references.
What I find exceptional about these diverse directional quirks is the balance and rhythm to harmonize them. You see, when it comes to gags and overthink Bocchi, they went wild with the art style and direction, like using stop motions with dolls, popping a real-life ballon, psychedelic visualization, and much more. But then it’s grounded when it comes to serious tone scenes like serious convos. Especially when it comes down to the live performance. They took it so realistically and did exceptionally well to convey the main cast’s rhythm, feelings, and nervousness through small animation gestures and gazes. Not to mention the sound direction in their lives, emuacchh. Also, they use the BGM actually became a switch to change a tone, you will hear a distinct rhythmic BGM when they switch the tone of the show.
With anime becoming more and more popular nowadays, we’ve seen many anime going to become a kind of trend on the internet. Remember earlier this year we’ve seen how Marin Kitagawa becoming everyone’s waifu, how Anya Forger and family finding their way to gain popularity across mainstream fans, how people hyping Chainsaw Man adaptation and endlessly barking along the way, also how Lycoris Recoil is having one of the most iconic lesbian couples of all time while having an absurd amount of fanart throughout the internet, not to mention its ending song was so iconic that it’s becoming a meme itself.
Picking up the baton, BOCCHI THE ROCK! finds its own way to break the internet. The memes, fanarts, and what I find it impressive is the trend with #BTRbandparody where album covers of many bands are getting parodies with Bocchi-themed fanarts. This trend actually was following a lot of JRocks references that Aki Hamaji has done in the manga.
Well, that’s all that I can talk about BOCCHI THE ROCK!
Kinda happy that many people enjoy anime from my niche which rarely anyone enjoying them as much as I did. With all the experience and enjoyment that I got from this show, personally, I would give a solid 10/10.
that’s all, folks.
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