I don't really write reviews for singular season Anime but here I am doing so because the 2nd last Bocchi review triggered me leaving a bad taste in my mouth with its arrogant and pedantic tone so I want to bump it out of my sight in the 'recent reviews' tab anyways here it my review of season 1 of BOCCHI DA ROCK.

Is Bocchi DA ROCK a certified masterpiece?? Honestly, I would say it is still too soon to say, I won't put it among the all-time greats yet. And also in terms of its production, it is not really all that groundbreaking. But that does not mean it's not good, it is REALLY good but not from a technical skill standpoint but from a passion and effort standpoint.

To really appreciate how much love and effort is injected into this project you must read a few chapters of the manga it was adapted from. The manga is cute and chill in its own right, it is pretty good, made me chuckle from time to time and surprised me with some warm fuzzy feelings but the Anime adaptation is a different beast. It is straight-up laugh-out-loud comedy. There is a strong commitment to sell EVERY single joke that is presented in the manga no matter how trivial of a joke it may be to the point of absolutely distorting the source material. And this is definitely a RISK they make not only risking the jokes falling flat if they don't land but risking WASTING hours of effort animating just for it to fall flat! And it fucking paid off, as Bocchi the Rock is easily one of the funniest comedies of 2022.

Now how about the WRITING? First of all honestly as a comedy alone it is already a stellar anime series and is good enough to be one of the best of 2022. But the most pretentious people will always harp on to the writing as they describe it as THE CORE, THE MEANING, THE DEEP INTRICACIES OF A SERIES THAT MATTERS THE MOST. And funnily enough in an attempt to sound smart by emphasizing consuming media for the more sentimental qualia they shoot themselves in the foot looking like clowns when they themselves fail to recognize them.

The narrative that is presented in Bocchi the Rock under its bombastic comedic flare is a simple one about finding passion beyond a singular reason. Bocchi as a character is constantly overwhelmed by her social anxiety as she desperately wants to live a fulfilling and happy high school life with friends. She learns the guitar at a young age naively believing that it help her attract attention from people and make friends and technically it worked... just many many years later due to Nijika coincidentally in desperate need of a guitarist. And there sets forth Bocchi's absurd adventure to break out of her shell and fulfil her dream of a happy high school life. Her journey was tough as at the age of 16, it was her first time having friends. She has no idea what are the common and acceptable social etiquettes and it was a fitting comedic premise that persists throughout the entire season. Now with that said it does not mean she does not change as a person she fucking does, slowly, gradually subtly and rightly so and it makes sense not only from a character standpoint as she literally never had friends before for a decade and also from a writing standpoint because it is only the first season. Yes, Bocchi is fundamentally the same character as she was in episode 1 throughout episode 12 but she did change, she did take initiative, break out of her comfort zone to connect with her friends and learn that relationships take effort from both parties. REALLY subtly we get insights into future character backstories and growth from the other members as well which I am sure we will definitely get more into in later seasons.

Bocchi the rock is everything I hope to see in an anime adaptation. Faithful coherence to the source material and yet daring and passionate enough to elevate this source material beyond the rigid 4-Koma pages. I will be honest the music is a tad bit underwhelming which I find is quite a downside for a series about finding friendship through music. But this weakness is more than made up for its stellar comedic execution and solid subtle character writing. Bocchi the Rock is a great adaptation and I and so hyped to see how the production team is going to convert the manga into higher levels of creative lunacy, progression of the characters and introduction of new ones in the future.