Introduction

Music anime to me is a grey area for me, I've not watched much but I've gathered they either hit or miss. Sometimes you get Kids on the Slope, a story rich anime that uses music to drive home the themes of romance and friendship and their importance to life. Then you get something like Anonymous Noise which... Yea the less said the better.

BOCCHI THE ROCK! is probably the first music anime that has actually left me conflicted. I can't tell if I actually like it or if I feel like I've wasted my time, so if you want to join me in deciding how I feel about this anime, carry on reading.

Plot Summary

Honestly writing these is a massive pain and they're boring, so instead I decided to just make it on photoshop instead:

Thoughts

BOCCHI THE ROCK! has actually insane animation. For a slice of life music anime you wouldn't expect the animators to go so hands on with the animation. Lets take something like Kanon for example. Obviously comparing 2006 to 2022 is not fair, but Kanon has more methodical animation, characters don't often express themselves through animation but dialogue, with emotion shown subtlety most of the time with characters occasionally breaking down with emotion spewing out, it feels a lot more grounded in reality like most slice of life. BOCCHI THE ROCK! uses animation to convey not just emotion but just things almost all the time and in every single episode. Half the time it feels like a fever dream, switching between anime, old art, chibi animation, descending into the shadow realm and even using a 3D physics engine. Its abundance of different animation styles that it uses blew me away along with everyone else who has watched it.

The music is like okay. I don't hate it but I don't love it. I think good music generally in anime makes you associate it with something that occurs in that anime like Moanin in Kids on the Slope or the piano version of the dango dango song in Clannad After Story that still reminds me of the trauma the anime gave me. BOCCHI THE ROCK! doesn't really have anything but an opening that's better than average at least, it doesn't stand out at all to me or remain in my memory. In short kessoku band is 'mid'.

The show uses characters to create a fun and loving cast that bounce off each other to create light hearted humour. Hitori is the introvert that can't talk, Nijika who seems to be the only normal one of the group, Ryou who doesn't display emotion and tries to look cool at all times and finally you have Kita who is the token extrovert who seemingly can talk to anyone. While you won't be laughing out loud in hysterics over what happens, its still funny in the way of 'oh that's funny'. It didn't make me chuckle because I'm a miserable sod but its sure to get a few out of most people who watch it.

I've seen loads and loads of people say that BOCCHI THE ROCK! displays being a introvert in a great and sometimes even realistic way. While I doubt most people would go as far as to say its realistic, I hate the representation of being a introvert in this anime. While yes, it does show the difficulties of talking to others for introverts, its too over the top to say its a good interpretation of it. I get this is a comedy as well as a music slice of life anime, so having a characters traits exaggerated makes sense. However having Hitori unable to do everyday tasks and unable speak to her friends most of the time is in no way a good way of presenting being an introvert. I'm an introvert and I am more quiet and socially awkward than most people, however that doesn't mean I am incapable of having a good flowing conversations with my friends or not being able to speak to someone in a music shop to buy something I want. This is one of my major gripes with this anime and I hate when this is brung up. Being an introvert may be like that for some people, but for me it is no where near that bad.

Also the story for me doesn't like exist. I love story in anime and a bad one or even a lack of one is a deal breaker for me. I love the likes of Clannad, Kanon and When They Cry because they all have rich story that interconnects together into a coherent piece, bringing events from the past, present and future all together to create a enhanced and satisfying viewing experience. I'd say BOCCHI THE ROCK! falls into the category of 'there is a lack of story' because there is a clear premise don't get me wrong but it really isn't a main focus in my opinion and doesn't affect anyone except for maybe some character development for Hitori which works for like a couple of minutes or maybe even for the rest of the episode before she goes back to her usual introverted self. Its somewhat saved by the humour the characters create and the animation being amazing but the lack of story holds it back from being a great anime.

Conclusion

Do I like this anime? Yes, its hard to argue that this anime is just bad. The animation that takes you aback in astonishment and a great cast of characters all unique from one another makes it impossible to hate this anime. However because of the lack of story, I cant justify giving it above a 70. If this anime had more story to it than 'do music thing' (which I know sort of defeats the point of a music anime but Kids on the Slope could do it) then it would break past a 70 easily, but because it doesn't so its a 65/100. Have a good day, stay safe and thanks for reading (please don't kill me for this review).