'Rock Is a Lady's Modesty' or Rock Lady for short, is one of the anime I looked forward to watching during Spring 2025. It's about a bunch of posh (and one wanna be posh) girls rebelling against the identity they're expected to hold.

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§ Overview

Suzunomiya Lilisa plans to make a mark in Oushin Girls' Academy, a prestigious institution for upper-class ladies. She wants to earn the title of Noble Maiden in order to prove her worth, as she is not truly upper-class.

She had to abandon what she is really passionate about: playing the guitar.

Lilisa had to confront this reality when she met Kurogane Otoha, a possible rival to the title of Noble Maiden, who was secretly playing the drums in an abandoned school building.

__________________________ § Notes

Except for the CGI used in the motion capture sequences as they perform, the visuals here are great. The school looks grand and posh. This is like Lillian Girls' Academy from Maria-sama ga Miteru, aka Marimite, but with an architecture that makes the school overwhelmingly grand.

Screenshots from Rock Lady

Many people would just think that it's about making it look cool. After all, a posh school is supposed to look magnificent.

I, however, cannot help but be reminded of the visual language of two films: 1) Bernardo Bertolluci's masterpiece The Conformist (1971), and 2) The Favourite (2018) by Yorgos Lanthimos.

The Conformist explores Marcello's sexual repression and conformity under Fascist Italy. You can't help but notice the spacious buildings dwarfing an individual. This is a visual metaphor for fascism, and this quote by Mussolini sums it up: "All within the state, nothing outside the state, nothing against the state."

__Screenshots from _The Conformist___

A different form of suffocation can be seen in The Favourite (2018). The women in this film engage in lesbian relationships, and the use of wide-angle and fish-eye lenses signifies alienation based on hierarchy and social class. Whilst the Conformist is the quintessential example, The Favourite's use of its spacious interiors is much relevant to how Rock Lady frames the school.

__Screenshots from _The Favourite___
__________________________ Having this visual language in mind, Rock Lady's repression is more about class rather than sexuality. Unlike Lilian Academy, which is an all-girls Catholick school, Oushin Girls' Academy is just about class.

The yuri subtext of Marimite is subversive of the Catholick Church's explicit doctrines against homosexual/lesbian relationships. Rock Lady's subversion takes it to the next level. It's an open rebellion to the trappings of upper-class ladies. We sometimes hear them hurling insults at each other and openly cursing each other.

__________________________ Lilisa is expected to like high-brow literature such as Shakespeare, which, by the way, wasn't high-brow when it first came out, as well as traditional Japanese instruments, and this is seen in its mise-en-scène. In the hierarchy of beautiful musick, it is generally agreed that classickal musick sits at the top, and all forms of pop musick, including rock, sit at the bottom of the totem pole.

Numerous instances of this anime's humour lie in how they lead a double life and poke fun at class differences.

Despite these ladies' rebellion, they still have to do their lady-like façade at school, and it remains to be seen how these ladies will be received once the school administrators learn that they are also playing rock instruments.

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Take a look at this Reddit link.

Musick enthusiasts point to where Rock Lady could have presented itself better, and that as a band show, Bocchi the Rock is the better anime. Be that as it may, as an anime viewer without such knowledge, I would have never guessed. That's why I think Rock Lady's use of musick is good enough for what it was trying to show, i.e., loud and proud, banging their heads against the demure behaviour expected of ladies.

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As hinted earlier, some will not like the liberal use of CGI whenever they are playing instruments. I don't think this is a big deal, but it might be for others.

__________________________ The three anime I mentioned, 1) Marimite, 2) Bocchi the Rock, and 3) Rock Lady, don't explicitly call their characters lesbians, but you can sense that the female characters are attracted to each other. That's why a number of people call them yuri despite the absence of explicit romance. Whether these are called yuri, Class S, or yuri bait, it's irrelevant. My point is that all three have different flavours.

Marimite feels distinctively feminine. Bocchi the Rock is more 'unisex.' It doesn't lean too feminine or too masculine.

Rock Lady appears to be masculine, or at least an all-girls cast I've seen with much masculine energy. It doesn't mean that girls can't enjoy rock musick. It's just that historically, rock was a projection of masculine bravado. Having said that, Rock Lady subverts that and projects much of the same energy, especially when you also consider how they are also rebelling against the prim and proper lady behaviours they are supposed to display.

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§ Conclusion

'Rock Is a Lady's Modesty' or Rock Lady is a highly entertaining show. One may be attracted to it as a band show, but ultimately, it's about class subversion and also individuality and nonconformity.

NOTA BENE: A grade of 7 out of 10 [or a 70 out of 100 in anilist] means that I find this anime is very good and two notches above average. I enjoyed watching it.

It is a high score because it is two notches above average. It's not mid or average, unlike the misconception of some people on this site.

My enjoyment spectrum lies from 4 to 10. If I have scored an anime below 4, I actively dislike it.