Bocchi the Rock!
Watch Links: Crunchyroll
Synopsis: A socially inept, shy girl brings her guitar to school in the hopes of making friends, and upon being noticed by a band in sudden need for a guitarist is sucked into the band and all the shenanigans involved as she struggles to overcome her overly anxious nature.
Score: 8.1/10
This was a good show, and a good time. It's creative, especially in its visual presentation, and I appreciate that quite a lot. The audio-visual presentation on the whole was effective, leaving me only minor gripes here and there. The cast chemistry works quite well here, and I think that carries the show much more than the individual characters on their own. Each character has a few moments where they really stand out, even some of the side characters who see little screen time, but the way they function together is much more effective than any individual spotlight. The cast is aided by some very good expressions, adding not only to the visual comedy, but also to the moments where characters connected. My favorite character is probably Kita, but I ended up liking almost everyone more than I expected by the end. Really only Hitori herself let me down, but part of that was high expectations. Hitori I have a few issues with. There is an aspect to her which adds a wish fulfillment aspect of this show, which isn’t necessarily a bad thing, but it does break my suspension of disbelief at times. Hitori is a hassle, and the show is very quick to put that aside. No one ever really sees Hitori as an inconvenience, and that's very nice and heartwarming, but it does feel like a bit of a fantasy at times, especially early on when Nijika first invites her. This gets better in the back end of the show, partially because their relationship is more established so it makes sense they'd be willing to go out of their way for her more (especially as she has also gone out of her way for them), but also because of the few ways Hitori has improved. That early stretch was kinda rough though, and even in the later parts of the show, Hitori does stuff that made me feel like the characters were unrealistically unfazed by her. I also just find Hitoti so extreme in her anxiety and awkwardness that it's kinda off-putting, but I get that it's also the point. I do think that this portrayal of anxiety does make Hitori's performance on stage seem unrealistically good though. Also, probably one of the most interesting aspects of Hitori as a character is her desire to be admired. This is one of the things about her character I resonated most with, and I thought the divide between her online and IRL perceptions of this were a really neat idea for her character. It unfortunately doesn’t get much focus this season, but with a Season 2 now announced, I’m hopeful we’ll get more exploration of that aspect.
Nijika, Ryou, and Kita all get some good moments to shine, and they are genuinely quite fun. Kikuri was an enjoyable character to watch as well, although the portrayal of alcoholism with her is...not great... I did like her interactions with Hitori, and her performance scene was one of the best scenes in the show, and certainly my favorite performance. Nijika's sister, Seika, also played a fantastic supporting role. Hitori's family was pretty standard. They wouldn’t be worth mentioning in this post except for the moment where they revealed they'd been holding onto monetization from her channel, which was very heartwarming. I think the tonal identity of the show was a bit awkward at times. I mentioned the wish-fulfillment, and part of that was selling the world as such a bad place where Hitori is dysfunctional. And Hitori does not fit in with the world too well, makes sense, but it got oppressive at times and just made everything feel super awkward. I think this is part of why I like Kita so much. While both her and Nijika bring positivity to the group as “genki” characters, Kita in particular had some very strong points of humanization which made her own qualms stand out without making the world seem hopelessly cruel, and her ability to overcome them through effort and passion, not just relying on her personability and talent, was genuinely motivating.
The performances themselves were a mixed bag. I do wish that the audio had more of that concert feel, especially if we're going for a rock aesthetic. Bit of a nitpick, I know, but it did take me out a little bit. They were also generally some of the least visually interesting parts of the show. I did like that, in the typhoon concert, there was a good audio-visual representation of their disappointment at the turnout, and as I mentioned before Kikuri's performance was phenomenal, but other performances were somewhat lackluster. I did like Hitori encouraging others during the typhoon concert and the improvisation to get around her broken guitar in the finale, although again it kinda conflicts with her character. I'd have liked more moments for Hitori to shine as the skilled guitarist she is, especially in the smaller group setting.
All in all, I enjoyed this show a good amount, even if this review is a bit overly critical in places. I'm glad I came back for this one!
