The Fall 2023 Manga Guide

Bocchi the Rock

What's It About? 

Bocchi finally takes the stage in English, and she's brought her best friend―crippling anxiety! Hitori Goto just wants to make friends, but the thought of approaching a stranger on her own makes her so nervous that she's spent the entirety of middle school teaching herself how to shred on the guitar―to moderately successful (albeit anonymous) You Tube fame―in the hopes of seeming cool enough for someone else to reach out to her instead. After bringing her guitar to school provokes zero interest, Hitori's just about ready to shrivel up and die...which is when Nijika Ijichi comes across her moping in a playground and begs her to fill in for her band's flakey guitarist for their first-ever live performance! It's like her wish came true―but does this most antisocial of introverts have what it takes to perform in front of real people?!

Bocchi the Rock! has a story and art by Aki Hamazi. Translation by John Neal. Lettering and touch-up done by Chiho Christie. Published by Yen Press (October 17, 2023).

Is It Worth Reading?

Christopher Farris

Rating:

One driving element of getting the Bocchi the Rock! manga in English at last is "How does it compare to the breakout hit anime?" Everyone fell in love with Bocchi and the rest of Kessoku Band at the end of last year, but the transformative sensibilities of the anime version were well-publicized. Does Bocchi's source material live up to its fame, or was it just a fair-to-good Manga Time Kirara entry elevated by some unhinged animation and vocal performances?

Well, I am happy to report that Bocchi the Rock! the manga is, in fact, quite good on its own terms. As it should, its appeal begins and ends with the main character, Hitori "Bocchi" Gotou herself. She's technically the least-suited person to be standing in the spotlight of anything, but that means most of the entertainment value manifests in the way she's a commanding cringe callout post for readers who relate even a little bit to her litany of struggles. She's a mess, and the translation of her disastrous despairings to static panels and text honestly doesn't lose much compared to the animated adaptation; it just works via different sensibilities. Its flourishes are more subdued, but you can see how those behind it would be inspired at various points, like how Bocchi's field-day war flashbacks are rendered with way denser details than the comic's usual panels.

Being based on the 4-koma format does mean that Bocchi the Rock!'s structure mostly sticks to that snappy comic-strip setup, though it's one that Aki Hamazi is quite confident in. It's not just here for comedic beats; story structures rotate flashbacks at calculated points. More dramatic and gallows humor moments get deployed, spotlighting not just Bocchi's anxieties and the natural talent burgeoning beneath them but the overall struggles of forming and following the path of a performing band. And just a few times, though I shan't spoil when or how, Hamazi allows the otherwise rigid four-panel structure to be shattered, making for some genuinely impactful moments. There's a density to the format that means you feel like you're getting a lot of bang for your buck just in this first volume (including the appearance of everyone's favorite, Kikuri Hiroi), though that can also mean things feel just a little dragged-out in places. But a structural nitpick or two can't stop Bocchi the Rock! from being worth checking out on its own terms.