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Aki Hamaji's Bocchi the Rock! Manga Gets Stage Play
posted on by Crystalyn Hodgkins
Stage play to run in Tokyo in August
Theater Milano-Za announced on Monday that Aki Hamaji's four-panel manga Bocchi the Rock! manga is getting a stage play adaptation. The play, titled Live Stage "Bocchi the Rock!", will run at Theater Milano-Za in Tokyo from August 11-20.
Yen Press has licensed the manga, and will debut the series this fall. The company describes the story:
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) YouTube 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 flaky 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?!
Hamaji launched the manga in Houbunsha's Manga Time Kirara Max magazine in December 2017, and the series is ongoing.
The manga's television anime premiered in October 2022. Crunchyroll streamed the anime as it aired in Japan. The anime will have a compilation film opening in spring 2024.
Sources: Live Stage "Bocchi the Rock!" stage play's website, Stage Natalie