Bocchi the Rock!

Episodes 1-2

Bocchi the Rock! plays a bit of a trick on its audience, I think. It lures you in with a big flashy poster, promising a cool rock & roll show, all shots of lovingly rendered guitars and smeared drumsticks. Then once everyone is inside the venue, waiting for the band to storm the stage and rock their faces off, somebody locks the doors behind them. Now you're trapped as an image of yourself from high school appears on stage and starts reading from your teenage diary, looking you dead in the eyes the whole time.

At least, that's my experience. I talked about what made the first episode so great in the preview guide, and while episode two is pretty light on the musical segments, the heart of it all – Bocchi the anxious inchworm and her self-sabotaging quest for social grace – is still here in full force. Be warned: if you are or have ever been somebody with serious social anxiety, Bocchi is a laser-targeted tomahawk missile being fired directly into your gut, and will annihilate you with a matching amount of force. There's a million and one deeply sad, deeply relatable lines, sometimes just stray thoughts that pass through our heroine's head, that make you want to reach through the screen and hug her. That is, if you're not busy cradling your head in your hands overdoing or overthinking the same thing she just did at some point in your life.

Because let me tell you, there's gonna be a lot of anime nerds who see a lot of themselves in Bocchi. Whether it's her decking herself out in band merch in the hopes that somebody else will initiate conversation, or trying to get sick so she doesn't have to face the emotional terror of a part-time job. Perhaps the biggest right hook is Bocchi pacing outside of the meet-up spot because oh god, what if the other people aren't there yet and she draws attention by coming in alone and everyone's going to look at her and oh god oh god fuck this was a mistake I should have made up an excuse for why I couldn't make it and stayed home watching TV abort ABORT-

So yeah, it's fair to say she hits close to home, and much like WATAMOTE nearly a decade ago, that could honestly be too much if the show weren't extremely funny through it all. A lot of that comes down to the presentation: while this is an adaptation of a 4-panel comic, you'd never know it by how the jokes are paced out and delivered, with each conversation transitioning through jokes and dialogue so smoothly that a whole episode can go by before you realize it. Bocchi's imagination spots are rendered with stylized, artistic flair, from fantastical fields of flowers flowing into lava to the court case sentencing her to death for the crime of poor customer service. There's a million incidental details like Bocchi's side-ahoge making a random sproing sound effect, or a flying saucer popping out of Nijika's ponytail, that aren't strictly necessary but put the biggest smile on my face whenever I think about them. Not to mention Bocchi's already legendary face game. It all culminates to make what could be a genuinely depressing wallow into some of the funniest television of the year.

That balance of goofiness and pessimism is key to keeping all of it working, honestly, because part of what makes Bocchi so relatable is that her problems aren't easily surpassed. The fact is, dealing with severe social anxiety is a process that can damn well take the rest of your life. I'm an adult who spent nearly a decade working in customer service, talking to random strangers on a daily basis, and I still have moments where I worry about being judged by the cashier as I'm checking out, or creeping people out if I start up a conversation first. Having supportive friends and a strong motivation to change certainly helps, but it's not a cure-all that'll have our girl becoming a social superstar in just a few episodes. But as much as that sucks to live through, it makes for great tension in a narrative, because we want to see that moment where, if only for a second, Bocchi is able to peer over the wall and see daylight.

Speaking as a music nerd, I also want to see her play more guitar, but for now I'm sated by the series diving into the culture and structure of live music. Details like STARRY technically being a restaurant because getting a permit as a music venue is way more complicated, or how they charge upfront for drink tickets rather than exchanging cash inside just brought me back to weekends of hanging in line outside local bars, trying to start small talk with whoever was in front of me until they finished sound check inside. All that's missing was somebody outside putting Big X's on the back of teenagers' hands before they could come in. There's a ridiculous number of Legally Distinct J-Rock posters and band names in the background that I can't even begin to decipher all of them. The whole vibe and look of STARRY is just so spot on to the countless bars and venues I've seen random bands at, and it really sells the experience even when Kessoku Band aren't touching their instruments.

In all it's just a stupidly charming production that hooked my heart and has not let go so far. My only complaint is that being stuck so much in Bocchi's cortisol-riddled brain space means we haven't gotten much from the supporting characters yet, and they all seem really cool. Ryu was made to play bass, and her deadpan humor is a great complement to Bocchi's frantic inner monologue. We've yet to meet our vocalist, but she certainly seems fun, and I'm excited to see Bocchi trying to interact with somebody as bubbly as she seems to be. Also if they want to have Nijika's older sister around more, I wouldn't complain. * cough*

Rating:

Bocchi the Rock! is currently streaming on Crunchyroll.