Bocchi Absolutely Rocks!

Bocchi the Rock (ぼっち・ざ・ろっく！)

Key Information:

Episode Count: 12 episodes
Original Airing:
Genre: Comedy Music
Director: Saito Keiichiro
Studio: CloverWorks
Original Manga: Bocchi the Rock
Target Audience: Young Men

Bocchi Absolutely Rocks!

Bocchi the Rock is an anime that follows the life of Goto Hitori, an introvert with severe social anxiety that wants nothing more than to be someone who is popular with a lot of friends. After finding out that a band she likes is full of members who were not popular in high school, she decides that her mission is to become a rockstar. After many years of guitar training she becomes famous on the internet for her guitar covers while under a pseudonym and decides that she is able to bring it to real life in a band. It’s around this time that we as an audience get to know Bocchi and the way she works. Seeing as this anime is aimed at young men in Japan it is very easy for them specifically to relate, knowing how that demographic is in modern day Japan. Aside from young Japanese men, anyone who deals with loneliness or anxiety or even depression can relate to a character like Bocchi. She comes off as super endearing and despite her struggles she tries to figure out creative ways to tackle them and shows amazing dedication.

What Bocchi the Rock does so well that has gotten it the universal praise it gets has been the way it showcases social anxiety and the struggles of Bocchi. It is an honest look at how someone in that situation will feel and doesn’t look at Bocchi like someone who is in need of saving. Instead it gives Bocchi the opportunity to overcome her obstacles on her own. It is a very uplifting story about hope and shows the audience that they too can overcome even their deepest fears. At the beginning of the Anime, Bocchi interacts with a wide range of personality types as she tries to form a band. She meets a very extroverted and outgoing Ikuyo Kita, Yamada Ryo who doesn’t talk much but doesn't have social anxiety, and Nijika Ijichi who also is pretty outgoing. Despite not really asking any of them, they all befriend Hitori and look at her as an equal. The anime shows us how even someone like Hitori (whose name literally means “one person”) can make really good friends. The nickname Bocchi comes from Ryo who notes that the name Hitori, when combined with Bocchi (Hitoribocchi) means alone.

With the help of her new friends The Kessoku Band (which just means zip tie) Bocchi learns how to work at overcoming her social anxiety. They have her work at the register and she gets to perform at the club that they work at. It is really endearing watching Bocchi grow and work at her anxiety despite how much it tries to hold her back. Bocchi’s anxiety is represented in many creative ways through the anime as well. Often in the form of cutaway gags that show what she is thinking or she has imaginary friends who will explain her symptoms to the audience. It has a way of explaining to audience members who may not understand or relate to Bocchi what she is going through in a way that makes it much more understandable. A simple conversation between her and Ryo suddenly turns into the two of them atop of “loneliness Hill” when Bocchi learns that Ryo is a loner by choice the mountain crumbles and they are split by lava just to show how Bocchi feels Ryo is so far ahead of her.

Over time and through many antics, Bocchi does eventually get better and finds herself being able to perform in front of people and actually reaching her goal of making friends and becoming popular. It leaves the audience with hope that they can do better for themselves. This is a message I fell in love with during my watching of the show. It was touching to see someone like Bocchi go from performing alone in her closet to performing with a close group of friends. I personally am able to relate because I do deal with anxiety (not to the severity of Bocchi) and seeing a story that talks about that and allows more people to connect over a problem such as this is really nice.

Upon further research I looked into why Bocchi the Rock was so liked by the young men demographic. I ended up coming across a post on Reddit with someone asking the same question and the threads were full of people who were able to give their insights as to why they personally love the show. While there were many humorous answers from users like Ikcatcher who said “I want to experience the masculine fantasy of being a cute girl doing cute things” there were many honest answers of people theorizing and explaining their situations like Kyomuas who simply stated that the show had “relatable/funny characters” and Tricky_Maximum_3474 who explained that “This younger generation of men, especially in Japan, is extremely lonely when compared to past generations which would explain why many can relate to Bocchi. Whether that relatability become a sort of escapism or catalyst of motivation is up to the beholder. Personally, this anime has given me hope for the future which is why I’m a huge fan.” Most other answers were similar to Maximum and I found myself agreeing. This show just gives hope for the future.

When it comes to the works that we have watched that I would compare this show to I think the closest would be something like Otaku no Video. Minus all of the social taboos that surround it… and the real life counterparts. Specifically I think where Bocchi the Rock and Otaku no Video intersect would be how they deal with the main character experiencing a new social world. Complete outsiders being accepted into a new community by kind hearted fans of their respective communities and all of them coming together to create something much bigger than them. In Otaku no Video that is their own anime and the garage kit company, in Bocchi its their band and all the music they make for people. They both deal with what it means to have true friends and how together friends can push each other to great heights both personally and non personally. Bocchi’s friends allow her to overcome her anxieties and become the rock star she has always wanted to be and Kubo’s friends help him become someone in a community where he believes he can be his true self.

On top of being a beautiful story that instills hope and showcases the real power of friendship, Bocchi the Rock has an amazing soundtrack. The fictional band’s music (made by the non fictional Kikuya Tomoki) is actually available on Spotify in its own album with music from the show. Bocchi the Rock is a show that I can go back and watch over and over again, it is just so full of life and fun to experience every time. Bocchi is one of the characters who I think I can personally say I have related to the most throughout life, the struggles she goes through in social encounters are something I too had to navigate and figure out how to overcome. For that reason, this anime will always have a special place in my heart. It’s also because of all of those points that I can confidently say “Bocchi Absolutely Rocks”!