Every year of anime has a dark horse that comes out of seemingly nowhere and blows everyone away. It’s always a treasure, but the dark horses in recent years have been particularly strong. Before it was The Apothecary Diaries in the 2023/2024 winter season, it was undoubtedly Bocchi the Rock! in 2022.
Alas, the dark horse doesn’t always win against the famous stallions. Bocchi the Rock! lost to Jujutsu Kaisen season 2 in getting crowned Anime of the Year at the 2024 Crunchyroll Anime Awards—a decision I disagree with heartily, but that’s otaku democracy. But Bocchi did win Best Slice of Life anime, which is at least enough of a prompt to remind everyone of something very important, nearly a year and a half after it began airing: Bocchi the Rock! is arguably an all-time great anime series.
Bocchi the Rock! is still huge in Japan
While it’s easy to lose track of anime when overseas and subject only to the ever-shifting tides of internet hype, Japan has certainly not forgotten Bocchi the Rock!. The Kessoku Band album—”performed” by the series’ characters—was still charting in Japan as of February 2024. Series director Keiichiro Saito went on to direct the standout anime of 2023 and early 2024, Frieren: Beyond Journey’s End. And the show’s first (?) season will be released as two compilation films, coming out in spring and summer 2024 in Japan. Bocchi fever is alive and well in Japan in a very obvious, if not striking, way.
Upon talking to press after receiving the award for Best Slice of Life, series character designer Kerorira remarked that it’s difficult to know how overseas fans feel about the work he does. Actually, this comment kept coming up, again and again, series director after series director. And yet, foreign tourists have started coming to Shimokitazawa—where most of Bocchi takes place—and hunting for the series’ landmarks.
“Winning this kind of award gives me to the opportunity to feel what people are thinking all over the world,” Kerorira remarked through a translator.
Hitori Gotoh is the best
One of the reasons Bocchi the Rock! is such an incredible show is that its characters feel incredibly particular and well-honed, yet universal at the same time. Kessoku Band is one of those rare groups of protagonists where you can turn to your friends and ask, “Which one are you?” and there will be a meaningful answer. Are you the cool, enigmatic, trendy bass player? The bubbly, extroverted singer? The drummer, holding everything together?
Or are you our protagonist, the guitarist, Hitori Gotoh? Hitori is dubbed “Bocchi” (as in hitori-bocchi—”all alone”) by one of her bandmates. Bocchi is painfully shy and deeply socially anxious. She is an incredible guitar player, and started playing the guitar as a way to try to make friends, but her social anxiety and stage fright keeps being a hurdle for her to overcome throughout the series.
It’s rare in anime—or any media for that matter—to see a character who’s so introverted portrayed with so much love and empathy. Usually, jokes about that character come at their expense, but Bocchi, despite her self-deprecating nature, feels very in charge of her jokes, even when she plays an entire live show from beneath a mango box.
Because a character like Bocchi is so rare, she shines all the brighter. The show is filled with moments that introverts will feel very seen by—like myself; I was literally Bocchi in high school. Bocchi the Rock! is the kind of show where scenes stick with you, because they feel so close to home. For me, personally, the scene with the most staying power was a small moment in which Bocchi stands outside a trendy but understated cafe, terrified, thinking to herself, “A-am I allowed to just walk in?! How do people just walk in to places?”
My partner and I both screamed at the TV, “OH MY GOD, I FEEL LIKE THIS ALL THE TIME.”
And then, there’s the now-famous scream when one of Bocchi’s bandmates suggest she should join social media—the scream that encompasses all the pain of the introvert of craving likes and having to be “on” all the time.
Revisiting Bocchi the Rock! is a delight. But if you’ve never watched it, don’t wait for the compilation films. Their release in the West is still unannounced. Bocchi’s hopefully existent second season has yet to be announced, too. Still, Bocchi the Rock! is on Crunchyroll, and you should watch it immediately.
(featured image: CloverWorks)
