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Bocchi the Rock! · Completed 12/12 ・ Scored 10
One misconception about anime or any media entirely is how people think the story needs to be unique to be good. I’m not against it, as bringing new things to the table will always interest people. But, you can't say that to every anime. The worst kind of all is that kind of anime where the premise is unique: unique as in only the first episode then the rest of the runtime is one of the most generic things I’ve ever seen since I was born. Some even lost its fundamental because they kept going back and forth to make it “not like every other anime”.

That’s why in the first 3 weeks, people ignored Bocchi the Rock!, a show about shy girl Hitori Gotou getting a chance to play a band. With only this sentence alone, you can already generate what will happen in your head. They will play in a band, maybe some slice of life, cute moments, one big climax, Hitori finally can play in front of people, done. I just summarize Bocchi the Rock’s plot without watching. And yes, this is the plot of it; God damn, that is generic as hell, even in slice of life standards. Next thing you know people already compare this show to other irrelevant anime like “why is this rate higher than xxx, which has more twists and a better story”.

Bocchi the Rock (I’ll call it BTR) is a very intriguing anime despite its generic plot. Every episode has its starting point and conclusion, and you don’t even realize it. For example, in episode 3 the episode starts with the band trying to find a singer for the band. On that same episode, that event ends right in that episode. Some episodes add a hook to the next episode to make it more interesting. BTR knows how to start and end moments. Some events can only get worse if it’s there for a long time, let’s end it here. Characters have to be developed, let’s do it or the plot would be stale. These factors didn’t matter much to me most of the time, but overall it makes people watch BTR a lot more smoothly.

As expected from cute girls doing cute things or CGDCT for short, BTR characters are not really deep, just cute all around. Their personalities are one-noted and very superficial. Ryo Yamada is like a low-budget Shima Rin from Yuru Camp, and even more of an unrealistic person who is really poor and money eye, which is one of the comedic skits of being a bass player. Ichiji Nijika is… pretty much an angel as she is the one who recruit Bocchi to play in the band and kept the whole band like glue. Last but still generic, Ikuyo Kita, is the social butterfly of the band. She likes to post Instagram stories and pretty much take a photo on every occasion ever. It’s pretty much, nothing. However, thanks to its presentation, these generic straight personalities enhance the overall show.

These 4 main characters are generic, but together, they are like a political compass to each other. Humans are amazing, aren't they? They are social animals; no matter how different everyone is, you can still work together as a team. Interactions were on point and done right. One flaw that I see in most anime is how these characters are always hard to distinguish but this anime already set it up from the get-go. It’s like the author knows how things will go because most interactions are very natural. My bet is using real-life depiction, which is a very efficient way to do it. This point got a lot better in episode 8 when they reveal some key information about why Nijika wanted to start the band in the first place, creating some depth to her character despite her gimmick personality. People usually judge others from what they see. BTR is the same. As the story goes on, you will see these characters has a very solid reason for why and how there are here. Using its strength CGDCT, these interactions usually come up to be very wholesome and heartwarming.

This is not even its strongest point because despite what I said, the animation side of it is spectacular. While not the best, BTR is jam-packed with passion and creativity. These staff don’t need to try this hard. Most, if not all of the screenplay was done differently from its original source which is a 4-koma manga. The detail of it isn’t much, as I mentioned it’s just another cheap cute girl playing band, so why put effort into it? I truly don’t understand. I may look over these cool-looking action scenes that are very hard to animate, but one thing that BTR manage to pull me up is the way it utilizes its storyboard to create a symbolic message. It signifies the subtle growth of our main character Hitori, which is already very hard to see if you never concentrate on the story aspect. I believe many shows also use this point, just not as much as this show, probably thanks to half of the staff who come from the wonderfully animated show “Wonder Egg Priority”. Half of it indeed come from them: Walking sequences, foot stomping, light flicking, sunlight radiating, every scene in BTR is important. Mixed media were my staple food since I watch Courage the Cowardly Dog and SpongeBob when I was a kid, and I’m glad that not only do they sneak in a couple of real-life pictures, but also elevate or improvise it to make the joke funnier than it should be.

It’s pretty terrifying that, if the show doesn’t get trending on Twitter for having the “Bocchi cyberpsychosis” scene, people would think it is just another dumbass moeshit show that people forgot in a month. After all, CGDCT will be the final frontline of Japanese animation the shit will actually get good. Lately, however, it’s like this type of show is finally aware of itself. First, it is yuru camp, and now it’s this. Who knows what the future holds? Its potential is infinite.

Many recent shows were interesting for the first few episodes. Its animation is beautiful and the story is engaging, but in the end, it’s either the writer stuck in the loop or the production issue starts to grow. This is mostly just to clickbait people into watching it, as long as it is “unique” or “interesting in some way”. That’s the anime industry these days, and it’s fucked. Bocchi The Rock! is not just good, it’s the thing that the community want to see. It is hard working, soulful and passionate throughout 12 weeks and the ones who are involved are satisfied with this. Voice actors and animators truly understand the core of the main characters and tweak some dialogue and action from the manga to make it in character. We will not witness this type of show in a long time, even in season 2 it would take a long time to pull off to make it good. So, if they want to make another season, I hope they can surprise me again.

In the end, Hitori is still… socially awkward. Nothing has changed from the start. She’s still glitching when strangers call her, she still makes some cringe-ass joke to people and regrets it later, and she still struggles to speak her true words. But that’s ok, that’s life, and it’s a life that Hitori is enjoying.