Bocchi the Rock!

ANIME OF THE SEASON, if not THE YEAR. Words cannot express how much this show has grown into me. Like Hitori "Bocchi" Gotou is literally the most relatable character FR FR. I'm guessing you have heard of the show by now, whether through memes, screenshots, recommendations from others, or simply by chance while looking for shows to watch. With that said, what makes this show stand out from the crowd is its sudden surge in popularity, whether you like it or not? Point 1: Bocchi is literally me. (Insert Literally Me copypasta) I'm sure you're wondering who Bocchi is and what makes her so special and uniquethat she stands out from the crowd. First and foremost, she is someone who suffers from social anxiety, as evidenced by her inability to make a single friend throughout her youth until one fateful day. Her internal monologues are hilarious to watch and allow us to get a better understanding of Bocchi's world, thoughts, and so on. Everything about her just seems relatable. Oh, and don't forget how well the VAs are portraying the characters they are assigned to, particularly Bocchi, as I'll explain in my next point. Point 2: Excellent quality sounds and superb voice acting. Sound quality can't really go wrong as this is a music show. The title "Bocchi the Rock!" implies that some of their songs incorporate some form of rock, which they did. Returning to the point, the show's OP is extremely addictive, with its rhythmic beat complementing the vibe and mood of the show. The accompanying visual is also remarkably good and entertaining to watch, fitting in with the overall tone of the show. The EDs have their own unique charm. The visuals don't have to be flashy as long as they complement the music well. Their songs are the real bangers here, fitting for their band and the title of the show. Basically, if you like rock or music in general, you'll love them. As for the VAs, I'd like to reiterate on how well they did their job, most especially that of Bocchi's VA. The transition from one mood to another was well done from one scene to the next, demonstrating how invested these VAs are in how they express the characters they play. One example is the supposed "Cyberpunk 2077" meme scene in which Bocchi is seen lying on the ground undergoing "cyberpsychosis" and screaming at the top of her lungs. One would think that the sound in this scene would be generated by a computer since it would be very taxing on someone's larynx or voice box, especially someone who spends countless hours doing voice-overs in presenting a character, but it was entirely voiced by Bocchi's VA, echoing my thoughts on how dedicated these VAs are. Not to mention that they are accompanied by eye-catching and unique visuals, which brings me to my next point. Point 3: Art is visually appealing and distinct, with a good blend of different art styles. (CloverWorks never fails to impress in this regard.) Art styles and animation, which are normally a source of complaint to viewers on a different themed or genre show, are a source of praise in this show. The animators' humor includes art style changes and mixed media, which highlights their creativity. CloverWorks did an excellent job of improving the overall viewer experience. One example of this again is the "Cyberpunk 2077" meme scene, in which the usual art style was shifted to a 2D paint-like style, which was praised by many viewers for its distinct and unexpected turn of events. This is one of many scenes where the randomness really adds extra spice; the animators did a very good job animating the show. Point 4: It is appropriate for all audiences, regardless of whether you are a Slice of Life CGDCT fan or not. The premise is actually quite simple, as with almost any other SoL CGDCT show. This show is simply about Bocchi's desire to make friends and make the most of her "seishun" or youth, which is why she began playing guitar in the first place. She was invited to join Kessoku Band after a chance encounter, and that's where it all started. It is nothing out of the ordinary, but it is surprisingly entertaining to watch, and you can't help but want more. Even after only watching one episode, I sensed something special about this show. The show is intended to be wholesome, family-friendly, and heartwarming, with no "deep" plot. It is directed for us to reminisce about our "seishun" days, and it did a good job of portraying the themes that the show is aimed to portray. As evidenced by the Kessoku Band and their excellent group dynamic, the characters each have their own personality and complement one another extremely well. Even the supporting characters are memorable and well-written, and you can't help but be drawn to them. There is never a dull moment in this show. *Also, I'd like to point out that the names of the main cast have meaning / purpose, with their last name referencing Asian Kung-Fu Generation. There are other real-life Japanese band references, but this is just one of many. Another interesting fact is that Hitori (one person) has one small strand of hair sticking out of her head, whereas Futari (two people) has two small strands of hair sticking out of her head. Everything in Bocchi the Rock! is well-thought-out, and there isn't much to complain about. If you're reading this and haven't watched the show yet, I strongly urge you to do so as soon as possible. It is one of your turn off your brain shows that you can watch whenever you want. And for those who have finished watching or are currently watching the show, I'm sure you feel the same way I do. My only gripe is that no sequel has been announced. Despite a stacked lineup this season, Bocchi the Rock! did not fall short of standing out from the crowd.

At the end of the first episode of *Bocchi the Rock!*, Kessoku Band has more or less bombed their first performance. Bocchi (née Gotou Hitori), who had been ready to announce her presence to the world as Kessoku Band’s last-minute fill-in guitarist, anxiously retreated into a mango box, hidden within it as the band lurches and stumbles their way through their music. But in the aftermath as her bandmates Nijika and Ryou remark on the atrociousness they just played, Bocchi throws the box off herself and stumbles her way down frame in a fish-eye lens style camera shot. She stands before the two and declaresthat she’ll muster the courage to talk to her classmates, which Nijika smiles at…and then Bocchi immediately heads out since she’s drained her socially anxious battery for the day, but still resolving to improve herself for their sakes. If any scene could encapsulate what makes *Bocchi the Rock!* such a creatively-rich series, it’s this. This whole sequence is but the tip of the show’s iceberg. There is a chaotic beauty in the show’s reckless abandon, able to radically swing between whatever style it chooses to adopt at any given moment. And within it all, anxiety is presented as both comedic fuel and as a sincere obstacle towards one’s sense of personal development. But perhaps I’m getting ahead of myself, so let’s step back for a minute: headed by Saitou Keiichirou in the director’s chair, he was afforded the rare opportunity to more or less have any ideas that came to him be given the green light to work their way into the material itself. From a certain perspective, he was the perfect mind to entrust with such freedoms – with small involvement on *Heike Monogatari* and *Wonder Egg Priority* as a key animator, along with several larger credits for *Sonny Boy,* his 2021 was spent with some of the medium’s most artistically-interesting properties. Though each had its own distinctly visual-acoustic identity, the one thread that unifies all these projects is risk. Considering *Bocchi the Rock!’s* origin as a four-panel manga, he must have realized that great risks would need to be taken to make this project work in anime format. And it starts with taking the generally-understood limitations of anime and throwing them away, both from the actual animation and the storyboarding standpoint. The show has visual styles aplenty, including the incorporation of live-action sequences, photographs, and deliberately-bad CGI. Evidently, the animators were given such a sandbox to play in that Christmas seemed to come a few months early. The impact of such an idea is that it creates a sense of unpredictability, that the series could reach into a metaphorical bag of tricks to pull out something new, seemingly at random. Whether it rest in stark colors or allowing the camera to step back and allow the depth of space to fill the frame, the off-kilter presentation itself becomes a feature of the viewing experience. But a chaotic presentation is simply directionless and eye-candy without something to properly anchor it all. In *Bocchi the Rock!,* there is no greater person to serve that purpose that the titular Bocchi herself, as we’re brought into the lonelier world she resides in. Even if it can be said that she goes to class and spends a little time with her family, her realm is a small space in the corner of her house, a dark closet home only to her and the small recording equipment and software she has for her YouTube audience under the “guitarhero” moniker. All her aspirations to make friends and become more popular through her guitar playing have hit the impregnable wall of social anxiety she shoulders. As she takes her first steps into the larger world and she dwells on her anxious flights, many are tinged with an underlying dark comedy that punctuates itself with the visual styling. Stark colors, postcard memories-esque stillshots (Dezaki would be proud), and highly-expressive deliveries from Bocchi’s seiyuu Aoyama Yoshino make these moments land with hilarity, be they disbelieving shrieks or quiet laconicism. Let us not kid ourselves, though; on the immediate surface, this treatment of anxiety appears distasteful. Anxiety is indeed a real problem for some people that, even now, we sometimes do not do the best job of properly navigating as either a conceptual issue or something being experienced in real-time. It’s by far the material’s greatest gamble, and a fumbling at any point may catastrophically collapse the entirety. However, Keiichirou takes great underlying care in how these moments are portrayed. Bocchi is always presented in a sympathetic light; when we laugh at an episode’s joke at her expense or see her wild catastrophizing, there always is a proper counter to any possible maliciousness or sleight, which ironically makes laughter one of the show’s primary vehicles for forming sympathy. The intended path for every gag or event that takes place throughout the series has always been to allow Bocchi’s world to gradually get bigger and more confident, even if her social tendencies or way of seeing doesn’t get remedied right away. But remedy herself she gradually does, and with the show’s brand of delightfully-chaotic tone, it should come as no surprise that the people who help her on her personal journey are themselves part of a motley crew. Roped into performing at Starry Club with the exaggerative Ryou and the cheerful Nijika, and eventually joined by the bubbly and highly-encouraging Kita, Bocchi is thrust into the deep end of social interaction. She got her wish to be in a band and interact more, but she’s now part of an active group that all have a prior history. Bocchi is the oddball out, especially given that the other three girls have their own personal histories with one another. Yet it doesn’t matter whether their reasons for being in Kessoku Band are, be they for sentimentality or for pettiness. By every weird measure, the reality is that they came together in the here-and-now, and Bocchi is among them. Each member realizes in their own way that Bocchi needs encouragement of some sort, and all are given an appropriate spotlight to show not only how much Bocchi’s presence in the band is valued, but also that Bocchi herself can overcome the various worries that a band must wrestle with, even under the veneer of comedy. The apprehensions are in and of themselves perfectly understandable and relatable. The fear of performing poorly and having everyone watch you, having your band members replace you, needing to sell tickets for a gig, and the like are all thoughts that most people who have been in or teach the arts (particularly music) inherently wrestle with on a consistent basis. Especially since Bocchi has been within the shell of herself and her own anxieties for so long, it makes the triumphs all the more worth striving for and to see pay off in the end. And nowhere else is this captured more eloquently than in the performances. When the moments arrive for Bocchi to step on that stage and play the first chord, we see how, even in the incremental ways she has changed, this is not the same Bocchi that we witnessed initially. Similarly, this is not the same Kessoku Band that we first saw that played so poorly. Bocchi has grown, and this is a band that has also grown. Both in and outside of practice, they worked and bonded in tandem. Each has evolved beyond the confines of what they once were, even if the gradual changes undergone don’t completely rewrite who they are now. But with these changes nevertheless visible, one cannot help but smile and want to stand in the crowd with the others, bouncing along or turning the gaze upward to the girl who has started to come into her own. Beneath all its style, verve, comedy, anxiety-laden dread, and rockin’ music, *Bocchi the Rock!* is ultimately sweet. Life-affirming and charming, it demonstrates the ability for a skilled director to walk the fine line between having anxiety as a comedic device while also showing how human it is as well. Rock on, Bocchi! You won’t be lonely with your guitar on that blue planet forever!

[Originally posted on December 27th, 2022.] I think little SingleH here is coming to a calm, slow, natural conclusion. I think little SingleH here is becoming too much of a so-called “normie” to write like themselves anymore, or at least that of them you’ve come to know. I think little SingleH here is getting too much of a life, and I think that if left to continue on present course, the writing produced by this profile will increasingly lean towards the modern-day Hideaki Anno-style preaching and condescension. The writing output of an individual who was depressed and hyper-relatable at one point, but who got out of itand who, as a result, became out-of-touch and…I don’t know…old, for lack of a better term? Granted, I definitely continue to be depressed out of my fucking mind—no worries there, plus the fucking alcohol—but I’m still living WAY too much. I’m making too many real friends; I’m having to much success at work; I’m making too many connections; I’m having too much casual sex; I’m fucking around with things and aspects of people and society that, barely a few years ago, I couldn’t have ever possibly imagined. I don’t even know what I’m doing anymore, and as of the day in which I’m writing this, I hugged someone. A friend. Having a real, in-the-flesh “friend” is already fucking bizarre enough, but that I would be able to platonically and emotionally hug her??? Where the fuck am I? WHO the fuck am I??? She asked if I needed a hug during my lunch, and I just straight-up took it as a joke. When I was walking away to clock back in, I turned around and said, “You would hug me?” And she just laughed. Later, when I was getting ready to leave, she tells me to “check back in” with her before I left, and I was like, “Okay…? Am I in trouble?” To which the answer was no. She just wanted to have another impromptu therapy session to make sure I wasn’t collapsing completely, but at the end, I said, “Also, I take it back from earlier. Can I have a hug?” She puts on this big, stupid smile, and then we hugged, for like, a while. These past few nights I’ve been religiously watching this trash, this gutter filth, perhaps the literal polar opposite of Bocchi the Rock!. It’s just twenty-year-olds, I mean totally teenage actors engagingly in endless sex and drugs. Sheer trash. Euphoria on HBO. But I like watching it at, I don’t know, what time is it? 3:37am? And the reason I do so is the same reasoning I gave for enjoying Kanojo, Okrishimasu. “I love allowing myself to get invested in trash like this just so it can frustrate me and force my cold, dead, icy heart to feel literally anything other than passivity and dejection.” And the scene I watched just a second ago, of this character texting her boyfriend while she was drunk? The manner in which her phone autocorrected certain typos and not others? That was EACTLY me. That scene, in this fucking braindead retard schlock teen melodrama, was without dialogue or music, deeply relatable. Ask any of these poor motherfuckers who talk to me via Discord regularly and who know how I type when I’m drunk, because that shit was precise. However, as much as I respect Bocchi the Rock!, and as little as I respect Euphoria, I’m fairly certain I can’t say anything like that about the former. This isn’t a disconnect exclusive to cute girl anime either. Like, if I were to throw on K-On!, a show to which this has seen much comparison, then I don’t think I would be saying this about any of their particular interactions. I don’t think I could see any of their particular moments and memories and think anything to the effect of, “I can’t see real girls doing this.” Because that was always the appeal of K-On! in the first place, their eccentricity almost paradoxically juxtaposed with the series’ realism. Maybe it was Yamada Naoko’s direction, maybe it was the super naturalistic color design, maybe it was something I can’t even put into words. But whatever it was, K-On! had it, and Bocchi the Rock! doesn’t. You want a show about four or five cute moe girls with multicolored hair, multicolored eyes, and multicolored personalities? Because the anime community has a fucking ocean of options for you to choose from in that department. Some might argue a landfill to be a much more fitting analogy though, because, after all, quantity doesn’t always equal quality. There’s a lot of unexceptional sewage that flows through every season and every genre of anime, and Bocchi the Rock! is miles above any of that, but I’m quite positive we are not witnessing a modern classic in the making. The visual direction is impressive outright—no surprise considering the director’s association with Shingo Natsume, one of the industry’s currently active creative geniuses—but while it may be just enough to carry the series’ more unexceptional elements, it’s nowhere near enough to elevate it…which is kind of a picky distinction to make, but a distinction I would argue is more than a little necessary considering the wildly high mean score Bocchi the Rock! boasts as of time of writing. I apologize for failing to escape comparison, but keep in mind that from where I’m standing, you people started it, not me. You people were the ones talking about “the K-On! of our generation,” not me, and when I read proclamations such as these, I have certain expectations in mind, because the last time I heard such proclamations was in winter of 2018. A Place Further Than The Universe was a special anime. It had powerful performances, fantastic direction, a satisfying sense of progression and growth, and a heartrending emotional arc; it had a more-or-less high-quality production, a plethora of fantastic insert songs, and simply beautiful imagery. It at the same time, however, failed to hit that level of sheer believability and down-to-Earth realism that a K-On!-class masterpiece would, and if you ask me, Bocchi the Rock! falls even shorter. “Wow, my latest video already has so many comments. [giggles] I’ve been racking up the views lately, too, and people are telling me I’m good… Yeah, maybe it’s okay if I can’t handle real life? There are tons of people cheering for me online!” There’s a lot of blatantly obvious reasons why I, of all fucking people, would be compelled to call this series and specifically this character “relatable,” but relating to her isn’t my problem. My problem is believing in her. In winter of 2018, some anons on /a/ were criticizing a scene in A Place Further Than The Universe which they felt to have been a shameless rip-off of a scene from K-On!, and whether or not I agreed with their cynical assessment or not, I couldn’t help but entertain the comparison. The scene was in one of the earlier episodes, when the girls were training and first spending a night together outdoors, sleeping in a tent. As they laid back and tried to sleep, they kept each other awake with silly small-talk and dumb jokes, and this thread on /a/ had completely convinced themselves that the scene was attempting to directly mimic the scene from the Kyoto trip in K-On!, the scene after the pillow fight where Ritsu keeps trying to prod at Mio, scare her, and make Yui and Mugi laugh. If you read a text summary of both those scenes, they would seem to be fundamentally identical, but when you actually sit down and watch them, one feels ever so slightly fake (or perhaps “forced” is a better word), while the other feels deeply real. Bocchi the Rock! has cute character designs and good voice acting; it has a surprisingly consistent and well-balanced production considering the studio behind it; it has a clear sense of inspiration and emotion spearheaded by an up-and-coming director who clearly learned all the right lessons from mentors past; and it has dialogue, monologue, and audiovisual expression that will 100% make you feel at times emotional, be it for a second, a minute, or a while. It does not, however, have a scene of Tainaka Ritsu saying goofy shit to keep her best friends from falling asleep on their trip to Kyoto, because she loves them and doesn’t want the moment to end. Of all the human, real-life person things I’ve been newly dabbling in lately, by far the most profound and telling has been my willingness and desire to take pictures. You see, I’ve never taken or had pictures. Pictures are friends, family, loved ones, memories. None of which I’ve ever had. But now that I think I’m starting to have them, I want to save these moments, these jokes, these things to think about later, to tell other friends about some other time, smiling, laughing, or simply reminiscing. The sense of belonging I feel when I see someone who missed out on something, turn my phone to face them, and see a smile on their face is one that I still haven’t comprehended enough to fully express the feeling of catharsis from which I receive. Memories I have of K-On! can stand emotionally on par with memories I now seem to be making at an increasingly rapid pace, whereas memories I have of this show and many others will likely not survive the alcohol, let alone the passing time. I would be very impressed with myself if I was still writing as SingleH this time next year, because I don’t see any of what I’m currently building crashing and burning anytime soon. I’ve fallen in love with these people, and I’ve grown addicted to the warmth they make me feel, even in this weather. It is fourteen fucking degrees fucking Fahrenheit in fucking Dallas right now, and as corny and stupid as it sounds, I’d say Bocchi the Rock! provided me with about as much warmth as this glass of Aberlour. I obviously first turned to my beloved rum to find some solace, but when it failed to do the trick and soothe my freezing body, I figured the time to stop being a dainty little bitch had finally come, and only the spice of whiskey could truly warm me up, but I appear to have underestimated the diversity of my options. The warmth of Bocchi the Rock! didn’t even need to be spicy either. It just needed to be warm. Like that hug from Ali. Thinking back, I could hear her heartbeat. Hopefully she couldn’t hear mine… Thank you for reading.

Bocchi the Rock is the latest in the neverending stream of cute girls doing cute things show that come out each season. When people cry over how repetitive the anime industry has gotten, the main culprit everyone points to always happens to be isekai, yet slice-of-life comedy shows like Bocchi the Rock have stuck to the same formulaic and repetitive storyline and main cast for the better part of the last decade or two, with, most of the time, nothing but praise coming their way. Yet, once again, BTR is said to be a breath of fresh air for the industry, promising a deep andmeaningful characterization of the main protagonist and cute girl in question - Bocchi. I don't often watch anime, but when I do, I watch lots of it. When I found myself once again scrolling through the MyAnimeList top anime section for the first time in what felt like ages, there stood Bocchi the Rock, firmly cemented at #23, to me, a magical number; Last time I went through the usual cycle - don't watch anime for 6 months, come back and binge watch 20 shows in a week - I found a very special show called Link Click at the #23 mark, which caught my attention and turned out to be one of the best shows I've ever watched. I thought to myself that this must be fate, and that this, too, will become a classic that stands the test of time and proves to be groundbreakingly innovative in the stale anime industry - however far that compliment goes. Unfortunately, I stand corrected. Bocchi the Rock is not exactly seasonal garbage, in fact it is unique in its ability to lead on the viewer and garner the sympathy of the average anime watcher despite being of little substance. One of the main points of appeal of this show, is, of course, the relatability of Bocchi's character. From that perspective, she is well-written, and her portrayal of social anxiety strikes just the right chords to get the viewer to care and relate to her. Of course, if you can't empathize with a socially anxious person, much of the comedy falls flat - but despite BTR being a comedy show, that surprisingly doesn't really take away from its overall enjoyability. For starters, the production of the show is immaculate - sure, the level of smoothness a blockbuster shounen like attack on titan sees isn't really present, but the direction is top notch, and the creativity levels are there, from the wacky facial expressions to the shots of real-life action that are very tastefully strung into the artwork - and to that end, I applaud Bocchi the rock. As far as slice-of-life shows go, it's presented beautifully, and the passion the animators and director had for the project is tangible - not entirely unexpected work from Keiichirou Saitou, who worked on shows like Sonny Boy, Mob Psycho and Wonder Egg Priority in recent memory, all deeply charismatic and atmospheric in their own ways. The cast, although not much more than the sum of its parts, is quite charming; and cute! Which, as you might guess, is kind of important for a cute girls doing cute things anime - and cute things, they are doing as well, playing some kick-ass music, which, once again, I have to give credit to. Both the opening and ending sequences are spectacular, and the OSTs are even better; the first track the girls write in the show, entitled "Guitar, Loneliness and Blue Planet", is, as far as J-Rock goes, one of the best songs I've ever heard in anime. But this isn't a music review. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ I have a very strong dislike for shows like Re:Zero and Koe no Katachi, which despite being wildly different in almost every aspect of their conception, share one thing in common - apart from their incredible commercial success - in the way that they emotionally manipulate and string along the viewer into caring for shallow, cheaply written characters. For Subaru's Re:Zero, that's in the form of killing off the entire (incredibly obnoxious) main cast in increasingly gruesome and brutal ways to little purpose other than shocking the viewer into tears. For Koe no Katachi, it's using Nishimiya's entire character as a glorified cardboard cutout to plaster a disability onto and get the audience to cry over it, which is a lot more evocative of what BTR attempts to do with Bocchi's social anxiety. It's cheap writing and emotionally exploitative. Although Bocchi the Rock doesn't abuse this trick to the same extent as the anime I previously mentioned, it doesn't mean it's in good taste, either. Crippling social anxiety that impairs someone from even the most basic human functions, is, more or less, the running gag of the show, which sure, fine, it's a comedy, and I'm a strong believer in being able to make jokes about anything and everything, but there's two issues I still have with it. Obviously, this is a cute girls doing cute things comedy, so I can't bring myself to do a psychological analysis of Bocchi; that's just as in bad taste as the show itself and entirely missing the point. Still, social anxiety is a mental health issue that has a root cause - abusive household, severe bullying, lack of human interaction, poor upbringing, a track record of being constantly mercilessly rejected, or whatever else you might think up. Yet Bocchi lives in a nice big house in a nice neighbourhood, she has a nice little sister and two supportive, able-bodied parents, was never bullied (or at least, the show never mentioned it), and just in general is a really cute anime girl who plays guitar and runs a youtube channel in her spare time, so really, her character is reduced to little more than a device to get the audience to think "she just like me fr" instead of a genuine, real, believable human being with feelings and motivations beyond what the writers tell us her feelings are. Although the show narrates mostly from the view of Bocchi, making all encounters into a deeply intimate experience, she remains shallow, written solely to make the audience empathize with her because of her situation, instead of her character. But again, analyzing Bocchi is senseless since this is a comedy, not a drama, so I can't discredit it for using a character as a running gag - it's something many other superb comedy shows do regularly. Still, AS a comedy, BTR entirely misses the mark, simply because its jokes aren't that funny. To some people, they're very relatable situations, and therefore mildly funny, but to the viewer without social anxiety, who can't empathize with Bocchi, every. single. damn. joke. falls flat in its face. Its comedy is entirely reliant on getting the viewer to sympathize and relate to Bocchi, which brings me back to how her "she just like me fr fr!" writing is cheap, and to how distasteful it is to use mental health issues as a device to sell jokes for the entire runtime of the show. This feels like a great time to mention a show I've recently watched - Hinamatsuri. Hinamatsuri is a comedy show, yes, and it has a side character called Anzu. Without spoiling too much, Anzu's character approaches a pretty serious theme - homelessness, yet never does the show try to make you cry just because oh, poor Anzu she's homeless, nor does it tastelessly poke fun at homeless people. Homelessness isn’t exactly something relatable to most people, it's a topic that's not as easily exploitable as social anxiety, so the writers turn Anzu into more than a social anxiety bag or a disabled damsel-in-distress (cough, koe no katachi, cough) through believable characterization and a great story arc. Quickly going through the plot, Anzu has great magical powers and has come to Earth to fight the titular protagonist, Hina. She is introduced as impulsive, aggressive, and unrelenting in her egocentrism. She fails to beat Hina, and also finds out she’s unable to return to the world she came from; Now stuck on earth, she steals to get by until she meets a homeless guy who teaches him that’s wrong, and Anzu joins his community of homeless people. Over the course of the next few episodes, Anzu learns the ins and outs of homeless life - picking up cans off the ground to sell to the scrapyard and getting 500 yen for a whole day of backbreaking work. Slowly, Anzu learns the value of money and the importance of sharing moments with others, thanks to her new living environment; The other homeless people in the community teach her other things too, anything from building a house to crocheting rubber bands, and when the time finally came for her to split apart from the rest of the homeless group - they arrange for her to be adopted -, she feels incompetent and powerless in her inability to be anything more than a bother for the nice people who helped her. Obviously, since Hinamatsuri is a comedy, sometimes it’s all exaggerated for comedic effect - when she first starts working for her adoptive family’s ramen shop, she asks a customer how he’s so wealthy after ordering an 800 yen dish - but her character arc and development is genuine, the lessons she learns are genuine, and the social issues tackled by the writers are approached with tact and care in order to build a story that doesn't make you cry because "Oh, crying reason spotted", but because you genuinely believe in and care for the character who makes it all happen. That, right there, is tasteful, good writing, and something a show like Bocchi the Rock simply lacks. Still, I do have one concession to make. I've written this review so far in such a way that Bocchi has been put in a bad light and portrayed as a weak character, which she isn't completely. She is cheaply written, yes, but her portrayal of social anxiety - although exaggerated for comedic purposes - is believable at times, which is probably why so many people who also struggle with similar troubles in their daily lives love the show. In fact I'll add one more - her character development is genuinely well written, particularly in episode 6, where Bocchi meets Hiroi, a bassist from another band randomly out on the street, and Hiroi convinces Bocchi to do a street performance - which she absolutely kills. By the end of the episode, Bocchi makes a new friend and achieves her goal for the episode, which involves talking to and convincing a whole three people, probably something even an adept social butterfly would struggle to do effortlessly. Unfortunately, the comedic nature of the series means that much of this character development is often reverted and forgotten by the end of one episode, but still, it's easy to tell that by the end of the show, Bocchi was a completely different, far more approachable person than she was at the start of the season, and the journey she goes through to get there is not just believable but also entertaining. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ In one of the earlier episodes, the blonde haired manager - whose name I forget - mentions how she was, at one point, part of a very popular band, that changed their sound into a more commercial one to get more sales, forgetting the passion of writing true music, which, in hindsight, is quite ironic. Every action a character takes and feeling they feel are not reactive to their environment, but pre-scripted and carefully designed to serve the purpose of the story - and it seems to me like the purpose the writer(s) behind BTR strived for was more about making their show a commercial success rather than writing what could really have been a great series and character. Bocchi, to be frank, makes you feel good, maybe has you laughing, maybe has you crying, which is really the point of a comedy and of a CGDCT show. How successful the show is in achieving its loftier goals might come down to whether you can or can't tolerate the exploitative nature of its titular character, who, more than a believable and meaningful portrayal of social anxiety, chooses instead to be an "oh she just like me frrrrrr!!!!!!" character. If that pulls on the right strings for you, then you'll certainly enjoy this show, and I can't blame you for it - a comedy serves solely to entertain, and Bocchi does that quite well so long as you don't look past its appearances; but if you do, then, much like a parent who tries to force their introverted kid out of the house, you'll find that a show that tries to force you into laughing and crying for its shallow relatability, probably won't succeed in doing either.