A lot of the jokes come through via the animation. It’s clearly made by people familiar with or at least empathetic towards social anxiety, and they know how to mine Bocchi for cringe comedy without making light of its main character in the way Komi-san Can't Communicate does. It portrays the never-ending struggle she goes through – the cringe efforts she does to try and overcome her anxiety – all with enormous empathy towards the character in a way that doesn't make fun of her but understands that her struggles are relatable. For one, it is poignant in its exploration of anxiety but without being overtly bleak or cruel towards Bocchi. But Bocchi the Rock! hides a few aces up its anxiety-ridden sleeve. In many ways, it’s a spiritual successor to K-On!, a music anime that's really more about a group of girls becoming friends. That is until she runs into a girl from another school who asks Bocchi to join her band instead. The problem is that even after becoming quite good at playing guitar, and even after her guitar-playing videos gather an online following, Bocchi still isn't able to talk to anyone at school, let alone ask them to join her band. Learning that many big bands started out as a group of high schoolers hanging out, Gotoh - also known as Bocchi (literally "always alone") - borrows a guitar from her dad to try and start a band with fellow classmates. We follow Hitori Gotoh, a gloomy and shy high schooler with crippling social anxiety and a single desire: to muster the courage to talk to her classmates and become popular - or at least get a couple of friends. This is Bocchi the Rock! and Bocchi is here to, well, rock your world - if only she can avoid passing out and dissolving into dust in the process. In a season full of heavy hitters, spectacular conclusions, big sequels, anticipated blockbuster adaptations, and more, a little show about adorable girls doing adorable things enters the ring to blow the competition out of the water with a thematically rich, hilarious, heartfelt, and visually splendid first season.
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