While anime like Chainsaw Man and Spy x Family were huge hits when they dropped in 2022, there was a kind of inevitability to their success. These two series were popular well before they became anime, with their mangas already receiving critical and commercial success before the animation studios got a hold of them. No anime fan was surprised to see these two titans take off the way that they did. Bocchi, on the other hand, was a lot more obscure before it became an anime, with the manga not even getting translated into English until after the anime’s success.
Bocchi’s success is also another great example of how anime fandom has finally moved on from its shōnen obsession. There have been a lot of “Girls Make Music Together” anime before, but few have seen the meteoric rise that Bocchi has. It succeeded because Bocchi is a fresh take on the genre. Bocchi’s anxiety and social isolation sets the series apart, and leaves a lot of room to talk about serious mental health and illness, which is definitely quite different from what fans of the genre may be familiar with.
Spy x Family & Chainsaw Man Are Great Anime, But Their Success Was Inevitable
Chainsaw Man's and Spy x Family's success was written in the stars. They were both already incredibly successful manga series before they ever got an anime adaptation, making them both two low-risk series. There's nothing wrong with their success, it just wasn't a surprise like Bocchi's was. In fact, it's usually a great sign when popular mangas like Spy x Family and Chainsaw Man get adapted because they already have huge fan bases supporting them, guaranteeing their success and hopeful full adaptation.
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Spy x Family and Chainsaw Man took the world by storm, but everyone saw that coming.Chainsaw Man is a heavily awarded manga series. It won the incredibly prestigious Shogakukan Manga Award, the oldest manga award in all of Japan. Spy x Family has its own slew of awards as well, taking home the "No. 1 Popular Web Comic of 2019," the "No. 1 Popular Shōnen Jump+ Work," and a "Signature Work of Jump+", with over 500 million views before it ever got animated.
Bocchi Was A Big Risk, But One That Paid Off Big Time
It might be hard to believe that Bochhi wasn't always a smash hit. Before its anime adaptation, Bocchi won a few newcomer awards, but nothing even close to the massive success of fellow 2022 mega series Chainsaw Man and Spy x Family. It was a smaller series that didn't even get adapted into English before the anime took off. When it did take off, however, its success was huge. Creator Aki Hamazi had a line so long at Comiket 101 in December 2022, that she had to be relocated to an entirely different side of the convention, with all of her merchandise being sold before 1 p.m of the same day.
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Bocchi The Rock's Impressive Box Office Success Confirms It Deserves a Second Season
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Bocchi has taken the world by storm as proven by Bocchi's recap movie making bank at the box office. Bocchi as a character is a fresh take on an otherwise stale genre, as she's an honest character in a world with larger-than-life superstars. The real-life music location that Bocchi is based on also got a huge influx of visitors, with plenty of Otaku's making the pilgrimage to see where their favorite anime is based on.
Bocchi Takes A Familiar Genre And Upends It With One Big Change
There are plenty of great 'Cute Girls Make Music Together' series, like K-On!, Girls Band Cry, and more. Bocchi the Rock! is a subversion of 'normal cute girls who make music anime', as Bocchi is certainly cute, but that's not her defining character trait. She's rocked by her own anxiety and social fears. She's not a vivacious, energetic character like even some of her own bandmates. Instead, Bocchi would rather spend her time alone, in her room, shredding on her guitar anonymously.
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It's a fresh, honest, and wholesome take on the genre. Bocchi feels like a real person within her own series not because of her massive success, but because of her very human flaws. While most people revere artists, especially rock stars, they forget that those same rock stars are people too. They also have fears, and hopes, and wants, and wishes. Bocchi conveys them perfectly through her immense talent. Again, most people might think that, because Bocchi is so good at the guitar, she has nothing to fear, but that's not how life works.
Bocchi's anxiety is so bad, it stops her from being able to perform. She's amazingly good at playing guitar, but her own social awkwardness gets in her way constantly.
She's finally able to tap into her true self during a make-or-break performance where she realizes that she needs to step up her game if she wants her band to become successful. In arguably the best moment of the series, Bocchi gives herself a small pep talk before absolutely shredding her guitar, finally revealing her true self to the world.
Bocchi’s Experimental Visuals Push The Industry Toward More Creative Animation
Bocchi is incredible for so many reasons. Not only does it feature one of the most adorably relatable main characters in anime, it also features an incredible art design that makes viewers feel like they're watching multiple series at once. In a single 1:30 clip, Bocchi is seen in several different art styles, looks at her friends like she's a fading television set, and finally, transforms into a black-and-white monster in an homage to Godzilla wrecking a town. It's fresh, vibrant, and altogether hysterical.
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Bocchi stands out thanks to its amazing art style, original take on the genre, and most of all, it's knight-in-reluctant-armor, Bocchi. She's so easy to root for that it feels unfair to other anime protagonists. She's awesomely un-awesome, amazingly normal, and a powerhouse, filled to the brim with anxiety. When she's not playing the guitar better than almost everyone, she's making some of the funniest facial expressions in anime, forcing her animators come up with all-new ways to display just how hilariously uncomfortable she feels at the thought of making her own social media account.
Bocchi the Rock! follows Hitori "Bocchi" Gotou, a shy high school student with social anxiety who dreams of becoming a rock musician. Despite her introverted nature, Bocchi joins a band called Kessoku Band and embarks on a journey of self-discovery and friendship. Set against the backdrop of a lively music scene, the series explores themes of personal growth, teamwork, and the power of music to connect people.
Cast Yoshino Aoyama , Sayumi Suzushiro , Saku Mizuno , Ikumi Hasegawa
Release Date October 9, 2022
Seasons 1
Franchise(s) Bocchi the Rock!
Writers Erika Yoshida , Aki Hamaji
Directors Keiichirô Saitô
Creator(s) Aki Hamaji
English (US) ·