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Nov 18, 4:09 AM

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May 2015
36
Watamote is just cringe and difficult to watch. I don't really gaf how people deal with social anxiety since I can't really relate, so Watamote being more "complex" isn't a point of concern for me.
Nov 18, 5:28 AM
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Jul 2023
483
watamote is less relateable to me than Bocchi tbh, there is also the fact that Bocchi has a better plot and overall story (in my opinion)

if it isn't upto your taste then im not forcing you, but i feel like you should change your opinion on this anime
Nov 18, 10:37 AM
Offline
Dec 2017
317
My problems with BtR are two-fold:

1. BtR is a "4-koma" gag manga and as such lacks substance. It's definitely possible to make not great, yet enjoyable anime out of 4-koma source, but it takes modesty (e.g I liked xenon rifle is beautiful).

In contrast, Watamote's source is a full-featured manga created by a light novelist + illustrator duo, a long-running work whose story actually had to be dumbed down and panderized after the anime adaptation (* see footnote)

Girls Band Cry is a fully original story, but written by the creative staff who had made Stein's Gate (MAL 9.04 !!!), Antartica / Yorimoi (8.64) and the perennial favourite Love Live Sunhine!, also a sizeable portion of the Hibike Euphonium saga. As such, GBC's team was able to pour tremendous amount of creativity into a story that's free from the boring and overused cliches of school-life (note: all 5 of the GBC main chara are dropouts). More mature themes and drama, balanced by great pysical comedy that reminds me of old silent movies, set in a highly realistic urban environment and with a down-to-earth approach.

Comparing Bocchi to GBC and Watamote storywise is like putting an ABBA musical next to Hamlet and Moliere...

2. BtR looks ugly and I can't find a less heavy word for it. I have no problem with low quality animation as long as it has a certain charm to its aesthetics (e.g. Kemono Friends S1 is a miracle!) However, when animation is both sloppy and unpleasant, there is no excuse to watch it! Much of Bocchi wasn't even properly 2D animated, more like a flipbook drawn by a 10 year old kid.

In contrast, decade old Watamote still looks visually pristine and Tomoko is oh so pretty! It shows how much effort and love the animators poured into her character, even the ED has genius animation.

We don't even need to get started on GBC: it's a revolutionary anime series, a TV-budget 3D CGI production whose visuals match those of 2018 Hollywood animated movies. If that sounds silly and petty, think again: TV anime is broadcast free-to-view in Japan, thus an original project like GBC has near-zero guaranteed income and must cope on a shoe-string production budget accordingly. Movies can rely on ticket sales and if already established franchises they can easily gain collabs with fast-food chains, etc. Furthermore, Japan has neglected full-potential CGI use for decades, both in games and animation and so fell hopelessly behind the USA and China. GBC single-handedly removed min. 10 years of that lag and if anime industry as a whole has the courage to adapt to this new era heralded by TOEI, they can survive. I don't have much hope in anime industry reforming itself but they've undeniably been given a chance by GBC success. Btw, GBC's character designer is Teshima Nari of Holo Live / Grafitti fame.

(*) Footnote: the story of Watamote's "spaghetti conspiracy" is long and complicated, but essentially the western (!) fandom manipulated manga sales figures as the story moved from web publication to physical (tankobon) format. Such cooking of stats led the publisher to vastly overestimate Watamote' potential in the anime market and a high quality one-cour adaptation was greenlit. Domestic disc sales turned out miserable however and western fandom couldn't afford to manipulate sales for expensive DVD box sets the same way they did with dirt-cheap tankobons. As such the anime's commercial failure almost sunk Watamote manga as well and the authors had to abruptly transform the story into a lesbian harem just to stay afloat. Watamote anime S2 never happened, of course.
Tacsk0Nov 18, 10:48 AM
Nov 18, 11:06 AM
Offline
Dec 2017
317
Reply to mobxmentality
Im pretty sure nowadays pretty much every aspect of an anime has been done before
Whether its done better or worse (especially in comedy) usually is very subjective

Why not watch Watamote instead? Watamote is a comedy that is missing the music aspect
Why not watch Girls Band Cry instead? GBC is a music drama that is not focussing on the comedy aspect
combine both and you get Bocchi The Rock, apparently people want comedy + music thats why theyre watching this show, its not that hard to figure out
@mobxmentality
> GBC is a music drama that is not focussing on the comedy aspect

????? I, for one squealed like a pig for the first 8 episodes of Girls Band Cry as the comedy just never stopped. Its creative crew found ways to present even drama parts in a kind of slapstick / ham-fisted way to induce laughter. Remember the old silent era B&W movies, where characters slapped each other to just music backing and the audience laughed? Like that. Plus, the (anti)-heroine vocalist Iseri Nina is such a walking paradox you can't avoid laughing at her, while drummer Subaru is a certified shit-stirrer and habitual liar, disguised as an adept socielite actress, which is actually just disguise for a very loveable genki girl who makes you smile.

(Early MTL fansubbers should also be forgiven for their intentional meme-trolling of GBC, since those heinous lines actually added to the experience!)

Btw, TOEI Studio's Project Alnair (development of the "Girls Band Cry" mixed media franchise) started over 5 years ago, in early 2019 and so it cannot be credibly accused of trying to copy Bocchi's or Bandori's success. In general, BanGDream/ MyGo! fans have largely embraced GBC / TogeToge quite soon, while BtR fans remain more hostile. They have more to lose, meanwhile Bandori fans see in GBC the salvation from "stilted glass zombie" looks, which plagued MyGo's CGI so much.
Tacsk0Nov 18, 11:48 AM
Nov 18, 11:33 AM

Offline
May 2021
555
Just chiming in here to say that Bocchi / GBC / Watamote are 3 anime that absolutely deserve to be watched.

Watamote is not a band anime but it does have an amazing (Utsu-p) Hatsune Miku ED for episode 4. ^_^

I have literally hundreds of listens on Kessoku Band's album, hundreds of listens on TogeToge's music already. You cannot go wrong with either of them. It's not worth trying to pick which is better, it's all great.
Nov 18, 8:54 PM
Offline
May 2016
1822
Dellio_man said:
ktg said:
Lol, Bocchi is one dimensional?! Yeah, cool... The inserted songs are also better in BtR.
I haven't seen Watamote, but from what I've heard so far, it's not even close to BtR.

She is tho as for what I'm seeing rn. Her personality trait is just social anxiety which is fine if you like that but tomoko to me is just alot more complex. While u can also argue tomokos personality is just "wanting to be popular" but there are more nuances in how technically she can go abt that rather than having her one goal be her only personality

Again, I haven't seen Watamote, but I've seen Komi-san can't communicate. If the only trait Bocchi has is her social anxiety, then why is she so different from Komi for example? The differences that make them act differently are their depths.
Bocchi is a really complex character if you go into how she thinks and acts. We are almost in her head during the full 12 episodes and people didn't get bored, which means she is pretty layered.
Nov 18, 11:08 PM
Offline
Sep 2021
1086
" wah wah why people love a show I don't like instead of shows i like instead!!! "

stop being insecure
Nov 19, 12:08 AM
Kikuris footrest
Offline
Jul 2022
204
Tacsk0 said:
@mobxmentality
> GBC is a music drama that is not focussing on the comedy aspect

????? I, for one squealed like a pig for the first 8 episodes of Girls Band Cry as the comedy just never stopped. Its creative crew found ways to present even drama parts in a kind of slapstick / ham-fisted way to induce laughter. Remember the old silent era B&W movies, where characters slapped each other to just music backing and the audience laughed? Like that. Plus, the (anti)-heroine vocalist Iseri Nina is such a walking paradox you can't avoid laughing at her, while drummer Subaru is a certified shit-stirrer and habitual liar, disguised as an adept socielite actress, which is actually just disguise for a very loveable genki girl who makes you smile.

(Early MTL fansubbers should also be forgiven for their intentional meme-trolling of GBC, since those heinous lines actually added to the experience!)

Btw, TOEI Studio's Project Alnair (development of the "Girls Band Cry" mixed media franchise) started over 5 years ago, in early 2019 and so it cannot be credibly accused of trying to copy Bocchi's or Bandori's success. In general, BanGDream/ MyGo! fans have largely embraced GBC / TogeToge quite soon, while BtR fans remain more hostile. They have more to lose, meanwhile Bandori fans see in GBC the salvation from "stilted glass zombie" looks, which plagued MyGo's CGI so much.

(character limit)

Nov 19, 12:12 AM
Offline
May 2022
9
I kinda half agree but not fully. I actually had mixed feelings about Watamote when i first watched it. Party cause I couldn’t tell if the show was trying to sympathize with people with social anxiety or make fun of them. But ultimately I have come to like it more and more snd have even read through quite a few volumes of the manga as well. Watamote definitely has stuck with me more over the years whereas I really liked Bocchi but it didn’t stick with me as mich as I thought it would. However I still think that even if Tomoko is a more relatable and better character, i love how Bocchi the Rock has such creative ways of animating social anxiety and how it can feel. That’s what really stuck with me in the show. The creative animation.

But yeah overall I think i like watamote better (which reminds me I should update my rating oc it soon.)
Nov 19, 11:25 AM
Offline
Nov 2021
66
kinda interested in seeing watamote now that you mention that main character is written better than bocchi, and ye would agree that the tracks in GBC is better but the plot of both of these shows are quite separate so maybe the relatable is different for people but man, characters interaction not being interesting in bocchi now i cant stand for that pls do a reevaluation asap
Nov 19, 9:27 PM
Offline
Nov 2023
6
Because Watamote isnt better, its cringe, its mid, its not relatable at all

Bocchi’s Social Anxiety is way better represented

And Girls Band Cry is not good at all, it sucks, its crappy, the characters suck, and the music sucks too, GBC SUCKS, its one of the worst music anime, even K-ON! is better

BOCCHI THE ROCK is wayyy better than GBC in all aspects, BTR’s characters, Music, and every other thing i can think of are all wayy better, like a million times better than GBC, in fact BTR and K-ON! are the two greatest music anime ever!! and thats a fact

So no, i dont wanna watch watamote and GBC because they both are terrible, they suck, and if you don’t like it then too bad so sad, stop watching and GTFO
Nov 20, 3:16 AM
Offline
Jan 2021
134
Tacsk0 said:
My problems with BtR are two-fold:

1. BtR is a "4-koma" gag manga and as such lacks substance. It's definitely possible to make not great, yet enjoyable anime out of 4-koma source, but it takes modesty (e.g I liked xenon rifle is beautiful).

In contrast, Watamote's source is a full-featured manga created by a light novelist + illustrator duo, a long-running work whose story actually had to be dumbed down and panderized after the anime adaptation (* see footnote)

Girls Band Cry is a fully original story, but written by the creative staff who had made Stein's Gate (MAL 9.04 !!!), Antartica / Yorimoi (8.64) and the perennial favourite Love Live Sunhine!, also a sizeable portion of the Hibike Euphonium saga. As such, GBC's team was able to pour tremendous amount of creativity into a story that's free from the boring and overused cliches of school-life (note: all 5 of the GBC main chara are dropouts). More mature themes and drama, balanced by great pysical comedy that reminds me of old silent movies, set in a highly realistic urban environment and with a down-to-earth approach.

Comparing Bocchi to GBC and Watamote storywise is like putting an ABBA musical next to Hamlet and Moliere...

2. BtR looks ugly and I can't find a less heavy word for it. I have no problem with low quality animation as long as it has a certain charm to its aesthetics (e.g. Kemono Friends S1 is a miracle!) However, when animation is both sloppy and unpleasant, there is no excuse to watch it! Much of Bocchi wasn't even properly 2D animated, more like a flipbook drawn by a 10 year old kid.

In contrast, decade old Watamote still looks visually pristine and Tomoko is oh so pretty! It shows how much effort and love the animators poured into her character, even the ED has genius animation.

We don't even need to get started on GBC: it's a revolutionary anime series, a TV-budget 3D CGI production whose visuals match those of 2018 Hollywood animated movies. If that sounds silly and petty, think again: TV anime is broadcast free-to-view in Japan, thus an original project like GBC has near-zero guaranteed income and must cope on a shoe-string production budget accordingly. Movies can rely on ticket sales and if already established franchises they can easily gain collabs with fast-food chains, etc. Furthermore, Japan has neglected full-potential CGI use for decades, both in games and animation and so fell hopelessly behind the USA and China. GBC single-handedly removed min. 10 years of that lag and if anime industry as a whole has the courage to adapt to this new era heralded by TOEI, they can survive. I don't have much hope in anime industry reforming itself but they've undeniably been given a chance by GBC success. Btw, GBC's character designer is Teshima Nari of Holo Live / Grafitti fame.

(*) Footnote: the story of Watamote's "spaghetti conspiracy" is long and complicated, but essentially the western (!) fandom manipulated manga sales figures as the story moved from web publication to physical (tankobon) format. Such cooking of stats led the publisher to vastly overestimate Watamote' potential in the anime market and a high quality one-cour adaptation was greenlit. Domestic disc sales turned out miserable however and western fandom couldn't afford to manipulate sales for expensive DVD box sets the same way they did with dirt-cheap tankobons. As such the anime's commercial failure almost sunk Watamote manga as well and the authors had to abruptly transform the story into a lesbian harem just to stay afloat. Watamote anime S2 never happened, of course.

See u get it and well I will say i disagree with the animation point as I think it's actually bocchis biggest strong point atleast for its comedy. But fr yea the characters from GBC 10x more complex tho like even now im still struggling to see the side characters as support characters for bocchi besides maybe kikuri. Even bocchi herself which it makes since it comes from a gag manga bc that's what it feels like WHICH TO ME IS FINE I like my trashy rom com gag humor animes and CGDCT gag humor animes but I mean that IS what it is y'know? Just still think watamote wether that it is subjectively "cringy" it crafted jokes a whole lot better and tomoko in general just felt more complex to me in the world of watamote. And that tomoko doesn't have any support staff with her, making her efforts to y'know TRY to be or do something (In which she fails alot) seem way more remarkable to me rather than bocchi that has a whole group of supporters by her side from the get go. I do get it tho it's a CGDCT anime and bocchi couldn't do what watamote sets itself up to be
Nov 20, 3:28 AM
Offline
Jan 2021
134
Tacsk0 said:
@mobxmentality
> GBC is a music drama that is not focussing on the comedy aspect

????? I, for one squealed like a pig for the first 8 episodes of Girls Band Cry as the comedy just never stopped. Its creative crew found ways to present even drama parts in a kind of slapstick / ham-fisted way to induce laughter. Remember the old silent era B&W movies, where characters slapped each other to just music backing and the audience laughed? Like that. Plus, the (anti)-heroine vocalist Iseri Nina is such a walking paradox you can't avoid laughing at her, while drummer Subaru is a certified shit-stirrer and habitual liar, disguised as an adept socielite actress, which is actually just disguise for a very loveable genki girl who makes you smile.

(Early MTL fansubbers should also be forgiven for their intentional meme-trolling of GBC, since those heinous lines actually added to the experience!)

Btw, TOEI Studio's Project Alnair (development of the "Girls Band Cry" mixed media franchise) started over 5 years ago, in early 2019 and so it cannot be credibly accused of trying to copy Bocchi's or Bandori's success. In general, BanGDream/ MyGo! fans have largely embraced GBC / TogeToge quite soon, while BtR fans remain more hostile. They have more to lose, meanwhile Bandori fans see in GBC the salvation from "stilted glass zombie" looks, which plagued MyGo's CGI so much.

Yea i can say looking through this thread (now comedy is subjective) but it seems like alot of ppl didn't watch GBC and just looked at the tags on mal or watched it and wasn't paying attention bc GBC is litrally a melodrama comedy. Like it's CGDCT with dramatic elements and like u said more mature themes. I really don't know how ppl are just thinking it's drama. Like I'm talking abt watamote being more funny than bocchi but I'd even argue GBC being more funny bc like you said even they're being more innovative than what BTR is trying to achieve with comedy. and again the example you gave with suburu, A WHOLE SIDE CHARACTER has more complexity than the cast of BTR. Like I don't even think btr is bad I think it's quite good and enjoyable actually but it's no where near great imo as of rn.
Dellio_manNov 20, 3:34 AM
Nov 20, 3:31 AM
Offline
Jan 2021
134
Dee_savage said:
Because Watamote isnt better, its cringe, its mid, its not relatable at all

Bocchi’s Social Anxiety is way better represented

And Girls Band Cry is not good at all, it sucks, its crappy, the characters suck, and the music sucks too, GBC SUCKS, its one of the worst music anime, even K-ON! is better

BOCCHI THE ROCK is wayyy better than GBC in all aspects, BTR’s characters, Music, and every other thing i can think of are all wayy better, like a million times better than GBC, in fact BTR and K-ON! are the two greatest music anime ever!! and thats a fact

So no, i dont wanna watch watamote and GBC because they both are terrible, they suck, and if you don’t like it then too bad so sad, stop watching and GTFO

baseless claims with no argument or evidence to back this up. I might be cooking idk 👀
Nov 20, 6:18 AM
Offline
Nov 2023
6
Reply to Dellio_man
Dee_savage said:
Because Watamote isnt better, its cringe, its mid, its not relatable at all

Bocchi’s Social Anxiety is way better represented

And Girls Band Cry is not good at all, it sucks, its crappy, the characters suck, and the music sucks too, GBC SUCKS, its one of the worst music anime, even K-ON! is better

BOCCHI THE ROCK is wayyy better than GBC in all aspects, BTR’s characters, Music, and every other thing i can think of are all wayy better, like a million times better than GBC, in fact BTR and K-ON! are the two greatest music anime ever!! and thats a fact

So no, i dont wanna watch watamote and GBC because they both are terrible, they suck, and if you don’t like it then too bad so sad, stop watching and GTFO

baseless claims with no argument or evidence to back this up. I might be cooking idk 👀
@Dellio_man no you aint cooking shit, GBC is not as good, its terrible, Watamote is not as good, its terrible, so you can stop watching and GTFO, we dont need fanboys like you
Nov 20, 7:23 AM
Offline
Jan 2021
134
Dee_savage said:
@Dellio_man no you aint cooking shit, GBC is not as good, its terrible, Watamote is not as good, its terrible, so you can stop watching and GTFO, we dont need fanboys like you

sounds like I'm cooking then my guy idk :3 and I'm confused what ur on abt fanboyism I'm just a anime fan bro
Nov 20, 7:38 AM
Offline
Nov 2023
6
Reply to Dellio_man
Dee_savage said:
@Dellio_man no you aint cooking shit, GBC is not as good, its terrible, Watamote is not as good, its terrible, so you can stop watching and GTFO, we dont need fanboys like you

sounds like I'm cooking then my guy idk :3 and I'm confused what ur on abt fanboyism I'm just a anime fan bro
@Dellio_man no you not cooking, now you either GTFO or you can get your ass whooped bitch
Nov 20, 7:38 AM
Offline
Nov 2023
6
Reply to Dellio_man
Dee_savage said:
@Dellio_man no you aint cooking shit, GBC is not as good, its terrible, Watamote is not as good, its terrible, so you can stop watching and GTFO, we dont need fanboys like you

sounds like I'm cooking then my guy idk :3 and I'm confused what ur on abt fanboyism I'm just a anime fan bro
@Dellio_man no you not cooking, now you either GTFO or you can get your ass whooped bitch, CHOOSE
Nov 20, 7:42 AM

Offline
Jan 2022
26
watamote is not even close to btr and it's just weird. GBC, yea I get it why someone would like it. But there are a lot of plot holes, and some weird character interactions that dont't even make sense.
Nov 21, 9:06 AM
Offline
Nov 2021
66
it's probably because you're not the target audience. these kinds of shows where the set up and punchline of a joke is just a character acting 'weird' are meant for normie audiences. watamote was a commercial failure because most normal people will WTF at tomoko wanting to be molested on a train or making a voice actor record very questionable stuff.
also BTR won't dive deep into Anxiety because its written by someone who liked tomoko and wanted to imitate her without actually understanding the illness itself (which would be fine if it wasn't so bottom of the barrel "wow she looks dead LOL" kind of humor.) watamote author on the other hand is a recluse from what i could gather from the extra chapters.
moral of the story: one is written by a woman and the other by a dude (probably)
ps ano bando and that gag where wasteland delinquents show up are the only two good things about this show
Nov 22, 11:21 AM
Offline
Dec 2017
317
Reply to lbanil
watamote is not even close to btr and it's just weird. GBC, yea I get it why someone would like it. But there are a lot of plot holes, and some weird character interactions that dont't even make sense.
@lbanil
> GBC, yea I get it why someone would like it. But there are a lot of plot holes

GBC already has a huge fandom and they took on the challenge to fill any plot holes with doujin-shi (though many of those holes tend to be R18 or even R34 kind of holes...)

Anyhow, what makes up your plot hole list? Due to lack of time (Nina consumed 2 more episodes than expected within a single-cour series) some sub-plots had to be dropped. Rupa's backstory was omitted, Momoka and Subaru having known each other previously can only be inferred from Subaru wearing the same school uniform as high-school Momoka. Nina and Hina's common past, running the school radio together was also omitted. They were chosen for their good voices, that's why both can sing well and they weren't really friends, just club mates (and lovers?)
Nov 22, 10:41 PM
Offline
Nov 2019
63
I definitely prefer Girls Band Cry over bocchi, however, bocchi has it place and gives us a completely different protagonist that makes it very unique. I think it gives viewers that deal with anxiety a bit of something to relate to.
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