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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 and ... meaningful 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.

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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.

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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.

86 started off with a rough first episode, but gradually captured my attention, taking my interest to its peak by the end of the third. Despite the promise I think it had, it ultimately falls short due to a lack of structure and plot direction. The flashy action scenes, decent soundtrack, and a failed attempt at writing a shallow drama and conveying "depth" through the use of dark, yet underdeveloped themes fail to make up for the awfully boring, unrealistic, and poorly developed characters.

The show fails to explain anything related to its world setting - the war, the sudden shift to a fascist government of ... a supposedly prosperous democratic nation, and the motivations of the 86. As the early episodes went by, I became more and more anxious as I waited to receive some answers to these questions, but 11 episodes in, they remain a mystery. Despite the short runtime, the plot does not receive any care or attention, as the twists and turns that lead from past to present times are not realistic or believable at all.

There are only 2 characters that are not completely flat: Lena, a teenage girl who sees the dystopian world of 86 through rose-tinted glasses and fights for equality and a better future for everyone; and Shin, who is basically her edgy, dark and brooding teenager counterpart. Both characters are shoddily written tropes, to be honest, and the show barely tries to shape any organic, meaningful relationships between the main cast. The rest of the characters just there, their only differentiating features being their names, hair and eye colour, and voice pitch. All of them serve as little more than cannon fodder. The other alba characters are even worse, they're literally copy pastes off a template, everything from their character design down to their personalities is recycled.

"What does it mean to be human?" - is the question that this show wants you to ask yourself, and it makes it painfully obvious. However, despite the show's attempt to present a deep, complex story, it really is just a dystopian teen mecha action show that senselessly kills off characters to shock the audience into tears, yet somewhat pretentious and absolutely hollow to its core.