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BOCCHI THE ROCK! is an instant classic. It’s hilarious, endearing, and one of the best seasonal shows I've seen in a while. This cute little drama about an introvert and her high school band stands defiantly alongside goliaths like Chainsaw Man, Mob Psycho, and Demon Slayer as one of 2022's triumphs. It’s actually kind of hard to approach in a review, because everything is just done really well. It’s almost passive-aggressive, it just handwaves really common blights of a lot of other stories, which try to be like ten times as dramatic, but can't even lick its shoes. It offers a great blend of witty ... humor, social commentary and super lovable characters, all unified and packaged together as its own unique experience. There are no low points here. So let's just start with a high point, and what I think will stand out the most to you-

This show's PRESENTATION, the animation, directing and editing decisions, voice acting, music~ yeah, just put a box next to everything, and then put a check mark in it. Because they nail it. The editing in particular is genius- so I won't spoil anything, but there are gags that take advantage of audio cutting, character lines getting interrupted by shot cuts, certain characters being blocked in-frame and having their audio drowned out, but still being present in the scene; there's just too much to go into here, it’s insane. They incorporate a bunch of different animation styles into their jokes, at some points using stuff like live footage, raw 3D animation done in Blender, and even stick puppets. Every one of the female leads is given a really good vocal performance, which sell these characters even further with their sincerity, emotional range and comedic timing.

Each musical performance in the story sounds technically unique. Listen closely, and you’ll pick up on some vocal and instrumental quirks within the band from one event to the next, which further conveys the drama and progression of each music scene for attentive viewers. The visuals are at their best during these concert scenes too, mixing cinematic shot composition with fluid character and instrument animations. People who actually know stuff about instruments (not me) point out how faithful the depictions of the instruments in the show are to real life too, from quirks in Bocchi’s strumming technique to the accuracy of the chords being performed and the drums being hit. That’s really cool. Most people won’t notice stuff like that, but they still went the extra mile to make those scenes as authentic as possible. The amount of foresight and coordination from every corner of the production is staggering, which is why I commend the show's directing so much. If you want to watch something with noticeably good direction, so you can better recognize it in other shows, just watch this. It’s a crash course.

The STORY is something that actually gets overlooked by a lot of people, even other people who like this show. I think calling Bocchi a slice-of-life just because it's about a group of friends in a modern setting undersells and even misconstrues it a little. I like slice-of-life, don’t get me wrong, but that’s just not Bocchi. Because the plot is actually really prevalent, there's a ton of narrative thrust from beginning to end, and you never feel like you're waiting for anything to happen because every plot point leads directly into the next. The writing is so tight that I think it'd be one of the main draws of the show if it wasn't for how much the story prioritizes its characterization, and how much time we spend with them getting to know each other. Every scene has something new to offer and it’s always interesting and entertaining.

That's what the focus is, but that doesn't mean there just isn't a story. It’s mostly divided up between the events that the band is preparing for, with bits of slower stuff in the middle to spend time developing the friend group. It’s simple and strong, the simplest a story can be told is more often than not the most effective, because that gives us more of a chance to focus on nuance instead of getting caught up in contrivance or unnecessary complexity. Because that makes it more likely for the writer to just fumble the bag and ruin everything. The story triumphs in its natural progression, subtlety, and thematic throughlines.

And yeah, the show’s CHARACTERS are one of the most obvious selling points. There’s loads of characterization in this. Bocchi does more with its cast in 12 episodes than many multi-season shows do over their entire run. Everyone gets a chance to shine, and with every moment each character has in the spotlight, the audience takes away more and more about their dynamic with each other. There’s a reason why so many people have formed such strong bonds with these characters, they’re written really, really well. We get to see them in all sorts of different settings doing stuff with each other, and the audience gets taken along with them.

Aside from the comedy, I think the main reason Bocchi’s characters resonate with so many people is how vulnerable they’re all portrayed, despite their stark and unapologetic personalities. Each central character is given their own personal faults which go on to greatly influence their motivations, and in turn how they interact with each other. Every character has their own set of quirks that perfectly play off each other, which leads to rich, memorable dialogue, and tons of great character moments from every corner of the cast, from Bocchi’s passive aggressive little sister to her standoffish club manager to the manager’s random alcoholic college friend (who’s somehow so likable that she’s getting her own prequel spin-off). This cast drips with chemistry. It’s character chemistry in its purest form.

Topics like social anxiety and loneliness have been the focus of a lot of recent shows, and some are really good, like Komi Can’t Communicate, and Mob Psycho; and Bocchi is at the very forefront of that wave. These are shows that really care about exploring this stuff, but I’d go as far as to say that Bocchi is the definitive commentary. Not only that, but this show represents what I think could be the future of visionary directing in anime, where more liberty is afforded to the team behind each project to make them all stand out with more creative editing techniques. Because even something like Konosuba can’t even really come close to Bocchi, because by comparison, the presentation is just so much flatter. In ten years, who knows, it might be the new standard for all big comedies to take more advantage of the medium. But for now, Bocchi stands alone, wearing not only its undeniably unique identity, not only its endearing characters, not only its effortlessly-well told story, but ultimately its wide array of relevant and thoughtfully-conveyed themes, whimsically on its tracksuit sleeve for everyone to enjoy. This show is gonna be remembered for a long, long time.