Bocchi the Rock
Episode 10 of Bocchi The Rock begins with Bocchi fantasizing about playing at a concert amongst an adoring audience. She awakens from her dream in class and overhears one of her classmates discussing the upcoming culture festival. Bocchi believes it would be great to have Kessoku Band perform there. It will help her accomplish one of her middle school goals while giving them more clout. Suddenly, Bocchi finds herself at the booth where people can submit applications to participate in the festival. Bocchi’s taken aback by her confidence as she’s unsure how she got there and why and when she completed an entry slip for her and Kessoku Band. Bocchi causes an uproar and falls toward the ground with a slip in her hand because of the pressure. Suddenly, Bocchi awakens in a bed at the school’s nurse’s office and sees Kita sitting by her. Bocchi doesn’t know how to inform Kita about the cultural festival and her insistence on signing up. Bocchi tells Kita she’ll head for work after getting a small rest. She tells Kita to go hang out with her other friends and not to worry about her. Kita departs as Bocchi grabs the slip. Bocchi wants to perform at the festival. However, she barely has concert experience and finds them frightening. Bocchi says she shouldn’t worry much as people who perform at these events are amateurs. Bocchi checks her phone to research people’s excitement for the festival. Bocchi gets attacked by everyone’s hyped-up interactions online. Bocchi argues she’s too tired to get up from the bed. She retracts her statement by arguing that loner types shining at events like the culture festival is a classic trope. After pondering it over, Bocchi ultimately decides against having her friends perform at her school’s culture festival. Bocchi heads to Starry Club to seek advice from Seika. Seika tells Bocchi she should have Kessoku Band play at the culture festival, despite Seika never caring for high school. Pa-San admits to dropping out, making Bocchi wonder why she asked them for tips. Nijika and Ryo arrive and Seika informs them that Bocchi wanted to have them play at her school’s culture festival. Nijika and Ryo aren’t against it, unlike Bocchi. They tell Bocchi they’ve played songs at their middle school’s culture festival. Ryo admits to playing horribly at hers, though. Nijika says it would be great to have the band perform somewhere other than Starry Club. It would help them grow from an advertising perspective. Ryou understands Bocchi’s qualms with performing in front of a large audience, so she’s willing to abide by her wishes. Nijika understands and asks Bocchi to make a decision that she feels is best. Through various times of the day, we see Bocchi ponder about the culture festival. She thinks over the pros and cons at playing at this event. At school, Kita bumps into Bocchi and informs her that she went to the nurse’s office again yesterday but noticed Bocchi left. Kita informs Bocchi that she found her completed slip for the culture festival and turned it in, shocking Bocchi. Kita can’t wait to play at the festival unlike Bocchi. Bocchi arrives at Starry Club and exhibits a position that makes her look like she’s in a casket. Kita apologizes for entering the slip as she didn’t know Bocchi was pondering about entering. Ryo asks Kita if it’s too late to back out, and Kita agrees they can’t. Hiroi arrives to Starry Club in a drunkened state. Seika and Nijika as for her to leave in a humorous manner. She spots Bocchi in her dead-like position and asks what’s wrong. Kita explains that she submitted Kessoku Band’s application to perform at the culture festival against Bocchi’s will. Hiroi thinks it’s a great idea. Bocchi argues against it as she can’t usher enough courage to perform in front of people who know her at schools. She cites large crowds frightening her too. Hiroi hands Bocchi and her friends tickets to her band’s performance tonight. Nijika insists on paying Hiroi for them, but Hiroi’s against it. She doesn’t want to look like a broke rocker who begs teenage girls for cash. Hiroi praises her band for its popularity and wealth. Nijika’s not buying it because it makes no sense for Hiroi to buy cheap beer. Bocchi reminds Hitori that she never paid her back for the train fare. Hiroi ensures everyone that her bands makes substantial money. However, they tend to use their money to replace their equipment because Hiroi breaks her instruments due to being drunk. Seika asks Bocchi if Ryo paid her back, and Bocchi says no. She forces Ryo and Hiroi to give Bocchi her money back as they apologize. Seika notices Hiroi drinking another beer and advises her to cut back on them. It’s revealed that Hiroi never used to drink before playing concerts. Meanwhile, the girls head for Hiroi’s concert, as they can’t believe they’re getting to attend it for free. We learn the name of Hiroi’s band. It’s called SICK HACK. The girls arrive as Hiroi gives them a tour of her home base called Shinjuku FOLT. They remark how it has a different vibe than Starry club. Hiroi introduces them to her friends Ginjiro (the manager), Shima (the drummer), and their England-based member Eliza. Eliza has resided in Japan for three years and came here to learn more about Comiket. She dreams of entering an anisong cover band one day. Bocchi questions their SICK HACK’s balance. We see concert goers waiting for them to perform. Nijika, Bocchi, and Kita are astounded by the amount of people in attendance. Ryo informs the others that SICK HACK’s professional in psycheledic rock and goes on a speal about that music genre’s history. SICK HACK performs and Bocchi’s bewildered by it all. Bocchi analyzes each member’s strengths but argues that Hiroi’s overwhelming charisma shines the most. After the performance, our girls head backstage to converse with SICK HACK. Hiroi notices something off about Bocchi and sits next to her to discuss things. Bocchi tells Hiroi she can’t ever see herself having as much charisma as Hiroi. Hiroi tells Bocchi that she was a gloomy person in high school. However, her drive to improve her life by playing music forced her to strive for something better. Hiroi admits that she started drinking because it helps her relax before a huge concert. This phase of her life began before SICK Hack’s first concert. Hiroi says everyone’s scared to tackle something that bothers them at first. However, she tells Bocchi she shouldn’t downplay her skills because she performed fabulously at Starry. She tells Bocchi to have faith in herself and have a drink when she’s stressed. Bocchi’s against drinking but would love for Hiroi to attend Kessoku Band’s performance at the culture festival. Kessoku Band head for a cafe to discuss their culture festival plan. Nijika relays Kita’s intel about them having 15 minutes to perform which is three songs in total. Ryo gets out a sheet of paper and a pen. She tells the others that had their setlist planned for awhile. Ryo says Bocchi will have a guitar solo in their second song. She wants her to shine since it’s their school housing the event. Kita questions if they should go into it with full agression, but Nijika says why not. Ryo argues they could all split the blame if they perform terribly. While heading home together, Kita admits to knowing Bocchi threw out the culture festival application, and she apologizes for submitting it. Bocchi tells Kita that it’s alright and that she’s grateful Kita did it. Kita promises she’ll work harder in practice and hopes they can give their school the best showcase ever. In her mind, Kita admits that she did it because she wants Bocchi to perform at the festival. The next day, Kita asks Ryo to coach her on the guitar for extra practice. She also wants to give Bocchi time to practice alone. Ryo isn’t against it but tells Kita she must pay her for the lessons. The episode concludes with Kessoku Band realizing that Bocchi’s gone missing.
The Episode Review
This is a good set-up for wacky and rock-inducing antics to come. This episode gave us a glimpse into Hiroi’s background and introduced the members of SICK HACK. While it doesn’t highlight most members backgrounds as much, the ones that get some spotlight leave a decent impression. I adore how Hiroi’s taking on a big sister role for Bocchi. It parallels Seika and Nijika’s relationship well, despite their bond feeling more wholesome with less banter. While I adore Bocchi’s character, I’m hoping we’ll get to see her evolve a bit more. Although these new obstacles trouble her, I can’t help but question if her progress has slowed down a tad. Understandably, a culture festival’s audience will garner more attendees than a late night club. Hopefully, the final episodes will focus more on Bocchi breaking free from her introverted shell. That is, if Kessoku Band can locate Bocchi. The next episode infers Bocchi’s missing, leaving viewers to speculate what happened to her. While some may speculate she’s trying to find a way out of the festival, others may predict that something drastic has occurred with Bocchi. Either way, I’m excited to see what developments our girls will get into next week. Overall, this was a charming and beautifully animated episode of Bocchi The Rock. I adored learning more about Hiroi’s passion for music and getting to see her bandmates. At the same time, I hope to see Bocchi grow and overcome her inner insecurities.
