The tenth episode ofBocchi The Rock!was yet another impressive affair, with a brand-new in-universe band being introduced to the series. Bocchi’s eccentric older friend, Kikuri Hiroi, has made reference to her own band in various episodes since her introduction, and this is the episode where her true abilities are displayed for the first time.
The episode kicks off with Bocchi listening to her teacher in class talk about the upcoming culture festival, and coming up with the idea of signing upKessoku Band for a live-performanceduring the event. However, Bocchi’s fears soon catch up with her, and her brief moment of confidence is replaced with a familiar sight: Bocchi talking herself out of doing something due to the overwhelming anxiety she feels. However, not all is lost inBocchi the Rock!episode 10 as Kikuri Hiroi becomes the unexpected saviour, once more.
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Out-Of-Body
When she comes to, Bocchi sees Kita by her side. She considers telling Kita about getting the band to perform at the cultural festival, but she decides against it, knowing that she wouldn’t be able to handle Kita’s excitement in her fragile state. Bocchi convinces Kita that she’ll head over to STARRY after resting a little more, so Kita heads over there before her. Bocchi continues to mull over performing at the cultural festival, but she eventually decides that it isn’t a good idea, and scraps the application form.
She heads to work and opens up to Seika about it, who is of the opinion that she should definitelyget Kessoku Band to performat the festival because high school goes by faster than one thinks. Despite Bocchi thinking that the conversation was in confidence, Seika quickly tells her little sister Nijika about Bocchi’s worries, which obviously piques her interest as the literal founder of Kessoku Band.
Both Nijika and Ryо̄ are interested in performing at the Shuka High School Cultural Festival; however, they’re also aware of what kind of pressure this puts on Bocchi, who undoubtedly wants to get up on stage and perform, but can’t shake the nervousness about being up on stage in front of the people she attends school with every day. However, their excitement does get Bocchi thinking about it more, but she is unable to beat the voices in her head that are telling her not to go through with it. Little does she know that the ball is already rolling.
Paved In Good Intentions
The next morning, Bocchi is back to thinking that it’s not possible for her to perform on stage, and she even considers keeping her involvement in a band a secret from her schoolmates until her moment of fame, imagining a random classmate lamenting the fact that she didn’t get an autograph from the famous Hitori Gotо̄, before being interrupted by the cheery Kita, who tells her that she went past the nurse’s office again to check if Bocchi was really feeling alright, but Bocchi had already gone to STARRY. Kita reveals that she turned in the application form, meaning that Kessoku Band would be set up to perform at the upcoming culture festival.
This leaves Bocchi utterly shellshocked, and she once again loses consciousness. Waking up at STARRY, the other band members wonder if there is any way for them to back out of the event; however, once their application was submitted,their fate was sealed. The gloomy tension in the bar is reduced somewhat by the appearance of Kikuri’s loud requests for free beer, which prompt contemptuous treatment from Nijika; however, Kikuri’s presence ends up having a much more profound effect than anyone expected, as she invites Bocchi and the others to her band’s gig happening later that day.
Psychedelic Kikuri
Kikuri gives Kessoku Band free tickets to her band’s live performance, and when they offer to pay for them, she insists that she isn’t the kind of down-in-the-dumps rocker who’d solicit funds from teenage girls. She also reveals that her band is actually quite popular on the indie scene, so they make their ticket quotas quite easily. Her revelation of course breeds more contempt, this time from both Nijika and Seika, who quip that she takes advantage of their kindness and requests financial favours from them far too often for someone who is part of a fairly successful band. It turns out that Kikuri spends most of the money she makes on replacing the gear she ends up breaking during her drunken performance. She takes the group to her band’s home base, the live-house known as Shinjuku FOLT, a club with amuch more rough and rugged feelthan STARRY.
Bocchi and Nijika are overwhelmed by the intensity of the venue and its patrons, but Kikuri soon shows them that the people there are quite nice. They meet the bar manager, a 37-year-old man named Ginjiro Yoshida, who initially scares them with his intense glare and raccoon eyes; however, he turns out to be a very likable person. Soon after being introduced to Ginjiro, the Kessoku Band members get to make the acquaintance of the remaining members of the psychedelic rock band known as SICK HACK. Prior to the band’s performance, Nijika, Kita and Bocchi locate Ryо̄, sitting at a bench in the venue by herself, and she bombards them with copious amounts of information about the band.
SICK HACK
The lights dim and the music begins. Almost immediately, Bocchi is drawn into a completely different world, and within a few seconds, she can tell that she’s listening to an amazing band. The anime does what it does best with its visuals during the SICK HACK performance, with an apt psychedelic feel taking over the animation as it communicates Bocchi being spirited away to another dimension – a psychedelic dimension – by the music. After the performance, Bocchi sits backstage with the members of Kessoku Band and SICK HACK, with Kikuri asking how she found their music. Bocchi is clearly down about something as she claims to have enjoyed the performance, so Kikuri asks her what’s wrong. Seeing how incredible SICK HACK was during their performancecauses Bocchi to doubt herself, which prompts Kikuri to finally open up and tell more about herself.
Kikuri tells Bocchi that she was once a gloomy misfit sitting in the corner of the classroom, and that she was once scared of buying a bass at a music store or entering a club. She imagined her future, and thought that her gloomy life was far too boring for her, so, in Kikuri’s words, she started playing rock music to make her life “do a 180° turn”. She only started drinking to deal with the nerves she was experiencing prior to her first live performance, adding that most people are really terrified the first time they do something. Kikuri tells Bocchi that she did well during their improvised street performance and during the live at STARRY, adding that she didn’t even need to use alcohol as a crutch. The entire experience serves to bethe push that Bocchi needed.
Game Plan
After the performance, the members of Kessoku Band head over to a restaurant for some food. While there, Ryо̄ whips out paper and a pen, and explains that she’s been thinking about their setlist for the upcoming cultural festival performance for a while, so she already knows that she wants the band to perform solely original songs, which Nijika agrees with. She intends to have Bocchi and Kita shine, since it’ll be at their school, and suggests a guitar solo for Bocchi.
As Kita and Bocchi head home, the guilt builds up in Kita, and she is forced to reveal that she knew that Bocchi intended to scrap the application form for the cultural festival but submitted it regardless. Bocchi explains that she’s grateful for Kita’s actions because while it is something incredibly daunting for her, it’s also something that she’s very excited about. Kita, with her guilt quelled, gainsa new level of motivation to succeedin the upcoming performance and works hard in the days leading up to it. When the day arrives… Bocchi is nowhere to be found.
