Hello folks, and welcome the heck back to Wrong Every Time. Today I’m eager to dive back into the drama of Bocchi and her Kessoku Band, which most recently acquired its long-awaited singer (and prospective rhythm guitarist). And though this was a great victory for Kessoku Band at large, it was even more of a victory for Bocchi personally, who actually spearheaded the operation to get Kita into the group. By observing this new friend, Bocchi has come to realize that even extraverted people suffer from anxiety and imposter syndrome, and thus gained a touch more courage in facing her own fears.
This has all been delightful for Bocchi and the show at large in a character development sense, but I’ll admit I have a more selfish reason for cheering Kita’s arrival. After that excellent first episode band performance, I’ve been hungry for more sequences of the gang actually playing music together, and the appearance of our long-awaited singer seems like the perfect chance. Regardless, I’m sure we’ve got a charming and luxuriously animated experience ahead of us, so let’s dive back into Bocchi the Rock!
Episode 4
We open with a slow pan across the wall outside STARRY, which offers us a closer look at all the goofy yet generally convincing band posters they invented for this show. A big fan of NEKO’s new release, “Everybody cat’s”
Ryo notices a band collab poster, while inside Kita is practicing lead progressions
“I can’t sing while I’m focusing all my motor controls on the guitar.” That, at least, is something that always came naturally to me. Or rather, because I started as my first band’s drummer and co-singer, I was already quite accustomed to doing different things with my hands and feet while singing. This naturally led into a confidence in wandering around the guitar line with my vocal takes while still maintaining a tight rhythm, which is definitely one of my few strengths as a singer-guitarist
“It might be better if I just sang, but then I wouldn’t have anything to do during interludes, and I’d probably just fidget.” That’s generally where you work the crowd and dance around, Kita – when you’re not focusing purely on singing, you’re the stage conductor. Of course, given this band’s math rock-adjacent sound, I imagine they’ll frequently break into full minutes of noodling that are a literal awkward to just nod through
Kita asks if Bocchi is willing to sing with her, and Bocchi dissolves into a progressively more formless Bochblob while vibrating intensely
With Bocchi and Kita here, Nijika can now get two thirds of the audience to clap at her meeting announcements. A great victory for Nijika
“Is she trying to give Kita a break from all her practice?” Bocchi’s anxiety often leads her towards self-defeating mental ends, but it also reflects how she’s constantly assessing the people around her, and attempting to divine their current emotional needs. She’s genuinely perceptive, and that’s part of why she was able to get Kita into the group
Kita makes the helpful suggestion of setting up an Instagram page. Yeah, I guess that’s what a band would do these days, huh? I remember we just set up a Bandcamp, which… yeah, shit, it’s still up. Well that’s a weird blast of nostalgia
Ryo is unsurprisingly good at monetizing all of their ideas, which is a crucial skill in a band. There is basically no money in rock music, so you gotta make the most of your margins
“I’ll write the song once I get inspiration.” On the other hand, her dedication to the actual daily craft of producing music is somewhat lacking. No professional artist says they’ll do it once they get inspired; the work is the work, and whether six hours of practice and thought results in a workable composition or not, you still gotta put in the time. Most creativity isn’t a result of a perfect spark of inspiration; though shower thoughts are helpful, most of your ideas will come when you’re actually working
Excellent smash cut from our overconfident Bochblob to her despair after a week with no ideas. Once again, emotions are conveyed largely through linework: the lack of lines in the Bochblob signifies her compliment-driven confidence, while the copious linework of despairing Bocchi emphasizes her anxiety
“I could easily write depressing lyrics, but nobody wants that.” Noooo Bocchi! Confessional lyrics come naturally to you, you should write what you know! A sunny song from you would drip with insincerity!
Dear lord, what loose and energetic animation for Bocchi’s fantasies of her life as an extrovert! Here, the lack of linework, inconsistency of form, and confident rhythm of movement (lots of punching the air and commanding her space) all conspire to make Bocchi seem genuinely at home in these ridiculous fantasies
“I personally find status-quo-affirming lyrics annoyingly irresponsible, but…” The gang really should have told her that it’s okay to write something gloomy, as she tends to default to “my own perspective is shameful and not worth expressing, I’ll just mimic popular songs to make people happy”
“Any depressed person hearing this song would just fall further into depression!” What Bocchi can offer the world is an authentic experience of anxiety, which would mean more to a depressed audience than an insincere encouragement to follow your dreams
Nijika calls up the band for another incidental project: taking their promotional photos. She’s very good at giving her bandmates needed breaks, and promoting group time that really makes them feel like a unit
Kita mentioned in the last episode how Ryo just seemed to evoke a rocker aura, and it’s absolutely true. Even in this casual meetup, her look and posture evoke such strong musician vibes
The show does a solid job of integrating the characters into all this live action photography as they wander around town. The team’s understanding of layouts and blocking even applies to these mixed media compositions
“Oh, and an evocative wall!” Nijika gets it. There’s a wall covered in rainbow paint blots near my apartment, and folks are constantly taking promotional photos in front of it
Another well-observed band photo anecdote, as Nijika notes that in photos with the instruments, the drummer is always stuck looking like an idiot with their sticks in their hands
“That used to be a CD shop I went to a lot.” “Lots of record shops and club venues closing these days, yeah.” This too is a mood. Making rock music and touring clubs in recent times makes it impossible to ignore how the culture for such things is dying. Many of the venues I was playing ten years ago have at this point closed down
I’m loving the outright scribbles they’re using for absurd emotional outbursts this episode. They’re distorting these character shapes as far as they can go, but their handy color-coded hair still makes it easy to discern what’s happening
God Ryo’s got her look down. Love this expression of distant contempt she employs for their wall photos
“As I am the quintessential musician, you must all copy my expression.” Bless you Ryo
Reflecting on taking pictures with friends prompts our first Bocchi death of the episode, complete with the requisite flailing and physical disassociation
These expressions are so good. I like how they amplify the sense of disarray by having Bocchi’s lineart frequently separate from the form it’s allegedly outlining
Upon the suggestion of starting her own Instagram, she dissolves further into outright cubism
This episode is absurd! I love this black and white aesthetic with heavy cross hatching used for this brief sequence of Bocchi’s fantasy. A neat way to echo the aesthetic of an old-fashioned kaiju movie
The meeting breakup is followed by a dramatic compositional reset, as we see Bocchi captured in a mid-distance spot, limbs carefully tucked in, placed in a live-action photo that emphasizes the vast negative space all around her. Through all this, we are dramatically drawn back to the headspace of Bocchi Alone
She meets up with Ryo to discuss the lyrics, thinking Ryo at least won’t humor her. Of course, Ryo is also the sort of person who’d never willingly strike up a conversation, meaning she now faces the unenviable task of Breaking The Ice
Upon seeing Bocchi’s obviously insincere and hit-minded lyrics, Ryo reflects on how she loved her previous band for its honesty, and quit when they went in a more commercially-minded direction. I love this being Ryo’s lesson to provide – she is always uncompromisingly herself, and needs to convince Bocchi that she should be herself too
And when she felt despondent about music altogether, Nijika told her “I love the way you play.” Not “I think we could make a great band,” but more specifically “the way you want to play makes me happy.” An affirmation that it’s okay to be herself, the same affirmation she must now pass on to Bocchi
“Abandoning your uniqueness is equivalent to dying.” It’s a tough code to live by, but I’ve done my best
“Bringing a wide variety of individuals together into one sound… that’s the color that Kessoku Band will have.” Yep, that’s a band is, and what makes each band unique. My own band had a hard rock bassist, a classic rock guitarist, and my own indie rock self on vocals, and was better for it
“It might not connect with too many people, but those it does, it’ll hit deeply.” This is pretty much exactly what my bassist used to say regarding what he wanted out of music
BOCCHI NO DON’T PAPER YOUR WHOLE ROOM WITH THE BAND PHOTOS BOCCHIIII
And Done
Whew, another generous episode! We took some clear steps towards that longed-for full band performance, but the road there was paved with gloriously inventive visual spectacles and poignant reflections on what it means to create music. I’ve become accustomed to Bocchi’s consistently sharp observations regarding living with anxiety, but Ryo’s speeches here tapped into something else: the desire to express your unique voice as an artist, and bring joy to people who resonate with how you see the world. Music shouldn’t be about hewing to the most popular formula; music is one of those rare and special venues where outsiders can shout with a full voice, just like that band that initially inspired Bocchi. Keep waving your weird flag, Bocchi!
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