Hello folks, and welcome back to Wrong Every Time. The day of Kessoku Band’s long-awaited second performance has dawned cold and gloomy, a torrential rain greeting our would-be rockers. To Bocchi, this is clearly a sign of a doomed performance to come, and it’s certainly undeniable that awful weather makes folks less likely to get out and about. But Starry is a niche club with a reliable clientele, and a little rain never hurt anyone; they may not get as much foot traffic, but those tickets they sold will surely earn them some spectators.

Regardless, the big question here is not whether anyone will show up, but rather if Bocchi and company are truly ready to perform for them. The band was frankly a wreck the last time they performed, and though Nijika’s sister is accommodating, she’s not going to torpedo her club for the sake of her sister’s idle ambitions. As such, this performance will serve as a referendum on exactly how far our protagonists have grown. Are Ryo and Nijika at the point where they can trust their bandmates, and not just play in their own little world? Has Kita mastered the guitar sufficiently that she can both play and sing at once? And most of all, will Bocchi be able to look up from her guitar while playing with confidence, and experience that incomparable rush of communicating your heart’s voice to a crowd, and being met with love in return?

This concert being a disaster seems like it’d be a bit mean-spirited even for Bocchi, so I’m excited to see how all our rockers conduct themselves. The great trick of music dramas is that they can harness the power of musical performance as narrative, character-reflective statements, resulting in expressions of selfhood as powerful as the impromptu jam sessions of Kids on the Slope, or the rambling performances of On-Gaku, or the transcendent climax of Liz and the Blue Bird. All of those moments count among my favorites in animation, and I’m eager to see what Bocchi can pull off. Let’s get to it!

Episode 8

We open on some grim establishing shots of the downpour as we close in on Starry. As usual, Bocchi takes unusual care to ground these establishing shots in a specific perspective – first a low-angle shot, as if we’re actively looking up to assess the rain, then a shot from under coverage across the street, as if we’re planning our approach, and then a shot down the stairs of Starry marking our arrival. This show is so good at using storyboarding to create a sense of tangible space and immediacy

This episode’s just called “Bocchi the Rock,” so you know it’s going hard

Ohmigod, even Bocchi’s weather charms bear her signature expressions, including that googly-eyed face that got her locked away for awkwardness crimes

“Real bands get screwed by life all the time. They need to learn to make it through any situation.” Nijika’s sister saying this while slumped with her head in hands neatly elaborates the usual distance between her actual feelings and spoken words

The band glumly list off their various friends who won’t be able to come, while Nijika does her best to rally the troops

And seeing this, Bocchi attempts to liven the atmosphere herself. She’s at this point evolved far beyond “I hope they won’t see who I really am and reject me,” now willing to put herself out there in order to be a pillar of support for her friends (however effective that pillar may be)

Our first audience member arrives! It’s the drunk bassist! We still don’t know her name!

Our bassist is already drunk, was apparently Seika’s junior in college, and immediately obliterates her calm poise. Lovely cartoonish animation conveying how immediately this bassist blows up Seika’s controlled posture – a clean visual articulation of seeing someone you respect completely bump into one of their old college friends

The girls from Bocchi’s street concert showed up! Bocchi Sweep!

Another excellent establishing shot of the hallway outside the green room, articulating that peculiar sense of cramped quiet intrinsic to these club backrooms. This has been an oddly nostalgic watch

More excellent storyboards conveying the band’s sense of disappointment at the crowd not being here for them. At this point we’ve hit a threshold that made me curious, so I checked and yes, this is indeed the first episode boarded by overall show director Keiichiro Saito since the first two. No wonder it feels like a return to their level of purposefulness in composition

More intimate shots of the immediate pre-show prep, that electric time when you’re going through practiced physical motions of mic-fastening and string-tuning while your mind roils over the show to come

Kita offers an earnest, apologetic band introduction, as if this were a performance at a school talent show

Careful attention paid to Bocchi’s finger placements during the solo, quite nice

“Nijika’s drumming feels a little slow, and Kita’s making mistakes she didn’t make during practice.” There is basically no way to account for the increased difficulty multiplier of having to perform your practiced music live, save performing so much that you’re actually just as comfortable on-stage as off. The cruel truth of performing live as a band is that your first few performances are undoubtedly going to be some of your worst performances ever, and you’re just going to have to push through that

The confident bassist for Bocchi’s street performance was an excellent crutch – she basically swerved to meet Bocchi’s tempo wherever Bocchi was at, and exuded such confidence that she made Bocchi confident as well. Without someone like that, the band is somewhat floundering

Oof, all these brutal cuts to the audience on their phones. But that’s how it is, particularly for shows like these – most audience members are just there to see whatever band their friends are in, so you have to work overtime to make them give a shit about you

And at last, Bocchi takes the lead! Seeing her fans now more curious than enthralled, she refuses to put on a lukewarm show for them, and just rips into the next song’s opening. If the band isn’t going to pull together naturally, she’ll charge forward and carry them behind her!

It’s a wild play for someone as insecure as Bocchi, but also a necessary one – one confident player can snap a whole group into focus

Yep, and Nijika immediately snaps into focus behind her, her drums now driving forward rather than just sorta following the guitars

This is an interesting lead guitar part – sort of a surf/psychobilly/math rock hybrid

Oh man, she’s really getting into it, doing the full guitar cradling for her solo

In spite of her insecurity, Bocchi seems like the member of this band who most fully defines themselves as a musician, who is most desperate for this to work

At the afterparty we at last get our mystery bassist’s formal introduction as Kikuri Hiroi

Ryo is a big fan of hers, unsurprisingly. Apparently she prefers the Replacements technique of performing so drunk she can’t remember her own words

Bocchi is so exhausted she treats herself to the Ashita no Joe pose

Kita is posting images on instagram purely because “it’s fun to share things with our friends!” God, to be genuinely enthusiastic about social media promotion… half the time I feel like I’m tweeting with a gun to my head, reminding myself that I can’t get new readers if I just hide in my house and occasionally post “here’s a thing I made”

A nice low-angle layout peering across the table as Bocchi assesses the situation, conveying the great sense of space that a private person might feel in a big social gathering like this, how you can sort of just burrow into your own end of the table. This director is absurdly good at making compositions that inherently convey an anxious, insular perspective

We jump to a wildly distinct, more realistic and angular animation style for a brief vignette of two salarymen sharing their woes, once again echoing the drama via the art design and animation. This show is a preposterous trove of riches

And Bocchi once again sees her future leading to drinking in the closet with garbage bags stacked all around her. Goddamnit Bocchi, this shit’s too real

Her friends are at this point skilled in reshaping a Bocchi blob into a proper Bocchi

Kita apparently dislikes her first name, Ikuyo. Nice to see that she has her own anxieties

“Let me give you some advice as your senpai in the world of bands – just chill out and enjoy yourself.” “If you put the weight of success on your shoulders constantly, you’ll just make yourself miserable.” This is necessary advice regarding any creative pursuit. The chances that you’ll actually be able to support yourself through art, or even make back the money you put into it, are exceedingly slim. Therefore, you should make sure that what you are doing brings you joy, because that joy is basically the only takeaway you can count on

Apparently Seika also used to be in a band, though she says she “got sick of bands”

Bocchi notices Nijika has disappeared, and goes looking for her. Another key transition for Bocchi – from at first being so preoccupied with what everyone else thinks about her that she can never journey outside her own head, she’s now frequently curious about the feelings of her friends, and no longer concerned that their emotions are in some way her fault

Nijika has at last realized that Bocchi is guitarhero

“I wanted to wait to tell you until I fixed the way that I am”

“My mom died when I was little, and my dad was never home, so my sister was pretty much my only family.” 

“I was her inspiration for quitting her band and starting this place. Starry is a place my sister made for me.” This explains so much about them – her sister’s protective attitude, Nijika’s insistence on always maintaining a smile, and her determination to make a successful band. So much of what they do is signaling to the other that they are okay, and they are on the same team

And her real dream is to pay back that gift, and make a band so popular that Starry rises alongside it

“Every time things are looking their worst, you’re the one to break through it for us, Bocchi.” Aw, what a wonderful thing to say. At last, Bocchi is someone who others rely on

And Done

What a fantastic episode! I’ve been waiting most of this season for their return to live performance, and it certainly didn’t disappoint. With Keiichiro Saito back on storyboards, this episode also served as a welcome return to the remarkable sense of place and purposeful character blocking of the first two episodes, tethering us that much closer to the feelings of the band as they weathered this challenge. And not only was the actual performance animated with personality and detail, it simultaneously served as an emotional breakthrough for Bocchi, providing her the opportunity to genuinely lead the band for the first time. Couple all that with Nijika coming into such clear focus as a person, and you end up with what is easily one of Bocchi’s strongest episodes yet, and a clear indicator of greater triumphs to come. You did it, Bocchi.

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