by Cain Noble-Davies

Year:  2024

Director:  Keiichirô Saitô

Rated:  PG

Release:  17 October 2024

Distributor: Crunchyroll/Sony

Running time: 165 minutes

Worth: $15.00
FilmInk rates movies out of $20 — the score indicates the amount we believe a ticket to the movie to be worth

Intro:
… an affectionate portrayal of the trials and triumphs of overcoming social anxiety with a head-nodding backbeat.

Social anxiety is a tricky thing to include in art. Like any relatable experience, there’s emotive potential in showing the audience something they can personally identify with. But because that form of anxiety explicitly involves something that tends to take up a lot of time in films (conversation), and how much of a nightmare that simple act can be for some people, it can lead to spending the whole experience intently studying the inside of your own palms from right up close. It’s this dilemma that makes the more successful depictions of such things worth treasuring, and why Bocchi The Rock! rings true.

Admittedly, in its currently-presented double-feature package of nearly three hours, there is a lot of anxiety being expressed without breaks, like if this was watched in its original 12-episode series format. The depiction of the helplessly neurotic guitarist Bocchi and her attempts to conquer her fears and perform live, hits many recognisable moments, going the Eighth Grade route of mundane one-on-one conversation as the single most terrifying thing a person could do.

But even when it gets real squirmy (and not for the unintended reasons, like the sudden maid café misadventure… because anime), the animation excels in getting those sensations across. The aggressively moe character designs are contrasted with the expressive animation styles used to show Bocchi’s anxiety attacks, showing the kind of eclectic grab bag usually found in the better modern DreamWorks efforts. It’s an interesting addition to the aesthetics of rising studio CloverWorks, and shows potential for more experimentation down the road.

It also shows CloverWorks recovering from their recent misfire Trapezium, by depicting the formation of a teenaged music group that is psychologically murky for the right reasons. The dynamic between the main four (Bocchi, the personable drummer Nijika, the stoic bassist Ryō, and the ‘extrovert is my superpower’ vocalist Ikuyo) is consistently fun, with everyone’s respective neural hang-ups playing well off each other, and the music scenes are so good. The soundtrack itself is solid rock music, and the performance scenes (both for the main Kessoku Band and their contemporaries in the second half) effectively channel the experience of live music. It even shows CloverWorks flexing their visual muscle, like the trippy psyche-rock scene.

Bocchi The Rock! Recap is an affectionate portrayal of the trials and triumphs of overcoming social anxiety with a head-nodding backbeat. It can feel a tad truncated at times with the montages (likely meant to patch holes in the translation from series to film), but it still hits all the important notes without creating longing for the ones that aren’t being played. As an entry point for the franchise proper, it more than gets the job done, and as its own cover of the Growing Up Blues, it gets across the nerves without letting it overwhelm the chill and inviting atmosphere.

7.5Great
score
7.5
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