Concept (8.5)

The anime is centred around Hitori Bocchi, a a girl with severe social anxiety. Her former best friend, Kai Yawara, has not only gone to a different junior high school, but has seemingly abandoned Bocchi entirely, leaving her with a quest to befriend everyone in her new school year. While not impossible, the quest appears to be very difficult for someone like Bocchi to accomplish. The anime accounts Bocchi's successes and failures in making and keeping friends. The first time I watched this was the summer of 2022, and while I did have friends by that time, none of them were close, so the concept of a socially anxious child making lots of close friends appealed to me. The concept may not have as much personal appeal to me nowadays, but it's still an interesting premise in the classical school setting.

Beginning (8)

Bocchi begins her quest to befriend her whole class in dismay, first trying to trick the other students into not going into the class, so she succeeds by default, before vomiting during her self-introduction. Nevertheless, Bocchi quickly makes her first friend, Nako, possibly a bit *too* spontaneously. It seems as if Bocchi picks the worst "targets", but fortunately, Nako is very laid-back, and so eventually comes round to Bocchi, recognising that she's wholly sincere. Nako even puts up with Bocchi's hilarious strategy of writing conversation starters on her hand, and predicting responses in advance.

Atmosphere (6)

The primary setting is a very typical junior high school, which isn't for sale. We only see the characters in other places when they're doing typical friend activities together, like going swimming, or rather unsuccessfully singing karaoke. There's no grand worldbuilding, which is fine, but it's not so good that I couldn't tell you a thing about the town the anime is set in. It's comfy and all, but I don't remember the school particularly fondly.

Characters (7.5)

Bocchi is characterised very well with a juxtaposition between social anxiety and courage. She's initially only motivated by becoming friends with Kai again, but eventually comes to enjoy her friendship with the others in its own right. As Bocchi picks up momentum gaining friends throughout the anime, she becomes more courageous, and ends up doing things she'd never think were possible before starting junior high school. Part of me wonders how much Bocchi's development would've been hindered if Kai had gone to the same school as her, or if Nako's initial "No" to exchanging contact information wasn't a joke.

Nako is a laid-back and sarcastic non-delinquent delinquent. You probably wouldn't guess she'd be as kind a person as she is, so maybe Bocchi has really good judgement after all. She's rather uninteresting in her own right, but pairs well with Bocchi, serving as a clear best friend and ally on her quest, even if at first it was just because she had nothing better to do. Nako is helped by Bocchi's quest because if it wasn't for Bocchi, Nako could've gone her three years of junior high school without doing anything of note.

Aru is the world's vice-president, and is perpetually unfortunate. Episode 5 centres around her and it features her coming to school in her primary school uniform and failing at tennis. Of course, Aru befriends Bocchi. Aru certainly seems social but it seems like this might not be natural for her? I'd have liked to see her character explored in greater depth, beyond jokes.

Sotoka has a cute ninja master-apprentice relationship with Bocchi. I'm not quite sure how Sotoka remained convinced Bocchi was a ninja master after talking to her for one minute, and she seems a bit air-headed, but at least she's really efficient at crafting shuriken. Sotoka has her own struggle of loneliness, having no family at home, but this is largely resolved by her friendship with the others, which I found really sweet.

Kako is a tsundere rival character. This is good.

Bocchi's less important friends include Ito and Peko, who, to be honest, hold no place in my memory apart from making pancakes with Bocchi. I wonder if Ito and Peko would be friends with Bocchi if Aru hadn't secretly given Bocchi the whipped cream. Actually, it's kind of impressive that Aru predicted that scenario, of Bocchi fumbling the cooking somehow, would happen to begin with. Aru is a pretty good friend after all.

The series is entirely driven by Bocchi's class, and to my memory, there was only one adult. This is Oshie Teruyo, who's only noteworthy for creating a very relaxed classroom environment, which works to Bocchi's favour, mainly because she's unsually afraid of Nako and Bocchi, who's like a gang leader in her mind.

Lastly, Bocchi's original friend, Kai, appears a couple times in the anime. She seems pleased that Bocchi's made new friends, but still acts cold and distant to her. I'm not sure what the harm would be in Kai saying hello to Bocchi if they see each other.

Overall, the characters certainly feel like they're in their first year of junior high school, with a few of them still having a lot to learn about the world. Surprisingly, I didn't the characters to be horrendously annoying.

(Note: I think on future entries, I won't give a paragraph to each character individually like I did here, because it takes too long and doesn't say much.)

Story (7)

Unlike most slice of life anime, the main character actually has a goal, giving the anime some structure. Bocchi is on a constant quest to make new friends, and does so successfully on ** occasions. Most of the time is spent showing Bocchi and her new friends having fun, or dealing with a particular friend's trivial matters, like determining if Sotoka is a friend or an apprentice to Bocchi, or showcasing Aru's misfortunes. The anime definitely needs time to slow down, and show the friends having fun, instead of making it seem like Bocchi's just grinding out new friends. We don't get to see much of the last three friends Bocchi makes, with Ito, Peko, and Mayo only being present throughout one or two episodes near the end. Ultimately, Bocchi ends up still far away from the goal of befriending everyone in her class, but the journey we've seen so far has been fruitful. Since this is primarily a slice of life anime, I didn't have much expectation for the plot, so I'm happy with what we got.

Audio (7.5)

The voice acting is good, and Bocchi's voice actor does a brilliant job at sounding like a nervous wreck when she needs to. I also liked Nako's voice. The OP song is very hopeful and certainly makes it on the playlist. The primary ED is passable, and the alternative "Wahaha" ED in episode 6 is fun. I liked how the scenery and the characters' costumes changed throughout that one. The background music serves its purpose, but isn't notable. My score for the audio is brought up greatly by Honshou Aru's glorious theme song, which randomly plays during her tennis match against Nako. I love how Aru canonically wrote it and sings it, as shown by Nako's comment at the karaoke.

Visuals (7)

The animation serves its purpose and the art style is lovely to look at, if a bit generic. I don't remember there being any interesting stills nor background scenery, which makes sense for a character-driven slice of life like this, but it does mean that there's nothing interesting to look at if the conversation gets stale.

Satisfaction (5.5)

The anime's final episode features Bocchi going out to eat pancakes with all her six new friends. Nako guesses that the rate of making friends won't be enough to befriend everyone in the class by the end of junior high school, but for now, Bocchi's happy, and that's what matters most. Clearly, Bocchi still has a long way to go, as at the beginning of her second year, she vomits during her self-introduction again. That was quite a mean way of letting the anime end, but it makes sense, as Bocchi is still Bocchi.

The concept was focused on and explored well throughout the anime. The anime's ending wasn't completely unsatisfactory, but it also left the door wide open for a season 2, which we'll probably never get. The manga continued after the anime and finished in 2021, meaning the story has at least been completed in some form.

Enjoyment 8.5

I found the anime very comfy, featuring an ideal junior high school experience for someone as socially inept as Bocchi. I remembered the anime fondly enough for it to warrant a rewatch.

Total (71)

Very good