Bocchi the Rock Chapter 77 Review- Hard Work and Memories
Written by Rei Caldombra 5/24/2024 Video Version: https://youtu.be/2rjx_4xPZW0
Previous Bocchi the Rock Chapter review: https://www.blogunderalog.com/blog-collection/bocchi-the-rock-chapter-76-review-anxious-heart-to-heart
Time for the next chapter of Bocchi the Rock! This lovely chapter focuses primarily on our two graduating high schoolers and the memories they share. Nijika and Ryo have gotten up to a lot more than we knew before, in the context of the band and high school.
Bocchi, Kita and Sasaki are talking about things in school. Klimnt’s night is shown again to be pretty popular, with their latest song doing very well. Lots of people are doing song covers and dancing videos online. Continuing the thread of the band members fretting over their success, Bocchi feels insecure in two places here.
She feels bad that Kita’s reference book posts got a lot of engagement while Bocchi’s expensive equipment post got very little. This harkens back to a previous point I made about how financial investment can make you want better results. Separated from Bocchi’s inner turmoil, Kita received study books from Ryo. Knowing Ryo’s study habits, these must be what she uses to cram. Bocchi also feels bad over Klimnt’s night getting a lot of interaction online. A lot of people are doing dances and covers of their songs.
Bocchi also seems to believe that Ame is in love with her. While this COULD be true, and I’m sure the shippers absolutely want it to be, I don’t see this as the case. I think this is Bocchi’s desperation for popularity deluding the situation. I think it could be correct to say Ame loves her, as Bocchi is inspiring to her and in my opinion views her as a role model. But the difference in wording is very important. Bocchi is saying it like Ame has romantic feelings for her, while I think Ame’s affection is more like respect and appreciation. Taking positive reinforcement in this manner is very in line with Bocchi. I think this is a correct interpretation because the manga is going out of its way here to have Bocchi directly say Ame is in love with her, then Bocchi doubled down on it when Kita and Sasaki understandably and probably accurately say she is imagining it.
It is important to note that my interpretation is based on the translations I am reading along with my own opinion. As with any unprofessional or unofficial translations you should keep in mind they could be inaccurate and/or interpret the meaning of the original Japanese in different ways. Japanese has a lot of contextual meaning in it compared to English so this is always a difficult point with translating. I’m not going to make this point constantly as most people should keep this in mind constantly, but I wanted to here since I am making a point about very specific wording details.
Moving from Shuka High School to Shimokitazawa High School, Nijika and Ryo are discussing their graduation. Everyone’s families doted on them, especially Ryo’s. Ryo’s parents brought professional filming equipment. It was nice to see more of Seika’s Dere side, with Nijika saying she was crying. We love our tsun dorito.
This chapter touches on the difficulty of juggling their band work with school work. Kita and Bocchi are both barely passing. This is most notable for Nijika, who barely remembers anything from high school because she spent so much of her time on the band. She has to worry about things like their popularity and funding.
She is effectively the leader of the band and covers a lot of the things that aren’t obvious on the surface, so that would exhaust a lot of her time and energy. She has to work with her sister on the club house side of things and is likely the one who is working the most with Stray Beat on the label side of things. Everyone is present and helps with the major important stuff of course. All the minor but critical things though like record keeping, accounting, emailing etc for the band is done by Nijika as far as I can tell. These are the things that are important for any group, organization etc. that often get overlooked despite their importance for keeping things running. She probably has some help from her sister and Miyako since she still is a high schooler, but it is their band and I believe it’s intended that they do most of the work themselves. Seika, despite the Dere side of her Tsun, does seem to push Nijika to handle things herself and treat them like they are a proper band. And that this is also what Nijika wants. Which I think is important to both her and Nijika’s characters. Nijika really does have a lot on her plate for the band when you look at it from this perspective. The joke we get early on in the series about Nijika dodging a question about her responsibilities works great in the moment, as they were barely a band at that point and we did not have a good scope of things.
But now that the band has grown much bigger in scope and we have a greater understanding of band operation, to me she is definitely not avoiding doing her share. Bocchi and Ryo handle a lot of the actual production of their music, Kita does a lot of their promotion such as running the official accounts. Everyone has an important role to play, and I would argue that Nijika likely works the hardest out of everyone for the band. Maybe there’s some bias and assumptions being made for my best Kessoku girl but I do stand by our dorito who I do believe is working very hard in the background. We also get to see that she is still thinking about the unimpressive performance of the music video.
Moving on to Ryo, I underestimated her. Here I was thinking she was just “borrowing” money from Bocchi since she is easy prey. But no, she is a proper scammer who has been swindling tons of people in the school. And now that they are graduating, Ryo’s sins have come back to bite her. She was initially unconcerned for the future, unlike Nijika. She would keep rocking and having fun, likely settling for being a NEET like Nijika predicted. But it looks like Ryo’s family will not be letting her stay at home. So the pressure is on now.
Nijika and Ryo have to employ the Joestar secret technique so they can avoid Ryo’s debts.
And this sets them off on their trip down memory lane for their high school. Now that we’ve talked about them both individually, we can focus on them together. The Ryo x Nijika shippers are really eating with this chapter. This part is super sweet and I’m really happy to get the backstory for these two. We did have a few sweet moments in the past that reinforced their friendship, such as their meeting on the roof that they reference, but this really turned up the friendship power. This helps so much because of how specific and natural they are. Like how they had their own secret vending machine. And how when they would go outside for lunch break, they would enjoy basking in the sun together while each enjoying a separate part of that situation. Nijika liked the sounds of recess while Ryo appreciated the food that was growing on the ground. They shared this memory that they both remember fondly, but within that they also have separate details that they enjoyed individually. This one panel shows their bond and their separate personalities very well. If you really want your audience to latch onto a friendship, having moments that are down to earth and relatable sell it much better than just focusing on big dramatic moments that are tied to the plot. These moments feel very personal and give so much personality to the characters in a natural way. They convince you of their connection while also showing their differences in personality. This is making them appealing both as a unit and as individuals. This is an area that slice of life and cute girls do cute things tend to excel at, and is why I love these series so much. I adore this scene, where we get strongly endeared more to these characters while also understanding them and their bond better.
I love how the lines make it look like they are literally running through panels. Their memories are effectively scenes, and with each one they go through they are going to a different panel of the story that is their time in high school.
It turns out they have a lot of great memories of high school after all. I actually did a pretty similar thing when I graduated high school. I walked through most of the academic buildings, partially to remember but also to go to the places I hadn’t before so I wouldn’t be leaving with the curiosity unfulfilled. I highly recommend doing this type of thing before you leave school.
And the sweetest moment of all is the girls giving chase not being the debt collectors you expect, but actually a group of their classmates who wanted to properly express their support. Many of them had been secretly cheering on the band and enjoyed their music. This is super wholesome, and I’m sure it gives them the morale boost they needed. This is the type of success that looking at numbers and metrics cannot express. This can apply to any form of content. Maybe you aren’t getting the views, clicks, etc. you want, but your work may still be touching people in a way you didn’t realize. The kind words here that they received in person mean more than any amount of views on the music video could have. This is what convinces someone that they’re having a positive impact and are being recognized for their hard work and passion. You can’t get too stuck on metrics for your creative projects. We can’t help worrying about it, but keeping your focus on the human side of things when it comes to yourself and the audience is the best way to go.
Following this Ryo did get caught by the collectors and paid back her debts, as she deserves.
This chapter gave us so much more to love about Nijika and Ryo while continuing the topic of the characters responding to the music video release. I absolutely adore all the wholesomeness we got here, and the comedy was on point too like usual. Thanks for reading!
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Next Bocchi the Rock chapter review: https://www.blogunderalog.com/blog-collection/bocchi-the-rock-ch-78-review-personal-lives
