Rock is a Lady’s Modesty Anime - First Impressions
Written by Rei Caldombra 4/25/25 Video: https://youtu.be/Cj1diSJ4zVw
If this is your first time seeing a first impressions of mine, for these I give my thoughts on an anime airing during the current season based on the first 3 episodes. As well as try to explain in what ways I would / wouldn’t recommend giving it a try. There will be some spoilers concerning the characters, plot and themes from the 3 episodes. I have not read the manga and won’t be speaking on it specifically. And please keep in mind that first impressions are just that, first impressions.
We’re back with another girls band show, but with a great twist! Rock Is a Lady's Modesty / Rock wa Lady no Tashinami deshite follows girls who go to an upper-class high school but can’t resist the call of rock. The main character, Lilisa Suzunomiya, pushes down her real personality and interests to disguises herself as a “proper lady” after her mother marries into the elite. She wants to become the noble maiden of her school so she can prove to them what commoners are capable of and keep her Mom happy in her new place in society. But after she gets goaded into a jam session by her fellow student and drummer Otoha Kurogane, she can’t help but pick the guitar back up and start a band with her.
This is a really fun show so far! The tone of the show is super engaging. It portrays a great juxtaposition between the stuffy upper-class elegance and the crass and emotional music that the characters want to play. This is played well not only for jokes but also for our characters. While we have only properly met 2 of our characters over these episodes, these two have an interesting dynamic and individually have great gap appeal and motivations.
Lilisa has already been set up well as a great main character. Lilisa has a ton of appeal and motivation, based around isolation and identity. Since she was a kid, she picked up a love for rock from her father. But this didn’t fit in with the interests of the other kids. This led to her being isolated, but seemingly still happy because she could enjoy guitar with her father. But when that was lost and her mom remarried, this flipped. With her rich girl mask on, she is surrounded by friends and adoring fans. But she is miserable on the inside after removing everything “unladylike” from her life. She developed the assumption that she cannot be true to herself to fit in. She has a lot of angst surrounding this that is pretty interesting.
I just had to share this as representation for her angst- I couldn’t help but think of how her shadowed scowl reminded me of this Goku from the meme.
She is a goal driven person who will put up with anything to accomplish those goals. You see how hard she has worked to get where she is, which makes you want to root for her even more. She also has serious anime hair that I totally dig. Her hair practically takes up the width of 3 people is hilarious. It’s fun to watch it move around as she does too and match her emotions.
I love her design, you can tell she is the main character from a mile away.
Otoha is pretty great too and is a great pairing with Lilisa. She is a natural member of the elite with her elegant rich girl personality not seeming like a façade. She is basically the gem of the school in the eyes of others, the perfect woman loved by all. She is the main competition for Lilisa becoming the Noble Maiden.
But she has a massive gap in personality when she gets riled up while playing, leading to her going as far as cursing Lilisa out. She plays the drums purely for the fun of it, while Lilisa is more goal oriented with her enjoyment. Otoha challenges Lilisa’s notion that her identity and circumstances matter when it comes to pursuing what you want. I’m really excited to see where their differences in ideals take them as we get further in. These two have a really great rapport between each of their two sides that is super fun to watch.
When it comes to tone, this show is angsty and crass in just the right way. I must mention that this show is very explicit with its allusions to sex. Lilisa and Otoha’s jam sessions are directly likened to them having sex on multiple occasions. The way Otoha pokes at Lilisa into playing both times is basically Lilisa getting pulled into angry sex. I think this works very well with this show, being funny and having some yuri subtext for people to take in as they choose. The sexual jokes and allusions are honestly pretty fitting with the subject matter of rock music, with the character’s interest being towards the traditional form of rock. We even know that they like Red Hot Chili pepper for example. This is not light rock along the lines of what After School Teatime plays. It also works into the juxtaposition the show is going for, as talking about shoving an instrument up someone’s ass is the complete opposite of the way they are supposed to be talking. Part of what also makes the more frequently dirty language work is that we have the characters outside of the music room properly talking in the upper-class manner. So the dialogue has a lot more variety than usual, which is nice. This show is definitely more adult oriented than many of the other girls band shows in my opinion, so take that as you will. I really like it.
One thing that makes these first 3 episodes a bit different from other similar shows is the slower pace at introducing the main group of characters. Most often with these band type of shows they would at least tease one of the other characters by the 3rd episode. But I like how the show has focused entirely on establishing the dynamic between the main duo. If these two are the main appeal the show is going for, then they’ve succeeded at making me engaged with them. To me this is communicating that we can expect the balance between the 4 to heavily swing towards the main duo rather than a more equal quartet. I don’t think this is fundamentally a bad thing, as this can be done well and so far Lilisa and Otoha are super engaging and entertaining. So I’ll remain optimistic on this point and wait to see how things play out.
I am impressed by the art and animation so far, particularly in how it portrays the act of the characters playing their instruments. This show does go from 2D to 3D during the performances, which is of course going to ruffle some feathers. But I have no issues with it so far. The transition from 2D to 3D is fairly seamless. The animation for playing the instruments looks great, you can tell that they did motion capture. One design choice that really sticks out to me is the emphasis on sweat. It makes sense from a simple logic standpoint as intensely playing instruments takes a ton of effort, especially if you are playing emotionally like Lilisa and Otoha do. From the standpoint of an anime the sweat helps pull you into the performances. It feels more real and makes you buy into the energy and emotions of the characters.
I also love the big teethy grins that also really make you feel the passion from the characters as they play.
On the topic of the music playing- the only potential negative point I can bring up is that this show does the anime thing of characters heavily monologuing their reactions to things as they play. It is not exactly bad or anything, but I think this kind of thing can be overdone and get grating over time. We’ll have to see.
The voice acting for the main leads is also great. They both play at being both angry rockers and elegant ladies really well. This again further makes the juxtaposition the show is going for work very well.
In conclusion, I’m loving this show and think you should give it a shot if what I’ve talked about sounds interesting to you! It’s funny, has great main characters, and looks great so far. Its execution of the contrast between high class society and the characters is really solid. If you want a series with angsty and confrontational energy more along the lines of Girls Band Cry, this is for you. If you are looking for a show more like Bocchi the Rock or K-On, this may be too much for you. I would not personally call this a “cute girls do cute things” show, it doesn’t have that vibe at all. I’m really excited to see where this goes!
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Check out some other rocker girls series:
Girls Band Cry Review - Immaculate Immaturity — Blog Under a Log
Bocchi the Rock S2! - Discussion and Predictions — Blog Under a Log
