Lonely Rolling Bocchi

"**Lonely Rolling Bocchi**" (転がるぼっち, *Korogaru Bocchi*) is the first episode of the anime series, *Bocchi the Rock!*. It premiered on October 9, 2022.

## Synopsis

Hitori Gotoh is a girl who is extremely shy and gloomy. She longed for band activities and started playing the guitar, but she couldn't make friends and practiced alone every day. One day, Nijika Ijichi, who plays the drum in a band called "Kessoku Band", asks her to play support the guitar for just one day.

## Plot

Hitori is in her first year of middle school and is reflecting on the loneliness and social anxiety she has felt since childhood. She longs for change but finds herself unable to overcome her anxiety and resigns herself sadly to the life of an introvert.

While watching TV, she sees an interview of a band popular amongst young people. One of the band members describes how he had no friends in school but a band is a place where even introverts can shine. Seeing this as a way to make herself popular, she asks her father to use his guitar and decides to learn how to play so she can form a band at school with the goal of playing at the culture festival and gaining the adoration of her peers.

Three years pass, and after practicing for six hours every day, she has mastered the guitar but is graduating from middle school without ever having played in front of her classmates, let alone form a band, play at the culture festival, or make a single friend. She realises that high school is her last chance to achieve her goals.

Later, it is revealed that she has been uploading song cover videos online under the alias “guitarhero”, receiving many views and positive comments. A comment about someone else forming a band triggers embarrassing flashbacks of Hitori's own unsuccessful attempts – bringing in CDs and band merch to school and requesting a death metal song – but she is inspired by a reply from someone saying they were unsure if anyone played guitar in their school.

The next day, Hitori brings her guitar to school but despite her initial optimism, the day goes by without anyone speaking to her. While leaving school alone, she is startled by the sound of other students and runs away. One of these students, Ikuyo Kita, catches a glimpse of the guitar and pauses, lost in thought.

Sitting alone in a playground, Hitori finds herself relating to another man sat alone until his happy wife and child join him which emphasises her own loneliness. She receives a notification that she has reached 30,000 subscribers and considers giving up on school and finding belonging online instead. Her thoughts are suddenly interrupted when Nijika excitedly spots Hitori’s guitar and runs over to speak to her. Hitori struggles to speak due to her nervousness but tells Nijika her name and admits she can play guitar. Nijika then begs Hitori to play guitar for her band's performance today and drags her by the hand despite Hitori being too shocked to actually respond.

Nijika leads Hitori through Shimokitazawa to the live house of the performance, STARRY, where Nijika’s sister is the manager. Hitori worries about being out of place in such a trendy neighborhood and is nervous about playing in a club. She gives herself confidence by imagining her future self performing at the Zepp Super Arena and selling out the Budokan, though this daydreaming is a little unnerving to Nijika.

Despite her initial fears, Hitori finds the dark, stuffy atmosphere of the club soothing and other band members look less intimidating and more relatable than she imagined, but she is still frightened when introduced to PA-san and her bandmate Ryo Yamada because of their unconventional appearance and inexpressiveness, respectively. Ryo reveals that the manager is mad at Nijika for going out instead of practicing so the trio head to the studio before she comes back.

Nijika gives the set list and score to Hitori, who realises that without vocals, the playing has to be very good but she is confident in her playing. They practice for the first time as a group and Hitori is horrified when Ryo and Nijika say she’s not good. Guitar Man, a figment of Hitori’s imagination, explains that this is because her social anxiety prevents her from playing in sync with the other members. She narrates that this is the end of her guitar-playing story, the end screen shows and the credits start to roll as a joke.

Nijika tries to snap Hitori out of her nervous breakdown but Hitori has lost all confidence to play and instead offers to perform harakiri with her guitar. The others dissuade her and tell her not to worry as it will only be Nijika’s school friends watching since Ryo’s only friend is Nijika and they won’t know good music from bad. They apologize for pushing her so hard but Hitori reveals she is happy to have joined the band since she has only done solo covers before. Nijika says that reminds her of guitarhero who she describes as “super awesome” and Ryo says “really is excellent”. Having her friends describe her work so highly reinvigorates her, though not enough to reveal that she is guitarhero. Ryo suggests Hitori play from inside a cardboard box, this reminds her of the closet she practices in and gives her enough confidence to play. They ask if she wants to use a nickname on stage but are horrified to hear Hitori’s only nicknames are “Hey” and “You there”. Ryo suggests "Bocchi(-chan)" as a play on her given name since “Hitoribocchi” means “all alone” in Japanese. Nijika is appalled by the tactlessness but Hitori (Bocchi) is delighted to receive it. Bocchi asks what the band’s name is and Ryo says it is "Kessoku Band" (literally translating to “unity band”, but also the name of zip ties in Japanese), much to the exasperation of Nijika who wants to change it from such a terrible pun. Nijika says the time has come to perform and tells Bocchi not to worry and to have fun, she can work on her skill next time, which delights Bocchi to hear this isn’t a one-off.

The band perform for the first time on stage with Bocchi concealed inside the box. Bocchi enjoys playing and is initially pleased with herself before realising playing inside a cardboard box is actually a low point.

After the performance, she declares to her bandmates that she will get brave enough to say hello to her classmates before their next performance. Nijika suggests having a party to celebrate but this is too much social interaction for both Bocchi and Ryo and Bocchi leaves immediately. Nijika despairs that despite their name, there is no unity/ties within the band.

Walking home, Bocchi promises herself that she will get over her social anxiety, though when she accidentally bumps into someone, she sounds terrified while apologizing profusely.

## Characters

List of characters in order of appearance:

* Hitori Gotoh (debut)
* Futari Gotoh (debut; flashback)
* Jimihen (debut; flashback)
* Naoki Gotoh (debut; flashback)
* Michiyo Gotoh (debut; flashback)
* Ikuyo Kita (debut; minor)
* Nijika Ijichi (debut)
* PA-san (debut; minor)
* Ryo Yamada (debut)
* Seika Ijichi (debut; minor)

## Cast

* **Hitori Gotoh**: Yoshino Aoyama
* **Nijika Ijichi**: Sayumi Suzushiro
* **Ryo Yamada**: Saku Mizuno
* **Ikuyo Kita**: Ikumi Hasegawa

* **Seika Ijichi**: Maaya Uchida
* **PA-san / Jimihen**: Kotori Koiwai
* **Naoki Gotoh**: Junji Majima
* **Michiyo Gotoh**: Rie Suegara
* **Futari Gotoh**: Misaki Watada

## Gallery

### Materials

Prop designer 1Prop designer 2Script cover
### Videos

Bocchi the Rock! - Episode 01 Web PreviewWeb preview for episode 1Bocchi the Talk! - 01
## Trivia

* Title card color: Pink
* Ending quote was said by Bocchi.
* Title of the episode is derived from "Korogaru Iwa, Kimi ni Asa ga Furu".
* In Hitori's room:
	+ The poster of the third single by HAKO-BOON is a parody of KANA-BOON's third single "Full Drive".
	+ The poster of the sixth single "Kaimono Nedari" (かいものねだり) is also a parody of KANA-BOON's sixth single "Nandemo Nedari" as a regular edition.
* French and German use the English translation title as "Rolling Bocchi", and Italian uses the alternate English translation title as "Falling Bocchi".
* Title of the episode is revealed in *Manga Time Kirara MAX* August 2022 issue when Aoyama is holding her Japanese script during the interview.
* This episode was prescreened to Shinjuku Wald 9 on October 5, 2022, along with episode 2, three days before the regular broadcast premieres.
* A manuscript of the episode was completed on December 13, 2020, before the anime announcement in two months.

### Adaptation notes

* The anime adds the following:
	+ Hitori was in preschool.
	+ The Gotoh family is taking a picture at graduation.
	+ Hitori is checking for transparent mirror when the style looks so cool.
	+ Hitori smells Nijika's hair while walking.
	+ Bocchi used a harakiri using her guitar.
	+ Bocchi bumping the person when walking at night.
* Kita and Seika appear briefly in the anime.
* A Budokan concert ZIPPER Super Arena was changed to ZEPP! Super Arena in the anime.
* When Hitori tells Nijika needs to go home today, but it is cut in the anime.
* In the manga, Nijika knows as guitarhero in the street. In the anime, Nijika knows as guitarhero at the live house STARRY.
* Hitori's father, Naoki is officially named in the ending credits since the manga doesn't have an official name.

## References

1. ↑ Translated from the official website.
2. ↑ 2.0 2.1 2.2 Aoyama's interview on Discord
3. ↑ TVアニメ「ぼっち・ざ・ろっく！」公式 [@BTR\_anime] (2022, September 14). "🎵先行上映会開催決定🎵" [Tweet]. Twitter.
4. ↑ 梅原翔太 [@kafunsyokougun] (2022, October 8). "今夜3時間後の「ぼっち・ざ・ろっく！」脚本は吉田恵里香さんです！第40回の向田邦子賞の受賞、本当にすごいです。4コマ漫画をどう１つ１つの話数に、そして全体としてまとめていくか、これは吉田さんのおかげとしか言えない脚本力でした。監督の目指したい物語を具現化してくれた最初の人です" [Tweet]. Twitter.