Bocchi The Rock is the underdog that has positioned itself as the most watched series of the season despite having started without much momentum and with the first 4 episodes practically ignored until the meme of "the anime girl that gets bugged" became popular.
As a band series, it doesn't seem to me to have anything special or particular that we haven't seen in K-On or any other idol series (I know some sucker will tell me that it's not the same but the structure is really very similar).The characters seem to me absolutely, bland and stereotypical, the cliche of the popular girl, the quiet cool girl and the extrovert and even Bocchi is another cliche, none with any interesting twist or any layer of depth that makes you appreciate them more.
Regarding the social anxiety, I find it very light, most of the time it is portrayed as a mere joke and Bocchi is in a safe-space where she will never really be punished for her low assertiveness.
Which is forgivable because the point is to be a light, slapstick comedy, but anyone who says this is a "good" or "realistic" portrayal of the reality of people with this condition is either stupid or perhaps projecting too much onto Bocchi.The dialogue is bland and boring, I know this part is subjective, but I like moe, I like this kind of anime and just comparing all of them, this is one of the least compelling I've seen, the dialogues are not interesting at all.
The direction is good, and I guess it had to be because this series would be nothing without its visual humor because as I said the dialogues are dull and boring. You can tell that the director put a lot of effort into this anime as it was his debut, he could have taken the easy way out and put the cute anime girls talking in the background but you can tell he took some creative liberties.
The music is a theme touched in an extremely superficial way and resorts to the classic narrative resource of "our protagonist is a musical genius" that is seen even in movies to not develop anything about the theme and leave that they are good thanks to the protagonist.
In short, I find it a mediocre band anime, the characters are bland, the much talked about anxiety theme is touched in an extremely superficial way and honestly as a moe, it's one of the most boring I've ever seen. Being an ode to mediocrity I would normally give it a 5/10.
But for the great animation direction I give it a 6/10, typical seasonal anime that will be quickly forgotten when the new chinese anime girl internet mascot comes out.
