REVIEW: ‘Bocchi The Rock!,’ Episode 3 – “Be Right There”

Bocchi The Rock is a slice-of-life anime produced by CloverWorks. Despite having survived her first shift working at the club, Hitori feels like she still needs to prove herself as a productive member of her band. When she overhears some of her classmates talking about how a fellow student named Kita can sing and play guitar, she sees this as her chance to contribute. But can she find a way to walk up to a stranger and propose joining her band in Bocchi The Rock Episode 3?

This episode is split into two distinct parts that form a wonderfully crafted journey, highlighting the continuous struggles that Hitori contends with, even when things are going right for her. This two-act approach does a great job of making the episode feel like a fully-formed whole, while also allowing the story to shift gears a bit midway through.

Bocchi The Rock Episode 3’s opening sees Hitori struggle with approaching Kita. I love the way the episode handles these struggles. While she is less than successful in her advances, she gets closer than we have seen her manage in previous attempts to engage others. I love this small, incremental growth on the part of Hitori. All too often, media love to portray progress in dealing with things like social anxiety as being propelled by huge breakthrough moments since these scenes can lend drama to a narrative. With reality often being far more incremental where improvement in such scenarios is concerned, this series adhering to Hitori’s slow progress is a wonderful change to me.

Despite Hitori’s struggles, Bocchi The Rock Episode 3 sees Kita agree to join the band on the condition that Hitori helps her learn to play guitar better. With that arrangement made, the duo heads out to meet up with Ryou and Nijika at The Starry. As it turns out, Kita is familiar with her new bandmates, though that familiarity isn’t a help in getting Kita settled into the group. But it does cause Kita to volunteer to help the girls out for the night as The Starry looks to be busy.

As Kita manages to ease into the tasks assigned to her, Bocchi The Rock Episode 3 sees Hitori once again struggling with a new, self-created nightmare scenario. With Kita working so smoothly, Hitori is convinced she will be promptly thrown away by her fellow bandmates. While this seems ridiculous from the viewer’s perspective, and no amount of visualizing of Hitori’s thoughts can truly make it seem sensible, I can assure you such terror is all too real. Anime has done a lot of things for me in the over two decades I’ve been watching it. Rarely has it ever made me feel so seen and understood as Hitori does.

The animation brings every panicked fantasy and heartfelt exchange in this episode to life wonderfully. It continues the precedence of giving the viewer a look into Hitori’s mind that allows a bit of humor into the character’s fear, while never making fun of her.

Bocchi The Rock Episode 3 delivers the series’ best episode yet. I found every step through the narrative well thought out and highly entertaining. I cannot wait to see Hitori overcome more challenges in her pursuit to be a rock star.

Bocchi The Rock Episode 3 is streaming now on Crunchyroll.