is a Japanese four-panel manga series written and illustrated by Aki Hamazi. It has been serialized in Houbunsha's manga magazine Manga Time Kirara Max since December 2017. Its chapters have been collected in eight volumes as of November 2025. A spin-off manga series, titled Bocchi the Rock! Side Story: Kikuri Hiroi's Heavy-Drinking Diary, began publication in July 2023.
An anime television series adaptation produced by CloverWorks aired from October to December 2022. The anime has contributed to the series's sudden growth in popularity as it has received widespread critical acclaim in many aspects, including animation, writing, music, and exploration of social anxiety. A second season has been announced.
Premise Hitori Gotō, called Bocchi-chan by her bandmates, is extremely anxious and socially awkward. She longs to start a band in spite of her struggles to fulfill her desires to become popular. She is suddenly given a chance to do so after she is taken in by another girl, Nijika Ijichi, to become a member of her newly formed Kessoku Band.
Characters Kessoku Band
is the central band in the series, based in Starry, a live house in Shimokitazawa. The members' family names are derived from the real-life J-rock band Asian Kung-Fu Generation, with their instrumental roles matching as well. /
The main protagonist of the series, she is the lead guitarist and lyricist of Kessoku Band. An extreme introvert with social anxiety who has trouble with most social interactions. Having been inspired by her father and an interview she saw on television, she taught herself to play the guitar in her first year of middle school, thinking this would help her make friends. Despite becoming incredibly skilled at playing guitar and having a small fanbase online (under the alias "Guitarhero"), she still has not been able to make friends as easily until she was dragged into playing with Kessoku Band. Since then, Hitori has gained a few friends and is learning to interact with other people. She is usually seen wearing a pink tracksuit, which she even wears over her school uniform. Her surname comes from Masafumi Gotoh. Her nickname Bocchi is a reference to , a term for being alone. She plays an Ebony Gibson Les Paul Custom electric guitar, and later purchases a Transluscent Black Yamaha Pacifica electric guitar.
The drummer and leader of Kessoku Band. Her older sister, Seika, runs the live house where they often play. She is kind, cheerful, friendly, and outgoing. She always works to keep the group together and helps Bocchi with her social anxiety the most. Nijika looks up to Seika, since they lost their mother at a young age and their father is rarely at home. Her dream is for Kessoku Band to succeed on behalf of her sister who quit her band, so that her sister's live house becomes more famous. Her surname comes from Kiyoshi Ijichi. She plays a Vintage Red Tama Imperialstar drum kit.
The bassist, composer and backup vocalist of Kessoku Band. Aloof, quiet, and mischievous, she has a cool demeanor and an androgynous appearance that attracts other girls, though she prefers solitude. A close friend and classmate of Nijika, Ryō agreed to form a band with her after a falling out with her previous group over creative differences. She is a highly skilled bassist with a deep passion for music, often spending her time browsing record stores and thrift shops. She often spends all of her allowance from her wealthy family on new music equipments, leading her to constantly borrow money and even eat weeds to stave off hunger. Her surname comes from Takahiro Yamada. She plays an Olympic White Fender Precision bass.
The lead vocalist and rhythm guitarist of Kessoku Band, she attends the same high school with Hitori. In contrast to Hitori, she is a cheerful, charismatic extrovert who has an active social life, to the point that her extroversion manifests as an overwhelming aura at times. She initially joined Kessoku Band to get closer to Ryō, whom she has a crush on, but fled after lying about her guitar-playing skills. With Bocchi's help, she becomes a decent guitar player in her own right. She has a strong dislike of her given name as it phonetically sounds the same as . Her surname comes from Kensuke Kita. She plays a Pelham Blue Gibson Les Paul Junior Doublecut electric guitar.
Starry
Nijika's older sister and the manager of Starry. Professional, serious and aloof with a soft side, she is described by Nijika as a tsundere. During college, she played guitar in a relatively well-known band. She had a strained relationship with her family and often argued with Nijika. After her mother’s death, she aims to fulfill her mother's wish for her to reconcile with Nijika. Seeing Nijika's passion for music, she quits her band and works for eight years to open a live house.
The unnamed public address system engineer of Starry. Her intimidating goth style and piercings belie her kind nature.
A part-timer in Starry. She is a junior of Hitori and Kita in the same high school. She was inspired to start her own band and play guitar after watching Hitori's performance. She used to play basketball in middle school, and has a boisterous personality, often talking louder than everyone else. Her surname comes from Jun Ōyama from the band Straightener.
A part-timer in Starry. She was part of an idol group as which was disbanded. She finds new passion in obsessively following various bands and musicians, becoming a self-proclaimed music otaku with a particular fixation on Kessoku Band and Ryō. She later joins Ōyama's band as a bassist. Her surname comes from Hidekazu Hinata from the band Straightener.
Sick Hack is a psychedelic rock band based in Folt, a live house in Shinjuku. The members share their last names with those of the real-life band 88Kasyo Junrei.
The bassist and vocalist of Sick Hack. An alcoholic who spends most of her money on booze, particularly boxes of Onikoroshi brand sake, calls her bass guitar "Shuten-dōji EX." She was formerly a junior of Seika in college. She finds kinship with Hitori after coming from a similarly reclusive personality. Her surname comes from Margarette Hiroi.
The guitarist of Sick Hack who originally came from England. She flew to Japan with the intention of attending a Comiket convention and become a part of an anime cover band. Her surname comes from Katzuya Shimizu.
The drummer of Sick Hack. She often helped Kikuri and Eliza resolve the troubles they caused.
Sideros is a metal band also based in Folt, where the members are around the same age as Kessoku Band. They have already gained enough popularity to hold their own solo concerts. The members share their last names with those of the real-life band Kinniku Shōjo Tai.
The guitarist, vocalist and leader of Sideros. She looks up to Kikuri, and is highly conscious of Kessoku Band when Kikuri takes interest in them. She is highly competitive and obsessed with rankings and popularity. Despite her confident and aggressive attitude, she is quite insecure and poor at communication skills, causing her to have few friends. She often treats Hitori as a rival, but still gives her and the band advice about music and band activities. After her high school graduation, she enrolls in the same university with Nijika. Her surname comes from Kenji Ōtsuki.
The drummer of Sideros. She is the most level-headed member of the band and is friendly to Kessoku Band. Her surname comes from Kōji Hasegawa.
The guitarist of Sideros, whose surname comes from Toshiaki Honjō.
The bassist of Sideros. She dresses in Gothic Lolita fashion and has a deep interest in occultism. Her surname comes from Yūichirō Uchida.
Gotō family
Hitori's father, whose face is never shown. When he was younger, he also dreamed of becoming a successful musician. The guitar he owned ended up with his daughter.
Hitori's mother. She has a gentle personality and is very accepting of Hitori's social anxiety. She is pleased that Hitori joined Kessoku Band and is able to make friends.
Hitori's younger sister. She is highly sociable in contrast to Hitori, and sometimes innocently says hurtful things to her. However, she actually loves and cares deeply about her. Her first name, "Futari" translates to two people while her sister's means one person.
The family's Shiba Inu pet dog, named after Jimi Hendrix.
Others
Two girls who bought tickets to Kessoku Band's show at Starry after listening to Bocchi and Kikuri's impromptu street performance in Kanazawa Ward, Yokohama. After that, they attended several of Kessoku Band's performances. Their real names are unknown; the one with long hair is known as No. 1, and the one with short hair is known as No. 2. They are students of the film department of an art university, and Kessoku Band let them assist in the shooting of their music video.
The manager of Folt. Even though he looks intimidating, he actually has a girlish side.
A freelance music writer and part-timer at Stray Beat as an assistant to Miyako. She has a child-like look and initially acts immature to fake her age. She also criticizes Kessoku Band for being "not serious" and believes that Hitori should not waste her talent in the band. However, after witnessing the band's growth and unity, she retracts her statement, gives them an opportunity to debut on a label, and supports the band in multiple ways. Her real name is .
A classmate of Hitori and Kita during their second year of high school. She has been classmate with Kita for five years since middle school. She is impressed by Hitori's guitar performance and tries to befriend her. She always supports Kessoku Band and is the representative of the "Kessoku Band Cheerleading Committee".
An employee of Stray Beat, a record label. She is in charge of managing Kessoku Band.
Composer of Klimt's Night under the pseudonym Ame with the vocalist, . The musical duo is under the same label as Kessoku Band. She is a complete shut-in and her social anxiety is worse than Hitori's, partly because she had previously faced multiple accusations of nepotism on social media. She looks up to Hitori as she has been a fan of Guitarhero since their first video and finds comfort and encouragement in watching her improve. She later joins Ōyama's band. Her surname comes from Atsushi Horie from the band Straightener.
Production
After finishing with her first title in Manga Time Kirara Max (Kirari Books Meisouchuu), which was mainly about young girls dealing with moe things, Aki Hamazi considered doing a manga about bands next, as listening to bands is one of her favorite hobbies. However, she did not have any actual experience being in a band or playing an instrument prior to the making of the series, so she conducted extensive research by doing things like asking an acquaintance more familiar with the indie band scene, listening and reading more about the culture, and visiting places that are prominent to the scene (like the live house Shelter in Shimokitazawa, which would end up being the model for the live house Starry).
Being aware of the popularity of K-On!, also a Houbunsha-published series with a band setting, Hamazi intentionally set the story around a live house instead of mainly in school to differentiate it. She also admitted using Beck as a reference in making the series as well.
Most of the chapter covers have references to the music videos of Japanese rock bands; most of them would be songs that she liked to listen to, while some others were instead relevant to their respective chapter stories. She also avoided using onomatopoeia or creating lyrics for any of the performance scenes, leaving the finer details of the band's performance to readers' imaginations, although some of the songs do have names originally mentioned in the manga. While the manga is mostly in a four-panel format, in serious moments she intended to have it follow a conventional manga format as well.