‘Bocchi the Rock’ Voice Actress Dishes on Her Past Anxieties

It’s hard to believe that in the crowd of absurd characters plastered on the walls of Anime Expo 2024, an introverted, pink-haired high schooler is one of the most recognizable. But such is the presence exuded by Hitori Gotoh, who goes by the nickname Bocchi. 

Bocchi the Rock, the anime series that stars our quiet high schooler, has struck a chord with fans. Bocchi, though an introvert, always dreamed of becoming popular by starting a rock band. And through a string of events, she accidentally finds herself in a group with girls from another school. Bocchi may have trouble speaking her mind, but she loves playing guitar. 

Bocchi’s extreme introversion — even mumbling a single sentence can be excruciating for her — resonates with viewers. And finding a fan base in the competitive anime market is an impressive feat for Bocchi the Rock. 

Anime is big business. The global anime industry was valued at $26 billion in 2022 and is expected to climb to $60 billion by 2032, according to a report from Skyquest. That’s why Netflix, Hulu and Max all offer a variety of anime, inking deals with studios in Japan to exclusively carry shows. Sony purchased Crunchyroll, a streaming service dedicated to anime, from AT&T in 2021 for $1.18 billion. And the shows themselves are just one part of the anime pie. Merchandise around anime is its own fast-growing market. Globally, that market currently sits at $10.8 billion, and it’s expected to hit $18.6 billion, according to Grand View Research. The fact that a Bocchi the Rock cassette tape is up for preorder should hardly be a surprise.

Despite her lack of flashy charisma, fans are clamoring for more Bocchi. Earlier this year, a compilation film that truncates multiple episodes down into a feature-length flick, was released in Japanese theaters, grossing 210 million yen, or $1.3 million. It actually topped the weekend box office on release and is the first compilation film to consist of entirely already-aired content to reach the top spot. It ended up surpassing 500 million yen, or $3.09 million, during its run and is set for a US theatrical release later this year. Yet even with these impressive numbers, a second season of Bocchi the Rock hasn’t yet been approved. 

The success of Bocchi the Rock comes down to the team at Tokyo-based animation studio CloverWorks. The visual direction is led by Keiichiro Saito. For a series that largely takes place inside an introverted high schooler’s head, he’s had to find novel ways to keep the animation visually interesting. This has forced him to think creatively, using absurd visual gags and different mediums altogether to keep viewers guessing.

“All the way back, from the storyboards to as much time as I’m allowed, I pushed myself to look for things that would surprise myself,” said Saito. “Because if I can surprise myself, I can surprise the viewers as well.”

Visual approaches have included using paper cutouts, claymation and 3D graphics.

Capturing the awkwardness of Bocchi is voice actress and musician Yoshino Aoyama. She seems very outgoing, with a happy disposition. But that wasn’t always the case. As a teenager navigating high school’s social minefield, she found it easier to withdraw. 

“When there was an athletic festival, there was a thing where all the girls in my class wanted to form a dance group,” said Aoyama. “I had volunteered myself to be the leader of the group. And afterwards I saw the video recording of our dance routine and I just realized, ‘I’m a terrible dancer. Come to think, everyone was pointing at me and laughing at me.'” 

It was at that point that Aoyama began to turn inward, not being as sociable for fear of being ridiculed. It was this experience, one many teenagers experience at one point or another, that informed her portrayal of Bocchi. 

Bocchi’s introversion is captured by Aoyama’s vocal skill. But it’s the animation that brings the show’s absurd visuals and musicality together. Despite Bocchi the Rock featuring a quartet of cute anime girls, CloverWorks went to great lengths to accurately capture instrumentation. This means that chords played on a guitar, or the hits of a hi-hat, all match what they would in the real world. It turns out that accomplishing this wasn’t easy, or cheap. 

CloverWorks rented out a motion capture studio to make sure it was getting all the movements right. As the hours were racking up inside the studio, Saito lamented, he was getting silent pressure from his producers to finish the session.

Still, it can be hard to get one’s head around the sight of cute anime girls playing on accurately animated Gibson Les Paul guitars. For Saito, though, that’s not an issue.

“My work is to drop cute into real life settings.”