28 SNEAKY Bocchi The Rock References That You Desire You Knew Earlier!

With creative animation, relatable characters andhilarious scenes, Bocchi the Rock has cemented itself as an all-time great anime. It’s alsoan anime with plenty of references that you may have missed. So stick around while we goover the various references in Bocchi the rock. It’s kinda obvious that this anime lovesto reference music. But in particular, did you know that the band it homages themost is a Japanese rock group called Asian Kung Fu Generation? The last names ofthe four members of this band are Gotoh, Yamada, Ijichi and Kita, the exact same as ourprotagonists in Bocchi the rock. Anime fans may be familiar with some of their work already.They’re the ones who performed Bleach’s 7th OP. A less subtle music reference is in the Gotohfamily’s pet dog. It doesn’t come up often,.

But the dog’s name is Jimihen which is areference to the legendary rock guitarist Jimi Hendrix. He gets an even more directreference in the final episode when Bocchi’s father talks about some guitars that aredesigned to be destroyed. It briefly shows a silhouette referencing a famous incidentwhere Hendrix burned his guitar on stage. Do you recall from the final episode, whereBocchi’s guitar string breaks but she manages to improvise? Believe it or not, this may bea reference to something very similar that happened in 2016 to guitarist Guthrie Govanwhere a guitar string snapped but he managed to make a smooth recovery. We can’t actuallyconfirm if this is an intentional reference, but it’s still cool to see something thatlooks unbelievable can happen in real life.

The manga for Bocchi the rock is full of evenmore references. The beginning of every chapter includes an illustration at the start of Bocchiand the other members of Kessoku Band reenacting moments from various music videos by Japanesebands. This even started a trend on Twitter where fan artists would draw the members ofKessoku Band recreating various album covers. Another cool thing are some more subtlereferences throughout the anime. For example, in episode 1 we see Bocchi trying to get attentionby wearing lots of band merch. Among these is merch for fictional bands “Super Feever” andthe “The Siro-Magnons”. Which are parodies of real life Japanese rock bands Super Beaver andthe Cro-Magnons. It’s not just these either. Pretty much every poster we see inside Nijika’ssister’s club is a reference to a Japanese band.

A more direct reference comes in episode11 when Ryo talks about using Bocchi’s looks to get a bigger audience. One of herweird ideas involved wrapping Bocchi up in black tape and making her play guitarby the beach. This was a reference to Japanese rock star T.M. Revolution andhis music video for the song “Hot Limit” where he did exactly that. Like with AsianKung Fu Generation, T.M. Revolution may be best known outside of Japan for his animesongs. Such as Soul Eater’s first opening. Speaking of Asian Kung Fu Generation, theyseem to be the band that the anime likes to reference the most. A lot of the episodesare named after songs by them. Such as “After Dark” and “Morning Light Falls On You”. Infact, the final ending theme was a cover.

Of Morning Light Falls On You performed byKessoku Band. Which we think is super cool! The first episode of the anime is also titled“Lonely Rolling Bocchi” which may be a reference to the Asian Kung Fu Generation “RollingStone” or the mega-famous rock band “The Rolling Stones”. It makes sense, the nameof the anime is Bocchi the Rock after all. Of course both of those names arederived from the old saying “No moss grows on a rolling stone”. Whichcan be related to Bocchi’s poor social situation and how she has troublegrowing connections with people. Another Japanese rock reference is during oneof Bocchi’s many fantasies. In this one she imagines herself with wings and playinga guitar that also has wings. This may.

Be a reference to Japanese rock groupThe Alfee who in real life really does perform with a winged guitar. Clearlythey’ve got a flair for the dramatic. There are also plenty of western musicalreferences in Bocchi the Rock too. For example, when Bocchi tries to act extroverted she imaginesherself reenacting John Travolta’s famous disco dancing scene from the movie Saturday NightFever. She’s got some pretty good moves too! We also see Bocchi wearing heart shaped sunglassesin this scene. And later when she invites Kita and Nijika over to her house she wears star shapedsunglasses. These both may be a reference to the musician Elton John, who usually wearscolorful sunglasses while performing. Another fun music reference is in the scenewhere Ryo convinces Kita and Bocchi to wear.

Matching suits and wear moptop wigs. Thisis a reference on two levels. The reference that may be more obvious to western fans is ofcourse to The Beatles. In their early years, The Beatles all had matching moptop cutsand identical suits as part of their brand. The second reference is a more Japan specificone. Apparently moptop haircuts are somewhat trendy for young men in Japan’s music scene. Sothis is sort of an in-joke about Ryo trying to get the others to act more like stereotypicalhip musicians which we think is hilarious. Speaking of references, music isn’t the onlything that Bocchi pays homage to. There are plenty of anime references throughout the show forexample. Some are pretty obvious. Like in episode 9 where Bocchi falls over in a crater afterbeing attacked by birds. Dragon Ball fans may.

Recognize the pose as the infamous Yamcha deathpose which is a huge meme within the DBZ fandom. Episode 8 in particular has a rapid fireseries of cool anime references. First is after Bocchi is exhausted after the band’s firstperformance we see her slouched over in a chair and colored in white. This is the referenceto the ending of iconic boxing anime Ashita no Joe. It ends with the titular Joe Yabukiin the exact same pose. This is actually a pretty popular reference and pops upin a lot of anime. It’s one of those things you start to notice everywhereonce you know what it’s a reference to. Right after this, angel versions of Bocchi’smicrophone and guitar descend down and say “Congratulations!” to Bocchi. This isof course a reference to another famous.

Anime ending. Specifically Neon GenesisEvangelion. We’d be here all day if we tried to explain Evangelion’s ending. But allyou’ve gotta know is that the original anime ends with everyone congratulating Shinji.It references Evangelion again in a later episode when Bocchi wakes up in the schoolinfirmary and says “An unfamiliar ceiling”. Another neat thing is that the angelsdescending while Bocchi looks dead might be a reference to the British children’s book ADog of Flanders. Despite being written in England and set in Belgium, this book is surprisinglypopular in Japan for some reason. In fact, Bocchi is specifically referencing the1975 anime version of a Dog of Flanders. Episode 11 references another classicanime as well. The two delinquents that.

Show up at the maid cafe look like they’remodeled after the various outlaws from Fist of the North Star. The reference iseven more obvious in the manga where the delinquents are drawn in the exactsame art style as the North Star manga. One reference that we thought was reallycool was in episode 7 where Nijika tries to move Bocchi’s bangs and she turns intoashes. During this scene, the song that plays is actually the song “Requiem” from themovie “Nausicaa of the Valley of the Wind”. It’s a super classic anime and the firstoriginal movie by legendary anime director Hayao Miyazaki. This show really lovespaying its respects to the classics! That’s enough about Bocchi referencing other animefor now. Did you know that Bocchi actually had a.

Cameo in a different anime before this one cameout? Back in 2022’s winter anime season there was an anime about fishing called Slow Loop.And in Slow Loop’s 10th episode, we see Bocchi and her friends performing at a festival. Youcan even see Bocchi’s two fans waving to her. The creative team for Bocchi therock returned the favor in episode 10 of their own show. When Kikuri’sbandmate Eliza pulls out her phone, we can see keychain decorations featuring Hiyoriand Koharu from Slow Loop. The reason both series referenced each other is probably because theyboth ran in the same magazine: Manga Time Kirara. Another character from a MangaTime Kirara series also made a cameo in Bocchi’s 10th episode. When Bocchiwakes up from her dream of being a rockstar,.

She’s seated next to a girl with an X-shapeddecoration in her hair. This is a reference to the character Yuno from the series HidamariSketch. Back in the early 2000s, Hidamari Sketch, Lucky Star and several other anime are reallywhat really brought the Moe trend into full swing. One last manga from Manga Time Kirara that wasreferenced was K-On. Which of course is natural since both series involve music. Specifically,Ryo mentions how she loves anime where all the characters jump in the air at the same time.Which of course happens in the K-On intro. This anime is also sometimes comparedto Fooly Cooly, an anime known for its rock and roll soundtrack. Plus both of themfeature a pink-haired girl playing a string instrument in the lead role. AlthoughBocchi’s introverted personality is the.

Complete opposite of Haruko’s. There’s evena direct reference to Fooly Cooly when we get a scene of Bocchi running down the hallway;similar to a scene of Haruko doing the same thing in Fooly Cooly’s third episode. Theband that did Fooly Cooly’s soundtrack, The Pillows, was also referencedin one of the manga’s cover pages. Bocchi the Rock also likes to reference severalreal life brands. An obvious example would be the energy drinks Nijika and Ryo buy in episodethree which are “Moffster” brand energy drinks, a parody of the real lifeMonster Energy Drink brand. One product we were surprised to learn wasbased off a real thing are the juice boxes full of sake that we see Kikuri drinking. It mayseem like a silly visual gag at first but no,.

These are based on an actual brandcalled “Onikoroshi” that really does come in juice boxes. They both even havethe same little devil mascot on them. Yet another reference to highlight is areally strange one. Remember that scene where Bocchi becomes a low poly 3D modeland crashes into a bunch of shapes? Well, that might just be a reference to thePlaystation 4 trailer for Undertale where the character Toriel does the exactsame thing. This wasn’t in the manga, so clearly someone on thewriting staff likes Undertale. So yeah, both the original mangaka and the animewriters both love to make references. And we’re all very happy for it. It’s just part ofwhat makes Bocchi the Rock lots of fun.

But what do you think? Which ofthese references is your favorite?

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