Bocchi the Rock! -Live-, a live-streamed program to commemorate the Bocchi the Rock! television anime’s one-year anniversary, announced that the anime’s compilation film project is actually two films. The first part will open next spring as previously announced, while the second part will open next summer. The program also debuted the films’ teaser visual:
The anime adapts Aki Hamaji’s four-panel manga Bocchi the Rock!, which follows Hitori “Bocchi-chan” (“Loner”) Gotō, a lonely high school girl whose heart lies in her guitar. She does nothing every day except strum her guitar by herself at home. However, she happens one day to meet Nijika Ijichi, who is looking for a guitarist for her group named “Kessoku Band.”
The television anime’s main cast includes:
- Yoshino Aoyama as Hitori “Bocchi-chan” (“Loner”) Gotō
- Sayumi Suzushiro as Nijika Ijichi
- Saku Mizuno as Ryо̄ Yamada
- Ikumi Hasegawa as Ikuyo Kita
Keiichirō Saitō (ACCA: 13-Territory Inspection Dept. Regards) directed the television anime at CloverWorks. Erika Yoshida (Lupin III: Part IV)ˀsupervised and wrote the series scripts. Kerorira (animation director for Wonder Egg Priority) designed the characters.
The television anime premiered on the Tokyo MX, BS11, Gunma TV, and Tochigi TV channels on October 9, and it also ran on MRT Miyazaki Broadcasting, MBS, RKB Mainichi Broadcasting, and AT-X. Crunchyroll streamed the anime as it airs in Japan.
The anime’s “Kessoku Band” with Ikumi Hasegawa (voice of Ikuyo Kita) on vocals performed the opening and ending songs. Singer-songwriter Ai Higuchi wrote the lyrics, and Otoha, member of the musical group 48foureight, composed the music for the opening song titled “Seishun Complex” (Youth Complex). The KANA-BOON band’s vocalist and guitarist Maguro Taniguchi wrote the lyrics and composed the music for the ending song titled “Distortion!!”
Hamaji launched the manga in Houbunsha’s Manga Time Kirara Max magazine in December 2017, and the series is ongoing.
Well… that’s usually a good indicator another season is coming
Fingers crossed!
Why is everything 2 movies
An anime with 12-13 episodes has about 20minutes per episode, that makes 12*20 = 240. 240 minutes is to long for a usual movie, but 120m = 2h is about the time some movies run. So that’s the reason it’s alsways 2 movies that recap a anime season.
Assuming there’s 18 minutes of animation an episode (22 minutes - 1:30 seconds for OP - 1:30 seconds for ED - ~1 minute for recap, preview, hijinks), that leaves the full run-time of the TV anime to be 216 minutes.
So that leaves them with the options of:
- A 3 hour 36 minute movie
- Two roughly hour and 48 minute movies
Maybe they could cut a few minutes off, but movies over 2 hours are generally penalized at the box office for it unless they’re massive blockbusters. I’ve not seen Bocchi the Rock so I’m admittedly coming from a place of ignorance here. So I ask you, but do you think they’d be able to cut out 45% of the content without a negative impact on the experience?
