Kessoku Band -- Nani ga Warui（なにが悪い）

 

Well, I've just finished watching the 11th and penultimate episode of rock music-based anime "Bocchi the Rock!"（ぼっち・ざ・ろっく!）and I've been having a ball with the cringe comedy at the expense of the title character. Plus, the animators have definitely been pushing the envelope on how they've wanted to present some of the gags including what I will "Nice Dam".

My anime buddy told me that during its initial run in Fall 2022, guitar brands such as the Gibson Les Paul and the Yamaha Pacifica were selling out like hotcakes. According to Wikipedia's article on the show, fans were also making pilgrimages to the bohemian area of Shimo-Kitazawa in Tokyo where it's set including the live house SHELTER which was the inspiration for the live house STARRY where the girls work and perform.

As opposed to the opening theme of "Bocchi the Rock!", "Seishun Complex"（青春コンプレックス）, which has stayed constant throughout the twelve episodes, there have been four ending themes. The fourth ending was only used for the final episode but Episodes 8 to 11 have been using one which has stood out in my mind as my favourite since it is quite melodic. "Nani ga Warui" (What's Wrong?) was written and composed by Yuuho Kitazawa（北澤ゆうほ）, the vocalist for rock band the peggies.

A statement on love for one's music, the vocalist here is the character of Nijika Ijichi（伊地知虹夏）who's usually the ever-upbeat drummer and mild disciplinarian for Kessoku Band（結束バンド）. She's played by Sayumi Suzushiro（鈴代紗弓）who I've recognized as the same seiyuu for Kei Shirogane（白銀圭）, Miyuki's snarkily rebellious sister on "Kaguya-sama wa Kokurasetai"（かぐや様は告らせたい） and the athletic Uruka Takemoto（武元うるか）in the comedy "Boku-tachi wa Benkyou ga Dekinai"（ぼくたちは勉強ができない）.

I've heard that the manga is still rolling along so I'm hoping that maybe a second season will come to pass in the next few years.

Study -- Can now, Can now

Last season on the anime "Boku-tachi wa Benkyou ga Dekinai"（ぼくたちは勉強ができない）, the main female characters were not only struggling with their studies but also with their feelings for their friend and tutor, Nariyuki. Well, after seeing the first two episodes of the second season yesterday, they're still struggling, and the miscommunications and inadvertent innuendos continue flying out faster than the jokes on a typical episode of "Three's Company". Of course, that has to include the mandatory onsen/beach episode.

Still early days for Anime Season Fall 2019 so I didn't expect a full version of theme songs to come out, but I think I may have come across the first earworm of the season for me with the opening theme to "Bokuben", "Can now, Can now". The opening theme from the first season was performed by Study, consisting of the three main female seiyuu, Haruka Shiraishi（白石晴香）, Miyu Tomita（富田美憂）and Sayumi Suzushiro（鈴代紗弓）, but this time around, it's an expanded Study behind the opener with the additions of Lynn as uptight teacher Mafuyu Kurisu（桐須真冬）and Madoka Asahina（朝日奈丸佳）as the saucy Asumi Kominami（小美浪あすみ）.

Those opening credits have gotten a bit fancier and "Can now, Can now" is perhaps even more lighthearted than "Seishun Zeminaru" (Salad Day Seminar). In fact, I could compare it to a typical PreCure opening song. Kentaro Sonoda（園田健太郎）took care of words and music for the song.

Study -- Seishun Zeminaru/Never Give It Up!!（セイシュンゼミナール）

Happy Monday! My anime buddy came back last week after nearly a month in East Asia so we've had to play quite a bit of catch-up when it has come to this season's batch of anime. A number of these are fairly short in duration and a couple of them (one being the sequel to "One Punch Man") haven't been quite up to snuff so we've left them alone for now and there's a possibility that my friend may even jettison them from the lineup.

One that is encapsulated within the regular 30-minute format is "Boku-tachi wa Benkyou ga Dekinai"（ぼくたちは勉強ができない）which has the English title of "We Never Learn" and the Japanese abbreviation of "Bokuben"（ぼく勉）. I've made the observation that this is a harem show of sorts and a slice-of-life high school comedy surrounding a tutor, Nariyuki Yuiga（唯我 成幸）, who has to help out three students: the ojosan-like Fumino Furuhashi（古橋文乃）who's a literature expert but can't do math to save her life, the stoic and logical Rizu Ogata（緒方理珠）who is a math whiz but has difficulty grasping literature, and supremely ebullient Uruka Takemoto（武元うるか）with a natural athleticism but is at a loss when it comes to academics. The site TV Tropes got it spot on when they compared the three to Kirk, Spock and McCoy respectively.

The lessons are the secondary point, though, as the show gradually displays a comedy of errors and misunderstandings when Fumino, Rizu and Uruka begin to show slightly more than platonic feelings for their tutor...and they are not the only ones.

The opening credits for "Boku-tachi wa Benkyou ga Dekinai" are adorned by Study's rendition of "Seishun Zeminaru" (Salad Day Seminar), and Study just happens to consist of the three seiyuu behind Furuhashi, Ogata and Takemoto, Haruka Shiraishi（白石晴香）, Miyu Tomita（富田美憂）and Sayumi Suzushiro（鈴代紗弓）respectively. Tomita is already gaining a fair number of songs on "Kayo Kyoku Plus", and as a seiyuu, she's becoming quite recognizable to me due to her calm and button-down roles for the most part. "Seishun Zeminaru" isn't all that different from the usual super-genki anime opening tune but considering a fairly busy week last week with the accompanying stress, I was quite welcoming in hearing this one again after almost a month. Saori Kodama（こだまさおり）and Takahiro Yamada（山田高弘）took care of words and music.

I have been able to find a full version of the ending theme. Once again the Study trio are back to perform "Never Give It Up!!" which has a mild synthpop feeling created by songwriters Mami Kawada（川田まみ）and Maiko Iuchi（井内舞子）. I actually like "Never Give It Up!!" slightly more because of that intro by Study and the credits themselves at the beginning which seem to have the rapidly singing mouths on the blackboard representing the three main characters themselves. I think the moe factor has been raised a bit more here.

At this point, I think viewers have already come up with their choices about who Taiga should ultimately be paired with, but most likely by the end of this show, he'll end up remaining friends with the three. However, in the interests of not straddling the fence, I wouldn't mind if the lad gladly accepted the affections of his junior high school buddy, Uruka. For one thing, she has that Lucille Ball appeal with me.