Bocchi the Rock!‘s Kessoku Band has scored the #1 album of 2023 on Oricon’s Digital Album Ranking. This marks the first time a female group has ever topped this annual chart which ranks works by sales. The band members’ reactions to the success of the self-titled album are below:
Yoshino Aoyama (Hitori Gotoh): “We’re #1! Kessoku Band did it! Amazing, isn’t it…! Our name is etched in history!“
Sayumi Suzushiro (Nijika Ijichi): “I’ve always loved singing, and hoped I could incorporate it into my work somehow, so getting entrusted with the vocalist role makes me happy. This album ‘Kessoku Band’ contains fantastic music across a wide range… getting to take on the challenge of singing various songs makes me feel I can utilize this experience moving forward like I’ve been given a trove of treasures.” She added, that the Kessoku Band Live: Kousei (meaning ‘Star’) was the highlight of the year.
Ikumi Hasegawa (Ikuyo Kita): “[Kousei] was so much fun, and for me, it was my first time getting to solo sing that much… Having to express Kessoku Band’s coolness with my entire body was an intense challenge. I felt I really did my best and delivered something great in that concert.“
Saku Mizuno (Ryo Yamada) signed off the group’s message this year: “Of course Kessoku Band and Bocchi the Rock! will continue steadfastly on next year and beyond… I’m having so many blissful experiences already, but next year too I hope to carry on without faltering, giving it absolutely everything I’ve got!“
The Bocchi the Rock! album “Kessoku Band” features 14 songs:
Kessoku Band’s adventures will continue next year in Bocchi the Rock! Re: and Re:Re – the recently announced movie titles for the two compilation films. CloverWorks will animate the movie. The recent Nijika teaser visual for the film was released on November 16, with the latest Ryo Yamada visual from December 16th below:
Crunchyroll is streaming the anime, which is based on Aki Hamaji’s manga, and describes the plot as:
Hitori Gotoh, “Bocchi-chan,” is a girl who’s so introverted and shy around people that she’d always start her conversations with “Ah…” During her middle school years, she started playing the guitar, wanting to join a band because she thought it could be an opportunity for even someone shy like her to also shine. But because she had no friends, she ended up practicing guitar for six hours every day all by herself. After becoming a skilled guitar player, she uploaded videos of herself playing the guitar to the internet under the name “Guitar Hero” and fantasized about performing at her school’s cultural festival concert. But not only could she not find any bandmates, before she knew it, she was in high school and still wasn’t able to make a single friend! She was really close to becoming a shut-in, but one day, Nijika Ijichi, the drummer in Kessoku Band, reached out to her. And because of that, her everyday life started to change little by little…
Source: Oricon
©Aki Hamaji / Houbunsha, Aniplex