Bocchi The Rock!

When anime fans think about a music-centric show that has cute girls doing cute things, the late oughts’ K-On! usually comes to mind. But 2022 isn’t the year of the hyper-capable taking center stage. No, this year is for the freakazoids, the shut-ins who would die on sight if they ever had to speak in front of an audience, let alone get dressed to greet the day. This is the year of Bocchi the Rock!

Bocchi the Rock! follows Hitori “Bocchi” Gotou as she grows closer to her bandmates and overcomes her debilitating social anxiety as the group’s guitarist. Fear not, you don’t have to sit through a handful of episodes while Hitori learns the basics of guitar playing. She’s got that down from the start. However, you’ll still have to endure her endearing battle with stage fright. Of all the anime on this list, Bocchi the Rock! best manages to utilize its animated medium to the fullest extent with its over-the-top off-model character acting and Family Guy-esque cutaway non-sequiturs into Hitori’s inner turmoil trying to seem normal to her peers.

Bocchi the Rock! streams on Crunchyroll