One thing I love about anime is the way creators tell stories that fans can connect with in their daily lives, with characters that can be a lot more relatable to us than from other kinds of media. One adorable show I’ve been following this season is Hitoribocchi no ○○ Seikatsu, or Hitori Bocchi’s ○○ Lifestyle — the circles are pronounced maru and mean “blank” — about a girl trying to overcome her intense social anxiety and make friends at school.
Hitori Bocchi’s ○○ Lifestyle a sweet show based on a manga that centers around four girls, whose personalities are embedded in their names. The characters are:
- Hitori Bocchi (which means “all alone by myself”), a girl who’s shy and awkward in social situations and prepares for them by reading “Making Friends for Dummies.” When she’s out sick for a day, she assumes the other girls have forgotten her and starts introducing herself from scratch.
- Sunao Nako (“a girl with a frank and honest personality”), who comes across as scary to others, especially her teacher. But she’s really nice.
- Honsho Aru (“hiding her true personality”), the class vice president, who tries to act confident and mature but is really forgetful and clumsy. Like the time she forgot she was in junior high school and wore her elementary school backpack to school. Twice.
- Sotoka Rakita (“came from the outside”), a foreigner from a Western country who’s obsessed with ninjas, and is convinced Bocchi is one.
Anime series with characters who have deep anxiety and depression issues are quite common, and there are many good series that can help fans deal with any issues they might themselves be facing. Kimi ni Todoke told the story of a super-shy girl everyone’s afraid of because she looks like Sadako from The Ring. Serial Experiments Lain is a fabulous show that explores themes of alienation and depression through technology. Welcome to the NHK is a cautionary tale of taking a NEET and otaku lifestyle too far.
While some of these shows can be quite dark (*cough* WataMote! *cough*), others can be really inspiring. Comic Girls features a super cute MC who overcomes self-doubt on her journey to become a manga artist. Rozen Maiden featured a main character who had to defeat agoraphobia and return to a healthy school life. And now we have Hitori Bocchi’s ○○ Lifestyle, another bright and fun show about a girl overcoming her own shyness and making friends.
Will you be watching Hitori Bocchi’s ○○ Lifestyle? Tell us on Twitter!
We love doujinshi, the incredibly creative comics that let us explore our favorite anime characters in naughty situations, and today we’ve posted some great new stock. Browse our new doujinshi here!
