So aniplex just dropped this video showing the behind the scenes and stuff of the bocchi VAs learning and practicing their respective instruments.

I just wanna talk a little bit about this because this is something I love about BTR.  There’s other anime where the VAs actually play the instruments of their characters, like in bang dream or girls band cry, but in those anime, the VAs were chosen bc they can play those instruments already.  In the case of bocchi, these are all regular seiyuus that started learning these instruments after voicing in bocchi, and that’s definitely something special.

We’re already aware that Yoppi (bocchi’s VA) started learning guitar pretty soon after bocchi aired, and there’s videos of her learning for the first time and learning the lead guitar part of seishun complex (which btw is an amazing song to learn from bc it utilizes some really great techniques you can practice).  But as the video shows, in 2024, the other 3 seiyuus started learning their instruments too, all clearly beginners.  And the fact they started this in 2024 when bocchi aired in 2022 just shows the lasting impact that bocchi has had on both the seiyuus and anime fans.

Alright, so I just wanna say that damn, these VAs are incredible, they all learned these instruments from scratch, and in such a short time, they’ve gotten so good.  Especially as someone who plays these instruments, I’m very aware of how much practice they must have done on their own time to get to this level, and considering they have other work to do too, putting that much practice in definitely deserves massive compliments.

The one that really impressed me is Suzushiro Sayumi (nijika’s VA).  Drum set is probably the hardest of these instruments to pickup bc of its complexity compared to a guitar or bass.  You need to ofc play a bunch of different drums and cymbals, but you also need to learn limb independence which doesn’t come naturally to a lot of people (including me).  For those who have never played drum set, all 4 of your limbs are playing different things at basically the same time, depending on what your playing.  Your right foot is playing the kick bass, your left foot is controlling the hi-hat as well as a 2nd kick bass pedal if you have one, and your right and left arms are playing all the cymbals, the snare, and the toms, as well as anything else you might have like a cowbell or something.  So getting your limbs to all work independently from each other is definitely something some people struggle with, but nijika’s VA seems to be a natural at it.

Another big thing I noticed with Nijika’s VA is that when she first started playing, she was doing what all new drummers do, and was playing with very ridged and big arm movements from the elbows and a little from the wrist.  That’s the natural way that most people hit things, but when it comes to drumming, that’s incorrect technique and severely hinders your playing abilities, so it’s good to get that habit out of the way, which nijika’s VA did, and did really well given the time span we see.  The proper technique to playing drums is to ofc use your wrist more, and keep your elbow more or less still since you shouldn’t be using those arm movements, but also your fingers.  Your fingers are the main thing controlling your drumstick, whenever the drumstick bounces off the drum head or cymbal, your finger are supposed to basically catch the butt end of the stick and then you squeeze your fingers again to create another stroke, and you keep doing that.  Watching Nijika’s VA do that more and more throughout their rehearsals just felt so satisfying bc she was doing it right, and was doing it well.  And especially since she’s playing drum set, her right hand is going to need to do a lot of fast rhythms with just that one hand on the hi-hat, so having that proper finger technique makes her playing that much better.  So big props to nijika’s VA for all the work she put in to be able to play so well.

There’s definitely plenty I could talk about with the other VAs since they all did just as well, but this post is getting a big long and wordy, so I’ll stop it there.  I’m definitely really happy though to see that we actually have a real irl kessoku band now with all 4 of the VAs.  I hope they keep doing more concerts in the future and it would be nice if they could come play in NY so I can watch them live too lmao.  Alright, that’s it for now, bye