Bocchi the Rock Ch. 92 + 93 Review - An Interview and Sleep Stress
Written by Rei Caldombra 11/21/25 Previous Chapter: Bocchi the Rock Ch. 91 Review - In Stores Now! — Blog Under a Log
Hello everyone, Rei Caldombra here for another look at the Bocchi the Rock Manga. This time focusing on Chapter 92, which looks at Kessoku Band navigating an interview with missing members, and 93 which looks like Kessoku Band staying the night at Ryo’s family home before the start of the release of their mini album.
Chapter 92 starts off with Ryo and Bocchi participating in a radio interview. Then we go back in time. Kita and Nijika are absent because they both did not prepare in time. Nijika was too nervous to sleep, and Kita spent too long working on her makeup. After that the trains were delayed and their taxi took a wrong turn, so now these two are so late that they will not make it before start time. These two are usually the more reliable ones with the best head on their shoulders for public events so taking them out was a great way to make this event more exciting. It is also refreshing to see these two mess up too, as that is less common compared to Bocchi and Ryo’s frequent mess ups and incompetencies. So going into this I was really hoping we would see Bocchi and Ryo pull through here and do a good job. I was thinking Ryo would do good, with Bocchi struggling but working her way up to doing solid by the end. We’ll see how that actually plays out.
As we build up to the actual start of the interview, Bocchi is very concerned about it taking place live rather than pre-recorded. This understandably is a lot more stressful. I really get this, as I am someone who does much better with preparation and needs time to think things through. That’s one reason why I prefer writing over livestreaming or talking off the cuff for my videos. Mistakes can’t be edited out live. This is what Bocchi is worried about. We got some new Ryo lore here: Ryo listened to a lot of radio in the past and was so into it that she sent in tons of letters. Seems they never got read though, probably due to how weird she is. Though of course she copes with this by thinking they weren’t able to handle her genius. To give her credit, Ryo does nail her performance when it came to the script read-through. Sadly, that Ryo does not show herself in the interview.
As soon as they go live, Ryo immediately breaks down from stage fright and turns into a robot that can only say a single word of affirmation. She spends the rest of the interview only saying something along the lines of “yes” or “yeah”. The interviewers set her up with some good questions she is very qualified to answer, but she’s got nothing. Ryo tends to act like she is capable but as Nijika says, is more fragile than she wants others to believe.
Bocchi is able to give more lengthy responses, but they end up primarily being her usual fear response in a social situation. Which consists of crazy lies that attempt to make her sound cool but of course just make her sound like a delusional freak. One of her lies concerns Nijika, with her saying that Nijika deals with stress by using up erasers. So now Nijika looks like she maintains her upbeat attitude with a weird coping mechanism. Bocchi is able to truthfully answer one question about Kita and her propensity to keeping up with trends, but the trend she remembers Kita being into is very outdated. Kita and their friendship have been betrayed. The best joke of the chapter is definitely Nijika sort of defending Bocchi by saying that she sees extroverts in a lower resolution than normal people. We can take this hilarious visualization as her doing this to protect her eyes from their radiant aura (a joke we have seen play out a bunch of times in this series).
The interview is nearing its end with Bocchi and Ryo both making fools of themselves, though Bocchi somehow has the idea that she did alright. Sorry Bocchi, no you didn’t. Finally, Nijika and Kita are able to show up before Bocchi does something to make a more lasting impression. Thank goodness that we don’t end up getting the severe cringe attack we would have from Bocchi doing something even more extreme than she already has in this interview full of nonsense. They arrive just in time to apologize for being late and ask them for their support. Luckily for the band, the online reaction was better than expected. I would interpret this as the fans now understanding how much of freaks Bocchi and Ryo are, embracing their unique and charming dysfunction.
To wrap up this chapter, it is a pretty funny chapter per usual for BTR. As a comedic chapter it is executed well. But I have to say that I am a bit disappointed about how it played out. So I’ve got a rare genuine criticism here. I like Bocchi the Rock’s comedy style and am aware of how often it involves laughing at a character’s expense (the most frequent example being Bocchi being cringe). But when Bocchi and Ryo are usually the ones causing problems and being incompetent in their own ways, I was really looking forward to them getting an honest W. I especially wanted this for Ryo. Ryo has been the butt of jokes a lot in recent times and in my opinion has gotten the least development of the band members. Bocchi on the other hand has had really solid growth into being a character who can be very reliable when it counts, such as how she helped Ame. So she can get a pass to do her usual brand of anxious floundering. I was hoping Ryo would show how she could be reliable here. She kinda grew from moving out of her parent’s, but that’s not the type of thing I mean. And recently we have her failing to learn to drive, pushing that entire responsibility onto Nijika. The only strong character moment I can think of right now from Ryo is way back at the beginning when she encouraged Bocchi to make lyrics true to herself. I’m not even someone who stans her or anything but I think she has been very stagnant from a character standpoint and is not really showing how she brings value to the band. I still enjoyed this chapter from a comedy standpoint, but from the standpoint of someone who loves these characters, I am a bit let down by the waste of this opportunity for Ryo to shine. It doesn’t have to be something grand on the level of Bocchi, considering she is the main character, but Ryo really needs something in my opinion. But if you disagree or think I’ve missed something feel free to share.
Chapter 93 focuses on the band members staying the night at Ryo’s family home the day before their big tour officially starts. It's really cute how Ryo’s Mom sees Ryo as more mature now that she’s moved out. But as Nijika says, this is definitely through a mother’s rose-tinted glasses that they see their child through. To harp on my previous point, I feel like this could have been a moment of Ryo actually looking more mature. -small sigh-. They are staying here because it gives them a good launching point for heading to Osaka. The most painful thing about this though is that they need to leave at 3:30 in the morning so they can save money on road tolls. I rarely do long drives, so I don’t think about this very much. Nijika proving her good mind for business yet again. And it’s cute seeing her get genuinely excited over discounts. Here is a good example of how a little moment can show off a character’s strengths. Ryo needs more moments like these. Nijika complains about how this is the life that poor musicians must lead. Such as sleeping in their van or in a manga cafe as opposed to a hotel (the latter of which Bocchi fittingly prefers). I’m glad they have kept up the gag of Bocchi being a creature that thrives in dark, damp environments.
Spending time in a manga cafe is on my to-do list for Japan, and staying overnight in one seems like a fun and unique experience. When it comes to the 3AM wake up time, I think I’ve only had something comparable to that a few times in my life. I remember waking up at 4AM to be at my high school at 5AM for a club activity that involved a long bus ride. The only other one I can definitely think of was waking up also around that time for an international flight years ago. But yeah, it’s super rough. For night owls it can be more effective to just not sleep at all, sometimes that can be better than only sleeping an hour or two. Back then I was horrible at falling asleep and was regularly awake at the previously mentioned times.
Ryo’s Mom brings up how admirable it is that the band does not rely on their wealth for their activities. It is genuinely a strong point about the band that they do not use Ryo’s family’s finances to get by more easily. Nijika deserves respect for sticking to being more self-reliant, even if it makes them suffer a bit more. You don’t have to agree with that decision though. The other members would probably be happier if they didn’t have to get up at 3AM just to save a little money though.
Ryo’s Mom prepares them a home cooked dinner full of healthy foods like... sea cucumber, snakes and scorpions. Everyone else is fairly disappointed except for Bocchi who seemed to have no trouble eating it at all. We get a rare case of Kita being put off by Bocchi- sorry Bokita fans. This is a rare Boniji chapter. More on that in a bit. I’m not that much into shipping but out of all of the pairings Boniji is definitely my favorite.
Bocchi makes the smart move of taking her dad’s guitar just in case something happens to her new one. This is smart from a paranoia standpoint about losing it or it getting stolen and shows her lesson learned from when her guitar string broke on stage during the school concert. Nijika may not think this is warranted but I completely support this. Considering how long their tour is, not having backup instruments could ruin the whole thing. We also get to see Instagram model Kita repping the merch and turning their feed into a store.
Our conflict in this chapter is that Nijika cannot sleep to save her life. In the last chapter we saw her struggle to sleep before the interview and here we see it again. I don’t remember this trait being brought up previously, but regardless this is being shown as a consistent character trait. I can relate heavily to her saying that the harder she tries to sleep, the more she stresses, which makes it harder to sleep. In my opinion being able to sleep easily is an incredible blessing and a huge privilege. I wish I didn’t need to use multiple sleep aides (nothing strong like sleeping pills) just to have a solid chance of sleeping when I want. It’s important for Nijika to be the one to sleep well since she is the only one who can drive (looking at you again Ryo). My favorite joke of this chapter is that when Ryo gives Nijika some herbal tea, Nijika questions the herbs as if they’re some of the plants she eats off the ground. Bocchi being the gremlin she is, has no trouble pulling an all-nighter. This part of the chapter has tons of hilarious faces due to them all being stressed out during this. The collective stress is super funny. The tea doesn’t really help, and using music just results in advertisements breaking her ability to sleep and her brain being so active that it picks up on the music looping. This is a good joke that plays into them being musicians, as they would naturally pay more attention to finer details. I do use white noise when I sleep, I think it helps to make my overactive brain (am ADHD haver) have something to focus on that isn’t my thoughts. I recommend it if you don’t want silence, but you really should make sure whatever you are playing won’t have ads.
Ryo recommends ear cleaning ASMR, something I do not touch as ASMR is not my thing. But I do know that some people genuinely like that specific brand of ASMR (especially in countries like Japan where cleaning out other people’s ears is a legitimate thing). Bocchi reveals another weird skill of hers that she developed in all of her lonely time of not sleeping is ear cleaning. So for the fans of Boniji, here is your feast. And for fans of Nijika, we get the rare privilege of seeing her hair down. Which is cute but more importantly for me, also makes her resemble Seika a lot more. Of course, I have to bring in Seika when I can because she is the BTR character I am a true simp for. Nijika is my favorite of the band members, but I do not simp for them. The older adults in BTR are the hot ones. Bocchi gives Nijika her lap and easily falls asleep thanks to Bocchi’s musty smell from the time she spends in her closet reminding Nijika of her grandmother’s home. Nijika and all the others fall asleep. Bocchi, the champ she is, stayed still all the way until 3AM. The gang is now awake and getting ready to head off. We get to see the return of Hyouko from the band Namba Girls, who we haven’t seen since chapter 86. Nijika hears Hyouko for a second and can immediately tell Bocchi did some nonsense that will be annoying later, which is really funny. I appreciate that Ryo learned from her experience in chapter 89 and made sure that everyone went to the bathroom before they boarded the bus. The gang leaves for Osaka and officially enters their tour arc!
I’m looking forward to seeing how the tour pans out! I’m sure we will get multiple performances; it’ll be great to see the band on some big stages. They’ve grown so much -sniff-. We will probably spend a decent amount of time on it. For a slice of life series this is the type of event that is meant to be more dramatic. I am guessing that if we eventually get a season 3 of the anime, this will likely compose the final part of it.
I loved this chapter, definitely one of my favorites! It was hilarious and put the band into a unique and super funny situation. We also got some great character moments. This is really what puts it above the previous chapter for me. It has more of the substance I am looking for outside of just good jokes. Which for Bocchi the Rock I think is a fair expectation. Which is a complement to be clear. That’s part of what makes Bocchi the Rock stand out so much for me as a series that relies heavily on comedy. And the great development is part of what makes it stand out stronger amongst Cute Girls Do Cute things series in my opinion. Bocchi the Rock is just so freaking good. Even when it has less good chapters like 92 that are pretty much all comedy, I can still find it pretty good. Thanks for reading!
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First Bocchi the Rock Manga chapter review: Bocchi the Rock Ch. 76 Review - Anxious Heart to Heart — Blog Under a Log
