Bocchi the Rock Manga Chapter 87 Review - Band Merch!

Written by Rei Caldombra 5/8/25 Previous chapter: Bocchi the Rock Ch. 86 Review - A Wild Tiger Appears — Blog Under a Log

Seika saying “With merch!”

The further we’ve gotten into Bocchi the Rock, the more in depth it has gotten about the inner workings of how a band really functions, including logistical things like setting up events and economics things like budgeting and inner workings between the band and labels. This has been very interesting to me, seeing the band members learn and respond to these details has been really engaging. I also appreciate how Bocchi the Rock can have lots of ridiculous gags and exaggerations while still remaining very grounded. It showcases the excitement and fulfillment you can get from being in a professional band, while not shying away from the difficult reality of this career. This great balance is part of what keeps me always coming back to this series as it has evolved past the early stage of the band. This chapter also gets a lot into merchandise and fandoms to hilarious effect.

We start out with a flashforward where people related to Kessoku Band are promoting a guitar pick that has been “spiritually charged” by Bocchi, giving us a taste of what the topic of this chapter is. Then we jump to the true beginning of the timeline. Ryo is having a legit breakdown over the band’s poor finances. After 2 years of being a band, they’re broke and without a steady income source. This constantly stressful state of being is not the professional band life she dreamed of. Basically, Ryo thinks that being active and successful should be enough to make consistent money. Sadly that is not the reality. So it's time for Ryo to get another reality check. 

They have gotten some money from YouTube ad revenue from their music video, but that is not as significant as you would expect. People tend to overestimate ad revenue if they aren’t very knowledgeable about content creation. For simplicity I'll just be using dollars rather than trying to consider conversion rate to yen or any differences there may be when YouTube pays in other currencies and/or countries. There is a lot of variability depending on the content and channel, but for everything it's nowhere near 1 cent per view like many people who don’t know throw around. Most creators seem to get in the range of 1-10 dollars per 1000 views (RPM). Their music video got about 3.3 million views per this chapter. So they would probably get around 3 thousand dollars from ad revenue. Which is great in a vacuum, but definitely not even coming close to returning the money spent making the music video. Kessoku Band’s share probably helped a lot to pay for the car from last episode, but it wouldn’t last long for a small band’s needs. Their upcoming tour is a bigger deal than a normal show at a venue, but largely functions in the same model. The band still has to make sure people buy tickets and pay back the label from those sales. So those aren’t getting the band much money, assuming it doesn’t end up putting them in debt from not enough ticket sales. And as Nijika brings up, since there’s 4 of them in the band they have to split it 4 ways. So how do bands make money, Ryo asks as she collapses onto the floor?

With a singular tear in her eye Seika lays out the truth that bands rely on merchandise as their true consistent source of income rather than their musical craft itself. CD’s don’t make a lot, neither does streaming online, and ticket costs get eaten up by the venue. But merchandise can be made for very cheap and most of the money can go straight to the band. 

To help them figure out the best merch to move forward with, Elena Hinata is called in for service to Kessoku Band. She’s a major fan of theirs and the series’ resident Kessoku Band stan and fandom enthusiast. She’s happy to have the opportunity to help her oshis. I’m happy to have an excuse to talk about merch and show off my own Kessoku Band merch. I love the merch focus on this chapter, it’s super funny.

Merch has been brought up before, but mostly just for quick gags. Like the colored zip ties that they start selling very early on in the series that get brought up again here. It’s really funny that people started to realize that they just bought expensive normal zip ties. But that’s what a lot of merch is honestly, though there’s plenty of genuinely good quality and creative merch too. Hinata notes that Kessoku Band does have a very active and passionate fandom (she would know). She initially suggests a variety of nice acrylic stands that she thinks would do well with the superfans. Acrylic stands are not one of my favorites, but I do have a bunch, and they can look very nice. Although obviously they will appear very flat next to other merch. I prefer the acrylic stands that have multiple layers to give it some dimension and create more of a picture. I don’t have any acrylic stands of Kessoku Band right now, but I have ordered the Kita kitan! and Seika stands designed by Anya. But stands would be too expensive for them right now. While they are not very “rock” and more “idol”, which is normally what Ryou would be against, she is very unstable and financially anxious right now so she is all about merch that caters to the more parasocial type of stuff you see a lot in fandoms of the modern day. Hilarious to see how Ryou can sometimes drop her very strong values in the moment for the sake of feeling more financially secure.

Next they move onto plushies, my favorite kind of merch. This is my favorite part of the chapter. Hinata says that nui (small character plushies) are very popular right now, especially on social media. People like to take pictures of their nuis in various places and props, often making jokes with references to the character. Like the funny and accurate imaginary ones they show in this chapter- the Kitas are in trendy food places that she goes to while the Bocchis are in places you’d find bugs. This genuinely is a minor subculture on social media. I really like these posts. I haven't done a lot of plushie photos, but I want to do more. I’m just not super creative with that kind of thing and nowadays I try not to get as many plushies as they take up a lot of space. I did one recently with the Kikuri plush that comes with an onikoro carrying case.

I gave her offerings of Japanese sake and plum wine to keep her in her happiness spiral. You can follow me on bluesky btw~

I would have the carrying case plushie of Seika as well, but it got recalled. So sadly I do not have any merch of my wife right now :(. Waiting on the acrylic standee so I can have her on my desk. I would love to get more character plushies, but gotta save money and worry about how much storage space I have.

Plushies could totally work if they could afford them, but Nijika is worried about the amount of unsold stock. Using her knowledge of the fandom, Hinata lays out some theoretical numbers. She would order 100 Kitas, 80 Ryous, 30 Nijikas, and a mere 5 Bocchis. It’s so funny but so painful to see Nijika and Bocchi so low. I love the panel or Bocchi and Nijika looking sad and peeved respectively. And her attempts at comforting them just hurt more. Like saying that she would help buy theirs and the limited run would give them artificially heightened popularity.

Bocchi and Nijika looking sad over their numbers and posts of Kita’s plushies.

In universe this would probably be accurate. Let’s discuss the popularity topic a bit for fun. The last few chapters have really driven home that barely anyone knows Bocchi in the fandom. And Nijika doesn’t stand out as much as she doesn’t have as strong of personality traits from the outside, normal looks, and does a lot of the background work. Meanwhile Kita is a social media fiend + the vocalist and Ryou has a very unique personality + composes the music. I am having troubles finding a variety of character polls, but from my understanding of the fandom the most favorite band members varies greatly depending on the area surveyed. I am confident saying that in the US Nijika is probably the least popular of the 4 since I’ve seen her merch sell the least firsthand. But according to a post about a Korean character poll, the most to least favorite was Nijika, Ryou, Kita then Bocchi. For the US audience at least, my expectation from most to least is Bocchi, Kita, Ryou then Nijika. But going super in depth on this topic further could be its own thing, so I’ll end off saying Nijika is my favorite in Kessoku Band. And of course, we know that Seika would gladly buy out all of the Bocchi plush’s stock and suggests that 3 digits would be needed. But she is biased, seeing all the sides of Bocchi that makes her so cute in Seika’s eyes that most people do not. As the viewers, we do and know that Bocchi is an extremely popular character. Then Hinata suggests doing mystery box merch, as fans will end up spending more to get the ones they want or the whole collection. While Nijika thinks this could annoy fans, Hinata ensures her fans know this and will do swaps. Bocchi can’t help but imagine the swap meets being filled with unwanted Bocchi merch. I’m not a fan of the mystery box system, as I rarely have people I could do swaps with. I only try them if I like the majority of them and they are cheap.

But Nijika points out that while these are all viable merch options, they are not feasible for their current budget. Which leads Ryou to suggesting the merch that started this chapter, “spiritual items”.

Spiritual Ryou and Hinata shaming them for suggesting that.

Nijika and Ryou get pulled out of their money blindness by Hinata calling out that this would not go well with most fans. Which I agree with. I am not anti-spirituality or anything, but I don’t believe in imbuing objects with energy that can be felt, passed on, etc. to someone else. Sure objects can give you a feeling, but that’s all in your own head based on your feelings, memories, etc. and not something material. This is reaching scam territory and would be more ashamed to stan a group that sells stuff like this.

In the end, they settle on the usual type of merch- shirts, wristbands, buttons, stickers, banners, towels etc. This is the type of merch that I buy the most right now. I prefer getting things like keychains and buttons that are smaller and cheaper.

My Kessoku Band keychains from gatchapons in Japan. One full set and Kita and Ryou from another.

The other Kessoku Band merch items I have that I haven’t mentioned- this cool paint splash pillow my friend and I worked very hard to get from an arcade machine in Japan. And the Kikuri nendoroid (Seika is #1 but I love Kikuri too).

The merch conversations ends on a sweet note. Hinata was surprisingly helpful and is still being a diehard fan despite knowing them (and their dysfunction) better than most fans.

The entire chapter then ends on a goofy note. Apparently, Ryou tried the spiritual pick imbued with Bocchi’s rock power idea on Ooyama, who by placebo or through being lended Bocchi’s energy, has started playing better. It’s probably placebo, but considering Bocchi is canonically an elderich entity, it could actually be real. Thanks for reading!

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