Bocchi The Rock! Extra: Diario Alcolico di Kikuri, Vol. 2

ぼっち・ざ・ろっく！外伝 廣井きくりの深酒日記 [Bocchi the Rock! Gaiden - Hiroi Kikuri no Fukazake Nikki] #2

by Kumichou, Aki Hamazi (Original Story)

La storia è incentrata sulla vita quotidiana della venticinquenne in difficoltà economica Hiroi Kikuri. La giovane apprezza l’alcol e il basso più della vita stessa e vive in un appartamento bizzarro senza bagno.

Genres: Manga

128 pages, Paperback

First published April 1, 2024

About the author

Also くみちょう

Reviews

[Mark · Rating 3 out of 5]

If you didn’t get enough of Hiroi trying to give herself early-onset cirrhosis last volume, here’s another volume. There’s only so much mileage you can get from a one-note side character, but they sure try hard.

The first story is certainly typical, as Hiroi’s drinking lands her in a real jam at an all-night diner. I like the way this plays with that dilemma; mix in the wildly off base assumptions of the waitstaff and you have a good start.

While I think some of this should have come in the previous volume, I was glad to see the other members of Sick Hack get more page time this volume as they were kind of underdeveloped before. Shima’s day to day was especially fun.

Those are probably the best two segments until the end. The gambling chapter is just more of the same, and the school festival one has a characterization of Seika that’s funny but seems to be way out of left field. The vtuber one is a big nothing and incredibly predictable.

When we get a little dash of serialized storytelling at the end, which focuses on Hiroi’s subtle (or accidental) mentorship of the tsundere lead singer of Sideros, Ohtsuki. This was my favourite aspect of the first volume and it remains so here.

It’s probably due to it being one of the few times that Hiroi isn’t just a walking punchline waiting for a joke to happen. Divested of any nuance to her character, I find her a lot less interesting than the manga seems to. This makes her something more than that.

If you love Hiroi, this is simply more of what you probably want. There are some decently bright spots, but this could have easily been a one-shot (or back-up chapters) for me. I recognize that she’s absolutely popular enough to earn her own series. I enjoyed it, but it needs to be in small doses.

3.5 stars - good parts, bad parts, but I find this really tiring to get through at times because it hammers down on one character trait and tries to get by on that. And when it doesn’t do that, well, the results are mixed.

[jd567 · Rating 5 out of 5]

This was actually fantastic. The first chapter was more of the same of volume one, but that's really the only miss. I didn't think that Hiroi was too much in volume one, but I do like that there's more of the other characters in this volume.

I like Bocchi the Rock more for the love of music than for the comedy, so the last couple chapters were especially great for me. I've never put on a show, but I've been to plenty; this gets the feel of opening bands totally right, and I feel like I understand the performers' side of things a little better now, too.

[Jack Reickel · Rating 2 out of 5]

Didn't really do it for me, felt like a huge step back from the first side story, as this was much less about Kikuri at all.

[JFG_Reads · Rating 5 out of 5]

A fun read! It was nice getting a bit more of the other characters involved in this volume

[Jen]

kikuri, k-nya keren