Hitori Bocchi is a shy girl with only one friend. When they finish their primary education they move on to separate middle schools and her friend tells her they can't continue their friendship till Bocchi has befriended everybody in her new class! She thinks this will be impossible but soon befriends Nako, the slightly intimidating girl who sits in front of her. Not long afterwards they are joined by Aru, the class's vice president and Sotca, an overseas student with a ninja obsession who believes Bocchi is a ninja master who can train her. Over the course of the series Bocchi continues to try to make more friends and those she has get into a variety of amusing situations together.
On the face of it this sounded rather like 'Watamote' but it quickly becomes apparent that despite the similar central character's shyness this is very different. There is no cringe inducing embarrassment; instead we get the gentle comedy of a more typical school girl comedy. The four central characters are nicely varied and each amusing in their own way and there are some good secondary characters. Setting the series in an all-girl middle school removes the possibility of unneeded involvement with boys. The animation is good, with distinctive character designs. Overall I'd certainly recommend this series to fans of school girl anime even if it doesn't stand out too much from others in the genre.
These comments are based on watching the series in Japanese with English subtitles.
