User blog:AustinDR/PG Proposal: Hitori Bocchi

Alright, so here goes another proposal. This one I am less sure of.

What is the work?
Hitori Bocchi no Marumaru Seikatsu, or The Life of Being Alone, is a manga series that had currently been adapted as an anime. It concerns Hitori Bocchi, a girl with crippling social anxiety who is tasked by her childhood friend Kai Yawara with making new friends when the two are made to attend different middle schools. Against the grain, Hitori does succeed at making some friends from the laid-back Nako Sunao; the perpetually unfortunate Aru Honshou; and the ninja-obsessed foreigner Sotoka Rakita.

Who is the candidate? What has she done?
The protagonist is Hitori Bocchi (which conveniently translates as "all alone"). Before attending her new middle school, Kai ends her friendship with her, making her promise to branch out and make new friends/be more sociable. She also gave her a Do-Your-Best Fairy as a good luck charm. For the most part, Hitori is a naïve 12-year-old girl who can get fooled easily, and has the tendency to vomit when it comes to having to interact with others.

In the first episode, Bocchi tries to befriend Nako, but Nako acts abrasive towards her, asking her if she wanted to be a goffer (basically someone who would be given different tasks). When she started to cough due to Bocchi accidentally kicking up dust from the class floor, Bocchi dashes to get her a honey juice and later offers her own umbrella to her when it began to rain (and retrieves her eraser for good measure). Through this, Bocchi befriends Nako.

Later, she goes to befriend the vice class president Aru Honshou. After learning that Aru was putting on a façade of perfection but was actually forgetful and clumsy among other things, she tries to convince her that she would've been her friend regardless of her promise with Kai. Lastly, with Sotoka, Bocchi decides to become her "ninja master" when Sotoka mistook her for being a real ninja due to her ability of disappearing quickly without notice. Bocchi also spends most of her time trying to befriend the publics morals officer Kako Kurai who had a policy of not making friends in order to become "stronger."

Goodness Zone
Okay, the tricky one. In short, characters like Nako and Aru are often shown to be helpful consistently. The only problem with them, however, is really the fact that they have their own flaws: Nako is someone who is blunt with her critiques such as by calling Aru "unfortunate" continuously, and she is also known to troll others quite often. Aru has her good traits, but she overall has a temper when it comes to being called unfortunate which she demonstrates by headbutting Nako any given time. What sets Bocchi apart to me, is she really doesn't have these kinds of moments. There aren't any moments where she deliberately bullies or teases anyone (quite the opposite; she tends to not realize that she was on the receiving end of a joke), or when she gets mad. Her one character trait is she is completely innocent in all of her actions. Even when her actions are unintentional, she never does them out of malice and always tries to make others happy. Aside from that, she also is someone who changes people through her encountering them. Nako for one was initially abrasive and didn't think twice about calling her "Barf" because of her accidentally hurling when she was trying to introduce herself to her classmates. Or there's Kako who was slowly beginning to change because of her prolonged encounters with her. As for the passing of the Goodness Zone...Nako herself states to Kako that she always found it interesting how she always was so determined to make friends even when she suffered from social anxiety.

Admirable standard
Like I've said, Bocchi tends to bring out the best of people even when she isn't even aware of it. She is an inspiration to characters like Sotoka, and she lacks any of the potential issues the supporting characters do.

Verdict?
IDK.