Heartwarming / Hitoribocchi no OO Seikatsu

WARNING: Unmarked spoilers.

General

• Nako's relationship with Bocchi. Despite sometimes showing annoyance at Bocchi's cluelessness, she nevertheless has patience with her and genuinely values her friendship.
  • Really, despite her "don't talk to me" demeanor, Nako is the one who is often the most supportive, and she tends to also be the one to give meaningful, heartfelt speeches.
• While Aru and Nako find themselves at odds with each other on a daily basis, they tend to bury the hatchet for Bocchi's sake.
• Anytime Bocchi smiles or reacts in utter happiness. Oftentimes to the point of fainting.
• Despite the fact that Oshie is afraid of Nako, Nako is one of the few students who shows Oshie the respect her students owe her.

Anime

Episode 1

• When Nako starts to cough due to dust being tossed in the air due to Bocchi collapsing, Bocchi dashes to get her a honey juice to make up for her blunder. She later gives her umbrella to Nako when it started to rain and retrieves her eraser telling her that she needed it to prevent her from going down a further downward spiral. Nako repays her by giving her umbrella back and offering her a sucker.

Episode 2

• In response to Bocchi asking her if she had any troubles, Nako explains that her only problem was meeting a strange girl who one day asked to be friends with her. While Bocchi fails to realize that she was talking about her, it goes to show how much Bocchi had grown on her.
• Aru helps Bocchi patch things up with Nako after Bocchi innocently let it slip that she only started to speak with her because of her promise with her childhood friend.
• Bocchi gives Aru a You Are Better Than You Think You Are prep ending in Aru becoming friends with her ^note though she still butts heads with Nako due to her habit of calling her "unfortunate".

Episode 3

• Nako helping Bocchi speak with Aru in the only way she knew how.
• When Bocchi is distraught that she was being a poor host, Nako assures her that she could make trouble for her anytime. She even stands by the side of Bocchi's bed when she suddenly comes down with a fever.

Episode 4

• Even though Sotoko Rakita was clearly misguided with assuming that Bocchi was a ninja, Bocchi nevertheless decides to make her an apprentice with the deal of them becoming friends when her training is complete.

Episode 5

• Rather than making fun of her for accidentally wearing a full elementary school outfit, Aru's classmates instead laugh along, pointing out that it was the first time they heard Nako laugh assuming that Aru was dedicated to do so.
• Nako is willing to let Aru win the tennis match in the latter half of the episode.

Episode 6

• While she managed to vomit again from having to read her haiku to the class, Nako compliments her that she did fine and that the teacher thought the same.
• When Nako fails a math test, Bocchi takes it upon herself to teach Nako how to study after she had done so much for her. Her assistance proves to be helpful when Nako reads through a journal of notes Bocchi had given her, which grants her the motivation to do better.
• Even though she was way off her mark in her assumptions, Oshie gives Bocchi her unwavering support.

Episode 7

• Bocchi genuinely having a good time with her friends at the pool and karaoke establishment. While she may not have achieved her goal of befriending the entire class, Bocchi is still working on it.
• Bocchi volunteers to teach Nako how to swim and smiles at the realization it was the first time she was helping Nako with something.
• Sotoka and Aru fling themselves on Bocchi, saying that they'd play with her when she was sad about her shortcomings.
• In her own Adorkable way, Bocchi happily talks about partaking in karaoke with her friends over the microphone.
• While in some ways sad, Kai herself cries Tears of Joy that Bocchi had managed to make four friends. This after she was afraid that Bocchi would resent her for severing ties with her.

Episode 8

• Sotoka decides to allow her "master" space so she could attempt to befriend Kako even if it pained her to do so.
• For her efforts, Kako does agree to chat with Bocchi a few times. While she still maintains her policy of not making friends. it is apparent that Bocchi is slowly drilling her way through Kako's tough girl exterior.
• Sotoka returns home and the first thing she receives is a series of welcome home messages.

Episode 9

• Kako actually attends the outdoor school trip with Bocchi and the others. She even volunteers to help make the curry.

Episode 10

• Bocchi befriends Peko and Ito, her groupmates from episode 9. One suggests that they all go out to eat pancakes.
• Sotoka officially becomes friends with Bocchi, even if it means that she'll stop being her apprentice.

Episode 11

• Unlike some stereotypical, bratty rich children, Mayo gets along pretty well with her butler. He even admits that he would feel lonely if she were to tell him that he no longer had to take her to school.
• Mayo takes it upon herself to help Bocchi when she realized that the school would be shuffling classes soon ^note Actually it seems to be a lie that Kako told most likely to intimidate Bocchi..
• Mayo befriends Bocchi and the others and they go to take a print together. She then sends a copy of the picture to her abroad parents.
• While Mayo is hesitant to call her parents for fear of bothering them, and feels it's "selfish" to tell them that she's lonely, she gets a reply to her email almost immediately. Her parents are glad that she was honest with them, apologize for taking advantage of her selflessness and making her lonely, and promise to visit her during her next break. As you can see, Bocchi isn't the only one who's positively impacted by her quest to make friends.

Episode 12

• In the end, Bocchi had successfully made six friends and goes to walk home with them. In the end, she thanks Nako for becoming her first friend when she first ran after her in the rain.
• While Kako doesn't become friends with Bocchi, it is still clear that Bocchi's influence is still weighing greatly on her. Only time will tell when Kako decides to reciprocate it.
• When helping one of her upperclassmen with their corsage, the upperclassmen is so sweet to Bocchi saying that she was sure that she was going to have fun in her next semester.
• After everything, Kai notices Bocchi having lunch with her friends, and she leaves a Do-Your-Best-Fairy on the window. While it may not make everyone forgive Kai for starting the conflict of the series, this act shows that she still greatly values Bocchi and will support her in her own special way.

Manga

• In Chapter 4 of the webcomic edition, Bocchi, having resigned herself to Kai cutting ties with her until she befriends all of her class, tells Kai that she'll fulfill her promise. As Bocchi starts to leave, Kai, acting as though she's talking to herself (with Bocchi still in earshot) reveals the reason behind her promise. Since Bocchi's social anxiety prevented her from going to the interview for Kai's middle school, thus preventing her from getting in^note Keep in mind that judging by the exams, Bocchi seems to be a good enough student to easily pass, so her social anxiety seems to be the only reason she didn't get in, Kai realized that the status quo couldn't continue, but still hopes that they can get into the same high school. In the end, Kai really does have Bocchi's best interests in mind, and Bocchi understands this.
• In Chapter 60, Bocchi befriends Omoi Kakeru and helps her transmit messages to her deceased mother, even getting her to smile genuinely at the end of the chapter.
• In Chapter 66 of the manga, Aru's best friend Hana conducts a poll, and finds that an overwhelming majority of the class the class supports Ino for class representative, 22-4^note The poll presumably does not include Aru, Hana and Ino. Upon closer examination, though, it turns out that it's not that the class doesn't like Aru, but that they think she's best as the vice-class representative, causing Aru to volunteer for that role.
• In Chapter 68 of the manga, it's revealed that Kai felt so guilty about what she did to Bocchi that she isolated herself from the class, until two of her classmates came over and befriended her. Not only does Kai realize that she may have been too hard on Bocchi, but it's touching to see people who nevertheless care for Kai, just as Bocchi has her friends.
• In Chapter 78, Teruyo manages to get over her fear of Nako to give her some advice about her future, even saying that Nako won't have much of a chance of getting into Bocchi's school. This goes to show that Teruyo can act like a teacher when it counts.
  • After the consultation, Nako unknowingly quotes, word for word, Teruyo's Imagine Spot in Episode 6/Chapter 25, causing Teruyo to burst into happy tears.
    Nako: I'm glad I was in your class.
• In Chapter 85, Bocchi, with some encouragement from her friends, agrees to go for a referral to her high school of choice, which has a greater chance of her being accepted but will require her to do an interview. This goes to show how much Bocchi's grown over time, since her failure to do the interview for Kai's middle school had resulted in her not getting in.

Other

• After the manga ended in April 2021, Katsuwo posted drawings of the main characters in their high school uniforms on Twitter. Kako's tweet in particular shows her smiling genuinely, which, coupled with the description, cements her Character Development and reassures the reader that, thanks to Bocchi, she has truly overcome her past.

  Kako in high school is the type to make a lot of friends.