Rock is a Lady's Modesty

Episode 6

What's important is that Tina is giving a performance. Like Lilisa, she absorbs the cues from the people and society around her, and she molds herself to meet their expectations. That's how she's lived since childhood. In reality, though, putting on this front for years has worn Tina down, and in true Rock Lady fashion, she expresses that frustration in a totally bonkers way. While Otoha and Lilisa grow vulgar and sexually provocative in their sanctuary, Tina regresses to an infantile habit of baby-talking to herself through a stuffed rabbit. Lilisa's reaction plays up the comedic angle, but the show definitely sympathizes with Tina, whose inability to be her own person has arrested her development. Lilisa and Otoha know who they are. Tina doesn't. That's why they're guitar and drum prodigies, while Tina can barely play the piano.

I want to dig deeper into the complexity of the gender politics involved, because I like what's going on here. Personally, I'm drawn to these princely women because they defy the rigid and traditional boundaries of gendered dress, behavior, and performance. That defiance is, in itself, irable and attractive. And if you only look at it from that angle, Rock Lady would seem regressive by putting forward a dashing tomboy who is secretly more feminine and maiden-like. It would be far from the first anime to do so, too. However, the devil is in the details. Gender nonconformity is an intrinsically neutral quality—it's neither good nor bad. It's just one way (or a multitude of ways, to be more precise) that a person can be. In society, though, it's praiseworthy when queer people choose and fight to be themselves in spite of external pressures to conform. Tina, trapped in the twisted world of shojo stereotypes, is conforming, and it's eating away at her.

While one might question the show's wisdom to present this conflict in the first place (the real world, for instance, overwhelmingly punishes women who display masculine qualities), one also has to look at the wider context of the series. Otoha and Lilisa are outwardly ladylike but seek out music as a release valve for their aggressive and more traditionally masculine urges. Through Tina, Rock Lady shows that the gender performance dynamics can be flipped, but the harm done is analogous. Societal pressure, even exerted ively, can ferment into a miasma. I'd also emphasize that it's more complicated than Tina “wanting” to be more feminine. It's more like she's afraid of appearing feminine, because that would defy people's preconceived notions of her and spur them to abandon her. She wears a binder to hide her breasts. She's afraid of her body changing and betraying her. While I doubt she's canonically trans, her character's struggles thematically resonate with a trans narrative. And, again, this is complicated and nuanced territory. For a trans man, a binder is an affirming item of clothing. For Tina, it's literally and metaphorically suffocating. Ultimately, I think we should default to Rock Lady's repeated theme of being authentic to who you really are and giving the middle finger to anybody who gets in your way.

My major complaint about Tina's material is that it feels rushed. Rather than let these themes develop organically, Tina blurts out the essence and details of her anxieties to Lilisa as soon as she's given the opportunity to do so. This fits the skittishness of her character, but it comes across like the author is trying to save time. I'm curious if the manga does the same, or if that's paced better, and this is a sin of the adaptation and what I assume is its single cour. This issue also applies to our other new character, Tamaki, and I think that right there is the problem. I know the band has to get together eventually, but I don't think we needed to introduce both new in one go. Tamaki actually ends up having the opposite of Tina's problem; I know too much about Tina, and too little about Tamaki. I like that she's basically Otoha's ex, and it'll be good for the drama to have a source of friction that creates some manner of love triangle/quadrilateral in the band. I just would have preferred both girls to have their own episode and accompanying breathing room.

It's funny; I started this review expecting to focus on the anime's negative qualities for once, but the more I thought about Tina, the more I wanted to write about her. That's a good surprise, and that's why I love critically engaging with new anime each season. I still think this is the weakest episode yet, but Rock Lady's fundamentals haven't waned. This is a very smart and very funny show. I even laughed when Otoha walked in on Lilisa straddling Tina, ripped bodice and everything. The thing about music is that you have to know when to play the hits.

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Rock is a Lady's Modesty is currently streaming on HIDIVE on Thursdays.

Steve is on This Week in Anime.