Rock Is A Lady's Modesty

is a Japanese manga series written and illustrated by . It has been serialized in Hakusensha's manga magazine ''Young Animal'' since October 2022. An anime television series adaptation produced by Bandai Namco Pictures premiered in April 2025.

Plot

Lilisa Suzunomiya is a young student at the prestigious and elite Oshin Girls' Academy. However, having been adopted by a rich father through her mother's remarriage rather than being born into one, Lilisa has to work hard to put up the facade of being a cultured and sophisticated student in order to win the school's prized title of Noble Maiden, which includes giving up her dream of playing the guitar that she got from her biological father. However, a twist of fate brings her together with fellow student Otoha Kurogane, and she discovers Otoha's secret love for drums and rock music. After taking up her guitar once again, Lilisa and Otoha begin to secretly indulge in their love for rock music.

Characters

Main characters

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:Motion capture by: Kanami (Band-Maid)
:A first-year student at Oshin Girls' Academy who became the daughter of the prestigious Suzunomiya family after her mother's remarriage. To conform to high society's expectations, she crafted the perfect image of a refined young lady—even abandoning her beloved guitar, a cherished gift from her late father. However, when she meets Otoha, her buried passion for music begins to rekindle, leading her to reclaim her true self and eventually form a band with her.
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:Motion capture by: Akane (Band-Maid)
:A first-year at Oshin Girls' Academy from a prominent political family, she is the school's most admired student—yet secretly a relentless drummer. After meeting Lilisa, she reignites her love for the guitar, and the two start a band together.
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:Motion capture by: Saiki (Band-Maid)
:A second-year student at Oshin Girls' Academy, where she is the student council vice-president. Her family owns a cosmetics brand—herself being their top model. While she maintains a dashing princely persona in public, her true nature is that of a gentle maiden. Her interest in rock music blossoms after hearing Lilisa perform, leading her to train herself to use a keyboard and join her band. She is also the group's costume designer. She uses the masculine pronoun .
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:Motion capture by: Misa (Band-Maid)
:A second-year student at Kuroyuri Girls' School, Oshin Girls' Academy's sister institution, and Otoha's childhood friend. Despite having a reputation as a skilled session musician in underground rock circles, she remained unaffiliated with any band—until reuniting with Otoha, when she joined her and Lilisa’s group as their bassist. At school, she puts on the facade of a traditional Japanese maiden.

Supporting characters

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:A student at Oshin Girls' Academy's middle school branch, she is the biological daughter of the Suzunomiya household—thus making her Lilisa's adoptive younger sister. Initially perceiving her stepmother and stepsister as intruders into her prestigious family, she sought to expose Lilisa's facade and drive them out. However, she became a fan of Lilisa after hearing her perform. She is also a skilled violin player.
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:Lilisa's mother, who recently remarried into the prestigious Suzunomiya family. Though seemingly a kind woman, she emotionally pressures Lilisa to conform to high society's standards and abandon her love for rock music after the passing of her ex-husband, who inspired their daughter. She remains unaware of Lilisa secretly picking up guitar playing again.
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:Oshin Girls' Academy's student council president and a Noble Maiden. She chooses Tina as her vice-president and later invites Lilisa to the council as well, unaware of their true natures.
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:The leader of Bitter Ganache, whom Tamaki played with as a session musician.

Production

Anime

Director was introduced to the manga series in 2023. He read the manga on a friend's recommendation and found the story interesting. When Bandai Namco Pictures offered him the role of director for the anime series, Watada was surprised and considered it fate, gladly accepting the offer. Assistant director Ori Yasukawa had previously played drums in an amateur band. During the pre-production phase of the drum scenes in the second episode, the staff relied heavily on his skills.

Although the production team had already decided to use motion capture for the performance scenes, the idea that the group participating in the motion capture would be the same as the one performing the opening song came later. During discussions about which band to choose, Watada suggested Band-Maid and the idea was immediately well received. To observe them live, producer Tatsuya Sunako attended one of the band’s live performances. When he saw Kanami and Akane's performances, he immediately compared them to Otoha and Lilisa. The staff also consulted Fukuda for suggestions regarding the characters' backstories.

Four members of Band-Maid participated in the motion capture for the characters: Akane (Otoha), Kanami (Lilisa), Saiki (Tina), and Misa (Tamaki). In an interview, Akane stated that the music was very difficult and she had to imagine how Lilisa would perform. Since sensors were placed not only on the instruments but also on the drumsticks' handles, she had to be careful not to damage them, which interfered with her performance. However, after the production team assured her not to worry about the sensors, she was able to focus on her performance.

In an interview, Akira Sekine, Lilisa's voice actress, described the atmosphere in the recording studio as calm and peaceful. She was disappointed to miss the initial audition due to flu but was able to join the next day. To prepare for their roles, Sekine and Miyuri Shimabukuro, Otoha's voice actress, bought and read books about ladies. According to Sekine, recording the intense shouting scene between Lilisa and Otoha in the first episode required a lot of energy. To help the voice actresses better understand their characters, shared extra stories that were not included in the manga. Although voice acting is usually done without music, Sekine was invited to listen to the music during the recording process. Shimabukuro stated that while voicing Otoha, she paid attention to her fingertips, straightened her posture, and stood freely in front of the microphone, trying to reflect the character's elegance through her own posture and behavior.

Media

Manga

Written and illustrated by , ''Rock Is a Lady's Modesty'' started in Hakusensha's manga magazine ''Young Animal'' on October 28, 2022. Hakusensha has collected its chapters into individual volumes, with the first one released on April 28, 2023. As of March 28, 2025, seven volumes have been released.

In April 2025, Yen Press announced that they licensed the series for English publication beginning in September 2025.

Volumes

Anime

In July 2024, it was announced that the manga would receive an anime television series adaptation. It is produced by Bandai Namco Pictures and directed by , with Ōri Yasukawa as assistant director, Shōgo Yasukawa handling series composition, and Risa Miyadani designing the characters. The series premiered on April 3, 2025, on TBS and its affiliates. The opening theme song is "Ready to Rock", performed by Band-Maid, while the ending theme song is , performed by Little Glee Monster.

Sentai Filmworks licensed the series in North America for streaming on Hidive. Medialink licensed the series in Southeast Asia.

Episodes

Reception

The manga was recommended by ''Bocchi the Rock!'' author . The anime adaptation was received positively. Vrai Kaiser of ''Anime Feminist'' said the series has offered "two different variations" of a "two-faced femme" character, comparing it to Anthy Himemiya in ''Revolutionary Girl Utena'', Jennifer Tilly, and Hime Shiraki in '' Yuri Is My Job!'', adding that although the twintails of Lilisa are embarrassing in terms of design, they are used expressively, and noted that the show's staff comes from '' Love Live'', '' Jojo’s Bizarre Adventure'', ''SSSS.Dynazenon'', and ''Keijo!!!!!!!!''. Kaiser said that although the end results are not "camp," nor are they like ''BanG Dream! Ave Mujica'', it is a form of "friendly...chaos" which isn't an issue to watch, combined with "class anxiety and societal sexism," said the dynamic between the two protagonists is "electric," and said that they expect that the "One Season Yuri curse will rear its head" before the protagonists are together, romantically.

Steve Jones reviewed the first three episodes of the anime for Anime News Network. He noted that although he was a fan of girls band series like ''Bocchi the Rock!'', ''BanG Dream! It's MyGO!!!!!'' and ''Ave Mujica'', he was skeptical of the series, thinking it would be a comedy, but was proven wrong, saying the series "kicks ass," saying that Lilisa's story makes the story work, serving as a character which is "instantly likable" and who is worn by her performance in this high society and Class S academy, but is trapped in the web that Otoha spins, and praised the storyboarding, music, color choices, imagery, and animation. He argued that the story has seduction at its heart, with imagined BDSM scenarios with either Lilisa or Otoha as the dominatrix and called the series "loud, vulgar, sapphic, and proud" and a story of "liberation and libidos," with allusions to sexual intercourse, and compared the series to ''Kakegurui''.

Erica Friedman, co-founder of Yuricon, noted that many early yuri series take place in "private schools for young women from the upper classes" so that they are in a place, time, or status "unreachable by the average reader," allowing exploration "outside the mores of Japanese society," and says that this series embodies that idea, with Lilisa having a facade which makes her seem graceful and refined, as does Otoha, with both "competing...for supremacy in music," attempting to dominate one another in a music room that has been abandoned. She noted that while she was disappointed by some music in the girls band stories of the past year, Band-Maid has music which fits the story, and music scenes are animated using CGI which allows viewers to "see them playing is what is being played," and notes that she liked the series mix of a Class S school, "commoner sensibility," yuri themes, and rock and roll. She concluded by rating the art as 7/10, story as 9/10, characters as 9/10, yuri as 4/10, overall as 9/10, and said for fan service, "Otoha does it all on purpose."

See also

* ''Mushibugyō'', another manga series by the same author
* ''5-fungo no Sekai'', another manga series by the same author

Notes

References

Further reading

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External links

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{{Bandai Namco Pictures

2025 anime television series debuts
Anime and manga set in schools
Anime series based on manga
Bandai Namco Pictures
Coming-of-age anime and manga
Hakusensha manga
Medialink
Music in anime and manga
Seinen manga
Sentai Filmworks
TBS Television (Japan) original programming
Works about rock music
Yen Press titles