Mocahima

"But the bass is like the hero in the shadows. I think it’s totally you, Hii-chan~. I’m so thankful that you always support the band, Hii-chan~."

- Area Conversation Between Himari and Moca at CiRCLE

Mocahima is the femslash ship between Moca Aoba and Himari Uehara from the BanG Dream! fandom.

Canon
Moca and Himari are childhood friends as well as fellow members of the rock band Afterglow; Moca is their guitarist, while Himari is their leader and bassist. They are classmates at Haneoka Girls’ Academy, which they both attend as second-year high school students. Himari refers to Moca with her first name, and Moca uses the nickname “Hii-chan” for her.

Himari is peppy, emotional and hardworking, while Moca is drowsy, rarely puts in an effort in anything other than the things she likes and also a genius. Because of Himari’s sensitive and gullible nature, Moca often teases her, and Himari tends to get flustered whenever she realizes she is been tricked or Moca teases her about something she is enthusiastic about, especially when it comes to Himari’s “Hey, Hey, Oooh~!” catchphrase. As a result the two bicker every now and then. Also, because of Himari’s emotional and caring nature, whenever she sees Moca looking a bit off or in a different kind of mood, she will instantly support and try to help the latter, even if the latter turns her offer down by joking and insisting everything is okay.

In the first chapter of “[t]he 6th Afterglow” event, where the Afterglow members sneak into their school at night in order to get Himari’s textbook, Moca points out the reason Himari has not gotten most of her summer homework done is because she pushed it to the side and went to the beach instead. Despite this she agrees to help her out because she has “nothing better to do”, and in the next chapter tells Himari she should realize just how lucky she is to get helped by none other than Moca herself. As Himari’s trying to find her math textbook, she realizes she left it at school. Ran suggests she get it tomorrow, but Tsugumi points out the school will be closed until summer break is over, and Himari starts panicking how she cannot do her homework without the textbook. As Himari manages to convince Tsugumi and Tomoe to come with her, Moca agrees on the plan saying she is looking forward to seeing how fun and interesting it will be.

After sneaking into the school, Himari quickly locates her textbook and as they are on their way back, they realize they have been locked in. Himari questions if they are going to be stuck at school until the first semester starts, after which Moca comments how interesting things are turning out to be. After Tomoe remembers how there was an emergency exit at the gym, the girls start their long trip towards it. Himari gets spooked by a “ghost” which Moca points out is just Tsugumi’s reflection. Moca proceeds to talk about the Seven Mysteries of Haneoka Girls’ Academy and Tsugumi keeps asking her questions, before Himari gets scared and tells the two to knock it off. In chapter 5, Moca asks if they can hear a voice telling them to go that way. This causes Himari to get teary-eyed again, and Ran glares at Moca silently telling she is going over the line. In the ending chapter, Moca scolds the others for running away after getting scared and Himari comments she cannot believe she is actually getting told off by Moca of all people.

In the “Girls Anthology” event, Himari, Tomoe and Ran decide to help out Tsugumi and Moca who are trying to come up with a manga plot after discovering an ad for a professional manga-creating contest. In the first story concept, Himari is the protagonist and Moca is a “beautiful girl who just happens to be passing by” who tells Himari her family’s blood holds a mysterious power which will make Himari extremely strong when she awakens. In real life, Himari questions her choices and says she was even looking forward to hearing it because she was the protagonist. Himari quickly turns it into a cliche romantic story where Hello, Happy World!’s guitarist Kaoru acts coldly towards her, before Moca twists it into an action story by turning Kaoru into an undercover android and Himari into a spy from a rivaling organization. Though Himari is not satisfied with it, Tsugumi manages to convince her that it is still romantic. In the ending chapter, Moca reveals that she noticed the submission deadline was already past and how she was living suspense, how it was part of the fun to see when everyone else would notice, leading Himari telling Moca she has a messed up idea of fun.

In the “Whom Are the Chocolates for?” event, Himari vows she will find the perfect chocolate for Afterglow members after she sees inspiring pictures on social and media they say the holiday was nothing special. She becomes obsessed and desperate with the idea of giving them the Valentine’s chocolate that looks perfectly photogenic and will earn lots of Likes on social media, to the point of trying to search for a temporary part-time job so she could buy one of the chocolate sets (a sunset chocolate) she saw in a chocolate exhibition. After a talk with Kanon and Saaya, Himari bakes chocolate cookies and nervously hands them out to the other Afterglow members on Valentine’s Day. Everyone compliments the sunset cookies she made, and Moca points out that Himari is crying again while feeling relieved. After Himari has handed out her cookies, Moca gives her a package only for it to turn out to be the sunset chocolate from earlier. Ran then explains that they all pitched in and Moca went to buy it. Himari expresses how she’s truly happy and how she wanted the others to see the chocolate no matter what.

Fanon
Mocahima is a rare-pair in both the Eastern and Western sides of the fandom. It is mostly overshadowed by more popular ships such as MocaRan and Tomohima. Some people have disliked the ship, or even interpreted it as toxic due to Moca’s habit of teasing Himari over everything, especially her weight, even though most of the time Moca is being playful rather than straight out mean. However this is part of the ship’s appeal; and the teasing is rarely one-sided, as Himari tries to rebut or counter Moca’s teasing as well, and sometimes succeeds in catching the latter off-guard (even if she tries denying it).

Fandom
FAN FICTION

TUMBLR

PIXIV

Trivia

 * Both enjoy reading manga, although different genres (Moca’s favorite genre is shōnen, and Himari’s shōjo).
 * In Afterglow’s first Chapter for the “Backstage Pass” event, Himari and Moca make a bet on whether Ran’s father will bring doughnuts or buns for their pre-show treats. In Ran’s Card Story Episode (as she is one of the 4* in the gacha pair), it is revealed they both lost the bet as her father bought plain bagels instead.
 * In a 1-frame comic, Himari freaks out after Moca claims that she does not get fat because she transfers all the calories to the former.