Review: Arakawa Under the Bridge

[WARNING: MAY CONTAIN SPOILERS]

another late review. I'm so sorry but I'm on a roll now. I'm slowly closing in to the newer animes. Let me finish of my Spring 2010 first. No worries, I'm not otaku enough to watch every single anime that spawns every season.

Arakawa Under the Bridge revolves around delusional homeless people that lives along the Arakawa river (in Japan), and not too far from a particular bridge where the literally independent Kou Ichinomiya had his pants stolen. His perfect high class life as a son of a big company turns upside down when he had to become a resident of the 'village' after he was saved from being drowned by a self-proclaimed alien from Venus. This is due to his family policy of not being in debt to anyone (or else ASTHMA ATTACK), therefore he had to somehow repay the kind Venusian by becoming her lover.

The folks along the Arakawa river is not your average hobos. They're perhaps weirder than the patients in mental hospital, cos they somehow have a bit of sanity... or maybe they seem to have escaped from a mental hospital:

1. Recruit, aka Kou Ichinomiya is the man with the highest common sense and is most likely because he's a newbie. In spite of that, he's quick to accept challenges no matter how strange it is because of his ego. And he looks weirder than a clown doing those weird things in his white shirt and tie.

2. Nino, the kind Venusian who likes to fish whose name was taken from her PE clothing badge. She requests Recruit to become her lover when he insisted on repaying her good deed, but she has no idea what 'love' is really like... so expect some funny misunderstood moments involving this blonde bishoujo :3

[when the heroine saves the hero!]

3. Soncho, a man in a kappa suit... wait, he IS a kappa! My bad. He lives an immortal life and that's why he is seen as the mayor. He's responsible for giving people new names, and NO objections unless he is cool with it. And also the one organizing events, although he ends up slacking off.

4. Hoshi is the resident musician wearing a STAR mask (note that "hoshi" means "star" in Japanese) but his lyrics are lamer than those faggot Malay songs. He harbours feelings for Nino, and thus making Kou his archrival - and it's always my favourite part seeing them quarrel!

[history of Hoshi in a nutshell]

5. Sister first thing I love about him is the seiyuu (Takehito Koyasu :D), next thing is that he isn't ashamed to be dressed in a nun's costume. He's the resident preacher-cum-trainer of the village, and his teachings are obviously of another f*cked up religion. And I'm not making a typo calling Sister a "he". Just imagine a 100 times manlier version of Bridget (Guilty Gear).
6. Maria is a farmer who keeps all the milk sources for the villagers. Yeah it's a wonder why there are cows and sheep legally kept by the river. But don't be fooled by her pleasant looks, as her mouth holds a truckload of sarcasm. And THAT makes her my favourite!
7. Shiro a man who likes to walk on white lines. He brings around a white painter (the one used to paint on roads) so that he can walk on white things. If you wanna know why he's like this, you might wanna try watching u_u
8. P-Ko and I thought keeping cows by the river is strange... well, growing vegetables doesn't seem that strange but yea. She specially grows different veggies for her favourite people in her farm, especially cucumbers. Do you know what creature loves cucumber?? Almost forgot to mention that she's the Queen of clumsiness (yet one wonders how she rides the bike)
9. Metal Brothers are self proclaimed psychics and wear metal masks in fear of being tracked down by the military. They're always together and for some reason submit themselves to a little girl. Not so important, not even attractive in terms of shota =/
10. Stella is appeared as though she's Sister's foster daughter. A loli but not the kind of moe you moe-tard wants. Too bad she has a 'secret power' that destroys her cute image. Her desire to be strong is to impress Sister to the point she became an 'aniki' even to people older than her.

Save the other characters for the second season. They appear less in the first.

There isn't a definite plot in this anime, but it's just showing how a man who grew up in a family that prioritize perfection had to deal with people different from his society. And it's not about dealing with poor people, but with a bunch of weirdos living by the river... and not just his fish loving girlfriend. To be honest, I got sick of Kou still not being able to accept the weirdness of the people and culture. If I were him I'd just play along, but you see, he has his Ichinomiya family pride to uphold. Yet what makes me love this show is that how the jokes are easily comprehensive for a non-Japanese, as i know some shows likes to use too much puns and culture spoof that is hard to absorb even with subs. I have to say that I never had thoughts of dropping this anime is to see the character's pasts, but alas, there weren't much. A good reason to look forward to season 2 ne? (wait for the review then)

[imagine coming across this guy while walking by a river]

Now it's seiyuu's turn :3
Other than Takehito Koyasu as Sister, I'm delighted to hear Maaya Sakamoto acting as Nino. And also Miyuki Sawashiro not because of Maria, but her jazzy score for a special OP entitled "Think of a title yourself!". I don't really fancy the OP though it can be stuck in your head after a few episodes, but the ED. OH MY GOD the ED can make me cry (after knowing the translated lyrics). DO LISTEN: "Sakasama Bridge" by Suneohair

Arakawa Under the Bridge is one of the few animes which has an appealing and memorable background music. I dunno about you guys, but I like a few tracks like “Arakawa Ippatsu Taikai” and there's another one that seems to be missing from the album I downloaded *swt*

Well at least these hobos don't beg around the streets of Tokyo.