Arakawa Under the Bridge
I really don’t know where to begin. I just… well… erm… Arakawa under the Bridge was just… weird. Arakawa under the Bridge revolves around an affluent business tycoon named Kou Ichinomiya whose good looks, natural business skills, and charisma has sky rocketed him to the top of the business world. One day, Kou comes upon a homeless girl named Nino who lives underneath a bridge that overlooks the Arakawa River. She ends up helping him, a mistake due to the fact that Kou’s bizarrely weird asthma nearly kills him any time he owes someone else a favor, and the insanely funny and weird antics commence.
One aspect about this anime that I was disappointed with was the romance. When I first looked at the comedy and romance tags, I thought that the romance would be more of a thing, yet it was shrouded in a twisted veil of comedy and horrible puns. I've always been a terrible romantic when it comes to anime, so it was not a surprise that my heart nearly leaped to my throat in excitement when Nino declared that for Kou to pay her back, he was to become her lover. My excitement was quickly dashed however, when I found out that Nino’s definition of a ‘lover’ was essentially a playmate. Though there were a few moments when Kou’s and Nino’s love seemed genuine, I was simply not impressed
Despite the fact that the romance sucked, the comedy excelled. The combination of jokes and puns were almost too much for me to bare (in a good way). Hilariously, some of the episodes simply made no sense and peeled off completely from the story line; if one can even claim there was much of a story line to begin with. Throw in a cast of characters that were so physically messed up, random, and mentally insane and you have a combination for comedy so volatile you might actually die from laughing.
I really liked the opening and closing themes for both seasons of the anime. They were just as weird (if not weirder) then the anime itself. They complemented one another quite nicely. Looking at the artwork, it got a little strange at times, but it was mostly on the normal side, which, ironically, was weird for this anime because everything else was peculiar. Now, the music had me really going because it was pretty misleading at times. For instance, I would assume a serious scene was about to occur because the music would lead you to think so, like a damned violin would start up and you'd naturally think "ah, this scene is going to be sad", but suddenly the screen would erupt into an orgasm of random comedy. That's when the remote control would go flying across the room as I cursed the heavens for being mislead.
All in all, I have mixed emotions about Arakawa under the Bridge. I think that beneath all of the comedy and random themes you could find the underlying message that you can find contentment wherever you live, no matter where that is, even if that somewhere is underneath a bridge surrounded by a bunch of wack jobs. I’m giving Arakawa under the Bridge 5 out of 10. Enjoy the show!
