Review of Arakawa Under the Bridge
Quite possibly one of my new favorites and I think it’s a shame I’ve never heard of it until now. If I had seen it back when it first came out, I can definitely picture this having a major impact on my formative years. It’s funny, nostalgic, and, occasionally, slightly sad. The comedy is zany and at times, painfully Japanese, but that gives it a lot of rewatch value for me. The jokes are nonstop, so there’s no way I can possibly remember all of them, so rewatching is a treat. It’s a chill anime with fun antics and the occasional laugh out loudjoke. I do feel it has a lot of heart and some semblance of a moral or message, but don’t expect tons of character development or for the moral of the story to be in your face. The main focus is comedy and silly character interactions, and changing the dynamics too much with dramatic character development would get in the way of that.
Additionally, don’t expect too much romance. I will say that when there are romantic moments, either in this season or the second season, they are adorable. Just don’t expect a romance focused show.
Music is fantastic imo. The opening will always be stuck in my head, and the ending is the perfect kind of nostalgic for me. The background music accentuates the comedy well without being overly boring or too overpowering.
Regarding the characters, I find them incredibly endearing. Yes, many of them are just comedic archetypes. But we do see glimpses of characterization that go beyond the standard comedy characters, and I really appreciate that. I feel like all of them have legitimate character motivations, as weird as they are.
For example, P-Ko is introduced as the clumsy gag girl. Most comedy anime would just leave it there and give her no other characterization, letting the gag get really stale after a while. But you learn that she’s also extremely girly, has a weird thing for kappas, is romance obsessed, and takes a lead role in building the female friendships. Plus her fixation on gardening. Yes, none of that is particularly deep, but it’s more than they really needed to do for a clumsy gag character. It also gives the show more angles for jokes so that she’s not doing the same gag over and over.
Despite many of the characters starting as simple archetypes, they become truly unique, to the point where I can’t really compare them to other characters I’ve seen in anime. For example, I usually would hate characters like Nino, but she is just different enough from the “silly random girl” that I actually find her really interesting to watch.
Side note: And don’t even get me started on Sister. Sister might very well be my new favorite anime man of the moment. This anime has truly awakened something in me @_@
It’s truly a unique show in terms of premise, art style, and characters. Overall, I see a general message of the importance of relying on others, not judging a book by its cover, and learning to see the best in people. Even if it’s a giant blonde man in a nun habit shooting at you with a machine gun.