Review of Arakawa Under the Bridge

It's hard to know where to start reviewing such a fever dream of an anime, but I will attempt to. The "plot" consists of a successful CEO named Ichi almost drowning, before being saved by a strange blonde girl named Nino. Not wanting to be indebted to anyone due to his family motto, he agrees to become her "lover" and live with her under the bridge he fell from. It turns out there is a community of eccentrics living under the bridge. That is both the premise and the plot. The anime mainly consists of Ichi meeting various members of the community and the wacky anticsthat ensue. So if you are after an anime with a coherent and strong storyline, this is most definitely not for you. The show is also listed as a "Romance" on this site, but this is sort of debatable. The romance aspects of the show are very few and far between, perhaps this will be more prevalent in the second season, if I watch it.

And so the main genre of this anime is certainly comedy. For me, it was hit and miss. There is certainly a lot of good comedy in this anime, mostly absurdist, sometimes referential (such as a straight up rip of Bisky from HxH). Sometimes the humour was drowned out by the utterly frantic editing style of the show, which if you have watched it you will know what I mean, I really cannot describe it.

It is also quite a heartwarming anime and has good messages about how to live life, and Ichi actually goes through some pretty solid character development. Other character's stories are quite heartwarming too like that of Hoshi. Although, I personally would have liked to have known some more about how the community came to be and more character backgrounds (although that would probably be against the message of the show). Some moments also seem not to make much sense, such as how Stella is able to transform and everyone is able to see this occur. It is pretty confusing. Some characters are also just plain unlikable douches, like Maria, who gets way too much screentime and does nothing but insult the actually likable characters.

Overall, if you are ok with meandering, slow paced shows, but also ok with insanely fast editing and no logic, this show may be for you. For most people, it will probably just come across as nonsensical and rather pointless. I thought it was ok, so I give it a...

6/10