Anime Review: Arakawa Under the Bridge

Arakawa Under the Bridge S1 and S2

Arakawa Under the Bridge is a comedy and romance anime. The main character is a successful young man who goes to Tokyo University named Kou Ichinomiya. He comes from a successful family, particularly a CEO father who is harsh on him. His father taught him that for anything people do for you, you have to repay them no matter what or else you're not truly independent. While on break from Tokyo U, Kou somehow loses his pants over a certain bridge. While trying to get them he almost falls over the bridge. Nino, a blonde, beautiful, and homeless girl fishes him out of the Arakawa river and saves his life. Kou, now decides to repay Nino with... something as valuable as life. Nino asks for love. And so Kou now lives alongside the river with his lover Nino and the rest of the unique crew of homeless people that Nino calls her friends.

The first season of Arakawa Under the Bridge is about Kou's relationship with his distant father who objects to him living alongside the Arakawa River. Kou is renamed by the people who call the open riverside as their home, as Ric. Ric stands for "new recruit". You'll learn to love and laugh with the crazy and colorful people, that might actually be happier living under a bridge!

The people that live alongside the Arakawa River
Don't maximize the picture! It's a spoiler!

Kou now named Ric must survive the crazyness!

For the second season of Arakawa Under the Bridge, Ric's relationship with Nino grows stronger as they get more of a connection. Ric must also compete with Star, his rival for Nino's hand. Ric also meets another woman who wants to compete with Nino! 

Star and the Mayor of Arakawa who is a Kappa, not in a kappa suit

Kou's voice actor is Hiroshi Kamiya who also voiced Tieria Erde in Gundam 00 and Izaya Orihara in Durarara. Nino's voice actor is Maaya Sakamoto who was also Sayaka Nagasuki in Birdy the Mighty. She does a really good job as a main character in this story. The artistic appeal of the openings and endings is amazing. The creators of this anime experiment with many different types of drawing and filming!

You'll have to watch to laugh

The openings and endings are very unique. While the songs do not seem to me as cool or catchy (I'm used to cool shounen openings and endings) they fit the type of show this is.

Season 1 Opening

This show is a lot like Gintama, it doesn't follow a story and keep going. It's an episodic anime. Some of the episodes tell you more about the actual plot, the relationship between Kou and Nina and how Kou's father is trying to understand why he's living like a homeless person. Other episodes are about the day to day events that happen in the lives of the homeless people that live on the river. Remember

Because it doesn't matter who wins...