Protagonist Ko Ichinomiyo has been raised to believe that he should never be in debt to anybody so when he falls into the Arakawa River and is saved by the enigmatic Nino he has a problem. He feels he owes her something but she wants none of the material rewards he offers. When pressured to say what she wants she eventually says she wants him to live with her as her lover! Unwilling to be in her debt he agrees and finds himself living with Nino and a group of misfits under the bridge. They are a strange bunch; Nino claims to be from Venus and she is the most normal of the bunch! The others include a 'rock star' who always wears a star shaped mask, a cross-dressing nun, a man in a kappa costume and two children who wear metal masks and claim to have escaped from a lab. Over the course of the first series Ko grows to understand his new community and must ultimately help defend it when his father tries to develop the land.
The set up for the series might make it sound silly; the characters certainly are a strange bunch, but as we get to know them we see that they are fully rounded characters who just happen to be a bit strange. They must deal with their various issues and with each other. Most importantly of all though they provide many laughs. The character designs are a bit less detailed than most anime series but that suits them; it also makes them fairly distinctive. The series also nicely depicts the fact that just mainstream society sees a group as a bunch of misfits and weirdos doesn't mean they don't have their own little society with similar problems as anybody else they have their jealousies and must work within that society. One might expect a series where a man is forced to become a woman's 'lover' to contain plenty of fan service but I don't recall any such scenes which was a refreshing change; in fact there is little to offend here. Overall I thought this was a fun series and look forward to watching the second season which is titled 'Arakawa Under the Bridge x Bridge'.
These comments are based on watching the series in Japanese with English subtitles it is worth noting that rather unusually there isn't an English dub available, at least not on the UK DVDs.
The set up for the series might make it sound silly; the characters certainly are a strange bunch, but as we get to know them we see that they are fully rounded characters who just happen to be a bit strange. They must deal with their various issues and with each other. Most importantly of all though they provide many laughs. The character designs are a bit less detailed than most anime series but that suits them; it also makes them fairly distinctive. The series also nicely depicts the fact that just mainstream society sees a group as a bunch of misfits and weirdos doesn't mean they don't have their own little society with similar problems as anybody else they have their jealousies and must work within that society. One might expect a series where a man is forced to become a woman's 'lover' to contain plenty of fan service but I don't recall any such scenes which was a refreshing change; in fact there is little to offend here. Overall I thought this was a fun series and look forward to watching the second season which is titled 'Arakawa Under the Bridge x Bridge'.
These comments are based on watching the series in Japanese with English subtitles it is worth noting that rather unusually there isn't an English dub available, at least not on the UK DVDs.