Arakawa Under the Bridge

Bridge life with weirdos... that's Arakawa Under the Bridge

The conditions of bridge life:
1. You'll have to change your name.
2. Mayor chooses your name. A new name=start of a new you
Your name is basically anything convenient for a label which the Mayor can remember when he sees you.

3. You'll have to live with weirdos.
Weirdo list:
a. Blond girl who thinks she's a from Venus
b. A "star"
c. A guy who never walks unless the path's white
d. A girl who's overly clumsy and grows a veggie garden
e. A Mayor who thinks he's a kappa
f. A woman who's got a sharp tongue and enjoys attacking men's self-esteems
g. A "sister" who's basically a brother, an army guy who raises the next weirdo in the list
h. A cute girl who happens to be violent (like I said, the guy above raised her)
i. Two boys who think they have special powers and never take off their masks (helmets, I suppose)
j. The last samurai
k. A yakuza parrot guy who ran away with the next weirdo
l. yeah... the queen bee of a yakuza group the parrot guy ran away with
m. a guy who thinks he's too perfect

4. You'll have to live under a bridge and eat stuff from the bank.

5. You're free to live the way you want to live your life. All the stuff you hesitate to do, all the things you hold back in society, all the demands from society... you will live as a citizen on the bank.

At first, I thought this series was just some ordinary shoujou thing. Learning the fact that this show has a lot of weirdos has been successful in luring me in this series. It wasn't boring as it doesn't have too many still scenes where nothing moves and only the narrator (whoever's) talking.

Looking at the set of characters, I think I really could relate to them. The characters on the bank were probably people who ran away from the rest of the world to hide in a comfort zone but I think they're running towards who they really want to be. I assumed they were people who can't blend with the rest of the world and the bank was the only place where they would be a-ok. I think I was wrong as seeing them get along well makes me think that getting back to the rest of the world would mean leaving "their place on this world". They were running from reality and running towards the real "them" PROBABLY. hahaha It's somehow like that. Well, you get the idea. haha

All my theories weren't expounded throughout the anime series though as it focuses more on the main characters Recruit and Nino. I had to admit that there are certain characters that I don't really like, though. Their denseness is what I dislike. I also didn't like the nosy characters who think they're all-knowing people. Those guys just overact every time Recruit makes a mistake and make matters worse which I really knew Recruit could fix sooner if those nosy guys weren't there. Arrrggh. . . Annoying, really.

To be specific, I didn't like Hoshi and Piko. Well, Hoshi became a decent one when he comforted Amazoness but the way he misunderstands Recruit just irritates me. He just wouldn't back off even if Nino's already taken... Piko is too nosy, on the other hand. She made stuff worse back when Nino and Recruit had a misunderstanding over a cassette tape. Matters between a couple should be settled in a proper talk between the couple before any other entity lays a hand on the matter. Sheeesh. . . For Pete's sake, why would someone who didn't even know the right details land a finger on the situation?!

Well, enough of the rants. haha. Arakawa Under the Bridge is simply amazing though I'm not really into the romance side of this one. There were only a few great romantic scenes which I really appreciated though.