Tuesday, April 6, 2010

Arakawa Under the Bridge - first impressions

A love-comedy by SHAFT and Akiyuki Shimbo and based on the manga by Nakamura Hikaru. The overall artwork and animation is good and those familiar with SHAFT's works will be greeted by styles we find in their past series. The most obvious ones will be Sayonara Zetsubou Sensei and Bakemonogatari and the recent Dance in the Vampire Bund. Anyways, let's get it on with my first impressions!

This episode of  Arakawa Under the Bridge is divided into 9 chapters with each chapter spanning about 2 to 3 minutes each with gags. The story started off with Ichinomiya Kou staring off to a river while introducing himself with his pants off. His pants was stolen by a group of boys and hung it on one of the pillar of the bridge and because he was taught since young that he is to follow the family's creed; To never rely on others. And he is going to keep it that way.
My pants got stolen! Well, at least no one's around.


 
Now just need to find a way to get them back...

 
Aw crap! When she got there!?

While he was about to climb and get his pants back, a young lady who's fishing at the edge of the bridge asked him if his butt is cold or not. Naturally, thinking that no one was around without your pants on just to find out someone was there right next to you will cause anyone to panic, but not Kou. He simply brushes it off as he prefer a breeze and starts to climb the pillar to his pants. On his way up his boxers got caught on a stray wire. As soon as he got his pants, the young blond was about to tell him something important that he interrupted with a story of his child hood.

 
Kou, let's play house! Daddy's the baby~~

As soon as he finished reminiscing, the bridge broke and thanks to gravity, he fell to the freezing cold river. The young lady, who she introduces herself as Nino who claims she's from Venus later on, jumped in to save him by the tie. When he regain consciousness and found out Nino saved him, he offers to buy her a house when he found out she lives under the bridge which she rejected immediately. She only asked him to love her in return. Well, these are only chapters 1 and 2.

 
Nino: You owe me now!
Kou: Eh?

As soon as Nino tells him to love her, he decides he'll love her, starting tomorrow so that he could just go home and take a break. Nino asked him if he wants to go to a house or villa and then gave him a pillow, which looked like a bag for swimsuit. Kou got to the right picture of Nino telling him to live with her which she replied "Doesn't lovers live together?" with a blank face. Of course he rejected that idea but Nino tells him she'll forget about him if she didn't see him for a day. He then chose to stay with her at her open space villa.

  
Here a swimsuit I stole from some loli the other day. Use it as your pillow.

In order to live there, he needs to seek permission from the chief. Kou was surprised and honored to meet a legendary kappa just to discover it was just some guy in a suit which made him realize that everyone here are nutcases. He then discovered another shocking revelation where he needs to be named by the chief just so he could stay at the bridge. He found out from Nino she was named by the chief. Being the observant and normal man Kou is, he quickly found where the chief got Nino her name all thanks to her jacket which has the class number 2-3 (usually means 'ni-no-san-kumi' or class 2-3 or cleverly called Nino-san). You'll have to watch the series to get his new name :)

  
You won't like me when I'm angry...


Zip? What zip?

 
It's my body condition. I absorb water too easily!

Overall I enjoyed the first episode. I just can't stopped laughing and I actually watched a second time. The first episode exceeded my expectation with a good start and I hoped it stay that way for the rest of the series. If you like shows with gag and comedy, I really recommend this!

Yea, that guy is me. Got a problem!

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