Title: Arakawa Under the Bridge x Bridge
Alternate Title: Arakawa Under the Bridge 2
Edition: Premium Edition
Published by: Nippon Ichi Software America
Based on: The original anime release Arakawa Under the Bridge
Genre: Comedy and Romance
Audio: Japanese Dub
Subtitles: English
Aspect Ratio: 480i MPEG-2 16:9 (DVD) / 1080p AVC MPEG-4 16:9 (Blu-ray). Series was watched on Blu-ray however all screenshots in this post are taken from the DVD copy.
Runtime: 316 Minutes
Cost: Contact your nearest seller of anime
Special Thanks: Nippon Ichi Software America who kindly provided the Premium Edition release of the series
When you were younger, you might have heard the tale of “The Three Billy Goats”, a Norwegian fairy tail that involves a troll living under a bridge who tries to eat, and then tricked by a group of sheep leading to his untimely death. This tale has often become associated with creatures living under bridges, but Arakawa Under the Bridge sets to change this greatly. Based on the manga series by Hikaru Nakamura and developed by the studio SHAFT (Well known for their eccentric comedies), this show focuses on a whole community of odd and unique people who live under a bridge and the first season turned out to be a real hoot, receiving an A- grade from me all the way back in July 2011. So how does the second season compare? Read on to find out!
Just when you thought things couldn’t get any weirder by the banks of the mighty Arakawa, they go ahead and get weirder by a whole lot. Rec, Nino, and the rest of the riverside residents return, and with the addition of another batch of nutty citizens the insanity gets turns up to eleven…thousand. Now Rec has to deal with a sci-fi loving comic nerd who’s convinced he’s a captain in the Earth Defense Force, and the less said about the Amazon woman living upstream with her demonic “female” Amazon followers, the better. On top of that, Rec struggles with the pressing issues of romantic expression, media obsession, weight loss, weight gain, beach parties, haunted houses, interplanetary travel, and the ever-present threat of global thermonuclear war!
The most important thing I can stress to you in this review, is that despite this anime not really having much of an overall plot or purchase, it is run by character development (and has a lot of characters) so I strongly advise you do not jump a season and begin with this x Bridge. If you do, there is a strong chance you will end up completely lost and many of the jokes would be incomprehensible or not as enjoyable as they might have otherwise been. This tale follows the male protagonist Kou Ichinomiya or Recruit, who through a family tradition of never being indebted to anyone, is morally obliged to make the wish of a supposed alien girl Nino come true… this wish being to be loved. With a considerably large character cast, they have shown they can deliver ample character development to every one of them while bringing a good level of comedy to give you a consistent stream of chuckles while not detracting from any other department.
For those of you who have watched the first season and enjoyed it, I can simply describe this season as more of what you enjoyed only improved upon. The first season was interesting and funny at the same time as Recruit who was brought up as a normal albeit stuffy human being before joining the “Family” found himself questioning reality and reacting to almost anything odd around him – from the Village Chief who is also supposedly a Kappa, a superstar with a star for a head and the communities farmer who is as sadistic as they come. This time around they have integrated him into the community, so while he does react, he is more open to just going with the flow, offering a newer and in my opinion better perspective on him. The other characters haven’t changed so much, but no longer have to rely on their appearances or interactions with Recruit to get laughs, but instead use the situations at hand to gauge both comedy and development.
One potential area of concern for some with the first season was that they rapidly introduced characters, and while they each received enough character development and most appeared throughout the episodes, they as individuals didn’t have much to contribute to the story. This season only saw the inclusion of four new characters, all at the same time – an Amazoness and her three henchmen in Tengu masks. While their contribution to the series added some freshness to it, I didn’t warm up to them as I did the previous characters so they were a rather so-so addition. Other than that however, I thought they worked with the existing characters very well. However, even with fewer characters added to the mix, this series was more about delivering comedy and character development than actual plot, so even after this season was complete there was nothing much in the ways of storyline-related purpose or sufficient conclusion to the series.
Unlike most series, one episode does not equal one episode but instead are split up into a number of mini-chapters, similar to what was done in the previous season. While season one covered Chapters 001 – 108, this season comes equipped with a further 92 chapters taking the current grand total to 200. This allows them to separate individual elements to the episodes and lets them cover a lot more without giving the impression of being poorly planned. While some of the plot elements do leave you feeling like you had heard the same quirk before, they do offer a nice selection of different ideas and concepts that they put into the episodes and most of them work. While all the different characters make for a unique and mostly well thought out story, the romance element is also unique and sets itself apart from other series. Unlike many series where there is a pervert guy who tries to grope or take pantyshot pictures of his “girlfriend….s”, this series pulls the relationship between Nino and Recruit interesting due to both characters naivety and different personalities to pull of awkward and perhaps even what one would consider “cute” scenarios.
Overall, if you were one who enjoyed the first season but were not so sure about the second, you have very little to worry about as there is a good chance you would enjoy this season just as much if not more. If you are new to the series, it CAN be watched stand-alone but I strongly advise you to check out the first season which is still available from NIS America (See my review of it HERE). But overall, SHAFT has delivered what I have come to expect from many of their comedy anime series – randomness, lots of characters and a number of clever ideas.
Many of the same comments I made in my previous review relating to design would carry over into this one. The characters are indeed one of the more interesting design concepts, given that while many of the characters wear the same outfit for a majority of the time – they are all uniquely different from one another that complements their individual eccentric personalities, who they are and quite often who they can turn out to be when the right buttons are pushed and are overall visually pleasing. The series colour palette is exactly what I would have expected from a SHAFT studio production, a bright, vivid and colourful world filled with sufficient details for characters and environment designs.
With the premium edition coming equipped with both DVD and Blu-ray, and my finally being able to watch US Blu-ray discs, I must say the quality of the Blu-ray version is brilliant and really works well with the colour choices. BUT for those of you who import this title and cannot watch the Blu-ray disc (Locked to Region A), going through the DVD right now the quality is still very much sufficient.
This release comes equipped with a grand total of two opening sequences and one ending sequence. The main opening sequence is COSMOS vs ALIEN by Etsuko Yakushimaru and proved to be an enjoyable song when coupled with one of the most creatively designed opening sequences I have seen in a long time. The second opening sequence which is shown only in episode 10 is Kou-sama Go! Summer!! ~Iya, Yuku no wa Kinsei Dakara~ by Cho…. and I am pretty sure more than a few people would watch it with their faces in this expression: “O_O”. The only ending sequence is Akai Coat by Suneohair and proved to be an enjoyable and interesting watch.
I do not really have any amendments to make in terms to either the audio or voice acting from my original review. The music soundtrack offers a decent variety of songs however lacks that little bit of diversity I would have liked. But, they did choose to go for more simplistic and less over the top that complemented the content delivered well. Voice acting retained the same cast as before and they did an equally enjoyable job of it… nothing more to really say about it. Of course, once again and like all their other anime titles – it is Japanese dub only.
Fortunately I was able to get my hands on a Premium Edition release of Arakawa Under the Bridge x Bridge and was once again happy with what they delivered in terms of physical and on-disc extras. The hard-cover box to store everything in once again looked great BUT if I may be picky, it does look a little bit awkward when stored right next to the first seasons box, due to slight amendments to the side of the box to include the series logo. The hardcover artbook was of a good build quality, designed well and was filled to the brim with information and extra content including character artwork, interviews and episode information (and much more).
Moving on to the on-disc content, this collection comes spread over two mini-DVD cases, each containing a single DVD and Blu-ray disc in each (Two of each in total). On the disc was disappointingly no Clean Opening or Ending sequences, but came equipped with TV spots, End Card Galleries, Trailers for Wagnaria, Katanagatari and kimi ni todoke and commentary for the first four episodes. If I may however share one thought for future NIS America releases… I would love to see some of the team get in and do their own commentary for an episode! I am sure the team would have many interesting thoughts to share.
This is not a series I would think you could just sit down and enjoy without having to think much about. Even without a strong over-arching plot to it and a strong comedy focus, I felt it was a much more mature comedy than it originally lets on to be. I can say without a doubt I enjoyed it on many different levels, and hope that provided they can make it work and as the manga series is still going that they may make an Arakawa Under the Bridge x Bridge x Bridge. Sure some of the humor might be hit or miss – but it is one of the SHAFT anime series that I didn’t really tire of and continued to get better as it progressed (Unlike say Pani Poni Dash which started strong but got weaker as the episodes progressed).
Final Score
Storyline / Character Development: A-
Design: A-
Music/Voice Acting: B
Personal Preference: B+
Extra Content: A
Overall Score: A-
