Arakawa Under the Bridge: Season 1 Blu-ray Movie

Rating summary

Movie		4.0
Video		4.5
Audio		4.0
Extras		3.5
Overall		4.0

Arakawa Under the Bridge: Season 1 Blu-ray Movie Review

And now for something completely different.

Reviewed by Jeffrey Kauffman August 5, 2011

A lot of anime fans, as much as they love the genre, are only familiar with the “biggies” like Akira or Ghost in the Shell or any of a number of other huge, hot properties which took the world by storm. While a younger generation has had the advantage of regular cable broadcasts of many anime series which in days of yore probably wouldn’t have seen the light of day in the United States, there are still tons of odd little shows which haven’t quite poked and prodded their way into mass acclaim (at least not stateside) despite having many unusual elements. In fact some of these shows’ very uniqueness is what may have kept them from reaching a greater audience. Early in my reviewing career I was handed a boxed set of the old series Hare and Guu and I spent the next several days with my jaw largely agape (as I’ve mentioned in another review here recently), not quite believing what I was seeing (Hare and Guu has yet to make it to Blu-ray, at least in Region A as far as I’ve been able to surmise). If you’ve only seen things like Akira, a series like Hare and Guu could strike you as some errant hallucination sprung from the drug-addled brain of some overly creative type with way too much time on their hands. And while it may not be quite as outré as Hare and Guu, Arakawa Under the Bridge is certainly one of the oddest, most peculiar animes in recent memory. It’s also one of the sweetest, most gentle and just plain charming pieces in quite a while, and the fascinating thing is in Japan at least Arakawa, perhaps in spite of rather formidable odds, is becoming something of a franchise, with (as incredible as it may sound, especially after you read a little bit more about the project in the body of this review), both a very recent live action television adaptation having just aired in Japan as well as another live action feature film version on the boards scheduled to hit multiplexes next year.

Arakawa Under the Bridge, as completely odd as it may sound, is kind of—kind of—like an anime version of Green Acres, you know, one of those properties where a sophisticated city slicker suddenly finds himself enmeshed in a patently bizarre new culture. In this case it’s Ko (sometimes transliterated Kou) Ichinomiya, a young heir to an industrial fortune who has been raised very strictly to never—as in never—become indebted to anyone else for any reason. Of course in the first episode he becomes deeply indebted to an odd young girl named Nino, who actually manages to save Ko when he falls off of a bridge girder after trying to reclaim an errant pair of pants (like I said, this show is weird). Nino's request of Ko, made to pay back his debt, is that he fall in love with her (that's some debt). It turns out Nino, who may or may not be joking when she insists she’s a Venusian, is part of a sort of secret society which lives under the bridge. This odd assortment of characters includes The Chief, who claims he’s a 620 year old kappa (water sprite from Japanese folklore) despite the fact it’s completely obvious he’s a human wearing a costume. The Chief accepts Ko as part of the community and christens him with the new name Recruit. We also have Hoshi, Ko’s rival for Nino’s attentions, who always wears a star shaped mask over his head. And then there’s my personal favorite, Sister, a male ex-soldier who wears a Nun’s habit and conducts the bridge community’s religious services.

If you’re still reading after that very brief summation (which doesn’t even get much beyond the tip of the character iceberg), chances are you have the sort of disposition which would very much enjoy Arakawa Under the Bridge. The show doesn’t really have much on its mind other than drawing a contrast between Ko, who at least loathes the connections that indebtedness brings, with a tightly interwoven group of bizarre characters who, perhaps due to their very oddness, must depend on each other. That’s it, for better or worse, as Arakawa Under the Bridge moves through a number of gentle, never earth shattering, episodes that sort of meander to their homily like conclusions. In fact, speaking of homilies, each episode actually begins with a prelude of sorts where Ko posits all sorts of philosophical questions about the nature of being. This may be something akin to a kid slapping a Nietzsche slip cover over a Mad magazine in school, but it shows that Arakawa’s creative team probably has grander ambitions than the show’s surface may indicate.

Without over-thinking a project which may in fact not have anything akin to this on its mind, Arakawa Under the Bridge kind of quietly hints at the need for coexistence, especially when disparate characters are thrust up against each other and must find a way to cohabitate. Certainly Arakawa approaches this idea in a completely over the top (or under the bridge) way, but it does so with a sweetness and good-heartedness that makes the show incredibly appealing. This is not a fast moving, exciting, whiz-bang sort of anime, but in its own quiet, unassuming (and utterly weird and wacky) way, it’s really rather surprisingly profound.

Arakawa Under the Bridge: Season 1 Blu-ray Movie, Video Quality 

Arakawa Under the Bridge arrives on Blu-ray courtesy of NIS America with an appealing looking AVC encoded 1080p transfer in 1.78:1. This series features a number a unusual (to say the least) looking characters, and with its exceptionally sharp line detail, nicely saturated and well variegated color palette, Arakawa Under the Bridge looks really beautiful a lot of the time. The show also features a number of graphical elements that are very interesting from a design standpoint. While these may not quite be at the hyperbolic level of, say, Soul Eater, they're very inventive and the Blu-ray reproduces them with excellent clarity and sharpness. There are some extremely odd live action coming attractions interstitials which are live action and feature an actor as The Chief. These elements are grainy, soft and just flat out bizarre looking, with oddly filtered color and a sort of surreal texture.

One thing that would have helped the visual presentation here would have been the option to totally remove the subtitles. This encoding only allows for either the subtitles of the original Japanese language track or the subtitles of the Japanese language commentaries. Having the burnt in subtitles will be a problem for those who want to just go back and enjoy the free-wheeling design aesthetic of Arakawa Under the Bridge after they've watched it once and at least have a baseline of what's going on.

Arakawa Under the Bridge: Season 1 Blu-ray Movie, Audio Quality 

Arakawa Under the Bridge has only its original Japanese language track (no English dub), in lossless LPCM 2.0. This is a fun and often funny amalgamation of different voice styles, from Ko's often sort of manic-depressive tones to Nino's quieter, gentler approach. Fidelity is excellent throughout the series, though some of the group moments might have benefited from a surround mix. Dialogue, score and effects are all very well mixed and the balance between the elements is just fine.

Arakawa Under the Bridge: Season 1 Blu-ray Movie, Special Features and Extras 

NIS America is jumping into the anime Blu-ray fray with some deluxe packaging and interesting supplements. The keepcases here are DVD sized, each (of two) volumes holding one BD and one DVD, enclosed in a large and sturdy slipcover which also houses a full sized hardback book with glossy pages full of illustrations and information about the major characters. While this won't fit on traditional shelves, it's a very handsome package that should appeal to collectors. The actual BD extras are:

• Feature Commentaries are provided on all but three episodes (6, 10 and 11), in Japanese with optional English subtitles. The commentaries feature the following particpants:
  Episodes 1 and 2: Hiroshi Kamiya (Recruit), Maaya Sakamoto (Nino), Keiji Fujiwara (Village Chief)
  Episodes 3 and 4: Hiroshi Kamiya (Recruit), Tomokazu Sugita (Hoshi), Go Shukuri (Producer)
  Episodes 5 and 7: Takhito Koyasu (Sister), Miyuki Sawashiro (Maria), Chiwa Saito (Stella)
  Episodes 8 and 9: Hiroshi Kamiya (Recruit), Tomokazu Sugita (Hoshi), Miyuki Sawashiro (Maria)
  Episodes 12 and 13: Hiroshi Kamiya (Recruit), Maaya Sakamoto (Nino), Rikiya Koyama (Seki Ichinomiya)
• TV Promos: 1 (HD; 00:16), 2 (HD; 00:31), 3 (HD; 00:16), and 4 (HD; 00:31)
• Blu-ray and DVD Release Ads: 1 (HD; 00:16), 2 (HD; 00:16), 3 (HD; 00:16), 4 (HD; 00:16), 5 (HD; 00:16) and 6 (HD; 00:16)

Arakawa Under the Bridge: Season 1 Blu-ray Movie, Overall Score and Recommendation 

When you write reviews professionally, you have to slog through so much same old, same old that it can be downright depressing after awhile. Even in the often very innovative world of anime, things can get rote pretty quickly, and so any project with even a hint of newness about it perhaps gets more of a happy reaction than it might from the public at large. But Arakawa Under the Bridge must be doing something to be warranting all the new versions that are hitting the mainstream in Japan, and chances are this show is primed for some stateside sensation soon. It's odd, yes, but it's surprisingly heartfelt, and if you don't require dystopian futures or explosions every five seconds, this is a good-natured show that is both funny and surprisingly meaningful. This NIS America boxed set is very handsome, and the entire release comes Highly recommended.