The randomness starts at the episodes’ structure. The way the story is told? Random (well, sometimes it DOES make sense). The characters’ personalities? Random. Or that’s what you would think because every single one of them as a story behind, and guess what, you can buy all the explanations to the weirdness. But still, you totally get hooked to this.
Of course the main reason to watch this is comedy. Pure crack. But you want some lessons on Japanese culture and the origin of some Japanese words? Yes, you can have it here. You want some lovey-dovey scenes, you want some sweet scenes, you want some introspection scenes, you want some friendship scenes? Yes, of course. Or maybe you feel like watching one of those old black and white silent movies, yes, you have that here too.
Really, you have to give this a try. Oh, and I have to say I loved the costumes and how they did it, I mean, I couldn’t help but find Hoshi really handsome.
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Probably one of the best anime-turned-dramas out there, everything from the cast to the comedy is nearly perfect. This drama could have easily missed the mark with such an absurd story plot and it would have been very understandable because it’s not easy to portray such outlandish characters. Surprisingly, this was not the case. Not just in their visuals but in their manner of being, everyone was very appropriate for their characters, I could almost feel the actors’ teamwork to really bring the story to life.
Something that I really liked about the drama that was not very clear in the anime was the way the creators were able to really focus on the character’s back stories (except for the kappa leader and Nino who remain a mystery just like in the original story). I can only speak for the first season of the anime, but there is a lack of clear emphasis on the human side to them. Most of the time they seem to be completely outer-worldly with their ridiculous mindset, yet the drama adaptation was able to successfully present them as the misunderstood and socially challenged individuals who were able to create their own reality and accept each other as best as they can.
This could be said about any drama ever created, but Arakwa Under the Bridge may not be for everyone. The comedy is very different, some of it may be irrelevant to non-Japanese or even completely go over your head if you’re not very familiar with the culture. It’s not a very long series, 10 episodes of about 25 minute each, so I do believe it’s worth giving it a try. It’s unique, and hilarious, it’s definitely nothing like you've ever seen before.
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