Author Topic: Arakawa Under the Bridge (Read 11700 times)

kenshin-dono · « **on:** March 17, 2010, 01:53:28 AM »

new anime: Arakawa Under the Bridge

AniDB link

* Based on a seinen gag manga by Nakamura Hikaru serialised in Young GanGan.

"A young upperclass elite man, Ichinomiya "Riku" Kou, who has a policy of not being in debt to anyone, ends up owing his life to a strange girl who rescues him. Nino is a beautiful homeless girl who believes that she is a martian and lives under the bridge by the Arakawa river. So the young man ends up living there too. "

anyone heard anything about this show? I read the manga a few weeks back and found it rather amusing. Unfortunately i could only find about 4 chapters translated. The premise is kinda amusing and it seems quite wacky. Does anyone know if its been translated past chapter 4 at all?

Unfortunatly it seems Shaft is picking it up, specifically that hack Shinbou. After the ultra ameture hour he pulled with Bakemonogatari i just cant stant him/Shaft. They seem so utterly lazy and cheap.

Still, i'll probably give it a look when it comes out, though my anticipation was quenched significantly hearing Shinbou picked it up. Now i expect random unnecessary close ups of eyeballs to save animation. Maybe well get pointless live action shots and blank screens too! yay. Im curious to take a look if everything also has that shiny cheap look to it too when the preview comes out

Lupin · « **Reply #1 on:** March 17, 2010, 05:45:18 AM »

inb4 it's aired incomplete.

Temuthril · « **Reply #2 on:** March 17, 2010, 02:05:37 PM »

Quote from: kenshin-dono on March 17, 2010, 01:53:28 AM

...Shinbou. After the ultra ameture hour he pulled with Bakemonogatari...

DVD & BD sales would like to have a word with you.

Disclaimer: I haven't seen the series mentioned.

newy · « **Reply #3 on:** March 17, 2010, 02:29:29 PM »

I will watch because I like SHAFT. Their productions stand out from the rest of the industry. But I won't watch it with the enthusiasm I had when I first watched BMG and VB. I guess, anyone knows why

Small question at the sidelines: Back in the days when the ef series were airing, were they chopped as well?

manganime02 · « **Reply #4 on:** March 17, 2010, 03:05:08 PM »

Wait a min, the image on AniDB looks completely different from when I first heard about this series where one of the characters looked like he was out from BoBoBo-Bo with a star as a head

Lord of Fire · « **Reply #5 on:** March 17, 2010, 04:00:22 PM »

Quote from: manganime02 on March 17, 2010, 03:05:08 PM

Wait a min, the image on AniDB looks completely different from when I first heard about this series where one of the characters looked like he was out from BoBoBo-Bo with a star as a head

Looking at the official site, that seems to be one of the many side-characters.

manganime02 · « **Reply #6 on:** March 17, 2010, 11:08:23 PM »

Lol seems weird like two different animes, if I just saw the pic from AniDB I would expect a Shoujo anime, or love drama but with the star head or green-guy you know you are watching something absurd - just goes to show can't judge a book from its cover- should be interesting how this really turns out.

newy · « **Reply #7 on:** March 17, 2010, 11:44:59 PM »

It's a gag manga.

kenshin-dono · « **Reply #8 on:** March 18, 2010, 03:01:40 AM »

Quote from: Lupin on March 17, 2010, 05:45:18 AM

inb4 it's aired incomplete.

ok, I LOL'd hard at that one ;P

is this what your talking about mangaanime?

http://www.mangafox.com/manga/arakawa_under_the_bridge/

the cover shown there? I think like lord fire said its probably one of the other characters. Some guy in a kappa suit shows up in the first 5 volumes that have been translated heh

You are right that their productions stand out newy... in slipshod production =P Still, to each his own i guess. A strange show like this just may work with shafts style, i just cant stand them. I also recently watched what the hell they did to Negima!? and that was just garbage. I thought the original was an above average fun little show. Their remake had their trademark pointless closeups and lazy animation for no reason.

Quote from: Temuthril on March 17, 2010, 02:05:37 PM

Quote from: kenshin-dono on March 17, 2010, 01:53:28 AM
...Shinbou. After the ultra ameture hour he pulled with Bakemonogatari...
DVD & BD sales would like to have a word with you.

Disclaimer: I haven't seen the series mentioned.

right, they 'fixed' the BD's. My gripe was the bs they pulled for the actual airing. It was unacceptable IMO. Hell maybe thats a great marketing strategy. Make the original airing look like it was drawn by a 3rd grader with ADD then 'fix' it post production for profit!

I hope they do this show right because it seemed interesting, but im really not holding any hopes

newy · « **Reply #9 on:** April 05, 2010, 09:25:48 PM »

Humor is great. Similar to BMG. The female lead (Nino) is again an interesting character. Can't wait to see more of the staff under the bridge.

Monkemon · « **Reply #10 on:** April 05, 2010, 11:18:38 PM »

My favourite first episode so far this season, rather funny start. The face flashing, where Kou comes to a realization, reminded me of Sayonara zetsubou sensei, kind of threw me off (Shaft referencing themselves or something.) other then that had no problems, going to watch the next episode for sure.

bobjoe · « **Reply #11 on:** April 06, 2010, 02:58:56 AM »

I caught a few references here (Phoenix Wright for one), but that isn't the point.
I came away from the first episode with an immensely SHAFTy feeling. This feels like something of a return to classic SHAFT screenplays after Vampire Bund (although the evolution of the visual effects is clearly there, having been effected by Bund).
As far as I can tell, this is probably reminiscent of SZS, but of course, I haven't actually seen SZS, so I'm unfit to make that sort of judgement myself. Objectively, though, it is clearly a character driven comedy gag, so I'd say it has at least that in common with the Sayonara Zetsubou Sensei series.

This was one of the titles I was most looking forward to in the pre-season, and although I really enjoyed the first episode, I'm going to need this to "go somewhere" to get anything out of it. I need to see some actual romance or some character development or some plot or something. Luckily, I already detected ample hints of those sort of things, so it seems as thought the writers aren't averse to any of the sort of things I have in mind. It would also be nice if it didn't turn into something completely obtuse like FLCL, but yeah, once again, it's already making more sense than that did, so I don't think that will be a huge problem. It already has a clear direction, or so it seems to me, anyway.

SeventyX7 · « **Reply #12 on:** April 06, 2010, 03:55:24 AM »

Saw the first ep of this one, wow this is pretty good. If SHAFT doesn't cop out with crap animation starting at episode ~6-9, this will be pretty good.

(click to show/hide)

Also, anyone else feel that Ko is crazier than Nino?

Xiong Chiamiov · « **Reply #13 on:** April 06, 2010, 06:40:14 AM »

SZS-y, but slow enough (and without crazy signage) so that I can actually parse it. Makes it funnier when I don't have to take so much effort to watch.

kanavazk · « **Reply #14 on:** April 06, 2010, 06:20:59 PM »

First episode impressions:
I didn't like the BG music at the beginning of the episode, but I guess it fit the moment.
This is quite a bit like SZS and BMG, character/pace-wise.
I don't like the direction SHAFT is going with their art style. It was one of the reasons why I didn't enjoy VB (I dropped that around episode 7).
This is funny.
Actually I guess it isn't very much like SZS character-wise. The characters are a bit more (normal?) than the characters in SZS.
I guess Ichinomiya Kou is a bit like Itoshiki Nozomu in terms of his obsessive-compulsiveness, but any character could be compared to any character, so I guess it doesn't mean much.
I don't find it too interesting (some jokes are good, and others not so much) but I'll keep watching it to see how it develops.

Mcgreag · « **Reply #15 on:** April 06, 2010, 07:02:31 PM »

Quote from: Monkemon on April 05, 2010, 11:18:38 PM

The face flashing, where Kou comes to a realization, reminded me of Sayonara zetsubou sensei, kind of threw me off (Shaft referencing themselves or something.)

It's the same voice actor as zetsubou sensei as well.

Monkemon · « **Reply #16 on:** April 06, 2010, 08:56:22 PM »

Yeah I knew that, I should have mentioned it in my original post. Looking at the chart for spring 2010 the Arakawa description has that picture of a nun holding a little girl and brandishing a gun, beside him a maid, wonder when they will show up in the series. Have those three characters appeared in the manga yet?

erious · « **Reply #17 on:** April 06, 2010, 09:38:38 PM »

Quote from: bobjoe on April 06, 2010, 02:58:56 AM

t would also be nice if it didn't turn into something completely obtuse like FLCL, but yeah, once again, it's already making more sense than that did,

Wait what? But FLCL made perfect sense... Sure it had some unusual storytelling and direction(which is the reason I consider it one of the best anime ever made), but the story was straightforward enough to be completely understandable. Sure some subplots might require secondary viewing to completely appreciate, since the first time you don't know that you're supposed to pay attention to them - but the main plot is simple enough to work well with the little complicated story structure and storytelling.
Just had to let it our, since people claiming FLCL "doesn't make sense" always bothered me.
Also, I'd like to mention that Bakemonogatari at first airing was already better animated then a lot of other studios' DVD releases, save for one episode. Unless you're confusing direction with animation, that is.

Okay, okay, enough of "my favorite anime is better then your favorite anime", back to topic.
Ever since I heard about Arakawa Under the Bridge being animated, I thought that it was perfect for Shaft. At least there shouldn't be any more "how dare you butcher my beloved grimdark vampire battlan manga" whiners, and Shaft does gag manga really well.
And it should weed out the rest of the people who jumped on the Shaft bandwagon after Bakemonogatari(and weren't scared off yet by DitVB), so I can go back to being elitist about being a Shinbo fanboy.
With that said, time to actually see the episode, I guess.

2 MINUTES IN EDIT: HOLY SHIT YOU BASTARDS WHY DID NO ONE TELL ME NINO IS VOICED BY MAAYA SAKAMOTO AAAAARGH SHINBO DIRECTING + MAAYA SAKAMOTO = ANIME OF THE YEAR, ALL YEARS

bobjoe · « **Reply #18 on:** April 06, 2010, 10:47:28 PM »

Quote from: SeventyX7 on April 06, 2010, 03:55:24 AM

Also, anyone else feel that Ko is crazier than Nino?

Absolutely. If you ask me, that is kind of the whole point.

Quote from: erious on April 06, 2010, 09:38:38 PM

And it should weed out the rest of the people who jumped on the Shaft bandwagon after Bakemonogatari(and weren't scared off yet by DitVB), so I can go back to being elitist about being a Shinbo fanboy.

Yep, this isn't the first time I've heard this. Of course, I'm hoping the same thing, myself. It just doesn't seem right for SHAFT to be popular. The experimental cutting edge is supposed to alienate the masses, after all.

kanavazk · « **Reply #19 on:** April 06, 2010, 11:39:42 PM »

Quote from: bobjoe on April 06, 2010, 10:47:28 PM

Quote from: erious on April 06, 2010, 09:38:38 PM
And it should weed out the rest of the people who jumped on the Shaft bandwagon after Bakemonogatari(and weren't scared off yet by DitVB), so I can go back to being elitist about being a Shinbo fanboy.
Yep, this isn't the first time I've heard this. Of course, I'm hoping the same thing, myself. It just doesn't seem right for SHAFT to be popular. The experimental cutting edge is supposed to alienate the masses, after all.

I thought SHAFT was always pretty popular, at least within my circle of friends.