Director: Akiyuki Shinbo,
Starring: Hiroshi Kamiya, Maaya Sakamoto, Chiaki Omigawa, Chiwa Saito, Cho, Fumihiko Tachiki,
Running Time: 320 minutes
Certificate: 12
This second season of ARAKAWA UNDER THE BRIDGE is very much like its predecessor. It’s a bizarre and often delightful waste of time, but other than the quick stories that bear little to no consequence on the world in which they take place, it offers very little. Stories just sort of happen, which is no doubt part of the charm, but when there are so few rules to contain the madness, it becomes difficult to truly care for the characters or their motivations.
We pick up from where we left off, with Ko continuing to live with the self-proclaimed Venutian under a bridge that seems to attract the most bizarre characters. Perhaps it’s the lack of any real development that makes this such a hard show to love or hate. It just sort of exists, and although the bright settings and kooky events was enough to entertain for a season, two feels as though it’s pushing it.
The show is obviously a comedy, and a lot of the visual humour translates well, but it also feels as though a lot is lost in translation. I don’t demand a dub to watch anime, and I often prefer the original Japanese audio, but with so much going on visually reducing the reading would have resulted in more time to concentrate on the story itself. The visuals continue to be very impressive, with the bonkers shenanigans affording the animators license to explore their colour palette as well as producing artistically rich moments.
ARAKAWA is a show that is hard to dislike, simply because it is like an adorable child high on E numbers and caffeine. Sure, it’s a little bit too hectic at times and you’ll certainly be tired out, but there’s also something charming in the little tykes’ ability to be here, there, and everywhere. Most unfortunately though the show does seem to try and shoe-horn in some recurring plot elements such as a trip to Venus and one of Ko’s employee’s investigating Nino. These are threaded throughout so sporadically that each time they are referred to you realise you’d completely forgotten about them. Fans of the first season shouldn’t be too disappointed, but this won’t win over any new followers.
ARAKAWA UNDER THE BRIDGE Season 2 is out on DVD now via MVM Entertainment.
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