is a Japanese

manga Manga (Japanese: 漫画 ) are comics or graphic novels originating from Japan. Most manga conform to a style developed in Japan in the late 19th century, and the form has a long prehistory in earlier Japanese art. The term ''manga'' is u ...

series written and illustrated by

Hikaru Nakamura Christopher Hikaru Nakamura''seinen'' manga magazine ''

Young Gangan is a manga imprint owned by Square Enix Holdings. It originated as a manga imprint for Enix before the company re-branded as Square Enix. It publishes manga in several anthologies aimed at different reader demographic groups in the Japanese mark ...

'' from December 2004 to July 2015. An

anime is Traditional animation, hand-drawn and computer animation, computer-generated animation originating from Japan. Outside of Japan and in English, ''anime'' refers specifically to animation produced in Japan. However, in Japan and in Japane ...

television series adaptation consisting of 26 episodes in total by Shaft was broadcast in Japan from April to December 2010 on

TV Tokyo JOTX-DTV (channel 7), branded as and known colloquially as , is a television station headquartered in the Sumitomo Fudosan Roppongi Grand Tower in Roppongi, Minato, Tokyo, Japan, owned and operated by the subsidiary of listed certifie ...

Plot

Set in

Arakawa, Tokyo is a special ward located in Tokyo Metropolis, Japan. The ward takes its name from the river, the Arakawa, though the Arakawa River does not run through or touch the ward. Its neighbors are the wards of Adachi, Kita, Bunkyo, Taito and Sumi ...

, the series tells the story of Kou Ichinomiya, a man who has accomplished everything by himself. Ever since he was little, his father has taught him one rule: to never be indebted to another person. One day he is attacked by child bullies in the bridge, they remove his pants and attach them high up in the bridge archer, in trying to retrieve them, he falls into the

Arakawa River or Ara River may refer to: * Arakawa River (Kanto) or Ara River may refer to: * Arakawa River (Kanto), which flows from Saitama Prefecture and through Tokyo to Tokyo Bay * Arakawa River (Uetsu), which flows from Yamagata Prefecture and throu ...

and almost drowns. A girl by the name of Nino rescues him and, in return, he owes her his life. Unable to accept the fact that he is indebted to her, he asks her about a way for him to repay her. In the end, she tells him to love her, beginning Kou's life of living under a bridge. However, as Kou starts to learn, Arakawa is a place full of weirdos and all of the people living under the bridge are what society would call "

denpasan , also or , is a Japanese term for individuals or persons who may feel disconnected or dissociated from the people around them. They may entertain wild fantasies and persecutory delusions or other strong beliefs, and their speech or actions ma ...

Characters

; : :Played by:

Kento Hayashi is a Japanese actor. He has appeared in more than 30 films since 2007. Selected filmography Film Television Awards References External links Official Website * {{DEFAULTSORT:Hayashi, Kento 1990 births Living people People from ...

:Kou is the future owner of the Ichinomiya corporation. He is 22 years old and a university student before living under the bridge. Throughout his life, he has been living under the family rule of never being indebted to anyone. After nearly drowning in the river, he started a relationship with his savior, Nino, because it was the only way to remove the debt of saving his life. He is named by the village chief, but the villagers usually call him "Ric" (''"Riku"'') for short. If he becomes indebted to someone but cannot repay them, he will start having an asthma attack. Even since he was little, he has received the best education, learning how to play multiple instruments and earning a black belt in karate. Kou took the option of staying in the "villa" rather than Nino's house when he moved into the village, not knowing that the "villa" was the empty top of a pillar under the bridge. He quickly remedies the situation by building himself a proper apartment at the location. His job in the village is to be the teacher for the village's children. Due to his upbringing and his sudden intrusion into life under the bridge, he is exasperated at the nonsensical happenings that the others would consider normal. ; : :Played by:

Mirei Kiritani is a Japanese actress, model, and news anchor. She appeared in the film ''Heroine Shikkaku'', ''Kimi ni Todoke'', ''Usagi Drop'', and ''Arakawa Under the Bridge''. She also appeared in the drama '' Andō Lloyd: A.I. knows Love?'', ''Gunshi Kanb ...

:A mysterious girl who lives in Arakawa. She is a self-claimed Venusian and later Kou's girlfriend. The origin of her name comes from the sweatsuit that she always wears that has the tag on it. She is an incredible swimmer and can stay submerged for several minutes. With this skill, Nino commonly goes fishing in the river and it is her job in the village to provide fish for the residents. She often forgets important information and often needs Kou to remind her. Her home is constructed of cardboard, with the entrance sealed by a large curtain. Her lavish bed is made out of velvet, although she chooses to sleep in the drawer under the bed. If she becomes frightened or angry, she will pull her sweatsuit over her head and climb on top of a streetlamp. ; : :Played by:

Shun Oguri is a Japanese actor and voice actor, son of stage director Tetsuya Oguri, and the youngest of 3 siblings, including older brother Ryo, who is also an actor. He started in small roles as extra in the works in which his father and brother worked ...

:The village chief is a self-proclaimed 620-year-old

kappa Kappa (uppercase Κ, lowercase κ or cursive ; el, κάππα, ''káppa'') is the 10th letter of the Greek alphabet, representing the voiceless velar plosive sound in Ancient and Modern Greek. In the system of Greek numerals, has a value o ...

(despite him obviously wearing a green kappa costume). As chief, anyone who wants to live in the village has to get his approval and have him give the person a new name. His face changes when he is running very fast, as shown in the village's annual race. It is unknown if he is faster than Shiro, since every year, he always loses interest in the race and drops out by default. Using the excuse of preparing for the trip to Venus, he tricked the villagers into building him a villa under the river. He seems to have some secret and is protecting Nino. He does realize that he is not really a kappa, and in times of seriousness, he will stop wearing his suit. He has great influence with the local government, as shown when he single handedly stopped Ric's father's plan to destroy Arakawa. He is very protective of Nino, even threatening Shimazaki, who was researching Nino, with death. ; : :Played by:

Takayuki Yamada is a Japanese actor, singer, and producer. He is best known for his role as Sakutaro Matsumoto in TV drama ''Socrates in Love'' and as Densha Otoko in the 2005 film of the same name. Yamada gained international popularity through his portrayal ...

:A 24-year-old singer and a self-proclaimed superstar. He is in love with Nino and is always jealous of Kou for their relationship. Under his star mask is a moon mask and under that is his real face, which has red hair. When he becomes depressed, he will start calling himself a starfish, and wears his star mask backwards. He likes to go to the nearby convenience store and buy cigarettes. Four years prior, he was a top-notch singer and supposedly constantly topped the

Oricon , established in 1999, is the holding company at the head of a Japanese corporate group that supplies statistics and information on music and the music industry in Japan and Western music. It started as, which was founded by Sōkō Koike in Nov ...

charts. But he was bothered by the fact that he could never come up with his own songs. While battling with this feeling, he met Nino and realized that what he wanted was music that he created himself. His job is to provide music during special events in the village, but his songs' lyrics are mostly weird and complete nonsense. His name literally means "Star." ; : :Played by:

Yuu Shirota is a Japanese-Spanish actor and singer, most known for his role as Kagurazaka Makoto in the Japanese television drama live action adaption of ''Hanazakari no Kimitachi e, Hana-Kimi'', Kunimitsu Tezuka in the ''Tenimyu, Prince of Tennis Musicals' ...

:A strong man that dresses like a nun. Twenty-nine years old and British, Sister is a war veteran with an affinity for artillery and always has a gun with him. He has a scar on the right side of his face, whose origin is unknown. He cares for Nino's wellbeing as well as asking Kou if his love for Nino was real. Every Sunday, he holds a

mass Mass is an intrinsic property of a body. It was traditionally believed to be related to the quantity of matter in a physical body, until the discovery of the atom and particle physics. It was found that different atoms and different elementar ...

that usually lasts only a few seconds in the church under the bridge. This involves having his congregation run to line up, firing his machine gun in the air, and asking if anyone did anything wrong. If he gets no response, the service ends and everyone present gets a bag of cookies. It is unknown what would happen if anyone had done anything wrong. Strangely, while Sister is dressed as a Catholic sister, his church is adorned with an

Orthodox cross The Russian Orthodox Cross (or just the Orthodox Cross by some Russian Orthodox traditions) is a variation of the Christian cross since the 16th century in Russia, although it bears some similarity to a cross with a bottom crossbeam slanted the ...

. Under his robe is a military outfit from his days as a soldier. He may still believe himself to be in the middle of a war, as he lays down booby traps all the time and is shown to always be thinking in terms of military strategics. He is in love with Maria, whom he met during the last war he was in, whose insults are the only things that can unnerve him, causing his scar to open up. Surprisingly, he is good at making cookies and other sweets. ; : :Played by: Toru Tezuka :A cordial, 43-year-old man who is obsessed with always stepping on a white line (since he believes his wife will turn into a white cornish if he does not, something he fears above anything else), therefore he always walks around pushing a line painter so that he always has something white to walk on. According to him, he has had this obsession six years prior to the start of the series and has not seen his family since. His real name is and he used to be an office worker at a major corporation before he started living under the bridge. He does not have a job for the village though. He is married to a wife who understands his obsession and has a high school-aged daughter. Despite being estranged with his family, they seem to still be very close, with his wife lining up and mailing him the forms for stepping on white lines tournaments. Though usually polite with everyone in the village, he is shown to be fiercely competitive; he spends the entire year training for the village's annual race, because "it's the only time egets the spotlight." It is hinted that he may be the strongest person in the village. During the village's Sumo Wrestling competition, Sister and Maria, both being war veterans and heavily experienced fighters, and the Chief, a self proclaimed kappa and the reigning master of Sumo Wrestling at the village, all forfeited when they saw Shiro obsessively chanting his determination to stay in the shikiri-sen, the two white lines at the centre of a Sumo wrestling ring. His name literally means "White." ; : :Played by: Takuto Sueoka / Raito Mashiko : and are a pair of young boys in sailor suits who wear metal helmets. Like Hoshi, they are jealous of Kou's relationship with Nino. They are self-proclaimed espers, saying that they have psychic powers and that their helmets are so that they will not float away or be detected by the military, with the unfortunate side-effect of them being unable to use their powers. The only powers they have said they have so far are flight and the ability to travel through time and space. Their jobs are being in charge of the hot baths in the oil barrels. Oddly enough, they are first shown to be teenagers and later seemed to regress to children. ; : :Played by:

Natsumi Abe is a Japanese singer and actress, a former member of Morning Musume, and currently a member of Dream Morning Musume. Biography Career She was born in Muroran, Hokkaidō, Japan. On August 13, 2003, she released her first single, "22 Sai no Wat ...

:A young red-haired girl who grows vegetables for the village. The epitome of a klutzy girl, she is literally dangerously clumsy, often turning what should be a simple accident into a massive disaster. Despite an allusion to mishaps, P-ko is still intent on getting a drivers license so that she can travel further during Winter to gather seeds. Kou is strongly against this and in their argument, he learns much to his horror that she already possesses a motorcycle license. She has a crush on the village chief, but he is unaware of her feelings. Her hair grows extremely quick, and she needs a hair cut every week. ; : :Played by:

Nana Katase Nana, Nanna, Na Na or NANA may refer to: People and fictional characters * Nana (given name), including a list of people and characters with the given name * Nana (surname), including a list of people and characters with the surname * Nana ( ...

:Maria is a pink haired woman who runs a nearby farm where all the Arakawa residents get their dairy and produce from. While having a beautiful appearance, she casually passes out incredibly harsh insults to other people and is a sadist that can not stand a week without insulting someone. She looks down on males and only acts mean to them. She met Sister during the last war that they had and was an opposing spy that tried to get information from him. ; : :Played by:

Eri Tokunaga is a Japanese politician and former television reporter from the Democratic Party of Japan. She currently serves as member of the House of Councillors for the Hokkaido At-large district. Before entering in politics she worked as reporter for ...

:Stella is a little blonde girl from an orphanage in England that Sister ran. While initially thought to be small and cute, she is a powerful fighter and sometimes speaks in a threatening tone to show her superiority. When she is angry, she has the ability to turn into a giant and look extremely masculine, very closely resembling (and also often parodying)

Raoh is a fictional character in the ''Fist of the North Star'' manga franchise by Buronson and Tetsuo Hara. He is the eldest of four honorary brothers (including the protagonist Kenshiro) who trained in the ancient assassination art of Hokuto Shin ...

from

Fist of the North Star is a Japanese manga series written by Buronson and illustrated by Tetsuo Hara. It was serialized in Shueisha's Shōnen manga, ''shōnen'' manga magazine ''Weekly Shōnen Jump'' for 245 issues published from 1983 to 1988 and initially colle ...

. She has a crush on Sister, which made her hostile towards Maria initially. But after meeting and fighting Maria, she grows fond of her, and looks up to her. She considers herself the boss of Arakawa, and sees the twins as her underlings. ; : :Played by:

Takaya Kamikawa is a Japanese stage, film, and television actor. Biography Kamikawa was born in Hachioji, Tokyo in 1965. He graduated from Hachioji-Kita high school in Tokyo. While studying economics in Chuo University, he acted in a minor theatrical group whi ...

:Kou's strict father, who adheres to his family's rules and looks down on Kou. As shown, after Kou was a child, he demanded Kou to raise him as a baby, just as he had raised Kou. Despite being very cold, he does love his son. Nino seems to remind him of his wife. ; : :Played by: Kazuyuki Asano :Kou's secretary. After his wife left him, Takai became Kou's secretary in one of his companies. He became inspired by Kou and his words and becomes quite fond of him. It is also heavily implied that he has a romantic infatuation with Kou, and gets very jealous or sad when Kou is with Nino. ; : :Played by:

Waka Inoue is a Japanese idol, tarento and actress. She was born in Meguro, Tokyo as Naoko Niimura (新村直子). Her mother is former actress Kyoko Saga. Inoue's main claim to fame in the tarento circles is her bustline. She made her debut as a gravur ...

:Takai's personal assistant. Although she is Takai's assistant, she takes orders directly from Seki Ichinomiya without Takai's knowledge. She has a crush on Shiro. ; : :Played by:

Taro Suruga is a Japanese musician and actor from Nishinomiya, Hyōgo Prefecture. Biography His father is rakugo performer Shōfukutei Tsurube II. He graduated from Shinko Gakuen Shinko High School and Osaka University of Arts Junior College. After studying ...

:Last Samurai is a typical samurai character who runs a barbershop under the bridge, capable of cutting everyone's hair in a matter of seconds. He comes from a samurai family and the sword that he has was an inheritance passed down from his ancestors. Before he started living under the bridge, he was a famous hairdresser that captured the hearts of all his female customers. At the time, in order to prevent them from turning around and looking at him, he needed to put eye covers on all of them. He listened to all the comments of his female customers and felt that he had lost his way as a hairdresser. One night, he went to the bridge to swing his sword around and suddenly met the chief. After a brief conversation, his samurai blood boiled up and he regained his confidence. He seems to be in love with P-KO. ; : :Played by: Norihisa Hiranuma :A man with a parrot head. He was formerly a member of a yakuza group and was well respected among the people. However, he fell in love with the wife of his boss. He would occasionally say very cool things, which usually makes Kou and Hoshi scream "aniki". He seems to believe that he really is a bird. ; : :Played by: Kurume Arisaka :A woman in a bee suit who implies she has thousands of husbands and children, as she thinks she really is a queen bee, though is also in a 'forbidden' relationship with Billy. Before she started living under the bridge, she was the wife of a yakuza boss. She had an affair with one of the members in the group, who was Billy. She owns the village's salon. She can not stand not being with Billy for more than a few seconds, saying that she will die. As shown during their anniversary, she went insane after being away from Billy. ; : :A self-proclaimed defender of Earth who believes it is under threat from Venusians. He is actually a manga artist under the pen-name ''Potechi Kuwabara''. He wanted to do

sci-fi Science fiction (sometimes shortened to Sci-Fi or SF) is a genre of speculative fiction which typically deals with imaginative and futuristic concepts such as advanced science and technology, space exploration, time travel, parallel universe ...

manga but was forced to draw moe manga by his editors. He laters lives in Arakawa for a bit, before Kou found his editor. He later made an odd sci-fi manga with its characters based on the Arakawa residents and having artwork akin to

JoJo's Bizarre Adventure is a Japanese manga series written and illustrated by Hirohiko Araki. It was originally serialized in Shueisha's ''shōnen'' manga magazine ''Weekly Shōnen Jump'' from 1987 to 2004, and was transferred to the monthly ''seinen'' manga ...

, it was not very popular. ; : :An Amazon warrior who lives in the Saitama district who, along with her henchmen who wear tengu masks, defend the secret Amazonian treasure, which is really some Saitama sweets. She wears very heavy makeup, and she is considered not very attractive, but if she has a clean face, she is very good looking, shocking Kou. She will sometimes change her personality between a gruff Amazoness and an annoying teenage schoolgirl. She falls in love with Kou, as he was able to get a prize from their sweets. Her henchmen hypnotize him, to fall in love with her. But Hoshi helps Kou. She later realizes that in the end, no matter what she does Kou only has eyes for Nino. She later falls in love with Hoshi when he encouraged her to keep on trying.

Media

Manga

The manga, written and illustrated by Hikaru Nakamura, was serialized in

Square Enix is a Japanese Multinational corporation, multinational holding company, production enterprise and entertainment conglomerate, best known for its ''Final Fantasy'', ''Dragon Quest'', ''Star Ocean'' and ''Kingdom Hearts'' role-playing video game ...

bi-weekly ''seinen'' manga magazine ''

'' from December 2004 and July 2015. Three special chapters were published in ''Young Gangan'' between October and November 2015. Fifteen volumes were collected in ''

tankōbon is the Japanese Japanese may refer to: * Something from or related to Japan, an island country in East Asia * Japanese language, spoken mainly in Japan * Japanese people, the ethnic group that identifies with Japan through ancestry or cultur ...

'' format, with the first one released on August 25, 2005, and the fifteenth on November 20, 2015. All volumes have been translated into English and published online by

Crunchyroll Manga ''Crunchyroll Manga'' is a digital manga anthology published by Crunchyroll in North America. It began distribution on October 30, 2013. The service launched with a lineup of twelve titles, with chapters released simultaneously with their Japan ...

Vertical Vertical is a geometric term of location which may refer to: * Vertical direction, the direction aligned with the direction of the force of gravity, up or down * Vertical (angles), a pair of angles opposite each other, formed by two intersecting s ...

announced during their 2017

Katsucon Katsucon is an annual three-day anime convention held during February at the Gaylord National Resort & Convention Center in National Harbor, Maryland. It is traditionally held in February over Presidents Day weekend and was previously held in var ...

panel that they have licensed the manga.

Volumes list

Anime

''Arakawa Under the Bridge'' was adapted into a 13 episodes series by the studio Shaft and was directed by

Yukihiro Miyamoto , occasionally nicknamed Otokomatsuri, is a Japanese animator and director. He started at animation studio Vega Entertainment, and later joined Shaft. He is best known for directing '' Puella Magi Madoka Magica'' and its subsequent film trilogy a ...

with chief direction by

Akiyuki Shinbo is a Japanese animator, director, writer, and storyboard artist. Best known for his works with Shaft (company), Shaft, he has attained international recognition with the studio for his unique visual style and storytelling methods. Born in Koor ...

. The anime adaptation was announced in August 2009, aired on

from April 4 to June 27, 2010. A second season, titled , aired in Japan from October 3 to December 26, 2010.

NIS America is a Japanese video game developer and publisher. The company was founded in 1991 and has developed several role-playing video games, most notably the ''Disgaea'' and ''Marl Kingdom'' series. Its mascot is the penguin-like ''Disgaea'' character ...

announced that they had licensed the first season. The first season was released in a

Blu-ray The Blu-ray Disc (BD), often known simply as Blu-ray, is a digital optical disc data storage format. It was invented and developed in 2005 and released on June 20, 2006 worldwide. It is designed to supersede the DVD format, and capable of sto ...

DVD The DVD (common abbreviation for Digital Video Disc or Digital Versatile Disc) is a digital optical disc data storage format. It was invented and developed in 1995 and first released on November 1, 1996, in Japan. The medium can store any kind ...

combo set in July 2011. In November 2011, NIS America announced they had licensed the second season, setting the release date for February 7, 2012.

MVM Films MVM Entertainment, also known as MVM and MVM Films, is a British licensor and distributor of Japanese animation. The company also sub-licenses anime titles from US anime companies such as Media Blasters, Geneon, Nozomi Entertainment, Urban Visio ...

announced that they would release both seasons on subtitle-only DVD in the United Kingdom in late 2013.

Television drama

A television drama adaption was released on July 26, 2011 on TBS and July 30 on production company MBS. This article is a translation of original article by eiga.com

Live-action film

A live-action film adaption of the manga, starring

Yu Shirota is a Japanese-Spanish actor and singer, most known for his role as Kagurazaka Makoto in the Japanese television drama live action adaption of ''Hana-Kimi'', Kunimitsu Tezuka in the '' Prince of Tennis Musicals'', Tuxedo Mask in the Sailor Moon ...

, and

, released in Japanese cinemas on February 4, 2012.

References

External links

''Arakawa Under the Bridge''
at

''Arakawa Under the Bridge''
anime at Starchild
''Arakawa Under the Bridge''
anime at

Drama website (MBS)

The bridge shown in the manga and anime
from

Google Maps Google Maps is a web mapping platform and consumer application offered by Google. It offers satellite imagery, aerial photography, street maps, 360° interactive panoramic views of streets ( Street View), real-time traffic conditions, and rou ...

* {{Yukihiro Miyamoto 2010 Japanese television series debuts 2010 Japanese television series endings 2004 manga Anime series based on manga Gangan Comics manga Manga adapted into television series School life in anime and manga Seinen manga Shaft (company) Square Enix franchises Surreal comedy anime and manga TV Tokyo original programming Vertical (publisher) titles