Anime Review: Arakawa Under the Bridge

It’s difficult to place this show. On the surface it is an episodic wacky slice-of-life comedy. Only it eschews most of the cliché settings in favor of taking place under a bridge and starring a dozen or so weirdos. And they really are weirdos in the strongest sense. These aren’t your typical characters who are portrayed as “wild and zany” but still lead relatively normal lives going to school/work and so on. No, these people live under a bridge so you know already there is something wrong with them as they willfully choose not to participate in normal society. And it is a deliberate choice because none of them seem to be poor hobos either. Well, probably.