Arakawa Under the Bridge – 05

So, this week we finish up Maria’s introduction, meet another new character, have Stella’s welcoming party, and discuss everyone’s jobs/roles Under the Bridge.

But first, it’s a new OP!  This one features Maria’s dysfunctional relationship with Sister and Miyuki Sawashiro provides the vocal – tis quite good.  Its got brilliantly amusing lyrics, lots of sheep/goats, and mannequin imagery that reminds me of the excellent Maria+Holic OP 😆

Must say I like Maria – her delight at getting a reaction out of Sister is really cute.  Also very amused that the heavy lifting Sister enlisted Ric’s help for, was actually transporting Sister himself!  Seems he’s well used to Maria’s barbed tongue opening his old wounds – his lack of any other  facial reaction is all down to his mercenary training to resist torture 😀  His attempt to hide his embarrassment once Ric points out Sister blatantly fancies Maria, was hilarious – using a grenade to provide a hole to crawl into!  Oh Sister, you are amusing 🙂

Moving on, Ric is asked to get some veggies for the party and meets our next new character – P-ko, a green-fingered, red-haired dojikko voiced by Omigawa Chiaki. The way she slid on those banana skins was comedy gold!

P-ko is cute, although I can’t profess to love Omigawa’s voice – it’s very screechy, I’ve always had issues with her.  I like the way P-ko grows veggies with each resident of Under the Bridge in mind – she clearly takes pride in her work.  Felt sorry for Nino when P-ko accidentally slapped her (when aiming for Ric) – the look on her face was priceless!

At Stella’s party all the usual suspects gather.  It was amusing to see Ric’s attempts to bring Stella’s true nature to light – subtly objecting to the fact she escapes being bestowed a new name by the Mayor (who was too lazy to come up with a new one for her). Also Maria’s quick jibe of calling Sister a lolicon was enough to open that wound again – Sister is so sensitive!

Conversation turns to everyone’s jobs/roles in the Under Bridge community.  Nino is responsible for fishing (and she’s damn good at it!), even Hoshi has a role – he’s the resident musician.  The residents point out that Ric has been sponging off Nino – after all his CEO-in-training skills are completely irrelevant in this world!  Needless to say this horrifies Ric, being indebted to this community of weirdo’s would definitely kill him completely.

When it comes to light the only other Bridge resident without a defined role is Whitey, it’s the straw that broke the camel’s back for Ric – there’s no way he can take being placed on the same level as a man engaged in a perpetual game of walk the white line!The next morning, Hoshi provides the perfect excuse for Ric to once again demonstrate his superiority – a battle through the medium of music!!  Seems Ric has absolute confidence in his skill on the violin, and doesn’t bat an eyelid at Hoshi’s taunts.  The opportunity to compete really lights a fire under Ric – he’s spent so much time in the spotlight that that’s where he’s most comfortable…..the fact he can beat Hoshi at his own game seems to be a huge plus point too 😛  Really looking forward to Kou and Hoshi’s epic musical clash next week – Violin Vs Guitar, which will win!?

Fairly uneventful episode on the Nino/Kou front – it was mainly focused on the side characters.  Kou’s reaction to the residents teasing of him leeching off Nino was priceless; I can’t wait to see how he attempts to redeem himself next by battling it out with Hoshi though music!