Not That Guy - Favorite Anime OPs part 7 - Arakawa Under a Bridge ~ Freak and Nitro TV!

In the genre of anime the openings are a serious component. Any anime worth their salt will put substantial effort into a polished opening sequence. While in the American market we treat openings somewhat like a book cover, something appreciated but nothing to judge by, for the anime an opening is often used as the first judgment of a series. It is the chance to not only illustrate the visual appeal and aesthetics but also gives the viewer an indication of the quality of the audio through their choice of soundtracks. In a genre where the visual and audio style can make or break a series the opening serves a vital role of promoting their creation. In many of the examples that I will be covering, you will be left with a strong impression of how you feel about the specific anime just from the OP's. The beauty of this though, is that often, this impression is correct.

In my last post I discussed the production company SHAFT and their tendency to focus considerable amounts of effort on their OP's (and ED's). Arakawa under a bridge is the perfect case example of this tendency.

Currently at two seasons and with a live action on the way Arakawa has received moderate success in the Japanese market. While not considered a classic or even the best anime for it's season Arakawa enjoys a strong following of loyal fans, myself included. The anime centers around an egotistical young male, Ric and a small community of peculiar inhabitants under a municipal bridge. Each community member has their own reason for living under the bridge and Ric is no exception. After accidentally falling off the bridge and nearly drowning, he is rescued by Nino, a blonde hair lady of unusual qualities. Indebted, (a crippling condition for Ric), he agrees to stay by Nino's side as her lover. The series focuses continues by focusing on Ric adjusting to his life under the bridge and exploring his newly formed relationship with Nino.

Despite having played for only two season Arakawa has composed and presented 4 different OP's and 5 unique ED's. Considering the financial disincentives of composing unique music scores and stand alone animations, this stands as an impressive feat. Their is a pattern to the madness however, two of the openings remain the standard stock opening for the entire season while the other two were episode specific. Both of the episodic openings focused solely on a single character and their relationship to the anime.

For the first season the OP is going by the name Venus to Jesus. I can see already I have yet another anime OP to sub into english once my main computer is working agian. The music is by Etsuko Yakushimaru, a generally lesser known J-pop singer but after listening to both this OP and next season (she sings for both) it is clear that she is certainly under-appreciated talent. The music is cute and catchy and combined with the coloring for the OP lends itself well to the feeling presented. The animated sequence focuses on the relationship between Ric and Nino, and gives some clues as to the mostly mysterious past of Nino. There is some obvious recurring themes throughout the OP, surely the fish are quite noticeable. This is character reference to Nino, her job and some of stranger qualities. This is venturing into the territory of personal opinion, but the sequence really seems to represent the chaos encountered by Ric in his relationship with Nino, his rebirth, his many failures and of course the ever present support from Nino who always seems to be immune to the same sorts of problems plaguing Ric. Its cute.

As a special treat in the fifth episode we get a custom character OP. The OP focuses on Maria a sociopathic sadist who subtly insults the men of the community for her own personal pleasure. She is an ex-military spy of unknown origins but of great skill and now runs the community farm for the bridge by lovingly raising sheep. Sister, a Brittish ex-military spy, who now runs the church under the Bridge is deeply in love with her but is also the target of her most foul insults. And so the OP is a tale told by Maria along those lines. It is actually sung by Miyuki Sawashiro (the voice actor for Maria) and gives slight props to Maria aholic another SHAFT production.

The second season brings more of the same high quality productions, with perhaps a the exception of the ED's for which the animation style really bothers me. Again, sung by the ever so cute Etsuko Yakushimaru this opening may be even more catchy then the first. Due to some severe copyright restricting going on in youtube for the song however, I can not directly embed the video on the page. Instead I refer you to an external site. This will also make posting a subbed version rather difficult. Go here.

Lets finish off with one of the ED's. Taken from the perspective of a video camera, the first seasons ED goes through all of the characters and scenes around the community.