Arakawa under the Bridge 5 – another ninja
May 4, 2010
The Mayor keeps the peace on the bank of the Arakawa River.
Episode 5 of Arakawa under the Bridge continues the story of Stella’s welcoming party. A couple of new characters are glimpsed, and a proper introduction is provided for P-ko-chan. Maria finds the most vicious way possible to compliment Recruit, and Recruit and Hoshi end up in a pissing match.
P-ko grows vegetables for the people under the bridge.
The cast for this show continues to amaze me. P-ko, introduced in this episode is voiced by a relatively new seiyu, Chiaki Omigawa (Jun, from Natsu no Arashi). She has the sort of voice that can really sound like she is breaking down in tears, which made her lines about Ric being a pepper-insulting ninja that much funnier.
Maria (Miyuki Sawashiro) spread her own malicious sort of cheer throughout the episode. I made a separate post about the new OP, which features Maria. The episode picks up with Sister, bleeding from Maria’s killing blow. Fortunately Sister has planned ahead, by bringing a cart for Recruit to transport Sister back from this engagement. Unfortunately Sister will be viciously attacked by Maria at least twice more this episode. Including an utterly cruel moment in the show’s closing moments.
Sister gave her all for the woman she loves.
Even more unfortunately for Recruit, Maria finds Recruit’s weakness at the welcoming party and viciously attacks him as well.
Hoshi, seeing an opening, can’t help but start a pissing match with Ric. Ric, being Ric, can’t help but accept the challenge. I have to say I don’t think fighting Hoshi on his terms is a great plan. Since Hoshi is a bit of an idiot, it would probably be wiser to ignore him. Instead Ric has seemingly decided to lower himself to Hoshi’s level.
Hoshi's job is to be an obnoxious jerk. He's quite good at it.
Beyond merely introducing new characters (which it did do), this episode gave us deeper insights into Sister, and returned to the matter of Recruit’s aversion to being in anyone’s debt. Further, Ric’s sensitivity to the matter has been exposed to Hoshi (who believes himself to be a rival for Nino’s affections) and Maria (who enjoys tormenting people).
Abandoned Factory Anime Review 
May 5, 2010 at 10:05 am
At this time, the radio called “Arakawa FM” is on the air in Japan and that one is presented by both Keiji Fujiwara “Sontyo” and Chiaki Omikawa “P-ko” as a host and that is fun in terms of atmosphere itself possesses which is kind of lazy and laid-back kind of thing. Also Arakawa itself is a lot of fun!!
May 5, 2010 at 12:11 pm
I thoroughly enjoyed this episode, especially the sister and Maria part. Aww, poor sister had to use hand grenade to hide in shame from Rec! LOL!
I was amazed that Stella’s ‘boss mode’ wasn’t shown but Hoshi was an idiot as usual. I simply love Maria, how cruel yet interesting! Nino didn’t get much screen time but Rec continued to sink lower with his shenanigans. I predict by the series end, he would get out of his debt-phobia, hopefully!
May 5, 2010 at 12:56 pm
@ikuyasakuto: Very cool. It would do me no good to listen, because I wouldn’t understand a word, but, somehow, I’m jealous anyways.
@Kyokai: It truly is amazing to have such an intense character as Sister, and then have that character utterly demolished by another one. Maria’s “gag” at the end was beyond cruel, because in addition to the rejection and public humiliation she heaped on Sister, Maria accepted losing the gag contest just to get her own private laughs.
May 5, 2010 at 9:56 pm
I think Ric’s response was perfect. He was in pain from knowing that he couldn’t contribute, but Star came to him with something that he COULD do. Something he has full confidence in.
Sure, competing against Star won’t win points from Nino who doesn’t really care if Ric is useful or not as long as he does what he loves. But it’s something he can wrap his head around, something he knows he can do, and even if he “loses,” it’s going to validate himself in his eyes. If he wins, it’s gonna be a massive ego boost.
May 5, 2010 at 11:25 pm
Well, that’s an interesting take; instead of suffering passively, at least Ric is trying to find a way to contribute to the community. I agree with you that this isn’t going to impress Nino.