Kou Ichinomiya, as the son of a wealthy businessman, has vowed never to become indebted to anyone. However,when he falls in the river under Arakawa Bridge, someone dives in to save him, thus he owes his life to this person. She is a homeless girl named Nino who wants only one thing – to fall in love. In order to pay her back, he accepts her offer to be her boyfriend, thus moving out of his home and starting a new life under the bridge.
From an outside glance, this series looks like abstract oddness. However, it has a lot of thought-provoking moments and a nice romance you didn’t expect. If you are looking for more anime recommendations like Arakawa Under the Bridge, then head on down below.
Anime Like Arakawa Under the Bridge
For Fans of Societal Commentary
Sayonara Zetsubou Sensei
Nozomu Itoshiki is a high school teacher that is so pessimistic that even small misfortunes can send him spiraling into a pit of despair. Surrounded by increasingly insane students, Nozomu’s unique brand of despair has its own way of affecting them, often in a positive manner.
Both Arakawa Under the Bridge and Sayonara Zetsubou Sensei look like absurd comedies with their respective plot hooks. However, while you do get that comedy, what you also get is a lot of profound moments that make comments about society.
Humanity Has Declined
After constantly declining birth rates, human civilization is almost extinct. The few humans left now coexist with fairies who have extremely advanced technology and very little regard for humans safety. The story follows a mediator between humans and fairies that tries to make it so both races can live peacefully.
Both shows are about a sort of odd situation, but it is through this new situation that those in it can provide you with a different perspective on life. While you can expect this more in Arakawa, the societal commentary is rather unexpected in Humanity Has Declined.
Mawaru Penguindrum
The Takakura family has always been dealt equal hands of joy and sorrow by fate. For the twin brothers Kanba and Shouma, they have had more than their share of sorrow with their parents dead and their sister critically ill. When their sister Himari is given temporary leave from the hospital, they take her to the aquarium where she collapses. However, Himari is inexplicably revived when a penguin hat from the souvenir shop is put on her head. Her revival comes at a cost, though. There is a new entity in her body that tasks the boys with finding the mysterious penguin drum.
Both Arakawa and Mawaru look like they would be more insanity than actual plot. However, once you start watching, you find something much deeper going on, and it is fascinating. Both series can merit multiple watches because there are a lot of things you might not catch at first.
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For Fans of Ordinary Guy, Extraordinary Lover
Ground Control to Psychoelectric Girl
As if to grade his own life, Makoto Niwa constantly tallies the amount of negative and positive experiences he has. When his parents move overseas and he moves in with his aunt, he looks forward to the fresh start, but there he discovers his unknown cousin – Erio. While he is a normal boy by all accounts, she claims to be an alien, thus throwing his normal life out the window.
While Arakawa is an actual romance, you will find the same sort of situation in Ground Control to Psychoelectric Girl. As they are related, there’s no romance in that one though. Still, in both, a normal guy gets entangled with a girl that thinks she is an alien, turning his life upside down.
My Bride is a Mermaid
Michishio Nagasumi is living a normal life when he almost drowns on summer vacation. He is rescued by, of all things, a beautiful mermaid. Unfortunately, she is from a yakuza family that states if a human sees a mermaid, either the human or the mermaid must die. To save her life, Michishio agrees to marry the mermaid and become part of this crazy family.
Both series follow the premise that one day a normal guy meets a girl, and she turns his life upside down. The comedy stems from that situation, and in both is augmented by the odd characters within. However, My Bride is a Mermaid doesn’t have the same thought-provoking moments that Arakawa Under the Bridge has.
Bakemonogatari
After surviving a vampire attack, high school student Koyomi Araragi finds he has several supernatural side effects that remained after being cured including the ability to rapidly heal. While trying to live a normal life after the event, he ends up catching a classmate, Hitagi Senjougahara, as she fell down some stairs. As he catches her, he discovers that she is near weightless after being inflicted with a curse. After enlisting the help of the easy-going wandering Shinto priest that helped him with his vampirism, Araragi finds himself embroiled in not just Senjogahara’s issue but several different supernatural events afflicting those in his town.
While Bakemonogatari has a more supernatural element, it has quite a bit in common with Arakawa Under the Bridge. Both series are heavy on dialogue, have an occasionally rapid pace, and can be downright weird sometimes. In both series, all that starts with a girl entering the life of a normal guy.
For Fans of Odd Characters
Tsuritama
Yuki Sanada is a socially awkward young man that, due to his grandmother’s job, has to move around a lot. He has all but given up on making normal friends until he moved to the town of Endoshima. There he meets a man named Haru who claims to be an alien. It turns out Yuki was right on one account, he would never make “normal” friends.
Both anime series are about normal people who suddenly find themselves friendly with someone who believes they are aliens. From there, shenanigans happen in a town or area that just happens to be packed with odd people.
Sarazanmai
One day, after a weird run in with his classmate, Kazuki and two of his classmates knock over a Kappa statue in Asakusa and meet a creature named Keppi. Before they know it, they are turned into kappa-like creatures and tasked by Keppi to destroy kappa-zombies if they want to become human again.
On occasion, Arakawa Under the Bridge can make you wonder what is going on. It is like that all the time in Sarazanmai. However, the biggest thing these two series have in common is the kappa creatures.
Grand Blue
Iori Kitahara is excited to travel to the seaside town of Izu for his first year of college. He moves into his uncle’s scuba shop, Grand Blue, but things don’t go according to plan. Inside the shop is a bunch of naked and drunk upperclassman who get him drunk. After his cousin walks in, his college life starts to derail, but his work getting it back on track doesn’t go quite as planned either.
Grand Blue is a tamer version of Arakawa Under the Bridge. The characters are still unique and odd, but less odd than people like Hoshi or the kappa chief in Arakawa, for example. Regardless, both shows can be amazing comedies as well as just strange.
Do you have more anime recommendations like Arakawa Under the Bridge? Let fans know in the comments section below.
