arakawa bridge x bridge nine & ten

I wanted to wait until Episode 11 aired before reviewing Episodes 9 and 10 – because 9 and 10 were so, so very unamusing – but after some thought, I realized that would be rather irresponsible of me. Plus there’s no guarantee that Episode 11 would have any substance to it. So I may as well get it over with.

So rather than trying to come up with the words to… describe what kind of Episode Nine was, I’ll just put up some pictures that pretty much highlight anything worth seeing in this episode. I have to be honest in saying that Episode Nin was possibly the least amusing episode of Arakawa I have ever watched. It has nothing to do with the main storyline (that being Nino’s past) and it didn’t make me laugh. Maybe it’s because I don’t understand how a proper Japanese tea ceremony is conducted.

What mildly interested me was how tightly wound Shiro-san has Shimazaki wrapped around his pinkie. Not to mention the revelation of how supportive and understanding his wife (and daughter) is. It was also mildly amusing to see Maria exercise her control over her man. It wasn’t just, “No you can’t go to the Tea Ceremony,” but “No you can’t go and get me more coffee.” No requests. No pleases. No thank yous. Just do it.

I also have to admit I was just a little impressed with P-Ko’s tea party and how they served café affogato! Although, espresso is usually a single ounce of strong coffee rather than a full cup, but I won’t go nit picking about unimportant details. (If you’re a chocolate lover, try a mocha affogato.) However, that’s what happens when there’s no plot to focus on.

Slightly more amusing than the previous episode but still completely unrelated to Nino’s past, the community Under the Bridge band together to lose enough weight to accommodate Sister’s muscle mass. Three schools of weight loss are formed under the jurisdictions of P-Ko, Sister, and Jacqueline.

P-Ko, the expert of food diets takes Nino and Stella under her wing and together restrict themselves to a diet of only strawberries. The results: Three very hungry women who are no less weighty than when they started.

Sister’s Beyond Boot Camp succeeded in turning Hoshi, Last Samurai, and the two Iron Brothers into… four bulky, super-muscular men who weigh five times more than what they did when they started. He did succeed in eliminating their body fat though. Too bad muscle weighs more than fat.

The only school that yields “proper” results is Jacqueline’s Aesthetic Approach: therapeutic massage. Realistically, massage does release toxins and if it’s in a hot environment then you can sweat out those toxins and shed some water weight, but I’m not sure how massage tones your body. None of the massages I’ve ever gotten sculpted my body like how Jacqueline’s sculpted Recruit (and presumably the Mayor too).

Part two was nearly more irritating than the Amazoness but that’s probably because the Iron Brothers are the least liked characters Under the Bridge. The only good thing about the whole Tetsuo/Tetsuro muscle madness was seeing Sister all sparkly and happy. Plus it’s been a while since we’ve seen Stella in Boss mode.

Now that all that’s said and done, we haven’t seen any story progression since Episode Six and with the season winding down, we really need some more revealing and conclusive elements. Otherwise the beauty that is Arakawa will really have been ruined by this second season and all will regret that it ever aired.