What Do I Owe You? (Arakawa Under the Bridge)

Image: Screenshot from the show's opening.

Arakawa Under the Bridge is a comedy anime about a bunch of hobos living along a riverbank in Tokyo. The anime never gives the impression that anyone was supposed to take it seriously, but nonetheless, the underlying themes of the show are quite interesting. Between the surreal humor and crazy characters, there's a heartwarming tale about learning to accept the kindness of others and to live interdependently with others.

Kou Ichinomiya lives by one rule.
"Never be indebted to another person."
It may initially seem like quite a naive philosophy to live by. After all, one must rely on others to maintain the quality of life befitting an individual living in a first-world country in the 21st century. But what the rule really seems to mean is that debts should never be left unpaid. When Kou must reluctantly ask others for favors, he is careful to provide compensation ahead of time. Though most of the time, he simply refuses to receive aid from others.

Kou finds himself in a predicament when his life is saved by Nino, a local homeless woman from Venus. Having vowed never to be indebted to another person, Kou asks Nino what can be done to compensate her for having saved his life. After some pondering, Nino asks Kou to help her experience love. Through his relationship with Nino, he seems to learn bit by bit to accept the kindness of others.

When Kou moves in to the riverbank to spend more time with his new "lover," Nino, he is introduced to an eccentric cast of other strange riverbank dwellers. Here, his financial assets are irrelevant to the residents of the informal settlement who are strangely content with their circumstances. The community of homeless people inhabiting the area is juxtaposed against the ultra rich Kou, who believes that certain things are owed when people act to help others. Outcast from society, the residents of the Arakawa riverbank operate under a different system where each resident undertakes a job to help the other residents free of charge. In this community, nothing is owed for the services each resident provides, much like a close family.

Aside from the ideological divide between Kou and the other residents depicted throughout the show, Kou's philosophy is also challenged directly. When Kou demands to help Nino in return for saving his life, Nino asks him, "Do you guys only help others when you want something in return?" It is also noteworthy, and quite humorous, that he only finds himself indebted to Nino because he refused to ask for help before his near-death experience. In spite of the lengths Kou goes to adhere to his rule, he never seems to demand others also follow it. Throughout the show, he readily helps others, expecting nothing in return.

This strikes me as a novel element in the themes conveyed by this anime. It may be quite evident that people should be kind to one another and that one should try to be a good person. But what isn't expressed often enough is that one should also accept the kindness of others. You should be willing to take others' help when it is offered, not because you deserve to be helped, and not because you are owed something. You should be willing to take others' help because to help one another is what it means to live in a community.

-Post by Kai