Arakawa Under the Bridge - the manga

Arakawa Under the Bridge (荒川アンダー ザ ブリッジ) is a romantic comedy, sci-fi manga by Nakamura Hikaru.  The series was published between 2004 and 2015, with 400 chapters compiled between 15 tankoubon.

    The series follows Ichinomiya Kou, the heir to a powerful business conglomerate who was raised by a twisted set of ideals.  His entire life the core principle of his family has been drilled into his consciousness, never be indebted to someone.  He does everything he can, going to extreme lengths, to not have anyone do him any favors.  His luck completely changes as he is assaulted by pants stealing hoodlums on a bridge over the Arakawa river.  A strange woman named Nino retrieves his pants, thus putting Kou in her debt.  Before he is able repay that debt she saves him from drowning in the river.  Nino tells him that he can repay her for saving his life by being her boyfriend.  Thus Kou becomes the newest resident of the Arakawa river basin.

    Life in the river is incredibly odd as the other residents are unique characters running away from one thing or another, though they all flatly refuse that fact.  Kou has to deal with the eccentirc neighbors in his effort to repay the strange girl who has suddenly become his girl friend.  Nino claims to be an alien from Venus.  The 'neighborhood' is run by a man wearing a kappa suit/claiming to be the famed yokai, named Mayor.  A man with a star head see's Kou as his romantic rival for Nino's favor.  A cross dressing mercenary known as Sister acts as the area's religious figure, his love interest is the sharp tongued farm owner Maria.  Two run away twins who claim to have psychic powers and are hiding from a research facility.  A throw back to the Edo era samurai barber.  A crazed gardener who is in love with the Mayor and a man who ran away from home due to his obsession with white lines.

    The series follows the crazed collection of personalities on their day to day antics of life under the bridge.  From celebrating Christmas, harvesting the crops, running a carnival for the kids, fighting an Amazon from up river, dealing with unrequited love, fending off the plots of a group run by a Mole man...you know, normal stuff.  At the core is the mystery of who Nino really is and what circumstances lead her to living under the bridge.  The entire time Kou has to deal with understanding why everyone has chosen to live there while at the same time retaining his own identity amid the craziness.

    One thing that stands out in the manga is the artwork, the character designs, particularly their range of facial expressions are good.  The story though doesn't seem to really congeal towards some sort of end goal until around the half way point.  Before then it is sporadic in nature with no real progression.  Hints are dropped along the way as to what the great reveal at the end of the series will be, yet the author may not have had that planned out until the series was already established.  At times the story arcs are a chore to get through but for the most part the manga is a rather enjoyable read.  Part of my issue with it may stem from watching the anime first.  The anime was made before the story was completed so it doesn't get into the ultimate reveal at all.  In then end it was worth the read but I was glad to be done with it.

    The series is currently available in hard-copy from Square Enix and is available electronically via Crunchroll.

Japan's Most Successful Manga

Manga is big business in Japan and is responsible for substantial economic and cultural influence.  Otaku fandom in America is the reverse of Japan where manga accounts for around four times more sales than anime.  Since the beginning of the 21st century though manga has steadily become as prominent in America as anime.  But with out a doubt, it is incredibly important in it's home country.  But who retains the title of the most successful manga in the history of modern manga?

    Really a product of the post war reality of Japan, the manga industry as it exists took root in the late 40's and early 50's.  A number of factors contributed to its growth and entrenchment in the nation psyche.  It provided an inexpensive way to entertain the general population.  The American occupation encouraged its expansion and the provisional Japanese government saw it as a great tool to integrate into the national education system.

    Almost all manga is first printed in large anthology publications, generally in weekly or monthly installments.  The anthologies are only a few dollars each and are printed on low quality paper, designed more as something to be discarded.  Readers are asked to participate in ranking the manga that appear in the anthology by listing their favorite titles and mailing that info to the magazine company.  Sometimes, especially in anthologies aimed at youth, entries are eligible to win prizes.  The successful manga continue to run and eventually get reprinted in higher quality stand alone books called tankoubon.  Manga that fall at the bottom of the rank for too long are usually cancelled.  The manga Bakuman by the creators of Death Note details this system quite well and is worth reading.

    So, what is the most successful manga?  There are a few ways to answer that so here are the top 10 lists for a few different criteria.  This data is directly taken from the Wikipedia article which lists the rankings and includes data taken from various Japanese sources and is indicative of sales figures in Japan only.

Top 10 manga series by number of overall tankoubon sold.

 1. One Piece: 380 million.  81 tankoubon.
 2. Golgo 13: 280 million.  177 tankoubon.
 3. Dragon Ball: 230 million.  42 tankoubon.
 4. Naruto: 220 million.  72 tankoubon.
 5. Black Jack: 176 million.  17 tankoubon.
 6. Kochira Katsushika-ku Kameari: 198 million.  198 tankoubon.

 

  7. Case Closed: 150 million.  86 tankoubon.
 8. Oishinbo: 130 million.  111 tankoubon.
 9. Slam Dunk: 120 million.  31 tankoubon.
 10. Astro Boy: 100 million.  23 tankoubon.

    These number though are a little misleading.  A thing to take into consideration is the number of tankoubon that exist in a particular series.  While not exactly accurate, but perhaps a little more telling when it comes to a series actual popularity, is to see how the series compare when you reconsider the sales data as representing the number of people who have purchased all available tankoubon for each series.  By doing that, while not entirely accurate, we get a clearer view of a manga's actual popularity as opposed to its over all sales volume.

Top 10 manga series by estimating how many copies of each tankoubon sold.

 1. Black Jack: 10 million copies of each tankoubon.

  2. Dragon Ball: 5.4 million copies of each tankoubon.
 3. One Piece: 4.6 million copies of each tankoubon.
 4. Astro Boy: 4.3 million copies of each tankoubon.
 5. Slam Dunk: 3.8 million copies of each tankoubon.
 6. Touch: 3.8 million copies of each tankoubon.
 7. Fist of the North Star: 3.7 million copies of each tankoubon.
 8. Naruto: 3 million copies of each tankoubon.
 9. Attack on Titan: 2.7 million copies of each tankoubon.
 10. YuYu Hakusho: 2.6 million copies of each tankoubon.

   Some series in the list have the benefit of being around for decades while newer series have sold incredibly well in only a few years.  Here is the top 10 most successful manga based on the average number of tankoubon sold in a year.  The average is found by dividing the total sales by the total years since the first tankoubon of the series has been available.

 1. One Piece. 21 million per year on average.
 2. Naruto. 13.7 million per year on average.
 3. Attack on Titan. 8.75 million per year on average.
 4. Dragon Ball.  7.4 million per year on average.
 5. Case Closed. 7.1 million per year on average.
 6. Golgo 13. 6 million per year on average.
 7. Bleach. 5.8 million per year on average.
 8. Kochira Katsushika-ku Kameari. 5 million per year on average.
 9. Vagabond. 4.8 million per year on average.

 10. Slam Dunk. 4.8 million per year on average.

    With all that said and done, based on the evidence of these 3 criteria here is what I determine to be the 3 most successful manga series in Japan. 

 1. One Piece. 380 million copies, between 81 volumes over 18 years.
 2. Dragon Ball. 230 million copies, between 42 volumes over 31 years.
 3. Naruto.  220 million copies, between 72 volumes over 16 years.

  One Piece is assumed to only be about half way through its story as well.  Dragon Ball was concluded in 1995 and Naruto ended in 2014.  By and far One Piece will remain the most successful manga in the history of manga, even if it suddenly losses all popularity and is cancelled in a few years.  So there you have it, some semi-empirical data to show what the most successful manga in Japan is.

Making Japanese Food at Home

A year and a half ago I did some writing on Japanese cuisine I make at home.  I wanted to revisit and expand on that.  All you really need are a few key ingredients and you can wing it for a large amount of Japanese food.

    To make a large assortment of Japanese food you need these ingredients; soy sauce, mirin/sake, wakame and instant dashi.  Wakame and dashi can be hard to find outside of Asian specialty grocery stores, but, thanks to the age of the internet, can be easily sourced online.  If a recipe calls for mirin and you only have sake you can add sugar to the sake.  An incredible amount of Japanese dishes require some or all of these ingredients as they are staples of washoku.

    While specialty rice is beneficial for making sushi and other recipes that require forming the rice, most any rice will do as an accompaniment with food you make.  Simple and delicious dishes can be crafted by making a simple broth with the basic Japanese ingredients (soy sauce, mirin/sake, dashi).  Just bring the ingredients to a boil in a few cups of water.  The measurements of the individual ingredients are more to taste than anything, but start off with small amounts.  A few table spoons of soy sauce and mirin at a time and teaspoons of dashi.  The dashi will dissolve as its cooked and everything will blend well together.  From there you can add all sorts of things to the broth, different vegetables, tofu, meat.  There is really no limit to what you can do in merging the tastes.  Hard boiled/soft boiled eggs work very well, potatoes, tofu blocks, green onions, garlic, corn, cabbage, etc.  Pour the resulting soup over a bowl of rice for an incredibly filling meal.

    Rice can be eaten with basic ingredients as well.  In Japan seasoning blends known as furikake exist to eat exclusively on rice.  If you want to spice it up you can also add the Japanese red pepper product called togarashi, which is commonly used in noodle/soup dishes and increases in heat when cooked.  Both are somewhat difficult to find outside of Asian grocers, but I have begun to see furikake in 'normal' grocers.  There is also the wonderful world of internet shopping to alleviate any issues finding these items.

    While not required, a rice cooker is one of the handiest things to own.  While I am a pretty good cook I have always had problems making rice on the stove.  The rice cooker I received as a present in 2000 has served me well and refuses to die...much to my annoyance as I really want to get an expensive, super fancy one.  Simple and incredibly easy to use.  The higher end ones has timer and warmer settings and different cook modes for different styles of rice and can even be set to produce entire dishes, not unlike a slow cooker.  There exists and entire recipe category in japan of meals that can be made in a rice cooker.  The unit I have been using for 16 years now only cost about $30 and just cooks rice, but it is amazing in that regard.  The nice rice cookers that start having all the bells and whistles begin at about $150 and can go up to $300 before hitting commercial restaurant grade models.

    When you have the basic ingredients there is little excuse to eat pre-made ramen in any format, particularly given how horrible it is for you.  While fresh ramen noodles are difficult to source outside of Asian grocers (look for lo mein noodles) you can easily substitute in rice noodles which are widely available.  Dehydrated soba and udon noodles are becoming increasingly easy to source and cost under three dollars for a package which contains a number of servings.  While you will be hard pressed to save more money making the ramen by scratch you can easily match the price of a single package of Maruchan when you figure out how much you are actually spending on the amount of each ingredient used for a bowl of home made ramen.  From there you can add all sorts of ingredients into it as well as more seasoning using spices readily available in the average American home.  If you're feeling especially motivated you can make your own noodles as well.  At a minimum you only need flour, salt, baking soda, a rolling pin and a knife.  Fresh noodles can be frozen for use later so its best to make a large batch of noodles at a time.

  If you have access to a Trader Joe's you can find a surprising number of specialty ingredients for Japanese cooking, particularly miso paste and various styles of tofu.  They also carry a good assortment of quality rice and frozen vegetables that work in all manor of Japanese dishes.  As a bonus...pick up some ice cream filled mochi for a delicious desert after your flavorful meal.

    For the more adventurous there is the entire world of pickled food, tsukemono.  Unlike western pickles, tsukemono are quicker to prepare and are designed to be eaten soon after making.  Easy food to use for making tsukemonno are; ginger, cabbage, egg plant, garlic cloves, cucumber, daikon radish, carrots, peppers, etc.  You would be hard pressed to find a common vegetable that does not have a tsukemono recipe.

    In general daily Japanese cooking is easy to do with a few basic ingredients always on hand and a small amount of preparation.  Sushi and the more fanciful restaurant dishes are usually specialty items that people don't eat on a daily basis.  Traditionally the core of washoku is rice, miso soup and tsukemono.  Remember that people in Japan make food by hand, from scratch just as much and just as easily as people in America, so there's no reason you can't do the same.  Adding some of these dishes and ideas to your diet aren't a bad thing either.  We all like variation and depending on what you are making, Japanese cuisine can be quite healthy.  Not all though...beef bowls and tonkatsu aren't any better for you than pizza and cheese burgers.  But Japanese cuisine can provide excellent ways to increase your vegetable intake if you are hard pressed to do so otherwise.

What Show's Have Survived the Cut for the Season

We are closing in on the halfway mark of the Spring 2016 season, so it's time to take a look at the series' I started watching in the beginning of the season and see whats remaining and why I have dropped the one's no longer in the cue.

What's sticking around.

  Haven't You heard? I'm Sakamoto: While the series isn't always 'on' when it comes to its comedy and delivery it is still fun to watch how smooth Sakamoto is and how ridiculous his response to any situation is.

  Tanaka-kun is Always Listless: Perhaps one of the best of the season...  A good example of how to make something mundane and boring enjoyable.

  Flying Witch: Not the greatest series of the season, but not bad.  Its quiet and hypnotic...but it has no general direction and weaves an over all story of mundane life with an apprentice witch over its episodic story telling.




  MS Gundam Unicorn: While this remake of the OAV series of the same name is a much welcomed return to a good Gundam it still reminds me I hate Gundam for usually casting an unassuming hero teenager as its lead.  When will Gundam Thunderbolt episode 4 drop?  That is a much better story with excellent artwork.  The head transforming on the Unicorn Gundam is really really stupid.  Have I ever mentioned I actually hate how Gundam's look and prefer Zaku?  Gundams are ugly and reinforce the notion that its based off of super sentai hero's, which I really dislike.

  Kuma Miko: Surprisingly funny series, even if its way of advancing the plot if rather boring.  This and almost all of the other series I am watching this season are relying too much on episodic story telling.  But, this series is enjoyable, cute and the main characters are really likeable.

  Rin-ne: While not as good as I would like, Rumiko Takahashi's latest super natural comedy series is still worth the time, even if the writing for this season isn't as strong as the first.

 
Still in danger of being dropped.


  And You Thought There is Never a Girl Online: Complete innocent fap fodder with horribly sexist character designs.  There is an underlying/overt idea behind the series relating to the dangers of people who have a difficult time distinguishing between reality and fantasy.  This series could become significantly better if it turned dark as it neared its run, who knows.

  Shonen Maid: The series is bumbling along with each episode as it's establishing the personalities of the main characters.  It's hard to tell if there will be an overall plot or if it will continue to be episodic and plod along with no clear goal.

  12-sai Chiccha na Mune no Tokimeki: This slice of life romance has become quite boring and uninteresting.  Its as boring as Isshukan Friends but doesn't have the overall goal that boring series had.  It just plods along with no real goal as it shows the boring everyday interactions of idiot school kids.  In fact, this has convince me to stop watching it.

  Big Order: This series is a strange amalgamation of a shonen super power action series, soft core ecchi and man kinds darkest desires.  The artwork, particularly the CG, is pretty bad.  Character types that are old and worn out and a story that isn't very original.  I think the thing that keeps me watching it is the fact that it keeps changing between each episode.  It's strange, not entirely original and boring in many aspects.  But through out are peppered moments of oddity or humor that keep me going...can't say for how long though.

  Space Patrol Luluco: The first series from the people behind the genesis of Trigger that hasn't quickly thrown me off.  I am still unsure if this will stick around as the story drifts pointlessly into obscure absurdity.


Dropped.

  Macross Delta: I have no love for how far Macross has gone to pander to the worst aspects of anime otaku with this series.  Any ideas anyone had that Macross was partially a labor of love and story telling are gone now with this seriously poorly planned money making scheme.

  The Lost Village:  It took 5 1/2 episode to put the nail in the coffin but this is an incredibly horrible and pointless story.  The idea of watching the worst personalities of people who 'live' online dying through their own stupidity was not enough to justify continuing to watch this mess of an attempt at suspense and mystery.  Horrible characters, horrible animation, horrible execution.

  Pan de Peace: The recent-ish trend for incredibly mundane slice of life series; such as Is the order a Rabbit, do little to entertain me and are more of a waste of my time.

  Neko Neko Nihonshi: This one was dropped due mostly to the difficulty of availability.  No one is translating it, legal or otherwise and raw copies are hard to come by,
 
 12-sai Chiccha na Mune no Tokimeki: See above.

  It's really kind of a dud of a season...unfortunately.  I don't see any of these shows being memorable years later.  I look forward to Summer and Fall as some shows of manga I am reading are hitting the air waves.