Arakawa Under the Bridge/Characters

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A list of characters from the Shaft series Arakawa Under the Bridge, a Widget Series about an eccentric group of homeless people that have formed a community under a bridge on the Arakawa River.

Recruit (Kou Ichinomiya)

Voice Actor Hiroshi Kamiya

The main character. A straight-laced young man who is good at everything he tries, he follows his family's mantra, “Never put yourself in debt to anyone” to the letter. Unfortunately, this is what lands him in the strange community of Arakawa. He's a teacher in the river village.

Nino

Voice Actress: Maaya Sakamoto

Recruit's love interest and the reason he lives under the bridge. A strange girl who believes she's from Venus. She has a strange obsession with fishing and provides them for the community.


The Mayor/Village Chief

Voice Actor: Keiji Fujiwara

The head of the Arakawa community. An odd man that constantly wears a kappa suit, he manages to corral and lead the members of the village with a good amount of (misguided) skill.


Hoshi

Voice Actor: Tomokazu Sugita

A former musician who hit rock bottom and now lives under the bridge. He's always seen wearing his trademark star mask. He's also in love with Nino and always tries to make Kou look stupid in front of her. Under the bridge, he provides all the music for events.


Sister

Voice Actor: Takehito Koyasu

A former soldier that became a man of the (wrong) cloth once he came to Arakawa. He constantly carries all manner of guns with him and clearly still holds a military mindset. He provides church services under the bridge.


Stella

Voice Actress: Chiwa Saito

A young girl from England who was raised by Sister in an orphanage. She has a noticable crush on him and appears sweet in general, but she is actually highly skilled in martial arts and is rather accomplished in several underworld trades. She can also transform herself into a musclebound man three times her size thanks to Sister's training. She serves as a yakuza boss for the community.


Maria

Voice Actress: Miyuki Sawashiro

A former spy who came to live under the bridge. A sadist at heart, she delights in emasculating every man in the community, especially Sister, with whom she has a history. She runs a sheep farm for the community.


The Iron Brothers, Tetsuo and Tetsuro

Voice Actresses: Yuko Sanpei (Tetsuo), Ryoko Shintani (Tetsuro)

A pair of brothers always seen wearing iron helmets. They claim to have been experimented on and have psychic powers, which are only kept in check by the helmets. They are very lively and run an oil drum bathhouse under the bridge.


Toru "Shiro" Shirai

Voice Actor: Hochu Otsuka

A former salaryman who now lives under the bridge. He can't go anywhere unless he's able to walk on a white line, so he always walks with a field striper.


P-ko

Voice Actress: Chiaki Omigawa

A young woman who lives under the bridge during the growing season. While cute, she's horibly clumsy. She has an unrequited love in the Mayor. She runs a vegetable farm for the community.


Takai

Voice Actor: Cho

Kou's assistant from his company. He came searching for Kou when he never came back to the office. He is steadfastly loyal to his boss, but also has a very unhealthy obsession with him. He oversees the running of Kou's company in his absence and helps Kou with his projects under the bridge.


Shimazaki

Voice Actress: Rie Tanaka

Takai's assistant, a beautiful, but somewhat shady lady, who seems to play her own game under both Kou's and his father's heads.


Seki Ichinomiya

Voice Actor: Rikiya Koyama

Kou's father and CEO of one of the most powerful companies in the city, if not Japan. He firmly believes in never being indebted to anyone and has instilled that in Kou. A cutthroat businessman, he gets what he wants when he wants it and proudly stands tall over his accomplishments.


Last Samurai

Voice Actor: Yuuichi Nakamura

Once a master hairstylist and attractive man, he got sick and tired of his lifestyle and ran away with little more than a katana from his family's house. After an accidental meeting with the Mayor under the bridge, his "samurai spirit" was awakened, and now he speaks in an older Japanese dialect and wears a topknot as he lives with the community by the Arakawa river. He still uses that same katana to cut the hair of the Arakawa people.


Billy

Voice Actor: Fumihiko Tachiki

Rumored to have once been the boss of a Yakuza-like gang of bird-headed people, and supposedly betrayed their trust when he fell in love and eloped with the bee princess Jacqueline. It's debatable how much of that story is true, but what is known is that he is deeply in love with her.


Jacqueline

Voice Actress: Yūko Gotō

A girl in a bee costume who fell madly in love with Billy and is practically inseparable from him. She runs a day spa called Queen Bee under the bridge.


Captain

Voice Actor: Tomokazu Seki

A Mangaka who publishes his works under the pen name "Potato-chip Kuwabara." A total sci-fi geek who likes to think of himself as a space captain defending the Earth from aliens. He becomes interested in the people living under the bridge when he sees Nino, who he thinks is a Venusian plotting to destroy the planet.

Amazoness

Voice Actress: Yuu Kobayashi

A mysterious Amazon woman who lives down the river from the community. Her personality constantly shifts from that of an intimidating warrior to a high school girl. She's rarely seen without her cell phone and has a love of all things made in Saitama. She works for an unknown person and is often surrounded by a trio of "tengu" (guys with tengu masks and bikini tops worn over their t-shirts).


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