Arakawa Under the Bridge Reihe

“Could you help me fall in love?” Kou Ichinomiya, a young man born with a silver spoon in his mouth and raised with the mantra “never owe anyone” suddenly finds himself deeply indebted to a young homeless woman, Nino, who lives on the Arakawa river bank and claims to originally be from the planet Venus. When Nino rejects all of Kou’s mundane offers of money or housing, Kou is at a loss for how to repay his debt, until Nino suddenly asks him to teach her about love. A daunting task, but the over-achieving Kou is determined to return Nino’s favor. And so begins Kou’s life under the bridge, along with a band of eccentric characters who have formed their own little community outside the boundaries of typical Tokyoite life…

Best-selling mangaka Hikaru Nakamura (Saint Young Men) makes her English language debut with this surreal comedy starring a 620-year-old water sprite, a man with a star for a head, a nun, and a samurai who runs a barber shop under Tokyo's Arakawa Bridge. “Let’s go to Venus!” And so the river bank denizens begin training that will let them go to Nino’s extraterrestrial hometown. But do any of them have what it takes to make it in space? A trip upstream brings Rec into contact with a tribe ruled by an Amazoness, who soon sees Nino as her rival. Everyone helps build a house for the Mayor and a park for the Metal Brothers. As the cast of characters expands daily life on the river bank becomes ever more eventful…