Arakawa Under the Bridge EP04

Who is in it?
Saitou Chiwa plays the role of Stella. Chiwa has been in a lot of roles, but I think my favorite role she has ever played was Hazuki in Moon Phase. She also did Lavie in Last Exile. While she has done a lot of other anime roles, I have never seen her play a role like Stella.

Maria is played by Sawashiro Miyuki. So, I had a harm time figuring out who this girl actually  was. Surprisingly she was Shinku in Rozen Maiden and the one that really threw me off guard was how she was Pucchi Charat in Di Gi Charat. Maria's role was relatively small in this episode, but her character is hilarious so I figured I'd add her now.


What happened?

Episode starts off with Nino and Rec continuing on their date. The both of them completely unfamiliar with dating begin to try and figure out at what distance they should be on for their first date. 

Nino and Rec discover Nino's grass boat. The boat was stuck on some twigs in the middle of the river. Nino explains how she really wanted it to go to the ocean. Rec takes this moment to do something that Nino actually really wants, he goes to free the boat from the twigs.  He falls in and ends up getting saved by Nino and the boat is freed from all the commotion. Nino blushes infront of Rec and the next part of the episode begins.

Stella is introduced at the 2nd part of EP04. She just runs up and hugs Sister no problem. Stella, having come from an orphanage in England, came looking for Sister. Stella was well raised by Sister and the unfortunate Rec would find that out.

Rec gets left alone with Stella and is responsible for keeping an eye on her. They decide to play, but Stella's idea of playing is a one on one fight. Recruit accepts the challenge half jokingly. It is pretty safe to say Stella owns the hell out of him and is told to stop by Sister.  After the fight Rec more or less becomes Stella's bitch.

When Recruit sees her later, He thought it was just his imagination. Stella deftly crushes that idea and reminds him that he is the "little brother" now. Recruit is pretty confused by that but, it is pretty safe to say Stella owns him.

The last part of the episode is when Maria is introduced. Maria is an interesting character she's pretty much a sadist and loves trying to break down people mentally. Sister is trying to get eggs and chicken from Maria. She runs the riverbed farm and while she doesn't seem to mind getting the things she constantly tries to slander Recruit and Sister. Recruit realizes Sister just takes it and is afraid of knowing why. 

Themes?

Well, I guess when Recruit falls into the water trying to save Nino's ship can be seen as Recruit realizing you don't need materialistic items to show love, but just doing something to help the girl you care about is more than enough.

Final Remarks:

The episode introduced two new characters and I'm sure they will be interesting to see on the riverbed.