

The man with the village chief's voice is only seen twice in both seasons. In
the first instance, he was protecting Arakawa by stopping Rec's father's plan
to develop the area by influencing a senator. The second time is when he
sneaked up on Shimazaki while she was digging up info on Nino, where he
threatened to kill her if she continued.

Given how he was able to influence a senator to stop the Arakawa Development
Project even with Rec's Father's influence with his own company (which was
seen when the contractor that Rec hired pulled out as he learned who Rec's
competitor company was), **just what is the village chief's real position in
society?** (By the way, that was one of the rare moments when he was seen
outside his kappa suit. He seemed to be wearing more traditional Japanese
robes and not a business suit).


CC BY-SA 3.0
2013-09-25T22:34:58.290
5305
2017-04-12T13:15:24.027
2015-02-01T15:08:18.803
1398
1587
question
arakawa-under-the-bridge
What position does the village chief have when he's not a kappa?


This is purely a prediction on my part. I did not read the books nor comic if
the true identity was revealed, though I believe many of the mysteries in the
series is best to be left unexplained.

First, an analysis.

Village Chief is someone of great influence, able to influence the Minister of
Development against the biggest developing firm, Ichinomiya. He has access to
high quality and bizarre items (his fanned suit) and great wealth (enough to
compensate for whatever the Ichinomiya group was chipping in for the
minister), but he somehow chose to seclude himself from the society.

He does not have a particular tone besides random kappa related statements,
seems not to have been raised in a particular way, and is well accustomed to
the society when required to. He is well respected in the under bridge and
regarded by everyone, especially sister, as a dependable person. The two times
we've seen him in his usual self, however, he seemed particularly skillful in
infiltration (coming in behind Shimazaki in a supposedly off limit office
without her realising) and intimidation (threatened to kill). Threaten to kill
is a peculiar trait as it is vastly different from Ichinomiya's way of
intimidation via social and financial impact. It shows that he does things
differently from politicians and businessmen. At final speech of Minister of
Development, when asked by his subordinate who is he, he answered, "It's
better for you not to know". Of both the time he appears, he wears a kimono.
During season 2, we also gain insight that he is about the same age group
(middle age) as Shiro (discussion about health and argument) and he is bad
with group work (refuse to stay a week with the team, not a team player, more
of leader or someone who simply gives orders rather than receiving them).

So there, Village Chief is/was a wealthy, influential person. He has great
leadership, is mostly a lone wolf and does not shy away from intimidation by
death. He also does not have speech traits, is well accustomed to society and
wears mostly a kimono.

Remember Jacqueline when Billy did not come for their anniversary? She changed
into a kimono when decided to head back and kill the head of the bird gang
leader if something were to come to Billy. Kimono is something that Japanese
mafia are obsessed with.

If I am to guess, he is/was the head of a big, dangerous mafia gang which has
lots of financial background and ties on different background. Its influence
and financial ground is at least on par with Ichinomiya group. I couldn't
predict why he left, there is just too many possibilities without any ground
to go on. He could be retired, betrayed, still on a relatively hands-off
business with the gang, mafia dissolved, etc etc....


CC BY-SA 3.0
2016-01-04T15:30:28.810
28667
2016-12-16T14:06:36.467
2016-12-16T14:06:36.467
8486
20216
5305
answer


Spoiler:

> he is the leader of the Yakuza.


CC BY-SA 3.0
2017-04-12T11:15:55.253
39820
2017-04-12T13:15:24.027
2017-04-12T13:15:24.027
14883
31937
5305
answer