The Tama River in Hime-chan’s Ribbon Ep. 41

June 14, 2019

Himeko’s hometown, Kazetachi (風立), is based on a real city, Kunitachi (国立), Tokyo.

The Kazetachi Station in Hime-chan’s Ribbon vs. the real Kunitachi Station back then:

Since Kazetachi is based on Kunitachi, the river seen in HCR is likely based on a river in Kunitachi, and actally there is only one major river in Kunitachi, namely the Tama River. The bridge seen in Episode 41 is possibly the Sekido Bridge, one of a few bridges over the Tama River that existed near Kunitachi when the show first aired.

The bridge in Ep. 41 vs. the real Sekido Bridge. Close enough?

In this episode, Yumeko and Shintaro see the evening sun from this bridge, and another bridge (seemingly a railroad bridge) is also seen in the same direction.

The pictures below show the views from the real-world Sekido Bridge:

The Sekido Bridge is Point A on the following map, and the other bridge seen in distance (B on the map; upstream) is for a railroad called the Keiō Line. The Tama River and its subsidiaries are shown as bluish lines.
(click to enlarge)

If the above guess is right, the two kids are in Tama City (多摩市), some 5 km (3 miles) south of Kazetachi/Kunitachi. Actually, one can even see a blurred sign that reads “XX City Community Center” (XX市市民会館) where XX almost looks like Tama (多摩).

It is also possible (though less likely) that the bridge in question is the Hino Bridge (Point C on the map). If so, the two are in Hino City and the other bridge they see in the distance could be D (a bridge for the Tama Toshi Monorail Line) or E (a bridge for the Chūō Main Line). As for the three other bridges between B and C shown on the map, one of them is cars-only, and the other two did not exist when this episode first aired. So, if not purely fictional, the bridge in this ep is probably A or C (otherwise, it would be too far from Kazetachi).

Either way, they are walking from south to north (as the evening sun is on their left side), which is the right direction to Kazetachi (Kunitachi)!

The green line on the map is the Chūō Expressway E20 (cars-only), which appears in Episode 8 (See Hime-chan’s Ribbon: Episode 08 Annex). The red line is a highway.

Incidentally, the name Kazetachi itself is probably based on the title of Hori’s novel, Kaze Tachinu (“The Wind Has Risen”), which in turn is based on a line from Paul Valéry’s poem (“The wind is rising! We must try to live!”). The original title of the 2013 Ghibli movie The Wind Rises is also Kaze Tachinu, based on the same novel. If translated, Kazetachi would be (literally) “[the town of] Windrising” or (vaguely) “Windyville/Breezyville.”

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