Ranked #917

Abenobashi Mahou Shoutengai

Imagine that a pre-teen comes home from vacation to find out that his life collection of boyish and geeky paraphernalia has been lost in the ruins of the place he once called his home. Consider too while he's dealing with that, his best friend tells him, rather nonchalantly, that she will be leaving Osaka to live in Hokkaido (which, as far as he is concerned, might as well be the other side of the world). To top off a rather taxing day, he witnesses an event that would cause his world and his best friend's world to be smashed into a thousand pieces.

Wouldn't you just want to get away from it all as well?

Sasshi gets his wish when he and his childhood friend Arumi are suddenly warped into various worlds that seem constructed right out of any gamer or otaku's dreams. Magical Shopping Arcade Abenobashi is wild trip of an anime, following Sasshi and Arumi as they dimension hop from one alternate version of their home town to the next. Each world is more bizarre than the last, but they all have one thing in common: they are all set in the shopping arcade in which Sasshi and Arumi have grown up and spent their lives. They jump from a medieval RPG Abenobashi, to a space colony Abenobashi, to a Jurassic Abenobashi, and lots of others. In these worlds, you can die countless times and come back to life every time--death does not exist. Only space pirates, triceratops, chibi gangsters, and the cast of the Terminator, Robocop, Indiana Jones, Titanic and an assortment of other strange and unusual things.

If you want to take it on a shallow level, it can work. Magical Shopping Arcade Abenobashi, despite its moments of drama and underscored romance, never forgets for a minute that it is a comedy series. If you want to take it on another level, this anime is also fodder for thought. What we have here is a fun, goofball, screwy comedy/parody series that also serves as a fine lesson in the art and effects of physical, mental and emotional escapism.

While thinking too deeply about this anime might seem like the odd thing to do, it manages to take something you assume to be light-hearted and pure fun and twist it in ways to make you think and feel a little more. In silly and mindless ways, it gives you a serious issue but with a smile. The undercurrent is slightly melancholic with a tinge of bitterness, but the overtone is that of high and manic energy with lots of randomness and comical situations to go around.

Magical Shopping Arcade Abenobashi is a gorgeous anime that utilises various styles during its course. Super-deformed, chibi, realistic, artsy, and experimental artwork is used in abundance. There is always a lot happening on screen and yet the explosions of colour and action is never distracting. There are some amazing visual gags as well.

The music for this series is pretty good. The OP is truly a treat and is sung by Hayashibara Megumi, a seiyuu vet who does not lend her voice to any of the characters, but is a staple voice actor for most of Gainax's biggest projects. The voice acting for this anime is top notch in any language you choose to watch. The original Japanese audio has some amazing work, and it is one of the few series with the leads speaking primarily in Osaka-ben (an accent from Osaka). The English dub might be considered by purists to be ear sore. However, it is one of the best dubs done for a comedy series. While it is irksome that Osaka-ben usually translates to a country hick American accent, the English voice actors do astounding work. The background music is mostly ragtime in nature; light, comical, fun. Some tracks are memorable while others do not make much of an impact.

Not only does the anime have spectacular presentation, but its other components are excellent as well. The story works so well because of the characters. The growth of Sasshi and Arumi, despite them being two loudmouthed, brash, rough and outspoken characters, is rather subtle. All the while they are hemming and hawing, screaming or laughing or simply just being rowdy and making noise, they are also growing. It plays out quite naturally since they never compromise their personalities nor do they suddenly just change--their growth is a gradual one, happening with every episode in an almost unnoticeable but very present manner.

Sasshi, while just seeming to be the resident pervert and geeky otaku, ends up revealing to us that he is actually more considerate and caring than his crassness lets on initially. If you pay attention to his little actions and some of the things he says, you will see just how much of his life is spent trying to follow Arumi around to make her happy.

Arumi as well, while she might just seem to be the hammerspace fan-weilding voice of reason in the series, is also given a certain amount of depth. She, unlike Sasshi, accepts reality, which is ironic considering just how much Sasshi loves these fantasy worlds and how much good he thinks they will do for Arumi. From the beginning, we see that she is much more mature than Sasshi, but perhaps a little harsher and for good reason. Unlike him, she knows just when something is unchangeable, and so accepting it is the only logical though most painful option.

The two protagonists provide contrast, not only in a comic sense but also as complex characters. Sasshi is stuck in his ways and never sees the need to mature despite desperately wanting to experience that growth. He ironically proclaims that he is not a child and he wants to grow up and yet everything he does is a clear testament of his incapability to do so. Arumi sees the world in a grander perspective. She seems to be the only one of the children who is aware that Osaka, and especially Abenobashi, is not the "be all and end all" of the world.

There's a reason the OP theme focusses on a map of Japan and why a globe is a prominent recurring image in this anime--she wants to go further and further in life. Unlike Sasshi, she understands that dimension hopping and going to different worlds is meaningless since each is a copy of Abenobashi. She is aware that they are going places without going anywhere at all. That is not growing or progressing at all, and Arumi knows it.

For what it is worth, this anime merits a watch despite the lack of a satisfactory or sensible conclusion. Though of course, this is a Gainax production after all. Having an ending that makes sense or does not seem like a slap to the face is asking just a bit too much. The literal "What the...?"/"Are you kidding me?" final episode aside, this anime is definitely a strong comedy that manages to give you something a little extra in the thought department.

Magical Shopping Arcade Abenobashi, at its core, is an anime about a boy who just wants to protect his best friend and to some extent, himself as well. Even if it means jumping from one dimension to the next just so home and the real world seems a bit further away without them actually ever leaving. Sasshi and Arumi make the most of going from one fantastical world to the next, with one of them trying to suspend their happiness and the other knowing that happiness only comes from trying to move on with life.

Running away is something that we all do when we are not strong enough to face life and its obstacles directly. So if we're going to run away from reality, why not have some fun along the way? read more

Abenobashi Mahou Shoutengai is pretty much Excel Saga meets Alice in Wonderland, with a suprisingly good story line thrown in for good measure.


The story pretty much surrounds two really good friends Arumi and Sasshi. Who happen to live in a rundown project area called Abenobashi Shopping District thats on the verge of being replaced with a new develpment complex. Of course noone wants to leave but then, everything just starts to go awry quite fast. This is where the 'falling down the rabbit hole comes in' Some seasoned anime watchers will be thinking this is alot like Excel Saga but the only connection will be that they are stuck in wierd (not random) enviroments. Beyond that everything will make sense the more you watch the show. Overall, the show manages to bring comedy, drama, action, fantasy, and even romance in to one nice fun 13 episode package.

When you hear people talk about how important having a good production company is for an anime, Abenobashi would be a perfect example. Gainax and Madhouse are two of the best companies in the businesss and watching this show you'll see why. Theres so many dfferent handpainted backgrounds, that i lost count at about 100 per episode. And the art themes and backgrounds are very different in every episode which makes this show such a joy to watch. On top of that the comedy gags are just so funny you cant help but laugh out loud. Some comedy shows can get by just by having a poor art and great characters, but if you want to see what a comedy can be like with high qualtiy art, this would be the show. I cant forget to mention that the shows characters all show such a diverse range of emotions (and body parts) that fit perfectly with every situation. They use comedy faces at the right times, drama faces at correct places, all of them are displayed with such timing and style its almost eerily perfect. Its hilarious how they manage to pull off so many anime, movie, and video game gags in such a small amount of time. Also my only gripe is that the cast sometimes talks too fast but thats also for comedy purposes

Another thing with the characters is that the voice cast are just perfect for this show, the two main characters are polar opposites from each other but sometimes on occasion they switch roles which makes them fun to watch. You'll manage to love and hate both of them in equal amounts. Most of the other characters are so hilariously good that you'll wish you can get them out of you memory banks. The ugly characters are rife with age spots and the youthful characters are filled with beautfy and sexiness. Speaking of sex theres alot of ecchi sittuations in this show, so if you don't mind a little skin with your comedy its there, Theres even a large amount of ecchi jokes that most people might find offensive but is still hilarious in their own right.

Usually when somone hears the same sound effects robbed from other places its a bad thing. But in this case, robbing or emulating the same sound effects are perfect for this show and whats makes this anime so top notch. It was so fun trying to spot all the different sound effects and spoofs and place them with their original place. The high quality sound actually carrys on to the songs. The background music cosists usually of big band style music perfect for a comedy pair such as Ayumi and Sasshi. The op song is perfect as its a very up beat fun song excellent to set you in the mood of watching the show. Whereas watching the ending song gives you almost a nostalgic feeling (complete with black and white japanese history slide show) which you should be feeling after watching one episode of Abenobashi with all the fun spoofs and such. I can safely say i've seen the op and ed every time and thats usually hard to do.

Overall, the show was paced perfectly, comedy was spot on, sight gags were more than perfect, more than enough media spoofs all throughout the show, and it was all just a generally fun ride throughout. Typically the general public views anime as a cartoon with slapstick comedy, boobs, and alot of screaming (like Akira). Thats a pretty good description of the show in a nutshell. This is one of the show's that would be perfect to show a new anime viewer. Everyone should watch this show regardless of their preference, because even if it sounds like the same formula (from Excel Saga) it is far from it.

Not a big fan of giving all 9's and 10's but that my honest feeling about this show.

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