1-It’s retro, that means older, and thus better.
2-It’s about anti-escapism, a commonly praised theme and message among that part of the community and a reason to consider everything with it as better.
3-It’s made by Gainax, the once upon a time best anime studio.
Well, unfortunately, I gotta say I’m quite dissatisfied with this title all things considered.
Not in terms of visuals though, because, for a 2002 anime, Abenobashi is pretty well animated. It maintains a good artwork and well done special effects, and since almost every episode takes place in a different world, the backgrounds are always changing and are interesting to look at. The character designs are fairly typical and derivative but since the series is filled with references, they tend to change art styles every so often, with all of them being integrated organically and well enough, given its comical purpose. The motions range from ok to very good, and the directing is full of energy to make up for when the characters are not actually moving at all.
The soundtrack is also pretty good, although I’m not a fan of the opening and the ending is typical and easy to forget. The background music combines decent to good pieces along with parody versions of well known anime and live action movies, without losing the epicness of the originals. Voice acting is wacky but well done, and sound effects are good but affected because they also imitate older titles and sound mixings.
But still, for most of its duration, the show still feels like an episodic referential comedy that loses its point and direction midway, with no anti-escapism message making up for that.
Yes, they serve a purpose for a couple of scenes and making clear that it’s a result of the protagonist not wanting to face reality, but was a whole season needed for that? I don’t think so. As far as I’m concerned, only episodes 1, 7, 9 and 13 actually move the plot, along with some scenes from the others here and there, while the rest works against it.
What I’m getting at here, is that a movie or a short ova series in the likes of other made by the same studio such as FLCL or the Top wo Nerae! mini franchise would have been more than enough of a duration, and work in its favor.
Plus the actual core behind the plot and setting is no more than a sappy love story around characters that aren’t given enough focus and aren’t very likable on their own. They feel like they couldn’t let go of events that happened way ago in their pasts and that are the ones escaping reality the most and never break that cycle, so the message is lost when it comes to them.
On top of that the whole message is contradicted at the end because, when the protagonist is about to face the reality he so desperately wanted to avoid, he gets a magical wish that nullifies the main conflict that started his escapism. And yes I know that that is not exactly true, I’ve seen the very final scene, but that only makes it worse because the cycle continues and the characters keep escaping reality, so what was the point of anything?
Plus when you think about it, it doesn’t make much sense how every world is subconsciously created by the protagonist, yet he barely has control about them, includes younger versions of people he doesn’t know about, and eventually is revealed that has a weird fixation over his grandmother. So much for the different and well written anime comedy and isekai that is not perverted like the ones that come out now.
The main characters are memorable and have good characterization considering their age and stuff, and the support and secondary ones are eventually fleshed out through flashbacks and exploration of the settings, but since what they learn is undone by the ending, it can’t be said that they have proper development and catharsis, and are thus just ok as a whole.
The series is ok as a parody, as it isn’t lazy about it to tell you the jokes directly like other do, and it does a good job in mixing the jokes even in its audiovisual aspect, the characters are ok on a basic level, and an anti-escapism message is always welcomed, especially for what its subgenre would become. But as a whole I can’t say that the series is that well written in any way and thus I consider it overall mediocre and very well forgotten, perhaps even a bit overrated by retro fans.
