Magical Shopping Arcade Abenobashi

Magical Shopping Arcade Abenobashi



Gainax has done well here. When not gazing at their life-size Asuka dolls, they take the time to make something as unique as Magical Shopping Arcade Abenobashi. I must say, the ability to spoof your own works is what really has my attention here. A bizarre (and the narrator claims this as well) set of worlds provides an amaziingly unique anime. While searching to describe this series, it is difficult to specify a single genre it fits into. Abenobashi is...special.

ADV does their typical AD Vid-Notes to pass on tidbits about cultural references as well as pointing out many of Abenobashi's references to other pop-culture icons. While Gainax was the main producer of this series, they farmed out the animation to Madhouse. Madhouse, known for Trigun, dives right in, creating a very vivid world. The artwork and animation for this show mixes in a lot of different styles, working their way through the various worlds that the main characters find themselves in. What's fascinating about the entire visual look is how the character designs and animation style are constantly changing depending on the situation and action on the screen. Madhouse does a great job of keeping the transitions smooth, helping to add to the overall comedic affect the show is trying to achieve.

Abenobashi starts off slow, very slow, establishing the world Sasshi and Arumi live in, then drops any chance of normalcy with a night filled with dragons and a group of exercising mushrooms. From there, things really go insane as Sasshi and Arumi find themselves trapped in different versions of the shopping arcade they both grew up in. Don't mind the word Arcade, it's not what you think. The show quickly moves from its rather dramatic start of a doomed way of life to a series of continuous parodies on RPG video games, Big Robot and Sci-Fi stories and a bit of Hong Kong action flick to round out the disc. Abenobashi relies on a simple premise, but it's what happens on the way to the end of each episode that makes the trip enjoyable.



Abenobashi contains some adult material and is not suitable for children. Such material includes partial nudity, profanity, giant mechs, large-breasted women, boys smothered in said breasts, dinosaurs, space ships, Voltron, panty-thieves, and other glorious greatness.




It can be found here on Amazon for $45 if you want the set.

I give it two Ryo-Ohki's up!



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Originally Posted by RockgamerXIII

Nice Review, but it seems more like it should be in a anime review/recommendation thread rather than having its own thread. I don't know how much discussion you can get out of a four-year-old, not too popular series.

Ehh, I enjoyed it. Perhaps I should have not deleted the part where I noted favorite spoofs and such.

The EVA episode (2), and the Dragon Ball take-off was nice. I worried that the series may not have been worth the money, but I seemed to have enjoyed it.

There's nowhere I can't reach.

Its okay if you don't finish EVA. Drinking Bleach (no anime pun intended) sounds more alluring than watching it a second time. Actually I love it.

But I was impressed with the randomness in it that allowed for a dozen different worlds to basically have the same concept.

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Originally Posted by CLOudkiller

But I still like their self-parody which is pulled off in most of their releases.

I found the ability to use the music exactly as-is to be completely awesome. What was with it turning into Voltron though? :\

I am a dolphin, do you want me on your body?