Anime Review: Magical Shopping Arcade Abenobashi

Review Magical Shopping Arcade Abenobashi Written by Warpshadow Rating good/ very good

As long as there are genres of shows there will always be people who makes parodies of said genres. This is one of those parody shows and fortunately it doesn't require all that much prior knowledge to get the jokes.

Sashi and Arumi live in the Abenobashi area in Osaka. All the shops in the area are being closed with the restaurant that Arumi's grandfather runs being the only hold out. One day grandpa sees a cat siting on the store's pelican sign and tries to shoo it away but is hurt in the process and the sign smashed. The sign was actually far more important than anyone realized for it was actually a magical talisman that kept the energy of the area in balance. With it broken Sashi and Arumi are sent to another world and have to find their way home.

Magical Shopping Arcade Abenobashi is a fun parody of quite a bit of things since Sashi and Arumi go to another world each episode. It is a ribald comedy with a style similar to FLCL (no suprise since this is a GAINAX show) although not dripping with cool the same way FLCL did. There are some more serious moments but these tend to interfere with the comedy. This is not a great show, largely because it had no ambition to be a great show. It still is a fun show though.