Abenobashi Mahō☆Shōtengai

Abenobashi Magical Shopping District (アベノ橋魔法 ☆商店街, Abenobashi Mahō Shōtengai^?) is an anime series created by Satoru Akahori, based on the story of two children who accidentally enter a magical district. The series was produced by Estudio Gainax and consists of 13 episodes. In the United States it was sold initially in four CD volumes and then in three DVDs that also had some extra elements in relation to its predecessor distribution.

Plot

Arumi and Sasshi are two childhood friends who live in a quiet district of Osaka called Abenobashi. She, along with her father and grandfather, maintain a French food business, which must close due to poor sales of its products, causing the Arumi family to leave for Hokkaidō. The series narrates the last summer they spend together.

One day, they both discover that there is a key in the district and go to ask Arumi's grandfather, who suffers an accident that changes the course of events. Later, without apparent explanation, a discontinuity of time and space occurs, so that both begin a difficult journey through parallel worlds, in search of a return home.

Among the worlds they travel through are realities that resemble dating sims, fighting games, and Hollywood movie parodies. In many of them we find external references to movies and animes, such as Evangelion, 2001 a space odyssey, Love Hina or Die Hard.

Characters

• Arumi Asahina: Main character, who desperately seeks the return home. He puts the mood quota on every world they visit.
• Satoshi "Sasshi" Imamiya: Main character, who hides a secret that is revealed at the end of the series. Very messy and with very peculiar tastes.
• Mune-Mune: Girl wandering through the worlds waiting for her beloved man.
• Eutus: Satoshi Master to become a time and space controller.

Cast

Visited Worlds

These are the worlds visited by Arumi or Sasshi in the course of the story:

• A medieval style RPG gamewhere Sasshi dies and rises repeatedly.
• Science fictionwhere Arumi loses his underwear, and next to Sasshi, they go in their search mounted on a giant robot.
• Hong Kongwhere Sasshi must compete in a martial arts tournament.
• Prehistoricwhere Sasshi knows all the taxonomic classifications of dinosaurs.
• Police filmWhere they both are involved in a black film plot.
• MemoriesThis world does not come out of Sasshi's head, but it shows how the memories of several of Abenobashi's characters are.
• Appointment Simulatorwhere Sasshi is the protagonist of all appointments. Arumi goes crazy in this world.
• Pre-Meiji periodwhere Eutus lives and teaches him onmyoji techniques, using a pack of "do it yourself".
• Fairytalewhere Sasshi creates a cheesy world for Arumi, but she just wants to go home.
• World Warwhere Sasshi and Arumi are the generals of each army. Sasshi wants to keep Arumi from coming home to see how his grandfather dies.
• Movieswhere they both are wrapped in a series of Hollywood movies.