These are all “versions of their shopping district Abenobashi”, and Sasshi and Arumi meet and interact with characters who resemble the people they know: Arumi’s father and grandfather, Sasshi’s older sister, the neighbourhood cross-dresser, a strange busty lady who is chasing a mysterious shaman-like figure.
#MAGICAL SHOPPING ARCADE ABENOBASHI SEASON 1 EPISODE 1 MOVIE#
With this premise set up, the show suddenly transports us into a series of fantasy worlds: a world from a medieval fantasy, a sci-fi space world, a spy movie world, a Hong Kong martial arts world, among others.
The shuttered store fronts, the easy banter between the childhood friends, the argument between Arumi’s father and grandfather all draw us into their lived experience and accentuate the melancholy of inevitable change. They are lazily fooling around one day, when Arumi drops the news that her family will be among the many who are closing up shop in the dying shopping district: they will be moving to Hokkaido for her father’s new career ambitions. Sasshi and Arumi are two early adolescents who have been friends since forever, growing up together in a shopping district in the Kansai region of Japan. The first episode is a fantastic mood piece that paints the melancholy of inevitable change. It is simultaneously a loud, bawdy romp and a coming-of-age story.
Magical Shopping Arcade Abenobashi (2002) is a 13 episode series produced by Studio Gainax and directed by Kojima Masayuki ( Monster, Made in Abyss). This year, I was given Magical Shopping Arcade Abenobashi. Management: Anime Secret Santa is a project in which bloggers (anonymously) give and are given anime to review.
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