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Title: Magical Shopping Arcade Abenobashi vol 4 - There's No
Place Like Home
UK Distributor:
ADV Films (DVD Only)
BBFC Certificate: 15
Suggested Retail Price (SRP): £19.99
Episodes: 10-13 (of 13)
Audio Options: English 2.0, Japanese 2.0
Subtitles: English
Reviewer: Rich (Webmaster)
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There are some great anime comedy series available in the UK
and the majority of them appear to be from ADV Films. From insanity
of Excel Saga through to the slapstick of Full Metal Panic? Fumoffu!,
their catalogue covers a lot of quality comedy titles, and Magical Shopping
Arcade Abenobashi has been a decent addition to their canon.
In this final volume Sasshi and Arumi’s parody laden hop through alternative
versions of the titular Osakan shopping arcade in parallel worlds is drawing to
its conclusion. Arumi just wants to return to the real world but Sasshi,
who received some shocking news in the previous volume, is trying to avoid
reality and doesn’t want to face the pain the real world will bring. His
fear is driving their dimension-hopping journey and if he can’t learn to face up
to the challenges of real life they may never return. Tensions have grown
between the pair and led to all-out war, and this being Abenobashi that means
tanks and guns in the rubble and barbed wire of a war-torn version of the
shopping arcade! Even if they can reconcile their differences there is the
small matter of the Hollywood shopping arcade to contend with, as well as the
mysterious Eutus and the terrible secret that Sasshi is desperately trying to
keep from Arumi…
The volume starts with the pair battling it out in a war zone, which for anyone
who has seen any of this series hardly comes as much of a surprise. So far
Magical Shopping Arcade Abenobashi has dragged us into parodies of
numerous film genres and through more surreal and bizarre situations than you
can shake a stick at, generally keeping its tongue firmly in cheek throughout.
However this time round there is a little bit of a serious edge to proceedings,
and this does seem slightly out of place compared to the majority of the series.
The humour is still there, but for two episodes it takes a bit of a back seat to
the drama. The madcap pace and sheer surrealism that has typified most of
the previous episodes is absent from a lot of the DVD and although the episodes
are still good they do seem sometimes like they are from another series.
This could be a drawback for the DVD if it wasn’t for one massive saving grace,
the Hollywood Shopping Arcade episode.
Saving the best till last, creators Gainax bombard the viewer with a slew
of film references and in-jokes, upping the pace considerably after the war
episode and cramming in a huge amount of laughs. Very little escapes their
gaze, and references to the likes of The Terminator, Halloween,
North By Northwest, The Shining, Titanic, The Thing and
even Monty Python pepper an episode which is easily the highlight of the
series. It is worth buying the DVD for this episode alone, even if you
have not seen the previous volumes, the only problem is that it makes the more
serious episodes on this disc seem lacking.
This is the last disc of a really bizarre and side-splittingly funny series and
it has to close off the story in a way that gives a reason for Sasshi and
Arumi’s situation. It does this pretty successfully, and the drama and
emotion of the last episode is surprisingly well handled, but you are left
feeling slightly unsatisfied at the lack of laugh-out-loud comedy at the series’
climax. This said there is still a fair amount of slapstick amongst the
soul searching, and there is a twist at the end you probably won’t see coming,
but it’s the Hollywood episode that remains the main reason to buy it.
The reduction in comedy for the majority of this disc is most definitely a
shame, but the Hollywood Shopping Arcade episode more than makes up for it.
The drama and plot twists at the end of the story are well delivered, but just
seem to be a little out of place when compared to the madness that has gone
before. Magical Shopping Arcade Abenobashi vol 4 ends with a moral
message about facing your fears and dealing with change, which in most series
would be fine but for this one seems like something of a letdown. Maybe it
is unfair to say this as Gainax do draw the series to a mildly thought-provoking
and emotional conclusion, but it’s a shame that there isn’t more of the riotous
insanity, as the series had the potential to knock Excel Saga from the
top of the UK anime comedy tree. As it is it falls just short, but as a
series it still remains one of the best anime comedies available in the UK.
Extras:
ADV are damn good at giving you value for money with
their extras, and this disc is no exception. As well as the standard clean
opening and closing sequences, we also get a small selection of voice acting
outtakes, a commentary from the US voice actors and the superb AD Vid Notes,
a handy extra which uses onscreen speech bubbles to explain the many references
and parodies. On top of the extras on the disc ADV also include a
reversible DVD cover and best of all a 20 page booklet done in the style of a
newspaper which features episode commentary, bonus artwork, a creator diary and
information on some of the historical references made during this volume.
Superb.
Ratings
Feature:
Extras:
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