Abenobashi Mahou☆Shoutengai

Abenobashi Mahou☆Shoutengai (アベノ橋 魔法☆商店街, Magical Shopping Arcade Abenobashi) is a Japanese anime television series created by Gainax, with animation produced by Gainax and Madhouse, and directed by Hiroyuki Yamaga. It was broadcast for thirteen episodes on Kids Station from April to June 2002. The series was licensed for English release in North America by ADV Films.

A manga adaptation, authored by Satoru Akahori and illustrated by Ryūsei Deguchi, was serialized in Kodansha's seinen manga magazine Monthly Magazine Z from September 2001 to August 2002, with its chapters collected in two tankōbon volumes. It was licensed for English release in North America by Tokyopop. Another manga by Kenji Tsuruta, titled Manga Abenobashi Mahō ☆ Shōtengai, was serialized in Kodansha's Monthly Afternoon from September 2001 to May 2002.

Synopsis
Sasshi's world is in disarray. His best gal pal, Arumi, is about to move away, and his Osaka neighborhood is being demolished in the name of urban renewal.

However, this little neighborhood has some surprises under its concrete—it's actually a portal to parallel universes. And when this section of the city is leveled, the portal is cracked wide open. Sasshi and Arumi soon find themselves being hurtled from one strange world to the next! Making matters even more surreal, is the fact that these worlds seem to spoof and mock popular movies, video games, manga and anime!

(Source: TokyoPop)

Light Novel
Satoru Akahori, GAINAX (Author) / Kenji Tsuruta, Hideyuki Takenami (Illustrator) "Abenobashi Mahou☆Shoutengai" KADOKAWA, 1 volume already published (as of November 30, 2002 only single volume)


 * 1) Released date November 30, 2002 - ISBN 978-4-04-412730-5

Manga
A manga adaptation by Satoru Akahori and illustrated by Ryūsei Deguchi, was serialized in Kodansha's Monthly Magazine Z from the September 2001 issue to the August 2002 issue, with its chapters collected in two tankōbon volumes released on March 19 and July 19, 2002. The manga was licensed for English release in North America by Tokyopop, who published both volumes on August 10 and November 9, 2004, respectively. The manga went out of print in 2009.

Character
'' to be added. ''

TV Anime
Magical Shopping Arcade Abenobashi was produced by Gainax and Madhouse. The series is directed by Hiroyuki Yamaga and Masayuki Kojima, with series composition by Yamaga and Satoru Akahori and screenplay by Jukki Hanada. The original character designs were done by Kenji Tsuruta. The music was composed by Shirō Sagisu. The series run for 13 episodes on Kids Station from April 4 to June 27, 2002.

In North America, ADV Films announced the series' acquisition at Anime Boston in April 2003. The series was launched in four DVDs from December 16, 2003 to April 20, 2004. The series aired on G4's anime block Anime Unleashed in 2005. It also aired online on Anime Network in 2009. AEsir Holdings re-released the series on a single DVD volume on December 11, 2012.

Staff

 * Planning/Original - GAINAX
 * Original Plan/Director - Hiroyuki Yamaga
 * Series production - Masayuki Kojima
 * Story Composition - Satoru Akahori Hiroyuki Yamaga
 * Osaka Dialect Comedy Rewrite - Tetsuya Tanaka
 * Character Draft - Kenji Tsuruta
 * Animation Character Design - Tadashi Hiramatsu
 * Setting Design - Hidefumi Kimura
 * Art Director - Hiroshi Kato
 * Color Setting - Harumi Takaboshi
 * Director of Photography - Hitoshi Yamaguchi
 * Music - Sagisu Shiro
 * Sound Director - Kazuya Tanaka
 * Producers - Shunrin Otsuki, Hiroyuki Yamaga, Masafumi Fukui, Taiji Deno
 * Animation Producers - Masao Maruyama, Yuki Sato
 * Animation Production - Madhouse, GAINAX
 * Production - Abeno Bridge Production Committee (King Records, GAINAX, IMAGICA , Dentsu)

Origins of the work & Parody Elements
This work is based on the unpublished script "Wizard" written by Hiroyuki Yamaga as an original for a digital novel planned by Takami Akai around 1990, with the theme of the growth of a boy wizard set in Norway in Northern Europe. The script was shelved without being made into a work, but according to Akai, Yamaga obtained Akai's permission to produce this work and diverted it to a TV animation project. As a result of inviting Akahori to restructure the script, the stage and content of the story changed greatly and became a work.

There is a tentative story, but only the first episode and the final episode have a clear storyline, and in many cases, the arrangement of the main characters is fixed and a different world is prepared for each episode. A slapstick play was developed, and a large amount of parodies of works of various genres such as past famous animations, movies, and games were incorporated.

Hiroki Sato, the producer of "Mahoromatic", which was being produced at Gainax at the same time, also directed each episode freely based on the concept of "fixed characters" decided by director Yamaga and others, and the producer (animator).

The quality and quantity of the parodies incorporated into the play were so intense that it could be said that they were excessive, and they aroused internal controversy from the production stage. In particular, in the script of episode 8, "Tokimeke! Abenobashi ☆ Gakuen Shopping Street," which is based on a romance simulation game, the character name of the guest heroine played by Mami Kanetsuki (played by Shiori Fujisaki in "Tokimeki Memorial") is "Shiorin." And so on, the similarity with the work used as a motif was extremely high.

According to Saeki and Matsuoka, who starred in the film, King Records saw these contents as a problem during dubbing, so the work was interrupted and after long discussions, the character name was corrected to "Shiotan" and recorded. It was decided to fix. In addition, Kanetsuki also appears as a regular in the role of Arumi's mother (Ayako Asahina), but according to Matsuoka who plays Arumi, it is the premise that Kanetsuki will appear in a double role in the guest heroine episode with Shiori Fujisaki as a motif.

Pachislot
Introduced from Bisty in August 2010, Pachislot machines are equipped with the Pentagram system. In addition, the same production as the Evangelion series (Pachislot) may occur.

Reception
Magical Shopping Arcade Abenobashi received an Excellence Award for animation at the 2002 Japan Media Arts Festival.

External Link

 * TV Anime "Abenobashi Mahou☆Shoutengai" ─ (GAINAX NET) - Wayback Machine (For archived September 9, 2015)
 * Abenobashi Mahou☆Shoutengai RADIO ─ (GAINAX NET) - Wayback Machine (For archived April 4, 2015)
 * Abenobashi Mahou☆Shoutengai ─ Starchild: Special Website (in Japanese)
 * Abenobashi Mahou☆Shoutengai ─ Manga Library Z Official Website (in Japanese)
 * Abenobashi Mahou☆Shoutengai ─ IMB
 * Abenobashi Mahou☆Shoutengai ─ Wikipedia  JP 
 * Abenobashi Mahou☆Shoutengai ─ Wikipedia  EN 

Trivia
'' to be added. ''

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