Customer Reviews

Abenobashi: Magical Shopping Arcade, Vol. 1

5 star:		(1)
4 star:		(0)
3 star:		(3)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

to quote Douglas Adams: "Mostly Harmless"

I'm a parent. I'm "left of center". And this review is from the perspective of a father of two teenage boys.

The older boy (19) would find it amusing, if he didn't have to pay for it. The younger boy(14), would probably "go steady" with this particular tome until he started to shave on a regular basis.

The Pros: Fan Service!, Anime "in" jokes, Japanese cultural jokes. Good art. Interesting scenarios. Well endowed "maidens".

The Cons: One suspects the dialog was funnier in Japanese. as somebody fameous once said: "Dying is easy. Comedy is hard." There's quite a bit of nudity and, ah, "adult situations" in this one (more like "male fantasy sequences").

Think: Fooli Cooli with "babes", a more coherent "plot", and lest angst.

Buy If: you're into anime, don't like thinking too much, and well endowed (semi) naked women is your thing. And 14. And have parents with a sense of humor.

Otherwise, I'd have to give this 3 stars.

It's a shame that the manga is only two volumes long. It's a great follow-up to the anime, but I'm not sure how someone who hasn't seen at least some of the anime episodes will understand the manga series. If there's a quibble, it's that the art is different from the anime, so takes a little getting used to. Otherwise, if you liked the anime, pick up the two-volume series!

Abenobashi: Magical Shopping Arcade is one of the strangest manga books I have ever read since FLCL. But unlike FLCL, I understood this book! The story jumps around alot and you need to read it a couple times in order to understand what's going on.

Sasshi is a young boy who is into books, videogames and trading cards. But when his friend, Arumi's, grandfather breaks the family gardian statue, everything goes nuts! Transporting them into different versions of their shopping mall. Along the way they meet different versions of their family members and friends in these worlds and also must complete strange, meaningless and even bizzare tasks!

Full of comedy, love and a little of drama and sci-fi this book covers all forms of genres! And, much like FLCL, it makes fun of alot of other anime and manga series and also has alot of...mature comments and pictures *wink*!

My friend gave me this book and I liked it very much, but not being able to understand it was a little troublesome, but overall this series gets 5 stars out of 5 and is a buy for all manga readers!

My name is Amone! Adios!

Abenobashi Shopping Arcade in Osaka is undergoing a major facelift. Actually, it's going through more than that, because after 50 years its prosperity is dwindling. Evictions and closings have become commonplace. Childhood friends Sasshi and Arumi's lives are about to change forever. Sasshi's family store has been closed and Arumi's family has also received their eviction notice and she is moving away. Sasshi will lose his most precious friend. Adding to the plot is the fact that 4 omamori (protective charms) were placed in four stores around town, and when the last charm is destroyed, chaos breaks loose! Arumi and Sasshi find themselves swept from one alternative Abenobashi universe to another, from space mecha to dinosaur to shojo romance settings, all peopled with residents of the Abenobashi they know and love. So begins their quest to return to their own time and space!

This is pretty much a gag manga with all kinds of references to anime and manga that any fan will enjoy. The humor is pretty toilet, actually, below in the pipes of the toilet, but it's pretty funny. And pretty explicit too. There is nudity, crude sexual innuendo and very suggestive art, but never tilting to the erotic. It's all in the name of humor! The slight problem with this book is that there is very little progression since it's really just an assemblage of jokes. The only thing that brings a sense of honesty to the whole thing is the relationship between Arumi and Sasshi. If you are a fan of the anime version, you will find some new storylines here.