Anime / Magical Shopping Arcade Abenobashi

aka: Abenobashi Mahou Shoutengai

"All things extant in this world: Gods of Heaven, Gods of Earth, let everything be as it should be. Thus shall it be!"

Arumi Asahina and Satoshi "Sasshi" Imamiya are two twelve-year-olds who have grown up together in the Abenobashi shopping arcade in Osaka. But the arcade and the neighborhood around it are now slated for redevelopment; one by one, the old familiar buildings are being torn down. Worse, Arumi and her family are moving to Hokkaido. What's poor Sasshi to do?

Well, none of that really matters, after Arumi's grandfather is hospitalized in an accident that destroys the last of four "guardian" figurines that bound the shopping district. Before their eyes, the neighborhood changes. Sasshi and Arumi find themselves trapped in a warped version of Abenobashi, as if it were an RPG, with everyone they know recast as NPCs.

But once they fight their way through the game's plot in grand slapstick style, thinking they will then return home, they find themselves transported to an outer space version of Abenobashi... then a Hong Kong martial arts movie version... then a dinosaur-filled, prehistoric one. And many more. Will Sasshi and Arumi ever get back to the real Abenobashi? Why are they "jumping" in the first place? Who is that blue-haired sorcerer who appears to be going through a mid-life crisis?

A Deconstructive Parody of a dozen or more genres of film and anime, Magical Shopping Arcade Abenobashi (Abenobashi Mahou Shoutengai) generously trowels thick layers of off-the-wall comedy on top of a surprisingly serious storyline, one you're likely to forget about. Made by Gainax and Madhouse, the show makes both subtle and in-your-face references to various other series.

The anime originally aired from April to June 2002 for 13 episodes. There is also a two-volume Manga adaptation, which is even weirder. The basic plot is pretty much the same, although different worlds are visited, the ones that are in the show are different, and there's a character not shown in the anime (with the exception of a "blink and you'll miss her" scene in the twelfth episode). While unfortunately the manga is no longer in print due to the demise of Tokyopop, cheap used copies can be found on Amazon, or if you're lucky, your local used bookstore.

Available to watch on Hulu.

---

This series provides examples of:

• Accent Adaptation: The English dub translates Osakan dialect as Texan and Kouhei's Tokyo dialect as Brooklyn.
• Actor Allusion:
  • Takeshi Aono, who voiced Grandpa Masa, also did Michael Palin's roles in the Japanese dub of Monty Python's Flying Circus. Something to keep in mind in Episode 12, when Grandpa goes "lumberjack"! Among the various film parodies there was also Back to the Future: Aono voiced Doc Brown in the Japanese dub and in the show Grandpa briefly took Doc's role. He also later in the same episode holds a device similar to the one that Alien Zarab (also a character he voiced) had.
  • Yui Horie plays Emiryun in the dating-sim episode, and that character takes on traits of other Horie roles such as Ayu Tsukimiya and Multi.
• Alternate Universe: A new one in almost every episode.
• Arson, Murder, and Jaywalking: Sasshi to Mune-Mune
  Sasshi: I ain't the only one being a little kid here! You're nothing but a kid who wants to... uh, you're just... you're just!... A little kid and... DON'T SMOKE!!
  Arumi: ...that really the issue?
• Artistic License – Paleontology: Actually lampshaded by Sashi in the Prehistoric Shopping Arcade episode, with him going into good detail to point out how many of the dinosaurs they have encountered didn't exist for millions of years between each other and never would have encountered each other over the time span between the early Cretaceous and late Triassic periods. Sasshi, being a preadolescent boy, is an expert on dinosaurs, of course.
• Art Shift: Between a more realistic style for the mundane world and a more flat, colorful style for the alternate dimensions.
  • One of the manga chapters has the duo fight against American comic book doppelgangers of themselves.
  • The prehistoric episode has Arumi and Sasshi being surrounded by angry cavemen drawn in a very serious style with heavy shadows, realistic features and so on. When their queen shows up they get turned into cartoonish caricatures (specifically in the style of First Human Giatrus) and stay that way for the rest of the episode.
  • The end of that episode has it as well, with the preview for the next one (the Film Noir episode) briefly featuring the two kids with heavily Westernized features and heavy shadows covering half of their bodies.
• Aside Glance: Done by Sasshi a couple times through the series. Sometimes looking at the audience, and other times just looking away from Arumi so he doesn't have to make eye contact.
• Bait-and-Switch Credits: The opening credits are a montage of clips from the first 2/3 of the first episode... the part before the reality-jumping and assorted weirdness. Someone missing the "Magical" part might think this is a show about the demise of an old-fashioned shopping arcade.
• Barbie Doll Anatomy: Averted; nipples are right where they belong.
• Big "NO!": Shown silently, however.
• Boke and Tsukkomi Routine: Used throughout various parts of the series, but part of the Lame Pun Reaction listed below in particular.
• Boob-Based Gag: Mune-mune. Not only is it right there in her name, boob humor is practically the entire point of her character until The Reveal, when she turns out to be both the alternate-reality counterparts of Sasshi's grandmother and an integral part of the events in the backstory which set the whole plot in motion in the Heian Period.
• Breast Expansion: In the Dragon Quest-themed second episode, Sasshi defeats the final boss using a magic talisman that Arumi bought, which turned out to be used for Breast Expansion — the boss's chest swelled up so much it exploded.
• Broken Aesop: The message is clearly a set of stock aesops like Be Yourself, Live in the real world, accept reality as it is, You can't fight fate, Let the dead rest, and most specifically, You can't use magic to solve all your problems. If it wasn't clear enough, Sasshi's father even lampshades this, telling him that he should just drop the whole Onmyo business and grow out of it. All that is suddenly rendered null and void in the last few minutes of the final episode when Sasshi regains his memories of his past life and completely reforms the world, not only saving Grandpa Masa, but also bringing Abe and Mune back. At that point, the whole thing starts feeling like a Take That! of stock aesops more than anything else.
• Butt-Monkey:
  • Sasshi throughout most of the series. Anytime Sasshi and Arumi end up crashing or falling somewhere, Arumi lands on her feet while Sasshi crashes into the ground. In Episode 11 in particular, He becomes an Iron Butt-Monkey as he is a lowly private of the army and is constantly ordered to do everything for everyone. He even lampshades this by asking if he's even any use at all because the messages he's suppose to be delivering to his superiors become known to them before he can even report it.
  • In the Dating Sim episode however, Arumi is the Butt-Monkey, which is quite satisfying. She also gets a rough time in the fairy tales and Hollywood episodes.
• Calling Your Attacks: As part of the Sci-Fi/Mecha episode. Though since they don't know any of the pre-existing attack names, Sasshi and Arumi just make up new ones on the fly (and comment on how difficult it really is).
• Canon Foreigner: Ochi-san, a girl infatuated with Sasshi, is unique to the manga, as is pointed out in the postscript to the first volume. She has a brief cameo in the twelfth episode of the show, including a spoken line, though.
• Catchphrase: Arumi's "Being human, having your health. That's what matters", which she says three times in the first episode but rarely after that. Sasshi steals it for the last line of the show.
• Cluster F-Bomb: Mr. Kouhei in episode 12.
  Mr. Kouhei: HEY FUCKING COWBOY, FUCKING COWGIRL! HOW THE FUCK ARE YOU DOIN'? So tell me, are you kids on your FUCKING way home from school or something like that? FUCK, why don't you two buy a FUCKING hotdog from me, Mr. Kouhei! Come on bebah, don't be cruel you FUCKING cowboy! Tell you what, I'll give you the King Special with a ton of FUCKING ketchup and FUCKING mustard to go with those FUCKING hotdogs, and sell you a pair of them for 500 FUCKING Yen! How do you like those bargains, bebah? A-FUCK-YOU-VERY-MUCH-AH! Hey, are you lonesome tonight you FUCKING-Cheer-FUCKING-Girls? FUCKING HOTDOGS FOR SALE, FUCK YEAH!
• Content Warnings: The first volume of the manga has a small "Parental Adversary: Explicit Content" label on the front.
• Cowardice Callout: Played for Laughs in the War Episode. Sasshi and his sister are bearing down on some enemy tanks in nothing but a motorcycle and a sidecar. Sasshi's sister gives a speech about how sometimes you have to make a Heroic Sacrifice, and wishes for Sasshi to never forget her. She then spins the bike around so hard that Sasshi's sidecar breaks off and keeps going towards the tanks while she books it out of there. Sasshi calls her out on it.
• Crossdresser: "Ms." Aki, the friendly neighborhood cross-dresser, keeps appearing in female roles in each parallel world.
• Cultural Cross-Reference: Owing to the show's premise, being Reference Overdosed is unavoidable. However, it isn't terribly discriminating about from which parts of the globe it lifts its references. Anything that fits the topic of the episode is fair game.
• Dating Sim: An entire episode dedicated to it, and it doesn't take Sasshi very long to figure out that he's in one. The end of the episode resulted in him seeing an ending that would have made more sense to him if he had achieved the proper relationship flags to develop that character. Arumi was the Goblin of that world. Needless to say, she was angry.
• Dead All Along: Mune-Mune, who is ultimately revealed to be the incarnation of both a woman from the Heian Period who was murdered by her husband and also of Sasshi's grandmother, by way of the phlebotinum responsible for the whole alternate-reality thing.
• Deadpan Snarker: Arumi, to contrast with Sasshi's Idiot Hero general behavior.
• Deconstructive Parody: A gigantic middle finger towards geekdom. Well, at least that's what it looks like for the first half. After that, it gets... weird. At the halfway point, the series turns around and deconstructs itself. Or to be more accurate, the second half is a Genre Deconstruction of the Trapped in Another World premise that it was following in the first half.
• Deus ex Machina: Sasshi's finally ready to go back to the real world and face reality, when in the last few minutes he has a change of heart and suddenly gets enough power to rewrite reality.
• Diegetic Soundtrack Usage: In episode 12 they enter the arcade proper and hear the show's ending theme playing as muzak.
• Early-Bird Cameo: Of a sort. During the portal sequence in the Hollywood episode, the manga-only character "Ne-ne-ne Okane" briefly appears.
• Expy: Young Grandpa Masa is not entirely unlike two cartoon characters modeled after a certain actor who played their live-action counterparts: Jim Carrey in The Mask and Ace Ventura: Pet Detective.
• Fan Disservice:
  • ...Ms. Aki. See Glamorous Wartime Singer below for an example.
  • Other examples include Grandpa Masa in the Hong Kong Arcade.
  • In the Dating Sim episode Sasshi and Arumi wonder where Grandpa Masa and Arumi's dad could be, and for a couple seconds they envision them as giggling schoolgirls with the same uniform the other girls in the episode wear.
• Fanservice:
  • Played for Laughs throughout the whole series with Mune-Mune and Sasshi's sister.
  • Taken to absolutely absurd lengths in the manga. Every major female character appears topless at least once (even Arumi) with Mune-Mune herself appearing topless about once per chapter... and if she isn't going topless you can be sure she's wearing some sort of skimpy or Stripperific outfit.
• Fast-Forward Gag: In Episode 2 when Arumi and Sasshi travel through the Demon King's dungeon all the action is fast-forwarded as if it were an old VHS.
• Fate Worse than Death: People who are shot in the Film Noir world don't die. Instead they're chibified and turned into comic relief characters that nobody can take seriously.
• The Four Gods: In the form of four statues on the roofs of family businesses in the shopping district. Three of the businesses have already closed, and the destruction of the Grill Pelican's pelican statue kicks off the plot but not because of the statues' power....
• Gainax Ending: Sasshi turned out to be one of the greatest Onmyou Mystics ever, because he's the heir of Eutus — we mean, Abe no Seimei. In order to keep Arumi from moving away, he remade the world, as he had been throughout the series, except this time, it stayed remade, with the help of Sasshi's future self that has grown into his powers. As a bonus Mune-Mune and Masa lived, and The Grill Pelican stays open.
• Genre Savvy: A large part of each episode is Sasshi and Arumi trying to figure out "what kind" of world they're in and what the rules are. This starts from the very first episode, where Sasshi immediately takes to the Dragon Quest-esque RPG world that they inhabit, and remarks that spending 600 of their initial 800 gold pieces in an initial shopping spree is ideal, since the strategy guide recommends saving 200 GP for inns and the like. Another example occurs in a sci-fi world: when Sasshi discovers that their sci-fi world has all of the elements of a Super Robot show, it just becomes a matter of locating the Humongous Mecha that is awaiting the two destined pilots. That said, Sasshi understanding how each world "works" is probably a side effect of each world being retrieved from his subconscious.
• Glamorous Wartime Singer: Hilariously subverted in the War episode when Ms. Aki shows up for a USO show. After getting a good look at her face, all the troops fall to the ground in a near-death state. After pulling a Marilyn Maneuver but before she can finish her introduction, she's quickly grabbed by Gas Mask Mooks, shoved into a body bag, and stuffed into a nuclear waste containment barrel, which is then filled with cement, bolted shut, lowered into a larger air-tight container, sealed in cement, tested for radiation levels, boxed up into a cargo crate, put onto the helicopter she arrived in on, and immediately flown out.
• Going Commando: Arumi spends the entire mecha episode without underwear, which was stolen by the goblin while she was relieving herself behind a bush. She's then subjected to just about every suggestive trope found in Humongous Mecha anime, including piloting a giant robot in a skimpy minidress after a Transformation Sequence that inserted Sasshi into the cockpit directly between her legs. She's constantly mortified but Sasshi, being twelve, is so preoccupied by all of the cool robot stuff going on he doesn't even notice.
• Goofy Print Underwear: In the manga adaptation of Sci-fi world, Sasshi reveals to us that his older sister still wears teddy bear panties by lifting her skirt. From his words, this applies to all versions of his sister.
• Graceful Landing, Clumsy Landing: Anytime Sasshi and Arumi end up falling from somewhere, Sasshi crashes to the ground, while his smarter and more competent friend Arumi lands on her feet.
• Gratuitous English: Part of the opening theme is in English, but you just try to understand it without subtitles. (Or with them, for that matter.) There's also a guy rapping in English in the background.
• Gratuitous French: Arumi's father often uses this trope as he's a chef who specializes in French cuisine. This irritates Grandpa Masa.
  Grandpa Masa: Like hell I'm gonna stand for your lectures with bad French mixed in!
• Hammerspace: Arumi often pulls a Paper Fan of Doom out of hammerspace in order to punish Sasshi.
• Heroic Sacrifice: Hilariously subverted in the war episode. Sasshi's sister comments that when situations become this dire, that there's only one thing left to do. She then asks that he never forgets her, and says goodbye to him but then immediately spins the motorcycle around, forcing Sasshi's sidecar to break off and continue rushing right into the tanks ahead of him. He calls her out for it.
• Historical Domain Character: Abe no Seimei, who really was an Onmyouji, and was additionally said to be a Half-Human Hybrid with a fox (kitsune) for a mother.
• Humongous Mecha: And episode dedicated to subverting classic giant robot anime tropes.
• The Idiot from Osaka: Sasshi. Subverted by Arumi, who is anything but an idiot.
• Imperial Stormtrooper Marksmanship Academy: In the Film Noir version of the arcade, Sasshi has to compete with Arumi's father to prove which one is the real "legendary sniper Regolgo" by shooting a can on the other side of the room. Sasshi manages to hit the can with a pistol by complete accident, while Arumi's father empties an entire M16 clip and hits everything but the can. Then he walks right up to the can and blows it up with a bundle of TNT. Arumi's father is declared the winner.
• Incredibly Conspicuous Drag: Crossdresser "Ms." Aki. is never outed, but is rather obvious — so much so that it seems the rest of the cast is aware of it and just treats him/her as a lovable eccentric.
• Kamehame Hadoken: Sasshi tries to fire one off in the Hong Kong Shopping Arcade episode. He ends up burning his hands in the process and drops it. He tries it again, but it took so long to summon that during the 2nd time, they cut the scene and say "The rest has been abridged" then shows him firing at his opponent.
• Lame Pun Reaction:
  Sasshi: Woah, Arumi. Since when did you have boobs?
  Arumi: Aww shoot, you noticed already.
  Arumi's Dad: No-no-no, you still have not deciphered the meaning of this tank unit, ey mon ami?
  Sasshi: You pad Arumi's boobs so now it's really a Pad-Ton tank unit? Heheheh Like it would really be something THAT stupid.
  Sasshi's Dad: Uhhh....
  Sasshi: What, you went through all of this for something that lame?
  Arumi's Dad: Ooooh! That's why I didn't want to say it! Sacre Bleu!
  Sasshi: If you didn't wanna, you shouldn't have done it to begin with.
  Arumi's Dad: But there's more! (grabs into Arumi's chest and takes out a gold orb while switching to an Irish accent) Dontyeknow, it's a real pad o' gold?
  Sasshi: Not pad, POT of gold!
  Arumi: He's stealing the punchline! (Smacks her dad with her Paper Fan of Doom)
• Little Boy Seeks Big Girl: 12-year-old Sasshi has a crush on fanservice girl, Mune-Mune, not knowing she's really his grandmother, who perpetually looks like her 19 year old self thanks to a time paradox.
• Magical Girl: Subverted. In one world, Sasshi tries to give Arumi everything she'd ever want in order to be happy from a 12 year old boy's perspective of what constitutes "girly" things. His own screw-up antics eventually result in Arumi being forced to transform into a Magical Girl (complete with the poses being controlled by one of Sasshi's little oni servants). She was less than enthusiastic about it.
• Magical Girlfriend: Subverted. If you want to count Arumi for this role, she has no magical powers at all. In the Dating Sim episode, She's actually that world's magical goblin and everything she tried to inflict on Sasshi backfires on her. The same episode plays it straight with characters from the world itself.
• Magic from Technology: Or so a character claims...
• Marilyn Maneuver: Ms. Aki pulls this off during a USO show in the War episode. Refer to Glamorous Wartime Singer for further detail.
• Marshmallow Hell: Mune-Mune to Sasshi. Oh so very much, but turned into Squick when Sasshi knows and confronts the truth that Mune-Mune is Sasshi's Grandma.
  Sasshi: AAAH! I DON'T WHETHER TO BE SCARED OR HAPPY! I'M SO CONFUSED!!
  • An even worse example happens in the manga when Mune-Mune transforms into a boob monster with an entire body of breasts and tries to murder him this way.
  Sasshi: Whoa! I'm surrounded by ta-tas and...it's like I'm bein' smothered by silk balloons! Wotta way to die!
• Meaningful Name: "Mune" is Japanese for "chest." Sounds like a nickname at first, but no, that's her actual given name. She also adopts the pseudonym "Muneyama Muneko" (literally "Chestmountain Chestchild") in the last episode.
• Medieval European Fantasy: Episode 2, and perhaps 10 too, considering it is based on fairy tales, which in turn have a generally MEF setting.
• Megaton Punch: Arumi doesn't take kindly to Sasshi's suggestion to get money in the fantasy RPG world:
  Sasshi: Arumi-chan, you've gotta take one for the team. Hand over...your bra.
  Arumi: WHAT?
  Sasshi: I'm thinking in terms of strategy. Like in RPGs and video games. The more unusual the piece, the more dough we can score. Your "Battle Bra For Kids" is like a limited edition, isn't it?
  Arumi: Are...are you some kind of RETARD?
  Sasshi: Don't be a prude. It's not like you need it. You don't even have enough in there to fill the cups.
  Arumi: POWER PUNCH! MAXIMUM HURT! *Sasshi goes flying*
• Mind Screw The series seems to like teetering between this and Rule of Funny, but the Mind Screw does start in the last 5 minutes of the first episode
• Mood Whiplash: Between the middle and end of the first episode, and the series in general around episode six.
• Multiboobage: Mune-Mune transforms into a one hundred boobed monster in the horror chapter and attempts to smother Sasshi with them.
• Mystical City Planning: Figurines on four historic buildings prevent gates to alternate dimensions from opening, and the destruction of the last of them leaves the neighbourhood unprotected.
• Naked People Are Funny: Where to begin?
  • Whenever Sasshi's sister's and Mune-Mune's skimpy outfits aren't played for fan service. Usually when Ms. Aki is also wearing such an outfit alongside them.
  • Episode 3: After Arumi has her panties stolen while peeing in the bushes, she spends almost the rest of the episode naked from the waist down, to her immense embarrassment. Sasshi, for once, doesn't pay attention to the fact, being more interested in the Sci-fi elements. Poor Asumi gets repeated views of her naked butt as her dress keeps rising up and even stripped naked entirely during the Fighter-Launching Sequence as she and Sasshi are changed into their uniforms as they slide into the cockpits of their mecha. Even with the costume change, Arumi is still missing her panties as she tries to cover her bare end.
  • Episode 5: Not long after arriving in the Dino world, Sasshi finds himself falling into the mouth of a Man-Eating Plant, who spits him out minus his clothes (which also got spat out). After a moment of confusion, Sasshi realizes that he's in nothing but his birthday suit in plain view of Asumi (who doesn't bat an eye). He grabs his clothes and runs off into the bushes to get dressed. He then walks out wearing only his hat and shoes, clothes neatly folded on top of his hat, and his crotch covered with a small elephant head. At that point, Asumi sends him flying with her Paper Fan of Doom for his Skewed Priorities. To add insult to injury, he shudders when Asumi says the word small and she seems to not get the euphemism. Until this line:
  Sasshi: Now what was you saying was small?
  Arumi: Now haven't we talked enough about your wee wee?
  
  • Episode 12: In a reference to Arnie's arrival in The Terminator, Sasshi and Arumi land in Hollywood world naked. Asumi just curls up in embarrassment while Sasshi bares all and approaches a trio of thugs wearing the duo's clothes. After an off screen bout, Sasshi and Asumi have their clothes back and the thugs are left in an unconscious pile while naked.
• Nature Tinkling: Sasshi and Arumi choose to pee outside in the third episode.
• No OSHA Compliance: Parodied when Sasshi tumbles through a factory, nearly getting chopped up and cooked into a giant dumpling.
• Nosebleed: Weaponized as a "Nosebleed Laser" by Sasshi when he sees Arumi's bare chest after clothing-eating kittens eat her outfit in the Edo Era Arcade.
• Old Master: Subverted in episode 4. Sasshi's granddad makes like he's about to show off his elite fighting skills; Arumi beats him up with her Paper Fan of Doom.
• Once an Episode: Whenever he ends up going to a new world, Sasshi always ends up finding an animal and trying to name it Spot (except for the Dating Sim world, where there was already an animal named Spot.)
• Otaku: In the "dinosaur" episode, Sasshi briefly turns into the Japanese stereotype of an otaku. In fact, it's the very picture for the trope's page.
• Overly Long Gag: "Private E-1 Sasshi of Squad 7, Corps 6 of Division 5 General Headquarters, Auxiliary to the 4th Battalion, Under the command of the 3rd Regiment, Under the 2nd Division of the 1st Army, reporting for duty, sir!"
• Paper Fan of Doom: Arumi often uses a paper fan as her weapon of choice.
• Playboy Bunny: Mune-Mune wears one of these outfits in one of the later chapters... alongside Aki.
• Post-Episode Trailer: Extremely idiosyncratic. Sasshi's lifelong dream of doing a next episode preview is constantly thwarted, and by the time he finally gets everyone else to shut up, it's the last episode already. When their live action counterparts come to the manga, he tries to do it again, and fails because it's the last volume of the manga as well.
• Potty Emergency: Arumi and Sasshi both have one in Episode 3.
• Power Perversion Potential: The primary reason Sasshi and Arumi constantly fail to get home is because Sasshi quickly realizes he can use the magical reality-warping that's going on to let his imagination run wild and fulfill his own desires.
• Punny Name: During a bombing run in episode 11, Sasshi looks through his scope at the target, then looks up and blinks in disbelief at the fact that the barber shop they're about to bomb is called "Pearl Barber".
• Random Transportation: The characters visit the various versions of the Marketplace.
• Reference Overdosed: To illustrate, one fansub group included a methodical catalogue of every popular culture reference made in the third episode at the end. It occupied most of the screen in fairly small print.
• Reset Button: At the end, the button is pushed when Sasshi is revealed to be the reincarnation of a very powerful shinto priest. The priest resets everything to the start of the series. Only this time, Masa manages to get the cat off the pelican statue and is prevented from falling to his death. As such this doesn't activate the spell that starts the whole world hopping and apparently Sasshi and Arumi have no recollection of what happened. What's more, it's revealed the hotel deal with Arumi's family falls through, which keeps her from having to move away. And we see that Abe and Mune-Mune have been reincarnated in the present times and arrive to scout the Abenobashi for a land development.
• Robotic Reveal: In the Sci-Fi episode Arumi is disappointed to see that Grandpa Masa, as the resident scientist who helps the main characters, is not mechanized like everyone else. When everything blows up at the end of the episode, we see that he was actually a cyborg with a metal endoskeleton a la Terminator. Mune-mune's helpers Aki and Sayaka are revealed to be robots as well.
• Role-Playing Game 'Verse: The first world they jump to.
• Running Gag:
  Sasshi's Mother: You're Private E-1 Sasshi of Squad 7, Corps 6 of Division 5 General Headquarters, Auxiliary to the 4th Battalion, Under the command of the 3rd Regiment, Under the 2nd Division of the 1st Army.
  Mune-Mune: WHAT'S THAT!? Are you Private E-1 Sasshi of Squad 7, Corps 6 of Division 5 General Headquarters, Auxiliary to the 4th Battalion, Under the command of the 3rd Regiment, Under the 2nd Division of the 1st Army!?
  Sasshi: That's right...
• Screw Destiny: Sasshi's ultimate reaction to the revelation that Grandpa Masa is dead in the real world. And, he comes through with it and brings him back to life. YMMV, though, as many felt that moment ruined the series, as noted under They Wasted a Perfectly Good Plot.
• Shameful Shrinking: In the Detective Noir world, anyone who gets shot with a gun doesn't die, but turns in a Chibi version of themselves, thereby cementing themselves as the shameful comic relief character who will never be taken seriously again. Others shun those who become this.
• Shōjo Demographic: In one world, Sasshi tries to give Arumi everything she would ever want to be happy. She doesn't want any of it.
• Shout-Out: Many, though it'd be appropriate to say thee parodies involve more than simply other works.
  • The most obvious being to Neon Genesis Evangelion — music from the series is used for a mecha combat scene, and Sasshi's sister is a Rei Ayanami Expy. Throughout the Battlefield episode, Sasshi's facial features resembles Shinji.
  • Episode 2 is a shout-out to JRPGs in general, but Dragon Quest in particular. Slimes, dead characters being represented by coffins, and needing to go back to town and pay to have them revived are just the tip of the iceberg.
  • Episode 3 follows Science Fiction in general, including shoutouts to 2001: A Space Odyssey, Star Wars and numerous Giant Mecha series.
  • Episode 4 includes a Panda who puts Sasshi through a training montage, Sasshi getting extremely muscular with constellation-shaped scars on his chest, Sasshi going Super Saiyan, arcade fighting games, and Bruce Lee in general.
  • Episode 6 is a general shout-out to Film Noir style Hard-boiled Detective and Mobster movies. It also references comedic Western cartoons throughout with stuff like bundles of dynamite by ACME, tropes like Circling Birdies and so on.
  • Episode 11 is a shout-out to war movies in general, including All Quiet on the Western Front, Patton, and others.
  • Episode 12 has dozens of references to American horror, science-fiction, and adventure movies, including, but certainly not limited to: Terminator, North By Northwest, The Shining, Speed Racer, Knight Rider, Twister, Jaws, Indiana Jones, Back to the Future, RoboCop, Die Hard, The Exorcist, Barbarella, Titanic (1997), A Nightmare on Elm Street, Escape from New York, Friday the 13th, Air Force One, and 2001: A Space Odyssey.
  • There's also a brief scene where Grandpa Masa says he always wanted to be a lumberjack... In the same episode, there's also references to war wounds.
  • There's one for the American short cartoon The First Bad Man during the dinosaur episode, where Mune Mune's dinosaur is slowly chipped away and reduced in size from a dinosaur to a small lizard every time they duck behind a rock.
  • Also in dino world: Sasshi briefly turns into an old man with white hair, white beard, and a cane after impressing Arumi with his knowledge of dinosaurs. No, it isn't Colonel Sanders.
  • In the Fairy Tale episode, Sasshi creates a mini, teddy-bear-headed creature with little angel wings, entrusted to be guardian of a certain magical girl. At first he looks yellow. Cardcaptor Sakura, anybody?
  • Also "the legendary sniper Regolgo."
  • Arumi apparently spends episode 9 and the start of episode 10 hanging out at the school from Drifting Classroom.
  • There are several references to Yatterman. The Grill Pelican's statue in episode 3 looks like the Yatter Pelican. Sasshi wears his onmyodo outfit by throwing it and turning it inside-out like the Yattermen did with their uniforms. In another episode Arumi controls a Kill Sat by pushing a button that looks like the self-destruct button installed on the Doronbo Gang's mechas, and the resulting explosion is a skull-shaped mushroom cloud like the ones that happened Once an Episode in that series.
• Shrines and Temples: The Abeno shrine is an important location to the plot.
• Silver Vixen: Mune Mune is revealed to be Sasshi's paternal grandmother (Masa is revealed to be more of a close friend of the family and not really his blood grandfather). Of course her looks are due to Eutus' recollection of her so we never really see her in her old age. This is also what clues in to Sasshi that's she's an anomaly in the various worlds they visit because all the people in each world are based off someone Sasshi and Arumi know from the shopping arcade. But Mune-Mune is some he never met in his life.
• Smoking Is Cool: In the hard-boiled world of course.
• Star-Crossed Lovers: Mune-Mune and Eutus, who became lovers in both their original lives in the Heian period (where he was named Abe no Seimei), which got her murdered, then again in modern "real" world (where she was Sasshi's grandmother).
• Stock Footage: The world-transfer ritual, though there are some minor discrepancies between them each time.
• Super-Deformed: The fate of anyone who gets shot in the Film Noir world. Arumi also spends much of the Dating Sim episode like this after being turned into that world's goblin.
• Toilet Humor: At the start of episode 3, Sasshi and Arumi both need to pee badly. Sasshi elects to just whizz off into space, while Arumi goes off to find a bush. Unfortunately for her, the goblin decides now is a good time to show up, and startles her into fainting, where she falls into her puddle and gets it all over herself. The goblin also decides to swipe her underwear during this ordeal, forcing Arumi to go pantyless for the rest of the episode.
• Trapped in Another World: Repeatedly.
• Truth in Television: The redevelopment of the Abeno area of Osaka has caused many older commercial districts to be gutted or demolished completely. A case in point is Abeno Ginza shopping arcade, which was torn down at the Turn of the Millennium and replaced by a trendy shopping mall, complete with a Krispy Kreme Doughnuts shop and the Osaka branch of Shibuya 109. Poor Sasshi...
• 12-Episode Anime: Actually thirteen, but who's counting?
• Voice of the Legion: Mune-Mune for one sentence in the final episode.
• Wham Episode: Episode 9.
• Wham Line:
  • In said episode 9:
    Eutus: That babe is your grandmother, Sasshi.
  • The Awful Truth Revealed.
    Eutus: It's true that I summoned Taizen Fuken, but its powers were activated because you, Sasshi wanted to nullify someone's death. You, Sasshi.
    Sasshi: Me? Died? Who died? Masa?
• Yum Yum: Mune Mune does this with a dumpling in the martial arts episode.

---