Lace Group

The creative minds of director Hiroyuki Yamaga (NEON GENESIS EVANGELION) and producer Madhouse (VAMPIRE HUNTER D) team with the legendary GAINAX production studio to parody the vagaries of modern pop culture in the action-comedy anime series MAGICAL SHOPPING ARCADE ABENOBASHI. The series centers around geeky best friends Sasshi and Ayumi, who discover that their local shopping mall is really a magical gateway to a parallel universe. Trapped inside the mall's alternate dimension, the intrepid 12-year-olds battle a variety of mobsters, magicians, transvestites, space pirates, killer mushrooms, and other fantastical creatures as they struggle to find their way home. Mining the same satiric vein as EXCEL SAGA, the tongue-in-cheek anime is presented in its entirety with this 13-episode collection.