Magical Shopping Arcade Abenobashi, Vol. 2
Sasshi and Arumi continue to ricochet from one alternate version of a  derelict Osaka shopping center to another. "Night Fog" takes them to a Roaring  Twenties-style gangland, where speakeasies serve forbidden snails to diners during a  skewed Prohibition. Sasshi, incongruously clad in a trench coat and snap-brim  fedora, is mistaken for "Rugolgo," a send-up of the assassin inGolgo 13.  "Extinction" spoofs time-travel anime: 12-year-old geek Sasshi gets to  display his encyclopedic knowledge of dinosaurs to the mysterious Eutus. The story  pauses in episode #7 for an explanation of how the Arcade was built and  anchored against harmful magic with the Chinese gods of the cardinal directions. The  filmmakers keep everything fast and funny, noting that many of the heroes'  difficulties come from relying on the magic of "goblins who lose to ordinary  grade school kids." (Rated 17 and older: gross and risqué humor, brief nudity,  violence, minor profanity, alcohol and tobacco use)--Charles Solomon