Magical Shopping Arcade Abenobashi (Vol. 1)
The new series from Studio Gainax offers a freefall zaniness similar toExcel SagaorBurn Up Excess, but with more appealing characters and  sharper parodies. Twelve-year-olds Sasshi Imamiya and Arumi Asahina have  grown up together in Osaka, but when the local shopping arcade closes, the harmony  of the four Chinese directional gods is thrown out of whack. Sasshi and Arumi  visit parallel universes, each boasting transmogrified Shopping Arcades that  parodyEvangelion,Fist of the North Star,2001,Voltron, andStar Wars. The reluctant heroes attempt to return to their  real home, impeded by their relatives and friends, who form a sort of  interdimensional repertory company. The voice actors affect Texas accents to  approximate the rough Osaka dialect of the original, which takes some getting used to,  but the results are outrageous--and hilarious. (Rated 17 and older: gross and  risqué humor, brief nudity, violence, minor profanity, alcohol use)--Charles Solomon