I'm currently taping Gainax's Abenobashi Mahou Shotengai for k-chan and enjoying watching it through again. While this isn't in my top ten list of shows (or even top 20 possibly) it's a show that is pretty amazing in some ways. Shows that do parodies are all over the place, look at Excel Saga for instance. But there is something different about Abenobashi and I can't quite put my finger on it. Some of it is how much they will follow a parody, they go to some pretty extreme lengths. They even parody themselves. And the amount of references in the science fiction episode made my head spin, and I'm sure there were a number I was missing.

But at the heart of the show is actually a pretty cool story. Once you find out why they keep jumping from world to world and never making it home there's a different feel in the background to how everything feels. I think if it had been only a parody show I might not have liked it that much. The rest of the story surrounding the characters and their motivations is what made it work for me, even when the jokes started to get a little weary. One thing that is kind of interesting to me was reading the reviews over on animenfo.com as some of them seemed to get it (at least as I saw things) and some of them just saw the show as a silly slapstick comedy. Definitely a show to check out if you get the chance (I'm pretty sure it has been licensed in the US already).