If your subconscious could remake the world, what would it look like?  A fantasy role-playing game?  A film noir thriller?  Or would it be populated with attractive members of the opposite sex?  Grade school student Sasshi gets to find out when he and his friend Arumi get catapulted into a series of strange and bizarre worlds, all influenced by his vivid imagination.  Where will he end up next?

Yes, it's time for another volume of Magical Shopping Arcade Abenobashi!  This third DVD has the next three shows in the series:

Episode 8:  Set Your Heart Aflutter!  In the previous volume it was determined that Sasshi really didn't want to go back to the real world.  His subconscious was responsible for all the strange and unusual worlds that he and Arumi were finding themselves in.  The two friends had a heart to heart, and Sasshi realized that he really did want to get back home.  With that in mind, the two transport again, but were they able to return to their world?

Nope.  This time they end up in a dating simulation game world, populated with cute girls and only one boy, Sasshi.  Naturally he's having a wonderful time, but Arumi hates it.  She's been transformed into a short goblin, and every time she enters the school, a chicken chases her.  (Shades of Hamtaro!)  Arumi gets more and more angry with Sasshi for putting them in this world, and even tries to kill him.  But this is Sasshi's fantasy, and nothing as primitive as a gun or space-based laser weapon would be able to harm him.

Episode 9:  It Cries!  The Bush Warbler Heiankyo.  This is another more serious episode where the plot is developed further and many things become clearer.  Sasshi meets the mysterious Eutus and is taken to his house.  There he learns about Onmyou Mystics, what they do and how it affects he and Arumi.

Episode 10:  Fluffy Bubbly!  Having studied the ways to the Onmyou Mystics, Sasshi creates Sasshiland, a bright, gaudy amusement park.  He is hoping that Arumi will like it, but she doesn't, especially when a giant teddy bear starts terrorizing the park!

This series continues to improve as it progresses.  The alternate world stories seem less silly, but more humorous, and there seems to be more of a reason for them.  At the beginning of the series, it seemed that everything was odd just for the sake of being strange.  There is still a lot of that, but it has been toned down a lot.

The plot is advancing nicely, something that I didn't think would happen after watching the first DVD.  Though the series is still an 'adventure-of-the-week' show most of the time, about every third episode they explain some more of the background.  That propels the story on further and keeps my interest.  I find the plot building shows to the ones I enjoy the most.

Still a little too silly for my tastes most of the time, the series is definitely improving.

I do have the same complaint with this volume as I did with the previous one.  With only three episodes on this DVD, I can't say that this is a great deal.  I think that publishers should put at least four shows on a $29.985 retail price DVD.  Three is just not enough.
 

As with the other discs in this series, you have the option of watching this DVD with a 2.0 Japanese language track, or an English dub in 5.1.  I listened to both tracks on different episodes, and I definitely prefer the Japanese track.  Apparently, according to the AD Vid-notes, the characters all have regional accents.  When making the English dub, the actors used southern drawls and other accents to mimic this.  It is really annoying.  The accents don't sound authentic, and listening to them gets old really fast.  With this volume I've really grown to dislike the actor who voices Sasshi in English.  This female actor tries, but she sounds like a woman trying to sound like a young boy, not like a lad.

The Japanese language track is very nice.  There is some use made of the soundstage.  Though there are not a lot of these stereo effects what they do use is effective.  There are optional English subtitles.

Video:

The video on this disc has an aspect ratio of 1.78:1 and is anamorphically enhanced.  The colors are clear and bright, and the lines are tight.  There are some instances of aliasing, which show up in most animation, but these are minor and are only noticeable if you are looking for them.  There are a few instances of banding too.  But again, these are minor.  This is a nice looking disc.

The Extras:

As they did on the first disc, ADV did something neat with the FBI warning that pops up before the main menu appears.  They have a voice over that warns the viewer of dire consequences if the disc is illegally broadcast or copied.  There are a couple of different voiceovers with different scripts that pop up at random, so you never know what you'll get when you pop in the disc.  It's pretty funny.

There is an outtake reel that is nearly 3 minutes long.  It consists of the English cast messing up and ad-libbing some lines.  Most of these are funny.

This DVD also has AD Vidnotes; pop-up notes that explain jokes and cultural references that American viewers might not understand.  The Vidnotes on this disc are a very good.  They have improved greatly since the first volume's notes, which were horrible.  The frequency is very good, and they have stopped including pop-up jokes that were prevalent in the first DVD.   A nice feature to have.

There are six trailers, and a textless opening and closing.

Final Thoughts:

This series is starting to pick up, and I'm glad I stuck with it.  Over the course of the series, the show has gotten less silly, and more humorous.  There is more of a plot, and I can see that the show is actually heading somewhere.  Though it is still not my favorite anime, it has improved enough to raise my recommendation to Recommended.