Magical Shopping Arcade Abenobashi

Childhood friends Arumi and Sasshi are residents of the Abenobashi commercial district in Osaka, Japan. After an accident, they find themselves transported to an alternate sword and sorcery world. Their attempt to get back to reality finds them traversing a series of nonsensical worlds built on science fiction, war, fantasy, dating sim games and American movies. Each alternate Abenobashi is a surreal manifestation of Sasshi's otaku interests, populated by analogs of the protagonists relatives and acquaintances and a blue-haired stranger known as Eutus. Their quest to return home is at core a bildungsroman because the Abenobashi dimensions are mostly hobby worlds of increasing sophistication. Sasshi does not want to go home, and in fact is the sole force propelling them between worlds. While chasing the cat in the first episode, Arumi's grandfather fell off the roof and died. With this new trauma pressuring him in addition to his apprehension about the destruction of the shopping arcade and the Asahinas' moving away, Sasshi was no longer willing or able to cope with reality, and unbeknownst to even himself, he had caused their dimension to rewrite itself into worlds echoing his escapist obsessions.