Arumi, you're too fast!
You're just too slow!
Sasshi!
Masa-jii!
Don't fall!
Papa!
Arumi!
Arumi! What happened to Masa-jii?!
It brings back memories of way back when.
Episode 7 Flashback! Magical Shopping Arcade * Birth
It was a long time ago.
Back when we were all young.
Before Grill Pelican was built.
Not only that, this is a story from so long ago,
there wasn't a bit of Abenobashi Shoppin' Arcade standin'.
With this so-called urban plannin',
the shacks and open black-markets that popped up after the war were all cleared away good and proper.
That left this one section of town in front of the train station completely wide open and bare, like it had just been bombed out.
The hair on the top of my head was still growin' thick.
Masayuki, age 22
Though I was scrawny and no good at fights,
I was tryin' to be cool,
and was so with the times in the belief that,
Electric Bath Science and Mysticism For your beauty and health. Please give it a try.
"If you're a man, you should go out there and make your mark! "
And I may have been a little overly eager.
T u r t l e B a t h
I was the kind of youth every town had back then.
Yo, Mune-chan.
No, I was just a punk.
Mune, age 18
Oh, Masa-bou.
What are you doin' here in the middle of the day?
Did you get fired again?
Please, Mune-chan, don't call me "Masa-bou".
"Bou?" Come on, I'm way older than you.
Then, should I call you Masa-jii?
How much older are ya tryin' to make me? That's goin' too far.
But never mind that,
I'm not here today just hangin' about for no reason.
I'm here to do prep work and preliminary inspections for the awesome project that's bein' started here.
You get it?
No.
I don't really care, but could you go away?
Mom's told me not to talk to you.
Yeah, that's the thing! That's exactly my point!
I'm tryin' to do somethin' about that.
I'll bet your mom's probably got the wrong idea 'bout me.
Look, listen to me.
It's a project that's been authorized by the prefectural governor of Osaka himself!
Isn't that somethin'?
And today, I've brought an amazin' and respected Sensei here from Tokyo.
Well, well, Osaka and Tokyo. You must be keepin' the Tokaido Line busy.
That's Abe-Sensei, a specialist in urban plannin'.
Mune-chan, as a man, I haven't really talked about this much,
but I've got this little dream, see?
And that's to open up my own shop!
Not some stupid place like the cafeteria in the department store
where I'm forced to work my butt off everyday.
I'm talkin' about a place that serves serious French cookin'.
What do ya think?
And then, start a family.
Maybe somethin' will, you know, happen between you and me, and...
Like you know, all I've got to live by is a kitchen knife,
and English and French are both gibberish to me,
l can't even read a menu, ya know?
So, I want to have some kids quick and...
Well, who knows if it'll be a boy or a girl, but...
Well, no, it'd be better if it's a boy, wouldn't it?
I'll train him up and make it so he can speak some language fluently,
kinda like a cosmopolitan type, who can do business all over the world.
I'll raise him into somethin' like that and take advantage of that...
No, I'm not thinkin' about makin' him take over my shop or anythin'.
Yeah, I know, maybe I'll get him to open a second place in Paris, France, the home of our cookin'.
And we'd go visit every so often to see how he's doin'.
Husband and wife, in the city of Paris.
Bonjour to the Champs-Élysées.
Arc de Triomphe and Yvette Giraud. But anyway...
Hey, hey, what d'you think?
Don't this plan sound great?
Yes, really... wonderful.
Sensei! Sensei! Let's hurry, let's hurry, let's hurry!
I don't care if it's the shoppin' arcade or Heiankyo, let's build it right now!
Where should we get started?! What should I do?!
I'll do anythin'! Shall I hold in my farts too?!
Hammering, hammering.
Whoa, Sensei, that is way cool!
This is one of those modern housin' units that's so popular now, huh?
A b e n o P l a c e
Sensei, are you goin' to be livin' here by yourself?
Yeah.
I haven't gotten any furnishings yet, though.
So, it's empty.
Oh, there's another room in the back.
It's a room to bring the ladies home to.
This is great.
Really?
If you need a place, I wouldn't mind lending you my key.
I tend to be out a lot anyway.
For real?!
You're okay with me usin' this place?!
You're sure?!
Yes, please, yes!
Oh, Sensei, you certainly understand a man's needs.
Well, the truth is, I've got a bit of a plan.
ls there a futon in the back room? There is?
All right...
I'll use the back room...
To do things like this and things like that...
Young blood and young bodies riding the tide...
Ahem!
So, that's what your plan was about?
No, no, no! Mune-chan, you got it all wrong! All wrong!
I'm not thinkin' about anythin' nasty like that!
Totally, not one bit!
Nothin' nasty at all!
Abenobashi Shopping Arcade Development Plans
Abenobashi Shoppin' Arcade?
Well? Are ya surprised?
We're not talkin' anythin' stingy like a house or a shop.
We're buildin' a brand new town from scratch!
How 'bout it?
Abenobashi Shopping Arcade Development Plans
Hmm, so my family's Turtle Bath is at the northern end.
A road goin' straight south and another one goin' east-west, with a grid pattern...
It's kinda like the city of Kyoto...
Yes!
This tetrapentic framework itself,
will change all the yin in the atmosphere to yang.
It's the one and only system that will create an exquisite balance
to counter the powerful welling of the netherworld's power,
which is characteristic of this region!
By arranging sacred beasts on all sides, east, west, north and south,
this matrix will raise the chi ventilation rate to nearly 100%.
In addition, the true-word barriers erected at the four corners
makes the security of this place perfectly reliable.
The backbone, the mainstay of this thing, will have the greatest range in the industry!
Compared to previously distributed products, it's an amazing 4.6 times better!
Through the high-speed dragon vein network, it will be possible to have a regular connection to distant Taishan and even Kunlun.
The new thousand year realm bolstered by the ultimate in science and technology!
That is the Abenobashi Shopping Arcade!
Abenobashi Shopping Arcade
Was that Japanese?
What a passionate man.
One saurel meal, one kid's lunch!
Got it!
Even after the passage of a thousand years,
the same flowers bloom in the same shape...
It reminds me of when we were kids. Right, Masayuki?
Huh?
What are you sayin', Sensei?
Turtle Bath
Mune-chan, are ya goin' to see Abe-sensei?
I'm deliverin' his lunch.
Taro, age 21
That is,
about the shoppin' arcade...
The parcels of land they're gonna start sellin',
can anyone buy them?
Yeah, I heard there's quite a few people comin' in from other parts.
I saw Masa-bou this mornin' and he was awful fired up 'bout buyin' a plot.
It just made me think that in his own way, he's pretty serious 'bout this.
Wow, Masa-bou said that?
Moron! Retard! Scum! Ya better take adults seriously!
All right!
Loans
So, like I said, you can take all the interest you want on it.
Don't you get it?!
I am very sorry.
Why can't you lend me any money?! Tell me!
This is a bank, right?
People entrust their money with you,
you turn around, loan that money out, and skim off the top.
That's how a bank does business, ain't it?
I am very sorry, sir.
Why can't you?!
Day after day, I work hard with sweat on my brows to earn my salary
and, okay, so it's not all of it, it's not all of it,
but I put quite a sum into the vault here every month!
I'm bein' at least a little useful to you guys too!
I'm right, aren't l?
Thank you for makin' use of our savings account, sir.
ls that it? Don't you got anythin' else to say to me?!
I am very sorry, sir.
Don't you got a sympathetic bone in your body?
No, sir, I do not.
If you run into trouble, show them that business card.
It should get you through most tough spots.
Abe Seimei
What's this?
Who is...
The effectiveness of that business card was as excellent as the ad for soap
Cleans you fast!
Cleans you good!
that went "Cleans you fast! Cleans you good!"
Even the grim loan officer ground his forehead into the desktop practically beggin' me to borrow the money.
At the time, I thought he was a worthless guy for changin' his attitude just like that over a scrap of paper,
but now that I think back, this was the beginnin' of the ultimate science that Sensei was talkin' about.
Everything's goin' so smoothly, it's almost creepy, Sensei.
These're awfully fine chamber pots.
Wrong.
But no matter how ya look at them, they look like chamber pots that the new rich would use.
These are devices that will serve as the linchpins of the town.
Stickpins?
Linchpins!
Asahina
Genbu to the North, Suzaku to the South,
Byakko to the West, and Seiryu to the East.
This is in accordance with the fundamental theory behind the harmony of the four gods.
We will set these sacred beasts up on the roofs of the shops
that are located in each of these directions and control the flow of chi.
And don't you ever come near my daughter again!
If you do, I'll tie ya up and burn ya!
But Mother, haven't you heard anything from Mune-chan?
About the date for the ceremony? Or about betrothal gifts?
Well, damn it all! Wicked old hag!
Pig ass! Old bat!
T u r t l e B a t h
T u r t l e B a t h E n t r a n c e
Mune-chan.
Mune-chan, I picked out a name for my restaurant!
French One-Course Service, Grill Pelican!
What do you think? Has a nice ring to it, huh?
How about it, honey?
This tree's supposed to live for a thousand years after planting it.
A thousand years?
That's a laurel tree.
There's a lot of mega big ones growin' on the grounds of the Seimei Shrine,
but why here?
That man asked me to plant one here.
That man?
So, this is for "that man," too, huh?
Oh, wait.
I'll deliver it for ya.
Masa-bou!
Festival
"That man," my butt!
Pisses me off!
It pisses me off, so I'm gonna eat it all!
This is pretty good.
It's so unfair, I can't stand it.
l want to be a clam.
You haven't even had a drop to drink.
How long're ya gonna sit there babblin' to yourself?
l can grumble all night long just by sittin' here and starin' at it.
I'm sayin' that you're bein' a real nuisance!
What're ya braggin' about? Talk about moronic.
If you're not gonna drink anymore, I'm closin' up shop!
Tomorrow's gonna be busy because of Seimei's festival.
That was my role...
So, what's wrong with bein' a punk?!
Just y'all watch!
Someday, I'll build the world's most stupendously large French restaurant!
I'll turn a whole 100-story buildin' into a French restaurant,
and have it be open 24-hours a day!
Please take me...
Yeah, yeah. Now, hurry on home.
Loans
What?! He quit?!
Yes. The old man named Kashiwagi-san, right?
No, I dunno. I dunno his name.
He had coke-bottle glasses and not a sympathetic bone in his body...
Yes, yes, him.
He retired the other day.
Not only that, he collapsed in the bath that very same day, and went straight to the hospital, unconscious.
Absolute quiet rest, no visitors allowed.
He apparently never married and was still single at that age.
l wonder what he had to look forward to in life?
What do you think?
Like hell l'd know! I don't care what happened to that old man!
I'm talkin' about the money at this bank!
Yes, yes, of course.
Get it together, will ya?!
Would you please tell me everythin' from the beginnin' again?
The bank wouldn't lend money to a good-for-nothing.
So, I was alone, back at square one.
People often say that money gets lonely.
Neither money nor women will come to a man who is all alone.
Set up a business and start a family...
Such normal and natural things for ordinary people.
They seemed like a distant dream that I was never meant to achieve.
Guess I'll just have to go talk to the Sensei about it.
I wonder if he'll be there?
A b e n o P l a c e
Abe Seimei
Why did I take the kitchen knife with me?
I don't remember about that time.
What was I plannin' on doin' with that kitchen knife?
What was I thinkin'?
'Cause I liked Sensei.
He was a kind and brilliant man with a sharp mind.
And on top of that, he was an exceptionally good person.
He was always thinkin' about other people
and he strove to live for the sake of others. I loved the man.
It was obvious why Mune would fall for him.
There was no reason for her to come to a man like me.
It was only natural that she would be joined with him.
That completely obvious and natural thing,
was too sad and heavy for me to bear right then.
l had probably reached some sort of limit.
It's a nice moonlit night.
It isn't like you to ask to see me so late at night.
What's the matter?
Masayuki...
I am powerless after all.
The world won't go the way I want it to.
Wow, I never knew that even you felt that way sometimes.
I don't want to lose anyone any more.
By the next day, he had disappeared
without havin' said anythin' to anyone.
I contacted the municipal office,
but neither the company on the business card,
nor the person called Abe had ever existed.
Ultimately, I never got to be with Mune and I married Gin, who ran the Horumon cart.
As shops went up one after another in the shoppin' arcade,
strangely enough, that one plot of land never went to anyone.
Ten years later, I was able to open Grill Pelican with my wife.
Asahina
45 Years Later
Say, Mune...
Was that Seimei reborn, you think?
Sasshi!
Hurry up! The festival's portable shrine's gonna leave!
Arumi-chan, wait for me!
Sasshi, it's preview time, your favorite.
Eh, preview, huh?
You wanna do the next episode preview, right?
I dunno, we practically had no scenes this episode.
Yeah, we didn't.
And the story was so serious, depressin' even.
Yeah, it was down.
After that kinda mood, l'd hate to go,
"Next episode of Magical Shoppin' Arcade Abenobashi, "
all happy-like and have people think it was dumb or somethin'.
I don't think you have to worry about that, though.
Your dumbness is exposed and you're spewin' dumbness all year round!
Oh, right.
That's true!
Next Time Set Your Heart Aflutter! Abenobashi * Campus Shopping Arcade
Moron.