Excel Saga

Excel Saga is one of most funniest anime's I have seen (Thanks to an anime junky called Karl) Although I've only seen 10 episodes and may get more this week this is one of my favourite anime series!

Its just hard to believe that the woman who does the voice for excel hasn't had her head explode yet. Like many anime series there are 26 episodes and is based on the manga series by Koshi Rikdo.

There are so many lovable characters in this show such as Excel, Princess Hiett, Watanabe, Hiwata, Lord El Polatzo, Nabasheen, Space Butler, Key and many many more (Sorry if my spelling is wrong by the way).

Seriously though if your an anime fan and you have yet to have seen this masterpiece in anime, I strongly advice you to pick up the box set on ebay you will not be disappointed.

Adams Rating - 10/10

I have to say this is the weirdest animation I've ever witness from anime world. From the very first episode the world weird comes in five minutes where the character Excel dies about 3 times from the very start of the program. Then again later in the show. It's all about her being an across agency trying to take over the world but her love for Master Iraparatzo is out of control. He doesn't love her obviously. Then a girl comes from outer space called Hyatt who has to have breathing problems because she coughs up blood. Damn. Even more weird is that the show becomes more on nudity at the end of the series 1 and scares me a bit. On the whole it is entertaining and funny but the explicit nature of it is a reason why cartoons are not always for kids.

After watching Dragon Half, Elf Princess Rane, and Kodomo no Omocha, one would think the Japanese couldn't possibly produce something crazier than those series. Excel Saga not only proved me wrong, but proved just how completely inadequate words can be when you're trying to describe an animated feature.

From the opening credits (a rather odd spoof of Japanese pop videos that includes the two main characters lipsynching to the opening song while in strange backdrops (like men's communal baths) to the ending song, where Menchi the dog sings (with a human interpreter in a little square in the corner) while various condiments are sprinkled over her, this series lampoons just about anything and everything.

While it's not always coherent, it's energetic and funny, and there's nothing like watching a series that tries to off its own creator (in this case the original comic writer) at least twice an episode. (And the main character dies at least twice as often as that!) If maybe not quite as creative as FLCL, it certainly pulls everything off a lot cleaner.

Excel Saga is an anime beyond words ... a "Weird Anime" indeed.

A friend lent me the first disc to this series...and from the moment I watch the first episode I was hooked. And if you watch it too, so will you.

The series is based on Koshi Rikdo's dark humor satire of the "shadowy world" struggle between government agents and terrorists. Into this mix Shinichi Watanabe threw in anything he could to make the series so over-the-top fall-down-with-sides-hurting-from-laughing-so-hard FUNNY while keeping it from going stale. Struggles with TV Tokyo over broadcasting the series? Throw in gags about those struggles! All those genres of J-Pop TV that are competing with him and his show? Make fun of all of them--a different one for each episode! Add variations on the slapstick routines in it (no scene is ever perfectly repeated) to make the old new again, and you have a funny funny series.

But when it was brought over to America, ADV went the extra light-year (not just mile) to make it even funnier. From the rapid-fire delivery of Jessica Calvello to the moans of Rob Mungle, the voice actors give a new life to the characters that the original voice cast couldn't do.

Also, ADV threw in lots of extras. Vid-Notes help explain the little gags (though some of the explanations only make sense if you watch the subtitles). Six "Menchi" food commercials on Disc 2. The hilarious extended menu dialog of Disc 3. The ridiculous "newspaper" on Disc 5's extras menu--check out the Personals! All in all, this is the funniest anime I've ever seen. --Is that good enough, Lord IlPalazzo? No, please don't pull the---

A word has yet to be invented to describe this superbly made anime. It being one of the first ones I bought a few days back, it serves as a brilliant start to my collection.

There are many reasons why I like it. It is funny, fast-paced, intentionally controversial and has a good mix of characters and personalities, particularly the highly energetic main character Excel and her love and sheer willingness to serve Ilpalazzo. The storyline is sort of all over the place, but it serves as a good element to further improve the overall craziness and parody. The way various gags and stories string alongside each other simultaneously can also be extremely baffling and confusing at times, but comedy values once again rise closer towards perfection. I recommend that anyone who enjoys either anime or comedy (or ideally both) to take the time to find and/or watch this gem.