EXCEL EXCEL: EXCEL SAGA

So first off I would like to apologise for the delay in my reviews July has been a busy month. Between work and trying to get onto two post grad courses I have not had much time to write any reviews. But bare with me after September I should have more time to myself.

Excel Saga is a comedy anime written by Koushi Rikudou and directed by Shinichi_Watanabe. It aired on TV Tokyo in October 1999 and finished March 2000. There are 26 episodes but the last episode did not air on Japanese TV. This was because the last episode was intentionally made too violent and obscene to be aired on Japanese TV. This anime satirises life and culture in Japan; the manga was developed from Rikudou’s earlier comic Municipal Force Daitenzin as a way to further develop Excel’s character. The anime is very much gag-based and pokes fun at Rikudou and other members of the production staff; as well as parodies some of the more popular anime of the time like Space Battle Yamato, Dragon Ball , and Fists of the North Star to name a few.

The anime fallows the attempts of Across, a secret ideological organization, to conquer the city of Fukuoka (F City in the anime) as a stepping stone in world domination. F City is defended by Dr. Kabapu and the department of City Security also known as the Municipal Force Daitenzin. Across is run by Lord Ilpalazzo and has one senior officer, Excel and a junior member, Hyatt. Excel is very hyperactive and approaches her work with an over zealous attitude but very little foresight. Excel is infatuated with Lord Ilpalazzo but he is indifferent to her and most of the time is down right cruel to her. One of the long running gags is Lord Ilpalazzo dropping her down an oubliette or other methods of punishing her. In contrast Lord Ilpalazzo is infatuated with Hyatt but she takes no notice of his advances and instead holds Excel in high regard. Excel and Hyatt live together in a small flat and keep a dog called Menchi they keep him as a pet and as an emergency food supply.

In addition to these main characters there are a lot of other secondary characters throughout the anime the two main ones are Nabeshin and the Great Will of the Macrocosm (GWM). They have the power to alter and reset the story line and the GWM also has the power to bring characters back to life, you see this done many time throughout the series.

When I first watched this anime 4 years ago I loved it my other half hated it he could not stand the fact that there really was no plot to the whole anime. I on the other hand really liked that fact. 4 years on and I can see how no plot line can be tiresome and my love for this anime has faded into like it on a good day. If you can enjoy anime for anime and get into the running gags, very loose and I do mean very loos plot line then I would recommend this anime. But if you can’t then you will hate this anime and wonder why you wasted your time and wish you could get it back. In other words you will either love it or hate it. I will say this there are some good one liners and the last episode really does go a bit far if you know what the puns are; i.e. paedophilia, love hotel, the 1995 sarin gas attack the list goes on. But on the other hand it’s a good laugh so I would not take anything in this anime too seriously.