Ranked #599

Excel Saga

This show is one of the definitions of random. I will say right now, if you demand structure or linear plot lines, turn back now.

Excel Saga actually not only tells the story of Excel and her escapades, but it is actually three different story lines going at once.

We have the tale of Excel, Pedro, and The Neighbors that work for the city.
With that said, the story is not easily reviewable but here goes.

Well to tell the truth, there really is no story (aside from trying to take over the city) until the last few episodes when random twists of fate bring all three story lines together (dont worry that didn't ruin anything)

Each episode of Excel saga is meant to be a parody of different genre, for instance, there is a sci-fi episode, a fantasy episode, a "power rangers/sailor moon" type one, etc etc. Throughout the course of these episodes, stranger and stranger things start happening and its always entertaining, sometimes funny, sometimes WTF.

The episodes that dont so much focus on Excel have no plot either, and are more of the "daily life" type anime episodes.

As for the art, the animation is top notch. Everything is well colored, choreographed, and presented. They make use of a wide array of animation styles for the various episodes and characters which is a plus.

The sound......i dont even know. This is one of the reasons you love it or hate it. Excel talks extremely fast about the most random things and she can get to be very annoying, or very entertaining. And you may think that "oh she can't talk like this the whole time" but you are wrong, almost the entire time she is running that jaw of hers. Dub or sub, she sounds the same, i dont have a recommendation, pick whichever you normally watch.

Aside from the vocal tracks, the music is quite entertaining. The character themes and sound effects play a big role to help emphasize scenes and actions.

As for enjoyment, I personally found the show very entertaining although at times i did want excel to just STFU but it was worth it in the end to watch it. Dont watch this for any kind of epic plot because you will be disappointed, but if you want highly entertaining, high energy and comical times, check this show out. read more

It's kinda like Inuyasha or Naruto in the sense that you will either love or hate Excel Saga. Instead of ninjas and demons, it is insane humor and parodies of every type of anime stereotype. This is anime at its funniest.

Story: Plot? Hmm...maybe. Though the first 20 or so episodes don't seem to have any at all, there is enough to tie it together. Excel and Hyatt try to take over the world with Lord Illpalazzo. I like how the good guys are like the bad guys. Episode 21-25 ties up the rest with a plot, and 26...well, you'll just have to find out yourself. It goes too far in a way.

One thing to note. Episodes 14-16 seems like they over-used old humor from earlier. I actually think they were ment to do that, to prove how desperate the directors were. (Not real directors. They are characters as well)

Animation: For its time, I liked the animation. This is my first review, and i'm not an expert on animation. It was smooth and it flowed nicely with Excel's crazy antics.

Sound: It has a very catchy opening theme song that only just got out of my head. The ending theme song is alright, it's just Menchi begging not to be eaten really. The music is generally catchy and matches the situation greatly. Everyone's voices ( I watched this show in English) are quite good, except Excel drags on and on. And on.

Character: Probably what i liked the best about the show. All the characters are crazy, but they all differ and i love them all. They develop their personality's well. Especially Watanabe. He's like me exactly. Without the whole I'm in love with an ACROSS member.

Enjoyment: I enjoyed most of the episodes. Some of them were pointless really, but overall I never stopped laughing. This isn't an anime for everyone, but for the parody lovers and for the ones that like a bit of insanity, Excel Saga is perfect. read more

Title: Excel Saga

Manga/Anime: Excel Saga was originally an manga created by Rikdo Koshi. It began running in Young King OURS in the April 1997 issue, and is still running at this point in time, at. Viz has licensed it Stateside, and the sixteenth volume (and the latest volume to be compiled over in Japan) was released on September 11th, 2007.

The anime version was produced by JC Staff (best known for Revolutionary Girl Utena and Honey and Clover), and directed by Shinichi Watanabe (well-known for Nerima Daikon Brothers and Tenchi Muyo! GXP). It ran on TV from October 7th, 1999 to March 30th, 2000. It has been licensed by ADV Stateside, and the sixth and final volume was released April 8th, 2003.

Story: ...Story? What story? xD

Basic plot follows ACROSS' (leader Ilpalazzo and lackeys Excel and Hyatt) attempts to take over the world.

And really, that's about it. Because each and every episode can be taken as a self-contained standalone (except for the last ones), and there's almost no continuity, except in the characters, and one or two basic plot elements.

You see, this anime is a parody of every single genre/major show in the history of evah. Sports anime? Done. Youth drama? Done. Gundam? Done. Dragonball? Done. End of the world? ...You get the idea. They even do an episode just to see how far they can violate TV censorship rules.

It's got some good gags. But it's not satire material. It's still pretty well done, though.

Art: There's not a lot to be said here, because it all depends on what they decide to mock each episode. xD But whatever they choose to mock, they do it well.

Music: The lyrics to the OP are hilarious, and the fact that they're sung so horribly out of tune is the only reason the OP stands out. The ED stands out for the fact that it's just a dog barking/woofing/howling, with a translator translating them into a human language for us.

The background music, as always, depends on what they're trying to mock each episode. But as with the art style and story, it's done well. I've still got some random themes bouncing around in my head...

Seiyuu: The big thing for this one is that they got Kotono Mitsuishi (Sailor Moon's seiyuu) to do this, so when they do magical girl parodies, it's even more hilarious, because in a way, she's mocking herself (they even do some very specific mockings of Sailor Moon herself). xD They do this with several other seiyuu. Also, Ilpalazzo's seiyuu is Hotohori's seiyuu (from Fushigi Yuugi) and Touga Kiryuu's seiyuu (Revolutionary Girl Utena), and his seiyuu is right up there with Joji Nakata for me. So, overall, WIN.

Length: I cannot think of a single genre or major show that they did not mock (and any ones that do come to mind are only because they were released after this). Plus, it starts to drag a little at the end. So, yeah, just right.

Overall: A pretty decent parody gag anime with awesome seiyuu and music.

Also, HAIL ILPALAZZO!!

Story: 7/10
Art: 8/10
Music: 8/10
Seiyuu: 10/10
Length: 9/10

Overall: 42/50; 84% (B) read more

Excel Saga is a pure slapstick anime made to do nothing but try to produce a comedy satire of EVERY anime genre made. It actually does a pretty good job making fun of them all. The entire fact that they're just spoofing anime creates a very weak story line. But they do manage to keep a story to keep it all together, albeit full of holes and non seriousness.

Character
The story mainly follows 2 main characters as they're "trying to take over the world" for a company called ACROSS, i forgot what the acronym stood for. The two girls, Excel and Hyatt, all work under a man called Ilpalazzo. The great thing about the two main characters is that they're complete polar opposites of each other. Excel, is your typical over excentric and stupidly ignorant girl, and Hyatt, is very under excentric and is actually pretty smart. Its funny in a sense that they are Literally different from each other. They're not the only characters in the show tho. There are at least a good dozen characters that keep reappearing but always displayed in different situations.

Art and Sound
The art and animation is typical pre-2000 style artwork. Its all kind of lame in my opinion, but they do show their artistic variety in how they have to draw drastically different enviroments with every episode. The music is forgetable, although you'll laugh at the ED a few times it gets annoying after the 3-4th time listening to it. The op is a little catchy and its a nice touch to have hyatt cough during her singing.

Enjoyment
The best part of the anime is the line excectuion or the script. The use of the word "Shock" and the running joke of her eating her dog among all the other hundreds of jokes makes this show stand out so much. The simplistic lines flow very well with the simple artwork and characters. They even go far as copying charcters from from digi charat, to fist of the northstar, to shinesman (you'll think its power rangers but its really a spoof off of Shinesman), really show the voice range and artistic range albeit a little simple.

Overall
This show does have its high points but its also with its downsides. If youre really into anime comedy, then this would be a good pickup, but even if youre not into the comedy genre it still would not be bad to pickup and watch since there is the possibility of you seeing one of your favorite "classic" anime or genre get spoofed. Youll see jokes coming from lolicon to androids, to poverty jokes, you'll see alittle of everything here. It's definitely a different style of comedy and Nabeshin's comedy style transfers very well to his other work, Nerima Daikon Brothers. This anime is not for most people but you'll enjoy the ending read more

In the beginning I must state that Excel Saga is a hell of an anime series. I mean, there are lots of works that aim to be the over-the-top, crazy roller coaster rides, but most of them end rather poorly. Excel Saga does not, as director Watanabe Shinichi seems to understand well that it takes a genius to make stupidity enjoyable.

Let's face it: Excel Saga is stupid. I mean, everyone (except for Nabeshin maybe) is a total loon one way or the other, and the world itself is as realistic and serious as the one in, say, the Naked Gun series or Hot Shots. Still, the viewer is immediately drawn into this world, and the characters quickly become as familiar to him/her as those in 300-episode anime sagas. The sense of humor in this series is completely lunatic, but still very efficient in making the viewer roll on the floor laughing - either because it's so clever or simply so shameless.

One must bear in mind that it is a parody series, and as such it makes fun of so many movie cliches, not only anime. Actually, it seems surprisingly Western in many aspects; the critique of cheap sci-fi, action B-movies, or date games is very appealing to a European viewer (like me). However, the series goes further than just being a parody; the characters are genuinely likeable, the plot (for lack of a better word) is actually captivating, and the art is exceptional. However, I think the greatest accomplishment of the creators is the way the viewer is endlessly being surprised, caught with his proverbial pants around his ankles by sudden twists in the plot and completely crazy (but fun) developments.

Is Excel Saga perfect? No, it's not; I still can't forgive them those two filler episodes made from previously shown material. However, most people will be taken aback by the sheer amount of... aimless energy, displayed not only by Excel herself, but by the entire anime. So much happens all the time that many people will undoubtedly find it annoying or hard to digest. This is not a series for everyone, that's all.

I might sound like a fanboy, but I'll say it anyway: this anime radiates awesomness, if you can handle that. It's not perfect, but it's easy to forgive its failings. However, I'd rather recommend it to more adult viewers, as I think it takes some cultural experience and maturity to fully appreciate this anime.

Hail, Ilpalazzo! read more

Well the story doesn't exist, nor does it need to. The art is lacking at best. The sound is great, the charaters are over the top in a good way. Almost every episode is a blast to watch just to see what random event they could think of next. And any anime that provides "option 3: put it in" when the main character wont stop talking, is definitely exploring a new realm of character development and story telling. I recommend this anime to anyone with a short attention span!

Story - (8/10) - Very Good
In Excel Saga, there really is no story and the series is quite episodic, but when they parody something (which is pretty much all they do), they do it well. In the final 3 episodes, they force a storyline into it, and I did not like that very much. Nothing is safe from being parodied by Excel! Dragonball, Gundam, nothing! If you are well versed in Japanese anime's and pop culture (at the time the anime was made), there will be non-stop laughs for you. This is one of those animes that you can watch over and over, and each time pick up a new joke because there are so many of them hidden. Simply - Excel Saga set's out to parody, poke fun, and make you laugh - and it achieves all of those, so who is to complain? It wouldn't be Excel Saga if it had some seriously deep, emotional story within it.

Art - (7/10) - Good
The Art is really nothing to get worked up about. Your average animation from the late 90's. The character designs were rather good though, and Excel and Hyatt turned out very cute. There is really not much detail put into the environments, but there doesn't need to be. The wavy-arms and super-deformed facial expressions done by Excel and company are well done though, and very funny.

Sound - (7/10) - Good
I watched this series subbed, because the dub isn't much to speak for. (Read - it sucks). Excel's voice takes a little getting used to, and is still rather annoying throughout the series, but other than that, there is nothing really wrong with the
sound. The only fault is Excel's voice, which is a big thing, since she happens to be the main character and does most of the energetic talking.

Characters - (8/10) - Very Good
The characters all fill out their purpose in this series - to make you laugh, and hard at that. Each character, though come and go as they do, are designed nice and have a nice simple look to them. The girls are pretty cute too, as mentioned before, and the character designs were done very well, and the characters were some-what believable for what they were doing. Most of the characters are very unique, and often break the wall between the show and the person watching the show (addressing the audience, so on), which makes it seem less real, but it isn't really that real to begin with, now is it?

Enjoyment - (10/10) - Outstanding
I laughed my ass off all during this series. Very, very funny series, worth a look even if you aren't into absurdest/slapstick comedies. I really enjoyed watching this anime, and never felt myself getting bored during the episodes (just having Excel on the screen jumpin' around makes you not bored - I cannot stress how damn energetic she is!).

Overall - (8/10) - Very Good
Don't go looking to Excel Saga if you want superb character developments, mature comedy, or a great plot - you will be disappointed. But if all you want to do is laugh, you have found the show that is for you. You can compare Excel Saga to the Austin Powers movies series, scratch the pervertedness. I would say this series is alright for ages 10 and up to watch, ommiting the infameous 'Going Too Far Episode' (Episode 26), which involves massive blood and gore, blatant pedophilia, mature sexual humor, and the Excel dismembering all the characters. (Don't get me wrong though, its funny as hell, just not OK for anybody under, say 15, rest of the series is fine though). read more

Excel Saga follows the adventures of Excel, the overactive agent of ACROSS, and Hyatt, the very fragile agent of ACROSS. Every episode they get an order from their leader Lord Illpalazzo to do some random act that in the end always fails.

Story: I don't remember a story up until the last few episodes. It seems they were just running out of ideas for this one so they figured they could save themselves by throwing in a random story which was not very good. Although the only thing that they kept going was the whole Pedro story where he attempts to go back to living with his sexy wife and son. I do think they did a decent job at the comedy in this anime but not enough to make me truly bust out laughing.

Art: I really liked the art on this one. It was beautiful and unique compared to a lot of other artwork. I more or less watched this anime just to admire the art. I highly doubt I would have watched this anime if it had looked like it was drawn last minute by an artist that was half asleep. Character expressions matched their emotions perfectly as Excel always looked hyper, Illpalazzo always looked bored, Hyatt always looked sick, and Menchi always looked sad and terrified.

Sound: The sound effects were really good and so was the voice acting. I even watched a bit of the dub, which I don't normally do, and I would say that the voice actors did a very good job at capturing the tone each of their characters portrayed. The only problem I had with sound was Excels voice in the dub. Even though it was great it was very annoying. Especially when she would speak very fast I would tend to get lost in her giant mess of words. Even on the subtitles I would miss something because she spoke so fast it would be hard to keep up with them.

Character: One of the best things about this anime was all the characters they had. Each character was well developed and you could easily get a grasp of them within their first minutes of screen time. The only problem is that there were so many characters introduced it was hard to keep up with them. What annoyed me was they brought back one character from an earlier episode into the very last episode. By the time that episode rolled around I had long forgotten that character. Unfortunately they don't show Illpalazzo as much as I had hoped. He was one of the most mysterious and coolest of characters and they did not give him as much screen time as he deserved.

Enjoyment: When I started this anime I thought it was great but as it progressed I found it to be just a little annoying. Putting in a story in the last few episodes was really a bad move on their part. I thought at first that I was watching something else because the Excel Saga I had been watching had no story. I would have enjoyed this anime a lot more had it not been for them putting in a last minute story and overdrawing the Pedro story, which I thought was some sort of running gag at first but it turns out to have been part of the story. read more

Easily in my Top 3 anime though it's hard to choose. I love the off the wall comedy and slapstick of Excel Saga. All of the characters are really cool.

Horrible horrible horrible.. the worst anime i have ever watched. its not funny, its boring and i cant grow attached to any of the characters... the art is mediocre but its not all about the art when it comes to watching anime... its just simply not my style anime.. the main character is just way to loud and annoying. I wish it wasnt the dubbed version i watched first. Maybe subbed is better i dont know. but in my opinion...NEXT ANIME PLZ!