Excel Saga (1999–2001)
"Heppoko jikken animêshon excel saga" (original title)

Ilpalazzo wants one thing: to rule world so he can better it. Excel just wants to help. Too bad she sucks at her job.

Stars:

Takehito Koyasu, Kotono Mitsuishi, Jason Douglas

Cast

Series cast summary:
Takehito Koyasu	...	Il Palazzo (25 episodes, 1999-2001)
Kotono Mitsuishi	...	Excel Excel (25 episodes, 1999-2001)
Jason Douglas	...	Il Palazzo (25 episodes, 1999-2001)
Omi Minami	...	Hyatt (23 episodes, 1999-2001)
Monica Rial	...	Hyatt (23 episodes, 1999-2001)
Rob Mungle	...	Pedro (15 episodes, 1999-2001)
Shotaro Morikubo	...	Norikuni Iwata (14 episodes, 1999-2001)
Ryôtarô Okiayu	...	Toru Watanabe (14 episodes, 1999-2001)
Jay Hickman	...	Watanabe (14 episodes, 1999-2001)
Mark Laskowski	...	Iwata (14 episodes, 1999-2001)
Takashi Nagasako	...	Pedro (13 episodes, 1999-2001)
Larissa Wolcott	...	Excel Excel (13 episodes, 2000-2001)
Jessica Calvello	...	Excel (12 episodes, 1999-2000)
Satomi Koorogi	...	Menchi (12 episodes, 1999-2001)
Brett Weaver	...	Nabeshin (12 episodes, 1999-2001)
Shinichi Watanabe	...	Nabeshin (11 episodes, 1999-2001)
Tiffany Grant	...	Misaki Matsuya (11 episodes, 1999-2001)

Storyline

Excel works for Across: an organization bent on world domination to create a better society. She ain't exactly great at her job but she definitely tries hard. And with her new partner from outer space she ain't giving up. Meanwhile 3 roommates get a job with a weird government agency, a foreign construction worker is forced to be the love slave to the embodiment of the universe (a vortex with slender womanly arms) and a man with an afro gets into all sorts of weird messes that remain unexplained. And this is only the tip of the iceberg to this hilariously twisted series!

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Plot Keywords:

world domination | fantasy sequence | based on manga | black comedy | ecchi | 

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Taglines:

Ingredients: 4 Complete Episodes, 1 Pre-Teen Assassin, 1 Potentially Edible Dog, 1 Bad-A$$[sic] Babe In A Tight, Revealing Uniform, A Full Day's Supply Of Puchuus!

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Genres:

Animation | Comedy | Drama | Sci-Fi

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Certificate:

TV-14

Details

Country:

Japan

Language:

Japanese

Also Known As:

Excel Saga

Company Credits

Production Co:

J.C. Staff, Victor Entertainment

Technical Specs

Runtime:

30 min 30 min (26 episodes)

Color:

Color

Did You Know?

Trivia

"Menchi" is Japanese for "minced meat".

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Quotes

[Nabeshin pulls a shotgun out of his afro]
Excel: That's some serious dandruff, man.

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Crazy Credits

Every episode of the North American DVD release has different joke credits (at least three or four items per episode) during the listing of the ADV Films staff. For example, episode one lists "Ms. Calvello's Wardrobe by Straightjackets R Us", while episode nine includes "Who knows what evil lurks in the nostrils of men? The Shadow nose".

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Connections

Spin-off Puni puni poemi (2001)

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Soundtracks

"Menchi Aishû no Bolero - Shokusu no ne"
(Menchi's Bolero of Sorrow - You're Going to Eat Me, Right?)
Main ending theme (episodes #1-25)
Performed by Excel*Girls featuring Satomi Kôrogi
Lyrics by Shin'ichi Watanabe
Music and arrangement by Toshio Masuda

User Reviews

Demented, silly, over-the-top. A "Weird Anime" indeed!

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.