Words fail me when I try to describe the absolute weirdfest that this series is. Each episode opens with a disclaimer by Koshi Rikdo, creator of this terrifyingly weird Manga gone anime. Followed by one of the funniest openings I've seen in some time. The ending credits feature Menchi (translated "Minced Meat"), Excel's dog/emergency food supply as he sings (well, howls) his tragic song as he is salted from above and a woman translates what the dog is saying into Japanese. Make any sense so far? Don't worry, it gets worse.
The Story so far as I guess anyone can figure it, is that Excel an obnoxiously vibrant young girl who seems unable to die, has sworn undying devotion and loyalty to the cool headed and somewhat absent minded, Lord Ippallazzo, leader of the idealogical organization "ACROSS", who seeks to conquer the world, but has only Excel as his minion and since that seems like such a huge task he has deemed that they simply conquer the city and start from there. More characters follow as we met the martian princess Hyatt whose disturbing moments of massive organ failure and fits of coughing up blood are truly bizarre. What's more she is constantly dying and coming back to life, not unlike Excel. However, in the soft spoken Hyatt's case she's just... well, ILL dammit! She's fine one minute and the next she her face is flushed and she's lying on the ground dead! It really shouldn't be the least bit amusing, but it really is!!! Then there's Excel & Hyatt's unemployed neighbors, Ammo-Loaded-Afro Badass Nabeshin, The Martian Puchu invaders, The numerous characters who mention Bogota incorrectly on purpose(?!) related somehow to Nabeshin and more.
Simply put, this is one damn thing after another which ends up being one of the most hilarious animes I've come across!!! This title also touts one of ADV Film's newest features called "AD Vid-notes" which basically works on the same princicple as VH1's Pop-up video, as it gives all sorts of miscellaneous series related and Japanese cultural info as you watch.
Why it sucks: Well it's wacky and just plain mindless content is a big turn off for many people, especially those who are only casual anime watchers. This is purely intended for the hardcore Otaku. Also, since it really is ONE DAMN THING AFTER ANOTHER, there's no real story to follow... Only rampant comical chaos awaits. This can be good or bad depending on your perspective, but then again it also matters how into anime you are. And what kind of Anime you're willing to watch. For instance, if all you're into is stuff like Ninja Scroll, Vampire Hunter D, Akira or things such as horror/sex/etc. type anime... you're so in the wrong place. This is Comedy at its weirdest. If Japanese comic anime does not appeal to you you may very well be burning the DVD 15 minutes into the first episode.
Why it rules: This thing STILL cracks me up!!! And I've watched it god knows how many times. ^_^ As anime goes I'm more than just hardcore, I'll watch damn near anything!!! Hell, I sat through the nauseating first eps of "I'll make a habit of it"... I was tied up at the time, but I still watched it dammit! What seperates Excel Saga from simply any Anime Comedy series is that practically NOTHING is safe! Gags ranging from carbohydrates to shotguns hidden in afros, this series is just nuts. And what's weirdest is how GOOD it looks! It has the same "glossy" look that most anime today have, such as Digimon, Car Robots, BGC: Tokyo 2040 and more. Everything has a sort of layered, glazed look to it, but in ES everything keeps in proportion and always looks sharp as opposed to things like the recent Transformers: Armada series which is just sloppy. The first 15 minutes shows you mostly how the series goes with Excel dying 3 times in sucession and being ressurrected by the "Great will of the Macrocosm". It literally opens with Excel skipping out of school (while stomping all over 3 poor students), right into the the path of a semi. Second death moments after her first resurrection, she goes totally spastic while Ippallazzo tries to explain the the purpose of ACROSS and when she pushes him to the breaking point he shoots her in the head. Third death is again at the hands of Ippallazzo when she starts up again and leaps for him he whips out a bazooka and blows her up in mid-air. Then she is sent out to asassinate Koshi Rikdo, creator of Excel Saga. Personally this whole concept is one of the most hilarious things I ever seen. Another plus to point out is the music, the great opening number is awesome, the rest of the music flows really well with each episode without overdoing itself in any scene. It meshes perfectly with each setting and even helps with comic timing. Wowness. :)
Can you say DVD?: The excel saga DVD boasts some entirely brand new features and some great interactive menus. The opening menu is a game system not unlike Nintendo's Game boy Advance with 4 buttons and on its screen you see a small clip from Episode 1 where Excel is leading traffic. An interesting note is that when the DVD is started a particular type of music is played and every time after that, you instead, hear a snippet of the opening music. The buttons are a large lonely button on the left which simply starts the episodes in order, on the right are smaller buttons which lead to Languages, Chapter menus and Special Features. The languages are naturally Eng/Jap and Eng w/ Song subtitles (which is the default setting). There's about 5 chapters per episode from the disclaimer, first half, second half, credits and preview of the next episode. The special features are pretty neat! Aside from the "AD Vid Notes" feature I mentioned (Which can be used with either english or japanese dialogue and with or without subtitles), there's Clean Opening/Closing songs, previews (which mostly suck), a copyright warning with Excel & Menchi standing on the beach (which I will assume was translated into the warning at the beginning of the DVD) and that about covers it. Compared to the lackluster features of Evangelion and BGC Tokyo 2040 this is a gift from the DVD gods! Unfortunately, unlike the Burn-up series you won't find a jiggle counter here. *sob*
Overall: I got the first episode on ADV Films DVD Catalog at Comic-con as well as a poster and a T-shirt. To be honest if I hadn't seen the first episode I might not have bought it. I'm glad I did, and boy am I glad I finally got my hands on the DVD! A good word ot sum up Excel Saga is SURREAL, to say the least. It's such a weird mish-mash of Puns, Visual Gags, and just... weird stuff that it's hard to compare it to anything else out there. It honestly HAS to be seen to be believed! And before you think of picking it up, you should ask yourself what kind of Anime you're willing to sit through. Because this stuff is weird. Hell, even in Japan a lot of the gags make absolutely NO SENSE AT ALL like the talking gun named Nanami which sounds like a man which Excel swipes from one of the martians. The "Kill Right Away Dept." in city hall, still cracks me up. This is incredibly funny and I highly recommend it if you're a major Otaku, but be warned casual anime fan... I cannot stress how freakin' alien some of the humor in this series is.