Bruce Von Stiers

I saw a trailer for an anime title called Excel Saga. It seemed like a funny, irreverent tale of world domination. What I found when watching it was a silly show that had a lot of sight gags, bad jokes and a whole bunch of not too subtle innuendo. I watched the first volume of the Excel Saga that had an appropriate subtitle of The Weirdness Has Begun. Excel Saga is being brought to you by the folks at ADV Films.

This first volume is on DVD and comes with a few extras. There is a clean opening and closing, along with a Japanese opening and closing. There is a Video Piracy Warning in Japanese and the original Japanese trailer. Something called ad vid-notes are also included. When turned on, this feature allows notes on cultural references pop up during the course of the film.

The DVD disc also comes with trailers for other ADV Films titles such as Dai-Guard, Steel Angel Kurami and Robotech: New Generation.

The screenplay was done by Hideyuki Kurata from the original story by Koshi Ridko. It was produced by Shigeru Kitayama, Toshisha Abe and Yuki Matsukura. It was directed by Shinirichi Watanabe. The English Language version was produced by John Ledford and Sharon Papa. It was directed by Matt Greenfield.
The plot goes something like this. There is a secret organization known as ACROSS. Its goal is unifying the world and taking it over. Lord Ilpalazzo is the leader of the organization. The only other member is a hapless girl named Excel.

This all takes place in the City of F, somewhere in Japan. ACROSS wants to start small and conquer the City of F first and then move on to bigger and better things. Excel has some kooky neighbors who fight all of the time. One guy is always complaining and another only speaks in subtitles.

The episodes have silly names like Koshi Rikdo Assassination Plot, The Woman From Mars and Love Puny. There are five episodes from the show on this disc. I read where there is something like 26 total episodes in the show.

Excel gets herself into all kinds of difficulties, first running afoul of some cute, cuddly deadly alien stuffed animals and then later with some Contra rejects in the jungle. She picks up a helper, Hyatt, who seems to be ready to barf all of the time.

The scenes are done pretty well, with some nice stills used as cut scenes. The dubbing isn’t too bad either.

Excel isn’t too smart and is kind of annoying. She gets on Ilpalazzo’s nerves so much that he kills her at least once an episode. She is always brought back to life to fight another day.

Her first assignment is to kill Koshi Rikdo, the artist who created this saga. Of course she can’t do it and that just adds to the hilarity. Excel keeps getting the story to rewind and start again so that she isn’t anywhere near Rikdo. She even gets a job at a construction site where we meet a lonely construction worker named Pedro. There is a whole subplot involving this guy that stretches out over several episodes.

Each of the episodes is lampooning something in society. The first is a parody of manga, while the last one takes on Japanese TV drama shows. In between, we get treated to episodes of sight gags dealing with alien invasions and war movies.

The English Language voice actors include Jessica Calvello as Excel, Jason Douglas as Ilpalazzo and Rob Mungle as Pedro. There is Kelly Manison as the sexy Great Will of the Marcocosm and Hilary Haag as Excel’s dog Menchi. Monica Rial does a good job as Hyatt.

Excel Saga is a funny and irreverent tale of a world domination scheme gone astray. It has the typical anime style of river like tears and bugged out eyes. Excel screams a lot and there is a ton of cleavage shown.

Due to the content of the show, ADV Films has given it a Suggested 17+ rating.

Excel Saga can be found at most major DVD retailers. You can also order it online from ADV Films at www.advfilms.com