September 25, 2006

Anime Review: Excel Saga

GWNETOHH Rating Status: Masterpiece, a MUST see
TV Rating: TV MA
Contains: Violence, Blood, Gore, Suggestive Themes, Sexual References, Insanity
Episode 26: Contains Violence, Blood, Gore, Suggestive Themes, Sexual References, Sexual Practices, Sexual Themes and Insanity

Where to even begin with this Anime. The story is about an organization called ACROSS, whose ultimate goal is to conquer the world, but first they will conquer F City F Prefecture. Agent Excel is the only member of across in the beginning until Agent Hyatt is rescued from the puchuu. Excel Saga in itself, is a masterpiece. There are gags about Western Culture (to name one, Jaws) as well as Eastern Culture (magazine salesman in Japan who blabber so fast trying to sell you something) that offers a perfect blend that most audiences will understand.

If you are looking to get into Excel Saga, prepare for the insanity of this anime. It not only has different plot twists going anywhere from time to time, but it turns out the main villain of the anime is a one time stand alone character from episode 8. Each episode either makes fun of another genre of anime (Examples: Gundam, Big Head Sports Anime, Sci-Fi [star wars], Dating Sim, Horror, Episode with all Gags removed, DragonBall Z spoofs, Daitzen Team/Power Rangers spoofs). The story is insanity, nearly every moment is insanity, and it really is a lot to take in in a short amount of time. You will find often that there are multiple dialogues going on at the same time and it can be hard to understand what everyone is saying or doing.

I declare the Anime a Masterpiece because of its insanity to stretch FAR beyond the envelope, but also because of the incorporation of the Author (Rikdo) and the Director (Nabeshin). They also throw in gags about the industry as a whole (Manga not selling, constant disputes between Rikdo and Nabeshin) and from the very first second of Excel Saga, you will see an early gag of this. The title mentions Excel Saga is a "Quack Experimental Anime" and this isn't far from the truth. I would recommend viewing this anime after a long time of watching, and if you are completely new to anime, avoid this one at all costs so you will not stereotype anime (and you may have no idea what is going on). Anime Fans that know moderate to deep culture references in both the Eastern and Western side of the world will enjoy Excel Saga. Perfect anime and after a few episodes, I cried when I laughed because it actually hurt to laugh.

Trivia:
-Excel Excel is Excel's Full Name.
-Agent "Hyatt" is named after the hotel chain in Japan.
-The Daitzen Team is the original Power Rangers brought over to USA by Bandai.
-Episode 26 was considered too "inappropriate" to be aired by Japanese Broadcasts, so only episodes 1-25 were aired late at night.
-Agent Hyatt is played by the voice actor who also voices "Haruka Shitow" in Rahxephon.
-Excel, from episodes 1-14 is played by the voice actor who sounds awfully a lot like Asuka Langley Soryu from "Neon Genesis Evangelion".
-Lord Ilpalazzo sounds a lot like the voice actor who did the voice for "Maxamillion Pegasus" in Yu-Gi-Oh! Duelist Kingdom.

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