Excel Saga

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Excel Saga is a cult Japanese absurdist parody comedy media franchise originating as a manga series created by artist Koshi Rikdo, best known for its breakneck, fourth-wall breaking humor that skewers nearly every popular film, anime, and literary genre. Its core narrative follows the hyper-enthusiastic, short-sighted titular character Excel, a loyal agent of the tiny secret society ACROSS that aims to conquer the entire world starting with the Japanese city of Fukuoka.

Key moments

1996Original Excel Saga manga begins serialization in Japan under publisher Shōnen Gahōsha
October 199926-episode animated television series adaptation premieres for late-night Japanese broadcast
2003North American publisher Viz Media releases the first officially localized English translated manga volume
January 2014The 27th and final volume of the English licensed Excel Saga manga is published, completing the full original series run for western audiences

Unusually subversive production choices

The animated adaptation intentionally defied standard broadcast rules of its era, including a deliberately explicit, un-aired final episode that could not be shown on over-the-air television, full of unapologetically crude gags and meta-jokes about the production staff itself. It routinely breaks narrative logic and character consistency purely for comedic effect, rejecting conventional story structure entirely.

Enduring cult legacy in western anime communities

Excel Saga never achieved mainstream global commercial success like many of its late 1990s anime contemporaries, but it maintained a fiercely loyal niche fanbase across North America and Europe throughout the 2000s. It is often cited by long-time anime fans as a defining example of the unfiltered, experimental parody animation that was regularly licensed for western distribution in the pre-streaming era, before stricter content moderation standards became widespread for localized anime releases.

Social satire layered beneath absurdity

Beneath its barrage of visual gags and over-the-top violent comedy, the series delivers sharp subtle jabs at 1990s Japanese social norms, bureaucratic inefficiency, and the absurdity of real-world extremist ideological movements, framing its comical secret world-conquest plot as a mockery of overly grand, poorly organized activist groups.

episodes	26

episode list	List of Excel Saga episodes

Excel Saga (エクセル♥サーガ) is a Japanese manga series written and illustrated by Kōshi Rikudō. It was serialized in Shōnen Gahōsha's manga magazine Young King OURs from 1996 to 2011, and its individual chapters were collected and published in 27 volumes. The series follows the attempts of Across, a "secret ideological organization", to conquer the city of Fukuoka as a first step towards world domination. The title character of the series, Excel, is a key member of the group who is working towards completing this goal, while the city is being defended by a shadowy government agency led by Dr. Kabapu.

The manga was adapted into an anime television series by Victor Entertainment, which was taglined Quack Experimental Animation (へっぽこ実験アニメーション). Directed by Shinichi Watanabe and featuring animation from J.C.Staff, the series premiered on TV Tokyo in 1999. TV Tokyo only aired twenty-five of the series' twenty-six episodes, with the finale having been intentionally made too violent, obscene and long for broadcast on Japanese TV. As such, it was only included in the DVD release of the series, although it has since been broadcast in other markets.

The series has enjoyed some critical success coupled with respectable sales.

Plot

Believing the World to be corrupt, the secret organization Across plans to conquer the world. The first step in the plan for world domination is to begin by focusing on one city in order to minimize setbacks. Across consists of the leader of the organization, Il Palazzo, and his young adult officers: the enthusiastic and energetically devoted Excel and the soft-spoken Hyatt, who is prone to fainting and losing lots of blood at a time. Excel and Hyatt live in an apartment building in the city, along with their pet dog Menchi, who they have deemed their emergency food supply. Excel and Hyatt are later joined by a snobbish but equally clueless rival officer of Across named Elgala.

Living in the neighboring apartment are three guys: Iwata, Sumiyoshi and Watanabe, who along with apartment neighbor and co-worker Matsuya, work for the Department of City Security. The Department's leader, Dr. Kabapu, also has a grandiose plan on stopping Across; he has the City Security workers dress in Super Sentai-like uniforms and sends them on different missions. Supporting Kabapu is an inventor Gojo Shiouji who likes little girls, and his gynoid Ropponmatsu, who later is deployed as two models.

The series follows the daily interactions among the two groups. Il Palazzo would send the girls on their missions but the results are usually a failure with some explosive or catastrophic damage to the city. Kabapu would send the City Security workers on some equally ridiculous assignment which would also go wrong. Eventually Il Palazzo and Kabapu become aware of each other's manipulations and escalate their plans. Excel finds herself being replaced by an impersonator who heads the ILL Corporation. Massive amounts of money is spent on elections and politics. Eventually the members of Across begin making appeals directly to the City's citizens before Il Palazzo publicly declares the existence of Across and its intentions to the public. Hyatt is captured and Excel and Elgala are later held in an immigrant detention center before being rescued by Il Palazzo, who begins the new phase of his plans.

The anime adaptation introduces some original characters: immigrant worker turned wandering spirit Pedro; alien mascot-like creatures called Puchuu; and The Great Will of the Macrocosm, the last of whom occasionally resets the storyline. The anime director Shinichi Watanabe cameos as an afro-wearing guy named Nabeshin, and a caricature of the manga artist also makes appearances.

Production

The series was created by Kōshi Rikudō and based on a doujinshi he had previously created while in high school named Municipal Force Daitenzin (市立戦隊ダイテンジン). Excel Saga was created as an evolution of Daitenzin in order to develop the character of Excel, as well as to laugh off the vision of a depressed and pessimistic view of the world.[4][5] Excel Saga is set in Fukuoka City and the names of characters and organisations are derived from local locations and buildings.[6]

Victor Entertainment contacted Shōnen Gahōsha about adapting Excel Saga into an anime, and the two companies approached Rikdo. Shinichi Watanabe was chosen as director. Watanabe added his own alter ego, Nabeshin, and expanded several elements. He says that the Great Will in the manga was "conveyed just as words", and he himself developed its appearance, eventually settling on the "swirling, talking cosmos". He also increased Pedro's role in the story from a single frame in the manga. Watanabe says he was pleased with that aspect of his work, noting that "Pedro's situation was considered unsuitable for broadcast in Japan".[7]

Media

Manga

The series began serialization in 1996 in Shōnen Gahōsha's manga magazine Young King OURs and finished in August 2011.[9] The 183 individual chapters were collected in 27 volumes by Shōnen Gahōsha from April 23, 1997, to October 29, 2011.[10][11] A 60-page one-shot was published in Young King OURs on December 28, 2021, to celebrate the series' 25th anniversary.[12]

Viz Media licensed Excel Saga for an English release in North America and the first volume was released on August 13, 2003.[13]

Reception

Since its August 2003 release in North America, the manga has been among the 50 top-selling graphic novels on three occasions.[37][38][39]

The English-language reviews of the Excel Saga anime were broadly positive and enthusiastic. Mike Crandol of Anime News Network puts it in the same class as Airplane!, National Lampoon, Tex Avery, and Monty Python, adding that the "combination of character-based humor, outrageous slapstick farce, and a plot that is engaging if only for how weird it is make for a thoroughly enjoyable comedic experience".[8] A contrary opinion is expressed by Joel Pearce from DVD Verdict, who says the series is "occasionally clever and funny," but that "much of it is gratingly obnoxious".[40]

External links

Official manga website of Viz Media
Official anime website of Madman Entertainment

References

Sean Thordsen. The Law of Anime Part III: Defending Yourself Anime News Network, February 23, 2013, retrieved September 14, 2018^
The Official Website for Excel Saga Viz Media, retrieved October 28, 2017^
John Oppliger. Ask John: What are the Best Anime Comedies of the Past 20 Years? AnimeNation, retrieved January 6, 2020

Anime

An anime adaption was produced by J.C.Staff and directed by Shinichi Watanabe. Twenty five episodes were broadcast on TV Tokyo between October 7, 1999, and March 30, 2000.[18] At the publisher's request, the anime series follows a different storyline from the manga, however Rikdo was pleased with the adaptation.[19] Victor Entertainment produced the music of the series, which was composed and arranged by Toshio Masuda and directed by Keiichi Nozaki. Director Shinichi Watanabe wrote the lyrics for the opening and closing themes,. The opening theme which were performed by Yumiko Kobayashi and Mikako Takahashi who were credited as The Excel♥Girls . The lyrics for the opening theme Love (Loyalty) (｢愛(忠誠心)｣) were written "on the train, five minutes before the deadline".[7] The closing theme was Menchi's Bolero of Sorrow (｢メンチの哀愁のボレロ｣) The two themes were released together as a CD single on November 3, 1999.[20]

A twenty-sixth episode, Going Too Far, was deliberately created to be too violent and obscene for broadcast in Japan and was instead included as a DVD bonus. Watanabe commented that it "felt good to go past the limits of a TV series", although he thinks it "is not something that you should do too often".[19] In Japan the series was released on 12 DVDs between March 1, 2000, and January 24, 2001.[21][22]

The series was licensed for an English language release in North America and the United Kingdom by ADV Films and in Australia and New Zealand by Madman Entertainment. The English adaptation initially starred Jessica Calvello, with Larissa Wolcott taking over the role after episode thirteen after Calvello had damaged her voice during production.[23] In North America, ADV released the series on six DVDs between June 11, 2002, and April 8, 2003.[24][25] A complete collection of the series was released on July 6, 2004, as Excel Saga - The Imperfect collection and re-released in different packaging on August 1, 2006, as Excel Saga - Complete Collection.[26][27] In the UK, the series was first released between May 19, 2003, and March 15, 2004.[28][29]

On October 30, 2010, Excel Saga was re-licensed in North America by Funimation, who re-released the complete series to DVD on May 17, 2011.[33]