Excel Saga Anime Review

Quick Review

• Reviewer: Marc
• Review Date: 2006-08-17 (updated 2012-05-11)
• 4 stars out of 5 (?)

Excel Saga is the quintessential example of hyperactive, disturbing, free-associative comedy. It's weird (actually, I think it stands at the pinnacle of the weirdness category), repetitive (the situation changes, but the joke is the same in every episode), and for the most part horrifically wrong (it's basically an extended parody of tragic death), and it does absolutely everything in its power to beat every peer in those categories. The animation and frantic acting is every bit as rapid-fire as the unending stream of parodies, so the only real question is whether this brand of comedy is your thing.

If you can't handle utter, random, manic, and extreme insanity, not to mention merciless parodies of a variety of extremely tragic situations, don't even stand too close to the box. If that sounds like your cup of overcaffeinated beverage, it's not going to get any better than Excel Saga.

Read the full-length review...

Full Review

• Reviewer: Marc
• Review Date: 2006-08-17 (updated 2012-05-11)
• 4 stars out of 5 (?)

Gaah.

That one word (sound, really) is about the best I can do to sum up Excel Saga. Why? Because it's the reaction humans are most likely to have after seeing it, and it could potentially be either a spasm of mental anguish or an expression of stupefied hilarity. What else can you say about a series in which the title character dies four times before the first commercial break?

Seriously, though... no, actually, there's nothing serious to be said about Excel Saga. In fact, it's hard to review, because written words fail to convey just how utterly insane and absolutely, positively, wrong this series is.

Have you seen Elf Princess Rane? If so, imagine a series with the same level and general style of manic weirdness, then add to that framework the insanity of Jubei-chan the Ninja Girl, the stupidity and wrongness of a series like Gokudo, a story that makes far less sense, enough tragic violence for a whole shelf full of shoujo dramas, and parodies of everything. Everything. Then imagine watching it at 4am on a huge caffeine bender. And I'm not exaggerating.

If that analogy doesn't mean anything to you, maybe try to imagine what it would be like to watch a couple dozen entirely different movies--anime and live action--all at the same time, on fast-forward, while on some form of hallucinogenic drug and plenty of prescription-strength stimulants. Then ram your head into a wall a couple of times, just in case it was making too much sense.

I'd apologize for all that hyperbola, except it's nearly impossible to exaggerate when describing how loony this show is. I will try to explain the general idea with a straight face, though:

Excel Saga is, essentially, an extended parody of death. Death, and tragedy (which usually involves death). People--main characters, minor characters, and plenty of random folk--die constantly, usually in the most tragic and dramatic manner possible. And every, single time, the deaths are surrounded by such utter wrongness that it's hard not to laugh hysterically through the weirdness-stained trappings of drama. There are heaps of other parodies in there, but the continuous stream of simultaneously brutal and hilarious tragedy is the one constant.

The show demonstrates its complete mastery of this mocking of tragedy in an episode near the end that sends up Fist of the North Star. The episode is played completely straight--the series has reached the point that you can read the humor between the dramatic lines without any pratfalls, background gags, or other indicators past the fact that it's an episode of Excel Saga.

If that isn't enough to make your head spin, the Will of the Universe shows up periodically to resurrect characters (Excel, mostly, who seems to have a love affair with mortality) or reset what passes for the plot when things get too far out of hand for even this series (which is frequently).

I'd try to explain just how bad and (here comes our catch-word for the day) wrong it gets, but to do that I'd have to explain poor immigrant worker Pedro, and I'd rather leave that experience untouched. I will mention poor Menchi, the world's cutest dog/emergency food supply, though: As if the combination of puppydog eyes and an ongoing series of pathetic failed attempts to escape being turned into nutrition for Excel weren't bad enough, Menchi eventually mows down a special forces squad with a gatling gun. Gaah.

Anyway, the story and acutely self-aware writing (among other things, constant pot-shots are taken at the writer of the original manga) are more high-speed, messed-up free-association than cleverness, but each episode focuses on some very classic movie genre--political drama, cheesy Hollywood action, horror, and so on. Mixed in with each of these general themes is a wide variety of more specific references--Star Wars, Galaxy Express 999, Alien, and a sick ongoing Utena-style mascot nod to name a handful.

After the first couple of episodes, which are particularly chaotic, each episode follows something that could theoretically be called a plot, and the individual episodes fit together end-to-end, but none of it makes any sense whatsoever. (Heck, if it wasn't for the Will of the Universe, the series would have been over in the first two minutes.) There is one point, and one point only, to Excel Saga: Insanity.

Oh, and there's also the 26th episode, which covers all the stuff they couldn't get away with on broadcast TV. Meaning that the already-large volume of blood and gore is ratcheted up exponentially and it includes enough very dirty jokes to make up for the (slight) restraint in the entire rest of the series. Somewhat surprisingly, while there are some truly horrifying moments, it doesn't send up tentacle porn. Be thankful.

The visuals carry their end of things, and that's a heroic effort of animating to be sure. The animation is surprisingly smooth, and more impressively manages to keep up with the manic pace of the story. The art is as creative and random as the writing, with a wide variety of styles--everything from dark, letterboxed jungle drama to cartoony pratfalls and wildly exaggerated expressions.

Toshio Masuda's musical score is in the same boat--a little of everything, generally weird, and well suited, although unlike the rest it sounds a little cheap in terms of production values. There's an appropriately insane and badly-sung intro theme (set to "Wha?"-inducing visuals) and a dead-opposite end theme that must be heard to be believed--it's appropriately titled "The Bolero of Sorrow" and barked out by Menchi. Plus, you'll never think of "House of the Rising Sun" (Pedro's mournful theme) the same way again. (No, really--if you love that song, stay away from Excel Saga.)

The acting... well, there's a large cast of varied and skilled players in Japanese, and at the center is Excel. Being the most insane character in a thoroughly insane series, it takes a... special sort of performance to fill those shoes. A performance that the incredibly diverse Kotono Mitsuishi delivers. Terminally annoying, to be sure (you'll be glad to see her die horribly as many times as she does), but that's sort of the point. The previews in particular are worth mentioning--there is dialogue in some that's so fast it rivals (possibly even surpasses) some of the auctioneer-speed, no-time-to-inhale rants in Elf Princess Rane. Wow. Omi Minami makes Hayatt's sweet, waifish voice a wonderful counterpoint. Surprisingly, the other memorable performance is Satomi Koorogi as Menchi--her barking sounds impressively realistic, yet full of personality.

The English dub does a surprisingly good job of keeping up with things, but I personally don't think it has quite the spunk of the original, and Jessica Calvello's Excel is even more annoying (her voice switched to Larissa Wolcott in the second season). Still darned funny, though.

The only real question is whether you'll think Excel Saga is hilarious, incredibly annoying, so stupid you can feel your brain cells dying in droves, or all three. Actually, I can guarantee #3, and Excel herself would be annoying to anybody short of a teenybopper on pure crystal meth, so the real question is whether you'll think it's funny or not. With anything this weird (pretty much the pinnacle of the category, in fact), repetitive (the parody changes, but the joke is the same in every episode), and (one more time) wrong, it's entirely up to personal taste. If you can't handle utter, random, manic, and extreme insanity, not to mention merciless parodies of a variety of extremely tragic situations, don't even stand too close to the box. If that sounds like it might be your thing, though, there simply isn't anything more random, more manic, or more demented than Excel Saga.

Gaah.

Have something to say about this anime? Join our newly-resurrected forums and speak your mind.

Related Recommendations

To start with, the spiritual successor Puni Puni Poemy is essentially another couple of episodes of Excel Saga with different characters (except Nabeshin) and even less restraint--yes, seriously. There are heaps of other wacky parodies out there, but Elf Princess Rane is the only series I know of that has the same level of manic insanity as Excel Saga. The difference is, the manic style is the point of Elf Princess Rane, while it's only a medium for Excel Saga. A few other notables, on various counts: Urusei Yatsura (variety of weirdness and parodies), Jubei-chan, the Ninja Girl (insanity), Gokudo (stupidity), Labyrinth of Flames (weirdness, and marginally less tasteful), Ebichu the Housekeeping Hamster (horror and offensiveness), and Those Who Hunt Elves (wrongness, to a much lesser extent). I'll also throw in Adventures of the Mini-Goddesses and Project A-ko, on account of their varieties of parodies.