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Excel Saga - The Weirdness Has Begun (Vol. 1)

Excel Saga - The Weirdness Has Begun (Vol. 1)

List Price: $29.98
Your Price: $26.98
Product Info Reviews

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Rating: 5 stars
Summary: One of the funniest anime of all time...
Review: Meet Excel, (first name, Excel, last name Excel, Excel for short) the indestructible, hyper agent of the secret organization, ACROSS, under the leadership of the handsome Lord Il Pallazo. Il Pallazo is bent on world domination, but for the mean time is dedicated to taking over the city F. Next, throw in a bunch of miscellaneous characters, Hyatt, a anemic martian princess; Menchi, an adorably cute dog, and Excel's emergency food supply; Pedro, the foreign worker with a sexy wife and an adorable son; Nabeshin, the afro-wearing action hero, "The Will of the Universe" a strange plot hole that intervenes whenever something goes wrong, along with dozens of other strange characters, and you get one of the strangest, most hilarious anime of all time. This anime isn't called an "experimental anime" for nothing. Each episode pokes fun of a different genres, from action films to romantic comedies, and contains many references to both Japanese and American pop culture; Star Wars, Macross, Di Gi Charat, Lupin III, just to name a few. While Excel Saga doesn't have much of an actual plot, with all the antics, and slap-stick parody, it will leave you laughing for hours on end.

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: Hilarious Parody Anime, not for everybody, most will like.
Review: Excel Saga was originaly Created as a Manga (japanese Comic for those who didn't know) published in a magazine targeted at Otakus (manga and Anime Fanatics) writen and Ilustrated by the heavily talented and very geeky Koshi Rikudo. The Animated Version was Adapted and Directed by the rising star Director Shinichi Watanabe (Director of the famous "Cowboy Bebop" series). The Showed aired at 1:30 AM on TV Tokyo, Perfect time for all the Otakus to tune in.
The show mainly makes fun of other Manga and Anime from the 1960s all the way to Today, but mostly stuff from the 1990s, so us American Otaku can understand it for the most part. The show also makes fun of both Japanese and American Popular Culture (mostly Japanese), Ranging from Japanese Pop Music, Gameshows, Video Games, and movies (it pokes fun at Star wars a whole lot). Fortuantely, for us Americans who might not understand certain jokes, ADV films (American Distributers) Have added in a "Vid-note" System which works like VH1's Pop-up Video. When turn on, it will pop-up balloons which help explain some of these jokes.
Like any good Parody, Excel Saga collects well known cliche`s and proceeds to exagerate them to a point of absurdity and thus makes fun of them. Some times it takes these cliches and puts them in the wrong places on purpose. Other time they'll put the wrong characters and put them into famous Scenes, or put the scenes into the wrong settings. The Characters themeselves are exagerated cliche's. Excel herself is the cliched energetic anime girl to the extreme. Hyatt is the cliched ultra-femenine and frail anime girl, so frail in fact that she is frequently stricken with life threatening diseases. The show will also throw in the ocaisional dirty joke.
Any hoo, if you like parodies, you'll love Excel Saga.

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: Kiss your sanity goodbye.
Review: I've seen a lot of comedy animes, but none as rediculously hellarious as this. It's in a class of its own. The best Fast Paced comedy has to offer. Hell you're likely to see more in the first 7 minutes of this show than you would in a whole series. That's not all either. ADV has a assembled an top noche dub cast that actually managed to top the Japanese version.(something that was thought to be impossible by fans of the subbed version). The most noticable is ovbiously Excel's dub voice played by Jessiva Calvello. You may have heard her as Mink in Dragon Half. What's interesting is that the Japanese voiceo of Excel also played Mink. Anyway, the gags keep coming and the more otaku you are the funnier this show is. Highly Recomended.

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: This is going to be a LONG review...
Review: While the DVD package does have warnings about how Excel Saga might be hazardous to your sanity that is just a little too much. IT is funny, but forget the warnings, it's not that funny. You will laugh, but I doubt you'll hurt anything.
The story begins with Excel skipping out of a school and getting hit by a truck. Don't worry, she dies a lot and does get hit by a truck more than once. Excel is a member of ACROSS - a not-so-secret organization which wants to rule the world. Its leader, Lord Ilpalazzo, does this by sending Excel, and other members (such as the Princess from Mars who shows up in episode two), onto missions for ACROSS. That seems sane enough. Now add references, hundreds of them, such as the White Comet Empire from Star Blazers, Excel stealing poses from Space Cobra, a Prisoner in the Iron Mask who looks VERY much like a female character from Captain Harlock(or a female character from Galaxy Express or a female character of any other anime series that Leiji Matsumoto has made), Yoda from Star Wars, Resident Evil (the games), dating games and what you have is a really weird, and yes, very funny, story. Add aliens from Mars armed with a huge spaceship and futon beaters, Space Butler (I don't get it either), fake film footage, an afro hair-do, government agencies and the fact that both female characters seem to die a lot and you have the anime verison of the X-Files marries Benny Hill while also dating Monty Python.
Besides the five episodes there are also the extras: sketches, previews, trailers, opening and closing songs, and the AD Vid-notes, kind of a Pop-Up Bubble that appears and helps explain or point out stuff. Most of the time it, like Excel's super-fast dialogue, is hard to catch and be ready to use the pause button a lot. But remember that even the Pop-Up Bubbles are sometimes just there to add to the humor and many times, like when Excel fell down a pit, are snatched away before you can read them by objects she falls past. In other words they interact with, and sometimes even BLOCK your view of, the action.
Excel sometimes talks so swiftly that maybe using subtitles, even when you already have it set on English language, might not be a bad idea. But that is not a problem, that just happens to be her character - she is hyperactive most of the time when not hungry.
If you are looking for a plot then REREAD what I just wrote!
Either way this DVD, with 125 minutes, has TONS of stuff on it. New or used, the first DVD is worth it. I even like the dog's ending song!

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: A must see, rent or buy.
Review: This is a hilarious anime and extremely random. Despite the randomness, there is a plot and a good amount of referential humor. The animation isn't incredible, but it's not poorly edited and thrown together. (B- action, musicals, survival movie, etc). This is highly recommended to anime watchers of all ages. Watch this subtitled, not dubbed!

Pros:
1. Random, hilarious.
2. Enjoyable characters.
3. Enough plot to make... some sense.
4. Side stories.
5. DVD commentary.
6. Each episode is a parody of a different style movie or anime
7. Lots of other good reviews.
8. Doesn't matter if you didn't like the manga.
9. Can be watched multiple times.
10. This was a television show so there isn't any foul language.
11. Minimal violence.

Cons:
1. The dubbing is annoying.
2. Difficult to watch if you haven't seen the episodes in order.

Rating: 4 stars
Summary: Pretty hilarious, but the English track screeches too much
Review: I'm not an Anime old-timer, I've only seen a handful of things. I encountered a budget copy of the first Excel Saga, and found the gags pretty darn entertaining. These disks would be REALLY great if Excel's voice track was toned down just a little. It can get pretty tiresome to have to concentrate so hard on the screeching rapid-fire dialog to make sure I can make out what she's saying. The dialog is generally pretty hilarious, but just a little too over-the-top to the point that it borders on the fingernails-on-the-blackboard effect. Looks like the production company has the problem in general as well, as I also picked up Puni Puni Poemy by them and it has pretty much the same problem. The main character's dialog track borders on torture, and is pretty much a constant feature...

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: Greatest anime ever in the history of the world
Review: I bought the boxset hoping it wouldn't suck. Oh my gosh. This is my favorite anime EVER! I mean this cartoon has everything. It makes fun of everything that needs/deserves to be made fun of. It's nice to watch someone on tv in cartoon form that's more messed up than I am, but yet reminds me of myself. I would recommed this to anyone who loves silly anime. You need to brain to watch this, cause none of it makes sense. So it's a win win kind of anime

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: For what it is it's perfect!
Review: Excel Saga is the wierdest, funniest, most f***ed up anime I've ever seen. In every eppisode it parodies something else whether it be Star Wars or Dating Games. No matter what it decides to make fun of the show will leave you laughing so loud the neighbors will complain. Or if you're conservative, writing complaint letters to a bunch of organizations. Either way it rocks.
But before you buy this you should know that this DVD has absolutely no plot line whatsoever. In later DVDs my sources say there begins to be a plot line but not in this one. If you're looking for something dramatic with twists that will keep you guessing I reccomend you keep searching because you will not find that in Excel Saga.
However, if you are looking for a pointless way to waste time by all means buy this DVD, you will not regret it. Funniest anime ever.

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: The start of my all-time favorite anime series
Review: This volume of "Excel Saga" starts off what is my personal favorite anime series. I watched the first four episodes at Anime Mid-Atlantic, and I immediately started to collect the series. It was the first series I ever spent money on, and the first series I've finished.

This DVD introduces the ideological organization of ACROSS, which plans to conquer the world but - so as to not stress themselves - plan to do it one city at a time. Excel is a ditzy girl who adores her leader Ilpalazzo...who abhors her. Later they are joined by an additional member, the tuberculosis-strickened Hyatt. Excel and Hyatt are given a random quest on each episode and this becomes the primary story in the series...although there are side quests, such as Hyatt's adoration by neighbor Watanabe, and the latter character's ventures into civil service with his three dumb friends.

The best episode on this by far is the episode that makes fun of romantic RPG's. I have never laughed so hard in my life as I did when at the start of the episode Ilpalazzo...well, see for yourself.

One of the best things about this, at least to me, was that the English dub was pretty decent. Ilpalazzo's voice surprised me at first, but you get used to yet. Excel's dub voice is one of the things you either hate or love, but I thought the VA was just as spirited as the original Japanese VA. Truth be told I prefer the Japanese but I have found myself watching the English dub because it gives the same level of enjoyment.

And now I leave you with "PUUCHUU!"

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: the best anime to ever live
Review: now i still havent seen it all but i know its worth every penny. when people ask me to recomend an anime they hear "EXCEL SAGA. WATCH EXCEL SAGA." im a deprived anime fan and if i could only own and watch one anime its excel saga. if you ever watch any anime... make it Excel saga.


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