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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: Side-splitting laughter over and over again!
Review: I just started a new series and after deliberation decided on Excel Saga, and I must say, I don't regret it

it is up there with FLCL in the "most insane anime ever created" category, and when the first episode involves Ilpalazzo insulting the Excel Saga magna thus sending the heroine killing the creator of the magna/anime, well...

for the uninitiated, Excel Saga is a gigantic spoof of Anime, American Movies, heck its a spoof of just about anything, each episode follows an "expirament" theme, where Lord Ilpalazzo gives the members of ACROSS(his organization) something to do, they normally try, and normally fail....pitifully....

and in between Ilpalazzo might play a dating sim game where he attempts to finish the game...and normally fails...and throws it on the ground....and then picks it up....and continues to play...

It's a very good anime, but unless you know Japanese Culture and Anime to a minimal extent you might not get some of the jokes..

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: OMG! This is hilarious!!
Review: A few months ago, i rented this movie from a local Movie Gallery. By the end of this DVD i was rolling around on the floor laughing! (nevermind the fact i was originally sitting on the floor anyway) I brought my friend (whom hates anime and manga) over to my house and she loved it! It is absolutely hilarious and i can't wait until I'm able to buy this and the rest of the series for myself!

Our main character, Excel Excel, is part of an organization called ACROSS (employed: 2), which is trying to pretty much destroy the city Ef (or F, I'm not certain how it's spelled ^.^;) in the first episode, she catches a dog (or cat?) and names it minchi (or menchi?) and carries it with her as a possible food source. Oh, and she is in love with her Lord Ilpalazo, runner of ACROSS.

As the series continues, we meet the next door neighbors (three men near starving because they're broke) agent Hyatt, new ACROSS agent, who has a tendency to die. The ever adorable Puchuus, who bear a more than passing resemblance to the famous Pikachu, and many other demented characters.

Overall, I'd say this is among the best of anime to get.

Rating: 4 stars
Summary: Insane Fun
Review: The Excel Saga volumn one DVD is one insane series where, first time viewed, you never know what to expect, and viewed again, is still fun.

The other five star reviews tell the details well, however I will note that the quality of the subtitle translation to English is often poor, when compared to the fansubs out there. The jokes are put badly sometimes, when more dynamic translation would do better.

However, in time it should be possible to replace the commercial subs with more quality fansubs, programs out there are already
beginning to allow for this.

For any anime fan this one is almost a guaranteed bit of crazy fun!

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: Hilarious, great story, and great chars.
Review: Right from the start this series sets itself into a league of it's own. The intro music is every bit as catchy as the show itself. Excel's uber-cute look in the first few minutes is so dang... well, cute! And the constant switching between normal and super deformed characters is a hilarious staple of insane comedy anime.

The jokes in this show are just plain outrageously funny. You name it, they've done it. The director of the anime and the author of the manga are featured in just about every episode doing the most ridiculous things you can think of. Every episode carries an "experimental" theme they try out, from sports to horror, which greatly helps to keep things fresh.

What really keeps this series going for 26 episodes isn't just the over the top insane humor, it's the wonderful characters and story that keeps you watching and wanting to know what happens next. I particularly love the ending episodes where things get serious and wrap up well. It's one of them series where once you finish it, it will seem like you've known it forever.

- Rirath_com

Rating: 4 stars
Summary: IT ROCKS!!
Review: Watch this with the pop-up option enabled! There's more metaphorical context, undertones, sattires and subtle referrences of other anime (and non-anime movies and TV shows) in here than what wasn't so blantantly obvious. The humour is more bizarre and clever than most recent typical anime comedies. Some of the gags try a little too hard to tickle the funnybone (which ultimately results a mere sigh or roll of the eyes) but admittedly most of it is ridiculously funny. I guess it really depends on how humourous you find overexaggerated slapstick instances like a young girl getting run over by a truck, laying in a pool of her own blood and jumping straight back up in an eccentric manner smiling wide with blood still leaking from her nose. It's violent, melodramatic, sexy and stupid. Definitely not for everyone, there's clearly many mixed reactions. Some people only giggle at lighthearted, family-oriented, sentimental Disney type dribble. Others may perceive it as entirely try-hard. You only have to take your initial response to it into consideration. Nonetheless, it's fast-paced and fun even as a novelty. 5 episodes on one DVD is amazing value. If you love it (like I did) you'll end up watching them all at once.

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: Pointless, but very Entertaining!
Review: This show is very pointless, it has no main plot what-so-ever, but that's what makes the show worth watching! I don't even really know how to explain this, it's done by Victor Entertainment, and anything done by that company is worth watching take my advice, they're known for mainly Cowboy Bebop, same director and everything. But in this show it's just ... hum, Pointlessly stupidly funny!

Rating: 2 stars
Summary: For Otakus Only
Review: * There is an old saying that I made up myself: "Every
generation reinvents Dadaism and thinks it's something new."
The fact that hardly anybody knows what "Dadaism" means
only proves this point.

Well, EXCEL SAGA defines the term about as well as any.
This anime video concerns the efforts of a clandestine
organization named ACROSS to conquer the world (or, as a
first step, the local city). ACROSS consists of Lord
Ilpalazzo, a classic self-important and humorless (is there
any other kind?) anime megalomaniac villain, and Excel, a
perfectly unhinged teenage girl who does all his dirty work.

Now add to this mix various elements such as a Martian
Princess named Hyatt, for whom the word "sickly" would
be an understatement; Nabeshin, a B-movie action hero;
a Space Butler; cutesy aliens (who reveal themselves as
ugly when hit over the head by Excel); three slacker
roommates; a despondent South American guest worker named
Pedro; disreputable geek manga artists; and Menchi,
Excel's catlike dog, who regards his mistress with dread and
terror and with very good reason.

This is the sort of comedy that throws everything
including the kitchen sink at the viewer, parodying
a half-dozen anime subgenres, TV melodramas, Hollywood
blockbusters, and who knows what else. There is a
plot of sorts, or maybe a dozen of them, with
say an action-movie plot crossing paths (or colliding) with
a romance plot on occasion, but whatever plot there

is doesn't prevent new elements being thrown in rapidly,
more or less at random, and with no great concern for
logic or continuity.

In the 1960s this is what would have been called
"gonzo humor". It is old as dirt. It is a bit puzzling
as to why it keeps being reinvented over and over again,
and even more puzzling as to why anybody thinks it's
original, much less clever.

Still, I would be embarrassed to pick on EXCEL SAGA too much.
The production values are reasonable, it is clear that the
production crew is kind of doodling with this and having a
lot of fun with inside jokes and the like, and if you're a
die-hard anime fan -- an "otaku" -- you will likely find
this good fun too. It probably goes over very well at
anime conventions.

On the other hand, if you're like me, who tends to find
anime something of a guilty pleasure and doesn't believe
that most of it is five-star material -- indeed at its
worst it's shoddy, stupid, and sleazy -- EXCEL SAGA is
tedious. If you're not particularly into anime, EXCEL
SAGA absolutely won't make a believer out of you.

Enduring absurdist humor -- DUCK SOUP, Looney Toons,
Douglas Adams, Monty Python, or for that matter even LOVE
HINA -- has a clever skewed logic ("If a woman weighs as much
as a duck ...") that sets the gears going in your head in
all kinds of strange ways, echoing the strange ways the gears
work in the heads of the people who created it.

In contrast, kitchen-sink humor is pretty stale if
if you've seen this sort of thing before, and even if you
haven't it doesn't age well. I think this is why it keeps
being reinvented -- it's quickly forgotten and then
somebody reinvents the (square) wheel again under the
mistaken belief that it's a new idea. (Who but old-timers
remember the Firesign Theater? Whose style, now that
I think of it, perfectly matches that of EXCEL SAGA.)

I did kind of like the fact that Excel gets killed off every
now and then. If you listen to her for a while it just seems
to be the thing to do.

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: Excel Saga
Review: Since I nicknamed myself as agentexcel, it should be apparent that I am a fan of the series. Here are a few points that were not covered by some of the other reviews.

(1) The English dub is very good. Excel is voiced by Jessica Calvello whose maniac performance fits Excel's hyperactive nature very well. (Incidentally, Kotono Mitsuishi (Sailor Moon)is the voice behind Excel in the Japanese track.)

(2) The series was created during the recent and ongoing recession in Japan. Many of the characters have problems securing stable employment. This is the reason why Excel keeps Menchi as her pet dog and emergency food supply.

(3) The characters (Excel, Hyatt, Ilpalazzo) were named after Hotels.

(4) There was some crackling in parts of the Japanese track. You will notice them if you are a perfectionist. To the best of my knowledge, this issue has not been addressed.

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: Best served to Otaku, but good eats for all ^_^
Review: This has got to be one of the nuttiest anime I have ever seen. Nothing is sacred or safe from parody, and I think many of you will like it like that. Some have said that the Excel's voice is too irritating, and I'll admit she's made me wince, but it also fits her character perfectly. You'll just love the way she sings the praises of ACROSS (the secret organization of which she is a member) with all the enthusiasm of a stormtrooper. Along with her anemic partner Hyatt, Excel blunders into mission after mission to further ACROSS's agenda of taking over the....wait for it....*CITY*! Mwhahahahah, gotta start small after all, wouldn't want to get ahead of ourselves now would we? Excel Saga is a trip into one huge parody of Japanese and (to a somewhat smaller extent) American pop culture, and an excellent addition to this Otaku's collection.

Hail Ilpalazzo!

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: Warning To Anime Fans: You Will Laugh
Review: Talk about a suprise when I actually found myself clutching my sides while watching an anime. I mean, sometimes Japanese animation will cause a chuckle to rise out, but usually it's so horribly translated that I can't find much humor in it.

Then I saw Excel Saga.

If someone took every anime in history, added a dash of every great parody movie worth mentioning, threw them all in a blender and set it on liquify, the end result wouldn't even begin to come close to this series. With an opening that kills off the main character, a top-secret organization with only two members, and a soft-spoken space girl who is so fragile that she can't quite seem to stay alive, this series shows no mercy on every single standard of Japanese Animation.
If I had to pick out one flaw about this series, it would have to be the fact that it's humor is exclusive to Anime fans only. Everyone else will wonder why the main character is talking at a speed that can hardly be deciphered and why waterfall-shaped tears are supposed to be funny.
Still, if you're looking for a different kind of anime, dive right in!


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