Salutations, traveler of The Internets! Welcome to William's Bloody Hell, so named after our founder, Sir Bloody William.
He is seen in the likeness above in a rare, 19th century woodcut. This
image was rumoured to have been
commissioned after a bout of unpleasantness
in the White Chapel district of London. Do enjoy your stay and peruse our many, varied offerings, much of which cannot be found elsewhere!
:: Excel Saga ::
by William the Bloody
Welcome to ACROSS, an ideological secret society preparing to conquer the world! Well, the world is pretty big, so let's start with the country.... eeehhhh we don't want to push ourselves too much so we'll settle for the city for right now. Yes, F City, in F Prefecture of Japan, prepare to be taken over by ACROSS! Maybe, if ACROSS weren't comprised of three members and one dog/emergency food supply, and the highest ranking field officer Excel weren't incompetent. She may be incompetent, but she tries to make up for it with unyielding enthusiasm and unshakable loyalty to ACROSS and its leader, Lord Ilapallazzo!
The Good: Excel Saga offers a hilarious spoofy look at the entirety of the anime world. Yes, no genre is safe from their send-ups from romance to detective stories, to horror and sci-fi are ALL made fun of equally and unrelentingly. Some episodes offer direct parodies (episode 22, "Invasion, Mother" a parody of Space Battleship Yamato), while others generally spoof the genre (episode 3 "The Sacrificial Lamb of the Venomous Great Escape of Hell" emulates Vietnam war epics) and of course the whole series is smattered with quotes and poses mocking everything in between. The characters are all outrageous and odd; Lord Ilapallazzo the overlord of ACROSS with his giant cape, sits on his giant thrown and gives orders, but we also see what these villain types do when no one's looking (re: guitar lessons and dating sim games), Hyatt ACROSS's second officer after Excel who is beautiful and delicate and yet always seems to be dropping dead, The Great Will of the Macrocosm who is there to put things right when an error has occurred (re: restoring Excel to health when she dies in an accident or Ilapallazzo shoots her out of annoyance, because you can't have a series without the main character!), Menchi, Excels super cute pet dog who is really only kept around in case Excel gets too hungry after going too long without a paying job (ACROSS may be wonderful but it doesn't offer a paycheck to its members), Mr. Kabupu the mysterious government official and fake moustache, and Excel's next door neighbors, Ronins 1, 2 and 3. This anime series is different from some of the others I've seen in that it is only BASED on the manga that spawned it. A series like Inuyasha is practically panel for panel like the comic book, but Excel Saga goes its own way and creates its own characters, which gives it better opportunity to poke fun at itself making reference to the original manga material, the other works of the original author, bringing in the voice artists and their other works, and even the women who sing the title theme song are characters. And speaking of them, I really do like the main title them song "Love (Loyalty)" by the Excel Girls, so bonus points for that, and the end title song "Bolero of Sorrow (So, You're Going to Eat Me)" is hilarious. The Japanese voice cast all do wonderful jobs! Excel has a great high pitched, fast paced voice that it just amazes me that any one person could keep up with that dialogue!
The Bad: The English voice actress for Excel annoys the hell out of me. The rest of the English dialogue cast is okay, but Excel does have the most dialogue and it's like listening to fingernails on a blackboard. There are recycled music clips and animation cell reuse galore which is horrid, especially since they reuse animation even in the first episode!! There is only one season of only 26 episode total, and yet, TWO of them were CLIP SHOWS!! BOO! HISS!! KILL!! Well, the first one was okay-ish, in that they presented the clips in an original and amusing way, but the second one was terrible. Also, many of the jokes will probably be head scratchers to us viewers who do not speak Japanese as Excel has many lines that are play on Japanese words. And, there are gags related to Japan and Japanese culture in general such as the reference to "Weather Break!" and the first clip show is done in the style of the Japanese end of the year review show, but having never watched Japanese broadcast television, most people in the United States wouldn't get this. Yes, there is the extra helpful "Ad Vid Notes" that you can turn on in the Extras menu which give you "pop up" notations while watching the show, but is a joke funny if you have to have it explained to you?
In summary, Excel Saga is insane. Its a fast paced, fast talking parody show that's not afraid to make fun of everyone and everything, including itself. You don't HAVE to be a rabid anime geek to appreciate the humor in this show, but honestly, it will help. Excel's unbridled enthusiasm and the gag per minute ratio make this one crazy funny show to watch.
B+
