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Quack Experimental Anime Excel Saga.

Genre: Comedy/Just Plain Weird

Rating: 17+ (Contains animated violence, strong language, nudity, blood, adult content, should I go on?)

Created by: Koshi Rikdo / Shonen Gahosha * Victor Entertainment

Dubbed by: Victor Entertainment/ADV films

Favorite Quote: (from the copyright warning - really!)

" ILPALAZZO IS WATCHING YOU!

The contents of the Excel Saga videogram are licensed for private home viewing purposes only and are protected under the terms of both U.S. Code (Title 17, sections 510 and 506) and the 1998 ACROSS treaty (AKA Don't Toucha My Toot-toot Pact).

Under the express orders of Ilpalazzo, supreme leader of ACROSS, any unauthorized duplication, public screening or use of the packaging as a coster, musical instrument or contraceptive device is strictly prohibited, and will be dealt with in the most severe manner possible, most probably invloving chicken feathers, cod liver oil and a very, very depraved walrus."


Excel Saga is a very strange Anime. The story to follow the misadventures of Excel Excel, who is insane, as she serves in the secret organization ACROSS. Like many secret organizations, ACROSS is trying to take over the world, starting with the city of F. Weirdness ensues.

Each episode parodies a different genre of anime or pop culture, from space epics to teen dramas to horror to magical girl and then some. Though the episodes seem to unconnected, there is a plot advancing throughout the series, though it seems to go in whatever random direction it feels like. You might get turned off by it's randomness, but keep in mind, this isn't Gundam Wing or Cowboy Bebop.

There are alot of inside anime jokes made during the series, and the more you know about anime in general, the more of them you'll get.

Other main characters include Hyatt, Excel's partner in crime. Hyatt dies almost every episode, but unlike Southpark's Kenny, Hyatt doesn't stay dead for long, and she comes back to die again and again in the episode. Hyatt and Excel serve Lord Ilpalazzo, the leader of ACROSS. Excel has a major crush on him, but he is much more intrested in Hyatt. Also in the cast is the most unlucky man in the world, Pedro, who rarly interacts with the other main characters, being in little clips at the end of each episode, which usually end with him screaming 'NOOOOO!' Then you have Menchi, Excel's dog/emergancy foodstuff. There are many other characters, but I'm getting tired of typing.



Characters: D ~ Due to the odd nature of this series, the characters are not explored.

Visuals: B ~ The animation style changes often depending on the gag, but it's not distracting.

Music: C ~ The music doesn't really stand out.

Story: - ~ I felt it wouldn't be fair to grade this series based on story, due to it's randomness.

Good point: It's weird and funny. And I picked it up for $58 for the entire series. That's less then I paid for the first four disks of Tenchi GXP.

Bad point: It's weird and funny. It's not be for everyone. Excel talks about a million miles an hour, and can get annoying.

fav series wuote: "How come i must know, where obsession needs to go" - from the opening song "Obsession"(click to see the lyrics)

age rating: 14+ (some scenes of violence and a deep plot)

number of episodes: 26 + 1 recap

Creator: bandai visual
dubber: bandai (yep the dudes who also dubed gundam wing, gundam seed, cowboy bebop, trigun and unlike FUNimation BANDAI ACTUALLY MAKES GOOD DUBS!"

Well first off i gotta say, .hack//sign is my new favourte anime

.hack takes place mainly in an online internet game named "The World" This is a massevely multiplayer online game where thousands play together in a game with no true story but the players create their own stories.

The story starts when the main character named Tsukasa (silent T) wakes up in this online game and is unable to log out, or leave the game. He is also able to feel smell, taste etc in the world as if it was the real world. Soon after his awakening he meets a few friends first was Mimiru. Now there are people who go into the world and just see it as a game, nothing more than a method of entertainment, but there are some people who see the world as an escape from the horrors of the real world. The real world is not shown much within the series but whenever it is shown it is allways dark like black and white and edges are allways a bit fuzzy, i think the animators are trying to show here that the real world is not something desirable. But anyway soon after meeting mimiru (and leaving mimiru without saying a word) he comes to the entrance of the dungeon where he woke up and ran into "silver knight" who happens to be a high up person in a player created group called the crimson knights, these crimson knigths ARE NOT moderators or administrators they are just a band of normal players who go throughout the world investigating and making sure no illegal activities such as hacking are taking place. But anyway silver knight questions Tsukasa because it has become awarent that he has recently come in contact with a character who looked like a cat, this character is obviouslly hacked. and when Tsukasa is attacked by the silver knight Tsukasa does not reveal any information cause since he woke up he could not remember anything besudes some things about the world. Tsukasa is attacked and this monster appears out of nowhere which not only has the power to kill a character in the game but can in fact place the player in the real world into a coma

This monster becomes a serious issue umong the silver knights and on "message boards" for the game (you know what a message board is, Gaia is a message board) and people speculate that it is a legendary item called "the key of the twilight" which is in fact an item that goes above the rules of the game.

Tsukasa soon meets with the chat character and he/she (no clue what it is it never speaks a word, well it's mouth moves but we the viewer can't hear what it says but Tsukasa can.) this cat character takes Tsukasa to this area where there is a this girl floating above a bed which we later learn is aura a program created within the world, but this girl seems to be alseep and never wakes up (untill the last episode) here in this area Tsukasa hears a voice and thinks of the voice as his mother who passed away.(i know i said earlier that Tsukasa can't remember anything but some of his older memories come back to him, they are given to him by this voice). after this meeting some would assume that this voice is a helper but it has ulterative motives, you learn this when it says this line

"Hope is the best spice to bring out dispair."

What the voices true intentions are also unknown for awhile i will not reveal them here cause i do not like spoilers. but anyway after awhile the crimson knights capture Tsukasa using the help of Crim, crim is an extemely high character who has the speed to dodge Tsukasa gaurdian, and with crims help Tsukasa is captures and questioned, in the prison he is meet with Subaru, who in turn ends up falling in love with Tsukasa and much of the story revolves around the 2. And Tsukasa has a huge secret about his true identity and subaru also has somehting secret about her identigy also. Pm me for the info i won't put the spoiler here.

There are many more characters such as bear who acts like a wise father figure in the series you learn that he is a father, you meet BT who is a female wavemaster(Tsukasa is also a wavermaster, wavemasters are bascially magicians), and a male assassin named sora, sora is a player killer and is also a kid, he's arrogent and is seeking the key of the twilight as well, he will often doublecross those who help him and at the end of the series for punisment for betraying the voice and allowing Tsukasa and suburu to leave he reveives a grave punishment which i do not believe he deserves.

note: if you want me to spoil any of the story or have any questions since i know my review this week is ofely crappy since there is a hell of alot to say about this series please private message me and i will answer your questions about the series to the best of my abilities

ratings

Story: 10/10 i really enjoyed it, there are alot of talking not much action but the story is deep with a multitude of plot twists and turns that allways keep you guessing, the ending is a little sad if you know what happened but also a little happy, wraps up nicely but has a few questions left over, but overall it is a really great story.

visuals: 10/10 i really enjoyed the art syle and the character designs and how the real world is presented, alot of thought was put into this and payed off

sounds : 12/10 the ost(original sound track) is in my opinion amazing, i actually listened to the music before i watched the series, i enjoyed the ost and got even morew enjoyment after i watched the series, the music often sets the correct modd in the series and the lyrics are really REALLY good in terms that they can be though provoking and quite moving

Characters: 11/10 many great characters each unique in their own way and all haveing a past, lots of thought was put into the characters, and interact with eachother nicely. really nice

overall : 15/10: i really enjoyed this series it is now reigning king on my list of favorite animes, and will prob be there for some time. only anime without giant robots that manaed to reach that point. a truely amazing series and a great addition to any anime lovers collection. if you love anime and don't have this series i only have 1 spec of advice for you GET IT NOW

and P.S. i amd aware of the .hack games and how the same character sprites are used but the .hack games have to my knowledge no story connections with .hack//sign and are actually another story within the same world. same fors with .hack//dusk aka .hack//ledgend of the twilight bracelet.

(if i have time i'll put some pictures up over the weekend)

Gundam's review edited for clarity: