Kitschensyngk
The kids are all wrong
'''''Excel Saga''''' (''Heppoko jikken animêshon ekuseru saaga'' (''Quack Experimental Animation Excel Saga'')) is a comedy anime series directed by [[Shinichi Watanabe]] and based on the ongoing manga by Koshi Rikdo.
Twenty-five episodes were produced by animation studio J.C.Staff and aired on Japan's TV Tokyo from October 7, 1999 to March 30, 2000. A twenty-sixth episode was also produced but was not broadcast due to its intentional explicit content and was only included in the subsequent DVD release. The entire series is licensed in North America by ADV Films.
==Plot==
Deep below the streets of F City, F Prefecture, Japan, resides the secret ideological organization ACROSS. Its leader, the fearless yet easily distracted Lord Ilpalazzo, launches plans to conquer F City as a first step towards world domination. Leading the charge is Excel Excel, Ilpalazzo's bumbling and hyperactive yet determined senior officer who accepts her assignments with great gusto but little forethought. Accompanying her is her ever-sickly junior officer Hyatt who has an annoying habit of dropping dead and coming back to life without warning, and Menchi, their pet dog and emergency food supply. Defending F City from this and other (minor) threats is insanely powerful city official Kabapu and his reluctant Department of City Security, consisting of Excel's next-door neighbors Watanabe, Iwata and Sumiyoshi, an aggressive young woman named Misaki Matsuya, and two bomb disposal androids both named Ropponmatsu.
The anime is a loose, self-referential and more gag-based adaptation of the original manga. Every episode is a parody of a different genre of anime or facet of Japanese culture, starting off each time with a cartoon version of series creator Rikdo "giving his approval" for each experiment. It also features characters and subplots which were not in the original manga, such as the long-suffering immigrant worker Pedro who must cross the threshold of death to save his sexy wife and his son Sandora from the clutches of the evil That Man, series director Watanabe as plot device/alter ego Nabeshin, and the Great Will of the Macrocosm who resets the story in case something goes horribly wrong.
==History==
Series producer Victor Entertainment approached Rikdo about adapting ''Excel Saga'' into an anime, and he agreed, requesting that it have a storyline separate from his manga. Watanabe was specifically requested by series writer Yousuke Kuroda, and it was his decision to include the subplots of Nabeshin, Pedro and the Great Will to balance out the amount of material in Rikdo's manga which was not suitable for television.
The twenty-sixth episode, "Going Too Far", was intentionally made to be unsuitable for broadcast. In addition to the excessive bloody violence and mature content, its running time was one minute too long for TV Tokyo to allow enough time for commercials. The episode was included in subsequent DVD releases in Japan and abroad, including ADV Films' English and subtitled versions.
In 2001, ''[[Puni Puni Poemy]]'', a two-episode OAV spinoff based on a character idea referenced in ''Excel Saga'', was produced by J.C. Staff and directed by Watanabe, who reprised his role as Nabeshin.
==Credits==
{| width="100%"
|-valign="top"
| Original Story<br>'''Koshi Rikdo'''
Director<br>'''Shinichi Watanabe'''
Character Design<br>'''Satoshi Ishino'''
| Art Direction<br>'''Junichi Azuma'''
Director of Photography<br>'''Toyomitsu Nakajyo'''
Music<br>'''Toshio Masuda'''
Music Production<br>'''Victor Entertainment'''
| Animation Production<br>'''J.C. Staff'''
Production<br>'''J.C. Staff<br>Victor Entertainment'''
Producer<br>'''Toshihisa Abe<br>Shigeru Kitayama<br>Yuji Matsukara<br>
| U.S. Licensor<br>'''ADV Films'''
ADR Production<br>'''Industrial Smoke & Mirrors
ADR Director<br>'''Matt Greenfield'''
ADR Script<br>'''Matt Greenfield'''
|}
===Themes===
* ''Opening Theme:'' "Ai (Chuuseishin)" by Excel Girls
* ''Ending Theme:'' "Menchi Aishou no Bolero" by Excel Girls
==Episodes==
: ''See under [[List of Excel Saga episodes]].''
[[Category:Anime TV series]]
[[Category:1990s animated series]]
[[Category:2000s animated series]]
[[Category:Comedy animation]]
[[Category:Science fiction animation]]
Twenty-five episodes were produced by animation studio J.C.Staff and aired on Japan's TV Tokyo from October 7, 1999 to March 30, 2000. A twenty-sixth episode was also produced but was not broadcast due to its intentional explicit content and was only included in the subsequent DVD release. The entire series is licensed in North America by ADV Films.
==Plot==
Deep below the streets of F City, F Prefecture, Japan, resides the secret ideological organization ACROSS. Its leader, the fearless yet easily distracted Lord Ilpalazzo, launches plans to conquer F City as a first step towards world domination. Leading the charge is Excel Excel, Ilpalazzo's bumbling and hyperactive yet determined senior officer who accepts her assignments with great gusto but little forethought. Accompanying her is her ever-sickly junior officer Hyatt who has an annoying habit of dropping dead and coming back to life without warning, and Menchi, their pet dog and emergency food supply. Defending F City from this and other (minor) threats is insanely powerful city official Kabapu and his reluctant Department of City Security, consisting of Excel's next-door neighbors Watanabe, Iwata and Sumiyoshi, an aggressive young woman named Misaki Matsuya, and two bomb disposal androids both named Ropponmatsu.
The anime is a loose, self-referential and more gag-based adaptation of the original manga. Every episode is a parody of a different genre of anime or facet of Japanese culture, starting off each time with a cartoon version of series creator Rikdo "giving his approval" for each experiment. It also features characters and subplots which were not in the original manga, such as the long-suffering immigrant worker Pedro who must cross the threshold of death to save his sexy wife and his son Sandora from the clutches of the evil That Man, series director Watanabe as plot device/alter ego Nabeshin, and the Great Will of the Macrocosm who resets the story in case something goes horribly wrong.
==History==
Series producer Victor Entertainment approached Rikdo about adapting ''Excel Saga'' into an anime, and he agreed, requesting that it have a storyline separate from his manga. Watanabe was specifically requested by series writer Yousuke Kuroda, and it was his decision to include the subplots of Nabeshin, Pedro and the Great Will to balance out the amount of material in Rikdo's manga which was not suitable for television.
The twenty-sixth episode, "Going Too Far", was intentionally made to be unsuitable for broadcast. In addition to the excessive bloody violence and mature content, its running time was one minute too long for TV Tokyo to allow enough time for commercials. The episode was included in subsequent DVD releases in Japan and abroad, including ADV Films' English and subtitled versions.
In 2001, ''[[Puni Puni Poemy]]'', a two-episode OAV spinoff based on a character idea referenced in ''Excel Saga'', was produced by J.C. Staff and directed by Watanabe, who reprised his role as Nabeshin.
==Credits==
{| width="100%"
|-valign="top"
| Original Story<br>'''Koshi Rikdo'''
Director<br>'''Shinichi Watanabe'''
Character Design<br>'''Satoshi Ishino'''
| Art Direction<br>'''Junichi Azuma'''
Director of Photography<br>'''Toyomitsu Nakajyo'''
Music<br>'''Toshio Masuda'''
Music Production<br>'''Victor Entertainment'''
| Animation Production<br>'''J.C. Staff'''
Production<br>'''J.C. Staff<br>Victor Entertainment'''
Producer<br>'''Toshihisa Abe<br>Shigeru Kitayama<br>Yuji Matsukara<br>
| U.S. Licensor<br>'''ADV Films'''
ADR Production<br>'''Industrial Smoke & Mirrors
ADR Director<br>'''Matt Greenfield'''
ADR Script<br>'''Matt Greenfield'''
|}
===Themes===
* ''Opening Theme:'' "Ai (Chuuseishin)" by Excel Girls
* ''Ending Theme:'' "Menchi Aishou no Bolero" by Excel Girls
==Episodes==
: ''See under [[List of Excel Saga episodes]].''
[[Category:Anime TV series]]
[[Category:1990s animated series]]
[[Category:2000s animated series]]
[[Category:Comedy animation]]
[[Category:Science fiction animation]]
