Excel Saga

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Excel Saga

Cover of first Excel Saga tankōbon volume
エクセル·サーガ
(Ekuseru Sāga)
Genre Action, Parody, Science Fiction
Manga
Author Rikdo Koshi
Publisher Flag of Japan Shōnen Gahosha
English publisher Flag of the United States Flag of Canada VIZ Media
Demographic Seinen
Magazine Flag of Japan Young King OURs
Original run April 1996 – ongoing
Volumes 22 (List of volumes)
TV anime
Director Shinichi Watanabe
Studio Flag of Japan J.C. Staff
Licensor Flag of the United States ADV Films
Network Flag of Japan TV Tokyo
English network Flag of the United Kingdom Sci-Fi Channel, Rapture TV
Flag of the United States Anime Network
Original run October 7, 1999March 30, 2000
Episodes 26 (List of episodes)
Anime and Manga Portal

Excel Saga (エクセル·サーガ Ekuseru Sāga?) is an absurdist comedy manga series written and illustrated by Rikdo Koshi. It has been serialized in Young King OURs since the April 1996 issue, with individual chapters collected and published in tankōbon volumes by Shōnen Gahosha. As of November 2008, 21 volumes have been published in Japan. The series follows the attempts of Across, a "secret ideological organization", to conquer the city of Fukuoka as a first step towards world domination. The titular character of the series, Excel, is a key member of the group working towards this goal, while the city is defended by a shadowy government agency led by Dr. Kabapu.

The manga was adapted into an anime television series by Victor Entertainment. Directed by Shinichi Watanabe and featuring animation from J.C.Staff, the series premiered on TV Tokyo on October 7, 1999 where it ran until its conclusion on March 30, 2000. Twenty-five of the twenty-six episodes aired, with the final episode being intentionally made too violent and obscene for public broadcast. As such, it was only included in the DVD release of the series.

Contents

[edit] Plot

Both the manga and the anime follow the trials and tribulations of Across, a self-styled “secret ideological organization”, in its quest to conquer the world and rid it of corruption. Its leader, Lord Ilpalazzo,[1] plans to begin with just one city: Fukuoka, Fukuoka, in the manga and "F City, F Prefecture" in the anime. He justifies this strategy by saying that conquering one city allows leeway for setbacks, and that the people of the world would not be ready for immediate unification. Defending the city are Dr. Kabapu and his Department of City Security, also known as the Municipal Force Daitenzin, a masked fighting force.[2] While the manga and anime both principally revolve around this conflict, each medium features unique subplots. The manga is tightly tied to the main plot and explores the origins and natures of several main characters, especially Kabapu and Ilpalazzo. In contrast, the anime adds a side story mostly independent of the main plot, focusing on the ghost of Pedro (an immigrant construction worker), Nabeshin (the director's alter ego), and That Man, a villain introduced in later episodes.[3]

[edit] Notable differences

Apart from the presence or absence of certain characters, the circumstances of many others differ markedly between the two media. For instance, episode two of the anime presents Hyatt as being a Martian princess with some sort of relationship with the Puchuus and Nabeshin, making her induction into Across seem almost an accident. Volume one of the manga, however, shows her being hired after submitting an application and being interviewed by Ilpalazzo. The two media also differ markedly in the natures of Across and the Ropponmatsus. Ilpalazzo and his followers are all there is of Across as of volume fourteen of the manga, but in the anime they form only one branch of the organization: above them are Headquarters, including That Man and his fellow members of the Across Six.[4] Finally, the Ropponmatsus are depicted in the anime as distinct entities working together, whereas in the manga only one is active at any given time, since they have to share a unique "Ropponmatsu core."[5]

[edit] Storylines

The manga focuses on the various missions Ilpalazzo's agents undertake as a part of their city conquest, the exploits of the Department and its members, and sometimes a study of an individual character. Beginning with volume nine, Excel and her comrades repeatedly attempt to make appeals directly to the people of Fukuoka, leading to inconclusive confrontations with the Daitenzin. Ilpalazzo, however, personally reveals Across' existence and intentions to the citizens of Fukuoka in volume thirteen. In volume fourteen, the agents' cover is blown, ultimately leading to Hyatt's capture, and, through various twists Excel and Elgala being held in an immigration detention center. In volume fifteen, Ilpalazzo intervenes directly to help his officers, regroups, confronts Kabapu, and spearheads the new, commercial phase of his city-conquest. The manga contains two notable subplots closely related to the main storyline: the first explores the origins of Kabapu and Ilpalazzo as well as Ilpalazzo's mental state. The second, which begins in volume twelve, concerns mysteries surrounding Shioji's parents, notably his mother's behavior and his father's disappearance.

Throughout most of the anime, Across and the Daitenzin interact either indirectly or at arms-length. Like early chapters of the manga, many episodes focus on a particular training or preparatory mission assigned by Ilpalazzo or Kabapu to their subordinates. The anime also follows the attempts of Pedro to regain his life and to avenge himself on That Man. This subplot is reviewed and enlarged in episode eighteen, which reveals that the Great Will of the Macrocosm and Pedro's "Sexy Wife" are in fact one being, and that Pedro and Sandora are both destined to become Nabeshin's students and to confront That Man. There is only modest continuity between episodes—each being "a parody of a different genre".[6] Nevertheless, episodes twenty-two through twenty-five "scrape together all of the disparate story elements into something resembling a plot",[7] culminating in Pedro's final confrontation with That Man and the battle for F City between Across and the Daitenzin.

[edit] Production

[edit] Manga

Rikdo notes that Excel Saga, was developed from Municipal Force Daitenzin, a dojinshi he had started during his school days. A motivation for the change to Excel Saga was a desire to better develop Excel's character, which he felt remained "undigested" in Daitenzin. Also influential was the state of the world economy at the time, which he describes as "depressed, [with] a pessimistic view of life". He thus wrote Excel Saga as a way "to laugh off that view".[8] The manga draws mainly from common aspects of Japanese life, from major issues such as troubles in the labor market, the state of health-care, political corruption, and gender equality, to more mundane concerns such as office relations, the hanami flower-viewing custom, and neighborhood trash collection days.

Rikdo also heavily references his hometown of Fukuoka by inserting local sayings "here and there",[9] and by naming many of his characters after landmarks or areas in the city. The Daitenzin as a group are named after Fukuoka's downtown, the Tenjin district, their codenames deriving from department stores and other establishments in the district,[10] and their surnames from neighborhoods around the city. Sources differ on the codenames "Excel", "Ilpalazzo", and "Hyatt": VIZ claims they originate from hotels in Fukuoka,[9] whereas ADV claims hotels in Tokyo as the source.[11]

The character Elgala is named after the Fukuoka Elgala Hall,[12] and Across itself derives its name from the city's ACROS Building.[13] In contrast, Kabapu is named after not a landmark but the mascot of the 1989 Asia-Pacific Expo, held in Fukuoka to celebrate the centennial of the city's Meiji-era charter.[14] Despite drawing from many sources, the manga contains only modest amounts of outright parody: Kabapu's organization is a take on the sentai genre, and Sekifumi Iwata, the womanizing and medically incompetent doctor, is a spoof of Osamu Tezuka's Black Jack.[9]

[edit] Anime

Shinichi Watanabe dressed in the style of his 'Nabeshin' character.

According to Rikdo, Victor Entertainment solicited Shōnen Gahosha about adapting Excel Saga into an anime, and the two companies approached him.[8] He agreed, but asked that the anime have a different storyline from the manga, which was and remains on-going. Rikdo says he is very pleased with the adaptation and that he sees "much appeal in the anime world." Shinichi Watanabe, the director, was for his part surprised to learn that he was specifically requested by Yousuke Kuroda, one of the show's writers. He adds that his first thought on looking at Rikdo's material was, "Wow, there's so much here that can't be broadcast on TV."[15] To balance the removal of Rikdo's original material, Watanabe added his own alter ego, Nabeshin, and expanded several elements, including Pedro and the Great Will. He says that the Great Will in the manga was "conveyed just as words,"[16] and he himself developed its appearance, eventually settling on the "swirling, talking cosmos." He also increased Pedro's role in the story from a single frame in the manga. Watanabe says he was pleased with that aspect of his work, noting that "Pedro's situation was considered unsuitable for broadcast in Japan." Victor Entertainment's Shigeru Kitayama explains that Pedro's role was "a bit dicey" because it could have been interpreted "that foreign workers are looked down upon."[17] Nevertheless, Watanabe made it a mission in doing Excel Saga "to find the borderline when things got too much" for TV Tokyo.

In accordance with Rikdo's wishes that the series have a different story, the Excel Saga anime is primarily thematically centred on the lampooning of different genres of film and television. Each episode of the series tackles a different genre, from science-fiction to horror to animation itself, in the process spoofing many specific works; the sentai genre is perhaps most frequently mocked, Fist of the North Star and the works of Leiji Matsumoto each receive an episode's worth of parody, while Aliens, Gundam, Rose of Versailles, Dragon Ball, and Sailor Moon all are lampooned in extended sequences. Tied into this is the running metafictional gag of the show's pre-title "authorization scenes," in which an animated representation of Rikdo gives (or is forced to give) permission for the series to "experimentally" switch genres away from his original intention in this fashion, with the attempts at doing so using being declared failures just before the end credits. Although Watanabe feels fans of these works were "really happy" with Excel Saga's parodies, Kitayama notes that the creators of the works "certainly got mad."[16][18] Puni Puni Poemy, an OVA in which the director reprises his role as Nabeshin, is referenced in several episodes. In later episodes, the animated avatars of Rikudo and Watanabe come to blows over plot and character development in what one reviewer calls a "knowing satire on the real-life struggles that often arise between writer and director."[19] The vocal cast includes several prominent voice actors, such as Kotono Mitsuishi as Excel, Takehito Koyasu as Ilpalazzo, and Satsuki Yukino as Ropponmatsu Unit 1. Rikdo recalls that he was "wired up" to see his favorite voice actors and actresses read lines of his work in front of him.[8] Despite this, he was unprepared for hearing Excel's voice the first time, and found it an uncomfortable experience. Watanabe himself was impressed with Mitsuishi's rapid delivery of her lines, saying that "she really pushed herself to the limit and beyond."[16] He also says, "at times she was too fast, and there was plenty of time left to [match the lip-synch]" (insertion in the original). In such cases, either he would add new material or have Mitsuishi ad-lib.

[edit] Music

In addition to providing overall production for the series, Victor Entertainment also produced the music of Excel Saga, which was composed and arranged by Toshio Masuda,[20] and directed by Keiichi Nozaki. Director Shinichi Watanabe wrote the lyrics for the opening and closing themes, which were performed by the "Excel♥Girls" (Yumiko Kobayashi and Mikako Takahashi), and he claims to have written the opening's lyrics "on the train, five minutes before the deadline."[16]

The opening theme, "Love (Loyalty)" (「愛(忠誠心)」 "Ai (Chūseishin)"?), consists of the singers speculating on the nature of love, in what one reviewer calls "a dead-on parody of J-pop bubblegum tripe."[21] The closing theme, "Menchi's Bolero of Sorrow" (「メンチの哀愁のボレロ」 "Menchi no Aishū no Borero"?), presents Menchi, limelit, singing alone while being prepared for cooking. Her barks are rendered in Japanese by a female translator inset lower in the screen. Watanabe says that he had hoped to have the ending theme consist entirely of barks but felt "the music industry would not accept it."[16] The standard opening and closing themes, an extended version of the closing theme, and other tracks were released in two soundtracks by Geneon.

[edit] "Going Too Far"

Extreme violence depicted in episode twenty-six, Going Too Far.

The twenty-sixth episode, "Going Too Far", never aired in Excel Saga's original run on TV Tokyo because it was purposefully too violent and obscene for broadcast in Japan.[16] The opening sequence is altered to contain pixelated nudity and more blood, and the closing presents the translator on fours, wearing a collar, and singing the "Bolero", as Menchi translates into her own language. The episode itself, in addition to much more violence, blood, and gore, includes situations containing nudity, lesbianism, apparent paedophilia, soaplands, and a love hotel—in several instances involving minors. The episode obliquely refers to the 1995 sarin gas attack on a Tokyo subway by including sarin attacks as a method of exterminating enemies. The director himself remarks that it "felt good to go past the limits of a TV series", although he thinks it "is not something that you should do too often".[15] On Thursday 25 March 2007, "Going Too Far" was aired Uncut on the UK channel Rapture at the original time of the previous episodes, 8:30pm. It was also aired, in the show's regular 10 PM time-slot, by SIC Radical in Portugal. It was also aired on the 13th January in the show's regular 2 PM time slot on AXN's Zona Animax, also in Portugal, without any alterations in the animation, and it still airs the same way in Animax Portugal and Latin America.

[edit] International versions

As of January 2007, eleven volumes of the manga have been translated into Italian by Dynit, seven into French by Kabuto, and fifteen into English by VIZ Media; the sixteenth is available as of September 2007. Each volume of the English edition includes a section called "Oubliette," which consists of a "sound effects guide" and notes by the editor and translator. Since its August 2003 release in North America, Excel Saga has been among of the 100 top-selling graphic novels on eight occasions.[22]

ADV Films produced the English-language version of the anime (including the final episode) and released it on DVD in North America and the United Kingdom. Anime Network later broadcast the series in the former, and Rapture TV will air it beginning January 3, 2007 in the latter. The English adaptation initially starred Jessica Calvello, with Larissa Wolcott taking over the role after episode thirteen after Calvello had damaged her voice during production. The ADV release features interview transcripts, games, and "Vid-Notes" as commentary. It is distributed in Australia by Madman Entertainment.[23] A French edition of the anime was distributed by Dybex, starring Pascale Duchemin as the voice of Excel. From November 2004 onwards, it was broadcast daily in France by Canal+ in the program La Kaz. "Going Too Far," titled "On dépasse les limites," aired on December 30, 2004, but at 1:00 a.m. out of content considerations. An Italian version starring Federica De Bortoli was produced by Dynit and shown on MTV Italy. Much like elsewhere, the twenty-sixth episode, titled “Strafare,” never aired and was available only on VHS. In Latin America, Animax broadcast Excel Saga dubbed in Portuguese and Spanish. The Portuguese version was by produced by Álamo and starred Letícia Quinto. Rebeca Aponte led in Estudios Lain's Spanish adaptation.

[edit] Reception

The English-language reviews of the Excel Saga anime were broadly positive and even enthusiastic. Mike Crandol of Anime News Network puts it in the same class as Airplane!, National Lampoon, Tex Avery, and Monty Python,[21] adding that the "combination of character-based humor, outrageous slapstick farce, and a plot that is engaging if only for how weird it is make for a thoroughly enjoyable comedic experience." Serdar Yegulalp at TheGline says it succeeds both as "a brutally savage parody of every conceivable anime genre and convention, and as the kind of post-modern self-criticism found in the works of Takashi Miike, Thornton Wilder, Pirandello" (emphasis in the original). A contrary opinion is expressed by Joel Pearce from DVD Verdict, who says the series is "occasionally clever and funny," but that "much of it is gratingly obnoxious."[6] A concern several reviewers express is that the quantity of obscure jokes and cultural references might limit the show's appeal.[24] Many reviewers express displeasure with middle and later episodes, saying they were "more of the same,"[6] that they had "stale" humor,[25] that they were "tiresome,"or even "painfully unfunny."[26] Episodes fourteen through sixteen, starring the Ropponmatsus, bear the brunt of this criticism, but several reviewers consider episode seventeen, "Animation USA," to be one of the best.[6][26][27][28]

Reviewers also agree that the series suffers from too much "filler" in its later episodes, with Crandol describing the show as "spinning its wheels."[29] The production staff's reliance on a second summary episode—recapping the Pedro-Nabeshin subplot—particularly displeased reviewers.[6][25][30] Crandol alone seems to have enjoyed it, calling the episode "delightfully stupid" and one of the series' "most entertaining installments."[29] Yegulalp reserves his harshest words for the unaired "Going Too Far," calling it "pure, idiotic, wretched excess." He goes on to say that the episode has "the feeling of trying to deliberately enrage the audience by resorting to the only tactics left: genuinely offensive subject matter." Joel Cunningham at Digitally Obsessed disagrees, saying that the episode succeeds just in time, "with one of the series' funnier sight gags,"[7] and Anime Boredom's John Huxley considers it "too light hearted to take offense" and "a complete success."[31]

The series generally receives high marks for technical aspects. Cunningham feels the animation is "flat-out gorgeous,"[32] but Crandol considers it merely above average. In the latter's opinion, its quality wanes as the series progresses and increasingly relies on super-deforming the characters for comedic effect.[26] ADV's release earned praise for the quality of the video transfer and the DVD extras (particularly the Vid-Notes).[7][21] Reviewers especially appreciated the English voice acting: Crandol calls it "brilliant,"[21] and several note that Calvello and Wolcott were each able to capture Mitsuishi's Excel.[26][28] Pearce, in contrast, found the English cast to be "pretty bad" and its Excel to be "dental drill" shrill.[6]

Akadot's reviewer of the manga writes that "some of the strange events go on a little too long and do not have the impact that they do animated," but that Rikdo's Excel Saga is "graced with fantastic visuals and a hilarious story," and that the English edition is "a masterpiece of the translator's skill."[33] Barb Lien-Cooper from Comic World News concurs that the manga cannot keep pace with the anime, but she finds Excel herself to be wittier in the manga and that the manga's plots "make more sense" than the anime's.[34] A reviewer of the French edition also praises Rikdo's work, noting that it is an "...easy read without problems of clarity."[35]

[edit] Notes


[edit] References

  1. ^ This is the form employed by ADV for the anime. VIZ adopted the transliteration "Il Palazzo" in the North American manga release. For consistency, this article adopts ADV's forms in case of conflict.
  2. ^ "Daitenzin" and "Department of City Security" are terms used by ADV in the anime. VIZ has not used "Daitenzin" as of volume fourteen, and translates the group's civilian name as "City Environmental Security Administration."
  3. ^ For more detail, see Johnston, Chris. "Excel Saga quack experimental episode guide". Newtype USA 3 (7): 78–83.  Other material in this section is drawn from elsewhere as noted, or from the manga and anime themselves if no other source is given.
  4. ^ In episode two, Ilpalazzo regards Hyatt as "reinforcement from Headquarters;" in episode twenty-one, orders composed by "Across Headquarters" spur Ilpalazzo to action; and in episode twenty-four, Ilpalazzo addresses That Man as "Your Excellency," and the latter then boasts of the progress Across is making.
  5. ^ ADV Vid-Notes, contained in "More! Prop memorial". Shinichi Watanabe (Director). Excel Saga. 
  6. ^ a b c d e f Pearce, Joel (2004-09-02). "Review - Excel Saga: Imperfect Collection". DVD Verdict. http://www.dvdverdict.com/reviews/excelsagacoll.php. Retrieved on 2006-06-20. 
  7. ^ a b c Cunningham, Joel (2003-04-08). "Excel Saga #6: Going Way Too Far (2000)". Digitally Obsessed. http://www.digitallyobsessed.com/showreview.php3?ID=4714. Retrieved on 2006-06-03. 
  8. ^ a b c "Interview with Rikdo Koshi". Excel Saga DVD Volume 5 (ADV Films). 
  9. ^ a b c "Oubliette", contained in Rikdo Koshi (w, p, i). Excel Saga 1) (2003-08-13), VIZ Media, ISBN 1-56931-988-X
  10. ^ ADV Vid-Notes, contained in "Municipal Force Daitenzin". Shinichi Watanabe (Director). Excel Saga. 
  11. ^ ADV Vid-Notes, contained in "The Koshi Rikdo Assassination Plot". Shinichi Watanabe (Director). Excel Saga. 
  12. ^ "Oubliette", contained in Rikdo Koshi (w, p, i). Excel Saga 2) (2003-09-03), VIZ Media, ISBN 1-56931-989-8
  13. ^ In particular, VIZ notes in volume one's Oubliette the similarity between Ilpalazzo's throne room and the main conference room at the ACROS Building.
  14. ^ "Oubliette", contained in Rikdo Koshi (w, p, i). Excel Saga 5) (2004-03-03), VIZ Media, ISBN 1-59116-136-3 Of the two kanji Rikdo uses for Kapabu's name (蒲腐?), the first means "reddish brown", and the second is suggestive of "rotten", "corrupt", "stale", or "commonplace".
  15. ^ a b "Interview with Shinichi Watanabe". Excel Saga DVD Volume 3 (ADV Films). 
  16. ^ a b c d e f Unattributed (November 2002). "Interview with Excel Saga director Shinichi Watanabe". Newtype USA 1 (1): 84–8. 
  17. ^ Kitayama was an executive producer for Excel Saga and attended Watanabe's interview with Newtype USA.
  18. ^ Newtype USA censored most of Kitayama's response to the question "Who had the biggest complaint?"
  19. ^ "Excel Saga Review". theOtaku.com. 2005-05-28. http://reviews.theotaku.com/view.php?action=retrieve&id=409. Retrieved on 2006-06-04. 
  20. ^ Note that sources disagree as to his given name: Anime News Network renders it as shown, as do the opening credits in ADV's English edition, but the ending credits render it as "Toshiro."
  21. ^ a b c d Crandol, Mike (2002-06-17). "Review - Excel Saga DVD 1". Anime News Network. http://www.animenewsnetwork.com/reviews/display.php?id=293. Retrieved on 2006-06-01. 
  22. ^ See "Top 50 Graphic Novels" for October 2003 and December 2003, as well as "Top 100 Graphic Novels Actual" for February 2004, April 2004, August 2004, November 2004, January 2005, and May 2005. ICv2. Retrieved on 2006-06-13
  23. ^ "Excel Saga (TV)". Anime News Network. http://www.animenewsnetwork.com/encyclopedia/anime.php?id=398. Retrieved on 2006-06-02. 
  24. ^ Huxley, John (2004-04-28). "Excel Saga series review". Anime Boredom. http://www.animeboredom.co.uk/anime-reviews/excel-saga/87/. Retrieved on 2006-06-03. 
  25. ^ a b Cunningham, Joel (2003-02-24). "Excel Saga #5: Secrets and Lies (2000)". Digitally Obsessed. http://www.digitallyobsessed.com/showreview.php3?ID=4445. Retrieved on 2006-06-03. 
  26. ^ a b c d Crandol, Mike (2003-01-14). "Review - Excel Saga DVD 4". Anime News Network. http://www.animenewsnetwork.com/reviews/display.php?id=390. Retrieved on 2006-06-01. 
  27. ^ Arnold, Adam (February 2003). "Animefringe Reviews: Excel Saga Vol.4: Doing Whatever It Takes". Animefringe. http://www.animefringe.com/magazine/2003/02/reviews/02/. Retrieved on 2006-06-12. 
  28. ^ a b Cunningham, Joel (2003-01-13). "Excel Saga #4: Doing Whatever It Takes (2000)". Digitally Obsessed. http://www.digitallyobsessed.com/showreview.php3?ID=4124. Retrieved on 2006-06-12. 
  29. ^ a b Crandol, Mike (2003-03-10). "Review - Excel Saga DVD 5". Anime News Network. http://www.animenewsnetwork.com/reviews/display.php?id=442. Retrieved on 2006-06-01. 
  30. ^ Huxley, John (2004-04-28). "Excel Saga Volume 5: Secrets and lies!". Anime Boredom. http://www.animeboredom.co.uk/anime-reviews/excel-saga/92/. Retrieved on 2006-07-04. 
  31. ^ Huxley, John (2004-04-28). "Excel Saga Volume 6: Going way too far!". Anime Boredom. http://www.animeboredom.co.uk/anime-reviews/excel-saga/93/. Retrieved on 2006-06-03. 
  32. ^ Cunningham, Joel (2002-11-14). "Excel Saga #1: The Weirdness Begins (1999)". Digitally Obsessed. http://www.digitallyobsessed.com/showreview.php3?ID=3856. Retrieved on 2006-06-03. 
  33. ^ "Excel Saga". Akadot. 2003-09-16. http://www.akadot.com/article.php?a=129. Retrieved on 2006-06-03. 
  34. ^ Lien-Cooper, Barb. "Excel Saga Volume 3". Comic World News. http://www.comicworldnews.com/cgi-bin/index.cgi?column=reviews&page=84. Retrieved on 2006-06-29. 
  35. ^ Full quotation (French): "En ce qui concerne la mise en page, celle-ci est particulièrement dynamique avec un enchaînement impressionnant de cases les unes sur les autres et qui laissent, malgré le nombre, une lecture facile et sans problèm de clarté." "Critique de Excel Saga". SciFi-Universe. http://www.scifi-universe.com/critiques_staff.asp?media_id=9535&muz_id=35. Retrieved on 2006-06-08. 

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