Excel Saga - The Imperfect Collection

a very funny show

excel sag was a very funny show and was fun too watch. there is a always plenty of actions and off the wall jokes. and all in all i loved this show. there is only one little problem i had with it. the voices for the dub. normaly i like dubs, and enjopy them very much. but i could not stand the way excels english voice actres screams all of her lines in the most annoying way possibul. if you want to save youre self a headach just wathc this show in japanese with the sub on. October 13, 2008

How I love Excel Saga!

This is one of the most spectacular box sets I've ever bought; instead of a bunch of bare-bones thin-pak discs, Excel Saga - The Imperfect Collection is actually all of the individually-released discs gathered up into one handy box, with all of the neat pack-in bits and pieces and the on-screen ADVid-Notes that the thin-pak collection omits.

The ADVid-Notes, incidentally, do take some getting used to; instead of the extra booklets that most anime DVDs come with, the Excel Saga DVDs use on-screen "pop-ups" (think Pop-Up Video--the effect is identical) to point out and explain cultural references and jokes that English-speaking viewers would probably miss, or wouldn't comprehend if they did take notice. They're informative, but they do have a tendency to cover up part of the action, and occasionally the screen is literally filled with text. Plus, they sometimes flash by so fast that you have to go back and rewatch the scene frame by frame to catch them (although because of the nature of the show, you'd probably be doing that anyway). Of course, they usually make up for their intrusiveness by being incredibly funny, not that Excel Saga needs any help being funny, mind you; and they can be toggled on or off from the main menu.

As for the series itself...

If you're a fan of anime at all, you have to watch Excel Saga. There's no two ways about it. The producers of Excel Saga suffer no illusions about their target audience, as shown by the sheer number of references and parodies, not only of other anime series but of otaku culture in general. (An example: In the very first episode, Excel is told to assassinate a noted manga artist who is guilty of corrupting the minds of the populace with the base and immoral filth he produces. The artist turns out the be Rikudou Koushi, the man who created the manga that Excel Saga is based on.) But even if you're just beginning, you can still enjoy Excel Saga; there's enough random weirdness to keep even the most casual anime fan entertained, or for that matter, a fan of American animation (see Episode 17, Animation USA, for more information). The plot is as follows: Excel, a cute but somewhat dim and unbalanced girl, is a member of ACROSS, a secret organization whose ultimate goal is world domination by way of the domination of F City in F Prefecture (ACROSS decided to start small). The only members of ACROSS that we ever see are Excel; her boss, Lord Il Palazzo, a handsome man who may or may not have multiple personalities; and her lower-ranking coworker, Hyatt, a pretty young woman who has a habit of dying at weird times. In between assignments, Excel and Hyatt hold a string of part-time jobs, none of which they manage to hold for very long. (Excel Saga was created in the midst of an economic recession, so many of the jokes center around things like unemployment and poverty. Anyone who's ever been out of work can surely relate.) There's more--a LOT more--but that's the gist of it. The show does start to drag a little about two thirds of the way in; and the constant plugs for Excel Saga's sequel series, Puni Puni Poemy, that crop up near the end of the series start to get old pretty fast. Plus, the voices can be a little grating, especially Menchi's voice in the English dub. But none of that turned me off enough to make me stop watching.

Be warned though: If you're looking for something to keep your kids entertained, KEEP LOOKING, because this isn't it. Although the producers saved the REALLY bad stuff for the final episode (which was intentionally made too violent and obscene for television broadcast--quite a feat in a country where television standards are a lot more lax than they are in the US), the rest of the episodes still contain a lot of language, innuendo, and general acts of depravity. Also, some of the jokes deal with something called lolicon, which I'm probably not allowed to define here, but take it from me, it's pretty heavy stuff; look it up on Wikipedia if you must know. It's best to think of those jokes as just what they are, a jab at a particular (and small, let it be known) segment of the otaku culture, and nothing more than that ever comes of it; but if that kind of humor bothers you, you should probably think twice. But for everyone else, I seriously doubt you'll be disappointed. February 12, 2008

Excel-ling in all ways

Others have written comprehensive descriptions of the series, so I'll skip on that other than to agree that it's a whacky, madcap, insane ride through a world of puns, parodies and absolutely mindless hilarity. Aside from the constant humor (the only serious bit is in the last episode or two), the theme song is quite catchy. Love the refrain "tonzaru koite!" ("And we run like hell!", and am now trying to memorize the whole song. :D

I bought the thin-pack with five discs, so I suppose I missed out on some of the "extras," but I got the entire series which was what I really wanted. BTW, I agree with comments about Excel's dubbed voice: Her Japanese voice can be hard enough to take at times (given that she only talks at a fast or faster stream of consciousness flow), and the English dubbing is enough to make you shoot yourself. I recommend going with Japanese and subtitles. February 8, 2008

not much of a plot, but still funny

My issue is not so much with the anime itself, but with the boxed set. I have tried 3 different copies of this set, only to find that there is a glitch on the 2nd disc that makes it freeze and then skip to the next chapter. My brother has the slim-pack set and everything plays just fine. This surely is the imperfect collection... November 24, 2007

Hilarious

I bought this show at the advice of a friend, and I am very glad that I did so! This is probably the funniest anime i have ever seen. If your sense of humor is anything remotely like mine, I would suggest that you go buy this now, because you will not be disappointed! August 13, 2007

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