Buy Excel Saga - The Weirdness Has Begun (Vol. 1)

Description: Excel Saga is a one-of-a kind work of art that can only be described as the ultimate parody of anime. From the opening credits - a rather odd spoof of Japanese pop videos - to the ending song featuring Menchi the dog singing/barking a plaintive ballad while a human interpreter translates for viewers, nothing is sacred in the world of Excel Saga. Excel Saga contains the chronically over-challenged and understaffed secret ideological organization of ACROSS (total membership: 2), whose goal is to conquer the city of F. It contains your complete daily requirements of Martian princesses, afro-wearing action heroes, mysterious governmental agencies, space butlers, deranged comic book authors, androgynous prisoners in iron masks, annoying roommates, removable moustaches and a generous supply of adorably cute aliens bent on galactic domination. Excel Saga contains one (1) emergency food supply/singing dog and one (1) Excel, the most certifiably insane teenage girl to ever walk the face of the planet.

Amazon.com: A truck flattens Excel, the heroine of this nutty adventure, in the opening minutes of the first episode. But the Will of the Cosmos insists the main character in a series can't die, and brings her back to life. She becomes the overly enthusiastic follower of Ilpalazzo, the leader of Across, an ideological organization that plans to purify the world. Excel stumbles her way through parodies of everything from Star Wars to Galaxy Express 999 to Japanese dating shows. She adopts a cat as a pet (and possible emergency food source), and little balloons with cats periodically pop up to translate the puns and explain what's being spoofed onscreen. Excel Saga is generally regarded as one of--if not the--craziest series in the history of anime, and compared to it, the likes of Dragon Half plays like King Lear. Rated 17 Up: Violence, profanity; risqué and gross-out humor. --Charles Solomon

Customer Reviews:

Even for anime, weird silliness and silly weirdness; otaku only August 20, 2006
(If you don't know what "otaku" means, this DVD is not for you.)

I get that most anime is weird by western standards, and Excel Saga is supposed to be weird even by anime standards. To some extent this worked for me; it was funny in a lot of places. (My favorite: "Oh, no, her life is beginning to flash before her eyes! This isn't good!" Or words to that effect; the first disk went back to Netflix weeks ago, and I never bothered with any more in the series.)

But most of the silliness wasn't all that funny, at least not to me. There's almost no plot, almost no characterization; or what there is of each is glacially slow. Maybe if I watched more of the series, I'd better enjoy the first disk. But even with the (highly recommended) "pop-up video" extras, there just wasn't enough humor to make this worth my while.

Really serious anime fans may love this. For the rest of us, not so much.

lmao February 12, 2006
The first time I watched this anime I laughed. VERY HARD. Then, I sat up and said, "wait...why am I watching this again?" I have no idea. There seems to be no point to the show, but its very funny.
My favorite part which I had to rewind and watch again about 10 times is the part where Menchi is trying to get out of the apartment while the whole city's flooded. The next door neighboe finnaly goes "WHAT THE H#!&!" And goes over, opens the door, and finds Menchi sitting there with the halleujah song going on. I can't explain it, you HAVE to see it to laugh. *Sigh* I'm laughing just thinking about it...
Btw: I had to buy this dvd twice cos the first time I let a friend *borrow* it and I have yet to see it returned...just goes to show how much you will want to keep this!
One question though...who is Lord IlPilazzo?!?

The Monty Python of Anime (1 of 1 Found this Helpful) January 26, 2005
If Monty Python ever did anime, it would be something very similar to Excel Saga, which is to say that it would be hilariously insane and absurd. Excel Saga is certainly that, and I did laugh out loud several times in this first volume, especially in the episode parodying romantic comedies (three words: Stick It In). I also LOVE the opening song and can't get it out of my head! My problem with the show, and why I only give it three stars: it is WAY too self-referential at times. To parody something else is one thing. To parody yourself, many times, in the first episode, smacks of smug conceit. Maybe it's a Japanese thing, maybe they assume the viewers will have read the manga and get it, maybe it IS just conceit, but it certainly isn't very funny, at least not to me. They try too hard to be too clever and laugh too much at themselves as if they were saying, "Look at us! Aren't we just so funny and witty?" By the end of the volume they had toned that down a bit, and I enjoyed the second half of the volume better than the first half. I haven't seen the rest of the series, but I liked the first volume enough that, in a fit of spontaneity, I might well buy the whole series. Now I have to go home to my son and my sexy wife...NOOOO!!!!

Excel Saga December 23, 2004
Excel saga is a great anime if your a die-hard fan or Otaku as i like to call it. It makes many referances to other animes that are popular that mainly otaku will get. I believe this anime is excellent for anyone to watch but id first watch some other anime if your a n00b to get half the jokes.
This series made me crack up from beginning to end and i Highly recommend it as an addition to any otakus dvd collection.

HOLY SH*T (1 of 1 Found this Helpful) July 23, 2004
Wow. My dad got this DVD in hopes of watching it. He did not last. I, however, was enthralled at the overall insanity that was going on during this hilarious parody anime. It is hilarious in the truest sense of the word. Excel is one of my inspirations to annoy friends over the internet, and she never fails to make me laugh. This is possibly the greatest anime that I have seen.

Excel Saga - The Weirdness Has Begun (Vol. 1)

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