「それは愛じゃない．．．愛はそれじゃない．．．」

Those of you who can read Japanese probably see the cold open up there and have a guess at what this week’s topic is on about. If you don’t, this is the next big clue:

Known in Japanese as Heppoko Jikken Animation Excel Saga, the madman who gifted us this series from the kindness of what he calls a heart (kinda looks like a dead peppercorn) is known as Koshi Rikudo. A Fukuoka native (took me long enough to get to an animanga series not set in Tokyo for once), the premise of the series is that an evil organization attempts to conquer the world, starting with Fukuoka Prefecture, but faces a surprising amount of dramatically ironic pitfalls at every turn.

Funny thing about Excel Saga is that they make Invader Zim look like Subutai in comparison.

What separates those two crazy chicks up there from the little green Irken is that it isn’t just the two chicks blending in. There’s an opposing secret agency, an anthropomorphic portal, a dead guy named Pedro who got coaxed into a snafu with said portal, a dog Excel keeps threatening to eat (can’t be racist if the Asians made the joke o(*￣▽￣*)o), and Shinichi Watanabe personally inserts himself into the show.

Actually, from that description alone, you could probably describe it as an episodic black comedy animanga series with a taste of what would eventually become early 2000s Nicktoons and Adult Swim.

Shake zula, the mic rula, the old schoola, you wanna trip? I’ll bring it to ya…

Coincidence, no doubt, but the 1990s needs to be studied for the explosive influence it would have on 2000s edgy humor. Clerks, Beck, Ren & Stimpy, and Postal hide the most f[riff]ked up s[bonk]t behind humor. These properties make me laugh and cry.

Excel Saga mostly makes me laugh because that’s how it works. It satirizes the s[change]t out of everything. And the Liquid Adolescent Starvation Battalion comparison is very apt, I say, as a manga like this has a plot in the same way Adolf Hitler has a career as an FBI Agent.

The time traveler’s a f[growl]king klutzo.

You’re better off describing individual episodes and presumably chapters than you are recounting anything that successfully sticks. Production-wise, the voice actress for Excel, Jessica Calvello, had to step out after episode 13, for which the remainder of the episodes, she was voiced by Larissa Wolcott after Calvello’s voice flew south for the winter.

As always, my crystal ball is gonna tell you reading to go watch it for yourself and laugh as loudly as I did. And for those of you with an signature repertoire of supreme knowledge, you might recall this channel:

When Keshen8 posted his parodies, the description was always: If you’ve seen/played X, this may not make much sense. If you haven’t seen/played X, this may not make much sense. In that vein, Excel Saga isn’t something you can make much sense of within or without context. I’ve been around long enough to hear tons of criticisms of anime and making sense is up there with criticisms of fans and fandoms and the art styles. And none of that “[she] looks like a child crap, either.” That’s a lazy man’s critique.

Excel Saga takes the absolute piss out of whatever it can between its manga run of 1996 and 2011 and its anime of 1999 and 2000. And let’s appreciate the fact that it’s a 2-cour, 26 episode series. Anime series may get flack for being a measly 12-episode advertisement for the manga, but whatever was limited on the manga was given all the animation available to flesh out its wacky premises every episode. And Rikudo-san makes cameos wherever he can, like Stan Lee used to.

Told you the parodies weren’t subtle, didn’t I?

Pokemon, American action movies, popular tropes; you name it. Rikudo must’ve absorbed everything he could to be able to take the piss wherever he could. That’s a solid understanding of the source material, I’ll tell you what… he said like a regular Hank Hill.

The continuity of the series is largely nonexistent. There’s a flow from start to finish every episode, but good luck keeping track with all the crazy bulls[slurp]t happening. Some episodes have everything going well for Excel and the evil organization ACROSS until a 180 happens about halfway or 3/4s of the way through the episode. The typical setup stems from Lord Il Palazzo sending Excel and Hyatt on a stupid mission to conquer Fukuoka in spectacularly elaborate ways, because what villain isn’t flamboyant. As the Generalissimo Megamind once said:

And there’s no ambiguity to it. ACROSS is villainous, but they’re not what Atomsk amounts to in FLCL. The series is a sharp deconstruction of what a villain organization is. Professionalism? Standards? A snazzily dressed entourage of enthusiastic yes men? These guys ain’t the SS and they sure as s[breathe]t ain’t the Galactic Empire. They’re goofballs. They’re all idiots making idiot moves breathing idiot air and you the viewer are along for the ride.

An unlisted playlist with the episodes from start to finish are available, and it’s tempting to point you in that direction, but the way things are looking, pirating anime is increasingly risky. How you choose to view it is entirely on you. On a final note: Episode 26. Said to be banned initially for all the taboos it violated. Enjoy!