Excel Saga:
ADV's best DVD yet! (well, almost)

A Review

by Shad

"I am Nabeshin!"

Oh Watanabe Shinichi, you've done it again!

One of my very favorite anime shows is finally in the US, and I couldn't be happier with its release. Well, okay so I have a few things to bitch about, but that's only because I'm such a fan, and I promise to keep it to a minimum and with as little geek-dom as possible. ADV's presentation of this truly strange, energetic and hilarious anime based on the popular manga by (and featuring) Koshi Rikudo blasts through all common US distribution roadblocks. The dub (for the most part) is tolerable, the subtitles are great, the menus and extras rock, and...hey! They actually explained the cultural references!

Taking hints from the thousands upon thousands of fansubs out there on the internet, ADV finally decides that there are certain cultural jokes that need to be explained to the American kids, because... well, we're not Japanese. This is done in a VH1 Pop-up Video fashion with tiny speech-bubbles accompanied by an icon of Menchi, the show's lovable canine mascot. And only one of them froze by DVD player. But besides that, the notes are very well done and explain lots of things that I never understood from the fansubs. The only down-side is that sometimes the jokes go so fast during the show, that the pop-up is only on the screen for as little as a fraction of a second, and you need to get the timing down perfectly to be able to catch the pop-up on the screen.

Well, let's try to complete this review in a different format this time. BIG RUCKY!

The Good
The extras on the DVD are pretty good. There are several original Japanese commercials for the show, as well as the original piracy warning from the Japan DVDs and a few ADV commercials for other shows (that aren't as good). The menus are awesome, featuring the Puchuus, the Excel Saga dating simulator game that Ilpalazzo plays on a GBA, and the Grand Will of the Macrocosm. For the most part, the dub isn't bad. Many cultural jokes are explained with the pop-ups, which is a plus. The quality of the DVD is amazing, even better than the HK DVD, which usually tends to be pretty close since it's a rip of the Japanese DVDs. There are many lovable characters, and you can learn a little bit about some of them later on in this review. The show is incredibly funny and definitely worth the purchase. Also, Pedro's voice in the English dub is awesome.

The Bad
The american dubbed voice for Excel is god-awful. Whenever Excel talks fast (this happens a lot), the voice actress' voice gets very high-pitched and squeals so much that it's not only painful to the ears, but you can no longer understand what Excel is saying and you have to turn the subtitles on anyway. Of course, I'm not a fan of dubs, but since I watched part of it elsewhere anyway, I felt I needed to touch on this. Also, the cultural notes pop-ups don't always work on every DVD player, and even if they do there's a possibility that they may freeze and you'll have to restart the DVD. In addition, I'm convinced that ADV, while they do a great job in the translation from Japanese to English, they no longer have an understanding of the English language. Throughout the show, there are moments where characters speak broken Engrish, which ADV then interprets into proper English. This completely ruins a good joke. The picture here shows an example, where some Japanese guy is portraying an American Army guy in a B-rate action movie and says "Bullshit! Then why do we fly?!" (actually he says fry, because there's no L sound, get it?!) The subtitles show what came out of it. Finally, be warned...the English dub has way too many Monty Python jokes, which are becoming an ADV tradmark. Ugh.

Roll Call - Here's a brief summary of the cast...

Excel - The main character of the show. Excel is a loyal member of the idealistic organization ACROSS, whose purpose is to eventually rule the world. She spends most of her time dying of hunger and other self-inflicted injuries and generally screwing everything up.

Lord Ilpalazzo - The leader of the idealistic organization ACROSS, and punk-rocker extraordinaire. In his spare time, Ilapalazzo enjoys reading pop culture magazines and playing Game Boy Advance.

Hyatt - Another loyal follower of ACROSS. Hyatt usually follows Excel around, trying to keep her from getting into too much trouble. Unfortunately, Hyatt's health is extremely weak, and she tends to drop dead like Kenny on South Park. The good thing is that it's only temporary, and after a while she regains her strength (somehow).

The Grand Will of the Macrocosm - I think that this should actually be "The Grand Will of the Universe", but since you can't always trust fansubs, we'll go by the official translation. The purpose of the Grand Will is mainly to bring people back to life and generally make Pedro its bitch.

Pedro - Our favorite immigrant laborer from the afterlife, Pedro. What can you say about Pedro, you gotta love him. VERY NO!!!!

Sandora, Pedro's Sexy Wife, and Gomez - After Pedro's untimely demise, his son and wife quickly deal with the loss and Gomez makes his way into the family with ease. Pay close attention to the first episode, because the foreman refers to Gomez, who is in the background at the construction site. How he makes it all the way back home to steal Pedro's wife is beyond me. But it's funny as hell.

Emergency Food Supply Menchi - The cultural notes tell us that "Menchi" means "minced meat", which is a very appropriate name for this dog. Now I know, it looks like a cat, it sounds like a cat, but they call it a dog. Who am I to question it. Menchi is one of my favorite characters of the show.

Koshi Rikudo - The original writer of the manga Excel Saga. He dies. Don't feel bad though, because he appears in every episode anyway. The funny thing is that he decides to change the genre of the show in every episode.

Watanabe, Iwata, and Sumiyoshi - 3 of Excel's neighbors, who make up the majority of the Safety Assurance Agency led by Kabapu. All 3 of them are slackers, but eventually fall into the jobs in order to advance the plot. They're not very good at their jobs either, and usually need to rely on Misaki (not pictured) to save their worthless butts.

Nabeshin, Space Butler, and Tet-chan (Tetsuko) - 3 agents of Across personnell. Nabeshin is THE BEST, no doubt about it. I keep asking Xero to cosplay as Space Butler, but that will never happen. I can't give away Tet-chan, even though he appears in only one episode, because it's just way too good. It's too bad that ADV didn't pick up on that really great Cowboy Bebop joke. I tought it might be pretty obvious, considering that both Cowboy Bebop and Excel Saga have the same director. Watch the end of the episode "The Sacrificial Lamb of the Venomous Great Escape of Hell" and you'll probably get what I'm referring to.

The Puchuu - Aliens from another world, determined to wage war on Earth. Their secret power is unbearable cuteness, a truly dangerous weapon. Awesome.

Yoda - One of many, many Star Wars references in Excel Saga (and one of the more obvious). The japanese voice for Yoda is probably one of the coolest japanese dubs I have ever heard. It is the exact japanese equivalent.

Well, now that you've made it through my crazy-azz review of Excel Saga, go buy the damn DVD! Also, enjoy these wallpapers that I made just for you!!! ACROSS!!!!!!