Title:  Excel Saga

Creator:  Koshi Rikdo

Year:  1997

Manga Incarnations:
Excel Saga - 14 Volumes (Viz Media)

Anime Incarnations:
Excel Saga - 26 Episode Series (ADV Films)
Puni Puni Poemy - 2 Episode spin-off (ADV Films)

Computer Game Incarnations:
None
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Overview:
The insane adventures of 'Across', an ideological society bent on world domination consisting of 4 members - one of which is a dog - as they attempt to conquer the city of 'F' (they decided to start small).  Hampered by a constant onslaught of weird characters and situations, Across agents Excel and Hyatt attempt to achieve their mission whilst simultaneously parodying everything under the sun...
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Random Trivia:

1.  The pop duo that sing the theme tunes regularly appear in the anime as a pair of cosplayers dressed as principal characters Excel & Hyatt.

2.  The character Nabeshin is based on the director of the anime, Shinichi Watanabe.  The character's name is a play on words (Watanabe Shinichi) and the director even provides his voice in the Japanese dub.  Nabeshin does not appear in the manga.

3.  Shinichi Watanabe has an afro in real life to rival that of his anime equivalent.

4.  Nabeshin's clothes are an homage to Monkey Punch's Lupin III.

5.  The final episode (episode 26) was deliberately made to push the Japanese censors as far as it could, and was never shown on Japanese TV.  As well as the gore levels being upped immensely there are also references to Sarin gas attacks and paedophilia.
 

6.  The main characters (Excel, Hyatt and Ilpalazzo) are named after major Japanese hotel chains.

7.  Continuing on this note, several other characters, such as Sumiyoshi, Iwata and Ropponmatsu, are named after Japanese suburbs.

8.  A made up anime series called Puni Puni Poemi that appeared in several of episodes of the Excel Saga anime was later given a life of its own in a two episode video release from the same creative team.

9.  Excel Saga has been shown on the Sci-Fi Channel on UK satellite/cable.  Unfortunately the channel had 'de-prioritised' anime by the time they actually came to show it and it ended up in the 5am - 6am graveyard slot alongside Gasaraki.

10.  Excel's neighbour Sumiyoshi has a Geordie accent in the English translation of the Excel Saga manga.
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If you like this try:

Dragon Half (Anime - ADV Films)
FLCL (Anime/Manga - Tokyopop)
Golden Boy (Anime - ADV Films)
Puni Puni Poemi (Anime - ADV Films)
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