Excel Saga, Vol. 1

Excel Saga is a humor manga for those people who really don't like typical manga. This is a book for people angry at the world, and need to see characters so insanely dysfunctional (mind you, I didn't say stupid) that they can feel better about their own lives and jobs. It could be worse, after all? You could cough up gallons of blood at inopportune times (or have a partner that does). Your doctor (who might even be your cousin) could be a misogynistic amoral psychopath who would jump at the chance to use you for (in)human experiments. Your job could be as a civil servant who might be called upon to fight evil (and die) in a ridiculous costume at any moment. Your chief scientist might have a somewhat unhealthy (and creepy) preference in girls. Your roommate might speak(?) entirely in heavily accented subtitles. Your coworker might be the single biggest idiot that ever lived. And of course, you could be a dog, helpless to communicate your constant terror of being kept around for no other reason than as an emergency food supply. Your city might be threatened by a secret organization consisting of three people, and a wooden manakin. It might sound like chaotically random nonsense, but the creator is a skilled one, handling the madness with a subtle style of humor and writing his characters as nuanced individuals rather than stereotypic archetypes. The most fun part of any gag he comes up with isn't the gag itself, but seeing how the characters react to it. Excel Saga is a story about all these characters, and how the actions of one can manage to ripple outward and affect characters in the cast they've never even met. The actions of those characters affect others, and so on into infinity. In lesser hands, such a balance would be an overcomplicated mess, but Rikdo keeps things moving at a brisk pace between the different groups of characters. If you like to see a manga about unique people with unique problems, this is for you. The artwork works extremely well. It doesn't hurt that the creator draws VERY attractive female characters, but manages to make them strong, intelligent (at least as much so as the guys), and believable. Heaven only knows what Dr. Blackjack would do without his nurse to reign him in. People who go looking for this have probably seen the anime, and thus a warning must be given. Where the anime's humor is like shooting randomly in every direction in the hopes of hitting something funny, the manga is like a silent killer, sneaking up behind you with a knife, waiting for just the right moment to strike, and always when you least expect it. It seems to quiet down and settle into a conventional narrative for a few pages, and then all of a sudden you turn the page only to see a visual gag so completely over the top in its strangeness, yet so believable given the cast involved, you can't help but have it seared upon your mind for the rest of your life (or at least until the next volume).

First, let me tell you what you won't get with the Excel Saga mangas. You won't get puchus,you won't get Pedro and the Will, and you won't get Nabeshin. All those things were added by the director of the anime. What you will get is lots more blood from Hyatt(Hatchan),lots more yummy Menchi(who is now Mince),lots more sexual refrences, and lots more Excel. Where the anime is a sattire of other animes and Japanese media, these mangas are more of a sattire of the entire culture of Japan. The basic premise is the same, and you may find some(but not many)of the stories familliar. If you havn't seen the anime, then I still highly suggest you read this. The plot is random and fun, the writing is extremely inteligent and funny(Bravo, Koshi!), and the art is amoung the best I've seen. But be warned that this is a very mature manga. That isn't to say it's overflowing with sex or anything, but there is a lot of blood, some language, and controversial themes. But that's likely to just encourage lots of people, especially fans of the anime, to look into it, which I suggest they do. Don't expect the anime on paper here, but don't expect to be dissapointed either!

The Excel Saga series is my favorite manga so far. I didn't like the anime as much because it's pretty offensive, but the manga is not as bad. It's rated T, so there's going to be some mild swearing and references to things small children probably shouldn't be reading about, but overall, if you can see a PG-13 movie, you should be able to handle this, no problem.If you have any sense of humor whatsoever and can pay close attention, you'll probably be reduced to helpless laughter at least once or twice during the course of the series. It's simply hilarious, different from most of the manga out there, and a good, mindless read.

Excel Saga: Volume 1 begins the original manga (Japanese graphic novel) series so popular, it has been adapted into the outrageous, high-action, bizarre yet exciting and hilarious parody anime "Excel Saga." Though the original storyline bears only a cursory resemblance to the different-genre-parodied-every-episode anime, the personalities of the main characters shine through. There is Excel the enthusiastically upbeat and fanatical albeit notably klutzy loyal fighting minion, Hyatt the genteel and soft-spoken yet frail and sickly to the point of coughing up blood loyal minion, Menshi the adorable stray dog that Excel has adopted as "emergency rations," and Lord Il Palazzo the dreamy and forward-thinking would-be male dictator who is far too proud to acknowledge that his secret organization bent on world conquest operates out of a basement with a chain-pull flush toilet, and consists of himself, two delusional young women and a fluffy dog. Massive property destruction, fistfights, hilarity, personal memories rewritten in one's own self-interest, and a side look at the travails of three eternally poor and date-less male neighbors result. A funny and action-filled read for manga and comedy fans.

Allright, if you have seen the Excel Saga anime, not much in this review will be new to you, but if you haven't... The Excel Saga series is messed up to the point of (god I hate myself for saying this...) zany-ness. It tackles, in it's own strange way, an incredible range of topics, from work to orginized religion, and all of it is funny. Do yourself a favor and pick this one up, it is without a doubt one of the more original mangas to hit the shelves and definitly one of the wittiest.