Excel Saga
No. of episodes : 26
No. aired : 25 (ep 26 was to "adult" in nature to be aired but was available online and in the dvd format.)
Summary in one sentence:
If you're looking for something funny, get this; with nonsensical parodies and jam-packed with humour, laughter is guaranteed.
9.1/10 - matrixeg
Summary in many paragraphs:
Every once in awhile along comes a show that defies explanation. Or at least at first. And while an attempt can be made to explain the show to the uninitiated, it is usually best to experience the show itself. Such is Excel Saga, which has put me at a loss how to convey how utterly ridiculous, completely off-the-wall, and generally insane this show is.
Maybe I'll just start by describing the first episode. The episode opens with a notice from an anime version of the show's creator that he has given complete permission to create an anime based on his manga series. Odd. Then the opening sequence starts up, featuring Excel and Hyatt (Hyatt to be introduced a couple episodes) singing a catchy pop tune in various locales (including a male bath house at one point), all the while Hyatt struggling to not cough up blood. Then the show begins. We meet Excel, happily skipping on her way to school, blissfully ignorant of everything around her. Including a ten-ton truck which promptly flattens her. Alas, our short-lived herorine is, well, short-lived. But all is not lost, for as Excel's departed soul is floating in an astral void, she hears the voice of the Great Will of the Macrocosm. The Great Will explains that Excel has too much to live for to die now. That, and it wouldn't be good for the story if the heroine died in the first scene. So the Great Will sets things right, not once, but three times, all in the first five minutes. It seems Excel just can't avoid being killed.
We soon get to the real plot, if this series can be said to have one, and learn that Excel is a member of the ideological organization ACROSS—a group planning to eventually conquer the city. The commander in charge is Ilpalazzo, an imposing figure with little patience for Excel's hyper demeanor. But since she appears to be the sole member of ACROSS, he puts up with her and gives imparts her first task: assassinate Koshi Rikdo, the creator of Excel Saga.
And so Excel embarks on her task; or at least tries to, as the insuing madness and sheer randomness of the show makes it hard to really tell what is happening at any given moment. I think the story is reset at least once or twice more, and assorted subplots pop up from time to time involving an immigrant worker and the Lupin III-inspired character, Nabeshin (the show's director, no less). There's also the matter of Excel's neighbors, three unemployed slackers who, well, slack.
