
Links go to search results. Availability varies by region.
エクセル・サーガ
178
27
Finished
Apr 1997 to Jul 30, 2011
9.3/10
Average Review Score
100%
Recommend It
3
Reviews Worldwide
Excel Saga is difficult to recommend to anybody, with a convoluted plot that differs from the anime and really obscure jokes that most western readers wouldn't catch unless given an explanation from the translator. Even so, if you decide to read Excel Saga on it's LONG 27 volumes, you won't regret it. (emphasis on long,not because 27 volumes is a big amount, but because this manga has so much dialogue and jokes and plot points that it will most likely overwhelm you). STORY: The plot is Excels Saga biggest strenght and also , it's major flaw. The story is convoluted, filled with flashbacks and mysteries thatdon't get much of an explanation, or get explained so later in the story that you won't even remember what plot point is referring to, so to get your own answers you should read this manga at the very least 2 times, which can be tiresome due to the huge amount of subtle dialogue and jokes. You might finish the manga without understanding anything that happened. Leaving aside some of the negative aspects, this is a comedy manga at first glance and an action-mystery one when you look deeper. The plot starts simple enough, focusing on comedy, but will get more subtle and intriguing, catching your whole attention and interest in the process. BE AWARE though, Excel Saga shares ONE MAJOR plot point with another work by Rikudou Koshi, named "Holy Brownie". As of the date of this review, Holy Brownie has not been translated. ART: An absolute master piece of the mid nineties, Rikudou Koshi's art is excellent when it comes to detail, character design, anatomy and expressions. Backgrounds are good enough as a suplement to the characters. If you know Rikudou Koshi, you might know that he used to work on hentai doujins, so he definitely puts all the focus and detail on the female cast of characters,while males get drawn in a more comedic or simpler form. Also, talking about the comedy, Excel Saga is great when it comes to slapstick comedy and comedic character expressions. The manga ended on 2011, so you can easily see how much Rikudou's art improved. CHARACTER: The characters are second to none. Filled to the brim with personality, you really care about the characters and their conflicts while you're reading. Most characters have a spot in the light, so no one get's forgotten by the author. The characters, while not realistic due to the fantastic and comedic aspects of the plot, are really well written, with a lot of subtleties that makes them more and more interesting while the plot goes on. The character interactions are also really well done, probably the best positive in this category, with complex,subtle emotions and reactions between them. ENJOYMENT: It's hard to say how enjoyable Excel Saga is. Taking into account the LARGE amount of dialogue,obscure jokes, and with how complex and confusing the plot gets. The plot can be frustrating when it doesn't explain what happened or what X dialogue actually ment, due to the subtleties of the characters, so I often found myself thinking for a little while on my head, recapitulating all the major plot points and forming a timeline in my mind. If you like a deep plot that it's buried between comedy and fan service, you will enjoy this one, but we aware that it won't be an easy read. OVERALL: A great manga, totally deserving of a 10 on my opinion. Great (albeit confusing) plot, great characters, great comedy, great art. I don't regret putting time into reading this really underrated manga. There's definitely more to Excel Saga than what is in simple view. Rikudou Koshi's best work to date. VIZMEDIA translation is excellent.
Earnest young girls Excel and Hyatt (both codenames) hold down minimum-wage jobs to support their true avocation: trying to conquer the city of Fukuoka for the secret organization ACROSS and its dreamy dictator, Il Palazzo—a man whose dignity is such that he could never acknowledge that ACROSS consists of himself, a leaky basement, two unpaid teenage interns, and a stray dog. But society is all to blame, as creator Rikudo Koshi takes aim at everything from organized religion to public television, in a manga that makes reindeer spit blood and puts puppies on the dinner menu. (Source: VIZ Media)
First Zaregoto and now this, it pains me to read stuff that are kind of underrated, at the very least in the west. The manga has only 5 thousand members as of today, yet a lot of generic stuff has so many :(. Anyway my point is, it is that good, I loved Excel Saga's manga, and it being underrated should, by no means, stop people from reading it. Probably as many other people, I know Excel Saga because of the anime. I rewatched the anime while reading this and honestly, the anime's story isn't that good in comparison, so I think what I really likedabout it, was the characters. (and surprisingly I preferred the spanish dubs rather than the subs) The manga is so much interesting! It starts off pretty slow, with the usual shenanigans the anime had, having the usual plan of domination of the day for it to fail, and then repeat. After a while, it starts moving on into a different direction, in which you just can't stop reading. It keeps hitting you with so many mysteries which honestly I thought some were gonna be explained not so late, but actually almost all answers are in the final volume. It's really far from generic to be honest, and even if it's 27 volumes, like another review says, Excel Saga has a LOT of dialogue, so it might be hard to get into it at first, I may have skipped a few things Excel said, specially since she uses a lot of words from other languages. I really recommend it, although I can't quite pinpoint what kind of genre this is, and to who I should recommend it. Someone say it's more of a political satire, but honestly that just sounds more boring than what it actually does. It's mostly action/comedy/sci-fi, but some times it goes thought different phases. You have to read it for yourself to understand it.
The original Excel Saga manga is very different from its more well-known anime. And in my opinion (despite also liking the anime), the manga is way better. The story starts simple enough: Excel is an agent of ACROSS, an organization bent on world conquest (starting with a single city), led by Lord Il Palazzo. On the other side, Dr. Kabapu and his municipal employees become the only force capable of combatting Il Palazzo's ideals. But rather than a simple good-vs-evil story, Excel Saga satirically makes the city's environmental defense department steeped in bureaucracy and corruption, whose "heroes" are just salaried workers doing their jobs for apaycheck. The manga is a somewhat dense read. At 178 chapters, it's not the longest series in the world, but Koshi Rikdo writes in a very verbose, wordy style. While there is an ongoing, overarching plot, it moves pretty slowly. Most individual chapters are just character-focused without necessarily moving the story along - which I personally loved, as it developed the cast and made me more invested in them, but don't expect anything in Excel Saga to be resolved quickly. Just be patient and enjoy the ride. I really think this manga is a hidden gem. Its corresponding anime is popular for a reason, but the manga is hilarious in its own right, while telling an interesting and very unique story. I give it my highest recommendation: Read Excel Saga!