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Excel Saga #3
Excel Saga, Vol. 03
Stories the director himself said they didn't dare put in the anime!
What happens when you try to act like an anime character in real life? EXCEL SAGA . Two groups of neighbors in an apartment building lead secret lives. One thinks they're trying to take over the city of Fukuoka. The other thinks they're trying to defend it. Only their bosses, would-be conqueror Lord Il Palazzo and obsessed bureaucrat Dr. Kabapu, know the truth behind this increasingly dangerous private game... Too bad neither will let their underlings in on it!
There's always an election coming up, and the city of Fukuoka won't be spared either. But what petty party stooge is this so-called "candidate for mayor" who dares presume to take control of a town Lord Il Palazzo has already stamped "Property of ACROSS"? Excel and Hyatt go undercover by volunteering for the campaign, and discover that democracy Japanese-style will have you begging for hanging chads. Vol. 03 of Excel Saga stays strong on the issues like health care reform, which must be why the girls have dressed up like nurses and snuck into the local hospital--where awaits everyone's favorite butcher, I mean, I mean, Doctor Iwata, M.D. Not a dream! Not an imaginary story! One night, when the whole apartment's asleep, enter a place where even Freud would fear to the REM state of our characters! Refreshed, Excel Saga's neighbors get up and go to work as their secret alter yes, in this issue! the good guys and bad girls (DISCLAIMER Designations "Good" and "Bad" subject to the requirements of public policy) make dim first contact in the city sewers. Will it end senselessly in a waste of human life, or just in human waste?
What happens when you try to act like an anime character in real life? EXCEL SAGA . Two groups of neighbors in an apartment building lead secret lives. One thinks they're trying to take over the city of Fukuoka. The other thinks they're trying to defend it. Only their bosses, would-be conqueror Lord Il Palazzo and obsessed bureaucrat Dr. Kabapu, know the truth behind this increasingly dangerous private game... Too bad neither will let their underlings in on it!
There's always an election coming up, and the city of Fukuoka won't be spared either. But what petty party stooge is this so-called "candidate for mayor" who dares presume to take control of a town Lord Il Palazzo has already stamped "Property of ACROSS"? Excel and Hyatt go undercover by volunteering for the campaign, and discover that democracy Japanese-style will have you begging for hanging chads. Vol. 03 of Excel Saga stays strong on the issues like health care reform, which must be why the girls have dressed up like nurses and snuck into the local hospital--where awaits everyone's favorite butcher, I mean, I mean, Doctor Iwata, M.D. Not a dream! Not an imaginary story! One night, when the whole apartment's asleep, enter a place where even Freud would fear to the REM state of our characters! Refreshed, Excel Saga's neighbors get up and go to work as their secret alter yes, in this issue! the good guys and bad girls (DISCLAIMER Designations "Good" and "Bad" subject to the requirements of public policy) make dim first contact in the city sewers. Will it end senselessly in a waste of human life, or just in human waste?
208 pages, Paperback
First published July 1, 1998
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Displaying 1 - 4 of 4 reviews
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January 23, 2026(school assignment) What happens when you put a puppy, a delusional teenager, another teenager who dies each volume and resurrects each time, and some guy who is the lead of an organisation that plans to take over the world together? You get this. Honestly its a little confusing at first, but you catch up to it and everything makes sense in the end.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
February 7, 2025
Hilarious to see koshi rikdo take the piss out of bourgeois democracy. The civil servants finally went up against ACROSS! Well, sorta. This was very good, very funny.
January 15, 2018
When my wife was working at a small rural high school in Hiroshima prefecture, she told her supervisor that she was planning on voting in the American midterm elections. He was very surprised at her civic engagement, even though he was in early forties and active in the Japanese teacher's union, and told her so. He wasn't planning on voting in the Japanese elections. Politics was for the old.
That was what I thought of when I read the first part of this volume, which is a satire on politics. In the morning, Excel and Hyatt stuff envelopes for a candidate with photos of him hobnobbing with the prime minster, and in the afternoon they open up all the envelopes and take the images out after the prime minister comes under investigation for corruption. And this is after the duo fails to even recognize who the prime minister is, which doesn't surprise me. Chiyoda High School's history class brought shame upon their ancestors by insisting, to the sorrow of their history teacher, that the emperor ran the Japanese government and no idea who the prime minister was.
The rest of the first half is further satire, on telecommunications company selling practices and the Japanese health system, but I have less practical knowledge of those fields can can't really recognize what it's poking fun at. The time selling phones is easy enough, I suppose--Excel and Hyatt work for a company that sells phones, just phones, and not the contracts, so it's to their advantage to sell as many phones as possible. Left in the air is the question of how the company makes any money in the long-term, and in the end, all that Iwata is left with is a phone on which he continually receives messages from someone named "No service."
The last half drops the satire and continues the plot, as Dr. Kabapu sends Sumiyoshi, Iwata, Watanabe, and Matsuya into the sewers on the hunch that something might be down there. Something is, of course--ACROSS's secret hideout--and so the final part is a game of cat and mouse between Excel and Hyatt's attempt to repel them and the Department of City Security searching for their unknown goal, and all the while Il Palazzo is watching everything. Plus slapstick, because, well, this is Excel Saga.
I actually liked the first half better than the second half, even though I'm sure I didn't catch all the references and the translator's notes weren't quite as extensive this time.
Previous Review: Volume Two.
Next Review: Volume Four.
That was what I thought of when I read the first part of this volume, which is a satire on politics. In the morning, Excel and Hyatt stuff envelopes for a candidate with photos of him hobnobbing with the prime minster, and in the afternoon they open up all the envelopes and take the images out after the prime minister comes under investigation for corruption. And this is after the duo fails to even recognize who the prime minister is, which doesn't surprise me. Chiyoda High School's history class brought shame upon their ancestors by insisting, to the sorrow of their history teacher, that the emperor ran the Japanese government and no idea who the prime minister was.
The rest of the first half is further satire, on telecommunications company selling practices and the Japanese health system, but I have less practical knowledge of those fields can can't really recognize what it's poking fun at. The time selling phones is easy enough, I suppose--Excel and Hyatt work for a company that sells phones, just phones, and not the contracts, so it's to their advantage to sell as many phones as possible. Left in the air is the question of how the company makes any money in the long-term, and in the end, all that Iwata is left with is a phone on which he continually receives messages from someone named "No service."
The last half drops the satire and continues the plot, as Dr. Kabapu sends Sumiyoshi, Iwata, Watanabe, and Matsuya into the sewers on the hunch that something might be down there. Something is, of course--ACROSS's secret hideout--and so the final part is a game of cat and mouse between Excel and Hyatt's attempt to repel them and the Department of City Security searching for their unknown goal, and all the while Il Palazzo is watching everything. Plus slapstick, because, well, this is Excel Saga.
I actually liked the first half better than the second half, even though I'm sure I didn't catch all the references and the translator's notes weren't quite as extensive this time.
Previous Review: Volume Two.
Next Review: Volume Four.
March 16, 2008
Ah, using the ILL system to grab Manga. Hey, if I have to pay taxes, I might as well get some good use out of them...
This is the third volume of the adaptation of Excel for a book. It's not as good as the animated version--I think it's harder to translate slapstick to paper, and Excel relies primarily on sight gags over verbal wordplay.
Still, it's fun, as Excel and Hyatt find themselves working on an election, trying to be nurses, and even selling cell phones to help the cause of Il Palazzo. The best parts are towards the end in this one, as the group of kids try to infiltrate the headquarters and Excel must try to stop them. I guess the best description is that things all come out in the wash. There's also a rather strange dream sequence that seems to have nothing to do with anyone, but has a reference to N-scale trains, so I was digging it.
I enjoy this manga, but it's really only for those of us who've seen a lot of the series. (Library, 03/08)
Trebby's Take: A fun read, but not a must-read.
This is the third volume of the adaptation of Excel for a book. It's not as good as the animated version--I think it's harder to translate slapstick to paper, and Excel relies primarily on sight gags over verbal wordplay.
Still, it's fun, as Excel and Hyatt find themselves working on an election, trying to be nurses, and even selling cell phones to help the cause of Il Palazzo. The best parts are towards the end in this one, as the group of kids try to infiltrate the headquarters and Excel must try to stop them. I guess the best description is that things all come out in the wash. There's also a rather strange dream sequence that seems to have nothing to do with anyone, but has a reference to N-scale trains, so I was digging it.
I enjoy this manga, but it's really only for those of us who've seen a lot of the series. (Library, 03/08)
Trebby's Take: A fun read, but not a must-read.
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