What do you think?
Rate this book
Excel Saga #4
エクセル・サーガ 4
When Excel disguises herself as Hyatt in order to scam dental care, she falls under the drill (and roving fingers) of a lecherous, incompetent dentist strangely reminiscent of a character from Volume 1. Meanwhile, everyone's heading for the obligatory swimsuit scene at the public pool.
Paperback
First published December 1, 1998
Ratings & Reviews
Friends & Following
Create a free account to discover what your friends think of this book!
Community Reviews
Displaying 1 - 2 of 2 reviews
March 26, 2025
Great to see continuity in subtle ways, like the mayor from the last volume coming back to work with the doctor who runs the civil servants.
December 31, 2018
I am not good at reading these in a timely fashion.
This volume of Excel Saga is where the main plot--such as it is--begins, with the revelation that there is more to Dr. Kabapu than meets the eye, and Dr. Kabapu's statement about Excel that she looks like someone he knew a long time ago. Long enough that Misaki finds a black-and-white photograph of Dr. Kabapu, standing in front of a Fukuoka skyline without any skyscrapers.
But most of it is satire. There's a chapter where Hyatt is kidnapped by bank robbers, except she was in a post office paying a bill, except that this makes sense because at the time this volume was published, the post office effectively ran the largest bank in Japan. But the economy was bad, so the robbers only stole ¥23,000 with the remainder being pieces of paper. Also, they talk like Yakuza, with the joke being that they address each other in familial ways the way gangsters do except they really are family. This strikes me as a chapter that would have been much more interesting if I had read it in the original Japanese, but it works well enough.
Another chapter is about the difficulties Excel faces with a toothache and Japan's healthcare system, which is cheap and comprehensive, but something tells me that Excel is one of the less than 0.1% of Japanese people who are uninsured. As is common so far, a happy coincidence means that it all works out in the end for her and the chapter is mostly to reintroduce a certain incompetent doctor and his long-suffering nurse.
As before, it seems random, but it's actually social commentary. Good thing there are notes in the back.
Previous Review: Volume Three.
Next Review: Volume Five.
This volume of Excel Saga is where the main plot--such as it is--begins, with the revelation that there is more to Dr. Kabapu than meets the eye, and Dr. Kabapu's statement about Excel that she looks like someone he knew a long time ago. Long enough that Misaki finds a black-and-white photograph of Dr. Kabapu, standing in front of a Fukuoka skyline without any skyscrapers.
But most of it is satire. There's a chapter where Hyatt is kidnapped by bank robbers, except she was in a post office paying a bill, except that this makes sense because at the time this volume was published, the post office effectively ran the largest bank in Japan. But the economy was bad, so the robbers only stole ¥23,000 with the remainder being pieces of paper. Also, they talk like Yakuza, with the joke being that they address each other in familial ways the way gangsters do except they really are family. This strikes me as a chapter that would have been much more interesting if I had read it in the original Japanese, but it works well enough.
Another chapter is about the difficulties Excel faces with a toothache and Japan's healthcare system, which is cheap and comprehensive, but something tells me that Excel is one of the less than 0.1% of Japanese people who are uninsured. As is common so far, a happy coincidence means that it all works out in the end for her and the chapter is mostly to reintroduce a certain incompetent doctor and his long-suffering nurse.
As before, it seems random, but it's actually social commentary. Good thing there are notes in the back.
Previous Review: Volume Three.
Next Review: Volume Five.
Displaying 1 - 2 of 2 reviews