I'm sure by now everyone knows that, like Avaitor with Iron Maiden and Ensatsu-ken with Ninja Gaiden, I absolutely adore this manga (not the fucking anime (which is Excel Saga in name only); not anymore, at least) to death. However, unlike Iron Maiden and Ninja Gaiden, this series of Japacomics has an English-speaking fanbase comprised of probably no more than 500 people.
I will now attempt to summarize the awesomeness of Excel Saga in a lengthy essay that won't even approach the sheer mass of E-K's Yu Yu Hakusho novel review:
Excel Saga is about a rogue spreadsheet program that gains sentience and spreads a deadly computer virus from the mainframe computer of the Il Palazzo Hotel, which is located deep beneath Fukuoka, Japan.
Excel Saga is about a triply-super secret agent codenamed Excel AKA Slammin' Flower Child (real name: unknown / real age: unknown / real gender: probably known / day job: constantly changing / shoe size: mentioned in one of the early volumes). She works for a remarkably pretty man: self-proclaimed Lord Il Palazzo, who suffers from some sort of multiple personality disorder and basically treats her like dirt (she -- and probably he, for that matter -- are both completely unaware of this, though). Together, along with a wooden mannequin and Excel's emergency food supply (Mince Menchi, a dog that looks like a cat), they form ACROSS, a top secret organization whose goal is, you guessed it, to take over the world.
But the world is rather large, and ACROSS is rather small (especially so after Excel torched the mannequin when Il Palazzo promoted it ahead of her). Why have the world when you could have but one country? In fact, why have the country when you could have but one city? Fukuoka it is!
Excel and Lord Il Palazzo (http://i54.tinypic.com/2ldj51k.jpg)
Unfortunately, ACROSS is a non-profit organization, and thus, Excel is desperately poor (hence having a dog merely to use it as emergency rations). This is also due to her inability to hold down a part-time job. Unlike her anime counterpart, Excel in the manga is not relentlessly stupid or obnoxious, she's just hopelessly incompetent. She blames her own failings on government conspiracies attempting to sabotage ACROSS' noble cause, either because she's truly exceptional at twisting the truth or because she actually doesn't know any better (the way it's written, it really could go either way). Rarely does Excel return home to her crappy apartment ACROSS Company Housing with any money in hand, causing both her and Menchi to go hungry (but never quite hungry enough for the former to eat the latter). Menchi is very much aware of her plight, and attempts to escape occasionally, but always fails in some way or another.
Shortly thereafter, Main Combatant Hyatt (who is not from Mars) AKA Convoy Butterfly AKA Chihaya Ayasugi (not her real name) responds to a newspaper classifieds ad and joins Lord Il Palazzo and Latrine Orderly Excel in their plans for world conquest. Lacking Excel's modest (and I mean modest) amount of intelligence, strong will, or good health, Hyatt never really accomplishes much of anything. She flat-lines and coughs up blood a lot (fun fact: Excel Saga predates South Park by a whole year!) and ends up being little more than a burden for Excel along with a source of stress due to her being Il Palazzo's preferred agent.
Hyatt (http://i51.tinypic.com/anbssl.png)
Later on, we get ACROSS' third (human) hire and Excel's much funnier second foil, Elgala. She is cursed with the inability to hold an internal monologue, and often ends up speaking her darkest and most personal thoughts aloud, much to the chagrin of Excel and Il Palazzo. Elgala does not fit in well with Excel's frugality-at-all-costs! approach, as she is used to living a life of luxury (how, when, or why I have absolutely no idea). She starts out as a rather minor character (though she usually steals Hyatt's spotlight when she does appear), and then later damn near replaces Hyatt, who is relegated to what basically amounts to cameo appearances in later volumes. In a couple of the newest volumes, she actually has more page-time and plot importance than the title character.
Elgala and Menchi (http://i53.tinypic.com/2irrup1.jpg)
But no conquerors would be complete without some opposite-minded defenders, and that's where Dr. Kabapu and the Department Of City Security come in. Kabapu is a very corrupt government official but not one without good intentions. As it stands, he pretty much runs Fukuoka and wants to protect it from those who might conquer it at any cost, which he usually does using numerous scapegoats and terrorist-like actions. Don't be fooled by his appearance, Dr. Kabapu may look old, but he's actually quite a bit older.
Kabapu (http://i54.tinypic.com/fabkhf.jpg)
The Department Of City Security consists of Watanabe, -- the unluckiest man in the world who turns into a sexual deviant in the later volumes and has a hopeless romantic attraction to Hyatt -- Iwata, -- a hilarious and hopelessly stupid individual with a childish way of processing information who eventually gets screws in his brain and bolts in his nuts -- Sumiyoshi, -- an overweight dating sim addict who speaks with a thick accent and has more social skills and intelligence than probably any other character in the entire manga -- and Misaki -- a parody of the typical tsundere archetype and possibly the only character in the entire series with control over her own destiny (she is also the love of Iwata's life). They all live in the same apartment complex (they were hired out of convenience), which they just so happen to share with Excel, Hyatt, and (later) Elgala. These folks, along with Dr. Kabapu, start out as supporting characters and minor diversions from what's going on with Excel, but in the later volumes they get bumped up and become major characters, sometimes having more overall page-time than the "real" main cast.
Watanabe, Iwata, and Sumiyoshi (http://i52.tinypic.com/1z1abg4.jpg)
Misaki (http://i56.tinypic.com/140evza.jpg)
Kabapu decides that his department needs a fifth employee (a team's gotta' have five members!), so he enlists the aide of blatant pedophile Gojo Shiouji to construct a robot human capable of defusing bombs named Ropponmatsu. The first prototype fails miserably, so Shiouji constructs a second model more to his tastes (if you know what I mean). That one also turns out to be a failure.
Shiouji (http://i54.tinypic.com/6fwqo8.jpg)
Ropponmatsu Units 1 & 2 (http://i53.tinypic.com/2lm8aq9.jpg)
The Department Of City Security eventually becomes the Municipal Force Daitenzin (a super sentai (Power Rangers) parody) and has infrequent battles with the agents of ACROSS, which are usually more humorous than they are violent.
Daitenzin Iwata (http://i56.tinypic.com/2ryggn4.jpg)
So, this is like the anime, right? There's not really much of a plot, the characters don't develop, and the comedy is really stupid?
110% wrong! This actually has a good story (though not right from the start), there's lots of character development in every volume (I've come to love almost every one of them), and the comedy is -- for the most part -- clever, witty, and well-written!
Now, if only Viz would re-release volumes 7 and 8 so people could actually buy them for a decent price... :unimpressed:
NOW, DISCUSS THIS GREAT SERIES, WHY DON'T 'CHA?
Wow, that felt good. I can see why you guys make all of your descriptive posts super long.
EDIT: Cleaned it up a bit since we don't have working spoiler tags anymore.
It's one of the few manga titles that got the detailed footnote treatment in the US thanks to writers like Carl Gustav Horn, with all sorts of strange in-jokes and references. It also features the good ol' trap door that made the He-Man and Masters of the Universe cartoon in the 1980s so fun to watch. And it seems to fit the recession stage of Japan's economy so it's a good read if you can find it at the library or local bookstore.
Hey, my YYH review wasn't that long at all....of course I wouldn't ever really know for sure since I never actually bothered to read through all of it, myself. I just typed a bunch of words up and posted them and posted them up. Like hell I'd actually bother to waste any time doing something as trivial as reading through what I wrote. How was that review, anyways? Maybe I should get around to reading it myself, sometime. :sly:
Anyways, Excel Saga is one of those manga that I've always really wanted to get into, but have never had the means to do so. By now even the more common volumes are harder for me to find in stores and are becoming increasingly rare since they are all out of print, and no groups out there are willing to translate the manga online, so its still really hard for me to get a hold of any of the volumes through any means. Believe me, if I manage to find them and have the money to buy them on me, I WILL definitely get them. ;)
Oh, and even if this manga has an extremely small fan-base, it has its own benefits. For example, since so few people read it in the first place, and since most of the people who do read it are thankfully fans of the series, the fans don't have to deal with a plethora of haters bashing the series to no end. Its something like the 3D NG games constantly get, as well as YYH, and also a lot of my favorite cartoons such as South Park. Though, I guess I would rather have Excel Saga be more popular since that would actually get Viz to make more copies of it, thus making it more accessible to people like me.
Anyways, so far all I know about Excel Saga is the completely unfaithful anime adaptation, which I enjoyed in extremely short bursts, but couldn't take more than a single episode at a time, otherwise I'd lose a ton of brain cells. :D
I feel like the series would be more popular if Viz would just re-release volumes 5, 7, and 8. Whenever I try to discuss the series with anyone online, they always say something to the extent of "yeah, I'm interested in reading it, but not if I can't get every book." It's a real problem.
Viz has done a great job with the translation, though, and I applaud them for that. I also applaud them for not cancelling the series (which every other publisher for it outside of Japan has done). The year long wait between volumes is killer, though. Volume 22 was supposed to come out last October, but it got pushed back to this April (a full year since 21 came out last April) after Viz had a bunch of lay-offs. Volume 23's release date is speculated to be April 2012, as that's what it says on Amazon.ca, though I can't find it anywhere else, so it might just be a place-holder. Since there's 25 and counting in Japan, if they keep on this schedule, westerners might not see the end of the series until 2015 or later! :( It's even more of a bummer if you've seen some of the most recent raws and know that shit has been going down lately.
Factor in that Viz is notorious for cancelling less popular manga titles a couple of volumes away from the end of their respective series runs and that no one online seems willing to do a scanlation (due to the difficulty level of the material at hand), I'm a bit worried that I might not ever see the end of the series in English at all! :shit:
I saw some raws for his Municipal Force, but yuck, it had meaningless sex scenes. So glad he changed it to Excel Saga and gave the series a real purpose.
Quote from: Angus on February 01, 2011, 11:29:33 AM
I saw some raws for his Municipal Force, but yuck, it had meaningless sex scenes. So glad he changed it to Excel Saga and gave the series a real purpose.
Yeah, I'm pretty sure Excel Saga was his first non-pornographic manga. If this is indeed the case, it was also his only one until Mebius Gear, which is as close as something can get to hentai without actually being hentai.
As for Municipal Force Daitenzin, make sure to stay away from Chapter 5 (though it's labeled as Chapter 4) if you don't want to ruin your image of Excel and Watanabe... :unimpressed:
EDIT: Can't believe I got that last part wrong!
Just two months until Volume 22! If it gets delayed again, I will seriously consider seppuku.
I so wish that this series was more available than it is these days, or that I had gotten into it earlier when it was more available at the time. I'm sure I'd love it if I got into reading it, but its just so damn hard to find for me. Most big-franchise book stores that I go to (like Barnes and Noble and Borders and such) don't even carry any of its volumes in stock, anymore (and I would know, since I've checked in both New Jersey and Philadelphia.
Yeah, it's pretty low-profile. Even the ones that aren't out of print are pretty much only available online, though I'd assume that most book stores will get a couple of copies of 22 when it comes out. Definitely do not start reading from there, since it's right in the middle of an ever-building story and the jokes are a lot more character-based recently (meaning you will likely not find it very funny unless you've been reading since the beginning, or, at least, since it became more focused on character development and plot than straight-up humor).
Volume 26 just got a release date in Japan. March 4. As of that date, we will be 5 books behind the Moon Runes editions. GO FASTER VIZ OR I WILL EMIT TEARS FROM MY OPTICAL RECEPTORS.
The cover art looks different from Rikudou's usual style. Seems like he might be going for the western comic look now, which is definitely a good thing.
(https://animationrevelation.com/forum/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.rikudoukan.com%2FES26cvr.jpg&hash=a9bf3cdafc1a9c8fc817cadc846cf9deb97d8699)
Well, I always got the feeling that Excel Saga was the stand-out work among other comedic manga series, or manga in general. And that's precisely why its probably not that popular, even in Japan, just because every douche-bag anime fan is some lame fucking conformist who wants to see the same thing over and over again and realizes that different things make them feel completely stupid....because they basically are just idiots. :anger:
Anyways, putting that mini-rant aside, I think I can probably manage to at least get the first few volumes of Excel Saga online, but I won't get a chance to do that until Spring break (maybe).
Remember, if you're gonna' order online, http://rightstuf.com is the cheapest place to do it! (ugh, I sound like a marketing campaign)
Anyway, the first few volumes are... not the best. Here's what I recommend you do since some the better early ones are out of print and you probably don't have excesses of expendable funds:
Buy volume 1. This will introduce you to Excel, Hyatt, and Il Palazzo properly.
Watch the following anime episodes that are actually based off the manga online. These cover the key events through volume 5 and introduce characters that are pretty much the same across both versions (at first, at least). There really aren't that many that you'd need to watch, so it shouldn't be too bad. I'll provide links for you in a PM.
Nothing too important happens in volume 6 or 7, so you can skip those.
Read the scan of volume 8 you can find online. Hard copies of this book go for $100+ and neither Rikudou nor Viz will get any of the money you spend on it so you shouldn't feel bad about this. Check your PMs for that, too. This one is definitely a necessary read.
Start buying from volume 9 on. 9 is one of the series' lower points, unfortunately, but the final, double-length chapter is really important and also absolutely awesome.
10 and 11 are freakin' hilarious. Especially 11. Some of the chapters in these two are filled with non-stop laughs.
12 features one of the best chapters in any manga period, but the rest is kind of forgettable and a bit too pedestrian in its humor.
13 formally introduces the actual plot. This is by far the most serious Excel Saga offering. Stick with it.
14 onwards are absolute perfection, aside from 21, which was a little lackluster. Be ready for much darker comedy and tons of character development. You will not enjoy any of these without knowledge of previous events and love for the many great characters, or else I'd just tell you to jump in here.
Sounds great. As soon as I get done with all of this BS application stuff and exams that I'm studying for (I need to put up with this for 2 more weeks before I get my break, I'll be looking into the Excel Saga manga. ;)
Huh? Funimation's taken over Excel Saga (anime)? I guess that means boxset, but ugh, why can't they get Viz to omnibus some older volumes?
http://www.funimation.com/excelsaga/
What books have Viz omnibus'd? Never seen one in a shop.
Been reading Volume 16 again recently and liking it much, much more this time around than I did back in 2007. I recall finding it depressing, and I think I've finally pinpointed why: the parts involving Teriha Shiouji are a downright slog compared to the rest of the book, which is a comedy goldmine. While the situation of this certain character is depressing, that in and of itself did not cause me to find it so. What caused me to find it depressing is that these parts try to be funny and fail miserably. Umi adds nothing whatsoever to the series; the last truly humorous thing she did was in the introductory side-story about her and the sole function she performs in the plot could have been pulled off by nearly ANY other character with vastly funnier results.
While I'm on the subject of characters I don't like (of which there are two in total), I also hate Miwa when she isn't interacting with Kabapu, as those are the only scenes in which she is anything but obnoxious. On the whole, Umi and Miwa embody the absolutely horrible "anime comedy" that this series is so good at avoiding, though thankfully the latter can actually be interesting at times and they aren't really in it all that much.
I remember your blog about volume 16 being depressing, way back on TV.com when that site actually had some good members there. ;)
And just like since then, I still haven't had any luck getting into the manga. I wish the series was at least popular enough for some form of limited reprints and redistribution. I can eventually get a hold of it, but at this rate it won't be until I start earning some money of my own.
Miwa's annoying although she does represent all those oversized mom-types you see in all those shonen rom-coms, except that none of the male characters idolize her.
Now I have something else to be depressed about. Excel Saga ends in around 3 months with Volume 27 being the last installment of the series. I know we still have 6 English ones left to go, I'm glad that the series will get true closure, and I'm happy that Rikudou will finally be able to move on with his life and try out new things, but this still makes me kind of sad. Really sad, in fact. I mean, every good story needs to end and deserves to end, but I wish it wouldn't. Perhaps he'll do some (clean) doujins or special chapters in the future to continue the madness, if only briefly. But probably not.
I love how it's ending at 27 volumes, though. Seems sort of like an in-joke; an "I can one-up the anime version one last time!" statement, in a way.
Well, its always a little sad to see a great long-running series end, even if the ending itself is really good (there are a lot of manga that I can think of which fit this example for me). However, the good thing about it is that its better to have a series end on a high-note than it is to have it drag on way past its prime. Besides, its not unlikely that the author would see fit to do some more material for it in later years down the line if he thinks of new material. That's what basically happened with GTO since the author brought it back with a new currently running series that literally goes back to the series's roots in Shonan.
At any rate, I'll make sure to try and search for the first few volumes during Spring break, but I likely won't actually be able to buy anything until I get a job and start earning some money.
Yeah, I'm definitely happy that it will likely end neatly and on a high-note. It's been fairly obvious that the series would end eventually since the chapter where it started developing a plot. The pacing is pretty much perfect, though I expected him to end it with #30 (rule of 5's, man). If it had stayed with the style of the first seven volumes, it could have gone on forever, but I can't say that would have been preferable, since the introduction of a story elevated it from the status of a good comedy to that of a great one.
And knowing Viz, the final book won't even be out until 2015 or later, so there's a good chance that Rikudou might decide to do something new with the characters before that time comes.
I'm hoping he has another series in the works; maybe he was experimenting with all those side stories for a possible spinoff, although characters like Umi aren't really endearing.
I'm getting close to finishing Aria the Origination and it'll be sad to leave that world too. :cry:
His new series (which I believe is to be the replacement for Excel Saga) is called Echo/Zeon. I've seen some raws, and it looks interesting, but I'm not sure if the humor will be as clever as Excel's. Seems a bit heavier on the fanservice, but it's still pretty light compared to most manga.
Quote from: Foggle on March 04, 2011, 05:06:26 PM
His new series (which I believe is to be the replacement for Excel Saga) is called Echo/Zeon. I've seen some raws, and it looks interesting, but I'm not sure if the humor will be as clever as Excel's. Seems a bit heavier on the fanservice, but it's still pretty light compared to most manga.
Is it still in the seinen category? I'm still surprised what kind of fanservice can pass for shonen.
Quote from: Angus on March 05, 2011, 01:33:07 PM
Quote from: Foggle on March 04, 2011, 05:06:26 PM
His new series (which I believe is to be the replacement for Excel Saga) is called Echo/Zeon. I've seen some raws, and it looks interesting, but I'm not sure if the humor will be as clever as Excel's. Seems a bit heavier on the fanservice, but it's still pretty light compared to most manga.
Is it still in the seinen category? I'm still surprised what kind of fanservice can pass for shonen.
I have no idea what it would be considered, since I can't find a single English article about the series. However, from what I've seen, I'd probably call it seinen. Like the early volumes of Excel Saga, there's nothing in it that would really be considered objectionable for younger audiences to read, but (also like Excel Saga) I don't think they'd enjoy it, either.
The fanservice is the same kind of stuff from the later ES volumes, or perhaps a bit lighter; there's more of it, though. Still, it's downright tame compared to most manga and is like a Disney cartoon compared to anything by Shouji Satou (fun fact: he used to be one of Rikudou's assistants!).
Why I pre-order from RightStuf: My copy of volume 22 shipped yesterday... exactly 15 days before the release date! I'll probably have it by Friday. :joy:
Finished it (before the Great Forum Crash Of '11, actually)! 'Twas freakin' brilliant... definitely in my top 5.
From what I can tell, the entire series (save volume 22) may be going out of print. :cry:
According to Amazon.com, they are running out of copies of every volume aside from 22, with no plans to get any more in. (http://www.amazon.com/gp/search/ref=sr_nr_p_n_feature_browse-b_mrr_0?rh=n%3A283155%2Ck%3AExcel+Saga%2Cp_n_feature_browse-bin%3A2656022011&bbn=283155&keywords=Excel+Saga&ie=UTF8&qid=1302974289&rnid=618072011#/ref=sr_pg_1?rh=n%3A283155%2Ck%3AExcel+Saga&keywords=Excel+Saga&ie=UTF8&qid=1302974454) According to RightStuf.com, the only volumes currently in-stock are 1 and 22. (http://www.rightstuf.com/cgi-bin/catalogmgr/2NlJVxAicoQw04alcw/browse/search/5/4/0/0/results/desc/asc/50/1) While that one does say there are "more arriving soon," that doesn't always mean they'll ever actually get more in.
Honorary bump! Talk about your favorite anime episodes, or something. :joy:
To be honest I never watched more than the first few episodes of this show. I'll remedy that at some point in time, but its just that after you hyped up the manga so much I no longer felt compelled to watch the anime and instead wanted to seek out the manga, but then I realized that I was broke most of the time. :(
So, October, then? (http://www.animenewsnetwork.com/news/2011-07-03/excel-saga-manga-approaches-its-finale-after-15-years) It's been a nice, long run. Rikudou is a smart man, ending the series now that he's ready to move on to other things. I'm glad he's not just forcing himself to go on, as this will ensure that it never falls into a stale period. From what I hear, the final chapter has the potential to be mind-blowing... and I'm sure it will be.
It's over in Japan. Final chapter came out two days ago. Final volume comes out in October, and then it's a five year wait for Viz to finish localizing the rest of the series...
Doh I wish my local library would keep up with this. They are still stuck back in Volume 17/18.
Mine stopped stocking them when the series' rating jumped from T to T+. Excel Saga is in the children's section alongside stuff like Harold & The Purple Crayon and Captain Underpants, for reference. I don't really think a five-year-old would enjoy or understand ES, but whatever.
Also, Negima is right next to Monsters, Inc. on the kids' DVD shelf, if that tells you anything.
Here's the Japanese cover for volume 1:
(https://animationrevelation.com/forum/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fupload.wikimedia.org%2Fwikipedia%2Fen%2Fthumb%2F5%2F53%2FExcel_Saga%252C_Volume_1.jpg%2F230px-Excel_Saga%252C_Volume_1.jpg&hash=8de914cc1b2be4165b878fd287b043ebd656746d)
And here's the final volume's cover:
(https://animationrevelation.com/forum/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.rikudoukan.com%2FES27cvr.jpg&hash=470db2c7942229ef0849dbc24a53073ecd721f35)
:worship:
Heh, nice homage to the original cover. Also, based on the art between both versions, it looks like the mangaka's art-style evolved over time, which happens with pretty much all long-running manga series.
Picked this up back in November... not sure why I didn't post about it 'til now. Some pretty cool stuff, IMO. Forgive the shitty quality of the pictures; my phone camera is horrid and I have no scanner.
Young King OURs September 2011 issue AKA the end of Excel Saga! According to some English text printed on the spine, it's the most eccentric manga magazine!
(https://animationrevelation.com/forum/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fi40.tinypic.com%2F23sfd3r.jpg&hash=74886015e445fccdcac98f945b465083f7c15371)
This motherfucker is fat! There are no page numbers anywhere, but I'd assume it's at least 600 pages long. Not bad for the equivalent of $7 US!
(https://animationrevelation.com/forum/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fi39.tinypic.com%2F5jupmv.jpg&hash=4f69c525c519177c0543d3c394b7b397de4e3d31)
Delicious color Excel pages. Advertisement on the right.
(https://animationrevelation.com/forum/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fi40.tinypic.com%2Fmmg46c.jpg&hash=bba5e7b2f2d9765e19999d2578a484af0c074f73)
War... war never changes.
(https://animationrevelation.com/forum/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fi42.tinypic.com%2F2n4vbm.jpg&hash=00ad11c5901febbbd3dcb1b0978bd05728fade62)
Sprite Spiegel! What the hell? :lol:
(https://animationrevelation.com/forum/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fi41.tinypic.com%2F5kk37d.jpg&hash=0ca43e6eb69e42cad93c48ede860d6cd58627ec2)
The manliest manga ever! Does anyone know what this is? Because it looks fucking awesome.
(https://animationrevelation.com/forum/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fi42.tinypic.com%2F4sedqo.jpg&hash=3a0eee81e5900f54ca5453ef32f244a5313a760e)
Hellsing? Nah.
(https://animationrevelation.com/forum/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fi39.tinypic.com%2F2h80axv.jpg&hash=8a119f32c11ffd860819197f577fdbf431d69150)
There was also an interesting Japanese ad for Transformers: Dark of the Moon, but the photo came out way too blurry. Might take some more pictures for you guys later, if you want.
So the new volume was pretty fucking hilarious and featured an awesome car chase with a robot-powered rickshaw as well as the trademark subtle wit and bloody slapstick. Character interactions were great, as usual... but I found the plot to be basically incomprehensible; which is odd because that's a criticism often leveled at this series that I've never agreed with. I guess it's becoming too strange even for me!
Wait, I thought Excel Saga already ended? Maybe I'm thinking of a different series.
Also, is the manga still be translated by Viz media or have they dropped it completely?
Quote from: Ensatsu-ken on March 31, 2012, 11:55:10 AM
Wait, I thought Excel Saga already ended? Maybe I'm thinking of a different series.
Also, is the manga still be translated by Viz media or have they dropped it completely?
I mean the newest English release. Volume 23, by Viz. I can't read Japanese very well and there are no scanlations after volume 4. ;)
And now I must wait another 365 days for #24. 363 now... not that I'm counting...
Apparently Rikudou's new manga, Echo/Zeon, was cancelled by Young Ace for seemingly no reason and without warning. Since I'm pretty sure that it was supposed to be the replacement for Excel Saga (i.e. a long-running, non-pornographic comedy), I have to wonder what's going to become of his "mainstream" career in the coming months. It's a damn shame that his work seems to go so unappreciated...
Apparently there are a lot of mangaka who try unique stuff and actually make really good material by deviating from the tired old formulas of whatever genre they pursue, but that also comes at the cost of having their work fading into obscurity since most "mainstream" readers are picky and don't really support fresh stuff like that. Or, at least, that's what I learned from reading Bakuman....which incidentally IS a mainstream manga about the art and business of making manga. :D
Well, anyways, if Excel Saga was more readily available you know I'd support it. Its just way too hard for me to find all of the volumes for, and I don't like the idea of having to skip entire volumes if I can't get some of them, especially since you said that some of the ones that are hardest to find are also among the most important (story-wise) ones in the entire series.
Quote from: Ensatsu-ken on April 01, 2012, 12:23:20 AM
Apparently there are a lot of mangaka who try unique stuff and actually make really good material by deviating from the tired old formulas of whatever genre they pursue, but that also comes at the cost of having their work fading into obscurity since most "mainstream" readers are picky and don't really support fresh stuff like that. Or, at least, that's what I learned from reading Bakuman....which incidentally IS a mainstream manga about the art and business of making manga. :D
I think I'm going to start reading that series soon, since you and Spark are always saying good things about it. Seems like a very interesting read. ;)
QuoteWell, anyways, if Excel Saga was more readily available you know I'd support it. Its just way too hard for me to find all of the volumes for, and I don't like the idea of having to skip entire volumes if I can't get some of them, especially since you said that some of the ones that are hardest to find are also among the most important (story-wise) ones in the entire series.
Oh, hell yeah, I know you would. Apparently Viz did a small, stealthy reprint of volume 5 and those others that I said were going out of print earlier, so the only two you'd be missing are 7 & 8. 7 is funny but basically inconsequential and I have a scanned copy of the Viz volume 8 on my hard drive, so if you ever get to the point where you can start buying the books, you should be fine. ;) If you want, I can help you find copies of certain volumes in the future. ;D
Anyway, it's likely that the manga never sold too well outside of Japan because people expected it to be a crazy parody like the anime and ended up being confused by the first two volumes' poorly drawn sociopolitical satire that was likely too subtle for the majority of the fanbase. I'm not even trying to be insulting, either... anyone who's ever seen the anime will almost definitely be shocked by the kind of humor present in the earlier books. They're all very funny, but it doesn't really hit its stride until later on, and even then, it's completely different from Nabeshin's version.
Speaking of the anime, while I do find it kind of hard to watch these days, I must say that the final 6 episodes hold up extremely well. The anime-only story arc is shockingly well done and even mirrors the later volumes of the manga somewhat, while the episode with Key and Going Too Far are still totally hilarious.
To be honest, you could probably just watch some of the anime episodes that actually adapt the manga and then start reading with the scanned volume 8, if you want. You'll miss some truly great moments from the earlier books, and #s 9, 12, and 13 are extremely uneven for first impressions (though all three have some hilarious chapters), but it'll save you a lot of time and money as long as you remember that the characters act completely differently in the original work. :P
I kind of have a rule of reading the original work the way it was intended, and in the order it was intended to be read it. I'm not sure why, but its a big deal for me to have to skip a volume or even a single chapter, even if its mostly inconsequential to the main story-line. Perhaps if I actually start making money this summer, I'll at least order the first few volumes online and hopefully see if I can find volumes 7 and 8 somewhere for a reasonable price.
Oh, and as for Bakuman just keep in mind that the first few chapters of it might not be that much to your liking. The manga is itself a shonen series and inherently adopts quite a few shonen themes and tropes (its self-aware of this though, of course). The manga really gets interesting when Takagi and Mashiro team up and actually starting creating manga. You get to learn the whole general structure of making and publishing mainstream manga (in this case its for Shonen Jump, though, but apparently a lot of what applies there applies to most other manga editorials, even for Seinen magazines), and how competitive it is since the editorial department will drop their least popular mangaka without any hesitation. Manga itself is treated very much like a business in Bakuman in terms of authors giving into what the readers want and what their editors tell them to do in order to make a more popular series, even if it isn't what they would want to do artistically to make the best possible series. To me that's the main element of interest in the manga, though it does have good characters and interesting dilemmas to go along with all of that, of course. ;)
Quote from: Ensatsu-ken on April 01, 2012, 02:25:37 AM
I kind of have a rule of reading the original work the way it was intended, and in the order it was intended to be read it. I'm not sure why, but its a big deal for me to have to skip a volume or even a single chapter, even if its mostly inconsequential to the main story-line. Perhaps if I actually start making money this summer, I'll at least order the first few volumes online and hopefully see if I can find volumes 7 and 8 somewhere for a reasonable price.
Well, 5 and 7 are pretty readily available from Amazon.com, though 7 is about twice the cover price (which is a lot better than, say, last year, when it was $40). 8 is still pretty expensive, so unless you really love the series like I do and want to own every book, the scan should hopefully be good enough. ;) Anyway, I totally understand about not wanting to skip chapters or books in a series, even if they're inconsequential. I'm the exact same way.
Quote from: Ensatsu-ken on April 01, 2012, 02:25:37 AM
Oh, and as for Bakuman just keep in mind that the first few chapters of it might not be that much to your liking. The manga is itself a shonen series and inherently adopts quite a few shonen themes and tropes (its self-aware of this though, of course).
I feel like most manga end up being this way. The first bits of Excel Saga might turn you off, as well. Anyway, shounen tropes don't really bother me unless they're related to harems or involve that "power of friendship" crap (both of which are present in seinen, as well). I doubt either of those can be found in Bakuman, so I'm sure I'll still like it. ;)
QuoteThe manga really gets interesting when Takagi and Mashiro team up and actually starting creating manga. You get to learn the whole general structure of making and publishing mainstream manga (in this case its for Shonen Jump, though, but apparently a lot of what applies there applies to most other manga editorials, even for Seinen magazines), and how competitive it is since the editorial department will drop their least popular mangaka without any hesitation. Manga itself is treated very much like a business in Bakuman in terms of authors giving into what the readers want and what their editors tell them to do in order to make a more popular series, even if it isn't what they would want to do artistically to make the best possible series. To me that's the main element of interest in the manga, though it does have good characters and interesting dilemmas to go along with all of that, of course. ;)
Yeah, that storyline is what convinced me to read this series in the first place. It sounds
very interesting to me.
Just to clarify, the anime isn't very good, right? I wasn't ever planning on watching it (I'm starting to prefer manga in general), but I'm still curious.
Yeah, I'll definitely be looking into what I can find of the manga sometime this summer.
As for Bakuman, the anime is pretty "meh" for the most part. Its not really entirely its fault, as Bakuman to me is the kind of series that is flat-out meant to be a manga, and doesn't translate too well into animated form. Don't get me wrong, the anime has some occasional treats of its own, such as having actual opening theme songs and animation for some of the fictional anime that exist in the world of Bakuman, but overall its just a copy and paste version of the manga except at a much slower pace. The first season felt kind of dull, whereas the 2nd season was a noticeable improvement but still just felt kind of pointless as an adaptation. So, yeah, the manga would be the best way to go about experiencing the series.
Hey E-K, I've located an absurdly cheap copy of volume 8 (this one usually goes for around $40+). If you promise to start reading Excel Saga eventually, I'll totally buy it for you. PM me your mailing address and I'll have it sent to ya directly. I'll keep an eye out for #7, as well (the rest are still in print, except for 5, which still sells for standard retail price since stores seem to have surpluses of it). ;)
I couldn't ask you to buy a volume for me! I appreciate the offer, though. :thumbup:
Did you find the volume at a store near you or did you find it online? If its online give me a link to where I can order it from. If not then don't worry, I'll be able to locate a copy of volume 8 online myself. Don't worry, I'll be sure to start reading the series this summer. I also just realized that if my local bookstore still has it (which may be likely since I've seen the first few volumes of Excel Saga stopped in its manga section for years, completely untouched), I can just read it at the store without having to buy the volumes. That'd certainly make things a lot cheaper and easier. ;)
Quote from: Ensatsu-ken on April 02, 2012, 12:21:04 AM
I couldn't ask you to buy a volume for me! I appreciate the offer, though. :thumbup:
It's $9 including shipping. If you want to pay me back for it, you can always donate to the "keep AR running" fund later. ;) I just want to make sure you can pick this up since I haven't seen a price for it lower than $30 since 2007.
QuoteDid you find the volume at a store near you or did you find it online? If its online give me a link to where I can order it from.
Apparently Hastings doesn't know the value of this book. :lol:
http://www.amazon.com/gp/offer-listing/1591162335/ref=dp_olp_used?ie=UTF8&condition=used
I'll go ahead and order it myself as soon as possible, but I can't do it right away since I don't carry my credit card one me when I'm in college in Philadelphia. I'll probably be going home this coming weekend, though, so I'm sure the offer will still be up until then, especially since it doesn't seem like Excel Saga is selling a whole lot, even when its available for cheap. ;)
Quote from: Ensatsu-ken on April 02, 2012, 12:34:05 AM
I'll go ahead and order it myself as soon as possible, but I can't do it right away since I don't carry my credit card one me when I'm in college in Philadelphia. I'll probably be going home this coming weekend, though, so I'm sure the offer will still be up until then, especially since it doesn't seem like Excel Saga is selling a whole lot, even when its available for cheap. ;)
Cool, sounds good. And it helps that you can't actually access the Amazon page through the website itself... you have to Google Excel Saga Volume 8 for it to come up. ;)
Yeah, it seems like a great offer. I'll definitely look forward to trying to get into the series this summer. That said, my concern right now is trying to even make it to the summer. Not to go off-topic, but my college semester is more brutal than ever this year, and while I'm staying in relatively good status in most of my classes, I'm so borderline in one class that its scary. That is of course my hardest class and we have the hardest exam in said class coming up this Friday, so I just hope I can at least get the minimum grade that I need on that exam to maintain a passing grade in the course. :whuh:
Seriously, if I make it through this semester, I'll probably go out and buy every volume of Excel Saga that I can find to celebrate. Well, maybe not buy them, but I'll be eager to do something leisurely for a change, and reading is one of the first relaxing things I'll do, and I'll make sure that Excel Saga is on the top of my "to-read" list....which incidentally has absolutely nothing else on it right now, so ES is already there! :D
Good luck with uni, dude. I left A&M after one semester because the work was far too difficult for me - I spent literally 90-95% of my free time studying or writing essays and I still got C's and D's in everything - so I can definitely sympathize. Currently not attending a university, but I'll be going to community college next semester unless I can find a fulfilling job in this shit economy before then. Incidentally, the early volumes of Excel Saga are much funnier to me now that I can understand the characters' motivations more. :imnothappy:
Glad to hear that you're looking forward to reading it! I always feel sad about not having anyone to talk to about ES (and it's been this way since 2007, lol!).
Yeah, I'm studying every single day with little to no free-time in between, and I'm still in danger of failing this class. If I do, I'll pretty much be forced to stay back a year just so I can retake this one fucking class before I can move onto my P3 year, and that is of course another semester of expenses which I can't afford! Let's hope it doesn't come to that. :thumbup:
I'm sure you'll do fine. You've made it this far already, so don't give up hope! I wish I could say I was so determined, but I don't think I'm really cut out for higher education. :lol:
Hopefully one day you'll see a novel of mine on a bookstore shelf and I can breathe a sigh of relief knowing that this gamble paid off. ;)
Motherfuckers! Hastings already jacked the price up to $32 + shipping. :srs: Well, at least there's a scan for this one...
Heh, I guess somebody tipped them off as to how much their copy of Excel Saga was worth. :sly:
Its not biggie, though. Once the Summer rolls around I'll start looking wherever I can to see if any cheap offerings for volume 8 come up, and if not then I may just cave in and get the $40 volume IF I actually manage to find and read all of the other volumes up to that point.
So apparently volume 23 made #4 on the New York Times Bestseller List for manga, and volume 24 will be coming out in November instead of April! That makes me very happy. :joy:
Did it state the actual number of copies that it sold. If its suddenly selling well, then that's a great sign for the series, but somehow it seems too good to be true. Of course, I am aware that manga sales have been down in the past few years, not that they ever sold that big, but they did sell considerably more back between 2005-2008 when the whole manga/anime craze was at its peak. Now only the top 5 or so selling manga ever really manage to sell enough copies to make a potential profit, but then again, since Excel Saga is in the top 5 that must mean that at least the one volume that made it to the into the top 5 must have sold fairly well. :thumbup:
No sales numbers are listed. It probably didn't sell a whole lot, but this is the first time Excel's been on the list since the single-digit volumes, so it's a good sign regardless. :D
More resulting goodness caused by making the Times' list? Viz is finally bringing Excel Saga to http://vizmanga.com (http://vizmanga.com), starting with volume 1 on May 14th! Each digital book will probably cost around $1-5 apiece, and presumably will include the notorious out of print volumes!
This might be the cheapest and best way to read the series if you can't find a way to read the books at the store or library, E-K. ;D
This is great news. It makes reading the series SO much easier than before. I'll definitely jump on this opportunity as soon as I get the chance. ;)
Woohoohoohoo! $5 for volume 1.
http://www.vizmanga.com/excel-saga :joy:
Nice. I guess the other logical step is Omnibus packaging. :thumbup:
Quote from: Foggle on May 14, 2012, 02:27:58 PM
http://www.vizmanga.com/excel-saga :joy:
Volume 2 is already out! Looks like they might have Excel on a weekly release schedule. :o
More should read this comic, it's flippin' dope, get it, read it, love it, and then love it some more..! :swoon:
Indeed! It's the bestest. :joy:
Viz Manga is now up to volume 7! Since 8 already had a scan, now people can finally get into the series with ease. :swoon:
Wait, are they re-publishing the entire series from scratch? If so, since when has this been going on? I never knew about it.
Quote from: Ensatsu-ken on January 22, 2013, 06:09:01 PM
Wait, are they re-publishing the entire series from scratch? If so, since when has this been going on? I never knew about it.
http://www.vizmanga.com/excel-saga
Now I'd check myself if they allowed Europeans to buy these, but since I can't, does anyone who actually bought these know if the oubliette section with sound effects, references and fan mail is in the digital versions..?
Quote from: Micki! on January 26, 2013, 09:09:08 AM
Now I'd check myself if they allowed Europeans to buy these, but since I can't, does anyone who actually bought these know if the oubliette section with sound effects, references and fan mail is in the digital versions..?
They are!
I just finished the 1st volume. It started out a bit slow but started picking up toward the 2nd half, and by the time I finished the volume I was at the point where I genuinely felt like reading more. So, tomorrow I'll start with volume 2, and hopefully the series will keep getting better and better as the last quarter of volume 1 indicates it will. :thumbup:
Please continue discussion of this series in the appropriate subforum (http://animationrevelation.com/forum/index.php#c7). :e_wink: