List of Excel Saga episodes



The anime series Excel Saga, is an adaption of the manga by Rikdo Koshi. The series was produced by J.C.Staff and directed by Shinichi Watanabe and premiered on TV Tokyo on October 10, 1999. The series ran for twenty-six episodes until its conclusion on March 30, 2000. At the publisher's request, the anime series follows a different storyline from the manga, however Rikdo was pleased with the adaptation. To balance the removal of Rikudou's original material, Watanabe added his own alter ego, Nabeshin, and expanded several elements, including increasing Pedro's and expanding on the concept of the Great Will. The twenty-sixth episode, "Going Too Far", never aired in Excel Saga's original run on TV Tokyo because it was purposefully too violent and obscene for broadcast in Japan.

The series is licensed for an English language release in North America and the United Kingdom by ADV Films, and in Australia and New Zealand by Madman Entertainment. The ADV Films English dub of the series was aired on the Anime Network in the United States, and on the Sci Fi Channel and Rapture TV in the United Kingdom. In North America, ADV released the series on six DVDs between June 11, 2002 and April 8, 2003. A complete collection of the series was released on July 6, 2004 as "Excel Saga - The Imperfect Collection" and re-released in different packaging on August 1, 2006 as "Excel Saga - Complete Collection". In the UK, the series was released between May 19, 2003 and March 15, 2004. The complete series was later released as "Excel Saga - Complete Box Set" on July 2, 2007.

The series uses two pieces of theme music by "Excel Girls". The opening theme, "Love (Loyalty)" (「愛(忠誠心)」), consists of the singers speculating on the nature of love. The closing theme, "Menchi's Bolero of Sorrow" (「メンチの哀愁のボレロ」) consists of a series of barks from the canine character Menchi.

"Going Too Far"
The twenty-sixth episode, "Going Too Far", never aired in Excel Saga's original run on TV Tokyo because it was purposefully too violent, obscene, and exactly one minute too long for broadcast in Japan. The opening sequence is altered to contain pixelated nudity and more blood, and the closing presents the translator on fours, wearing a collar, and singing the "Bolero", as Menchi translates into her own language. The episode itself, in addition to much more violence, blood, and gore, includes situations containing nudity, lesbianism, apparent paedophilia, soaplands, and a love hotel&mdash;in several instances involving minors. The episode obliquely refers to the 1995 sarin gas attack on a Tokyo subway by including sarin attacks as a method of exterminating enemies. The director himself remarks that it "felt good to go past the limits of a TV series", although he thinks it "is not something that you should do too often".