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Story (6.7/10) – As with most parodies there isn’t too much of a story here. There are a few outlying plots (ACROSS’ conquest, Pedro’s redemption, civil servants), but it seems as if the plot is simply there so JC staff (creators of Excel saga) can parody other anime genres/clichés. I have no problem with this of course, because that is the point of this anime after all, but if I’m being asked to rate the story I would say the concepts are okay. In other words, if you went into Excel Saga expecting a groundbreaking story, you are in for a disappointment. It’s kind ... of disappointing that I have to give the story of a parody anime a rating because that is not the focus of this show, but if I must I would say the story was okay.

Characters (8.0/10) - What makes of breaks this series for most people is the main character, Excel. Most people will either love her extremely hyper and loud character or find her to be unbearably annoying. Most people who hate this show really just can’t stand Excel’s loud, hyper, “pun”-saying ways and it’s what ruins the show for them. I however enjoyed Excel’s character and thought her characteristics and the way she was, was perfect for a parody anime, such as Excel saga. As for the rest of the cast, none of the other characters really stood out to be as impactful as Excel was, but there are a few others that I enjoyed (Nabeshin usually managed to get some laughs out of me). The rest of the cast each had their moments however and I found the cast of this series to be overall enjoyable.

Sound (7.7/10) - The soundtrack for this series was, to put it simply effective. Nothing cutting edge or incredible, it just got the job done. The tracks seemed to be appropriate for the scenes, so as boring as this sound review may seem, the tracks were pretty good, but not incredible. However, I was going to give the sound a 7.5, but since I loved the OP so much, I gave the series a 7.7 for sound (it’s just some damn catchy).

Animation (8.1/10) - The animation in this series is very nice and (I believe) it has stood the test of time, meaning it does not look bad at all when compared to today’s series. The character designs for this series are pretty nice as well and are faithful to Koshi Rikdo’s original manga. Everything looks really good (despite the fact that it’s a series from 1999-2000) and I really have no major complaints about the animation.

Enjoyment (8.7/10) - I really enjoyed this series for the most part, the characters fit just right for what the anime was going for, the soundtrack did its job and the animation was great. As I said before Excel is a huge part of anyone’s enjoyment for this series so, again if you find her to be too annoying you will most likely not enjoy this series. The reason my score for enjoyment is not higher is because some of the episodes in this series really missed for me, barley managing any chuckles out of me. This could be because I have not seen many examples for the anime that the episodes were parodying (for example, it’s tough to find a sports anime parody funny when you haven’t seen many sports anime). However, this show is episodic for the most part so a few episodes not really hitting the mark with me did not affect my enjoyment for this series too harshly. Towards the end of the series, the writers do actually seem to run out of ideas (as they joke about in the actual series), but what they improvise/come up with is not bad at all IMO. However when the writers decided to make 2 serious, “no-gag” episodes, they just seemed a bit out of place. These episodes could have been more enjoyable for me if they did not feel awkward giving the tone of the rest of the series, I felt myself thinking “I’m supposed to feel bad for Excel now?” Despite a few minor gripes this series was fun and I could see myself re-watching it again and still getting a kick out of it.

Overall score =39.2/50 (78%) or 7.84/10