132-468: Excel Saga ( Japanese : エクセル♥サーガ , Hepburn : Ekuseru Sāga ) is a manga series written and illustrated by Kōshi Rikudō . It was serialized in Young King OURs from 1996 to 2011, and its individual chapters were collected and published in 27 tankōbon volumes by Shōnen Gahōsha . The series follows the attempts of Across, a "secret ideological organization", to conquer the city of Fukuoka as
264-624: A benefit from the in-group to the out-group) means "[I/we] explained [it] to [him/her/them]". Such beneficiary auxiliary verbs thus serve a function comparable to that of pronouns and prepositions in Indo-European languages to indicate the actor and the recipient of an action. Japanese "pronouns" also function differently from most modern Indo-European pronouns (and more like nouns) in that they can take modifiers as any other noun may. For instance, one does not say in English: The amazed he ran down
396-410: A caricature of Rikdo giving "Nabeshin" permission to diverge from the source material, hence the anime's "Quack Experimental" tagline. Rikdo would later become influenced by the anime series due to its quick broadcast in comparison to the monthly schedule of the manga. The anime makes frequent use of parody and in-jokes as comedic devices , with each episode having a genre -based theme. This extends to
528-499: A civil servant and undertakes a position at the Department of City Security to redeem his lie. Much to his consternation, Iwata and Sumiyoshi are hired by the Department at the same time as he. Watanabe is extremely irritable and often reacts to situations with over-the-top emotions: e.g., in the manga allows his feelings for Hyatt to repeatedly compromise his career. He pretty much rues his roommate Iwata's existence. While he starts off as
660-414: A distinct language of its own that has absorbed various aspects from neighboring languages. Japanese has five vowels, and vowel length is phonemic, with each having both a short and a long version. Elongated vowels are usually denoted with a line over the vowel (a macron ) in rōmaji , a repeated vowel character in hiragana , or a chōonpu succeeding the vowel in katakana . /u/ ( listen )
792-541: A face similar to Golgo 13 and their English voices have them sound like Saddam Hussein , although special Puchuu have unique faces and other voices. When their main fleet, led by the Puchuu overlord, arrives in Earth orbit in episode twenty-two, it is repelled by an alliance of Puchuu rebels led by Excel. Debris from the decisive space battle falls to Earth and utterly annihilates F City. First encountered in episode eight, Sara
924-475: A fashion. Hyatt, though, more intently views Menchi as a ration. In the manga, Menchi gains an apparent ally in Elgâla, only for her to come to view the dog as an emergency food supply as well. Several anime and manga plots, notably episodes ten and nineteen, revolve to some extent around Menchi, her past, and her quest to escape Excel. Uniformly depicted as a horrible, lecherous doctor, Dr. Iwata owes his prominence in
1056-506: A first step towards world domination . The title character of the series, Excel , is a key member of the group who is working towards completing this goal, while the city is being defended by a shadowy government agency led by Dr. Kabapu . The manga was adapted into an anime television series by Victor Entertainment , which was taglined Quack Experimental Animation ( へっぽこ実験アニメーション , Heppoko Jikken Animēshon ) . Directed by Shinichi Watanabe and featuring animation from J.C.Staff ,
1188-419: A glide /j/ and either the first part of a geminate consonant ( っ / ッ , represented as Q) or a moraic nasal in the coda ( ん / ン , represented as N). The nasal is sensitive to its phonetic environment and assimilates to the following phoneme, with pronunciations including [ɴ, m, n, ɲ, ŋ, ɰ̃] . Onset-glide clusters only occur at the start of syllables but clusters across syllables are allowed as long as
1320-479: A listener depending on the listener's relative social position and the degree of familiarity between the speaker and the listener. When used in different social relationships, the same word may have positive (intimate or respectful) or negative (distant or disrespectful) connotations. Japanese often use titles of the person referred to where pronouns would be used in English. For example, when speaking to one's teacher, it
1452-413: A mission without help, and even her successes are usually attained by happenstance. In the anime, she has a tendency to speak extremely quickly. She displays a schoolgirl crush towards Il Palazzo that borders on fanatic obsession, even going as far as to converse with a picture of him while home alone. For an extended period of time in later volumes of the manga, Excel suffers from memory loss, and lives with
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#17328800632771584-451: A multitude of different parody-esque outfits throughout the course of the series, which regularly proves to be a source of irritation to her crush and employer Shiouji. Umi's first appearance is Volume 12 of the manga, but does not become a prominent character until volume 15, when she becomes the caretaker of the amnesiatic Excel (given the name Teriha Shiouji.) Umi Rengaya only appears in the manga. Rikdo Koshi ( 六道神士 , Rikudō Kōshi )
1716-498: A plot that is engaging if only for how weird it is make for a thoroughly enjoyable comedic experience". A contrary opinion is expressed by Joel Pearce from DVD Verdict, who says the series is "occasionally clever and funny," but that "much of it is gratingly obnoxious". Many reviewers express displeasure with middle and later episodes, saying they were "more of the same," that they had stale humor, that they were tiresome, or even painfully unfunny. Episodes fourteen through sixteen, starring
1848-453: A reasonably normal guy, his appearance and personality change drastically in the manga after his plans to marry Chihaya (Hyatt) are ruined by Il Palazzo taking her back. He ends up being very withdrawn, spiteful, and cynical; and takes up playing S&M video games. Norikuni Iwata ( 岩田紀國 , Iwata Norikuni ) is a brash, self-centered employee of the Department of City Security. Heavily infatuated with Matsuya and Ropponmatsu Unit 1, Iwata
1980-408: A sentence need not be stated and pronouns may be omitted if they can be inferred from context. In the example above, hana ga nagai would mean "[their] noses are long", while nagai by itself would mean "[they] are long." A single verb can be a complete sentence: Yatta! ( やった! ) "[I / we / they / etc] did [it]!". In addition, since adjectives can form the predicate in a Japanese sentence (below),
2112-485: A separate entity, and sends her to go after Ishiki. Gojo Shiouji ( 四王子五条 , Shiōji Gojō ) is the brilliant creator of the Ropponmatsus and of Kabapu's "mecha." Excel Saga , the anime, constantly suggests that he is a pedophile, but the manga later expands on this to reveal a much more complex back story. Gojo's father, Tenmangu Shiouji, was lauded as one of the world's most foremost scientists, but vanished when Gojo
2244-428: A single adjective can be a complete sentence: Urayamashii! ( 羨ましい! ) "[I'm] jealous [about it]!". While the language has some words that are typically translated as pronouns, these are not used as frequently as pronouns in some Indo-European languages, and function differently. In some cases, Japanese relies on special verb forms and auxiliary verbs to indicate the direction of benefit of an action: "down" to indicate
2376-526: A tendency to fail in the course of their duty, due either to extreme mass (Unit 1) or lack of appropriate functionality (Unit 2). When Excel and Elgala are lost at sea, Il Palazzo creates the ILL Corporation and takes over much of the city's business and resources. He names Excel the president of the corporation, but she is actually Ropponmatsu I, renamed Isshiki. She runs the business until the Department of City Security starts to regain power. She still has
2508-418: A time. Excel and Hyatt live in an apartment building in the city, along with their pet dog Menchi , who they have deemed their emergency food supply. Excel and Hyatt are later joined by a snobbish but equally clueless rival officer of Across named Elgala . Living in the neighboring apartment are three guys: Iwata , Sumiyoshi and Watanabe , who along with apartment neighbor and co-worker Matsuya , work for
2640-675: Is compressed rather than protruded , or simply unrounded. Some Japanese consonants have several allophones , which may give the impression of a larger inventory of sounds. However, some of these allophones have since become phonemic. For example, in the Japanese language up to and including the first half of the 20th century, the phonemic sequence /ti/ was palatalized and realized phonetically as [tɕi] , approximately chi ( listen ) ; however, now [ti] and [tɕi] are distinct, as evidenced by words like tī [tiː] "Western-style tea" and chii [tɕii] "social status". The "r" of
2772-421: Is topic–comment . Sentence-final particles are used to add emotional or emphatic impact, or form questions. Nouns have no grammatical number or gender , and there are no articles . Verbs are conjugated , primarily for tense and voice , but not person . Japanese adjectives are also conjugated. Japanese has a complex system of honorifics , with verb forms and vocabulary to indicate the relative status of
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#17328800632772904-405: Is a Colombian immigrant living in F City. Having died while working on a construction project, he wanders the Earth as a spirit, trying to return to his "sexy wife," who has shacked up with Gomez, Pedro's ostensible friend and co-worker, who is really That Man in disguise. Nabeshin later explains that Pedro's ultimate purpose is to become an "Afro-Warrior" under his tutelage, and to fight That Man for
3036-470: Is a cute, pink-haired, child-sized assassin, who disguises herself as an eight-year-old girl to facilitate her work. Taken with Hyatt, she views Excel with derision. Sara was orphaned earlier, and became an assassin to survive. The Great Will takes pity on her and resets her mother at the end of the episode. However, in episode twenty-six, she becomes a special member of ACROSS, having learned that she could not so easily forget her bloody past. In this episode, it
3168-517: Is a result of his genuine desire to protect the City from all dangers. His trump card is his newly founded Department of City Security, the civilian front for his Municipal Force Daitenzin , into which Watanabe, Iwata, Sumiyoshi, Misaki, and Ropponmatsu are recruited. In later volumes of the manga, Kabapu reveals himself as a survivor of an ancient city called "Solaria", similar to Atlantis , which had brought about its own downfall. He proclaims that his mission
3300-522: Is a voice of reason and understanding in the Department, although he is often the butt of jokes. His most notable quirk is his dialogue, which in the original manga is rendered as text that is unconstrained by bubbles or captions, and simply floats by his head, in comparison to the normal speech balloons used by all the other characters. The anime rendered this unusual trait by making the character mute, with his dialogue appearing as written text that hovers beside him. He communicates with an Okayama accent in
3432-424: Is also revealed that she may be an adult midget, and not a child in a scene where she is revealed to be extremely well endowed and hirsute- "I'm a G-cup!", she joyously yells as her previously strapped-down breasts burst explosively free of their confines. Although in episode twenty-six, she repeatedly refers to herself as being nine years old, creating ambiguity as to her actual age. That Man ( あの人 , Ano Hito )
3564-445: Is also seen in o-medetō "congratulations", from medetaku ). Late Middle Japanese has the first loanwords from European languages – now-common words borrowed into Japanese in this period include pan ("bread") and tabako ("tobacco", now "cigarette"), both from Portuguese . Modern Japanese is considered to begin with the Edo period (which spanned from 1603 to 1867). Since Old Japanese,
3696-519: Is also used in a limited fashion (such as for imported acronyms) in Japanese writing. The numeral system uses mostly Arabic numerals , but also traditional Chinese numerals . Proto-Japonic , the common ancestor of the Japanese and Ryukyuan languages , is thought to have been brought to Japan by settlers coming from the Korean peninsula sometime in the early- to mid-4th century BC (the Yayoi period ), replacing
3828-479: Is an object of ridicule among most of his subordinates due to his appearance, mannerisms, and seeming disregard for lives and laws. Unfazed by this, he informs the six members of the Department that they are to assume the role of the Daitenzin , a sentai fighting force . One Daitenzin is Tooru Watanabe, who pins his hopes for a romantic relationship with Hyatt on his position in the civil service but grows despondent as
3960-440: Is appropriate to use sensei ( 先生 , "teacher"), but inappropriate to use anata . This is because anata is used to refer to people of equal or lower status, and one's teacher has higher status. Japanese nouns have no grammatical number, gender or article aspect. The noun hon ( 本 ) may refer to a single book or several books; hito ( 人 ) can mean "person" or "people", and ki ( 木 ) can be "tree" or "trees". Where number
4092-684: Is associated with comedy (see Kansai dialect ). Dialects of Tōhoku and North Kantō are associated with typical farmers. The Ryūkyūan languages, spoken in Okinawa and the Amami Islands (administratively part of Kagoshima ), are distinct enough to be considered a separate branch of the Japonic family; not only is each language unintelligible to Japanese speakers, but most are unintelligible to those who speak other Ryūkyūan languages. However, in contrast to linguists, many ordinary Japanese people tend to consider
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4224-462: Is better documentation of Late Middle Japanese phonology than for previous forms (for instance, the Arte da Lingoa de Iapam ). Among other sound changes, the sequence /au/ merges to /ɔː/ , in contrast with /oː/ ; /p/ is reintroduced from Chinese; and /we/ merges with /je/ . Some forms rather more familiar to Modern Japanese speakers begin to appear – the continuative ending - te begins to reduce onto
4356-432: Is causing it—and it is implied in the anime that, as she is from Mars, Earth's atmosphere is bad for her lungs). In both the anime and the manga, she is noticeably Il Palazzo's favorite officer, usually receiving lighter punishment and higher promotions than Excel. Despite this, the two girls usually get along just fine, and Excel even calls her "Ha-chan" while Hyatt calls her senpai . Elgala ( エルガーラ , Erugāra ) Elgala
4488-509: Is correlated with the sex of the speaker and the social situation in which they are spoken: men and women alike in a formal situation generally refer to themselves as watashi ( 私 , literally "private") or watakushi (also 私 , hyper-polite form), while men in rougher or intimate conversation are much more likely to use the word ore ( 俺 "oneself", "myself") or boku . Similarly, different words such as anata , kimi , and omae ( お前 , more formally 御前 "the one before me") may refer to
4620-409: Is corrupt!" He has little patience for Excel, often assigning complex operations to Hyatt. While presented as a mostly dark and serious character in the original manga, the anime lightens the tone with the recurring gag that, despite all his scheming, Il Palazzo really has nothing to do while Excel and Hyatt are out on missions: he is often seen pursuing surprisingly ordinary hobbies like learning to play
4752-464: Is generally disliked but tolerated by his neighbors and co-workers. His tendency to make inappropriate statements towards women and his rivalry with Ropponmatsu Unit 2 often lead to him being physically assaulted. In volume eight of the manga, Iwata suddenly dies of colon cancer, but is promptly resurrected as a cyborg, with his brain placed into an android replica of his normal body, as created by Shioji. Daimaru Sumiyoshi ( 住吉大丸 , Sumiyoshi Daimaru )
4884-417: Is important, it can be indicated by providing a quantity (often with a counter word ) or (rarely) by adding a suffix, or sometimes by duplication (e.g. 人人 , hitobito , usually written with an iteration mark as 人々 ). Words for people are usually understood as singular. Thus Tanaka-san usually means Mx Tanaka . Words that refer to people and animals can be made to indicate a group of individuals through
5016-722: Is less common. In terms of mutual intelligibility , a survey in 1967 found that the four most unintelligible dialects (excluding Ryūkyūan languages and Tōhoku dialects ) to students from Greater Tokyo were the Kiso dialect (in the deep mountains of Nagano Prefecture ), the Himi dialect (in Toyama Prefecture ), the Kagoshima dialect and the Maniwa dialect (in Okayama Prefecture ). The survey
5148-504: Is now eighteen years old, and lacking in the innocence of her youth, so Gojo has turned his attention to other young girls in the hopes of recapturing that spirit of purity and inspiration. In addition to the main cast, Excel Saga features a wide array of secondary characters, and among the most important are the anime's director Nabeshin and the Great Will of the Macrocosm. These two have
5280-420: Is often called a topic-prominent language , which means it has a strong tendency to indicate the topic separately from the subject, and that the two do not always coincide. The sentence Zō wa hana ga nagai ( 象は鼻が長い ) literally means, "As for elephant(s), (the) nose(s) (is/are) long". The topic is zō "elephant", and the subject is hana "nose". Japanese grammar tends toward brevity; the subject or object of
5412-489: Is preserved in words such as matsuge ("eyelash", lit. "hair of the eye"); modern mieru ("to be visible") and kikoeru ("to be audible") retain a mediopassive suffix - yu(ru) ( kikoyu → kikoyuru (the attributive form, which slowly replaced the plain form starting in the late Heian period) → kikoeru (all verbs with the shimo-nidan conjugation pattern underwent this same shift in Early Modern Japanese )); and
Excel Saga - Misplaced Pages Continue
5544-547: Is the author of the Excel Saga manga, but he has only one appearance in the story proper of the anime - namely, when he is killed in the first episode by Excel under orders from Lord Il Palazzo. He does, however, narrate the beginning of every episode, voluntarily—usually—giving his approval to the episode's ostensible genre. Also, as a parody of the struggle manga artists often find themselves in with anime adaptations of their work, Nabeshin and Rikudo come to blows, especially towards
5676-417: Is the third agent of ACROSS and Excel's rival for Il Palazzo's affections. She is cursed with the inability to maintain an internal monologue , constantly speaking aloud her innermost thoughts and feelings. Since Elgala is a snob who thinks nearly everyone is below her, these thoughts are often of the disparaging variety and frequently irritate Excel. Elgala has refined, and expensive tastes, which does not suit
5808-402: Is the version of Japanese discussed in this article. Formerly, standard Japanese in writing ( 文語 , bungo , "literary language") was different from colloquial language ( 口語 , kōgo ) . The two systems have different rules of grammar and some variance in vocabulary. Bungo was the main method of writing Japanese until about 1900; since then kōgo gradually extended its influence and
5940-484: Is to destroy any remaining Solarian technology so humanity can't misuse it. Both the anime and the manga suggest that he and Il Palazzo are old acquaintances. Toru Watanabe ( 渡辺通 , Watanabe Tōru ) is a Japanese twenty-something, Watanabe lives next door to Excel and Hyatt, and close to Norikuni Iwata and Daimaru Sumiyoshi, men whose company he at first detests. Watanabe is infatuated with Hyatt, who seems unaware of his advances. In order to impress her, he claims to be
6072-547: Is to the older Ropponmatsu 1. He is also a friend of Shiouji's, the two bonding over their love of dating game image files. Misaki Matsuya ( 松屋美咲 , Matsuya Misaki ) : The attractive and intelligent recruit to the Department of City Security, Matsuya is pragmatic and fiercely independent. She is also talented and vicious at repelling Iwata's frequent leers and advances. The manga reveals that she and Iwata were college classmates and that, to her embarrassment, she bears him some genuine affection. She grows closer to Iwata as
6204-471: Is used for the present and the future. For verbs that represent an ongoing process, the -te iru form indicates a continuous (or progressive) aspect , similar to the suffix ing in English. For others that represent a change of state, the -te iru form indicates a perfect aspect. For example, kite iru means "They have come (and are still here)", but tabete iru means "They are eating". Questions (both with an interrogative pronoun and yes/no questions) have
6336-405: Is why some linguists do not classify Japanese "pronouns" as pronouns, but rather as referential nouns, much like Spanish usted (contracted from vuestra merced , "your ( majestic plural ) grace") or Portuguese você (from vossa mercê ). Japanese personal pronouns are generally used only in situations requiring special emphasis as to who is doing what to whom. The choice of words used as pronouns
6468-603: The Ainu , Austronesian , Koreanic , and the now-discredited Altaic , but none of these proposals have gained any widespread acceptance. Little is known of the language's prehistory, or when it first appeared in Japan. Chinese documents from the 3rd century AD recorded a few Japanese words, but substantial Old Japanese texts did not appear until the 8th century. From the Heian period (794–1185), extensive waves of Sino-Japanese vocabulary entered
6600-505: The Japonic language family, which also includes the Ryukyuan languages spoken in the Ryukyu Islands . As these closely related languages are commonly treated as dialects of the same language, Japanese is sometimes called a language isolate . According to Martine Irma Robbeets , Japanese has been subject to more attempts to show its relation to other languages than any other language in
6732-567: The Japonic language family spoken by the Japanese people . It has around 123 million speakers, primarily in Japan , the only country where it is the national language , and within the Japanese diaspora worldwide. The Japonic family also includes the Ryukyuan languages and the variously classified Hachijō language . There have been many attempts to group the Japonic languages with other families such as
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#17328800632776864-504: The Philippines , and various Pacific islands, locals in those countries learned Japanese as the language of the empire. As a result, many elderly people in these countries can still speak Japanese. Japanese emigrant communities (the largest of which are to be found in Brazil , with 1.4 million to 1.5 million Japanese immigrants and descendants, according to Brazilian IBGE data, more than
6996-716: The United States (notably in Hawaii , where 16.7% of the population has Japanese ancestry, and California ), and the Philippines (particularly in Davao Region and the Province of Laguna ). Japanese has no official status in Japan, but is the de facto national language of the country. There is a form of the language considered standard : hyōjungo ( 標準語 ) , meaning "standard Japanese", or kyōtsūgo ( 共通語 ) , "common language", or even "Tokyo dialect" at times. The meanings of
7128-794: The de facto standard Japanese had been the Kansai dialect , especially that of Kyoto . However, during the Edo period, Edo (now Tokyo) developed into the largest city in Japan, and the Edo-area dialect became standard Japanese. Since the end of Japan's self-imposed isolation in 1853, the flow of loanwords from European languages has increased significantly. The period since 1945 has seen many words borrowed from other languages—such as German, Portuguese and English. Many English loan words especially relate to technology—for example, pasokon (short for "personal computer"), intānetto ("internet"), and kamera ("camera"). Due to
7260-406: The power to alter or "reset" the storyline , and Excel and others often appeal for them to do so. Other cast additions in the anime include Pedro and his son Sandora, who both suffer cruel turns of fate and eventually become Nabeshin's students. Their objective is to defeat That Man , who desires to become a god by seducing the Great Will and Pedro's "Sexy Wife." Another prominent force introduced by
7392-518: The 1.2 million of the United States ) sometimes employ Japanese as their primary language. Approximately 12% of Hawaii residents speak Japanese, with an estimated 12.6% of the population of Japanese ancestry in 2008. Japanese emigrants can also be found in Peru , Argentina , Australia (especially in the eastern states), Canada (especially in Vancouver , where 1.4% of the population has Japanese ancestry),
7524-426: The Department are Kabapu's assistant Ms. Momochi, and the lolita complex -stricken Gojo Shioji , designer of the Ropponmatsus. Kabapu ( 蒲腐 ) is a large man with a very strange hairstyle and a gigantic removable mustache, Kabapu occupies a position of extreme and shadowy power which is never fully explained, but municipal leaders defer to his wishes, and he has no qualms about silencing dissent by violence. This zeal
7656-529: The Department of City Security. The Department's leader, Dr. Kabapu , also has a grandiose plan on stopping Across; he has the City Security workers dress in Super Sentai -like uniforms and sends them on different missions. Supporting Kabapu is an inventor Gojo Shiouji who likes little girls , and his gynoid Ropponmatsu , who later is deployed as two models. The series follows the daily interactions among
7788-439: The English cast to be pretty bad and its Excel to be "dental drill shrill". Akadot's reviewer of the manga writes that "some of the strange events go on a little too long and do not have the impact that they do animated," but that Rikdo's Excel Saga is "graced with fantastic visuals and a hilarious story," and that the English edition is "a masterpiece of the translator's skill." Barb Lien-Cooper from Comic World News concurs that
7920-601: The ILL Corporation. Massive amounts of money is spent on elections and politics. Eventually the members of Across begin making appeals directly to the City's citizens before Il Palazzo publicly declares the existence of Across and its intentions to the public. Hyatt is captured and Excel and Elgala are later held in an immigrant detention center before being rescued by Il Palazzo, who begins the new phase of his plans. The anime adaptation introduces some original characters: immigrant worker turned wandering spirit Pedro ; alien mascot-like creatures called Puchuu ; and The Great Will of
8052-515: The Iwata, Sumiyoshi and Shioji families. Particularly notable is Shioji's mother Miwa Rengaya, whom Kabapu views as key to finding Shioji's mysteriously vanished father, Tenmangu Shioji, but who clearly has a secret enigmatic agenda of her own that is at cross purposes with Kabapu's own desires. Menchi ( メンチ , lit. "mincemeat") is Excel's "pet" dog that also fulfills the role of "emergency rations". Despite numerous threats, Excel comes to care for her after
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#17328800632778184-482: The Japanese language is of particular interest, ranging between an apical central tap and a lateral approximant . The "g" is also notable; unless it starts a sentence, it may be pronounced [ ŋ ] , in the Kanto prestige dialect and in other eastern dialects. The phonotactics of Japanese are relatively simple. The syllable structure is (C)(G)V(C), that is, a core vowel surrounded by an optional onset consonant,
8316-428: The Macrocosm , the last of whom occasionally resets the storyline. The anime director Shinichi Watanabe cameos as an afro-wearing guy named Nabeshin , and a caricature of the manga artist also makes appearances. The series was created by Rikdo Koshi and based on a dojinshi he had previously created while in high school named Municipal Force Daitenzin ( 市立戦隊ダイテンジン , Shiritsu Sentai Daitenjin ) . Excel Saga
8448-724: The Old Japanese sections are written in Man'yōgana , which uses kanji for their phonetic as well as semantic values. Based on the Man'yōgana system, Old Japanese can be reconstructed as having 88 distinct morae . Texts written with Man'yōgana use two different sets of kanji for each of the morae now pronounced き (ki), ひ (hi), み (mi), け (ke), へ (he), め (me), こ (ko), そ (so), と (to), の (no), も (mo), よ (yo) and ろ (ro). (The Kojiki has 88, but all later texts have 87. The distinction between mo 1 and mo 2 apparently
8580-427: The Ropponmatsus, bear the brunt of this criticism, but several reviewers consider episode seventeen, Animation USA , to be one of the best. Reviewers also agree that the series suffers from too much filler in its later episodes, with Crandol describing the show as spinning its wheels. Yegulalp reserves his harshest words for the unaired Going Too Far , calling it "pure, idiotic, wretched excess." He goes on to say that
8712-488: The Ryūkyūan languages as dialects of Japanese. The imperial court also seems to have spoken an unusual variant of the Japanese of the time, most likely the spoken form of Classical Japanese , a writing style that was prevalent during the Heian period , but began to decline during the late Meiji period . The Ryūkyūan languages are classified by UNESCO as 'endangered', as young people mostly use Japanese and cannot understand
8844-561: The Shiouji family under the assumed name, Teriha Shiouji, while Ropponmatsu , disguised as Excel herself, takes her place in the ACROSS ranks. In the English dub, voice actress Jessica Calvello damaged her voice after the 13th episode, and was replaced by Larissa Walcott for the second half of the series. Il Palazzo ( イルパラッゾ , Iru Parazzo ) is the leader of ACROSS. Lord Il Palazzo often prefaces his orders and speeches by proclaiming, "The world
8976-474: The World to be corrupt, the secret organization Across plans to conquer the world. The first step in the plan for world domination is to begin by focusing on one city in order to minimize setbacks. Across consists of the leader of the organization, Il Palazzo , and his young adult officers: the enthusiastic and energetically devoted Excel and the soft-spoken Hyatt , who is prone to fainting and losing lots of blood at
9108-543: The addition of a collective suffix (a noun suffix that indicates a group), such as -tachi , but this is not a true plural: the meaning is closer to the English phrase "and company". A group described as Tanaka-san-tachi may include people not named Tanaka. Some Japanese nouns are effectively plural, such as hitobito "people" and wareware "we/us", while the word tomodachi "friend" is considered singular, although plural in form. Verbs are conjugated to show tenses, of which there are two: past and present (or non-past) which
9240-569: The animation, with several characters designed in the style of other works, such as those by Leiji Matsumoto . Kotono Mitsuishi was chosen to play the role of Excel, and Watanabe was impressed with Mitsuishi's rapid delivery of her lines, saying that "she really pushed herself to the limit and beyond". He also says, "at times she was too fast, and there was plenty of time left to match the lip-synch". In such cases, either he would add new material or Mitsuishi would ad-lib . At first Rikdo felt stunned and uncomfortable at hearing Excel speak, but he called
9372-456: The anime (produced before this revelation occurred in the manga), has the Ropponmatsus appearing as two distinct entities who frequently cooperate on important tasks. Although they have a tendency to be destroyed on their missions, Shiouji keeps a lot of spares, which play a large role in the penultimate episode of the series. The vast difference between the units leads to some tension between Kabapu and Shioji: both incarnations of Ropponmatsu have
9504-538: The anime are the Puchuus, a race of insidiously cute aliens competing with Across for world conquest. Dr. Sekifumi Iwata (who the manga reveals is a cousin of the Daitenzin Norikuni Iwata) and his associate, Nurse Shiki Fukuya, provide some comedic interludes in the anime but make more substantial appearances in the manga. Finally, Rikdo spends several chapters of the manga introducing and developing other members of
9636-429: The anime's end. The Great Will of the Macrocosm ( 大宇宙の大いなる意思 , Daiuchū no Ōinaru Ishi ) : The Great Will of the Macrocosm, appears in the form of galaxy with arms (and lips, when necessary), and has the power to reset or alter the storyline . In later episodes she is torn between her love for Pedro and the power over her held by That Man. Episode nineteen reveals that she and Pedro's sexy wife are actually
9768-464: The anime. This competent nurse spends most of her time trying to prevent or punish Dr. Iwata's malpractices and misogynies. The manga reveals that she was assigned this role by the Iwata family to guard it against embarrassments caused by Dr. Iwata. She appears along with Dr. Iwata in his cameos in the anime. A distant relative of Sekifumi and Norikuni Iwata, Hiyoko has a short attention span and often wanders away from her bodyguards. She appears only in
9900-494: The anime. ( Excel Saga - Original Soundtrack Experiment 1 ( エクセル・サーガ ― 大いなるサウンドトラック実験1 ) ) was released on January 1, 2000. The album was later released in North America on August 9, 2005. This was followed in Japan by ( Excel Saga - Original Soundtrack Experiment 2 ( エクセル・サーガ ― 大いなるサウンドトラック実験2 おまけ 寸止め海峡 ) ) on March 23, 2000. A North American release followed on November 1, 2005. Since its August 2003 release in North America,
10032-415: The austerity demanded by Excel, leading to frequent conflict. Adding to tension with Excel is the secrecy surrounding Elgala's missions for Il Palazzo. Elgala only appears in the manga. Paralleling Il Palazzo's Across is Kabapu 's Department of City Security. Kabapu himself occupies a position of inscrutable power in the city, and is able to bend its political establishment to his will. Despite his power, he
10164-531: The cast to possess an ounce of sense." On the volume 15 inside cover, Koshi describes her as being "hard on the outside, soft on the inside... tsundere ?" Ropponmatsu, Units 1 and 2 ( 六本松1式・2式 , Ropponmatsu Ichishiki・Nishiki ) The Ropponmatsus are gynoids designed to be a general-purpose, if beautiful, tool for Kabapu. The original Ropponmatsu is a full-figured woman, however, her material density gives her an extremely large weight, and she fails her first mission in bomb disposal. A second Ropponmatsu, Unit 2,
10296-504: The casting "amazing" and was pleased to hear his favourite voice actors read lines from his work. The series began serialisation in Japan in 1996 in the monthly anthology Young King OURs and finished in August 2011. The individual chapters began being collected and published in tankōbon format by Shōnen Gahōsha in April 1997 and volume 27 was released on October 29, 2011. A 60-page one-shot
10428-564: The effect of changing Japanese into a mora-timed language. Late Middle Japanese covers the years from 1185 to 1600, and is normally divided into two sections, roughly equivalent to the Kamakura period and the Muromachi period , respectively. The later forms of Late Middle Japanese are the first to be described by non-native sources, in this case the Jesuit and Franciscan missionaries; and thus there
10560-461: The episode has "the feeling of trying to deliberately enrage the audience by resorting to the only tactics left: genuinely offensive subject matter." Joel Cunningham at Digitally Obsessed disagrees, saying that the episode succeeds just in time, "with one of the series' funnier sight gags". The series generally receives high marks for technical aspects. Cunningham feels the animation is flat-out gorgeous, but Crandol considers it merely above average. In
10692-444: The fate of the world. The Puchuu ( プチュウ , Puchū ) : Aliens from outer space who invade Earth in the second and twenty-second episodes, with other frequent appearances. Physically very weak, and shaped like teddy-bears, Puchuu rely on their cuteness to lull potential victims before attack—only Excel and Misaki are depicted as being immune to their cuteness. Once struck with enough force and/or defeated, they are shown to have
10824-455: The flow of loanwords from European languages increased significantly, and words from English roots have proliferated. Japanese is an agglutinative , mora -timed language with relatively simple phonotactics , a pure vowel system, phonemic vowel and consonant length, and a lexically significant pitch-accent . Word order is normally subject–object–verb with particles marking the grammatical function of words, and sentence structure
10956-609: The genitive particle ga remains in intentionally archaic speech. Early Middle Japanese is the Japanese of the Heian period , from 794 to 1185. It formed the basis for the literary standard of Classical Japanese , which remained in common use until the early 20th century. During this time, Japanese underwent numerous phonological developments, in many cases instigated by an influx of Chinese loanwords . These included phonemic length distinction for both consonants and vowels , palatal consonants (e.g. kya ) and labial consonant clusters (e.g. kwa ), and closed syllables . This had
11088-498: The guitar and arranging domino blocks. These foibles notwithstanding, Il's yellow, cat-like eyes and seemingly supernatural powers illustrate his superhuman nature, and both manga and anime make it clear that Lord Il Palazzo suffers from severe psychological disorders, most notably multiple personality disorder . Hyatt ( ハイアット , Haiatto ) is Excel's frail junior officer, with a tendency to cough huge amounts of blood, drop dead and suddenly spring back to life in quick succession. In
11220-430: The language, affecting the phonology of Early Middle Japanese . Late Middle Japanese (1185–1600) saw extensive grammatical changes and the first appearance of European loanwords . The basis of the standard dialect moved from the Kansai region to the Edo region (modern Tokyo ) in the Early Modern Japanese period (early 17th century–mid 19th century). Following the end of Japan's self-imposed isolation in 1853,
11352-453: The languages of the original Jōmon inhabitants, including the ancestor of the modern Ainu language . Because writing had yet to be introduced from China, there is no direct evidence, and anything that can be discerned about this period must be based on internal reconstruction from Old Japanese , or comparison with the Ryukyuan languages and Japanese dialects . The Chinese writing system
11484-449: The languages. Okinawan Japanese is a variant of Standard Japanese influenced by the Ryūkyūan languages, and is the primary dialect spoken among young people in the Ryukyu Islands . Modern Japanese has become prevalent nationwide (including the Ryūkyū islands) due to education , mass media , and an increase in mobility within Japan, as well as economic integration. Japanese is a member of
11616-427: The large quantity of English loanwords, modern Japanese has developed a distinction between [tɕi] and [ti] , and [dʑi] and [di] , with the latter in each pair only found in loanwords. Although Japanese is spoken almost exclusively in Japan, it has also been spoken outside of the country. Before and during World War II , through Japanese annexation of Taiwan and Korea , as well as partial occupation of China ,
11748-561: The latter's opinion, its quality wanes as the series progresses and increasingly relies on super-deforming the characters for comedic effect. ADV's release earned praise for the quality of the video transfer and the DVD extras (particularly the Vid-Notes). Reviewers especially appreciated the English voice acting: Crandol calls it brilliant, and several note that Calvello and Wolcott were each able to capture Mitsuishi's Excel. Pearce, in contrast, found
11880-473: The manga and in the Kansai dialect in the anime. These are respectively rendered as the Geordie dialect of England and American southern accent in the English translations of the manga and anime. The manga showcases Sumiyoshi's hobby and greatest feat: documenting all dating simulation games on his complex PC system. The anime, showing his fondness for Ropponmatsu 2, hints at his interest. The manga also features
12012-460: The manga cannot keep pace with the anime, but she finds Excel herself to be wittier in the manga and that the manga's plots make more sense than the anime's. A reviewer of the French edition also praises Rikdo's work, noting that it is an "...easy read without problems of clarity". Japanese language Japanese ( 日本語 , Nihongo , [ɲihoŋɡo] ) is the principal language of
12144-399: The manga has been among the 50 top-selling graphic novels on three occasions. The English-language reviews of the Excel Saga anime were broadly positive and enthusiastic. Mike Crandol of Anime News Network puts it in the same class as Airplane! , National Lampoon , Tex Avery , and Monty Python , adding that the "combination of character-based humor, outrageous slapstick farce, and
12276-534: The manga. The 18-year-old cousin of Professor Gojo Shiouji (the creator of the Ropponmatsu units), and serves both as his intern and lab assistant. Absent minded, easily flustered, and accident prone Umi is nevertheless very kindhearted, and hardworking; although her personality combined with her general clumsiness amounts to a great deal of trouble for the Professor, and his work. Umi is an avid cosplayer, being shown in
12408-470: The medical profession mostly to family influence. His most distinct physical feature is the X-shaped scar across his entire face, which was given to him by a four-year-old Norikuni Iwata, his cousin, whom he has come to hate since then. His likeness and character are parodies of Osamu Tezuka's Black Jack . Although several chapters of the manga revolve around him or his hospital, he only has cameo appearances in
12540-528: The nature of his employment becomes clear. Another is Daimaru Sumiyoshi, who is a voice of reason in the Department and is represented as communicating through free-floating text. The third, Norikuni Iwata, is generally disliked for his boorishness but tolerated by his co-workers. Misaki Matsuya, the fourth, is an attractive but ruthless young woman who provides much of the group's leadership. The final Daitenzin are two android bomb-disposal experts called Ropponmatsu Unit 1 and Ropponmatsu Unit 2. Other associates of
12672-425: The only strict rule of word order is that the verb must be placed at the end of a sentence (possibly followed by sentence-end particles). This is because Japanese sentence elements are marked with particles that identify their grammatical functions. The basic sentence structure is topic–comment . For example, Kochira wa Tanaka-san desu ( こちらは田中さんです ). kochira ("this") is the topic of the sentence, indicated by
12804-434: The opening theme Love (Loyalty) ( ｢愛(忠誠心)｣ , Ai (Chūseishin) ) were written "on the train, five minutes before the deadline". The closing theme was Menchi's Bolero of Sorrow ( ｢メンチの哀愁のボレロ｣ , Menchi no Aishū no Borero ) The two themes were released together as a CD single on November 3, 1999. A twenty-sixth episode, Going Too Far , was deliberately created to be too violent and obscene for broadcast in Japan and
12936-477: The original manga, Hyatt joins ACROSS by simply answering an advert placed by Il Palazzo; the anime, meanwhile, states that she is a mysterious princess from space (supposedly) with a connection to the Puuchuus and Space Butler. Her curious medical condition is never explained in detail, neither in the manga nor in the anime (although later volumes of the manga hint that Il Palazzo has implanted something in her body that
13068-470: The out-group gives a benefit to the in-group, and "up" to indicate the in-group gives a benefit to the out-group. Here, the in-group includes the speaker and the out-group does not, and their boundary depends on context. For example, oshiete moratta ( 教えてもらった ) (literally, "explaining got" with a benefit from the out-group to the in-group) means "[he/she/they] explained [it] to [me/us]". Similarly, oshiete ageta ( 教えてあげた ) (literally, "explaining gave" with
13200-415: The particle wa . The verb desu is a copula , commonly translated as "to be" or "it is" (though there are other verbs that can be translated as "to be"), though technically it holds no meaning and is used to give a sentence 'politeness'. As a phrase, Tanaka-san desu is the comment. This sentence literally translates to "As for this person, (it) is Mx Tanaka." Thus Japanese, like many other Asian languages,
13332-479: The primary and notable secondary characters of Excel Saga , a Japanese manga and anime series. The Excel Saga anime characters were designed by Ishino Satoshi. Excel ( エクセル , Ekuseru ) , the title character , was initially the sole officer of ACROSS. Excel approaches her work with an excess of determination and enthusiasm, but a lack of foresight and understanding. She is both impossibly lucky and unthinkably unlucky, yet she never manages to complete
13464-477: The proposed larger Altaic family, or to various Southeast Asian languages , especially Austronesian . None of these proposals have gained wide acceptance (and the Altaic family itself is now considered controversial). As it stands, only the link to Ryukyuan has wide support. Other theories view the Japanese language as an early creole language formed through inputs from at least two distinct language groups, or as
13596-494: The publisher's request, the anime series follows a different storyline from the manga, however Rikdo was pleased with the adaptation. Victor Entertainment produced the music of the series, which was composed and arranged by Toshio Masuda and directed by Keiichi Nozaki. Director Shinichi Watanabe wrote the lyrics for the opening and closing themes,. The opening theme which were performed by Yumiko Kobayashi and Mikako Takahashi who were credited as The Excel♥Girls . The lyrics for
13728-430: The rest of his family. His 13-year-old sister, Kanal, also speaks in floating text, but is adorable and looks nothing like Daimaru. His mother and father also appear, his father appearing normal but with an accent, and his mother looking very much like Daimaru but speaking normally. He also has an ambiguous relationship with Ropponmatsu 2, spending a great deal of time with her, and being much more affectionate to her than he
13860-445: The role after episode thirteen after Calvello had damaged her voice during production. 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,
13992-540: The same being. Nabeshin ( ナベシン , Nabeshin ) , also known as Afro-man and the Director, is dressed in the likeness of Monkey Punch 's Lupin III and sporting a giant afro . Like the Great Will, he is a walking deus ex machina , and appeals are often made to him in that capacity, but apart from cameos in the main storyline he keeps himself to his own subplot with Pedro and That Man. Pedro ( ペドロ , Pedoro ) : Pedro
14124-420: The same limitations, especially her weight, when her power fails, she almost breaks Elgala's back. She is extremely powerful, but will stand down if the situation is not threatening. The Department of City Security tries to retrieve her in the later chapters, as she is somehow linked to Iwata's life, however, Excel surprisingly switches bodies with her. In the later chapters, Shioji is able to restart Nishiki as
14256-459: The same structure as affirmative sentences, but with intonation rising at the end. In the formal register, the question particle -ka is added. For example, ii desu ( いいです ) "It is OK" becomes ii desu-ka ( いいですか。 ) "Is it OK?". In a more informal tone sometimes the particle -no ( の ) is added instead to show a personal interest of the speaker: Dōshite konai-no? "Why aren't (you) coming?". Some simple queries are formed simply by mentioning
14388-428: The series premiered on TV Tokyo in 1999. TV Tokyo only aired twenty-five of the series' twenty-six episodes, with the finale having been intentionally made too violent, obscene and long for broadcast on Japanese TV. As such, it was only included in the DVD release of the series, although it has since been broadcast in other markets. The series has enjoyed some critical success coupled with respectable sales. Believing
14520-407: The series progresses, striking him far less frequently than normal. The only time she seems to feel the need to do so is when Iwata is being idiotic even by his standards, such as trying to track down Excel by telling a young woman that he's looking for "Naked women". Excel Saga English manga adaptor Carl Gustav Horn notes that she "carries the sobering responsibility of being one of the few people in
14652-539: The series was first released between May 19, 2003, and March 15, 2004. A complete box set was later released as Excel Saga - Complete Box Set on July 2, 2007. The UK license for the series expired in January 2008. The series was broadcast on UK TV channel Rapture TV from January 2, 2007. On October 30, 2010, Excel Saga was re-licensed in North America by Funimation , who re-released the complete series to DVD on May 17, 2011. Several albums were released featuring music from
14784-439: The speaker, the listener, and persons mentioned. The Japanese writing system combines Chinese characters , known as kanji ( 漢字 , ' Han characters') , with two unique syllabaries (or moraic scripts) derived by the Japanese from the more complex Chinese characters: hiragana ( ひらがな or 平仮名 , 'simple characters') and katakana ( カタカナ or 片仮名 , 'partial characters'). Latin script ( rōmaji ローマ字 )
14916-797: The state as at the time the constitution was written, many of the elders participating in the process had been educated in Japanese during the South Seas Mandate over the island shown by the 1958 census of the Trust Territory of the Pacific that found that 89% of Palauans born between 1914 and 1933 could speak and read Japanese, but as of the 2005 Palau census there were no residents of Angaur that spoke Japanese at home. Japanese dialects typically differ in terms of pitch accent , inflectional morphology , vocabulary , and particle usage. Some even differ in vowel and consonant inventories, although this
15048-476: The street. (grammatically incorrect insertion of a pronoun) But one can grammatically say essentially the same thing in Japanese: 驚いた彼は道を走っていった。 Transliteration: Odoroita kare wa michi o hashitte itta. (grammatically correct) This is partly because these words evolved from regular nouns, such as kimi "you" ( 君 "lord"), anata "you" ( あなた "that side, yonder"), and boku "I" ( 僕 "servant"). This
15180-581: The topic with an interrogative intonation to call for the hearer's attention: Kore wa? "(What about) this?"; O-namae wa? ( お名前は？ ) "(What's your) name?". Negatives are formed by inflecting the verb. For example, Pan o taberu ( パンを食べる。 ) "I will eat bread" or "I eat bread" becomes Pan o tabenai ( パンを食べない。 ) "I will not eat bread" or "I do not eat bread". Plain negative forms are i -adjectives (see below) and inflect as such, e.g. Pan o tabenakatta ( パンを食べなかった。 ) "I did not eat bread". List of Excel Saga characters#Pedro This list contains
15312-416: The two companies approached Rikdo. Shinichi Watanabe was chosen as director. Watanabe added his own alter ego, Nabeshin, and expanded several elements. He says that the Great Will in the manga was "conveyed just as words", and he himself developed its appearance, eventually settling on the "swirling, talking cosmos". He also increased Pedro's role in the story from a single frame in the manga. Watanabe says he
15444-419: The two consonants are the moraic nasal followed by a homorganic consonant. Japanese also includes a pitch accent , which is not represented in moraic writing; for example [haꜜ.ɕi] ("chopsticks") and [ha.ɕiꜜ] ("bridge") are both spelled はし ( hashi ) , and are only differentiated by the tone contour. Japanese word order is classified as subject–object–verb . Unlike many Indo-European languages ,
15576-434: The two groups. Il Palazzo would send the girls on their missions but the results are usually a failure with some explosive or catastrophic damage to the city. Kabapu would send the City Security workers on some equally ridiculous assignment which would also go wrong. Eventually Il Palazzo and Kabapu become aware of each other's manipulations and escalate their plans. Excel finds herself being replaced by an impersonator who heads
15708-577: The two methods were both used in writing until the 1940s. Bungo still has some relevance for historians, literary scholars, and lawyers (many Japanese laws that survived World War II are still written in bungo , although there are ongoing efforts to modernize their language). Kōgo is the dominant method of both speaking and writing Japanese today, although bungo grammar and vocabulary are occasionally used in modern Japanese for effect. The 1982 state constitution of Angaur , Palau , names Japanese along with Palauan and English as an official language of
15840-472: The two terms (''hyōjungo'' and ''kyōtsūgo'') are almost the same. Hyōjungo or kyōtsūgo is a conception that forms the counterpart of dialect. This normative language was born after the Meiji Restoration ( 明治維新 , meiji ishin , 1868) from the language spoken in the higher-class areas of Tokyo (see Yamanote ). Hyōjungo is taught in schools and used on television and in official communications. It
15972-407: The verb (e.g. yonde for earlier yomite ), the -k- in the final mora of adjectives drops out ( shiroi for earlier shiroki ); and some forms exist where modern standard Japanese has retained the earlier form (e.g. hayaku > hayau > hayɔɔ , where modern Japanese just has hayaku , though the alternative form is preserved in the standard greeting o-hayō gozaimasu "good morning"; this ending
16104-548: The world. Since Japanese first gained the consideration of linguists in the late 19th century, attempts have been made to show its genealogical relation to languages or language families such as Ainu , Korean , Chinese , Tibeto-Burman , Uralic , Altaic (or Ural-Altaic ), Austroasiatic , Austronesian and Dravidian . At the fringe, some linguists have even suggested a link to Indo-European languages , including Greek , or to Sumerian . Main modern theories try to link Japanese either to northern Asian languages, like Korean or
16236-535: Was based on 12- to 20-second-long recordings of 135 to 244 phonemes , which 42 students listened to and translated word-for-word. The listeners were all Keio University students who grew up in the Kanto region . There are some language islands in mountain villages or isolated islands such as Hachijō-jima island , whose dialects are descended from Eastern Old Japanese . Dialects of the Kansai region are spoken or known by many Japanese, and Osaka dialect in particular
16368-585: Was changed as a result. Volume 27 was released on January 14, 2014. The Viz edition includes a section called Oubliette , which consists of a sound effects guide and production and cultural notes. The series is also licensed for regional language releases in France by Kabuto and in Italy by Dynit . An anime adaption was produced by J.C.Staff and directed by Shinichi Watanabe . Twenty five episodes were broadcast on TV Tokyo between October 7, 1999, and March 30, 2000. At
16500-456: Was created as an evolution of Daitenzin in order to develop the character of Excel, as well as to laugh off the vision of a depressed and pessimistic view of the world. Excel Saga is set in Fukuoka City and the names of characters and organisations are derived from local locations and buildings. Victor Entertainment contacted Shōnen Gahōsha about adapting Excel Saga into an anime, and
16632-502: Was created in the form of a lightweight perky, young cat-girl . In the manga, only one Ropponmatsu unit is active at any one time; the reason for this is later revealed to be that there is only one central "core" that is switched between the two bodies. Kabapu attests that the core contains the soul of the princess of the lost civilization of Solaria, and he has had the Ropponmatsu body created to house it as part of his plan to destroy all remaining traces of Solaria's technology. Conversely,
16764-718: Was imported to Japan from Baekje around the start of the fifth century, alongside Buddhism. The earliest texts were written in Classical Chinese , although some of these were likely intended to be read as Japanese using the kanbun method, and show influences of Japanese grammar such as Japanese word order. The earliest text, the Kojiki , dates to the early eighth century, and was written entirely in Chinese characters, which are used to represent, at different times, Chinese, kanbun , and Old Japanese. As in other texts from this period,
16896-649: Was instead included as a DVD bonus. Watanabe commented 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". In Japan the series was released on 12 DVDs between March 1, 2000, and January 24, 2001. The series was 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 English adaptation initially starred Jessica Calvello , with Larissa Wolcott taking over
17028-465: Was lost immediately following its composition.) This set of morae shrank to 67 in Early Middle Japanese , though some were added through Chinese influence. Man'yōgana also has a symbol for /je/ , which merges with /e/ before the end of the period. Several fossilizations of Old Japanese grammatical elements remain in the modern language – the genitive particle tsu (superseded by modern no )
17160-402: Was pleased with that aspect of his work, noting that "Pedro's situation was considered unsuitable for broadcast in Japan". The anime production staff was given the freedom to do anything they wanted as long as they kept the theme of the series intact, and Rikdo requested they created a separate timeline; this departure from the original work was acknowledged in-story, with each episode opening with
17292-481: Was publishes in Young King OURs on December 28, 2021, to celebrate the series' 25th anniversary. Viz Media licensed Excel Saga for an English-language release in North America and the first volume was released on August 13, 2003. Initially the series was published on an approximately bimonthly schedule, however the series had caught up with the Japanese release and the publishing schedule for volume 12 onwards
17424-408: Was young. His mother, Miwa Rengaya, suffered a severe behavioral change after Tenmangu disappeared, becoming overtly sexual and showering affection on Gojo, imprinting on him a distorted perception of women. This perception was shattered when Gojo met his young cousin, Umi Rengaya, and was inspired by her purity and innocence. Unfortunately, Umi - who now works as Gojo's laboratory assistant and intern -
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