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Tuesday, January 16, 2007

Understanding Your Future Masters: Excel Saga Overview Part 4

Table of Contents
Introduction & Part 1
Part 2
Part 3
Excel Saga Wikipedia

Volume 7

Mission 1: In Japan one of the biggest events is the season festivals where the Cherry Blossom trees are in full bloom. Very common to see this in manga and anime and here it is no exception. The department staff (consisting of Kabapu, Momochi, Iwata, Watanabe, Matsuya and Sumiyoshi) goes out to a picnic in the park during such a day. Excel and Hyatt are nearby selling Ramen noodles from a stand they "acquired"(stole). Iwata, from leaving the restroom runs into his cousin Dr. Iwata whose with many beautiful women. He injects his most hated cousin with a syringe of some drug. Back at the picnic Ropponmatsu I is sent out for more food after the staff eat through everything. There Roppon encounters Excel and Hyatt who she remembers from Vol. 6, Missions 6-7. Excel is deeply worried about Roppons survival after the particular explosion (where the cart she was carrying the then unconscious Roppon got lose and crashed into a building). But Roppon takes the food without further questioning of their health, as she remembers Hyatt having died, and leaves. Il Palazzo is in Across HQ monitoring Ropponmatsu. Also, Nurse Fukuya delivers Iwata back to his friends at the end we see that yet again she disciplined Dr. Iwata.

Mission 2: Mince is out on the town. In one scene she passes by an electronics shop where a TV in the sales mirror indicates that minces particular species is actually endangered and some were illegally smuggled into Japan. An award is offered and Mince becomes a target. She eventually gets grabbed by Excel and brought home.

Mission 3: Watanabe, Iwata, and Sumiyoshi are in Watanabe’s apartment eating their food. Sumiyoshi reveals why he never eats at his home: his complex computer system(s). He invites them into his small home where he shows them that he collects dating sims. We also learn that he leans out fighting games to Matsuya whose incredibly good at them. Soon a particular black out crashes his systems, crushing Sumi. Professor Shiouji drops by and explains what caused the power outage. Ropponmatsu’s restart sequence over heated the apartments power supply. He gives Sumiyoshi a new system and says he’ll try to salvage his lost data.

Mission 4: Excel looks to earn a big payday by entering a contest entitled Birdman by the Sea where people make gliders and try to glide as far out into the ocean as possible. The department is hired as staff so Kabapu and the whole group is there (except Ropponmatsu I, who is replaced with her second form). Shiouji’s mutant birdman to open the show gets gunned down by military personnel to the complete lack-of-horror of the audience. Roppon II goes the safety demonstration. Excel enters herself as well as Hyatt and Mince. Excel and Hyatt are wearing some disguises (wigs).

Mission 5: Hyatt out first with a pair of fans, freefalling to her death. Excel resuscitates her and prepares her glider, which eventually gets swept away by the wind. She chases it down before it gets crushed by a train on an abandoned track. Excel then focus’ on Mince with her glider, who goes the distance but because she’s an animal gets disqualified. Excel’s up next, in a quick flashback, the train personnel hand over a top secret experimental glider as a way to calm the then infuriated Excel. Excel flies the glider to victory but leaves with the large noncashable check instead of the real one. Poor girl.

Mission 6: New recruit? Il Palazzo sends Excel and Hyatt to an undisclosed location 9at least to us the reader) in the countryside to identify her. Excels response to this?

A NEW RECRUIT! It’s about increasing the number of personnel! About beefing up our military strength! It’s a policy of economic growth coupled with strong defense! Don’t you get it? Our lord is saying the two of us AREN’T GOOD ENOUGH!

A bit cut from an actual exchange but you get the point. Excel’s paranoia and fear of others becoming Il Palazzos favorite, or becoming more important to Across then herself, worries Excel so much.

The two make it to a countryside resort. They meet the manager a German woman who looks much like a character from Leiji Matsumoto Galaxy Express 999 series. She believes they’ve come to work and knows them as Eh-Chan and Ha-Chan. They meet Mu-Chan, who their intial reaction is that she must be the third member. Excel and Hyatt convince themselves this is a test or training exercise and work hard. Excel mainly, trying to compete with Mu-Chan. “Do you realize that by now I’ve managed to hold down almost a hundred different part-time jobs? How, indeed, can I allow a new recruit to be a better worker then me?” Excel works harder, doing most of Hyatts work, sometimes with her strapped to her back. Mrs. Manager takes Excel and Hyatt to meet the owner who is Mr. Owner from vol. 5, mission 1. He owned the snow resort cabin they briefly worked at.

Mission 7: Turns out Mr. Owner is from Bosnia as he states where he went after the explosion at the cabin. Turns out he sent Excel and Hyatt severance checks afterwards. History repeats it self as, just like that story, excels sent hunting. Yet again, finds Mince instead of game. Continuing déjà vu, Mr. Owner greets Mince and when the two are alone reminisces about the war in his home land and Antonio. In the basement, where Excel and Hyatt are returning the gun they find an old fighter airplane. Mince makes her way down to the basement, tripping the lantern Excel and Hyatt had brought down to illuminate their way. The fire spreads to some explosives and yet again Mr. Owners is destroyed. Hyatt, Excel, and Mince escape on the plane as Mrs. Manager and Mu-Chan return to see the hotel burnt down and Mr. Owner watching. Mu-Chan lost all her worldly possessions in the blaze.

Mission 8: Excel and Hyatt get free from some immigration feds who picked them up after their planed crashed in the ocean. This is after an auto accident resulting in the ambulance crashing trying to rush an intensive care patient (Hyatt) to the hospital. Kabapu gets a call as he over sees that department. He decides to have Momochi cover it up and discharge the current head for mental health reasons. Excel and Hyatt make their way home with excel commenting “Goriest ambulance escape since Silence of the Lambs.” Excel leaves Hyatt to try and find some clothes so they don’t stand out. While away Hyatt runs into Watanabe who helps her home. Also Matsuya finds Mince and returns her as well. After excel comes back, finds Hyatt missing, and looks around for her she returns home to find the pair. Back at HQ Il Palazzo gives excel a pit drop into a relaxing hot spring. Nice guy.



Volume 8
Mission 1: Excel and Hyatt enjoy a nice breakfast while we get a look inside how Hyatt thinks.

“Senior Excel is full of energy this morning. This omelet is yellow. My chopsticks are in my left hand and my rice bowl is in my right hand. One of our table legs is shorter than the others. It clatters as the table wobbles. I think this is cute. Oh, how wonderful today’s pickled plums taste. This makes me happy.”

Watanabe continues giving Hyatt free things in attempts to talk to her and get her to really notice him. Il Palazzo announces he’ll be gone for 48 hours. The two have a part time job at an electronics store as it works with Il Palazzos instructions on information economy. The team slogan is “don’t work to hard” or “sale to the person who looks loaded.” Hyatt’s impression of job translates to: “This job demonstrates how information gets blocked mid-way, and fails to reach those waiting at the end of the system.” In the end of today’s mission we hear more of Hyatts thoughts including her admiration for how reliable and hard working excel is and how she wishes she had the same kind of energy. Very fond of her senior.

Mission 2: Excel and Hyatt rush to HQ as Excel believes they are being followed. There they encounter Mu-Chan, who is indeed the new recruit. Her alias is Kasumi Munakata and her Across name is Egala. Unlike Il, Excel, and Hyatt Egala is named after a shopping center in the city of Fukuoka, where they are in fact trying to conquer first. Excel seems distraught by this but greets her. Turns out all three landed at the wrong meeting location but still met up. Back in vol. 7 mission 6-7. Excel’s hyperactive, Hyatts dies, so what is Egala’s recognizable trait? She speaks out her inner dialogue. She also becomes Excels pit buddy, though Egala has a harder time dealing with it then Excel does. Egala looks to be moving in soon with excel and Hyatt while Il, alone, uses his holo-computer and mentions how he has no memory of who he once was but knows his ultimate goal.

Mission 3: Excel awakens confused, seeing Egala nowhere and chalking it up to a bad dream. That is until HQ where they are reunited again to a mystified Excel. “Why is senior Excel staring at me like that? She’s making me very uneasy as I, Egala, do not swing that way.” Il gave Egala a separate task wand will occasionally do so without informing Excel or Hyatt about it or the details. Egala follows them to their home, meets Mince, and easily annoys Excel. Now the three have to adjust to living together in a small apartment. More of a loft really…

Mission 4: Iwata’s physical results come in and reveals he has cancer. Kabapu and Momochi are overheard talking about it as some of the workers over hear. Watanabe, Sumiyoshi, and Matsuya don’t tell him, as ordered) and work to be extremely nice to him. All the while Excel, Hyatt, and Egala are working at Rikidonalds. Excel comments on Egalas materialistic lifestyle and Egala doesn’t agree as Excel is extremely frugal in her spending. Watanabe, while talking to Iwata about his family, tells him that he has cancer and Iwata confronts the doctor who verifies that his physical came in. That he had colon cancer, as well as several different forms of cancer. Turns out his cousin, Dr. Iwata, wrote up the report so they disregard it.

Mission 5: IWATA IS DEAD! Turns out he did have colon cancer and the rest of the report was just his cousin jazzing it up. Egala goes out walking Mince to the wrath of excel who doesn’t want Mince to be lean, because she is the emergency food ration. At the job Watanabe, Sumiyoshi, Matsuya, and Ropponmatsu II find that Dr. Shiouji has put Iwatas brain into Ropponmatsus body, keeping him alive.

“Oh no, Iwata is definitely dead, in every legal sense. He is, however, survived by Iwata Mark II, whom, as you see, will greatly contribute to the tactical strength of this department,” Kabapu.

“FOR GOD’S SAKE, DOCTOR, IWATA MAY BE AN IDIOT BUT WHAT ABOUT HIS HUMAN RIGHTS?” Watanabe.

“He was fully entitled to them until yesterday. This is all covered on page 3476 of the employee handbook, you know.” Kabapu.

Mission 6: The operatives are greeted by Il Palazzo with funds of 10 Million yen for living expenses. As well as health insurance cards with alias. Excel is allowed to choose between three names, one of which included what could be her last name Klienwald. They attempted to withdraw money but because none had a bank seal or an ATM password they can’t. After fixing things with Il Palazzo they return home to find Mince fleeing the fire which has now engulfed their home.

Mission 7: Excel, Hyatt, Egala, and Mince are all in a cardboard box plotting what to do now that their home has been burnt down. This also marks the first Egala witness’ Hyatt’s death and is mortified by Excels reaction to it. Kabapu is on top of the situation offering his workers new homes in an apartment building. Obviously, some of his employees are suspicious and Matsuya asks him blatantly if he burnt down their homes. Turns out Iwata was the cause. After his employees leave Kabapu admits he had the apartment complex as investment property that was vacant. He also learns there was one other person living there though he had the apartment complex swept out. Seems excel found a way to wiggle out of being kicked out my marking the tenant, Hyatt to be precise, as dead. They decide to find her and put her under surveillance(!). The trio are camping out to no avail as they anger local wildlife and flee back to the city. Out in the park Hyatt is found by one of Kabapu’s workers and given keys and directions to her new home.

Mission 8: Flashback to how Iwata burnt down the apartments. Iwata was still adjusting to his temporary Ropponmatsu I body and accidentally tripped some machinery in “her” home setting off the fire. Got knocked out and the back up kicked in, operating the body while Iwata was unconscious. This leads to Roppon 2 trying to stop “her.”Turns out Kabapu was arranging for his employees to be moved out anyway, so he can monitor them better.

Volume 9
Opens with bonus mission, fantasy episode. I’m only doing the real story so I’m skipping this.

Mission 1: Excel and companions are amazed by their new home. Excel still believes in being frugal and wants to apply the same rules of their old home to this household, much to Egala’s dismay. They soon discover the others have moved in to. There’s also a brief segment where, after going to get some food, Excel loses the keys and they’re returned by Roppon II. There is one scene of serious note where Kabapu mentions to momochi of a friend he had a fallen out with, referencing Il Palazzo.

Mission 2: Egala is absent and Hyatt sicker then usual leaving Il Palazzo to take her to Across HQ Medical wing. This leaves excel alone for the day, for the first time in a while She wanders around bored while Egala is out infiltrating the Department of Environmental Security. Back at the apartments Sumiyoshi and Watanabe discuss a weird shed near their homes. Later in the same story Kabapu and Momochi are discussing it being listed for demolition. It was where research, unsuccessful, was taking place. They lost 9 Billion yen on it.

There is a scene where Hyatt is in a weird chamber, floating in water and Il watches in commenting that a genetic substrate implanted in her was flawed which lead to deterioration of Hyatt. Towards the end Hyatts rejuvenate to greet Excel, for a few seconds before yet again collapsing.

Mission 3: Very simple story with Watanabe, Sumiyoshi, and Matsuya all wondering about how Iwata is going to turn out as Prof. Shiouji is apparently still working on him. They ask Roppon II for some clues but doesn’t give any.

Mission 4: Several stories ago, Vol. 4 Mission 6, excel had a brief case of amnesia and though it worked out fine, the incident left Mince with a bump that caused her amnesia. Well, she’s bumped her head against the wall and has been stricken with painful memories of Excel and Hyatt. Knowing, that yet again, her purpose is as abck up food supply. Attempts escape only to run into Egala who Micne’s come to like. Upon Excel and Hyatt’s return home they find Mince hiding behind Egala in hear, confused on Minces recent attitude change.

Mission 5: This is a long one so bear with me.

“When this world ended in the past… It chose a new path. What happened to that path? Of those forces that are intervening… I would ask this question one more time. I would ask this world a question.”-Il Palazzo

Il Palazzo signifies it’s time for a declaration of conquest to the city. So Excel and Hyatt plot and plan as Egala decides not to join their scheme. While the members of the dept. are still awaiting the return of Iwata, soon to be android/cyborg. They flashback to Kabapu’s statements on him no longer being human and how, outside the office, he should be addressed as Mr. Mitsukoshi. Watanabe worries this will be all their fates. On their ay back to the office from lunch they past by Excel and Hyatt, both in their uniforms and wearing shades, Watanbe thinks he recognizes Hyatt in the crowd that the two are addressing but isn’t so sure and leaves. While they’re making their declaration the large crowd, are either ignoring them and moving on or are mildly interested. Somehow, up in his near by office Kabapu goes into some weird spasm.

“Across… Il Palazzo… I remember it… now!”-Kabapu

Kabapu escapes through a secret sci-fi corridor behind his desk leaving Momochi to carry out the PLAN (manual marked, left on the desk he flees) and cancel all his appointments for the day. While making his way through his weird corridor contacts Shiouji. A copter soon appears over the area and launches a coffin at the girls. Almost takes out excel but she’s too good to be done in by a projectile coffin. The crowd now invested, pay attention thinking they’re on TV. Excel switches costumes, as hers gets torn, to Egala’s, to continue their declaration. The coffin pops open and a power rangers like character emerges. “A FIGHTER FOR JUSTICE… HAS ARRIVED!”

Back in the offices Watanabe, Sumiyoshi, and get dropped from their office into a secret slide into a weird futuristic room wearing the outfits from Vol. 2 Mission 5, the skintight future wear. Kabapu points them to a monitor where the battles taking place. Out in the streets Excel battles the Justice Ranger. His laser gun has no effect on her as it hits her in the chest area, but when he tries it on himself there is a huge explosion. Excel turns the crowd, still thinking its television, against the masked ranger after he destroys public property testing the gun, and then accidentally shoots a neighboring building. The ranger reveals himself to by Iwata, whose calling for the doctors help. Kabapu, embarrassed, contacts Shiouji to retrieves Iwata and Momochi to create a cover up story. Excel and Hyatt return to HQ to speak to Il Palazzo about their encounter.


Continued

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