Episode 1: Koshi Rikdo Assassination Plot
(summary provided by Willy Four Eyes)
To start off the series, Koshi Rikdo, the original author and artist of the Excel Saga manga, vows that if his show is ever made into an anime, he will give the animation staff complete control over what happens, and not file any complaints over it.
In the next scene, our "heroine", Excel, happily skips away from her graduation ceremony, looking forward to her future as a member of the quasi-terrorist organization ACROSS. But by the time she reaches the school gates, she dances into the path of an incoming speeding truck, and she dies in the ambulance ride to the hospital. On her deathbed, she meets an entity who calls herself the Great Will of the Macrocosm, who chides her for dying so quickly into the anime. Using her powers, the Will brings Excel back to life so that the story can continue.
When Excel returns, she finds herself in the throne room of Lord Ilpalazzo, leader (and only other member) of ACROSS. Ilpalazzo, believing that the world is corrupt, decides to take his first steps toward total subjugation of the world by starting small - the takeover of "F City". In the midst of cheering on and declaring her love for Ilpalazzo, Excel is killed and revived twice with the span of a minute during Ilpalazzo's speech. He eventually gives Excel her first mission as a member of ACROSS - kill all of Japan's manga artists, starting with Koshi Rikdo himself.
Excel marches on toward Rikdo's apartment, prepared to carry out her mission. When she reaches Rikdo's office, she notices pictures of his family sitting on his desk. After a brief crisis of conscience (wherein Excel's good angel shoots and kills her bad angel), Excel completes her mission successfully. However, she gets scolded by the Will for it, as the storyline cannot continue without Rikdo's guidance.
The story resets once more, and now Excel is working part-time as a construction traffic controller. Once again, she gets smashed by an oncoming truck and has to be revived by the Will after the commercial break. Excel, inspired by the prospect of Ilpalazzo taking over the city, gets back to work directing traffic, with her exuberance causing a massive pile-up outside the building. Meanwhile, Ilpalazzo, with no one else to talk to, sits on his throne reading a magazine report on a visual kei band called Misty Blue.
Back at the construction site, Excel sees Pedro, another worker at the construction site, sitting by himself and pining for his homeland. After a motivational and inspiration speech that involves Excel beating Pedro up and the two of them falling off the side of the building, Pedro is inspired to work harder, and is even given a small raise by his boss for it. Excel tries to work harder as well, despite not having eaten anything for a few days. Her "unique" style of traffic direction causes an explosion that sends the building tumbling down in a ball of fire. Excel's conscience tells her to go and save Pedro, but she tries to run away on the slight chance that anyone recognizes her and realizes the accident was her fault. Still delirious from hunger, she chases after a stray dog (Menchi) that she plans to use as an emergency food source. Pedro is about to be saved and revived by the Great Will, but she hears a timer go off elsewhere and leaves, abandoning Pedro to a fiery death.
Elsewhere in F City, a pair of shadowy thugs are on the lookout for Nabeshin (an avatar for anime director Shinichi Watanabe).
Excel successfully escapes back to her apartment with Menchi in tow. Her neighbors - the serious Watanabe, the rowdy Iwata, and the wise-but-silent Sumiyoshi - are all fighting over who gets to eat Watanabe's stew.
Pedro's family has yet to hear the news of his death, so Sandora and his mother go on to eat dinner, still waiting for him.
The next day, Excel returns to the ACROSS base as Ilpalazzo views the news report of her screw-up at the construction site. To give her a chance to redeem herself, he sends her back out to kill Rikdo again to close out the episode.
Tropes used in this episode:
- Animated Actors: Neither are actors by trade, but caricatures of Rikdo and Nabeshin both appear in this episode (with Nabeshin even voicing his Author Avatar, and appearing frequently in later episodes as part of one of the side plots).
- Biting-the-Hand Humor: Ilpalazzo shows Excel a handful of Excel Saga manga volumes and tosses them into a giant paper shredder before sending her off to kill their creator.
- Fatal Family Photo: Pedro tells Excel a story about how he wishes he could go back home to his wife and son, even showing her a picture of said son. When the construction site catches fire due to Excel's negligence, he drops the photo trying to escape, and dies trying to run back and retrieve it.
- Get A Hold Of Yourself Man: When Pedro tells Excel about his homesickness, she tries to motivate him by beating him up.
- Good Angel, Bad Angel: Excel briefly angsts over whether or not to kill Rikdo, involving an argument between her good and bad sides. Good Excel eventually wins out by killing Bad Excel, but Excel decides to kill Rikdo anyway.
- Later in the episode, Good Excel tries to motivate Excel into rescuing Pedro from the fire she caused at the construction site, until Cop Excel arrests her for murder.
- Leaning on the Fourth Wall: Multiple characters, mainly near the beginning of the episode (including the Great Will) wonder how Excel would be dumb enough to get herself killed off before the series even starts, being the main character and all.
- Look Both Ways: Excel gets killed twice by oncoming speeding trucks.
- Reset Button: The Great Will does this several times to keep Excel from being killed off before the series can even begin.
- Secret Handshake: Excel and Pedro fist-bump each other multiple times when they first meet. The second time they try it, Pedro's fists crumble, and they both tumble off the side of the building, but survive thanks to their safety helmets.
