Excel Saga - When Excels Strike (Out) (Vol. 3)

Amazon.com As this screwball comedy reaches its midpoint, the filmmakers take aim at the clichés of anime, manga, and Japanese live-action television. In "Butt Out, Youth," Excel and Hyatt pose as teachers in a parody of high school sports shows. Faced with a classroom of unruly thugs, Excel flourishes a set of steel ninja claws--and drags them over the blackboard, reducing everyone to agonized submission. In episode 10, Menchi, the hapless cat everyone refers to as a dog (and Excel keeps threatening to eat), escapes in an outrageous send-up of adventure series, down to the scar across the canine villain's face. How this insanity is supposed to advance Lord Ilpalazzo's plan to purify the world is never made clear. Menchi also appears onscreen to translate the wordplays ("a small pun") and explain what's being spoofed onscreen. (Rated 17 and older: violence, profanity; risqué and gross-out humor) --Charles Solomon