Episode 24 of Excel Saga, nearing the end of the season and this time we have a gag-less episode…

But first, previously…
After a vast space battle between the Puuchus a bit of wreckage came crashing down on F city leaving it as a post apocalyptic wasteland. The Ideological organisation ACROSS took the opportunity to fulfil its goal and conquer the city. Excel meanwhile has been trying to get back to ACROSS headquarters and finally manages it at the end of the previous episode. Only for Lord Il Palazzo to shoot in almost (but not quite) dead.

Thus the episode picks up from there with Excel lying in the sand wondering how and why this could have happened…

Excel: I don't understand. Why did this end up happening? I don't understand. I don't understand. Something is flowing out of my body. What could it be? What could it be? I don't understand. I don't understand. I'm sure it happened many times. That's right, I have the feeling I've been killed many times, and I was dropped down a hole quite a few times too. Now that I think back, it feels rather uncaring of him. But even so, I tried so hard for him. For him...him...

To me this little monologue is the best part of the episode and whole episode really has a major emotional effect on me (I’m producing tears even now!).

Excel wakes up having been rescued by the Department of City Security who are working to bring down across. It is at this point that we discover that Excel has lost her memory (probably because Iwata hit her with the Security Department’s car) thus at this moment the manic hyper Excel of the previous episodes just disappears to be replaced by a more quite and confused character, who I’ll refer to as Forgotten Excel.

While the Security guys go after ACROSS (becoming the Municipal Force Daitenzin) Excel stays behind mulling over her lost memories, she almost recognizes Hyatt and her dog Menchi (though doesn’t consider eating Menchi as usual). Most importantly Il Palazzo.


Il Palazzo meanwhile is glad to rid of Excel and keeps telling Hyatt to forget about her though Hyatt still seems concerned about Excel and sends a rope down from ACROSS’s flying headquarters in the hope that Excel can use it to get back. However there is that brief moement when Il Palazzo opens up the pit that he is constantly dropping Excel in, could this mean that he misses Excel in some way (or at least that he misses dropping her down a deep dark hole!), mind you from going over it to get some screen grabs I think that might have been in the previous episode.

As the episode ends Excel heads out with Menchi to try and find out what she’s forgotten jumping of a cliff and catching Hyatt’s rope. As the episode reaches it’s end Excel at least manages to remember her name (crying it out as she jumps with Menchi).

As I said this episode had a really emotional effect on me, so thus it’s become my favorite episode of the series. Yes my favorite is the gag-less episode! But this really showed a different side to Excel’s character and shows that she is more then an insane hyper comedy character but that we can also empathies and share her feelings as in this episode.