Excel Saga

Excel Saga is pretty much an anime for otaku, or people who are otherwise well-versed in anime films and series. Adapted from the gag manga by Koshi Rikdo, it (sorta) tells the story of Excel Excel, an overly-energetic young woman working as a secret agent for the Secret Ideological Organization ACROSS, under the somewhat eccentric evil-overlord wanabee Lord Ilpalazzo. With her partner Hyatt, a soft spoken young lady who has a habit of fainting or even dropping dead, then spontaneously coming back to life, and her pet dog/emergency food supply Menchi in tow, Excel bungles and blunders her way through episode after episode full of pop culture references from both Japan and the United States.

Somewhere in the mix is Excel's next-door-neighbor Watanabe and his roommates Iwata and Sumiyoshi, the mysterious action hero Nabeshin (avatar of the show's director), a band of impossibly (and deceptively) cute aliens called the Puchuu, and a whole host of other crazy characters who do little, if anything, to advance what passes for a story.