I’m a fan of the anime series and I saw the first two volumes of the manga in the book store, so I decided to give it a read.  I like it.

Excel Saga 01 is the first manga I’ve really read that went right-to-left.  It is arguably more true to the original format (no reflections or rearrangement needed), but it can be harder for americans to follow.  I found myself adapting to the format much more quickly than I thought I would, however.

I like the footnotes supplied in these manga.  The American editor decided to leave many of the sound effects in the manga, which is not too surprising given the fact that they’re often as decorative as they are descriptive.  In lieu of translation, there are gootnotes for all of the sound effects.  Much of the time, you can get the gist of the soungs from other context, but it’s nice to be able to look to the back of the book and see exactly what’s going on.

There are also general translation notes, mostly noting places where American idioms or similar things were substituted for Japanese concepts.  It’s a tribute to the editor that I barely noticed most of these; the story flowed well.

According to notes in the volume, Excel Saga was a doujinshi that went pro.  Didn’t realize that was how it started.

Discussion of differences between the anime and manga occurs below.

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The biggest difference I noticed was the name of the dog.  In the anime, her name is Menchi.  In the manga, she’s named Mince.  I don’t know if there’s really a difference in name between the two or if the fansubbers merely translated phonetically.  If the latter, then the commercial DVD follows their footsteps and uses the same name.  (Probably because people were used to the name from the fansub.)

There’s less themed stuff, like the anime’s war movie episode or star wars episode.

Several anime characters aren’t present in the manga or, at least, haven’t shown up yet: Pedro, the Great Will of the Universe, the puchuus, Nabeshin, and the Space Butler.

I was thrown a bit by the decision to give Sumioshi a scottish accent.  The footnotes say he has a rural accent in the manga, but I personally would probably have found a rural American accent easier to deal with.

Overall, the feel of the manga is much the same as the anime, and it’s downright funny in a lot of places.  For those who are familiar with the anime, the manga is a good continuation.  For those unfamiliar with Excel at all, it’s a very fun, funny read.

Remember to drink water before going to bed.  A couple nights I didn’t and woke up with a very dry, uncomfortable mouth.

Bring more costumes!  Also, more playa-wear.  Even jean shorts without a shirt felt a bit pedestrian at times.  The loincloth worked well.  Sarongs?

Go shirtless earlier in the week.  My forearms tanned more rapidly than my back and shoulders, meaning that I had to deal with sunscreen over a longer period of time.

Either get sunglasses or a pair of goggles that fit my face better.  I don’t normally wear sunglasses, but the sun on the playa was bright.

Bring more food.  Most sites said I’d eat less than normal when I went out there.  I ate more.  (Probably as a result of being very active and walking a lot.)

Relatedly, peanut butter and jelly sandwiches are simple to make and reasonably non-perishable.  Would make good lunches.  I should still bring power bars for portable lunches away from camp.

Cereal is good for breakfast, though I don’t like eating it dry.  UHT milk needs to be referigerated after opening.  Does Rice Dream?

Get a bike.  I liked walking everywhere, and I walked a lot, but bikes are a faster means of going places.

(A couple of days of September snuck in, due to a cronjob that didn’t trigger.)

Folder delivery:

  Total  Number Folder
  -----  ------ ------
10439575    1153 /dev/null
2402886     701 lists/void
5764083     621 spam
2883185     588 lists/otakon-staff
2379299     541 lists/baltwash-burning
2266470     385 lists/bugtraq
2427716     228 /home/phil/mail/inbox
 799786     215 lists/umbclinux

Spamassassin (was not collecting data for the full month, so the count is low):

spam: 
Cnt: 1572
Max: 46.9
Avg: 13.3732188295165
Dev: 6.59919668513267

The bayesian rules in SpamAssassin kicked in midmonth.  Before that, the average score was running just under 12.  Should be even higher next month, with bayesian for the full time period.

And I’ve returned home.  I filled up several pages in a spiral notebook with my diary and various notes about the event.  After I get all of that typed in, I’ll extract the fit-for-public-consumption bits and put them up here.

I’m now off to Burning Man, for what will be my first visit to the desert.  (Note to potential burglars: the martial artists are still in residence.)  will see everyone when I return.