Koushi Rikudou's classic comedy manga Excel Saga is returning with a new one-shot chapter to celebrate the series' 25th anniversary.Rikudou made the surprise announcement on his personal Twitter account. The new chapter will be 60 pages long and feature a fully colored opening page. It is set for release in the next issue of Shonen Gahosha's Young King Ours magazine, which is due out in Japan on Dec. 28.
The Excel Saga manga originally ran from 1996 to 2011, producing 27 volumes worth of content. The story follows a secret ideological organization known as Across as it attempts to conquer the city of Fukuoka as an initial step in taking over the world. Protagonist Excel is a key member of Across, who frequently clashes with Dr. Kabapu, the leader of a shadowy government agency that defends the city.
An anime adaptation of the story was created by Victor Entertainment in 1999, with studio J. C. Staff (Is It Wrong to Try to Pick Up Girls in a Dungeon?, How a Realist Hero Rebuilt the Kingdom) animating the series and Shinichi Watanabe (The Wallflower, Hayate no Gotoku!) serving as its director. Hideyuki Kurata (Made in Abyss, The World Only God Knows) and Yousuke Kuroda (High School of the Dead, My Hero Academia: World Heroes' Mission) wrote the script, Toshio Masuda (Naruto, Flint: The Time Detective) composed the music and Satoshi Ishino (Gozilla Singular Point, Tokyo Mew Mew New) designed the characters.
The cast for the Excel Saga anime features several popular and experienced voice actors like Kotono Mitsuishi (Evangelion: 3.0+1.0: Thrice Upon A Time, Jujutsu Kaisen), Omi Minami (Code Geass: Lelouch of the Rebellion, Fruits Basket), Satomi Koorogi (Fairy Tail, Zatch Bell), Ryotaro Okiayu (Black Clover, How NOT to Summon a Demon Lord) and Takehito Koyasu (Ascendance of a Bookworm, Demon Slayer: Kimetsu no Yaiba).
Excel Saga is just one of several classic anime series that have returned with a new chapter; Tite Kubo's Bleach published a brand new chapter this summer, and a brand new one-shot is being released next year for Yuu Watase's popular shojo manga Fushigi Yûgi, which has been on a roughly four-year hiatus.
Rikudou's most recent manga series, Super Cartesian Theater, completed its run in Young Kings Ours in December 2018. The Excel Saga anime series is available to stream on Funimation.
Source: Twitter, via Anime News Network