victor entertainment contacted shōnen gahōsha about adapting "excel saga" into an anime, and the two companies approached rikdo. shinichi watanabe was chosen as director. watanabe added his own alter ego, nabeshin, and expanded several elements. he says that the great will in the manga was "conveyed just as words", and he himself developed its appearance, eventually settling on the "swirling, talking cosmos". he also increased pedro's role in the story from a single frame in the manga. watanabe says he was pleased with that aspect of his work, noting that "pedro's situation was considered unsuitable for broadcast in japan". the anime production staff was given the freedom to do anything they wanted as long as they kept the theme of the series intact, and rikdo requested they created a separate timeline. rikdo would later become influenced by the anime series due to its quick broadcast in comparison to the monthly schedule of the manga. the anime makes frequent use of parody and in-jokes as comedic devices, with each episode having a genre-based theme. this extends to the animation, with several characters designed in the style of other works, such as those by leiji matsumoto. kotono mitsuishi was chosen to play the role of excel, and watanabe was impressed with mitsuishi's rapid delivery of her lines, saying that "she really pushed herself to the limit and beyond". he also says, "at times she was too fast, and there was plenty of time left to match the lip-synch". in such cases, either he would add new material or mitsuishi would ad-lib. at first rikdo felt stunned and uncomfortable at hearing excel speak, but he called the casting "amazing" and was pleased to hear his favourite voice actors read lines from his work.