a ration. In the manga, Menchi gains an apparent ally in Elgâla, only for her to come to view the dog as an emergency food supply as well. Several anime and manga plots, notably episodes ten and nineteen, revolve to some extent around Menchi, her past, and her quest to escape Excel. Sekifumi Iwata Sekifumi Iwata Uniformly depicted as a horrible, lecherous doctor, Dr. Iwata owes his prominence in the medical profession mostly to family influence. His most distinct physical feature is the X-shaped scar across his entire face, which was given to him by a four-year-old Norikuni Iwata, his cousin, whom he has come to hate since then. His likeness and character are parodies of Osamu Tezuka's Black Jack. Although several chapters of the manga revolve around him or his hospital, he only has cameo appearances in the anime. Shiki Fukuya Nurse Shiki Fukuya This competent nurse spends most of her time trying to prevent or punish Dr. Iwata's malpractices and misogynies. The manga reveals that she was assigned this role by the Iwata family to guard it against embarrassments caused by Dr. Iwata. She appears along with Dr. Iwata in his cameos in the anime. Hiyoko Iwata Hiyoko Iwata A distant relative of Sekifumi and Norikuni Iwata, Hiyoko has a short attention span and often wanders away from her bodyguards. She appears only in the manga. Umi Rengaya Umi Rengaya The 18-year-old cousin of Professor Gojo Shiouji (the creator of the Ropponmatsu units), and serves both as his intern and lab assistant. Absent minded, easily flustered, and accident prone Umi is nevertheless very kind hearted, and hardworking; although her personality combined with her general clumsiness amounts to a great deal of trouble for the Professor, and his work. Umi is an avid cosplayer, being shown in a multitude of different parody-esque outfits throughout the course of the series, which regularly proves to be a source of irritation to her crush and employer Shiouji. Umi's first appearance is Volume 12 of the manga, but does not become a prominent character until volume 15, when she becomes the caretaker of the amnesiatic Excel (given the name Teriha Shiouji.) Umi Rengaya only appears in the manga. Anime-only characters Rikdo Koshi is the author of the Excel Saga manga, but he has only one appearance in the story proper of the anime - namely, when he is killed in the first episode