Il Palazzo is a fictional character in the Excel Saga animated series, and the manga upon which it is based.

Il Palazzo, or as he is more formally known by his underlings, "Lord Il Palazzo," is the leader of ACROSS, a secret ideological organisation dedicated to world conquest. Il Palazzo believes that the world has become corrupt, and seeks to conquer it to save the ignorant masses from themselves - but that's not an easy task when, at the start, his entire taskforce consists of one spastic blonde girl, namely one Excel Excel, who happens to be madly in love with him. But you have to start somewhere, and Il Palazzo has chosen Fukuoka (just referred to as "The City of F" in the anime) to be his stepping stone to global domination.

A dramatic, theatrical, but rather mysterious character, Il Palazzo makes no secret of his self-importance, sitting upon a throne and wearing ornate armour and a cloak. The throne room itself is equipped with a trap door that Excel frequently finds herself falling down when she displeases her lord.

History

Although his role in the anime and manga is much the same - serving as the suave, calculating leader who sends Excel, and later her teammates, on missions - Il Palazzo is portrayed quite differently in the two versions. In the anime, he is frequently shown to lose his temper and perform "silly antics" in line with the show's tone, such as trying to learn to master the guitar, and playing dating video games, while quite the opposite is true in the manga, where he is an impenatrable, unflappable character, perpetually shrouded in mystery, and even coming across as vaguely sinister even when he's not acting evil.

In his youth, Il Palazzo was friends with Kabapu , who went on to from the Department of City Security. Il Palazzo turned on Kabapu over an unspecified disagreement (presumably, the notion of defence versus conquest), and would eventually come to blows with his friend again during his attempts at conquering Fukuoka.

As far as can be discerned from the manga, Il Palazzo and his troops comprise the entirity of ACROSS, and this is how things appear in the anime up until episode 21, in which it is revealed that there is a governing body above Il Palazzo, and that he is just the head of the Fukuoka division of the organisation. The message he recieves in this episode is a warning to hurry up and conquer the city, and after Excel manages to crash a giant spaceship into the city, leaving it a wasteland, that's just what he does. However, when the conquest succeeds, it becomes apparent that Il Palazzo suffers from multiple personality disorder, as his dark impulses, embodied by his shadow, urge him on to conquer more, even taking over his body to fight Excel, who defeats him. What is off-putting about this in the animated series, however, is that there had been absolutely no hinting towards this rather serious condition of Il Palazzo's, so it is rather hastily introduced one episodes beforehand. The manga is quite a different story, however, which begins to hint towards Il Palazzo's condition in it's second volume, when he starts to hear voices when he is alone, and frequently begins to experience blackouts, giving Excel and co. orders twice, and reacting strangely when they tell him that he already gave them out.

Powers

In the concluding episodes of the anime's story arc, Il Palazzo takes on the Daitenzin , and displays and assortment of powers, including enhanced strength (he squeezes off the heads of the two Ropponmatsus with his hands), enhanced reflexes (he grabs a missile out of the air), and what is either force-projection or telekinesis (he hurls characters around with waves of his hands). Il Palazzo had not displayed these powers previously, nor has he done so in the manga, so it is unclear if they are natural to his body, or his armour is inducing them in some way. Il Palazzo displays no unusual physical characteristics, save one - his eyes are yellow, and slitted, like a cat's.