Abridged Series

[Dr. Ensatsu-ken]

So, I re-watched all three seasons of Yu-Gi-Oh! The Abridged Series over the past couple of weeks during my spare time. Here are my thoughts:

Season 1: Ouch! This has aged so poorly. It was honestly barely watchable and made me cringe at how I used to find it so funny back in the day. As the first abridged series ever, though, it's really no surprise that it's so dated early on. You can tell that LK just started doing this for fun, and it was a neat idea, but he lacked both the writing and editing skills to pull it off properly, and his voice-recording equipment was bare-basic stuff, so the audio was garbage. However, as the first of its kind, it became an Internet sensation, and naturally turned into a full-fledged series that spawned a ton of imitators. That said, both this series and a few of those imitators have improved significantly since their initial conception, which is why it's so tough to go back to watching this early material. Granted, the comedic writing did start to pick up a bit by the end of the season, but the editing still wasn't up to any decent standards.

Season 2: This is where the series really starts coming into its own. The first half of the season still has poor editing, but it's a lot more watchable thanks to better writing and voice-acting from LK. The introduction of characters like Marek/Melvin and Ishizu also helped to liven up the more static chemistry of of the main cast at that point. If I had to pin-point one moment in the season where everything clicked and the series became what we know it as today, it's episode 46, which is where the editing, and thus the comedic timing, complimented by better writing and voice-acting, all peaked in quality.

Season 3: This season holds up very well (being the most recent, that's no surprise), and it was a real pleasure to re-watch, especially the filler arc which heavily featured Team Four-Star in the cast.

If I had to pick a favorite character from this series, for me it's Mokuba. I would have said Kaiba, but the more I thought about it, most of his best jokes revolve around Mokuba, as do many of my favorite jokes in this series. Additionally, Mokuba's dialogue is almost always just pure gold. I also like characters like Marek/Melvin, but they can also be a tad one-note which makes them feel over-exposed at times. Still, most of the cast is consistently hilarious by the end of the second season.

You really could view this entire series as a portrayal of the evolution of abridged series in general, being that it was the originator, and is still around today. It's rise in quality is also like a timeline by which other people started getting better at doing these as well, though to be fair, there're only a select few great abridged series in an ocean of shit, even to this day.

[Dr. Ensatsu-ken]

DBZA Episode 50 is up:

http://teamfourstar.com/video/dragonball-z-abridged-episode-50-a-raging-semi/

Lanipator absolutely killed it as Vegeta in this episode.

[LumRanmaYasha]

Both YGOA! and DBZA!'s first seasons have aged pretty badly and can be hard to sit through. Similarly, both start improving about half-way into their second seasons, and just get better and better from that point onwards.

As for DBZA50, I thought for sure they'd have the episode end with the transformation of Perfect Cell. They've really slowed down the pacing for the series with this season. Not that I'm complaining, since the quality of the show has stayed as strong as it's ever been. 

[Dr. Ensatsu-ken]

To be fair, this portion of the story was dragged out incredibly long in both the manga and the anime. It's saying something that they've managed to make my least favorite part of the series proper into something really entertaining.

BTW, I loved the Sure you can = Shoryuken play on words joke. I didn't catch it the first time around in the preview, but I did in the full episode.

[Dr. Ensatsu-ken]

FFVII/MA Episode 3 is up: http://teamfourstar.com/video/final-fantasy-vii-machinabridged-ff7ma-ep-3/

While I haven't played the game, most of the jokes are general enough for me to get, which makes this series entertaining enough to keep up with. Still, it's nowhere near as tightly paced and funny as DBZA currently is, but few abridged series are ever really great from the start.

I think a lot of DBZTAS's success has to do with Lanipator and KaiserNeko. Lani also did a single season of YYHTAS, and while the editing has aged really poorly like most other abridged series, I felt that his humor was already on-point early on. It's the same with KN and Lupin III TAS. With both of them collaborating on writing, and KN having massively improved his editing skills, it makes perfect sense why DBZTAS is as good as it is, now.

On another note, seeing Antfish involved with this project reminds me of how much I'd love to see him continue with JJBATAS. I also wish that DBZ had more Bardock material to aabridge. He was so hilarious in both specials that it sucks to know that he probably won't ever get a chance to do that character again.

[LumRanmaYasha]

YGOA! episode #65 is out!

[Dr. Ensatsu-ken]

Super Android 13 Abridged is finally up!

[LumRanmaYasha]

Good stuff all around. Surprised they gave a different voice for adult Gohan here than the one they had for the Trunks special. Apparently this is the voice they are going with for when they cover the Buu saga too. I think it's fine, though.

[Dr. Ensatsu-ken]

I think that decision makes sense for two reasons:

1. Having the entire Son family (minus Chi-Chi) voiced by the same person is clearly an homage to the Seiyuu Masako Nozawa who does the same in the anime.

2. Future Gohan is older than Buu-saga Gohan, but beyond that he's a very different character who has had to deal with a grim past in his timeline, whereas Buu-saga Gohan got to grow up normally and keep his good-natured personality, so the more innocent and softer-sounding voice fits with his character.

[Daikun]

YGO:TAS Episode 66!

[Daikun]

DBZA Episode 51!

[Daikun]

YGO:TAS 67

[Daikun]

DBZA 52!

[Dr. Ensatsu-ken]

New Abridgimon!

[Daikun]

Hamtaro Abridged!