⭒✧ Abridged Series are pretty cool I think ✧⭒

Code MENT and Yu Gi Jo abridged collage

Just recently I hung out with my brother, and he had referenced a line from the Sword Art Online (SAO) abridged series while we were joking around. I didn't recognize the line, it's been many years since I watched it after all, and after I told him that we ended up finishing the first season of the abridged series that night. Now, it has me thinking a lot about all of the other abridged series I watched, along with the impact these series have had on the internet as a whole.

If you are unfamiliar with this idea, the Wikipedia article about this has a much better description than I could give:

“An abridged series is a fanmade parody that uses video footage from a television series—oftentimes Japanese animation—which is usually filled with comedic redubbing. It is called "abridged" because episodes are not as long as the original episodes and the comedic implication of being a proper summation of events”

So basically, it's a fan made version of a show that comedically shortens the show. There are some more well-known abridged series online, such as the DBZ abridged, Code MENT
(Code Geass), 50% Off (Free!), and so many others that I just cant list them all. All of these make the series their own in a way, using clips from the actual show and creating their own gags and scenes that take on a life of their own.

Observe: The Soup Store below. Originally from Code MENT, this gag took on a life of its own as a meme, becoming completely separated to the abridged series it came from. ~~Maybe i’m just projecting because I didn't know this was from the abridged series either~~ but "The Soup Store" became a massive meme in its own right, and Code MENT is often never mentioned in relation to it, so I think it is fair to say.

50% off has the same issue, though not to as big an extent, since many of the memes or popular clips/audios from this series are a bit more recent, and I’ve seen more mention of the original abridged series when clips go viral. Here's another line you might recognize, especially if you were on TikTok during the quarantine era:

note: the clip I'm referring to is between 2:00 and 2:11, the video should start at 2:00 automatically but will keep playing past 2:11...I mean you can keep watching past 2:11 I guess if you want but you don't have to

Abridged series in general hold a special place in my heart, since as a little chronically online tween all I did all day was watch YouTube videos, and these series were things I genuinely looked forward to watching over and over again. Even now, while some of the humor is a bit outdated at best (and I wouldn't take some jokes so well if it were made today), many of the most popular abridged series are genuinely enjoyable and fun to watch. The SAO abridged we watched the other day had some hilarious lines, great re characterization of Kirito (the main character, making him just an outright asshole), and many ongoing jokes that reference each other, one of which being about a particular npc character, which I will leave off this post with. This is a collection of clips from across the whole series, and may not make much sense if you don't know the basic plot of SAO, but hopefully you gain something from this anyway!

We must save my family!

~~not much analysis but I'm too tired and I just want to talk about abridged series'~~ ~~:;)~~

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korvetar

1699071226

i didn't actually know about abridged series before so learning about them was cool. i have seen the "only thing on haru's mind" clip on tiktoks before and really liked all of the memes

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