Are abridged anime series BETTER than the source material?

[Odbarc]

Abridged can only be good if the source material is good too.
From there, the writers have to be good at writing. Clever enough to get the right jokes. Make the right observations that a lot of people may have missed watching. Forgetting the bad moments because of nostalgia.

 

[Dimitriov]

I take my anime seriously so to me abridged stuff is tantamount to sacrilige. They come too close to an experiece I'm sure a lot of us share where you watch something wih a big group and within it some people refuse to pay attention and at least try to understand what is happening or why and all they do is make insulting unserious comments about whatever flashes on the screeen. It irritates me as I believe it ought to be treated with more respect than that.

Kind of the same for me. It always feels like a stupid kid with ADD or something who can't pay attention to something for more than 5 minutes, and refuses to try to understand or care about what's going on. So instead he just starts making fart noises and repeating snatches of dialogue in a mocking voice. Ah yes, the epitome of humour.

This does not, however, apply to dubbed anime which are almost universally shit anyway. I suppose they might as well be mocked. Especially since most of the time the VAs sound like they are doing the mocking voice thing themselves. Also God save us from dubbed children. In Japan they seem to have noticed that kids generally have higher pitched voices and so use a woman as the voice actor. A reasonable and effective choice. In English dubs? Let's just get an adult man to do a whiny voice, yeah that'll be good.

Ugh.

 

[Dreiko_v1legacy]

I take my anime seriously so to me abridged stuff is tantamount to sacrilige. They come too close to an experiece I'm sure a lot of us share where you watch something wih a big group and within it some people refuse to pay attention and at least try to understand what is happening or why and all they do is make insulting unserious comments about whatever flashes on the screeen. It irritates me as I believe it ought to be treated with more respect than that.

Kind of the same for me. It always feels like a stupid kid with ADD or something who can't pay attention to something for more than 5 minutes, and refuses to try to understand or care about what's going on. So instead he just starts making fart noises and repeating snatches of dialogue in a mocking voice. Ah yes, the epitome of humour.

This does not, however, apply to dubbed anime which are almost universally shit anyway. I suppose they might as well be mocked. Especially since most of the time the VAs sound like they are doing the mocking voice thing themselves. Also God save us from dubbed children. In Japan they seem to have noticed that kids generally have higher pitched voices and so use a woman as the voice actor. A reasonable and effective choice. In English dubs? Let's just get an adult man to do a whiny voice, yeah that'll be good.

Ugh.

I am one who isn't a native english speaker but I speak both it and JP so I just avoid dubs since they are also in a foreign language. In my experience, they most fail as cute female sounding chars. That Kugimiya Rie style voice, it's impossible to reproduce in english, the nuance of soundig childlike as a form of cuteness that grownups do doesn't exist so what's left is the character sounding cringe worthy.

 

[PapaGreg096]

I take my anime seriously so to me abridged stuff is tantamount to sacrilige. They come too close to an experiece I'm sure a lot of us share where you watch something wih a big group and within it some people refuse to pay attention and at least try to understand what is happening or why and all they do is make insulting unserious comments about whatever flashes on the screeen. It irritates me as I believe it ought to be treated with more respect than that.

Kind of the same for me. It always feels like a stupid kid with ADD or something who can't pay attention to something for more than 5 minutes, and refuses to try to understand or care about what's going on. So instead he just starts making fart noises and repeating snatches of dialogue in a mocking voice. Ah yes, the epitome of humour.

This does not, however, apply to dubbed anime which are almost universally shit anyway. I suppose they might as well be mocked. Especially since most of the time the VAs sound like they are doing the mocking voice thing themselves. Also God save us from dubbed children. In Japan they seem to have noticed that kids generally have higher pitched voices and so use a woman as the voice actor. A reasonable and effective choice. In English dubs? Let's just get an adult man to do a whiny voice, yeah that'll be good.

Ugh.

You do know that people who abridge anime are usually fans of the show right and most of the time they abridge shows that are more or less DBZ quality its not like they are abridging Citzen Kane

 

[Kolby Jack]

The thing is, for Abridged Series, most of the work has been done for them already. It's all just editing and voice acting, which are significant chunks of the production process but it's certainly not equal to making a show from scratch. The thing about parody is that it's inherently derivative, and abridged series are even MORE than that because the use the actual show's footage. If you try to argue that an abridged series transcends the original, you can't overlook how utterly dependent the abridged series IS on the original.

Team Four Star are great comedy writers and voice actors, and I'm a huge fan of their work. But if they announced they were going to make their own completely original animated show, I'd be HUGELY skeptical of it. So much of their Abridged humor is based on things present in the original work that it'd be a pretty hefty void to fill if they tried to make a show from scratch. And I know they know this; it's why they constantly remind people how they are huge fans of Dragonball Z and have that hefty disclaimer on the front of their videos.

In short, no, I wouldn't say an abridged series could ever be "better" than the original since the whole abridging process (while still a lot of hard work) is much less involved than crafting an original work, and requires a significantly smaller talent pool.

 

[Luminous_Umbra]

It really depends. Most, I would say no.

In my eyes at least, a good abridged series doesn't just languish in insulting and poking fun at the source material, it works with it and makes an overall better product.

Examples: Dragonball Z Abridged and Hellsing Abridged.

Team Four Star is great, but their early episodes are rather cringe worthy in comparison to their new stuff.

I will agree with this sentiment though. It is a massive pain trying to get people into it.

 

[Dreiko_v1legacy]

I take my anime seriously so to me abridged stuff is tantamount to sacrilige. They come too close to an experiece I'm sure a lot of us share where you watch something wih a big group and within it some people refuse to pay attention and at least try to understand what is happening or why and all they do is make insulting unserious comments about whatever flashes on the screeen. It irritates me as I believe it ought to be treated with more respect than that.

Kind of the same for me. It always feels like a stupid kid with ADD or something who can't pay attention to something for more than 5 minutes, and refuses to try to understand or care about what's going on. So instead he just starts making fart noises and repeating snatches of dialogue in a mocking voice. Ah yes, the epitome of humour.

This does not, however, apply to dubbed anime which are almost universally shit anyway. I suppose they might as well be mocked. Especially since most of the time the VAs sound like they are doing the mocking voice thing themselves. Also God save us from dubbed children. In Japan they seem to have noticed that kids generally have higher pitched voices and so use a woman as the voice actor. A reasonable and effective choice. In English dubs? Let's just get an adult man to do a whiny voice, yeah that'll be good.

Ugh.

You do know that people who abridge anime are usually fans of the show right and most of the time they abridge shows that are more or less DBZ quality its not like they are abridging Citzen Kane

Your first point I hear a lot and honestly it makes no difference. Whether they love the show or not the ridiculing jokes are still that so if you are annoyed by such ridicule the fact that some other fans are not does nothing to alleviate that. When I see a scene which gave me goosebumps of hype being torn down to a silly childish joke, that is an annoyance and an affront, no matter how much the guy doing that act also likes the scene.

As for the second point, it may surprise you but a lot of people prefer their whatever anime to kane, value it more, like it more, treat it more seriously. Just because your tastes are not like that doesn't mean others agree.

 

[PapaGreg096]

I take my anime seriously so to me abridged stuff is tantamount to sacrilige. They come too close to an experiece I'm sure a lot of us share where you watch something wih a big group and within it some people refuse to pay attention and at least try to understand what is happening or why and all they do is make insulting unserious comments about whatever flashes on the screeen. It irritates me as I believe it ought to be treated with more respect than that.

Kind of the same for me. It always feels like a stupid kid with ADD or something who can't pay attention to something for more than 5 minutes, and refuses to try to understand or care about what's going on. So instead he just starts making fart noises and repeating snatches of dialogue in a mocking voice. Ah yes, the epitome of humour.

This does not, however, apply to dubbed anime which are almost universally shit anyway. I suppose they might as well be mocked. Especially since most of the time the VAs sound like they are doing the mocking voice thing themselves. Also God save us from dubbed children. In Japan they seem to have noticed that kids generally have higher pitched voices and so use a woman as the voice actor. A reasonable and effective choice. In English dubs? Let's just get an adult man to do a whiny voice, yeah that'll be good.

Ugh.

You do know that people who abridge anime are usually fans of the show right and most of the time they abridge shows that are more or less DBZ quality its not like they are abridging Citzen Kane

Your first point I hear a lot and honestly it makes no difference. Whether they love the show or not the ridiculing jokes are still that so if you are annoyed by such ridicule the fact that some other fans are not does nothing to alleviate that. When I see a scene which gave me goosebumos of hype bein torn down to a silly childish joke, thst is an annoyance and an affront, no matter how much the guy doing thst act also likes the scene.

As for the second point, it may surprise you but a lot of people prefer their whatever anime to kane, value it more, like it more, treat it more seriously. Just because your tastes are not like that doesn't mean others agree.

Dude get that stick out of your ass, life is much more pleasant without it

 

[Dreiko_v1legacy]

I take my anime seriously so to me abridged stuff is tantamount to sacrilige. They come too close to an experiece I'm sure a lot of us share where you watch something wih a big group and within it some people refuse to pay attention and at least try to understand what is happening or why and all they do is make insulting unserious comments about whatever flashes on the screeen. It irritates me as I believe it ought to be treated with more respect than that.

Kind of the same for me. It always feels like a stupid kid with ADD or something who can't pay attention to something for more than 5 minutes, and refuses to try to understand or care about what's going on. So instead he just starts making fart noises and repeating snatches of dialogue in a mocking voice. Ah yes, the epitome of humour.

This does not, however, apply to dubbed anime which are almost universally shit anyway. I suppose they might as well be mocked. Especially since most of the time the VAs sound like they are doing the mocking voice thing themselves. Also God save us from dubbed children. In Japan they seem to have noticed that kids generally have higher pitched voices and so use a woman as the voice actor. A reasonable and effective choice. In English dubs? Let's just get an adult man to do a whiny voice, yeah that'll be good.

Ugh.

You do know that people who abridge anime are usually fans of the show right and most of the time they abridge shows that are more or less DBZ quality its not like they are abridging Citzen Kane

Your first point I hear a lot and honestly it makes no difference. Whether they love the show or not the ridiculing jokes are still that so if you are annoyed by such ridicule the fact that some other fans are not does nothing to alleviate that. When I see a scene which gave me goosebumos of hype bein torn down to a silly childish joke, thst is an annoyance and an affront, no matter how much the guy doing thst act also likes the scene.

As for the second point, it may surprise you but a lot of people prefer their whatever anime to kane, value it more, like it more, treat it more seriously. Just because your tastes are not like that doesn't mean others agree.

Dude get that stick out of your ass, life is much more pleasant without it

Life is more pleasant when you can be earnestly unironically appreciative of good things without needing to be a sarcastic jerk to have fun. My thesis is that I am already happy so I don't need the abridged stuff to attempt to "improve" my favorite things since each thing is perfect as-is and any change lessens its value.

 

[Redlin5_v1legacy]

TeamFourStar is generally a better, condensed way of telling the same story albeit with characters written into hilarious caricatures. While I still do enjoy Dragon Ball Z up until the end of the Cell saga on its own merits, I'm enjoying reliving the series through the humor and talent of the abridging crew.

 

[Groxnax]

I love TFS, Yu-Gi-Oh abridged, SAOA, Purple Eyes series and a few others.

When a certain website isn't having a snit.

 

[Lunar Templar]

2 examples of yes:

DBA

and

Hellsing abridge

seriously the last one could easily be taken a actual series

adding to this

Evabridge

and

SAO Abridged

 

[Hero in a half shell]

I've seen some terrible, terrible Abridged series. There is literally no quality control, so the worst bridges are awfully woeful

That said, I absolutely love DBZ. I never really watched the original (apart from a few random Youtube vids) so I probably miss a lot of the in-jokes, but the writing is just so hilarious and such great quality it really doesn't matter.
Yugioh Abridged is pretty good, although it's kind of trailed off of late into strange territory, and Hellsing Ultimate Abridged is fantastic, although I think at times there's very little they change of some scenes from the original, but considering how extreme and gorey the original is, there isn't really much further they could go with many scenes, it's already a violent caricature of itself at times.

 

[PapaGreg096]

I take my anime seriously so to me abridged stuff is tantamount to sacrilige. They come too close to an experiece I'm sure a lot of us share where you watch something wih a big group and within it some people refuse to pay attention and at least try to understand what is happening or why and all they do is make insulting unserious comments about whatever flashes on the screeen. It irritates me as I believe it ought to be treated with more respect than that.

Kind of the same for me. It always feels like a stupid kid with ADD or something who can't pay attention to something for more than 5 minutes, and refuses to try to understand or care about what's going on. So instead he just starts making fart noises and repeating snatches of dialogue in a mocking voice. Ah yes, the epitome of humour.

This does not, however, apply to dubbed anime which are almost universally shit anyway. I suppose they might as well be mocked. Especially since most of the time the VAs sound like they are doing the mocking voice thing themselves. Also God save us from dubbed children. In Japan they seem to have noticed that kids generally have higher pitched voices and so use a woman as the voice actor. A reasonable and effective choice. In English dubs? Let's just get an adult man to do a whiny voice, yeah that'll be good.

Ugh.

You do know that people who abridge anime are usually fans of the show right and most of the time they abridge shows that are more or less DBZ quality its not like they are abridging Citzen Kane

Your first point I hear a lot and honestly it makes no difference. Whether they love the show or not the ridiculing jokes are still that so if you are annoyed by such ridicule the fact that some other fans are not does nothing to alleviate that. When I see a scene which gave me goosebumos of hype bein torn down to a silly childish joke, thst is an annoyance and an affront, no matter how much the guy doing thst act also likes the scene.

As for the second point, it may surprise you but a lot of people prefer their whatever anime to kane, value it more, like it more, treat it more seriously. Just because your tastes are not like that doesn't mean others agree.

Dude get that stick out of your ass, life is much more pleasant without it

Life is more pleasant when you can be earnestly unironically appreciative of good things without needing to be a sarcastic jerk to have fun. My thesis is that I am already happy so I don't need the abridged stuff to attempt to "improve" my favorite things since each thing is perfect as-is and any change lessens its value.

Whos being a sarcastic jerk and if you just said "I personally don't like abridge shows" then that would be fine but you go on to say that abridge shows are juvenile because they don't understand the complex art of anime.

 

[FalloutJack]

Only in certain cases.

DBZ Abridged is exceptional work and DBZ itself can get rather tedious.

On the other hand, Hellsing Abridged and Hellsing Ultimate are both highly entertaining.

I once saw the beginnings of a Big O Abridged... Suffice to say, I could probably write better jokes myself. Things about the how much Roger Smith is Batman or the fact that Beck is modeled after Lupin The 3rd. A menagerie of fourth-wall-breaks about how the show is a show within a show would be most suitable. And I wouldn't touch Schwarzwald's best speeches because, frankly, it's genius.

 

[F-I-D-O]

It depends.
Removing pointless filler that doesn't advance plot or characterization is always helpful. Every missing Beach episode is a missing beach episode.
Just because a show has multiple seasons doesn't give it the right to waste time, especially when the excuse of "waiting for the manga" doesn't work anymore.

Similarly, removing too much characterization to reach the action faster results in an inferior result.

I have no problem with abridged series, and like it when they tweak existing stuff to give fans a reason to invest all over again. But nothings worse than an editor deciding they haven't made enough of an impact.