By Timothy Lee
I have been a die-hard anime fan since at least 2007, a time when liking anime wasn’t nearly as cool, hip, or mainstream as it is today. Still, it was an art form I loved with all my heart, especially since it was a shared interest I had with my childhood friends. Growing up, we became obsessed with anime like Pokémon, Yu-Gi-Oh, Naruto, and Dragon Ball Z. However, many of our shared inside jokes stemmed not from the shows themselves but from their abridged versions on YouTube, which would satirize and poke fun at their worlds, characters, and plotlines. For those unfamiliar, anime abridged series are fan-made parodies that take pre-existing shows, shorten them to their most bare-essential plot points, and drastically alter the writing, voice acting, and tone to create more comedic versions of their official counterparts.
Some of the most iconic abridged shows ended up becoming so popular and well-produced that they resulted in their own fanbases separate from the official anime they were parodying. My childhood friends and I were proud, card-carrying members of those communities. We loved these videos so much that we often quoted random lines from them to amuse ourselves, like “But Vegeta, Trix are for kids,” or sang the Ghost Nappa song from Dragon Ball Z Abridged. Anime abridged shows were just as much a part of my childhood as actual anime were, and my love for them never stopped as I continued watching every new episode of Yu-Gi-Oh: The Abridged Series and Dragon Ball Z Abridged whenever they came out. I occasionally revisit these old abridged series whenever I’m feeling nostalgic, as they always manage to leave the same goofy smile on my face that I had in my yesteryears. Yet what exactly makes anime abridged videos, especially the best ones, so special that they would end up becoming a defining aspect of both anime and Internet history, before mostly withering away as a relic of the past?
The years 2008 to 2016 are arguably the golden age of this specific brand of anime content, as an enormous wave of abridged shows and videos flooded YouTube during that era of the Internet. If there was a popular anime, then there was likely an abridged version of it somewhere online. Some anime, such as Naruto, Pokémon, My Hero Academia, and Attack on Titan, were so popular that they had multiple abridged series from different content creators. Some YouTubers dedicated their channel to a single anime and maybe had one or two other abridged series as side projects (i.e., LittleKuriboh creating Naruto: The Abridged Comedy Fandub Spoof Series Show in 2009 on his second channel, Ninjabridge, and TeamFourStar launching their Hellsing Ultimate Abridged series in 2010). Others bounced around between different anime and created multiple abridged series, such as Grimmjack, who made abridged videos for shows like Food Wars (2015), Goblin Slayer (2018), My Hero Academia (2019), Demon Slayer (2021), and Chainsaw Man (2023). No matter how you slice it, anime abridged videos were everywhere at the peak of their popularity. For reference, when examining the Abridged Archive, a list on the Internet Archive created by pzykosiz that documents and catalogs almost every piece of anime abridged content (series, movies, one-shots, etc.) ever made, a total of 543 results pop up. According to the Abridged Series Wiki, which is an official partner of the Abridged Archive, the Abridged Archive is “Currently hosting roughly 500 abridgers, 1600 series and 8000 videos, including One Shots, Special Episodes, Abridged Movies & other side videos.” Though, spoilers for later, this ubiquity inevitably led to this genre’s oversaturation and downfall.
Yet even if most of the abridged videos from this golden age aren’t particularly memorable or amusing, I nonetheless value their existence because of what this content represents to the greater anime fandom. Abridging arguably requires even more effort than other anime content, such as AMVs (anime music videos), reviews, and even fandubs, because creating an abridged video, much less a series, demands a tremendous amount of coordination, creativity, and time. The best ones are those that possess professional-level production quality, including a tightly polished script, talented voice acting that delivers solid performances and jokes, and most importantly, a detailed and precise editing process that brings everything together. There’s so much work that goes into abridging that these videos end up becoming entirely new experiences that feel unique from the original show that they are parodying. That level of dedication is only possible because the YouTubers behind these abridged shows loved an anime so much that they channeled that passion into creating a piece of art that both honors and is distinct from the source material.
To understand the impact that anime abridged series have had on fans like myself, it’s important to be familiar with their history and explore the circumstances that led to their rise, peak, and fall. Depending on how you define the term “anime abridging,” there is a debate amongst some semantic nitpickers on what exactly the first anime abridged series was. For example, an argument can be made that the first true anime abridged show is the infamous English dub of Ghost Stories, which the localizers drastically changed to such a degree that the series went from being a children’s show about the paranormal to a bizarre adult comedy filled with raunchy jokes, ad-libbing, pop-culture references, and fourth-wall breaks. However, for the sake of simplicity and universality, and given that this piece primarily focuses on anime abridged shows on YouTube, the first official anime abridged parody was Yu-Gi-Oh! The Abridged Series (YGOTAS), created by Martin Billany, also known as LittleKuriboh, in 2006.
YGOTAS is the grandfather of the anime abridged series because not only was it the very first of its kind, but it also set the high benchmark in terms of quality and humor that many other abridged parodies that followed attempted to reach. LittleKuriboh laid the groundwork of what an anime abridged parody looks like, as it is filled with many notable characteristics that have since defined the genre. These include shortening episodes of the original Yu-Gi-Oh! anime to the most essential plot points for comedic effect and to build faster pacing, creating exaggerated and more over-the-top versions of certain characters, drastically turning the more forgettable characters into fan-favorites (such as Tristan going from a generic tough-guy friend from the original anime into someone who makes the most absurd statements with a high-pitched voice that gives him “super-strength”), making references to memetic pop-culture, breaking the fourth-wall to point out how ridiculous the plot and world are, and having each character be defined by a certain trait or catchphrase (i.e. Joey Wheeler having a Brooklyn accent and saying “nyah,” Seto Kaiba being an arrogant richboy who says things like “screw the rules, I have money,” Mokuba constantly pointing out how he’s always being kidnapped, etc.).
Almost 2 decades after the pilot episode of YGOTAS was uploaded to YouTube, this series has remained a shining beacon of how entertaining and hilarious anime abridged shows can be. In addition to being the first, it remains one of the best anime abridged series of all time. A huge contributing factor behind why YGOTAS has remained so timeless, besides the fact that the show’s writing, comedic timing, editing, and voice acting (most of the major characters are voiced by LittleKuriboh himself) are absolutely impeccable, is that it came from LittleKuriboh’s passion for the Yu-Gi-Oh! franchise and wanting to be a part of the fandom. According to an interview with Deborah Krieger, LittleKuriboh stated that YGOTAS started because, “I caught the end of a 'Yu-Gi-Oh!' episode and ended up getting hooked as I gradually watched more and more. As a result, I became a big fan of the show and wanted to do something with it, which ended up being the abridged parody.”
YGOTAS became an Internet phenomenon not because LittleKuriboh sought to jumpstart an online trend, but from a desire to develop something that expressed his love for Yu-Gi-Oh! in his own unique way while also being engaging to a wide audience. However, regardless of his intention, LittleKuriboh had unknowingly created something that gained such mass appeal that it quickly became popular, even outside the greater Yu-Gi-Oh! community. In that same interview with Deborah Krieger, Little Kuriboh noted, “Around episode 6 of the show I started noticing forum posts on websites that had nothing to do with ‘Yu-Gi-Oh!’ talking about it. It snowballed almost immediately.” YGOTAS became so popular that it inspired a whole slew of similarly passionate anime enthusiasts to acquire the cheapest microphones and editing software they could get their hands on and produce their own abridged parodies.
The next anime abridged series to pop up on YouTube was 2008’s Naruto: The Abridged Series, created by Lawrence “MasakoX” Simpson and Brandon “Vegeta3986” Rainsford, both of whom, according to a NathanGraves989 interview with MasakoX, cited YGOTAS as an influence. Another person inspired by LittleKuriboh was Ben “Hbi2k” Creighton, who would go on to make shows like Berserk: The Abridged Series and Gantz: The Abridged Series. Other notable examples that followed the trend that LittleKuriboh and YGOTAS set include Nick “Lanipator” Landis, who made Yu Yu Hakusho Abridged; Corinne “Megami33” Sudberg, who developed Sailor Moon Abridged; Scott T. “KaiserNeko” Frerichs, who created Lupin the 3rd: The Abridged Series; Anthony “Antfish” Sardinha, who produced Jojo’s Bizarre Adventure: The Abridged Series; and Curtis “Takahata101” Arnott, who spearheaded G Gundam Abridged. While many of these shows that I could watch (G Gundam has seemingly been scrubbed off the face of the Internet, as I was unable to find it anywhere) had some unique elements that made them charming in their own right, they very much felt like YGOTAS imitators that closely followed the formula established by LittleKuriboh. Nonetheless, because the barrier to entry for making an abridged series was so low at the time, and many of these creators made these videos for fun, they remain endearing to watch through this nostalgia-heavy perspective, even if most of them are forgettable and even juvenile.
The reason why I made that long and tedious list of abridgers, beyond the purpose of naming other notable anime abridged shows that were made following the release of YGOTAS, is that many of those people would go on to be members of the YouTube channel and production company, TeamFourStar. Founded by KaiserNeko, Lanipator, and Takahta101, TeamFourStar is best known for creating Dragon Ball Z Abridged (DBZA) in 2008, one of, if not the most, iconic anime abridged series ever made. DBZA was a monumental landmark because not only was it the only anime abridged show at the time that surpassed YGOTAS in terms of production quality and popularity (as an average DBZA episode would often get roughly triple the amount of views an average YGOTAS episode received), but it was also the first major collaborative effort amongst a group of seasoned and experienced abridgers, all of whom had gotten more acquainted and close with each other during this early wave of anime parodies.
While many of these artists had worked together in the past, primarily in the form of cameoing in each other’s abridged series, TeamFourStar was a huge deal at the time because it was the start of a collaborative and coordinated operation that involved many of the most well-known abridgers coming together to tackle one of the most famous anime of all time. These early members of TeamFourStar approached this task with utmost seriousness, much like a professional production group would, with various members assigned to play specific characters and taking on certain behind-the-scenes duties, such as directing, writing, and editing. To get an idea of just how groundbreaking this was at the time, anime YouTuber Gigguk put it best in his video, The Art of Abridged Series, by describing the formation of TeamFourStar and DBZA as “almost like the Avengers of abridging before Avengers even came out.”
If LittleKuriboh birthed the anime abridged genre with YGOTAS, then TeamFourStar refined and perfected it with DBZA. At first glance, DBZA shares many of the same ingredients that made YGOTAS successful, such as excellent writing and comedic timing that made the humor infectious, amplifying some of the more notable characters’ defining qualities, such as Goku’s naivety or Vegeta’s pride, drastically altering the forgettable side characters into hilarious Tristan-esque fan favorites like Nappa and Grand Elder Guru, and breaking the fourth wall to point out the more ridiculous moments. However, YGOTAS rarely took its plot seriously and would constantly poke fun at itself, with characters continually commenting on how their show’s setting entirely revolves around teenagers and adults devoting their lives to a children’s card game. DBZA, on the other hand, always made sure to find the right balance between comedic gags and dramatic storytelling. DBZA surprisingly takes its main conflicts and story elements earnestly, ensuring that each of the major fights, such as the one between Goku and Vegeta in the Saiyan Saga or the one between Goku and Frieza in the Frieza Saga, still retains the necessary dramatic tension to keep audiences invested. Even if the characters are still cracking jokes and saying dumb things, like Goku whispering “pizza” as Frieza fights Trunks, the humor always complements these fights rather than interfering with them.
That’s not to say that DBZA is a serious show, as it’s still a parody filled with an endless amount of memorable jokes and gags, such as the Krillin Owned Count (which is a counter that pops up every time Krillin gets beaten up or “owned”), Piccolo screaming “DODGE” and “NERD” at Gohan, and pretty much everything that comes out of Nappa’s mouth. Still to this day, the moment that always makes me chuckle is the one in Episode 17 of the show:
Zarbon: “Lord Frieza, Vegeta is really giving us a pounding.”
Frieza: “I’m coming, Zarbon! Quick, grab my Balls!”
However, if there’s one major element that made DBZA such a widespread Internet phenomenon, it’s the show’s impressively high production quality. While the first season still had some amateurish elements common in many other abridged series at the time, such as the somewhat rough audio quality and the footage being locked at 240p, by the time it reached Episode 12, many of these issues had been completely fixed. This show kept getting better and better as it went along, especially from a technical, voice acting, and writing perspective, and by the time it reached the halfway point of the Frieza Saga, the show was so expertly crafted that its production felt comparable to that of actual official anime developed by professional studios. TeamFourStar single-handedly and dramatically raised the standard of quality for all future anime abridged shows. Naturally, the team’s success opened the floodgates for weebs with microphones, editing software, and collaborators to try their hand at making the next DBZA. While I’m sure there are some anime abridged series on YouTube that I’m not aware of that possibly matched or even surpassed the benchmark TeamFourStar set in terms of writing and editing, very few ever became as recognizable or influential as DBZA.
TeamFourStar’s success led to a new wave of abridgers pursuing this new online trend, but the group also raised the bar for making a successful abridged series in general. Many subsequent anime abridged shows failed to capture the same spark that TeamFourStar had because, by the peak of this genre’s popularity, the supply was high and the competition was steep. That being said, some noteworthy content creators successfully stood out from the crowd, and while I can’t name every single one of them (this piece is already much longer than it is), the most notable ones fall under two particular categories.
The first type of post-DBZA abridgers to gain recognition and success are the ones who saw what TeamFourStar was doing and went in the complete opposite direction. DBZA made jokes and gags at every turn, yet maintained a structured narrative that served as a shortened yet faithful version of the original Dragon Ball Z anime. Meanwhile, these abridgers threw the very idea of plot and cohesiveness out the window. Instead, they made videos that are so unhinged, absurd, and unlike their source materials that they walked a fine line between expressionist art piece and shitpost. This group arguably took greater influence from LittleKuriboh than TeamFourStar, as the way they produced their own anime abridged series feels like a more radical and unrestrained version of YOGTAS.
One notable abridging team to embrace this ultra-whacky vibe was the group (which has since disbanded) known as Elite3, which consisted of Michael “1KidsEntertainment” Hecht, Jerry “xJerry64x” Pakalinsky, and Jesse “Nowacking” Nowack, who together spearheaded Pokémon The ‘Bridged Series. The best way to describe this show is that it’s essentially Pokémon, but with the tone and characters of Anchorman or Zoolander. Everyone (save for some straight man characters like Misty) is mind-bogglingly stupid as they act and say the most ludicrous things imaginable. From Brock’s constant need to talk about “breeding” with a creepy tone to Ash being portrayed as a manic and childish idiot, who is essentially just what if the abridged versions of Tristan and Nappa were the protagonists, Pokémon The ‘Bridged Series revels in its absurdity. The show rejects the very ideas of plot or character development, instead choosing to be a Tim and Eric-style joke machine that all comes together thanks to its editing. This is a tightly paced series in which every episode flies by, rarely lasting more than 10 minutes, allowing the comedy to entertain just enough without overstaying its welcome.
However, if there’s one channel that truly defined this particular brand of the anime abridged genre, that crown would have to go to Ryan Nicks, also known as PurpleEyesWTF, the genius behind Code Geass AbridgeMent, also referred to as Code MENT, and None Piece. PurpleEyesWTF was the first notable abridger to embrace this chaotic, unhinged tone and editing style, as both Code MENT and None Piece have been described as a delicate blending between a traditional anime abridged series and a YouTube Poop. While both shows technically follow the same storylines as their respective anime, similar to Elite3, PupleEyesWTF is not remotely interested in maintaining narrative structure or even some semblance of cohesion or coherence. Instead, each episode of Code MENT and None Piece is a non-stop barrage of jokes/gags that abruptly start and end out of nowhere, constant fourth-wall breaks (my favorite being in Episode 5 of None Piece in which PurpleEyesWTF left audio footage of him screaming “shut the fuck up,” “I love you,” and “fuck you, fuckass” to his dog in the video), unhinged and over-the-top voice acting, and a shitposting approach to editing that creates incredible moments of visual humor that feel reminiscent of an episode of I Think You Should Leave with Tim Robinson.
This chaotic approach to tone and humor is propped up by the fact that virtually every character in both Code MENT and None Piece is a complete moron. While Pokémon The ‘Bridged Series had at least one or two straight man characters, PurpleEyesWTF’s anime abridged shows don’t even bother with that. Instead, everyone is a Tristan or Nappa in Code MENT and None Piece, especially the protagonists, as Lelouch is portrayed as a bumbling blockhead who changes his motivation at almost every turn in the former, and Luffy is a 45-year-old Scottish pirate who’s hunted down for making Internet parodies in the latter. Lelouch, as well as the rest of the characters, being portrayed in this manner is especially humorous because it goes against the very concept of Code Geass. The original anime was critically acclaimed for its political intrigue and for utilizing the mecha genre to tackle themes of power, revolution, and imperialism. Therefore, by having everyone be an idiot, PurpleEyesWTF transforms this complex show into a montage of characters engaging in the strangest and wildest activities for no explicit or apparent reason. While None Piece is slightly more faithful to the original anime’s campy and pulpy tone, it is still such a massive departure from its source material that it ends up being amusing.
The second group of post-DBZA abridgers are the ones who followed the template that TeamFourStar established and further refined it. Several examples fall under this category, but arguably the most well-known and critically acclaimed anime abridger of this type is Something Witty Entertainment (which consists of Matthew J. “YamatoSFX” Kok, Mackenzie “Hayabusa449” Murdock, Carrie “xbubblemunkyx” Johnston, Chase “Coffinjockey” Corbin, and Spencer “MrBuddyVA” Downs), the YouTube channel best known for their series, Sword Art Online: Abridged (SAOA). SAOA is a beloved and lavishly produced anime abridged series, and a big reason why it’s been listed as one of the best in its genre is that it’s one of the few parodies that actually improve upon its source material. This is a sentiment with which I wholeheartedly agree, though I am biased when I say that because I absolutely despise Sword Art Online. Therefore, the fact that Something Witty Entertainment can take this anime I cannot stand and create a version of it that is actually tolerable to watch goes to show just how talented the team behind writing, directing, and editing this series is.
Another notable example is a YouTuber I previously quoted, Gigguk, whose real name is Garnt Maneetapho. While Gigguk is primarily known for his anime reviews, rants, and video essays, he has also dabbled in the abridging sphere with his 4-part Evabridged series, which parodies the first movie in the Rebuild of Evangelion. These videos feel very DBZA-coded in that they maintain a style of humor similar to that of TeamFourStar's, but without diluting Evangelion’s central themes or messages. In fact, Gigguk went even further with the dramatic storytelling and tension than TeamFourStar or any other abridger at the time, especially in the last episode of Evabridged, where the showdown between Shinji and the Fifth Angel, Ramiel, still has the same emotional gravitas and weight that was in the original anime, with only brief moments of humor sprinkled throughout. As writer ericg points out in his article at the Artifice, “Characters are actually scared, unsure if they’ll be able to survive. The episode is given a dramatic score to complement the grave atmosphere. Abridged Misato gives Shinji an inspirational speech to convince him to pilot the EVA, in spite of the immense danger he’d be putting himself into—one that wouldn’t be out of place in the original series.”
It’s no wonder that Gigguk went on to write and produce his own original anime with the short film Bâan: The Boundary of Adulthood, as Evabridged proved early on that Gigguk had the chops to tell a compelling story. This series encapsulates the spirit of Evangelion in such a perfect manner that it ends up being just as much a love letter to the franchise as it is a parody. While Gigguk never hesitates to poke fun at certain moments or portray characters in absurdly stupid ways, most notably Gendo, who infamously keeps referring to the Angels as “Godzilla” despite constantly being told that Godzilla is a fictional monster, his love and passion for Evangelion are apparent in almost every frame.
While Evabridged is the only traditional anime abridged series Gigguk would develop, he continued experimenting with the genre with his series of [Anime Name] in X minutes videos, which covered shows like Tokyo Ghoul, Re: Zero, and Darling in the Franxxx. The premise is to summarize the entirety of an anime series in a condensed 5-10ish-minute-long comedic video using traditional abridging techniques. These videos ended up being a huge success because, as of the time of writing this essay, they are his most viewed content, with his Attack on Titan one sitting at the top with 33 million views. They were such hits that even TeamFourStar seemingly took some notes from Gigguk because the group ended up making their own series of [Anime Name] in X minutes. Speaking of TeamFourStar, this leads me to the final saga (see what I did there?) of this piece: the inevitable decline of anime abridged series.
While a gradual reduction in anime abridged shows was inevitable, as is the case with any online trend, I would argue that the moment that truly symbolized the collapse of this genre came in the form of a post TeamFourStar made on their Patreon, announcing that they would not abridge the Buu Saga of Dragon Ball Z and were officially ending DBZA as a whole. While their Patreon post goes into every minute detail explaining why they came to this decision, a Kotaku article by Nathan Grayson provides the most glaring and essential points from their announcement:
“Many shows lose steam as time goes on as the creators extend their work far beyond its natural lifespan; we’re feeling that with this, and that’s a scary, depressing thought. We don’t want to end up like The Simpsons, Dexter, Scrubs M.D., just to name a few. And yes, we know, there’s more story to work with. But in all honesty… there just isn’t the emotional attachment and passion for the arc that drove the last three seasons… We’re burned out on the original method, in general. It’s been an absolute blast to bring DBZA to life, but after 11 years of the same project… it’s gotten oppressive. Which, again, is a scary thought… Copyright claims have put us at risk of losing that channel, and our livelihoods in jeopardy. We have our employees to look out for; our friends, our colleagues, and doing right by them—by striving to create original, monetizable, copyright friendly content, that also carries our heart and soul as creatives—is undeniably important. We've thought about hosting DBZA on other sites, but nowhere has been safe, and worse, it would serve to draw attention away from our hub, which ultimately could lead to less views, less support, and either the scaling back or collapse of our company.”
While KaiserNeko provides additional reasons behind why TeamFourStar chose to end DBZA, the quote above highlights the three most important and interconnected reasons why the anime abridged series declined: burnout, the modern YouTube algorithm, and copyright. The truth of the matter is that, as successful as DBZA was, TeamFourStar was also a victim of that success. This channel single-handedly raised the bar for what a quality anime abridged series would look like, but that standard also applied to them. Therefore, for every great episode they produced, the goalpost shifted further and further away, and every time that happens, they have to invest even more time and energy to hit that bar: better production quality, funnier writing and jokes, more talented voice acting, etc. Naturally, when the stakes for success become greater, the risk of burnout increases, as has been the case for every creative team behind almost every hit TV show or movie franchise that has gone on for too long.
Therefore, to ensure that the quality of DBZA never dips (which, to TeamFourStar’s credit, it never did), the time between episode uploads gradually and exponentially grew. For example, the gap between DBZA: Episode 59 (June 23, 2017) and Episode 60 - Part 1 (August 31, 2018) was over a year. While there’s nothing inherently wrong with this, as I’m willing to believe that they needed that long of a gap to complete the Cell Saga, the problem is that the modern YouTube algorithm highly favors a consistent schedule of high-quality, engaging videos. Therefore, if there’s no consistent upload pattern that the algorithm can track, then perhaps TeamFourStar would have seen a dip in views had they trudged their way through the Buu Saga. After all, this is what happened with LittleKuriboh and Something Witty Entertainment. The time gap between each upload for their respective abridged shows has also gotten similarly larger, and their most recent episodes received under 1 million views. While both channels have been able to stay afloat and continue YGOTAS and SAOA, thanks to their backers on Patreon, that amount of revenue might not be enough for every abridger. TeamFourStar has a seemingly successful and profitable Patreon, but even that didn’t appear to be enough of an incentive to continue DBZA. If a company like TeamFourStar can’t do it, what chances does an abridger with a smaller fanbase have?
However, those first two points are minimal compared to the most vital reason why the decline of the anime abridged genre was inevitable: copyright law. The reason why so many anime abridged videos have disclaimers at the beginning that state they are “a fan-based parody” and that all the footage being used is owned by the corporation/artist that produced the anime they are abridging is because it is their way of stating that what they are doing is perfectly legal and protected under fair use. After all, it’s not like these channels were uploading whole episodes of anime with no changes; they were using this original footage to create new and transformative pieces of art. Put simply, parody, which is what all these abridgers were making, is protected under fair use, meaning that what they were doing on paper should not warrant any issues. Yet despite all of that, many corporations went ahead and utilized YouTube’s copyright removal request system anyway, resulting in many abridgers having their videos taken down, blocked, and even their entire channels completely removed.
For example, YouTube not only blocked every episode of DBZA in 2015 and 2017, but it also deleted the TeamFourStar channel in 2016. Additionally, TeamFourStar had plans to do an abridged series of Attack on Titan, but had to scrap it and the scripts they had already written when their first episode was removed by YouTube for copyright issues. They even received a take-down notice when they uploaded the video to their now-defunct website. LittleKuriboh arguably got the worst of it, as both his YGOTAS videos and his entire channel had been blocked, removed, suspended, and terminated at least a dozen times. In addition to appealing these copyright claims, LittleKuriboh fought back by uploading episodes to his second channel, Ninjabridge, his now-inactive Dailymotion channel, and his former website. This situation got so ludicrous that LittleKuriboh must have found some amusement in all of this, as it would inspire a plotline in the third season of YGOTAS, titled Yu-Gi-Oh! The Canceled Series, in which the heads of 4Kids Entertainment (a former American licensing company that produced infamously bad PG versions of anime for American children, including me, as the 4Kids dub of Yu-Gi-Oh! was my first introduction to the series) try to cancel YGOTAS.
While TeamFourStar, LittleKuriboh, and many other abridgers saw their videos re-uploaded and their channels reinstated, the constant possibility of having their entire livelihood snatched away in an instant must have made the idea of making more anime abridged videos gradually less enticing and rewarding. If these abridgers started making their shows today, they’d arguably have an even greater uphill battle to fight since the modern YouTube Content ID system relies heavily on bots and AI, resulting in automatic detections and false claims that could cause these videos to be blocked before they’re uploaded or be taken down at any point in the future. Many, if not all, of these YouTubers don’t make money off the videos themselves and must therefore rely on other means like merch or Patreon to earn income. However, as we mentioned earlier, that is simply not sustainable for some, especially for the larger channels.
With all these intertwining factors, it’s no wonder the anime abridged genre’s collapse was both unsurprising and inevitable, and the worst part about all of this is that this messy fall led to the disappearance of so many artists’ works. Some of the early abridgers I mentioned, such as MasakoX, Megami33, and KaiserNeko, saw their abridged series removed. Now, the only way to watch Naruto: The Abridged Series, Sailor Moon Abridged, and Lupin the 3rd: The Abridged Series is either via re-upload on YouTube or on another platform. One of the best anime abridgers of all time, Chris “Faulerro” Tout (who is best known for Null Metal Alchemist and Danganronpa Abridged Thing), had all his abridged series taken down by YouTube shortly after announcing that he would not continue his abridged projects due to stress. This one is especially crushing because not only was Faulerro one of the best PurpleEyesWTF-style abridgers on YouTube, but Danganronpa Abridged Thing was a series I fell in love with when I first watched it as research preparation for this piece. Now, the only way to watch either of Faulerro’s shows is via re-uploads on YouTube.
Despite everything that’s happened to this genre, I would hesitate to say that anime abridged content has truly died. As mentioned previously, LittleKuriboh and Something Witty Entertainment are still uploading episodes of their respective shows, albeit at a much slower pace than in their heyday. Other channels like Grimmjack and Altered Anime picked up and are bearing the metaphorical torch as they continue developing anime abridged videos today. TeamFourStar even sort of returned to their beloved DBZA, as they made abridged segments called “Buu Bits” for Totally Not Mark’s Parts 1 and 2 reviews of the Buu Saga of Dragon Ball Z. The group has even gotten back into the YouTube Anime abridged series game since, on November 19th, 2025, they uploaded the first episode of their new Sailor Moon abridged series.
The peak of the Anime abridged series’ popularity may never return to the platform again, but the fact that this genre persists in small ways even to this day brings a smile to my face. Perhaps this is my nostalgia brain talking, but I look back at this period of anime YouTube with both reverence and joy. So many lines from YGOTAS, DBZA, and my other favorite anime abridged series live rent-free in my head because of how often I watched these shows. They used to be my favorite pieces of content because they made me feel happy, even during the worst days. I’ve made peace with the fact that the glory days of the anime abridged genre will remain buried under the same pile of dirt as Silly Bandz, Bakugan, Chaotic, Vine, and the pre-Nazi version of Twitter. Nonetheless, it’s still nice to write a piece like this and remember the good old times of my childhood youth… and recoil when realizing that my teenage obsession with pop culture and the Internet morphed into the writing career I have now.
Sources
- Abridged Series: A Short History by ericg
- Dragon Ball Z Abridged Comes To An Abrupt End by Nathan Grayson
- Dragon Ball Z Abridged Pulled! Copyright Strikes Again by TFS Gaming
- Interview: A Conversation With LittleKuriboh by Deborah Krieger
- NEWS FLASH: Copyright Claims! FUN TIMES! by TeamFourStar
- The Abridged Interview- Masako X part 1 by NathanGraves989
- The Art of Abridged Series by Gigguk