The art of abridging popular anime is one of the most unique and popular facets of the fandom. These spoofs are some of the most elaborate love letters anime fans made in honor of their favorite shows, and the tradition continues to go strong.
An abridged series takes a pre-existing anime, shortens an episode to just the important plot beats, and adds a new comical voiceover. In more cases than one, an abridged series was so good that it eventually supplanted its source material—as well as defined the fanbase.
10 EvAbridged Compressed The First Rebuild Of Evangelion Movie
The first Rebuild of Evangelion installment–Evangelion: 1.0 You Are (Not) Alone—recaps the anime’s first six episodes. For Evangelion veterans uninterested in seeing more of the same, Gigguk’s four-part EvAbridged is the comedic solution. It abridges the first Rebuild, only now everyone is an idiot and Rei is sarcastic.
While EvAbridged’s juvenile jokes, snark, and cussing are exactly what can be expected from an abridged series, it boasts one of the best-abridged voice casts heard online. Featuring the likes of DevilKickSanji2, Sydsnap, DriatanVA, and more, EvAbridged is a good example of how old jokes can still get laughs through exceptional delivery and snappy editing.
9 Sailor Moon Abridged Made Fun Of The Anime’s Bad Dubs
Sailor Moon may be a childhood classic, but it’s not above criticism and major flaws. The original anime suffered from clichés, while its English dub became an unintentional joke. These two missteps gave Megami33 all the material she and her team needed to create Sailor Moon Abridged, which ramped up the Sailor Scouts’ air-headedness for comedic effect.
Sailor Moon Abridged stood out as one of the few abridged spoofs to hit 50 plus episodes – an impressive feat in the early 2000s and even now. Like its fellow older abridged series, Sailor Moon Abridged falls victim to some rude jokes made for the sake of it and outdated references. These do little to rob it of its hilarity, though.
8 Hellsing Ultimate Abridged Is A Time Capsule Of Edgy Humor
Hellsing Ultimate was practically synonymous to edgelords of the 2000s, and Team Four Star ramped this up with their abridged version. Hellsing Ultimate Abridged follows the same storyline of Alucard and Millennium’s clash but throws in edgy humor and new unhinged characterizations that somehow made the OVAs seem tame in comparison.
That said, a good chunk of the series’ earlier jokes aged poorly since they were either outdated references or too juvenile for their own good. Over time, the writing got smarter and focused more on writing comic set-ups instead of the low-hanging fruit. This self-aware humor is why some fans prefer to watch this spoof over the schlocky but self-serious OVAs.
7 Dragon Ball Z Abridged Cemented Team Four Star’s Legacy
Dragon Ball Z Abridged is the most professionally fan-made abridged series to hit the internet. Unlike its contemporaries, Dragon Ball Z Abridged starred experienced abridged voice actors and was more of a comedic adaptation than a spoof. Here, Team Four Star retold the Saiyan’s stories not as a fighting epic, but as a planet-hopping sitcom.
Dragon Ball Z Abridged was basically Dragon Ball Z Kai before it was even announced, giving fans a quicker way to revisit Son Goku’s greatest fights and enjoy some inside jokes. Team Four Star eventually canceled their flagship spoof due to incessant copyright battles, but they used the experience to mount original projects and continue the abridged series in Dragon ShortZ.
6 None Piece Rewrote One Piece Into An Ultraviolent Pirate Saga
As great a pirate epic as it is, One Piece is so long in both manga and anime formats that it can be intimidating to start. Thankfully, PurpleEyesWTF’s None Piece exists. Clocking in at just ten digestible episodes, None Piece turns Monkey D. Luffy into a psychotic 45-year old Scottish pirate on the run for making internet parodies. This manic parody has to be seen to be believed.
Everyone else in the Straw Hat crew went through similarly insane reinterpretations, and they go on equally crazy adventures that almost always devolve into comical massacres. None Piece also features crossovers with abridged versions of Code Geass and Soul Eater, something the actual One Piece can’t boast.
5 50% OFF Turns Free! Into An Delinquent Anime
On its own, Free! is already self-aware enough but Octopimp’s abridged series 50% OFF takes this up to eleven. The spoof takes the anime’s characterizations (especially the ship teasing) to their craziest extremes. Examples include amplifying Haru and Makoto’s sexual tension and rewriting Nagisa into a violent ex-con better known as “Thugisa” among fans.
Another thing that makes 50% OFF unique is that all of 19 of its episodes never go beyond the 3-minute mark, where most abridged anime tend to have episodes more than 30-minutes long. Where Free! is a swimming anime about friendship, 50% OFF is a rapid-fire comedy about rowdy punks who have an addiction to swimming pools.
4 Sword Art Online Abridged Made Kirito Tolerable
While it’s not the worst anime ever made, Sword Art Online has become a punchline for being an insufferably transparent power fantasy for gamers. The only way some viewers tolerated it was to watch reviews or Sword Art Online Abridged. This is one of the more recent abridged series, but it exceeds expectations and shows how far the comedic niche has gone.
Something Witty Entertainment’s spoof sticks to the anime’s base story but with two major changes: Kirito is an unapologetic jerk, and the titular VR MMORPG is a cesspool of internet vitriol. Sword Art Online’s self-important themes and tones are traded for abridged Kirito’s giant ego, and he’s somehow more palatable than his original version.
3 Code MENT Abridges Abridged Series
Code Geass is a tense political thriller, while its abridged series Code MENT (short for “abridgment”) is a madcap barrage of non-sequitur jokes and bizarre editing that borders on nonsensical. It’s also incredibly hilarious. While it may not have exactly been PurpleEyesWTF’s intent, Code MENT is widely considered to be a parody of anime parodies, and it shows.
The series’ humor is more akin to a surreal Adult Swim pilot than the usual reference-laden online spoof, making it stand out more. In fact, Code MENT bears so little in common with its original that it’s a distinct companion show that fans of Lelouch and/or Zero need to see. Code MENT gave “soup” an entirely new meaning that the internet has yet to forget.
2 Yu-Gi-Oh! The Abridged Series Made Abridged Anime Cool
Of course, there wouldn’t be a list tallying the best-abridged series if not for the one that started it all. Created by LittleKuriboh in 2006, Yu-Gi-Oh! The Abridged Series set the template for all anime spoofs while also changing fandom entertainment forever. But aside from starting a trend and supplying immortal quotes, this spoof proved itself superior to the original in many ways.
This spoof improved the so-bad-it’s-good Yu-Gi-Oh! Duel Monsters by trimming its glacial pacing while turning its egregious plot contrivances into jokes and actual plot devices. These changes were so game-changing that The Abridged Series supplanted Duel Monsters in people’s minds since it was easier and a lot funnier than watching all 224 episodes of the actual anime.
1 Ghost Stories Is The Only Official Abridged Series
Ghost Stories’ abridged series is unique in that it’s the only one here that was officially sanctioned by the anime’s original creators. Two years before Yu-Gi-Oh! was abridged, ADV Films dubbed Ghost Stories on the condition that the plot basics stay intact; everything else was fair game. And so Ghost Stories became one of the funniest official English dubs ever heard.
The ADV dub still followed a group of hometown friends solving spooky mysteries, but with most of the dialogue replaced with crass jokes and pop culture references. The irreverently clever dub eclipsed the original—so much so that anime viewers actively refuse to watch the more text-accurate localization.
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