Yu-Gi-Oh: The Abridged Series

Yu-Gi-Oh: The Abridged Series (often abbreviated to Yu-Gi-Oh Abridged or simply YGOTAS) is a humorous and popular fan parody of the Yu-Gi-Oh! Anime as dubbed by 4Kids Entertainment. It is created by an artist known as LittleKuriboh, who strives to update the series weekly, although this has not always been possible.

Warning: Plot Endings and/or Spoilers Below

Overview
As the name suggests, Yu-Gi-Oh: The Abridged Series is a dramatically shortened down version of the original series, cutting each episode down from twenty minutes, to around four to six minutes. This includes episodes in two parts, which are taken as one episode, although there are exceptions. The characters are all voiced by LittleKuriboh, even the female ones(except for Rebecca), adding to the parody.

The series frequently makes fun of the dub; for example, the fact that Duel Monsters is a children’s card game, yet is played by teens and adults; the duels and the game itself are referred to almost exclusively in the series as a "children's card game" or simply "card games". It also pokes much fun at the fact that the duels in the first season have many deviations from the rulings in the real-life version of the card game. It also greatly exaggerates the characters' personalities as given by the dub, to comic effect. When the series began, many lines were paraphrased or quoted wholesale from the 4Kids version, such as "Draw your last pathetic card" and "Exodia, Obliterate!" from the first episode; the later series episodes would focus more on jokes from previous episodes.

Another consistant running joke within the series is the fact that all of the characters seem to be aware that they are part of a television program. They frequently talk about cameos, screen time and the plot; in fact, in it, Bakura is apparently only staying with the group to get more appearances and dialogue.

Still another prevalent theme is that the sexuality of the various male characters is intentionally portrayed as ambiguous. The most obvious example is Joey – while he is perhaps the most adamant in his fixation on Mai's breasts, shortly after his defeat by Seto Kaiba he begins to have “very erotic dreams” in which he is Kaiba's “dog,” complete with dog suit, and, as time goes on, becomes very jealous at the mere thought that Yugi, too, might be having “dream sex” with his “master.” Similarly, Episode 7 features a humorous (non-canon) phone conversation in which Joey tells Tristan that he loves him. Even Bakura, despite his not protests that he is British and not gay, he openly “gropes” Yugi and later says very decidedly that he has no desire to sleep with a girl (though he says that his mother would mind if he did). These and other jokes may be references to the large amounts of Yaoi and Shonen-Ai fanart and doujinshi made by the series' notorious fangirl following. However, it could also be nothing more than LittleKuriboh poking fun a modern society's homophobia as well as its tendency to assume that young men cannot care deeply for one another without having some kind of physical attraction.

Beginning with the fifth episode, the series would open with a snippet of "Kawaita Sakebi", the theme song from the first series anime. All episodes would end with a scene from the anime juxtaposed with audio from another source:
 * Episode 1: Yugi as  Master Shake from  Aqua Teen Hunger Force.
 * Episode 2: Téa and Marik as Lois Lane and   Lex Luthor in a scene from the  Superman Returns trailer.
 * Episode 3: Admiral Ackbar holding out the "Trap Hole" card saying "It's a Trap!"
 * Episode 4: Young Marik being attacked by a snake and Odion quoting Samuel L. Jackson's infamous line from   Snakes on a Plane: "I've had it with these motherf**kin' snakes on this motherf**kin' plane!"
 * Episode 5: Yami and Kaiba quoting an exchange between Luke Skywalker and Emperor Palpatine from  Return of the Jedi.
 * Episode 6: A dub scene showing Bakura and Marik, but with Bakura repeatedly saying "I don't care".
 * Episode 7: Joey and the Robot Monkey seen in the Virtual World arc, quoting an exchange between Philip J. Fry and  Bender from the first episode of Futurama.
 * Episode 8: Mokuba Kaiba as the N64 kid.
 * Episode 9: Seto Kaiba summons a "Blue-Eyes White Dragon" to the tune of Trogdor from Homestar Runner (Also notice that the beginning of this episode is the prologue of the original anime episode but with the audio of the Latin American dub subbed incorrectly on purpose.)
 * Episode 10: Téa Gardner dances to "Maniac" by Michael Sembello, while Yugi watches indifferently.
 * Episode 11: A humorous quote said by Yugi's voice actor Dan Green during a podcast interview, set to a scene from the Anime.
 * Episode 12: Yugi as Chris Griffin, from Family Guy, yells at Yami to "Get out of my head!".
 * Episode 13: A pixelated Yugi, Joey and Mai (from the Virtual World arc in the Anime) dance to the victory theme of Final Fantasy VI.
 * Episode 14: Weevil and Rex quote a scene from the dub version of Dragon Ball Z featuring Nappa and Vegeta, parodying the "Over 9000" internet meme.
 * Episode 15: As Marik's minions capture Téa, her cell phone rings with tune "Axel F - Crazy Frog Remix", and an annoyed minion stamps on it, silencing the monotonous song.
 * Episode 16: A scene from Space Ghost: Coast to Coast where Zorak (Yami) claims to be Egyptian.
 * Episode 17: Yami Marik acts like the Hypnotoad from Futurama.
 * Episode 18: Egyptian Kaiba and a servant quote the "This is Sparta!" scene from 300.
 * Episode 19: Yami stutters on the Duel part of "It's time to duel" until Yugi yells at him to stop.
 * Episode 20: The robot monkey quotes the ED-209 from Robocop.
 * Episode 21: Kaiba flies in his Blue-Eyes jet while Feel Good Inc. by Gorillaz plays. It syncs so Kaiba laughs like the song.
 * Episode 22: Kaiba laughs like Mandark from Dexter's Laboratory.

Characters

 * Main article: Yu-Gi-Oh: The Abridged Series Characters

As expected in a parody, the characters for the series have similar personalities to their original counterparts; however some aspects are greatly exaggerated.

Yu-Gi-Oh: The Abridged Series - Movie Trailer
Prior to dubbing the film, LittleKuriboh has produced a trailer for an abridged version of Yu-Gi-Oh! The Movie: Pyramid of Light, using the same techniques used in the series. The trailer features all the cast, including Bakura as "Sir Not-Appearing-In-This-Film" ( a reference to Monty Python and the Holy Grail; ironically, Bakura would appear in one brief scene in the movie and listed as a cast member, but Mokuba, who appeared as a primary character, was listed in the credits as "not in the movie") with Requiem for a Tower used as a backing track. It also features Anubis as "The Big Bad", whose two-toned voice might be mimicking the Goa'uld from Stargate. John Denver's song, "Leaving on a Jet Plane", was also heard accompanied by Kaiba’s take off scenes from the film. The trailer made a Starfox reference when Mokuba told Kaiba, "Do a barrel roll, big brother." However, none of the scenes used in this trailer were used in the actual movie with the same dialogue, except the gag about naked man behind Kaiba.

The movie was released on Monday June 18, 2007. There was a slight hold up because he was sick with a recent case of tonsillitis and couldn't do any dubbing for a while.

Imposters
In light of the popularity of "The Abridged Series", several fake accounts have recently cropped up, most actually insulting LittleKuriboh and his work. Some, like "SexyKuriboh", devote their entire accounts to demeaning The Abridged Series, whereas some make bad episodes that LittleKuriboh hasn’t created yet. This was especially true around the creation of Episode 13, where LittleKuriboh was having trouble fitting the series into his life. This led to several fake versions of the episode, many falsely stating that LittleKuriboh himself had asked that they do the episodes for him. This was not true. In order to ensure people do not fall for these bad imitations, LittleKuriboh has asked that people subscribe to his account on YouTube in order to actually know when new episodes air. The rise of fake LittleKuriboh videos is later parodied in episode 18, when Yami summons LittleKuriboh imposters, which prevents Pegasus from finding the real LittleKuriboh, and thusly prevents him from watching the Abridged series (as well as making Yami the winner of the duel).

Many peoples have also started to make their own parodies of same kind as LittleKuriboh as: Yu-Gi-Oh GX the Abridged series and Yu-Gi-Oh the FAKE series. There is also Yu-Gi-Oh the FAKE movie.

Copyright Infringement Charges on YouTube
On the week of March 8, 2007, the first episode of Yu-Gi-Oh: The Abridged Series was removed from YouTube by site administration, citing copyright infringement as the reason for the removal. LittleKuriboh has reportedly heard nothing from the administration regarding this removal or if the the other episodes are in danger of being removed as well. In response to this, LittleKuriboh posted Yu-Gi-Oh: The Abridged Series Episode 1 (Live Performance), which was a video of him performing the voiceover part of episode 1, without using footage from the anime.

Soon after this, episode 2 was also removed for the same reason. Soon after that, a YouTube profile named AgentSniff started a organization called The Brotherhood of LittleKuriboh Fans. Little is known about this organization except their goal: Save LittleKuriboh and anime from being removed from YouTube.

On March 12, 2007, LittleKuriboh posted a live video announcing several new sites that his videos would be available on. In the video, LittleKuriboh is in a Kaiba cosplay outfit and impersonates Kaiba (Which was later removed by Youtube). The three new sites presented were http://www.jentsproductions.com/littlekuriboh/, http://www.dailymotion.com/littlekuriboh/, and http://www.littlekuriboh.head-desk.org/. However, http://www.littlekuriboh.head-desk.org/ is no longer available due to bandwidth issues.

On June 19, just one day after release, all parts of The Abridged Movie were removed from Youtube (Part 1,2,3 were removed by Youtube while part 4 is removed by LK) along with episode 20, 21 and 22.

However, DailyMotion.com has ironically taken to removing videos as well. At the moment, part 2 of the Abridged Movie is currently removed. However, LittleKuriboh has stated in his livejournal account that he will have to re-upload the movie because he must edit a certain portion of the movie that could be 'potentially harmful.' The edit was done to remove a line from the credits which mentions Upper Deck Entertainment.

However, while YouTube has claimed copyright infringement is displayed on the videos, there has never been a claim by 4Kids themselves to have the videos removed. Further proof of this is seen that when the video is taken down, there is no 'this video has been taken down due to a copyright claim from 4Kids Ent.' tag. To the contrary, at least some of the 4Kids staff seems to be amused by the parody, as shown by Dan Green quoting the "Yugi-licious" line from episode 5, as well as large amounts of TAS-like dialogue that has appeared in recent episodes of Yu-Gi-Oh GX. This has further supported the theory adopted by LittleKuriboh's fans that other users themselves are flagging the videos. Due to the enormity of YouTube, administrators appear to not have the time to review the material in question and promptly delete it without a second thought. Several users have left messages on LittleKuriboh's message board saying they were the ones who flagged the videos. LittleKuriboh's fan respond in kind by blocking the users and flagging their videos to have their accounts closed.

On June 22, 2007, LittleKuriboh began offering direct downloads of every episode in WMV format, plus Episode 1 of Cr@psule Monsters, the Christmas Special, and the Abridged Movie, through a website with the domain http://www.yugiohtheabridgedseries.com/ so as to avoid the risk of removal by YouTube and DailyMotion. The full site formally launched on July 16th, 2007. As of July 20, 2007 the site has added a bittorrent tracker. Season 1, Cr@psule Monsters, the Christmas Special, and the Abridged Movie are currently available in two torrents: One containing the videos in WMV format, and the other in MP4 format.

On July 10, 2007, LittleKuriboh's account was suspended on Youtube, likely due to repeated flaggings by other users. However, the account was re-opened again three days later on July 13. YouTube has not yet made any statement to LittleKuriboh or his viewers regarding the removal or restoration of the account.

Bonus Videos
Besides the normal videos LittleKuriboh also made bonus videos.These include:
 * A Visit to Chester Zoo (With LittleKuriboh, Safty and Abridged Atem)
 * Abridged Audio Commentary
 * Bakura Gets a Job at Youtube.com
 * Rex and Weevil Visit Youtube.com
 * Rex and Weevil Watch Silent Hill
 * Serenity Struggles With YouTube.com
 * Seto Kaiba Addresses Youtube.com
 * Teaser 1
 * Teaser 2
 * Yugi Gives An Apology

Trivia

 * "The Abridged Series" points out many areas for fun (adding to the parody) in the original Yu-Gi-Oh anime that made no sense, like when Joey Wheeler (in the anime) jumped ship to save Yugi's cards. The Abridged Series brought this to light, re-dubbing Joey's voice to say "Must risk life for cards!" obviously playing a pun on that fact. The series also makes fun of how characters overreact when they lose, as well as how the consequences are also exagerrated.
 * Several jokes are also made at the fact that the first season's card games deviate greatly from the rules in the real life card game. For example, in the first episode, Yami complained that Kaiba "summoned a bunch of monsters in one turn" to which Kaiba famously replied "Screw the rules, I have money". Also in the same episode, after Yami summons Exodia, Kaiba claims that the reason nobody was ever able to do so before was "It's because this game makes no sense. Nobody could figure out how to do it!" Also in episode 11, Kaiba has a flashback to the first episode (actually an episode from the first series) to which Yami again complains that Kaiba "summoned a bunch of monsters in one turn" to which he replied "Screw the rules, I have green hair!". During the movie, after Kaiba loses a lot of money on a duel simulator (Which breaks down after trying to simulate his ego) he says "Screw the money, I have rules" and then is rather confused and says "Wait, let me try that again". In episode 10, after Yugi uses Catapult Turtle to destroy Panik's castle's flotation ring "thereby causing it to crash down on top of his monsters", Bakura replies with "This card game is a load of bollocks!"
 * The only 2 episodes to call the game Duel Monsters are episode 2 and episode 22. All other episodes have simply called the game card games to the point that it has become the game's new name. This is evident in the beginning of episode 15. The episode begins with a spoof of the intro to the Star Wars movies only instead of "Star Wars" as the title, it reads "Card Games" instead. However, in Cr*psule Monsters, Tea is the only one the remember the game and calls it Duel Monsters.
 * Frequent reference is made to Naruto: the Abridged Series, a similar series posted on DailyMotion and YouTube by users MasakoX and Vegeta3986. In Episode 18, Yugi claims that though Pegasus won't be able to watch Yu-Gi-Oh: The Abridged Series anymore due to the imposters, he can still watch Naruto: TAS, though "as everyone knows, that's just not quite as good."  In the Abridged movie, during the foreshadowing scene supposedly directed by David Lynch, Anubis says "Watch Naruto: the Abridged Series" in reverse, similar to subliminal messaging.
 * LittleKuriboh has also made guest appearances twice in the series. In the pilot episode, Naruto used Yugi's "Super Special Awesome Ultra Special Sexy Transformation", only to turn into Yami, who comments that this isn't his parody with an exclamation of "Believe it!", and Iruka chastises him for stealing the joke from LittleKuriboh.  In episode 8, Tazuna tells of how Mako Tsunami rescued Gilligan from drowning.  When asked by Gilligan whether or not he was going to throw a spear at him, Mako assured him that he had learned his lesson last time.