The Abridgist

TeamFourStar's Original Account Returns [News]

2009-12-31T02:49:00.000-07:00

Through some unknown magical process of Youtubical alchemy, TeamFourStar's original YouTube channel has been restored. Currently it hosts only a few minor side videos and no actual DBZ Abridged episodes, and the whole thing seems rather quaint compared to the team's official web site. No word yet on whether any new content will be posted to the channel or if it will simply remain as a stern reminder about what happens when you cross Toei. (Note: What happens when you cross Toei is that you get banned from YouTube, start a backup account, start an awesome web site, remain as popular as ever, and eventually get restored to your original YouTube account with no apparent rhyme or reason. Tremble, gaijin.)

10 Tips for Fan Parody Voice Acting [How-To]

2009-12-16T22:28:00.001-07:00

I'm not an expert on voice acting in general: you want that kind of advice, go watch MasaVox. But I do have quite a bit of experience in voice acting for Internet fan parodies, both from the VAing end and from the perspective of a writer/editor having to deal with VAs. So here are some quick-and-dirty tips for voice acting specifically as it relates to working within the fan parody community.

1.) Get some decent equipment.

I'm a big believer in making do with what you have, but then, I'm a writer first, an editor second, and a voice actor a distant third. If you want to make voice acting your main contribution to the fan parody scene as opposed to being a writer/editor who also voice acts, you need professional output, and you can't do that with half-assed equipment.

A full rundown of mic-buying advice could be a whole post in and of itself, but here are the basics. Most respected amateur voice actors swear by USB microphones, which will give you a clearer sound than the analog kind and don't require anything special in the sound card department (since they bypass it altogether). If you do wind up using an analog mic, do yourself a favor and don't plug it into an integrated sound card. Even a cheap $30 Creative card will make a huge difference in clarity, and as an added bonus, it'll make your music sound better and your games run a little smoother too.

2.) Make a demo reel.

You can find more on this on MasaVox, but long story short, a short (under 2 minutes) demo reel showcasing your best voices is just as useful in amateur voice acting as it is professionally. Sending someone a text-only message telling them that you'd be perfect for this or that part says nothing: you've got to show them what you can do. For best results, post it to YouTube and share the link with whoever's doing the casting for the parts you want, and keep an mp3 or wav copy around as well in case you need to email it to someone.

3.) Know where to look for parts.

This can be the hardest part when you're just starting out. The most reliable way to land a part is if someone actually announces an open casting call, but this can be rare, especially in abridged series. Besides keeping an eye on your favorite YouTube channels and abridged series forums for casting calls, two of the best places to look are the Voice Acting Alliance, a resource for amateur voice actors of all stripes (mostly fandubs, but the occasional flash animation or other parody as well) and ToonZone's fan parody collaboration thread.

The least reliable way of landing a part is to cold-contact a well-known abridger, but if you must, make sure to do it right. Don't suck up: you're presumably a fan of this person's work or you wouldn't be offering to work with them, but remember that you're approaching them as a potential collaborator, not as a fan. If you absolutely must gush a little, put it at the end of the message, not the beginning. Send them a link to your demo reel and ask if they'd be interested in working with you. If they say no, take it gracefully: many people simply don't work with anyone they don't already know. If you don't receive a response, wait a week and try again. If you don't receive a response to your second attempt, that almost certainly means no, so don't bug them any further.

Now that you've landed a part, you can move on to the fun bit, actually working with the writer(s) and editors(s).

4.) The Golden Rule: The head writer is your boss.

The last six tips I'll list are all from my personal experience as a writer and editor dealing with other voice actors, but that's just me. If the head writer (usually also the editor) in the project you're working on prefers things done a certain way, do your best to accommodate them, within reason. Putting these things together is hard work, so try to act professional and don't make it any harder on them. If you're not sure whether they prefer your lines in mp3 or wav format or whether they prefer that you send your outtakes along with the finished lines, ask!

5.) Don't be afraid to make suggestions, but don't forget you're not the writer.

This goes along with the fourth tip above. Sometimes you'll have an idea for an extra line or want to re-word something that sounds a little awkward, and a good project head should always be willing to listen to your ideas, but just because they listen doesn't mean that they're obliged to do things your way. Once you've pitched your idea, it's up to them whether to use it or not.

Some of the best parts of my own recent episodes have been suggested or ad-libbed by the VAs I've worked with. There have also been a few suggestions that I haven't used for whatever reason, but I try to make sure they always feel free to bring them to me, and hopefully the writer(s) you work with will be the same way.

Obviously, if you're sharing the writing credit, this might not apply.

6.) The Rule of Three

The Rule of Three is this: a minimum of three takes for each line, no exceptions. If you're not sure how a line should be delivered-- if, for example, you could imagine it being said either cheerfully or morosely, and the writer isn't around to ask-- then do three takes both ways.

Going along with tip #5 above, if you feel inclined to reword a line or ad-lib a little extra, do three takes the writer's way, and then three takes your way, and let them decide which to use. Unless there's an obvious typo which clearly wasn't intentional, you should always give the project editor at least three takes exactly as the line was written in the script.

7.) Always be willing to do retakes when they're requested.

This should be self-explanatory. If for some reason-- a mispronunciation, an audio defect, or just a bad delivery-- the writer or editor requests that you redo one or more of your lines, always try to accommodate them. Maybe it's your fault for getting the delivery wrong, just as often it's their fault for not properly explaining to you what they want, and most of the time it's a little of both, but no matter whose fault it is, both of your names will presumably be on the final product so you both want it to be as good as it can be.

8.) Use Skype when you need direction.

Skype is a wonderful tool for these kinds of collaboration. Make sure to use it when you're first developing your voice and any time you just can't seem to get a line right.

I've worked with some writers and editors who prefer to always be present over voice chat when the VAs are doing their lines so they can direct them. In my personal experience, doing it this way every time is a scheduling nightmare that can slow production down to a crawl in large multi-VA projects, so a good compromise is to use Skype for the first couple of sessions while you're still feeling out your character, and again any time you need to do retakes or if there's a particularly tricky scene.

9.) Keep organized.

The first part of staying organized has to do with scheduling. Some writers will send you due dates along with the script. Try to make these if you can, but if you can't, inform them of the reason for the delay as soon as possible. Most project heads will be understanding as long as you keep them informed.

If you aren't given a firm due date, let them know when you plan to record next so that they can plan accordingly. I work with one talented VA who always keeps her next record date in her Skype status so there's never any question of when I'll have my lines back.

The other part has to do with keeping your files organized. Personally, I keep a separate folder on my hard drive for each project I do voice work for, with subfolders for each episode. Each line gets a separate file named with the first three letters of the characters name followed by a number (ex: the third line from a character named Phil would be "phi03.mp3"). Once an episode's lines are done, I put them in a zip file and send them to the editor. Some editors will prefer one single file with all the lines for the entire episode: the point is to have a standard scheme so that you can always find what you need.

Make sure to keep your files even after you've sent them off. Even if they're just as organized as you are, a corrupted file transfer or a hard drive crash could render their copy unusable, and having a backup to send them in case of an emergency can save you a lot of rerecording.

10.) Stick with what you start.

Recasting a character mid-project is no fun, and word gets around: if you put someone through that, you might not get very many more parts from anyone they talk to, so don't bail on a project unless you have a very good reason. Before you've made a name for yourself, you might have to sign on to some iffy projects to get parts, but just because you don't like the writing isn't a reason to bail on a project. Instead, think of it as a way to get your name and voice out there: even if the rest of the project sucks, it might lead the way to bigger and better things, but that won't happen if you get a reputation as being unprofessional.

Have any other tips for aspiring amateur voice actors? Share them in the comments!

LittleKuriboh Wins Mashable's Open Web Award [News]

2009-12-16T21:13:00.000-07:00

LittleKuriboh, creator of Yu-Gi-Oh: The Abridged Series, released a video announcing that he's won the Mashable blog's Open Web Award for Funniest YouTube channel. Congrats!

TeamDN's Death Note Abridged Episode 1 [Review]

2009-10-29T10:30:00.004-07:00

An oldie. A really oldie but also a reader request. Disclaimer: I know they've gotten better, but why not start at episode 1?

I always liked the two Naurto references at the beginning of this episode, even though they're random. Both are so seamless that it sets up the editing for the episode in a good way.

I can appreciate introducing the character names and voice actors in the (very long) intro, but this is, in my opinion, almost always done better by editing together your own montage for most of the footage. This ends up being slow, and the leftover Japanese in the background is a bit incongruent.

Audio here is done really well, especially for an episode 1. Background music is at good levels (except for the super abrupt volume cut at 6:09), as are sound effects (computer clicks, etc). The muffled death note book is a clever gag. Not a lot of voices here really. Light is fine. His mother is horrible, as is often the case.

I would say, however, that this episode does overly rely on external jokes for humor (such that it is). Gameboy, Naruto, Myspace—these are all random additions. The fact that the joke even from the Myspace gag is about Yugioh only further cements the fact that very little of the humor in this show has anything to do with Death Note the anime. Killing Krillin is expected but still funny—the premise of killing off other anime characters is a good one, maybe a great one, but the episode relies on that too much.

Cursing/Bleeping is annoying. I'll just say that. Once in a while is fine, but if you're going to curse that often, don't bleep it. It's not Jerry Springer. It's anime. If you like the words enough to say them every sentence, then just own up to it and lay it out there for all to see. I mean, bleeping "Dammit"? Why bother. Dialogue at 8:25 also has some really bizarre pauses and whatnot and the mouth-motions are probably the most off from the actual voices that I've ever seen. I don't usually even notice.

Overall, the premise/appropriation of the death note is unique and interesting enough to carry things, even if the rest of the episode is a bit thin.

2nd Annual T.A.C. Awards Winners (Mostly) Announced (Updated!) [News]

2009-10-25T19:14:00.003-07:00

There are a few abridged countdowns out there, but most of them don't pretend to be anything other than their creators' personal opinions. You can take issue with the specifics of how Chicknwings does things, the vague nature of his rules (when indeed he has any), or the fact that he can't seem to spell the word "community" right in his own YouTube account name, but if nothing else, at least he's trying something that nobody else has tried with his T.A.C. Awards by having actual nominations and voting. So props for that much anyway.

The winners are currently being announced in a seven-part video series on YouTube, of which five parts have been posted so far. If you want to know the winners while skipping about 40 minutes of host Chicknwings droning on like he's bored by the whole thing (as well as more of the jazz remix of the Gurren Lagann opening than the human mind can stand), here's the list so far:

~~Most Backhanded Compliment~~ Most Improved Abridged Series: Bobobo Abridged by Nowacking
Best New Character: Yuki Nagato from Haruhi Suzumiya Abridged by Fullmetal Chao
Best Music Placement: "Ghost Nappa" from Dragonball Z Abridged by TeamFourStar
Best Cameo: Takahata101 as Ghost Nappa from Yugioh Abridged
Best Opening: NHK Abridged Intro by Ezekieru
Best One-Shot: Gun Piece TAOS by MasterWGS
Best Voice Actor: Unwardil
Best Voice Actress: WhipOfAlchemy
Best New Abridged Series: Jojo's Bizarre Adventure Abridged by Antfish
Best Joke: "One time-- twice..." from Yugioh GX Abridged by RaymsCreator

For the full list of nominees and the rules (such as they are), check the Abridged Community boards.

Watch this space for further winners to be announced when the last two videos in the series are posted.

Update: The final two videos have been posted.

Best Abridged Movie: Kiki's Delivery Service: The Abridged Movie by ScoonySquad7
Abridger of the Year: RaymsCreator
Abridged Episode of the Year: Yu-Gi-Oh The Abridged Series Episode 41 by LittleKuriboh
~~Vaguest Category~~ T.A.C. Overall Award: The Life Abridged Countdown by Cassius614
Most Random Abridged Series: D.Gray-man Abridged by TehExorcist
Best Script Writing
Best Script Writing & Best Editing
Best Script Writing Best Team-Ups Best Editing
The 2nd Annual "Seriously, Chicknwings, Get Your Shit Together" Award: KaiserNeko
Abridged Series of the Year: Dragonball Z Abridged by TeamFourStar

Chicknwings apparently pissed some people off by taking the "accepting on behalf of" the deceased Raymscreator bit a little too literally and attempting to speak directly FOR him. As in, in the first person. Weird. In any case, if you were one of those offended, he's issued a video apologizing.

PokemonAbridgedFTW Gets Eaten By the Ban Monster [News]

2009-10-18T23:21:00.002-07:00

That monster, she HUNGRY. Fortunately, the PokemonAbridgedFTW crew already has a backup account, so watch that space for updates.

You know, one of these days, the honchos at YouTube are going to realize that roughly 99.9% of the videos they host violate the Terms of Service, and boy, their heads are just gonna SPLODE.

Learn Sony Vegas with Montagical [How-To]

2009-10-12T14:51:00.001-07:00

Here's a question for our loyal readers: have you ever consulted the Help file for a complicated program such as a video editor and come out of it feeling like you've actually been, y'know, helped? Yeah, me neither. Fortunately, there are folks like Montagical to fill in the blanks. He's a YouTube user who's created a veritable panoply of video tutorials for Sony Vegas, ranging from the very basics to advanced tips and tricks. Video tutorials can sometimes be kind of a hassle to navigate when you're just looking to solve one particular problem, but there's definitely no substitute for being able to actually see the process unfold on your screen.

Do you have a favorite resource that you consult when your editing program of choice has you stuck? Share the wealth in the comments!

GeassTAS' Code Geass Abridged Episode 1 [Review]

2009-10-04T11:57:00.006-07:00

Since I was asked to review Code Geass Abridged on Twitter, and I want to plug the indisputable facts that 1) Twitter is not that lame, 2) I am on twitter (@animeabridged), and 3) Everyone who watches abridged series and is not a troll should feel free to hang out with the cool kids. If you read this site, send me a @mention and I'll follow you. Otherwise, I'll ignore you, even though I'm sure you're swell. Moving on.

Let's go ahead and just establish that I clearly have been a bad anime fan because I haven't watched 3/4 of series being lampooned by abridgers. If I were the man I used to be, I promise I would have watched all of the episodes back-to-back in a diet mountain dew-filled bender, interrupted only by phone calls to my girlfriend and serial trips to Taco Bell. Alas, we get older. Moving on.

Also, I'm sure readers have now realized that I'm swatting at the very first episode of every series I've reviewed so far. It's worth mentioning that a general rule, the first episode (especially for new abridgers) is the very worst. Anyway, moving. on.

Sound here is good. The voices are really crisp (the background could use a little more music action here, it's a little too quiet at times--in the intro monologue, for example). Also: nice, short intro. Editing is good enough, although syncing the voices with the mouths isn't even happening by accident (but that's also something that's infinitely tedious and frequently futile to try to do, so screw it, I say).

Less good things: The older dude playing chess in the first scene—his voice doesn't really match the character, and the bloodhound gang bit was a little out of left field. Editing for the action scene at 4:15 is a really choppy.

More good things: Lelouch and Rivalz's voices are a highlight. Their back and forth dialogue is also the funniest thing going on in this episode. The voices done by Mippa just sound good; she's got one of the best female voices out there.

There's one odd thing here, and it draws back to mecha anime in general. There are a lot of mecha shows. Lots. As a consequence, we see a good number of abridged mecha shows. As a corollary, mecha shows are all enjoyable but a bit silly. Thus, comparing mecha shows to other mecha shows is a fair way to crack a joke. This fact, times the number of mecha shows total, means that "compare this mecha to Gundam" jokes will continue to happen. Forever.

At the same time, there are a lot of recycled jokes here. Falcon kick. The dramatic chipmunk. Tripping on acid. Shouldn't have taken [insert drug here]. Oh, it burns! Ohh, shiny (is in every series it seems, at least once). Maybe others. There's a good chance in any ep that something that seems old is actually new...but, when there is less obviously original or unique funny material, then the questionable stuff stays, well, questionable.

From the footage, this show looks pretty messed up. I like it.

However, whenever I'm not really sure what just happened in an episode, I wonder if the original anime is also chalk full of mysteries and/or plot holes and/or annoyingly unnecessary suspense and confusion. Anywho, I'm not really sure I know what's going on here, but something tells me that it's at least partly the fault of the source material.

Still, I think an ideal series will cater a little more toward inclusiveness of the non-indoctrinated. Yuigoh Abridged makes sense even if you've never seen Yugioh. Admittedly, Yugioh has the plot complexity of a show made for Alzheimer's patients, so no surprise there. The writing is the most important thing to improve on (and we'll see how the next 4 (already completed) episodes turn out. Based on episode 1, I'd say: focus on crucial plot points to clarify them, cut out ones that aren't as important to make up for it. Then, more funny. And I mean deep, close to the source funny. You look at hbi2k's comedy, and a lot of the time, it's integral to the plot. It's tied in. Less one liners, and more funny characters.

SamuraiKH2's Trigun: The Abridged Series switches accounts [News]

2009-10-03T23:50:00.000-07:00

SamuraiKH2 has created a new YouTube account to host Trigun: The Abridged Series after some possible security issues with his original account.

The details of the attack on his original account are still sketchy: it's believed to be related to the same individual who causes some problems with Lanipator and Team Dattebayo's YouTube accounts in January of 2008, however the symptoms seem different than a simple phishing attack (his previous method of trouble).

As always, all readers are advised to use strong passwords, never use the same password for more than one service, keep an eye out for obvious phishing tactics, and otherwise observe safe Internet practices.

TeamFourStar Announces New Web Site [News]

2009-09-27T21:03:00.000-07:00

As originally reported on Lanipator's blog, a dedicated fan or fans of TeamFourStar has put together a new web site that is currently hosting all of their videos which have been taken down from YouTube as well as the fan music video that we linked to here a while back.

The whole thing looks incredibly polished and well-designed, and Kaiserneko is now in discussions with the creator(s) of the site to bang out the details of making the whole thing official. If all goes well, it looks like TeamFourStar may be set free of the whims of YouTube. Here's hoping!

TeamFourStar Just Can't Catch a Break [News]

2009-09-24T13:36:00.002-07:00

As originally reported on Lanipator's blog, TeamFourStar's second FAQ video has been taken down from their secondary YouTube account which was started after the original account was banned earlier this year. This leaves the account hosting nothing but a single video of voice over the TFS logo explaining that the account exists.

We'll continue to update as things develop, but in the meantime those of us with fewer than 37,000 subscribers can reflect that sometimes, there's a certain comfort in obscurity.

Hey, What's That Song? [Fun Stuff]

2009-09-23T04:36:00.000-07:00

If you're involved in an abridged series or just follow the comments, you probably know that one of the single most-asked questions in most series is, "Hey, what's that song you used at [time code]?"

But wait! Now you don't have to ask in the comments and then hit refresh obsessively every fifteen minutes until someone gets around to answering you any more! Here's how to find out for yourself!

Step 1:

Check the video description. I know, this shouldn't need to be said, but for some reason it still does, and I figure if even one person who doesn't already do this happens to read this and make a habit of it, it's worth putting in here.

Unfortunately, some creators either don't bother to put song credits in the video description, or avoid doing it for fear of being taken down for copyright, so if this doesn't work, move on to....

Step 2a:

If you are using Internet Explorer, install Firefox.

Step 2:

More likely than not, if you have this question (or, indeed, almost any question), someone else does too, and may have already gotten it answered.

Open the video in Firefox. Click the bit at the bottom of the YouTube page where it says "View All [Number] Comments" (or its equivalent if the video is somewhere other than YouTube).

On your keyboard, hit CTRL + F. A search bar will appear at the bottom of your screen. Search for something like "song." Hit "next" until you find the answer to your question.

By the way, did you cheat, skip Step 2a, and try this in Internet Explorer instead of Firefox? Then your search bar showed up as an ugly pop-up window instead of a pleasing bar at the bottom of your screen. Also you're still stuck with a crappy browser. Hang your head in shame.

Step 3:

Still not coming up with an answer? Head over to Midomi.com. Click the green button at the top center of the screen. Sing or hum a short portion of the song you're trying to identify into your computer's microphone or, if you've still got the YouTube video queued up and there's not too much dialogue over the music, put your microphone up to your computer speakers and play that portion of the video.

I have no idea how this web site works: my guess is witchcraft. But however it works, as long as you can give it a reasonably accurate rendition of at least ten seconds of any given song, it's got a pretty darn good success rate in my not-at-all-scientific experience. It's even come up with some pretty obscure stuff, like anime OST tracks that haven't been released in the U.S.

Step 4:

Did none of the above work? Congratulations, you've got an actual question, so you're back to posting a comment on the video and hitting "refresh" until someone answers you. Good luck with that!

hbi2k's Vision of Escaflowne Abridged Episode 1 [Review]

2009-09-20T20:05:00.003-07:00

Hbi2k is certainly an abridging workhouse, and he cements that tireless reputation by following with VEAS so soon after Gantz ended. I'll admit I've never seen Vision of Escaflowne, so this might be a series that will spur me on to enjoy another new anime before getting the full effect—I definitely enjoyed Gantz abridged more after watching the anime, but for the first eleven episodes so far I've been a n00b.

I'll also admit that this was not my favorite hbi episode beginning ever—the first introductiony minute was pretty slow, but Van kicks it up a notch around 1:40. Hitomi's voice-acting also wasn't as strong, I felt, as the performances in Gantz (something about the audio track feels a bit dry, maybe a touch of reverb would help?). I will say this though—excellent use of Zelda town music. In fact, the episode after minute 4 is fantastic—there are some great self-aware anime-deprecating bits. Still, overall, this feels a bit less polished—not a huge fault given the speed at which this guy pumps out above-average stuff. As with Berserk and Gantz, the series grows and improves over time, as future reviews will surely deal with.

Favorite lines:
"Sniggity-slice!"
"Ooh, manservice!"
"Oh, apparently we do"

teamDN to appear live on BlogTV [News]

2009-09-15T04:37:00.003-07:00

Dirtydan88, Gmazca, and Itouchedyusuke of teamDN will be hosting a live broadcast on BlogTV at 7 pm Central, 5 Pacific, and 8 Eastern today, September the 15th. Registered BlogTV account-holders will be able to send real-time text messages to the team.

No word on what they'll be discussing, and unfortunately I'll be at work myself at the time, so if they should happen to drop any bombshells, do be sure to drop a summary in the comments!

teamDN are the creators of Death Note: The Abridged Series and Gankutsuou: The Abridged Series. They recently "canceled" DN:TAS but then revealed this to be a hoax a short time later, a move which has apparently come to be known as "pulling an hbi2k" in some circles.

TeamEA's Black Lagoon Abridged Episode 1 [Review]

2009-09-11T12:00:00.006-07:00

TeamEA (0TeamEA0 on YouTube) is a couple of episodes into Black Lagoon Abridged. A review has been requested, and though as usual I haven't seen the anime, I am happy to oblige. If anyone wants to add anything, the comments are always open.

BLA is overall off to an excellent start with episode 1. I can't stress enough how often first episodes fail to introduce viewers to a series. What we have here is an first episode that still contains the requisite number of sex jokes and manages to introduce the characters and premise effectively. YES, the opening is too long (but it helps for the first episode, like Lupin Abridged, in that it gives us the character names in a relatively unobtrusive manner).

The boardroom scene at 2:30 is the slowest and most awkwardly written scene of the lot. The CEO's dialogue is a bit odd and there are some ineffective pauses—I know they're going for "awkward silence," but the pauses just feel awkwardly pregnant because you don't see the characters faces or anything to convey it more effectively. It clocks in at 2 full minutes, which is kinda meh. I would like to say the board members are funny enough to carry the scene, but it really drags. I think you could cut this down to about 30 seconds or less and the episode would stand better off for it.

Then, immediately after, the cigarette scene at 4:24 is HYSTERICAL. The voice acting here is incredible. Dutch is awesome, and Benny's line is perfect. Sure, it's immature, but it's done so well that it doesn't matter. This is the highlight of the episode in terms of writing, pacing, acting, and editing, and it carries the rest of the episode.

Voice acting: Overall very good. Character voices are varied and distinguishable and delivered convincingly, EXCEPT for the yelling and cursing. Dutch is spectacular. Revy is a little less consistent—the scratchiness is fine normally, but not good during the frustrated pseudo-yelling lines (ex: angry raspy at 6:18 and 8:50, not working so much). Rock, Benny, and the crazy evil enemy commander are all solid. Everyone is a bit quiet during the bar scene.

Cursing: I enjoy a good f-bomb or two, but there are times in the episode where it's so egregious even the characters can't seem to muster up the energy to deliver it realistically and convincingly (think 5:09 where Rock's character looks half asleep or all over the boardroom scene). When people curse in real life, it is a natural part of the vocabulary; here it feels a little overused in an awkward way that draws attention to it and makes it stand out. The cut-off at 9:00 ("kill you, you mother—") is more successful.

Production value is really good. Nice video source and diverse characters help make this feel legit. Background music and sounds are mixed well, though a bit loud on occasion. Editing is on the whole good, though there a couple of weird parts where the picture is static for too long (like at 6:49). The quick transition at 8:59 to hear Rock speak is odd—probably could have left it panning up on the car. There are few other times where it's distracting, not so much because the editing is bad but because it's worse the surrounding work. These are nits, but I stress that the product is solid, so as a critical voice, one can delve into detail like that.

Other huge pet peeve of mine: when you have a funny line that is totally out of no where (example at 9:20, "throw a birthday party for my niece"), the tendency is to have another character say "uuuh, sir?" or "oooo-kay). This is unnecessarily. Trust that your audience KNOWS it's weird and let that stand on its own more of the time. There are times when the characters are in conversation that this reaction is important (that is fine). It's less good when it's some no name peon who reacts and then the scene changes. Just change scenes instead (personal opinion).

This is one of the best of the non-classic series I've seen in a while, and probably one of the best episode 1s of the bunch, especially if you could cut some of the fat and fix the levels in the bar.

Favorite lines:

"It helps if you breathe in a bit more" AND THEN EVERY LINE FROM THIS SCENE.

"...so porn, huh?"

"What do I need to do, dangle a bucket of KFC in front of your face?" "...yikes."

"And when they least expect it, we'll throw a birthday party for my niece."

MasterWGS's Pokemon Abridged Episode 1 [Review]

2009-09-10T10:36:00.003-07:00

I'm pretty sure I watched PTAS at some point in the distant past, but such memories are dead to me. Pokemon, the epilepsy-fest (i.e. the cartoon), is damn near unwatchable: it sucks, and Brock is the only character that I can relate to, and only because he @#$# loves rocks. That, and the fact that he is always on the quest for a real goal: [insert non-offensive term for female genitalia]. None of this "catch 'em all" bullshit, where "all" refers to things that you can't sleep with (well, shouldn't sleep with).

Ash's voice is grating and painful and awful and 100% dead-on, given the reality that Ash is a huge tool. Unfortunately, his drunk whore of a mother sounds pretty similar. When I changed the tab to continue writing this entry, I couldn't even tell them apart. Gary's is also a solid one, but some of the randos in the crowd also are doing the...how would you call it...I'm a doofus voice. Misty too. I think it's the constant falsetto that's giving me some trouble. Both male and female characters have it—it's mildly disconcerting after a while.

Giving Pikachu actual lines was, I think, a genius move—one which adds limitless potential for personalization and more opportunities for just about anything positive that could be in an abridged series. His character is great. The fact that Ash can't hear him, also great. Personally, I think the two Pokemon voices are the strongest in the episode.

It's been a while since I played the game...but either the background music is that sugary Pokemon gameboy chiptunes goodness, or MasterWGS used the soundtrack to Dr. Mario—mhmm, gameboy music. Love it (ocremix.org is awesome). Not really sure what it's doing there throughout the entire episode, but it's quiet enough, so I can take the extra flavor.

On an unrelated note, Pikachu is infinitely cuter than the main three starter Pokemon. Too bad he was worthless in the game until he becomes Raichu. Raichu is the Chun Li to Pikachu's Cammy.

Not bad for a first episode. Pokedex FTW.

Favorite lines:

"Yes, there is a God"
"Sniffff" — the cocaine joke is actually funnier if you don't explain it. If you have to explain it, it will never be funny.
"Hey Jerkface. Take off the rope. I know how to walk."
"If you spoke human language, then that would have made sense."

MasterWGS Announces and Seeks Abridgers for Fire Emblem One-Shot [News]

2009-09-08T21:33:00.001-07:00

MasterWGS, best known for his work with the PokemonAbridgedFTW crew on-- you guessed it-- Pokemon Abridged, has announced his intention to include as many abridgers as he can possibly gather together to join forces to help write and voice a Fire Emblem abridged one-shot.

Calling his ambitious project, "The Abridging Community's Ultimate Collaborated One-Shot-Parody," MasterWGS is calling for all interested abridgers to contact him through his personal YouTube channel by September 30th for details, and to spread the word to anyone else who may be interested.

Full details can be found here.

Saiyuki Abridged Creator Gahooly Suspended [News]

2009-09-08T03:54:00.001-07:00

And the suspensions just keep a-comin'. Noted AMV editor and creator of the now-defunct Saiyuki Abridged, Gahooly (not to be confused with Saiyuki Reload Abridged creator WhiteAsh) has had her YouTube account suspended. As of this posting, Gahooly could not be reached for comment.

Update: Gahooly has started a new account and will be re-uploading her videos "very soon."

Lanipator is Sans Editing Capabilities [News]

2009-09-08T02:50:00.004-07:00

According to popular abridger Lanipator's blog, he's currently experiencing serious problems with his computer's editing capabilities and is unable to video edit at this time.

This comes as a big disappointment to his many fans, since before experiencing this problem he was probably planning to make a new episode of Yu Yu Hakusho Abridged very soo--

Sorry about that, couldn't get that out with a straight face. In all seriousness, this probably WILL cause significant delays in his non-abridged-related anime review series, Outside the Otaku.

There is no indication that his current computer problems will have any effect on his ability to contribute lines to group projects.

Cleaning Up Lines in Audacity [How-To]

2009-09-05T05:20:00.001-07:00

Got some annoying background hiss in your lines caused by a cheap microphone or sound card and/or a less-than-ideal recording environment? Here's how to take care of it.

This may seem like a pretty basic thing to some of our more experienced readers, but I think we've all watched at least one abridged series that could definitely benefit from this trick, so hopefully it reaches the creators of a couple of those.

Things You'll Need:

A computer running Windows 98/ME/2000/Vista, Mac OS X, or Linux

A microphone

Audacity (a free download)

Step 1:

Open up Audacity. Before you record any lines, record a few seconds of as close to absolute silence as you can manage. Don't say anything, don't shift in your chair, don't even breathe too hard into the mic if you can help it. It should look something like this:

Step 2:

Highlight the entire audio track by clicking anywhere on the pane to the left, and go to "Effect -> Noise Removal...." Click the "Get Noise Profile" button. Now Audacity knows what the background noise in your recording environment sounds like, so it can remove it later.

Step 3:

Record your line(s) as normal. Highlight the entire track. Go to "Effect -> Noise Removal...." Move the slider all the way to the left. Click "Remove Noise." Congratulations! That nasty background hiss is gone!

Step 4:

Go to "File -> Export as WAV..." or "File -> Export as MP3..." and save your work.

Step 5:

Repeat Steps 3 and 4 for each file you wish to save this session.

A couple notes:

You'll have to get a new noise profile each time you close and reopen Audacity.

If you've got a particularly problematic background noise to screen out, you can boost the slider a little to the right, but the more you do, the more distortion you'll get (and the absolute minimum amount of noise removal is usually plenty for our purposes here).

Notice that this won't do much if you're recording in an echoey room: all this can do is filter out background noise.

You'll also notice a little click at the end of each file. You can either delete that in Audacity or during the video editing process, it doesn't matter, but be sure to keep recording for an extra second or two so that you can delete it without deleting part of the line.

If you're on the editing end of things, you can ask your voice actors to record a couple seconds of silence before their first line so that you can clean up their lines for them and save them the trouble... if you're feeling nice.

Final Episode of MasaVox Posted [How-To]

2009-09-04T15:15:00.000-07:00

MasakoX has posted the sixth and final episode of his free voice acting tutorial, MasaVox, over at Blip.

Rather than specific advice on voice acting per se, the final episode focuses on demo reels, self-promotion, and making contacts over the Internet.

Get Your Votes in for the 2nd Annual T.A.C. Awards [News]

2009-09-04T15:04:00.007-07:00

Apologies for being a little late to post this one. Chickenwings over at the Abridged Community boards has posted the nominees for the second annual T.A.C. awards and is calling for votes. You can vote by contacting him through Skype (chicknwings_2001), PM over the Abridged Community forum, or by YouTube PM.

Take a look at the full nominee list here.

Chickenwings doesn't seem to have any firm dates involved (as far as I can tell, he seems to be accepting both nominations and votes concurrently, which is odd) but he does mention that he's hoping to post the winners on or around October 6.

Update: The voting will be cut off on September 17th.

Life Abridged Summer Countdown Canceled / Delayed [News]

2009-09-04T14:51:00.002-07:00

Those of you who follow Cassius614's often-controversial quarterly Life Abridged countdown might be interested to know that she announced yesterday that the summer edition of the countdown is effectively canceled due to her scholastic workload. The fall edition of the countdown (due out in December) will cover summer as well, and instead of counting down the top moments, will count down the top 30 episodes and one-shots of the latter half of 2009.

She also gives some details of Rose of Versailles Abridged Season 2 and a non-abridged-related Shakespeare project. If you're interest, watch the full video:

Familar of Zero Abridged Episode 1 [Review]

2009-09-03T13:53:00.004-07:00

FOZA (aka Zero No Tsukaima: The Abridged Series, two names...whew) is a relatively new (on episode 4) series that—as seems to be a trend recently—is from a show I hadn't even heard of, let alone watched. There was some mention in the comments about not just reviewing the classics, so no complaining.

The Harry Potter intro gag was predictable but cute—personally, though, I think the Harry Potter theme itself might have been the best intro music for the series, not just a one time gag. The episode proper then starts off strong with a great rip at Full Metal Alchemist. Really, I thoroughly enjoyed that one.

It was odd that the teacher's line asks for everyone's name and element and then we only get one response—just a strange dialogue choice. Two-time amusing use of music helps make up for it.

The audio quality here is also pretty strong overall (though there are some times when the background hiss takes over, notably with Louise, especially at 5:40), as is the editing. There are some amusing visual add-ons (on screen commentary and the like) that I think really add some flair to the whole deal.

To be specific on audio issues, I would say that in the first scene, the music is mixed a bit loud and obscures some of the dialogue. Then, I unfortunately couldn't understand the mouse lines and a few others (like most of the lines on the stairway at 3:50)—this was mostly a delivery issue but also sometimes happened when multiple characters were talking at the same time and one drowned out the other. Louise's inner monologue also has too much reverb, which actually makes it difficult to understand. A few actors were rushing over key words here and there, like Saito's whole line at 6:40 (hurts comedic timing). Still, there are a good variety of voices here, and that's an important start.

Also, a pet peeve of mine is when recurring characters' names aren't mentioned in the beginning of the series. Of course, this only matters to people that haven't watch the anime, but hey, I assume people want to be friendly to as many people as possible (minus the trolls). Some pretty good gags here, including the Metal Gear Solid reference and invoking the hysterical horror of LARPing, but I still think delivery here hampers the overall effect. Nonetheless, a solid first effort—I'm sure it's hard to get consistency with such a large cast.

On an unrelated note, good use of the word plebian at 6:27. Every abridger should reference plebs at least one per series.

Favorite lines:

"There will be no clapping, no silly drawing of circles, just straight up alchemy."
"If I remember correctly, first you need a touch of fan service."

Videospin: Editing on the Cheap [How-To]

2009-09-01T00:25:00.000-07:00

This modern world we live in truly is a beautiful one. Just about all the software you could possibly need to create an abridged series or other anime fan parody is free for the asking, and the free software in any given category is almost always comparable if not superior to its paid equivalent. Why plunk down the cash for Adobe Audition when there's Audacity? The Gimp might not be quite as user-friendly as Photoshop, but hey, it gets the job done. And if there's anything in the paid world of DVD ripping that comes close to the sheer geektastic power of the AMV App, I haven't found it.

The big exception, of course, has always been the video editor itself. The major free offering is Windows Movie Maker, and the tales of the headaches it causes are legendary. Other than that, you're generally stuck between the rock of plunking down around six or seven Benjamins for a respectable editing program like Sony Vegas Pro 9 or Adobe Premiere Pro CS4 and the hard place of dirty, dirty software piracy.

Personally, I'm a Vegas man. Ask me no questions about how I got a hold of my copy, and I'll tell you no lies. But for the benefit of our readers who want to get into editing on the cheap without resorting to anything less-than-honest (or who just want to start out with something a little simpler and more noob-friendly than Vegas or Premiere), I decided to download a copy of one of the other free offerings, Pinnacle Videospin, and give 'er a whirl.

First thing's first: this is no Audacity. Far from being an open-source answer to overpriced corporate software created by dedicated not-for-profit programmers, this baby's a corporate shill all the way. The first thing you'll notice is a big fat banner ad right in the middle of the screen trying to get you to upgrade to Pinnacle's paid offering. Ah, well. On the Internet, sometimes advertising is the price you pay to avoid paying out of pocket instead.

As someone who's become accustomed to Vegas, the feature set is more than a little spartan. For your $0.00 American, you get one video track, two audio tracks, a title track, and a handful of transition effects. Want to do any fancy picture-in-picture effects, transparency, masking, keyframes, track motion, or even just speed up and slow down your footage? Sorry, kid, you're S.O.L. You get to split clips and rearrange them and that's it.

Still, that's all you really NEED to make an abridged series or a very simple music video, and the program is user-friendly and has a nice streamlined interface. The file browser is on the top left, video preview on the top right, and the timeline's across the bottom. Add two tabs (one for editing, one for exporting your finished video) on the top, and that's all you have to worry about.

More importantly, the interface is similar enough to more advanced programs such as Vegas and Premiere that it makes for a decent training tool: first-time editors can cut their teeth on this without having to relearn everything when they're ready to trade up.

When it comes time to export your finished video, your menu of video formats is pretty paltry, and many options stop working after 15 days unless you pay up to relicense the codecs. There is an option to export straight to YouTube, but this maxes out at a wimpy resolution of 480x360. The best setting I could find was 640x480 WMV, which should be acceptable if all you're going to do with it is upload it to the 'Tube anyway. For an idea of how this setting looks, check out this short sample video I made:

Yeah, the video quality ain't great, but it at least stacks up favorably against the hordes of WMM-forged monstrosities out there. Incidentally, that took me less than half an hour to make from the moment I first booted up the program: not a bad learning curve for something I'd never used before.

A couple other notes: the program didn't seem to play very nicely with the large, losslessly-compressed video files I tend to favor for my DVD rips, but a little transcoding fixed that up with acceptable results. The video preview window is quite small, but thankfully there IS a fullscreen preview option as well.

At the end of the day, nobody's ever going to toss away their copy of Vegas or Premiere for Videospin, but that's not really what it's designed for. First-time editors trying to decide between Windows Movie Maker and dropping fifty or sixty bucks for an entry-level paid program like Corel Videostudio X2, Pinnacle Studio 12, or Vegas Movie Studio should at least give it a look.

TeamFourStar coming to YoumaCon 2009 [News]

2009-08-31T14:09:00.004-07:00

MasakoX dropped a short update video today:

Short version for those who don't want to sit through the video: TeamFourStar members MasakoX, KaiserNeko, Lanipator, and Takahata101 will be going to YoumaCon 2009 in Dearborn, MI, 10/29/09 through 11/2/09. Should be a treat for those in the Detroit area.

Masako also goes a little bit into MasaVox (expect a shorter delay for Episode 6 than there was for Episode 5) and Naruto Abridged (still waiting on the script from Vegeta3986).

How're we doin'? [Meta]

2009-08-31T02:48:00.002-07:00

With a month and change under the Abridgist's collective belt and our first official promo live on the YouTube, I thought this would be a good time to open the floor to any general comments and criticisms. What do you think so far? What would you like to see more of? Less of? Any requests? Let us know in the comments!

Khenpoe's Bleach Abridged Episode 1 [Review]

2009-08-29T20:26:00.004-07:00

Khenpoe loses points right off the bat for using Comic Sans as his font for additional text. As everyone should know by now, Comic San is banned. Never again. I could also do without the 2 min series intro, mostly because the editing/lip syncing is pretty awkward and I didn't laugh (and for some reason, Ichigo's lines have this odd unnatural rhythm). That said, things do pick up, and Khenpoe is right in saying the previous Bleach attempts were awful. This episode is also way too long, and I can definitely see some footage that isn't necessary for plot or utilized well for humor. However, it's episode 1, and everyone gets one free episode to learn:

As far as voices go, I rather like Rukia's. She's got a sort've odd voice in the dub, and Khenpoe does his own thing here and it works (and it's a pleasure to not have the usual sickening falsetto). Actually, I dig all the female voices (except for the filler woman 4:20—man, hers is awful). Ichigo's voice is fine, but his voice clips at the loud parts. A little bit of compression on the audio track could have prevented that and made for a better listening experience.

I also enjoyed the extended DBZ reference—it was a nice way to handle the bizarre relationship between Ichigo and his father. While there a too many references to other abridged series, I appreciate the sentiment, so we'll call it Kosher. All in all, this is not the funniest abridged episode in the world, but the pacing isn't bad and sat through the whole thing, which is always a plus.

The Vicodin joke is not my favorite, mostly because Vicodin, last I checked, does not cause hallucinations (shrooms? LSD? Too much ambien and forcing yourself to stay awake?). Also, there is far too much pseudo-cursing. Everyone loves cursing: it's good times, but like all good things, it must be used sparingly.

Still, I'm being harsh. My verdict: painless + worth the time.

Favorite lines:
"Fine, you're Krillin. You lose."
"Ugh...But I am the Prince of Saiyans"
"It's...so big" — Yes, that's what she said.

Check out The Abridgist VEAS Promo [Meta]

2009-08-27T16:22:00.000-07:00

Dornkirk wants to make an abridged series? Scary....

The Abridgist's Guide to Using DVD Footage [How-To]

2009-08-27T14:53:00.010-07:00

So you've got your video editing software and you've got your DVDs of your favorite series and you're not quite sure how to plug the one into the other so you can get down to editing? We're here to help.

This guide is basically a streamlined version of A&E's Technical Guides to All Things Audio and Video on amvmusicvideos.org, a much broader and deeper guide aimed at AMV creators, so if you need more details on any particular step in the process, that's the first place to check.

Things You'll Need:

A Windows PC with a DVD drive
Sorry, Mac folks, you'll have to figure this out for yourself. Incidentally, if anyone with some Mac editing proficiency would care to create a Mac version of this guide for the blog, drop me a line at theabridgist@gmail.com.

The AMV App
A freeware suite of useful editing tools offered by the good folks at amvmusicvideos.org.

An absolute assload of free hard drive space
The method we're going to cover here involves lossless compression of video footage, which will give you the best possible video quality and responsiveness. The down side is that it takes up ridiculous amounts of hard drive space, around 11 GB for a standard 22 minute episode. Good thing hard drives are cheap!

Some DVDs
Duh.

Step 1: Setting up DVD Decrypter

Open up DVD Decrypter (included in the AMV App). Before you start ripping, make sure you've got your settings straight. The important ones are Mode (you want IFO Mode) and File Splitting (by chapter). Go to Mode and check IFO Mode, and then "Tools -> Settings -> IFO Mode," click on the File Splitting drop-down menu, and select "By Chapter". You can also change the destination to which the video files will be saved.

Step 2: Ripping the footage

In DVD Decrypter's right-hand pane you'll see all the different videos you can rip from the DVD. Most of them will be little 10 and 20-second clips: these are things like menu intros, FBI warnings, etc. Most of the time it's easy to figure out which ones are the actual episodes, because they'll be around 22 to 24 minutes long. Some DVDs store their episodes all in one big chunk, though, so it might take a little playing around to figure out which one you want.

Once you've selected the episode you want to rip, just hit the big oversized Decrypt button in the lower left.

Step 3: Indexing your footage

Now you should have a folder full of VOB files. Some editing programs will allow you to edit VOB files directly, but it's usually not the easiest or highest-quality way to do things, so we'll need to convert them into something a little more editor-friendly. The first step to doing so is to index all the VOB files that we'll want to combine into one video file.

Usually, the easiest way to do this is to create one video file per episode. Some people prefer to combine all the episodes from one disc into one video file. Whichever you choose, make sure to remember exactly how you did it so that you can recreate the exact same video file if you should need it later. It's not a bad idea to keep a little text file around listing exactly which VOB files went into which video file, and what all the filenames and paths were.

Start up DGIndex (included in the AMV App). Go to "File -> Open" and select all the VOB files you want to combine into one video file. In the next screen you can rearrange the order if you like, but you shouldn't need to. Now just hit "File -> Save" and give it an easy-to-remember filename (I'm partial to the episode number, myself).

Step 4: Editing your AVS script

Almost there! Now you've got an index file pointing to all the VOB files you'll need to process. Head into the folder where you saved the .d2v file from the last step. You'll notice that DGIndex kindly made an .avs file with the same name. Open it up in Notepad. It should say something like:

mpeg2source("E:\VEAS\12\12.d2v")

This line tells our next program (VirtualDubMod) which index file to use to find the footage it needs. At this point, you can add in extra lines to tell VirtualDubMod to further clean up and process the footage as it converts it into a losslessly-compressed AVI file.

The most important thing to do here is to change any interlaced footage into progressive. Without getting too technical, this will prevent a lot of potential problems down the road. I usually add these two lines to the script to do that:

Telecide(order=1,guide=1)
Decimate(cycle=5, mode=2)

This has worked fine for most anime footage that I've tried it with. Now, footage processing is one of the most technical things you can possibly get involved with in amateur video editing, and there are dozens of other things you could be doing to clean up your footage at this point, so if you want to get really involved with it, check out the full guide I linked to above. Otherwise, use the above script, and if it works, great, and if it doesn't, head back to the full guide and play around with some of the different options they suggest until you find something that does.

Step 5: VirtualDubMod

Final step! Once you've got your .avs file edited and saved, open up VirtualDubMod. Go to "File -> Open video file via AVISynth" and open up your .avs file. Now go to "File -> Save As." Down at the bottom where it says "Compression," hit the "Change" button.

You'll get a list of all the different compression algorithms you can use. I'm partial to HuffyUV myself, but plenty of people have cited good results with Lagarith. (Both should have been installed when you installed the AMV App.) Whatever you do, don't choose Xvid. That's what you'd want if you were making a video file for playback, but we want something to edit with, and editing with Xvid is no fun.

Once you've got your compression algorithm chosen, pick a filename, hit Save, and wait. This is the longest and most processor-intensive step (multicore users will have a quicker time of it), but when you're done, you'll have a losslessly-compressed AVI file ready to be opened up in your video editor of choice!

Lupin III Abridged Episode 1 [Review]

2009-08-16T14:12:00.008-07:00

One thing that strikes me on watching LIII Abridged again is that it is extremely long. The first episode clocks in at 8:52. Given that your typical anime episode without commercials usually hovers around 20 minutes, we're straying a bit from that original LittleKuriboh magic 5 minute mark (which apparently every abridger has basically decided to stray from, so I should just pretend that abridged does not imply short). If Kaiser didn't have such a solid Lupin voice, it might not be forgivable. But he does, so it is:

[The original upload has been removed due to the douchebagitude of the big boys in anime distribution middle management: but you can watch it here on GameTrailers.com.]

The character intros here are just entertaining as hell. Jigen with Duck Hunt is perfect (and you really can't beat that snazzy NES music). These introductions can be absolutely crucial and something creators should consider implementing in some form or another. I've watched Lupin III, but if I hadn't, they would have been critical in my appreciation of the series. If you're tailoring the experience explicitly only for the in-the-know, then it doesn't matter, but if you want to give anyone a chance, it's a nice touch. I've seen more than a few series where the voice acting is at a level that I can't even understand the names of the characters and the writers just jump right in to the "action," cursing, and one-liners—an unforgivable combination.

One thing Kaiser does well here is pop-culture jokes, like the idea of open bar on every floor of the cruise ship being an accomodation for Lindsay Lohan. To balance that positive is that he relies a bit too heavily on Anime otaku jokes—they're not bad in kind, but they're not as approachable. A joke or two (that I don't get) isn't too big of a deal, but it can become tiresome (this is definitely a personal preference kind of criticism—take it or leave it).

Another thing I love about Kaiser's work is the editing and audio quality. My principal beef with most abridged attempts is weak-sauce audio (the second is writing with the comedic maturity of a twelve year old). His voices are distinct, have good timing, good levels, and good emotion+inflection. The Scorpion's voice is definitely the worst of the bunch (in terms of sound quality, I can't decipher a few lines, and it's a bit loud and high on the reverb—though I get it, he's in a power suit, so it's forgivable), and, as seems to be the trend, add +1 to "oh with the X-ing and the Y-ing" joke (at the six minute mark). His lines at his demise are pretty amusing, so once again, I'll call it even. LIII Abridged is definitely one of the most solid abridged productions I've come across.

Also worth note, Kaiser is right: Cowboy Bebop is a spectacularly good anime. Really.

Some great lines:

"You are now in the hidden lair...with open bar"
"Everybody, pool's closed...because of electric AIDS" — awesome, awesome(ly terrible) joke

TFS' DBZA: The Rock Opera? [Fun Stuff]

2009-08-14T14:19:00.004-07:00

Hey, everybody. Still bummed over the TeamFourStar suspension? Here's something to keep your minds off your troubles: a musical tribute by a very talented fan by the name of AinSophAur33:

MasakoX Offers Free Video Voice Acting Lessons [How-To]

2009-08-14T04:30:00.004-07:00

Beginning in June of this year, MasakoX, best known as the editor and voice of Sasuke and Kakashi in Naruto: The Abridged Series and the voice of Goku and Gohan in TeamFourStar's Dragonball Z: The Abridged Series has been posting a series of in-depth voice acting tutorials on blip.tv under the name "MasaVox."

Four lessons have been posted so far. While some of the advice he gives may seem a bit basic to those who already have a little experience at amateur voice acting, the "from the ground up" approach will be welcome to beginners who still need to learn the fundamentals.

MasaVox episode listing

Yu Yu Hakusho Abridged Episode 1 [Review]

2009-08-13T21:30:00.001-07:00

Lanipator's YYH Abridged was my favorite abridged series for a while. This could be due in large part to the fact that I actually liked watching Yu Yu Hakusho when I was growing up (I can't exactly say the same for Yugioh, now can I?). In addition, like LK, Lani has got an incredible knack for the voices—anyone who can do a good natural-sounding Kuwabara gets a big thumbs up in my book. Onto the review (I'm ignoring his recent re-do, because, well, it's not cheating, but it doesn't change the fact that this is the real first episode):

The original intro here is incredibly long (we're talking 25 seconds out 6:31), but Lanipator's song choice is great. I think having Kuwabara and Yusuke censor the curse words in later episodes is actually a great touch, but we're not there yet. Continuing the tradition of referencing YGO:TAS in a first episode, we have a Bandit Keith "In America" reference. I know hbi2k and Lani (and others) got some crap in the comments about 'ripping off' LK, but personally, I think these little homages are an obvious and amusing way to acknowledge their inspiration, not an attempt to "joke-steal" — let's be real here, if you haven't seen YGO:TAS, then you won't laugh at the joke. If you have seen it, you know where it comes from. He's not trying to fool anybody here.

Filler voices start of well, but the Narrator is definitely the weakest of the bunch. No matter: Yusuke's (which sounds vaguely similar to Lanipator's own voice in a Twilight-zone kinda way) is stellar; inflection/anger are perfect. The EMT dialogue is also some of the strongest in this episode, next to Kuwabara and Atsuko's, and there is excellent use of 80's female-empowerment song "Suddenly I see." Once you've heard that song once, it will never leave you. You will hear it everywhere. It will follow you when walking through the mall. You will hear it in the background of Valtrex commercials. It. Will. Haunt. You.

I really hate the "oh with [blank]ing!" joke—sadly never funny and present in every abridged series. Unlike the Vegata/Kuwabara joke, which is funny. While not nearly as compelling as later episodes, it's got Kuwabara saying "I'm not gay!" so you know it's good.

Favorite lines:
"p0wned!" — mostly for the voice.
"Why, does Goku have the night off?" — pure gold.
"No, let me go, I haven't had a chance to beat up the corpse yet" Yes.

YouTube-Proof Your Videos [How-To]

2009-08-13T02:27:00.005-07:00

With the recent suspension of TeamFourStar's account, this seems like a good time to discuss a few common-sense ways to YouTube-proof your videos to lessen the chances they might get taken down.

A couple caveats before we begin. First, I am not a lawyer, and nothing I say here constitutes legal advice. Second, the only way for a video to be 100% YouTube-proof is to be 100% free of copyrighted material, which is not feasible for most abridged projects. And third, we're concerned here with practical advice. We could talk about the rights of large copyright-holding corporations versus the fair use rights of individuals until we're blue in the face, but it wouldn't change the basic fact that it's not our interpretation of the law that determines whether things get taken down. It's YouTube's, because they're the ones who are paying for the bandwidth.

That said, here are a few simple steps to take to make your videos a less attractive takedown target for copyright-holders.

1.) Take stock of what material you're using and who owns it.

This includes all video footage, images, music, sound effects, and other audio clips. As much as you can, try to figure out who owns the rights to the material. In the case of footage, this is usually both the original creator (Toei in the case of Dragonball Z) and the distributor (Funimation using the same example). In the case of music, you probably have more to worry about from the record label than from the original artist.

There are a few companies that have been known to be particularly aggressive when it comes to copyright-related video takedowns. On the Japanese side, these include Toei and Sunrise. On the American side, the biggest offenders are Viacom (which owns Comedy Central and the MTV and Nickelodeon networks) and Warner Music Group (the third-largest family of record labels in the recording industry).

You can usually find out who owns a particular piece of music by doing a simple Wikipedia search. Search for the song, then look on the right for the record label and click on it. Find out who owns that label, then, if necessary, who owns THAT company. If the trail leads back to someone like WMG, it should probably go on your list in step 2.

Another way to determine if a song is going to be a problem is to search for it on YouTube. If you find a bunch of videos that use it, it's probably (but not definitely) okay. If you find a bunch of videos with no audio and a video description that says something like, "Well, this USED to be an AMV to [name of song], but because WMG are dicks...." you may have a problem.

2.) Make a list of the most problematic material. Now try to make it shorter.

Now, if you're making an abridged series out of a Toei or a Sunrise show, you can't really eliminate that footage without scrapping the project altogether. But if you're only using a short clip or a piece of a song, ask yourself if that's something you can work around or substitute with something else.

The most common reason for a video to be taken down (or its audio to be blocked) is because a piece of music flags YouTube's automatic audio analyzing software. This is also the hardest to get around, since you can't just reupload the video to a backup account.

One easy way to get around this is to find a cover version of a song that's owned by a different record label. For example, in one episode of VEAS I wanted to use a short instrumental portion of the song "Incense and Peppermints" by Strawberry Alarm Clock, but a YouTube search found that this song was being blocked from a lot of peoples' videos. I used a cover version instead, the video went through fine, and nobody ever knew the difference.

If you can't find a suitable cover version, you can always make your own by running the original song through a voice fader and re-singing the lyrics yourself. This will change the song enough to spoof YouTube's audio detection.

It's up to you how much it's worth it to change your original vision for less of a chance of getting taken down, but at least consider your options.

3.) Don't make your video a target.

Another way that YouTube identifies videos they might choose to take down is the video description and search tags. Even if you've managed to get around their audio detection software, if your search tags have the word "Eminem" right in them or your video description says, "[Series Name] is owned by [Japanese studio] and [American distributor]," you're essentially leading them right to you.

Now, many of us want to do the right thing and give credit where credit is due. However, if you do this in the form of a disclaimer at the beginning of your video or a set of credits at the end, YouTube won't be able to turn them up with a simple text search. Likewise, a title like "VEAS 10" is less likely to raise a red flag at Sunrise than "Vision of Escaflowne: The Abridged Series Episode 10."

4.) What to do if your video gets taken down.

If your video DOES get taken down, YouTube allows you to file a counter-notice stating either that the copyright claim was in error, or that the use of copyrighted material falls under fair use. Use this feature responsibly. Don't say that the copyright claim was in error unless you honestly believe this to be the case.

For example, I had one video with the Turtles' "Happy Together" taken down due to a copyright claim by WMG. However, since I had done my research and knew that the rights to the Turtles reverted back to the songwriters when their original record label went out of business, I knew this to be a mistake. I reported it, the video went up, and I haven't had a problem since. If WMG had had a legitimate claim to the music, I would have either replaced the audio or skipped to Step 5 instead.

I can't advise you as to the specifics of fair use; it's a very gray legal area that even gives trained lawyers trouble. I can, however, point you to YouTube's page on the subject. Now, understand, YouTube's motivation for putting that information there is not entirely to help you out: their main motivation is to cover their own asses, and taking their information at face value is no substitute for doing some real research on your own. But it's as good a place as any to start.

Another option is to get in touch with the company that requested the takedown and ask for permission to use their material, but this one is risky. If it works, great, but if it doesn't, it puts you that much more firmly on their radar. Whether you want to take the risk for the sake of being more upfront is entirely up to you.

5.) Always have a Plan B.

It used to be that getting around a YouTube copyright takedown was as easy as reuploading an episode to a backup account. Now that YouTube uses automated software to detect certain kinds of copyrighted material, it's not always that simple.

Still, there are plenty of other places to post a video, and plenty of ways to let your subscribers know where to go to find your latest episode.

If you DO maintain a backup YouTube account, make sure it's linked to a different email address than your main account. YouTube's not stupid. Well, okay, sometimes they can be pretty stupid, but they're not THAT stupid, and if they decide to suspend your account altogether, they're very likely to take down any other account that's linked to the same address.

Copyright-related takedowns are an inconvenience, but it's important to remember the number of abridged series they've managed to kill, namely zero. By following a few simple steps, you can minimize the chances that your videos will get taken down, and the inconvenience it will cause you and your subscribers if it does happen.

TeamFourStar YouTube Account Suspended [News]

2009-08-13T01:39:00.005-07:00

As many of you already know, the YouTube account of TeamFourStar, the popular abridging team responsible for TFS Dragonball Z Abridged, has been suspended.

According to TFS DBZA co-writer and voice actor Lanipator, the suspension came at the request of Toei Animation, the Japanese company which created the original Dragonball Z anime. Lanipator writes on his blog, "Well it would appear our culprit has been found. Toei animation. I just got off the phone with Kaiser he checked his Email and as I had suspected Toei was the one behind this."

Toei has a troubled history with Internet streaming, notably requiring Funimation to pull streaming One Piece episodes from their site after an incident in which an episode was leaked to the public before its Japanese airdate earlier this year.

Lanipator urges concerned fans to write to Toei and express their displeasure. "Remember," he says, "if you decide to write to them you should be polite and well punctuated with good grammar. The more intelligent you appear the more likely they are to take your opinion seriously."

In the meantime, several TeamFourStar fans such as CobraCommanderNLD have reuploaded TFS Dragonball Z Abridged to their own accounts.

KaiserNeko, head writer and editor of TeamFourStar, could not be reached for comment at the time of this posting.

UPDATE: KaiserNeko has started a new YouTube account for TeamFourStar and urges all fans to stop contacting Funimation and Toei.

Berserk: The Abridged Series Episode 1 [Review]

2009-08-03T21:13:00.004-07:00

Stop #2: Berserk Abridged. hbi2k's first episode definitely doesn't have the same polish as later episodes (or Gantz, or Escaflowne), but it (and the rest of Berserk:TAS) has a sort gritty charm to it. The writing over the series is solid, and while the voices aren't quite as strong as LK's or Lanipator's, the experience always feels satisfying, nonetheless. Among other things, he seems to be a rather clever cat:

hbi2k does a great job of setting up a first episode, immediately self-deprecating his work by referencing LK's Yugioh series (along with the torrent of crap that followed). When I think of an abridger whose work really developed over time, hbi2k comes to mind—while the audio isn't bad per se, there's a lot of empty space between lines, a few of the no-name grunts have the nearly the same voice, and there's an audible hiss in the background of the voices (that stops in between lines; it's a production thing). The effect is that it feels more like one person doing all the lines (which is the case) than like a conversation between characters. Compare this first episode to Gantz: TAS, and you see someone who takes the hobby seriously and has really a some great strides. I would also point out the awesome Abridgers for Charity that he created—that's just a really solid thing to do.

That said, the humor is distinctly and pleasurably hbi2k: the bit in the bar scene about a bunch of guys doing a reenactment is genius, as is the running gag about Guts being a Zack (from Final Fantasy VII) cosplayer. And while the use of music clips here is much less pronounced than in later episodes, it gets the job done. In fact, after watching about half of the Berserk Abridged, I went and watched the actual Berserk anime (both because I was very interested/curious and because I wanted to appreciate more of the jokes). I'd never heard of Berserk before, and I will say that it was odd, awesome, bizarre, great, very strange, and the ending was one of the most depressing and unique (in a good way?) I've ever seen in an anime. We'll return to the interplay between the anime and the abridged series in the future. Suffice it to say, there's a reason hbi2k is one of the most prolific and beloved among abridged series creators: good work, good person.

Favorite lines:

"It's his penis, right?"
"They must be saving it for the canon monsters you filler freak."
"No, you penis-looking son of a bitch: Cloud's just a blond-haired Zack."

And with commentary (an interesting resource for budding abridgers)!

Yugioh: The Abridged Series Episode 1 [Review]

2009-08-02T12:26:00.004-07:00

First episode review-fest: abriding's "wayback machine." I'm taking a look at the first episode of some of the "classic" series. I'll start with YGO:TAS for obvious reasons.

It's been a long time since I first watched LittleKuriboh's initial foray into abridging Yugioh. The voices are bit more muffled but the quality is still strong, even at this early stage. After all, most abridgers only really come into their own only after a few epidoes to get into the groove. The thing that stands out the most after returning from the newer episodes is how slow it is! It sounds like a bunch of the characters are talking through molasses. I wonder if some of that has to do with trying to match the voice timing with the edited video—I don't have a clue. It could just have been his original style.

Nonetheless, the voices are there (except Joey's Brooklyn accent is little inconsistent, IMHO). Tea, in particular, is probably the best female voice done by a man that I can think of (Mai Valentine is dead-on, but the original character's voice is already a bit...something). On top of that, Grandpa has got to be one the most consistently amusing characters in abridging; every one of his lines is over the top (For example, I'm thinking, last scene, in the hospital bed: "I wet myself"). On top of that, he just does an incredible job imitating the 4Kids' voice actors and building off the ridiculousness of the show for comic effect.

As an opening episode, it doesn't require the viewer to be familiar with the show, but it definitely helps if you are—LK highlights the inconsistencies and randomness of the card game, the idiocy of the plot (Grandpa is sent to the hospital by losing a card game, Kaiba tears the card into instead of just keeping it, and so on and so forth). Even going back to the beginning, which is definitely not as polished as the series eventually becomes, it's clear why LK is the one who started the trend.

Favorite lines:

"No wonder your parents are never around"
"Wait, did you testicles just drop in the last five seconds or something?"
"Holy Ra!"
"Screw the rules, I have money!" — makes it initial appearance all the way back in the first episode, I didn't realize it was that old of a running joke.

Boom—you've entered Review City [Meta]

2009-07-30T12:08:00.006-07:00

Hello my most likely younger and less attractive friends—I'm Lavan, and I'm (metaphorically) the music critic who is tone deaf and can't play instruments but still churns his opinions out like they matter. I don't abridge; I just back-seat drive.

I stumbled across Yugioh: The Abridged Series on YouTube near its earlier days (I was probably watching uploads of fansubs in the middle of the night), and I immediately appreciated both the concept and the quality. Good abridging is half homage/half lampoon—it makes you laugh in childish glee even as you feel the abridger's affection for the subject matter. Dub quality, editing, timing, writing—it's a labor of love, and it shows. Time has passed, and the field continues to mature and the number of quality shows has increased. Here's my take:

Abridging is a time-consuming and largely tedious process, made all the worse by entitled fans who (wrongly) feel slighted (and say so) when episodes are a long time in the making. I think abridgers deserve credit for bringing us the laughs, introducing us to new shows, and giving us yet another way to fight the productivity that society so desperately wishes we could achieve.

I'm not always positive, but I'm decent, kindly fellow. If you think I'm right, say so. If you think I'm wrong, say so. If you think I'm a talentless hack who needs to go back to guzzling Diet Mountain Dew and wash the Funyan dust from his fingers, feel free to toss that in the comments. I'm reviewing, but we're all watching.

The Four Pillars of Abridging [Theory]

2009-07-01T18:55:00.004-07:00

Before we get into the nitty-gritty how-to stuff, let's talk a little more broadly about what exactly goes into creating an abridged series. Or as I think of it when I'm feeling particularly effusive, the Four Pillars of Abridging.

Writing

Whether you actually type out a script or not, writing is at the heart of crafting a good abridged series. This covers not just deciding what the characters should say, but figuring out which parts of the original to leave intact and which to cut, what about the characters and plot should change and what should stay the same, and how the show should be structured in general. Should one original series episode always equal one abridged episode, or can episodes be combined or even skipped? These are all questions that it's up to the writer to answer.

Writing is generally considered the most important part of abridging. followed closely by...

Voice Acting

This is the process by which the writing comes to life. Good voice acting can't turn flat-out bad writing into good, but the best writing in the world won't save a show if the voice actors can't deliver it properly.

The most immediately necessary quality of voice acting is range: either being able to make one's voice sound different enough to effectively play different characters, or having enough different voice actors in the cast to cover all the bases, or both. But just as important is ACTING: being able to get into character and deliver the lines with the proper emotion and inflection. From a technical standpoint, it's also important to be able to properly use the recording equipment and software, which brings us to...

Editing

This is the most technically demanding role for an abridger, but in some ways the least important. Good writing and voice acting can save sloppy editing, but it seldom works the other way around.

At the same time, it's easy to underestimate how a polished presentation can turn a good production into a great one. It's up to the editor to make sure that an episode flows well, that the audio levels are balanced so that everything is audible, and that action scenes are presented clearly so that they don't eat up too much time or become disjointed and confusing. And, of course, there are those flashy editing tricks that can open a lot of doors to the writer that would otherwise be closed.

Project Management

This is included last, not because it is the least important, but because it's what ties the other three pillars together. In a solo project, it is mostly involved with scheduling, managing your time to make sure that new episodes can be completed regularly.

The larger a team becomes, the bigger a job it becomes to manage the entire project. Voice casting, delegating writing and editing work, scheduling on- or offline meetings to script or voice direct, motivating team members to give their best work, resolving disputes, and generally keeping everybody happy become bigger and bigger issues with large teams. It's easy to assemble some top-notch talent and assume a great show is going to just happen, but its rarely that simple.

Before beginning an abridged series, it's a good idea to look at all four pillars and figure out how to deal with all the issues they imply. And if you want to turn a good series into a great one, you need look no further than to determine which pillar is your weak link and improve upon it.

Defining Terms: What is an Abridged Series? [Theory]

2009-07-01T18:37:00.003-07:00

This is probably old hat for most anyone who's interested in this blog, but for thoroughness' sake if nothing else, let's start by defining our terms a little. What exactly is an abridged series?

The term "abridged series" was coined by LittleKuriboh with the 2006 debut of his "Yu-Gi-Oh: The Abridged Series." It refers to a specific subgenre of fan parody in which the original dialogue of a television show, movie, or video game is dubbed over for comedic effect and released in a shortened format, most commonly a series of 4-to-8-minute videos on streaming video sites such as YouTube.

This is most commonly done with anime series, with some of the first notable abridged series after LittleKuriboh's being Naruto, Saiyuki Reload, Berserk, and Yu Yu Hakusho. However, some abridged series creators (or "abridgers") have adapted this format to other mediums, such as Western animation (as in GanXingba's "Avatar: The Abridged Series") and video games (such as AdamWestsLapDog's work on Ocarina of Time and Majora's Mask).

An abridged series differs from a typical parody fandub in that it generally seeks to adapt the entirety of the series from the first episode to the last, keeping the plot comprehensible and the series accessible even to those who have never seen the original series being adapted.

It's important to note that, since this designation has only been around for roughly three years, the definition is constantly in flux. AdamWestsLapDog, for example, was one of the first to successfully adapt it to video games: prior to that, it was generally considered an anime-only form. There are also plenty of works both before and after LittleKuriboh's seminal YAS that could fit the definition given above, but for one reason or another choose not to self-identify with the "abridged series" label. There may also be works that come to be considered abridged series, yet do not fit the above definition without some redefinition of terms.

In short, if it walks like an abridged series and talks like an abridged series, it's probably an abridged series.

Welcome to The Abridgist! [Meta]

2009-07-01T17:01:00.003-07:00

Welcome to The Abridgist, where our goal is to serve the abridging and anime fan parody community by bringing you the latest and greatest in news, reviews, and how-tos.

News:

As of right now, if an abridger has their YouTube account banned or hijacked, their only way of letting their subscribers know what's going on is to hope they're also subscribed to a backup account or personal blog, or that kind friends will spread the word through word-of-mouth.

The Abridgist hopes to change that by creating a single portal for abridged news. And of course, we hope that most of the news we'll be posting will be happier: new series announcements, abridger appearances on podcasts and at cons, etc.

We can't be everywhere at once, though, so if you know of a story that you think we should be covering, drop us a line at theabridgist@gmail.com.

Reviews:

YouTube comments are fine for quick notes, but because of the character limit they're not the best place to go in-depth with full reviews. Other review blogs have come and gone, but ultimately they usually peter out for lack of updates and reader disinterest. By gathering the best reviewers in the abridging community into one place, we'll give abridgers and abridged fans one site to check for the most thoughtful and in-depth reviews.

How-Tos:

Sooner or later, any major abridger is bound to be asked for tips by up-and-comers. Almost all of them have attempted to answer these questions in some way, shape, or form, but these tips are scattered all over the Internet on dozens of video site accounts and blogs.

The Abridgist aims to become the premiere destination for abridging how-to, both by offering excellent original content and by aggregating outside resources for help with writing, editing, voice acting, and all aspects of abridging and the creation of anime fan parodies.

About Me:

I'm hbi2k, best known as the creator of Berserk, Gantz, and Escaflowne Abridged. I'm also a moderator at Toon Zone's Anime and Video Game forums under the screen name "Mynd Hed." I've been involved in anime fan parody for over two years, ever since posting the first episode of Berserk Abridged in February of 2007. With 50 episodes across three series as of this posting, I hold the current record for the most full, numbered episodes of any abridger.

Stay tuned for more additions to The Abridgist team to be announced in the coming weeks.