Do you have a favoriteanimeyou’ve watched time and time again? Maybe you’ve seen all the movies, episodes, and read all the manga, but want something to change up your viewing experience.
Enter the Abridged series, fan dubbings of popular shows that often feature the anime cut down to just the hits and main plot points. These series are often done in a way to poke fun at silly things in whatever show they’re dubbing over, while other times they’re completely off the rails and create their own plot. If you’re looking for something a little different and for a good laugh, you can’t go wrong with these fan creations.
Quick note about many Abridged series. The Abridged’s heyday was more than a decade ago, and many jokes don’t hold up or reflect changing culture on how to approach jokes and social commentary. Many creators have voiced regret for their past writing and have apologized for their comments, which is important as we watch content from years ago.
8Dragon Ball Z Kai Abridged
By Team Four Star
Okay, so this is more of an honorable mention than a full Abridged series, but if you’ve watched Team Four Star’s Dragon Ball Z Abridged and need more, you can always kill ten minutes and watch all of the Dragon Ball Z Kai Abridged.
The episodes are a rapid-fire series of plot points summed up in sentences and jokes based on parodies from the original Abridged series. The best way to capture this is when Vegeta transforms into his Great Ape form, only to immediately have his tail cut off and change back to regular Saiyan form less than a second later, no fighting, no commentary.
750% Off
By Octopimp
A wildly different approach to the competitive swimming anime Free!, 50% Off (get it?) boils the anime down to its most basic elements in a way that is both funny and surprisingly succinct. Episodes rarely go longer than two minutes and are filled with much more overt tension than the original anime.
You can watch all of 50% Off in just under two hours, making it great for quick watches or for trying to convince your friends to watch more with you. While much of the plot is lost in the Abridged series, the non-stop jokes and innuendos make for a fun time.
6Jujutsu Kaisen Abridged
By MyToasterIsMoist
Thisten-episode Abridged seriesby MyToasterIsMoist is a bit of a fever dream of a show, with some utterly absurd bits and some unexpectedly great voice acting. Non-sequiturs link scenes and bits might go on for too long if it wasn’t legitimately funny.
There is plenty of fourth wall breaking in the show, with voice actors seemingly laughing at their own jokes mid reading, which only works to make the Abridged series funnier. Many of the sound effects that curses make are delightfully gross, and some of the inner dialogue of the character feels a bit more realistic given the horror of the situations characters find themselves in.
5SAO Abridged
By Something Witty Entertainment
One of the few anime Abridged series that debuted before the English dub of the anime, Sword Art Online Abridged, often shortened to SAO Abridged, faithfully follows the main plot of the show while wildly diverging on characters' personalities and behavior to a hilarious effect.
Sword Art Online Abridged is still ongoing, though episodes can sometimes take years to release. Thankfully, Something Witty Entertainment has plenty of other Abridged series and other content to enjoy. The series features an all-star cast, with voice actors from other series, so don’t be surprised if you recognize plenty of other familiar voices during the show.
4Hellsing Ultimate Abridged
It’s not the first time Team Four Star has appeared on this list, and it won’t be the last. Hellsing Abridged by Team Four Star boils the show down to just ten episodes, while still hitting all the main plot points of the show. Since it debuted after the group had a good amount of experience under their belts, voices are locked in right from episode one, making it a great experience from the get-go.
The absurd situations of the show are only made more preposterous thanks to a string of one-liners and curious accents that take the show to the extreme. There are plenty of quotable sections from the show, which is something you can come to expect from Team Four Star.
3Fate/Stay Night UBW Abridged
By Project Mouthwash
Another Abridged series that stays loyal to the original show, Fate/Stay Night UBW Abridged follow the Unlimited Blade Works iteration of the anime, and turns the Holy Grail War from a tragic tale of loss and sacrifices, to a comedic journey with bombastic personalities who still have to face the horrors of the War.
All characters have their personalities turned up to eleven in this show, with Archer’s dry cynicism taken to an absurd degree, with a hatred for Shirou that becomes a hilarious running gag. The series makes fun of the original anime without being disrespectful and isn’t plagued with nearly as many random jokes that other series rely on to bridge scenes.
2Yu-Gi-Oh Abridged
By Little Kuriboh
One of the original Abridged series that put the genre on the map for many fans over the years, Yu-Gi-Oh Abridged was spearheaded by Little Kuriboh and spanned the majority of the original anime. While self-referential jokes and other trends might have plagued Abridged content for years, it still holds a special place for being the start of it all.
Being one of the original Abridged series, it paved the way for future series, and while many of the jokes are dated and can be a bit flat nowadays, they can still be funny in context. Perhaps one of the best things to take away from the series is thenew personality of Seto Kiba, who unabashedly abuses his financial influence over a children’s card game at every chance he gets.
1Dragon Ball Z Abridged
A masterpiece in retelling a familiar story, Dragon Ball Z Abridged is perhaps the biggest name in the game when it comes to Abridged series. Characters are both taken to the absurd in characterization, while faithfully sticking to much of the original personality and tone of the anime and manga.
Early jokes can sometimes be a bit self-referential and can feel disjointed at times, but when the show catches its stride, it is a journey all on its own. Thepersonalities of Vegeta, Piccolo, and Gokuare at their most absurd, while still feeling true to the characters. Perhaps the greatest element of the series is the clear love of the original content that Team Four Star shows. There are bits referencing odd dubbing choices from various versions of the original Dragon Ball Z, while plenty of throwbacks to the original Dragon Ball and the non-canonical films as well that only fans will pick up on.
