I was hoping 'abridged' would mean a version that had non-essential parts cut out while maintaining the original tone and feel. For Attack on Titan it is simply a parody. I don't like to watch parody versions of shows that I like, they ruin the whole thing and I can never again watch the original piece without it having been spoiled by the parody. Seriously, parody is often cheap and lame jokes and while that's fine for something you didn't care much for to begin with, it is to be avoided with shows that you really like. It's like dumping a ton of cheap shit over something you cherish. The smell will never wash away and you'll always get phantom taste of shit in your mouth when trying to enjoy the original. Not my cup of tea.
In the case of Attack on Titan, I don't particularly care much for that show at all, so I can't really say. I do think in the parody they make a couple of justified shots at it that leave me feeling a bit satisfied. But in the case of Hellsing Abridged, I do like the original Hellsing Ultimate, and I feel the parody version of it doesn't harm my appreciation of the original at all. It helps some that it's like watching a version of Archer where Archer is a powerful and bad-ass vampire. But to each their own. That's just how I see these two specific parodies.
I kinda feel the use of the term 'abridged' is being horribly abused by these particular groups of videos, rather than calling them abridged, or perhaps in addition to calling them abridged, they should be labeled as satire or otherwise clearly indicated that these are not 'strictly' abridged. A true abridged show would simply be more or less the same overall show while skipping over the fluff and useless scenes/episodes/etc... as Sheephugger expected. While they are cutting out quite a bit, they're also significantly altering the content, and whether humorous in intent or not, it forces it away from the term 'abridged' into satire or parody and without foreknowledge I can see Sheeps point. Even if I don't personally like the show and think the satire is mildly amusing, though mostly I just think it's annoying, that's just my personal preference for humor.
Ah, yeah that's a fair point. But I think in this specific case, since the same people do both of those abridged series, I think it's less about the correct use of the term and more about internal branding. They became known for their work on the Dragon Ball Abridged series, so Abridged in the context of this team is less about the accuracy, and more a continuation of that specific project with other anime. It's quite understandable that it would get confused with the actual meaning if someone isn't aware of this teams history though, so yeah, I can see some of the frustration with that.
Actually 'abridged' extends to outright parody as well. I was merely hoping it was of the more strict interpretation of the word and not the more lenient one. For the record hate about half of Shingeki no Kyojin's content but about a third of it more than makes up for it. So if I ever found a version that had, say, a third of the content cut out - mostly filler and fluff - then I'd enjoy the show even more. I don't believe in 'bread and butter' format of creation where you have to wade through tons of tasteless junk to get to the thin layer of goodness. The use of contrast in storytelling is sometimes justified but when overused it is just admitting that you don't have any real content for a whole season or that your content needs to be contrasted because it's so trivial.
Ah, it's like how I feel about Naruto and Bleach then. By the Gods, there's so much fluff I wish they'd fucking cut out, because it's garbage. But damn if there aren't really, really good parts of those series. I've wished for a long time there were genuine abridged series of those. I've day dreamed of doing it myself. Maybe I should just shut up and do it.
There's a ton of movies like Pearl Harbor and those series that scream for scissors and tape. Luckily my business partner specializes in video editing! Just, never got around to asking him to make these special versions because I'd feel tempted to share them and that would not be ok, I don't think. And making a special edition for personal use is just.. a lot of work when you put yourself to it.
I believe that's more a question of 'which of these terms best fits the context' the video is still technically abridged, but it's more correct to say it's a satire, that also happens to be abridged. I don't agree that abridged extends to cover parody, though I suppose the actual definition leaves quite a bit open to interpretation and could be loosely interpreted to include such styles, however it would almost never fall under the 'most appropriate' category, for those genre. In general most people who see the word 'abridged' excepting those who know this particular group, are not going to immediately assume 'parody' which was effectively my point.
Agreed. It's bastardization of the term, just like 'gamification' is ruining the whole meaning of 'game developer'. "Let's sprinkle some gamification over this mortgage application so it sells better, yay we are game developers!"
Attack on Titan is obviously the "it" thing, given that you couldn't look anywhere at GenCon and not see in cosplay from it
That must be why there's so much Homestuck cosplay! ... oh wait... *quietly goes back to rereading homestuck for the 3rd time*
Well, I finished the first season of Knights of Sedonia. I really enjoyed it, I do wish it was longer and I am looking forward to the next season. Now I am watching Fate/Zero and so far it has been great. I tried watching Heaven's lost property and I just could not get past the ridiculousness of the 14 year old perversions. It looks like it could be decent... but it gets in the way of itself.
facepalm. for whatever reason i'm watching genesis climber mospeada. and facepalming when stig first gets a fighter after crash landing (episode 3 i think) and he fires all those missiles to destroy the 2 inbit. besides the fact that it's gross overkill where the hell is he going to get replacement ammo. i mean they are a resistance with few resources. shouldn't he be trying to conserve ammo. and yes I know it's an anime and more awesome to fire a shitload of missiles but still.
Your watching it because its a classic anime, because that is the anime you need. For the more hardcore epic space opera types Legend of the Galactic Heroes is a good place to look. Think colonial era customs and logic that is more story then action that is thousands of years into the future fighting with space ships instead of infantry in staggered formations.
