Anyone who is a fan of anime or a number of cartoons might be familiar with “abridged” series. Episodes of the series (or just scenes) are edited and often given new voice-overs by an amateur staff (I mean not professional, although I suppose there could be “professional” abridgers out there and I just have no clue; and not talking about people who make parodies or write satire) to make fun of the original series. It’s pretty easy to do this with anime because their mouths are made to be relatively flexible with speech (for the translation switches). Or simply because most animated series lack a lot of the expression of a normal human face. Anyway, these are very complicated and good ones require a lot of time and effort and skill. Some popular ones I know of include Code Ment (an abridgement of “Code Geass”), Yu-Gi-Oh! Abridged, and Hellsing Ultimate Abridged. You could also count something like How It Should Have Ended, which is a channel that actually creates the graphics for a mini-video of sorts that creates scenarios of how certain movies, video games, and TV shows should have ended (e.g., “The Dark Knight”, “Jaws”, “Lost”, “Harry Potter”, “Captain America”, etc.).
I’m curious if abridged series count as Electronic Literature. They are made specifically to be seen electronically, and often include text you have to read for a joke or understanding something. Clip Art is frequently used, along with internet memes and slang. Viewers also don’t just simply watch it for enjoyment (although that’s the major reason to watch them… typically because they’re very funny). They’re mostly satire and “this makes no sense, why did they do it this way?” They make you really think about what goes on in the show/movie/what-have-you. In fact, if you look at things like “How It Should Have Ended”, then that’s even closer to Electronic Literature than the average abridged series. They require computer graphics and drawing, because the stories they draw from are usually live-action. It’s just easier to use cartoons. I wouldn’t call the abridged series I’ve seen cartoons or shows… for one thing, the main material/stories they draw from aren’t originally produced by the abridgers. They’re borrowing stories and such from the movie/TV/video game people. “His He” gets farthest from that, but the point still stands. They don’t act like they OWN “Inception”. They just used their style to make fun of the movie’s numerous plot holes. There’s still a level of computer skill involved in creating the videos. Video editing is not easy. Then there’s recording new voices to fit the mouth movements or time changes. Then there’s inserting new images, sound effects, music, and text onto the frames. Besides directing the flow of the episode in the first place.
And actually, if you’re looking at a series (or a group of videos) and not just someone who posts a single stand-alone video, then you’ll see that the creators actually kind of create stories or characters of their own. The point is more to highlight and make fun of the lesser-celebrated aspects of the characters’ personalities and actions, along with bits of the plot, but they eventually turn into something else. For instance, in the “His He” videos, Superman and Batman have an on-going coffee hangout where a number of the superheroes (and villains) who star in their videos come to hang out at the end of the episode. In Yu-Gi-Oh abridged… well… every character has their own… highlighted personality. Of sorts.
It’s just a thought.
I love How it should’ve ended! The Batman/Superman ones are hilarious because Superman just kind of shuts Batman down (as he should, since Batman is pretty weak in comparison). Anyway, if the definition of elit is going to be limited to created solely to be viewed on a computer, then I’d be inclined to argue that yeah, these count as part of the canon. However, it is a tricky argument to make because as you point out, these types of series are borrowing material, concepts, and characters from film and television aka not elit. Still, I think because of the way this stuff is intended to be consumed, in a viral setting, it constitutes elit more than it doesn’t. It’s almost comparable to Judith being like Black Beard except this is much more direct inspiration, of course.
Yugioh Abridged FTW!!! I’ve been watching the series since maybe 2008. I occasionally talk with Antfish (the voice actor who plays Kaiba’s rich/snooty father in the series), and he says he absolutely loves voicing his character.
I love how Y.A. exploits the characters’ personalities to the point where it’s ridiculous (Tea’s obsession with friendship, Duke knowing he’s a sexy beast, Mokuba ALWAYS being kidnapped, and Joey’s over the top Brooklyn accent in the English dub)
Well, I don’t know if we have to read too far into the “is this / isn’t this” conversation, but if we must, then I think it’s a good opportunity to reflect on that other part of the term, “electronic literature” that we haven’t spent as much time on: literature. That is, we tend to focus on the “born digital” definition, but forget (perhaps) that it’s “literature that has been born digital,” which might mean an important distinction.
So Abridged videos are interesting, funny, well-edited, and so on, but are they really literary? If we decide they are, what other things would we have to consider literary? If we’re comfortable getting rid of the requirement of having written or typographic words as part of the text, then could we include all animation, for example? Is Yu-Gi-Oh literature on its own?
I think what I’m getting at (obliquely, with all these rhetorical questions) is that I think electronic literature might be considered a genre, but I think it’s at least something more substantive than a mode. It’s not automatically literature if it’s printed on paper, so likewise it can’t automatically be elit if it’s “printed” on bits. Right?
Hey everybody!
I’ve been trying to find ways to spread my new videos and I found this place. If anybody is interested, here is my latest video:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BNiBZEQijc4&list=UUkWsa5sKZOuSqko2maXIL6w&index=2&feature=plcp
It is an abridged parody of Case Closed. Enjoy! I have many other videos on my channel including abridged parodies Fullmetal Alchemist and Deathnote among others!
zachwhalen,
I think that anything we read can be considered literature. As long as it evokes a reaction. People such as myself look for themes and ideas that were not necessarily intended by the creators. For example, in the original Yu-Gi-Oh! series, I analyzed Pegasus and his motive for what he does. It is revealed that he was attempting to get the Millennium Items and control Kaiba Corporation in order to have both the power of magic and technology combined to bring his late wife back to life. But he does this by hurting others, namely taking souls away to strengthen his Millennium Eye’s powers all to achieve his end to bring back his wife.
You can say that I’m reading too far into this. I am. But the fact that I could, and that this reaction was evoked from me as a result of the stimulus makes it literature.
Well, I’ve said my piece.
You should check out http://www.seriesabridged.com for the latest abridged series