Dragon Ball Z Abridged

Abridged Goku's 'I am' speech is a great example of something absolutely hilarious and incredibly awesome.

Also: "I'm going to break you.

"...like a Kit Kat bar."

Both a silly comment, and a sign of just how pissed Goku is.

It works no matter what way you look at it.

I liked the corruption of that line in the Cooler movie.

"Grab a Snickers!"
"...I feel like we're both missing some context here..."

Episode 19 review.

Until this guy, I thought we were the only ones who actually critiqued DBZA.

That's a little silly to assume, even as a joke.

My favorite thing about the Ginyu Force mini-arc is how these characters all have their own baggage, especially Jeice and Burter, but because they're the bad guys it never gets fleshed out because Goku shows up an Curbstomps them.

Which is admittedly kinda funny.

Renegade for Life: Until Dawn.

Oh I will enjoy Lani playing Until Dawn.

That's one of my absolute favorite Abridged Goku moments. It's insanely badass and insanely Abridged Goku at the same time - neither his goofy personality nor his awesomeness need be sacrificed.

• GOKU: Not going anywhere?
• COOLER: *belly punch*
• GOKU: Grab a Snickers.

My favorite Abridged Goku moment was from the Lord Slug movie where he randomly busted out "Sun, Sun, Mr. Golden Sun, kill my enemy!"

I want a full-length parody of that more than I have wanted a full-length parody of any song ever.

Yeah, but unlike a lot of what Goku said, it made total sense in context.

A Rare Sentence to be sure where Goku is concerned.

TFS has started a new series! Every Tuesday, they'll be releasing a Top 10 list for video games. This week, it's Top 10 Western Horror-themed Games. It's actually rather neat due to their criteria.

Just read that post from Kaiser about comedy, and it's very well done. Be conscious while still be willing to take risks, and toe the line without jumping over it for the sake of it. Good man with a good head on his shoulders.

Looking at the way DBZA has evolved its comedy over the years, one thing I note looking at Season 1 is just how basic and one-note a lot of the characters are. Goku is dumb. Piccolo has no friends. Krillin sucks at everything. Yamcha is useless. Tien is the Only Sane Man. Nappa is stupid beyond all reason. Vegeta is the straight man to Nappa's insanity. Popo is Satan.

Hell, it even kinda continues into Season 2. Goku is even dumber than before. Gohan has daddy issues. Everyone hate Guldo. Jeice is Australian. Burter won't shut up about his speed. Zarbon is flaming, except PLOT TWIST he has a girlfriend. Recoome comes right out of the WWE. Super Kami Guru is an utter asshole. Nail replaces Tien.

What makes Season 2 so different, however, is Freeza, or, more specifically, Little Kuriboh's portrayal of Freeza. He comes in and gives it something the series never had before: gravitas. He's funny as hell, but also genuinely chilling, and many times somehow manages to be both at once. And with him, the rest of the series bumps up to match.

In a way, DBZA's evolution in humor and tone follows very closely to DBZ's own evolution. The Saiyan Saga began the transition from the original's wackiness to Z's drama, but the Freeza Saga cemented that transition, and the Android/Cell Saga took it as far as Toriyama could manage. And DBZA is walking along the very same path.

I agree with you on your assessment of DBZA (they definitely hit their stride with Namek, and Freeza in particular), but I disagree on the part about the original series.

The transition from silly to serious was done gradually in the original series, starting from the Red Ribbon Army arc (mostly silly, with a couple of more serious villains) up until the Piccolo Jr. arc (at that point being mostly serious, with a couple of silly moments). The Saiyan arc was just an extension of that (though it definitely had a darker tone overall, what with people dying left and right), and Namek was much of the same, but with a much more optimistic ending.

Anyway, back to DBZA, while keeping everybody in character works well, I kinda wish we'd see some more silliness from time to time. Cell's group therapy and Fake!17 were good examples, and certainly something that had been missing for most of the Android saga.

The Saiyan Arc was much shorter in the manga and there really wasn't that much humor in it. The Ginyu Force might've been completely redundant in the Freeza Saga and without them, Freeza easily could've been 10x weaker, but the humor they created was something sorely missing for a good part of the series.

I bet once they get to the Cell Games, we'll see a lot of humor coming from Mr. Satan. I wonder who they'll get to voice him, though...

x4 So does that mean more wacky antics come Buu Saga?

edited 14th Oct '15 10:09:29 AM by IceAnt573

You gotta remember, the Buu saga had Goku and Vegeta's fusion get turned into a jawbreaker and he STILL kicked Super Buu's ass. It was plenty serious, no doubt, but it was also pretty damn funny.

x6 No it didn't. The tone shift away from humor didn't happen with the Saiyan Saga, it happened with the Piccolo Daimaou Saga. There's basically no humor there and there's not a lot in the Piccolo Jr. Saga, comparatively speaking.

In fairness to the 23rd Tenkaichi Budokai, it did feature Yamcha's greatest moment.◊

Mhm. It is useful concept to draw a line between early and late DB, but the idea of drawing the line between the Piccolo Jr. and Saiyan sagas isn't based on much in the actual content, but rather in quirks of production and airing schedules for the anime.