One of the key pillars of early YouTube, LittleKuribo’s Yu-Gi-Oh Abridged, is now 18 years old. Skyrocketed into stardom alongside Charlie Bit My Finger and Grape Lady Falls, the hilarious dub of the Yu-Gi-Oh anime was once an inseparable part of the internet for millions of monthly viewers.
Originally uploaded on July 14, 2006, and later removed for copyright violations, Yu-Gi-Oh: The Abridged Series quickly garnered millions of views. The original episode’s re-upload in April 2009 currently has over 12 million views.
18 Years of Yu-Gi-Oh Abridged
Following the web series’ 18th anniversary, creator LittleKuriboh took to Twitter to celebrate the series’ coming of age. “Hey it's the 18th anniversary of the first episode of Yu-Gi-Oh Abridged!” they said to fans on Twitter. “The show is finally old enough to play a children's card game.”
In the years since Yu-Gi-Oh Abridged’s debut, the web series has been banned from YouTube twice, inspired spin-offs of GX and 5D’s Abridged and even had two movies. The show was instrumental in the continued popularity of both the real-life trading card game and its anime adaptations.
Many of the YouTube series’ jokes and gags became inseparable from the Yu-Gi-Oh series. Alongside the brilliant characterisation of Seto Kaiba—” screw the rules, I have money”—the show is responsible for pointing the show’s hilarious misrepresentation of how the real card game works, and even the bizarre hairstyles of its cast.
After a long hiatus due to health issues, Yu-Gi-Oh: The Abridged Series is still going and is funnier than ever. While the web series has yet to adapt the series’ last movie, Dark Side of Dimensions, new episodes are still releasing on LittleKuriboh’s YouTube channel.
Remembering Early Internet
Despite being one of the earliest incarnations of a successful web series, Yu-Gi-Oh Abridged could only exist because of its predecessors. Alongside shows like Homestar Runner and the comic strips Penny Arcade, Yu-Gi-Oh Abridged’s success came after the huge popularity of Rooster Teeth’s Red vs Blue. Concluding with Red vs Blue Restoration, amidst the closure of Rooster Teeth, the series lasted for 21 years.
With Yu-Gi-Oh Abridged still running, there is a chance that the parody series could actually become a longer-running series than its spiritual predecessors.
Yu-Gi-Oh Abridged also inspired a host of other Abridged series released on YouTube. Akira Toriyama’s iconic Dragon Ball series was turned into the hilarious Dragon Ball Z Abridged, and many fans consider Sword Art Online Abridged the be a better series than the real show. While Abridged content is mostly gone nowadays, it was once a major part of online viral content, and it still has a fanbase.