Is Yu-Gi-Oh a science fiction series? No. It's got holograms and virtual reality and Mokuba in a dress and various other high-tech geegaws galore, but it's primarily a fantasy show, not an SF one. But while it's not Fantasy, what it definitely *is* is an anime series that was hacked to ribbons by the network suits as "4Kids," the American distributor who sold the show to Fox Kids.
Now, if you're the average 40-something adult, you'll have no idea what I'm talking about, but then if you're average you're probably not hanging out on this website anyway. I'm going to assume you're at least passingly familiar with the cartoon or at least the card game (Which is actually pretty fun), but what you may not know is really how badly it was butchered for American TV. Even things that make absolutely no sense to chop out were chopped - such as crosses in a graveyard in a dream sequence, from which 4Kids had crossbeams removed, and were turned into weird 2001 monolith-type things. Other episodes were simply chopped into incoherence.
Or were they? Someone calling themself "Little Kuriboh" has taken it upon himself to point out the horrible things 4Kids/Fox did to the show, but he also is quick to point out how the original Japanese version really didn't make all that much sense either. He also takes jabs at the lame spinoffs (Though 5Ds is way better than GX)
He did it in the best form imaginable: As compressed fan edits of the episodes, in order, re-dubbed with goofy, hillarious, on-target new dialog, and lengthy pythonesque asides. I've watched the entire "Abridged Series" twice, and seriously, Little Kuriboh's random throwaway lines are better than entire seasons of "Two and a Half Men" or "According to Jim." It's a hoot. Alas, he appears to have grown tired of doing it, and wrapped up the series entirely too quickly.
Since there's 1.3 metric buttloads of episodes, I'm just going to link you to the first one, and the last one so you can get a feel for it, but I strongly reccomend checking out the whole series.
Debut
Finale
...and if Little Kuriboh happens to stumble across this, drop me a line at [email protected] - I'd love to interview you about your series!
"Ah, double-bugger!"
The Artist Formerly Known As Republibot 3.0