Sailor Moon: The Abridged Series

Vid
Title:
Creator:	Megami33
Date:	2007-2012
Format:
Length:	51 Episodes, 2 Movies (1 Unreleased)
Music:
Genre:	Abridged Series
Fandom:	Sailor Moon
Footage:	https://archive.org/details/Megami33
URL:
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Sailor Moon: The Abridged Series was an abridged series created by YouTube user Megami33 in 2007. The first episode was posted on 28 August 2007. The series fell into inactivity in 2012, and the teams' website domain has since expired, though an archived version is available.

The series has been removed from YouTube multiple times for issues of copyright. With the exception of the Sailor Moon R movie and supplemental materials, the series can be viewed on archive.org. Further information about the series is preserved in its TvTropes page, on its IMBD page, and on the Abridged Series wiki.

A Spanish dub of the series was produced in 2018.

(Some vidders post extensive notes about the vid; quote them here)

Sailor Moon: The Abridged Series also known as Sailor Moon Abridged, or just SMA, is a popular fan parody of the Sailor Moon anime created by the SMA Crew. It began late in the summer of 2007 and was prominently featured on the YouTube pages Megami33 and SMASeries. The creative minds include Megami33, KrisRix, and Roll002, with added input/voices by Judgement915, whip0falchemy, and many other Internet-based guest stars.

 https://web.archive.org/web/20150912193749/http://www.sailormoonabridged.com/about/

Contents

The series specifically poked fun at the 1990s English-language dub of the show and encompassed the Dark Kingdom arc along with most of the Doom Tree Arc. Two movies were also created based on Sailor Moon R: The Movie and Sailor Moon S: The Movie. Only the former was ever released online (though a copy does not seem to be actively hosted online as of 21 May 2024), the latter appears to have been aired at a convention.

TvTropes remarks that the series is notable "for being one of the few among its peers to have more than 40 episodes, and the first to prove that a female main cast can be just as funny."

Reception

While extremely popular in the Sailor Moon fan community during its release, much of the humor is now considered to be dated and problematic. Much of the series' humor derived from the concept of "crossing the line twice" and its handling of subjects such as eating disorders and transgender identities have aged poorly, Regardless, the series is still remembered fondly by many fans.

Reactions/Reviews

Hey I've been a fan of your's for like 5 years. You were always my favorite SMA cast member. I loved SMA a lot and now I can't read the manga without reading it in you guy's voices. But I've been rewatching it lately and not to be rude since I'm sure you guys put a lot of work and love into it all, but it's not quite as funny as I remember it being. Do you ever look back and feel this way?

— Anonymous

HYUK HYUK YEP SURE DO

I literally cannot watch the show. Someone put it on the other day at a gathering, and I just sat there with my face in my hands while mentally singing random songs in an attempt to block it out. I’m pretty sure I was sweating all over and turning purple, too.

There were some moments, and full episodes even, that I still find pretty damn funny. But overall, the show is absolutely not the style of humor I now find entertaining. In fact, it’s basically just offensive 90% of the time.

I think it’s a fantastic time-capsule piece, though. YouTube wasn’t really a place for famous people quite yet, and the only other “abridged” parody was YGO:TAS. Social media basically wasn’t a thing (Facebook was only just letting people sign up without a university email), and the fight for social justice was not as visible either. And, most importantly, we were all freshly-graduated high school goobers… Put all that together, and it was definitely a recipe for cheap shots and “problematic” content.

Looking back is weird, because I feel like I don’t even remember being the person that wrote some of those lines. But at the same time, I think it’s an interest blast from the past to show just how much I’ve changed, not to mention the change in the internet as a whole!

One thing I do standby though is the idea that there were only two kinds of people who laughed at SMA: absolutely scummy assholes who really believed in some of the awful shit we said and took it as some sort of validation of awful beliefs, and then everyone else who enjoyed it with painful, screaming laughter because I CAN’T BELIEVE THEY SAID THAT. I think the vast majority of our viewers fell into the latter camp - we were all groaning and pulling our hair out together. The things we said were funny then because they were awful, not because they were right. And I think that’s some good comedy fundamentals - we just didn’t handle it the correct way at all.

So yeah. I’m incredibly grateful to everyone who watched the show as it was coming out and laughed along with us. I’m thrilled by all the fans who have said “you’ve gotten me through a dark time”, or “my friends and I marathoned this while working on X project”, or other such comments. I enjoy with great embarrassment all the times that someone recognized me and approached me. It was a wonderful experience while I was living it~

I really hope too many people weren’t offended by the show… It feels a little too convenient to try and truly apologize for something like that now, though. If I could, I would go back and find a way to get stupid-teenager-me to be funny without being offensive. But as it stands, what’s done is done, and I’m a different person with a lot of new lessons learned.

I want to do something new, to help hit that point home a bit better and bring new laughter into people’s lives… But I don’t want to promise anything.

Thanks for sticking with me all these years, Anon, <3 Let’s both be happy together that we laughed at SMA while we could, and that we’re now both mature enough no to no longer find it funny! :P

SMA Staff member KrisRix on reflecting on the series in a tumblr ask dated 23 February 2015. https://krisrix.tumblr.com/post/111891519372/hey-ive-been-a-fan-of-yours-for-like-5-years

looking back on SMA do you feel bad that you guys made extremely problematic jokes that aren't funny anymore? or do you look at it with fond memories?

— Anonymous

Not sure if this is supposed to be a genuine question out of curiosity, or if you’re trying to bait me, but rest assured: I definitely cringe, break out into a cold sweat, and have a quiet panic attack whenever anyone brings it up, or even when it comes to mind. The latter of which is fairly often.

Given our ages, the way we perceived comedy at the time, our own coping with things, and the way the internet in general was, I think what we did was worthwhile to us and many others. I can’t tell you how many people told us we helped them get through some shit. So I don’t know if I would be so extreme as to say that I wouldn’t do it again if I could go back in time. But if I could do it differently? Helllll yeah.

It’s a time capsule piece, which has some merit in its own right, but I’d be happy if no one could ever lay eyes on it again. Knowing the way it would be perceived by viewers today… it crushes me. My funny bone is broken, and I don’t think it will recover. As much as I am still interested in comedy, I probably can’t do it again now, given how haunted I am, 8^)

SMA Staff member KrisRix on reflecting on the series in a tumblr ask dated 5 October 2016 https://krisrix.tumblr.com/post/151382714632/looking-back-on-sma-do-you-feel-bad-that-you-guys

Update: [Sorry it's long, but it's important]

Hello there, moonies! We just wanted to say thank you to everyone for all the support that you've given us throughout the years. When we were young and starting out on the internet back in 2007, times were a bit different. We had a blast doing and saying whatever we wanted, using the show we loved because at the time, we could! We were figuring out ourselves in this New Media and forming our parody stuff with it in various ways. Even today, despite not uploading much of anything anymore, we are still greeted by fans who enjoyed our series. Heck, sometimes we were even their first abridged series to be seen! 😮 However, a lot has changed since then. Some of us feel that SMA may not be a good indicator of who we are and what we find funny by today's standards. While we value how it is a time capsule to us and how many people's lives it positively touched, we like for everyone to acknowledge that it is the past and nothing more. Whatever feelings that some people may have thought of when it came to parodying Sailor Moon or believed there was any ill will from the content that we made by expressing certain characters in various ways or addressing certain issues in the series, we apologize, but the past is the past. People can joke about things without meaning to target others. They were made for satirical purposes and nothing more. We have all grown and learned lots of new things. We will always remember the good times we had with SMA, but we hope to move on to something new and hopefully just as funny as this series was 10 years ago. This is not to say we are putting SMA behind us! We love it, but we are just addressing that sometimes the past has offensive things. We could just wipe it all under the rug and forget we did this, but we are acknowledging the times we grew up in and that's when this series was made. We weren't taking ourselves seriously and we were comfortable saying things that may now be offensive to others. We ask for those offended that they understand that we don't actually have those values as real people. A lot of companies and various works in the past have had content that is not up to standards of the day, but at least some will acknowledge it happened. That's what we are doing now and we believe there's nothing wrong with that. And for those that didn't take any offense to our craziness, well good on you! We appreciate that you knew our jokes were not out of any malicious intent, but showing how a bunch of good friends can get together, sharing memories from a crazy, magical girl show that they all grew up with, and share some fun ideas with you all. ❤ ❤ ❤

The SMA Series channel is pretty done. The episodes on there [or what remain] have been put on unlisted. A lot have been taken down anyway because of copyright issues causing the channel to be in bad standings as well. We hope that we can find the time to make something in the future for all of you to enjoy or just start a new channel all together. For now, please be patient and keep supporting the official releases of the classic Sailor Moon dvd's as well as Crystal. For any other updates, please follow Corinne "Megami33" Sudberg as well as her twitter: Megami33 as she is the most diligent on Youtube/social media these days. Thanks again everyone. Love you all. SMA Forever! 🙂

Facebook Update from the SMA Team dated 18 March 2017 https://www.facebook.com/SMACrew/