Team 4 Star: Making the Ridiculously Awesome Even Better

           When people here the word "creativity", they believe it to be interchangeable with originality.  Essentially all the great writers, artists, philosophers, etc. all received praise for their own masterful work.  Breaking away from the Status quot is Team 4 Star.  Scott Frerichs (KaiserNeko), Nick Landis (Lanipator), and Curtis Arnott (Takahata101) are the creators of the famous Dragon Ball Z abridged.  These guys did not create Dragon Ball Z.  In fact, they didn't even pioneer abridged series (This title belongs to Martin Billany [little kuriboh], creator of yugioh abridged.  However, these guys knew that there is more than one way to realize the legend.  Their ingenuity in script writing and flawless editing created the best abridged series ever.

       

          There are dozens of abridged series out there, but every single fan agrees that DBZ abridged is the best.  The biggest strength to the series is how much the creators love the work.  In Pretend Play by Sandra Russ, Andrew Robins, and Beth Christiano, they claim that there is a strong "relation between play and creativity."  The creators absolutely love Dragon Ball Z and they have a real passion for voice acting.  It's a little scary how accurate their voices are to the original voice actors of the show.  It's this passion that has put their show at number one on every single abridged series ranking.

       

          What's most creative about Team 4 star is how they seamlessly weave in their own subplots to the show.  When watching most abridged series, it's easy to tell that you're note watching the real show because editing for subplots looks forced.  Team 4 star is able to edit their in perfectly and make it stick to the actual story line.  Pokemon Abridged by 1kidsentertainment, is another excellent abridged series, but it can't compete with DBZ abridged for this reason.  Their subplots with Misty's fire obsession and Brock's breeding problems tend to veer away from the show.  Team 4 star on the other hand intertwined the God Popo and Nail subplots perfectly.


       
          Another reason why Team 4 Star is so creative is because they take their time.  Due to the increased popularity of abridged series, creators tend to produce their shows hastily which diminishes its quality.  The time that Team 4 Star puts into their work is integral to creativity.  This theory is supported in the article by Chen-bo-Zhong.  In the article, a study was discussed, in which people had to create product names.  The ones who took their time came up with more creative names than the ones who tried to think of things quickly.          

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          Though every abridged series maker wants their series to be the best, they all agree that working with team 4 star is always a positive.  Little kuriboh makes fun of his series all the time by saying that it's "only half as popular as Team 4 Star."  He and several other abridged series use the services of Team 4 Star (particularly Nappa), to enhance their own series.  They all attend anime conventions to showcase their series, and everyone has a ton of respect for Team 4 Star.  T4S is very fortunate that they are appreciated in their own time.

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          In final analysis, there are a lot of truly awesome abridged series.  The best I've seen are from 1kidsentertainment, littlekuriboh, and the ultimate: Team 4 Star.  Many have tried, but no one has come up with as great of an abridged series as those 3 parody behemoths.