The online fan dubbing scene has been around even before YouTube cropped up, but it’s hard to argue that it went big around 2008 when folks like Team Four Star decided to cut up episodes of Dragon Ball Z and dub it with loads of jokes and throwbacks to the canon.

Thus Dragon Ball Z Abridged was born and went on to cover all the key bits of Dragon Ball Z with their own creative spin. If you haven’t seen it, I suggest you check it out because it blends jokes & also respects the source material (to a point). In fact, the only reason I came back to Dragon Ball Z after the s***show that was Dragon Ball GT was because of Team Four Star and stuff like this:

It seems that all good things have to end; Team Four Star is putting the kibosh on Dragon Ball Z Abridged and will not do the Buu saga. After completing their homage-slash-parody of the Cell Games saga last year and doing other VO projects, the team decided that their hearts aren’t in it anymore.

Here’s an official statement of Team Four Star director and editorScott “KaiserNeko” Frerichs via Patreon:

“Many shows lose steam as time goes on as the creators extend their work far beyond its natural lifespan; we’re feeling that with this, and that’s a scary, depressing thought. We don’t want to end up like The Simpsons, Dexter, Scrubs, just to name a few. And yes, we know, there’s more story to work with. But in all honesty… there just isn’t the emotional attachment and passion for the arc that drove the last three seasons.”

He also admitted that the team are not sure on the process of creating the show with the Buu saga.

“We’re burned out on the original method, in general. It’s been an absolute blast to bring DBZA to life, but after 11 years of the same project… it’s gotten oppressive. Which, again, is a scary thought.”

And then there’s the elephant in the room: Toei Animation, the original IP holders of the anime, may copyright-claim their work even if it’s a work of parody and is non-profit on their side. This is an era where it’s easy to pull the trigger on fair use works and such on YouTube.

“Copyright claims have put us at risk of losing that channel, and our livelihoods in jeopardy. We have our employees to look out for; our friends, our colleagues, and doing right by them—by striving to create original, monetizable, copyright-friendly content, that also carries our heart and soul as creatives—is undeniably important.

We’ve thought about hosting DBZA on other sites, but nowhere has been safe, and worse, it would serve to draw attention away from our hub, which ultimately could lead to less views, less support, and either the scaling back or collapse of our company.”

It does suck that there wouldn’t be a Buu Saga with a bunch of jokes thrown in for good measure, but at the very least the Dragon Ball Z Abridged saga came to a satisfying close. And it did reignite the Dragon Ball fandom, at least among English-speaking fans worldwide.

Thanks for making Dragon Ball relevant again, Team Four Star, and good luck with your other VO projects. It was definitely fun while it lasted.