Must be the circle of life at work; or maybe The Wheel Of Fortuna, I guess. Only the wisest can tell.
I'd just like to say that this entry will not be too long. I don't know a lot of the relevant details, I can't tell you a lot abut the person I'm going to discuss, seeing as I don't know him personally. Hell, I don't know if he's ever been to the Fan Expo, let alone Canada!
Maybe this post is no longer needed. Hopefully this is the case. Everybody recovers from illness (mental and physical), in their own time. I only hope Little Kuriboh has gotten over his problems in the months since I became aware of them.
But I'll put this out into cyberspace, just in case someone I may or may not know may see this and receive some good from it.
"Little Kuriboh" aka Martin Billany (I had to Google his real name, 'cause even though I've seen him "live" on YouTube, it's easier to think of him as Kuriboh, a faceless voice) is an internet celebrity who hails from the UK. More specifically, he's a Youtuber, making his living off of YouTube videos he produces himself. More specifically, he is known for starting a trend that has morphed into a global phenomena, as internet trends tend to do.
Like a lot of internet celebrities, Mr. Billany came upon a clever idea when he had some free time on his hands. He was an anime fan. There was one anime in particular that caught his attention sometime around 2006. A cheesy, melodramatic, ridiculous show which involves people fighting with fantastical monsters in globally televised professional tournaments which (for some unexplained reason), are more popular than the World Cup, Olympics and (maybe) Halo multiplayer combined.
The show was based on a popular trading card game originating in Japan, and attracting a large cult following. No, no. I'm not talking Pokémon. Nope, not Digimon either. Ok, I know you're not in suspense, I'll tell you.
I'm talking about Yu-gi-oh.. Yep, that show. One of several that introduced "Oughties" kids to (horribly dubbed) Japanese animation. If you thought Pokémon was weird, Yu-gi-oh takes it a couple of notches further. Description wouldn't do it justice. Track down a few episodes online if you feel the urge is too strong.
The only reason I remember the show is because I watched it with my brother almost every afternoon for about a year. At the time I thought it was a pale imitation of Digimon or Monster Rancher. An opinion which I doubt will change any time soon. Yu-gi-oh is not something which lends itself to multiple viewings (except if you're really into mocking campiness).
Kuriboh happens to be one of the those people, and who could blame him after seeing a show like this?
The characters are archetypes with very little personality, the plot of most episodes makes little sense if you think about it for more than ten minutes, and the censorship of the original Japanese broadcast by North American distributor 4Kids Entertainment made absolutely no sense whatsoever.
Rather than write a series of blog posts or do a live commentary like most people would, Kuriboh decided to do things a little differently. He recorded his own snarky dialogue and exaggerated voices in his home studio, and replaced the original audio with his own original recordings, and eventually, the first episode of Yu-gi-oh: The Abridged Series uploaded onto YouTube on July 14, 2006. Thus, The Great Age of the Gag Dub was born!
Well, ok, let's not go too far. Obviously when it comes to this sort of thing, there's no way of knowing who was the first who thought up "gag dubbing", but what I *can* tell you for certain is that within a few months, "gag dubs" starting to appear a lot more frequentl. As Kuriboh's fan base grew, more and more groups of fan groups were copying his unique, honest and dark humour. And fans of course had plenty of material to work with. Hugely popular anime shows from the '90's were soon getting the parody treatment. Pokémon, Sailor Moon and Dragon Ball Z are easily the most famous examples.
Now, you're probably wondering "why should I care?" "Where is this going?" Well, ok. I guess it's time to move on from the prologue.
About a year ago, Kuriboh revealed that he was suffering from depression. Apparently, from what I've heard. he has been dealing with some serious personal and physical issues over the last few years, and his depression. But instead of keeping the pain inside, he came clean to his fans, and has received no end of support.
The reason why I wanted to write this to share my support and admiration. You may not care or thinks it matters but consider this. Think of a person you admire or care about. Maybe it was Robin Williams. Maybe it's Kurt Cobain. Maybe it's Alan Turing. Maybe you think it doesn't matter what you might say or do
. But it *does* matter. Trust me, it's better to make the effort than not.
As a person who has suffered from depression, I couldn't stay silent. I had to do my part to raise of the man's work and his struggles to try and avert the potential loss of a very talented guy..
So if you have some free time, here's his website:
http://yugiohabridged.com/
Here's his YouTube channel.
If you want to learn more about exactly what issues he's dealing with, let the man tell you himself in his "We're Still Here" v-log series.
https://www.youtube.com/user/CardGamesFTW
Hopefully you will have as much as I did watching these vids. Don't worry, the first few may be a little rough, but it's definitely worth it.
Cheers, Mr. Billany!
Cheers, Mr. Billany!
