Possibly the rarest thing among Abridged Series is to actually complete one. Many are justified in not doing so because the creators choose Long-Runners to spoof. hbi2k
has done the even more rare accomplishment of completing three series.
hbi also has videos where he gives answers on questions he's asked frequently. Sure Lanipator did such videos first, but hbi admits that right off the bat.
hbi2k was the first to release legitimate commentaries on his videos. He finished his Berserk Abridged and Gantz Abridged commentaries and as of 2010 is releasing commentaries for Vision of Escaflowne Abridged.
He was also part of Team Four Star (he voiced several supporting and minor characters on Dragon Ball Z Abridged, and he's the voice of Father Alexander Anderson on Hellsing Ultimate Abridged), and was an indirect instigator in The War of the Abridged Series Creators.
He also used to be a troper.
Works:
Tropes common in his work:
- Affectionate Parody: While many abridged series can be pretty mean-spirited, hbi does his with clear fondness and respect for the source material. Vision of Escaflowne Abridged in particular keeps a lot of the character development and romance from the original series, though obviously spoofed and exaggerated for comedy.
- DVD Commentary: Finished with Berserk and Gantz, and moved on to Vision of Escaflowne.
- Lampshaded the Obscure Reference: Calls some of his jokes "2 percenters" based on how much he thinks his viewers get them.
- Larynx Dissonance: Either it's obvious as hell, or he gets lady abridgers to do voices for him.
- Two such abridgers are Cassius614 and AngelElric.
- Used as a Mythology Gag sprinkled with metahumor in Gantz Abridged, as Kishimoto starts out with the Caska voice from Berserk Abridged (which WAS hbi2k, OBVIOUSLY)... and everyone else in the room immediately breaks out with horrible, Youtube-Subscriber-ish whining about how annoying the voice is. One cough later, and she's voiced by someone completely different.
- Two such abridgers are Cassius614 and AngelElric.
- Let's See YOU Do Better!: A recent contest for his fans to make their own abridged episodes.
- Orphaned Series: None of the series themselves, but he seems to have given up on his Vision of Escaflowne Abridged commentaries.
- Well, the Berserk movies are just... kinda there. with only one part, that's just covers until Zodd attacks and Griffith is left unconscious.
- Pungeon Master: DEAR GOD IS HE AN UNRIVALED ONE! Watch almost any video with him in it, expect a pun that will have you split your sides, groan loudly, or, somehow, both.
- Running Gag: Barry White and Jello shots,
condombagel, cameos from his abridged series character in other videos.- Also, if the Team Four Star Videos are to be believed, he doesn't like Canada.
- Also, his ex-wife. Which changes almost every video he is in.
- Shout-Out: Many, including TV Tropes itself.
- Sincerest Form of Flattery: When he did his first "Ask hbi2k" video, he had a character speak up.
- Take That!: NTAM: Dead Horse Edition, which is at everyone who treated NTAM as the worst crime in humanity.
- To The Monkees. While he lists them above Smash Mouth for the song "I'm a believer", in the commentary for that Gantz episode he talks about how Vegeta 3986 really loves the Beatles. His response, "Oh look at us, we're like The Beatles, except we don't play our own instruments and we suck!"
- Those Two Guys: Zod and Phil.
- Writing by the Seat of Your Pants: In an Escaflowne Commentary, he admitted that for his Berserk and Gantz series he tended to make up new jokes while editing. Averted for Escaflowne, since he had many other voice actors on board and had to have scripts finalized before recording each episode.
