Ohhhh, I hates that Bastion!
LittleKuriboh
As the title might tell you, LittleKuriboh Watches YGO GX is Exactly What It Says on the Tin, a web series featuring Martin Billany, better known as LittleKuriboh, creator of Yu-Gi-Oh! The Abridged Series, watching episodes of the Sequel Series to the original Yu-Gi-Oh! Duel Monsters anime, Yu-Gi-Oh! GX, and providing commentary throughout. As mentioned in the first video, pretty much since he started making the Abridged Series, Little Kuriboh has been getting question/requests/demands that he should abridge GX as well. Knowing that there was little chance of this happening, since just abridging the first four seasons of the original show took well over 14 years, he instead decided to simply review and comment on GX, often poking fun at the absurd and nonsensical plots and characters, as well as adding the occasional Running Gag of his own. As of Episode 32, due to his increasing health issues preventing him from standing in front of a green screen for long periods of time, he replaced himself with Live2D vtuber models.
A full playlist of the episodic reviews can be watched here
.
Tropes discussed or used during his reviews:
- Actually Pretty Funny:
- LK finds Jaden calling Chazz a "scrub" while searching for him one of the best jokes in the dub.
- His reaction to the bizarre "Monster cards in love" gimmick used in the episode "Maiden In Love", despite how silly it was, because he enjoyed seeing the monster characters show actual personality instead of just being props.
- Episode 39, aside from being a rather funny episode in Martin's eyes, Don Zaloog's dub voice, being ostensibly a Christopher Walken impression, is a big contributing factor.
- Berserk Button:
- LittleKuriboh absolutely hates Bastion, constantly refers to him as a "posh shithead", and even has a catchphrase based on it used for Bastion-centered episodes.
- He also doesn't care much for Jaden's flippant attitude toward literally anything other than card games, as well as his Plot Armor.
- Cats Are Mean: Since his namesake was a tyrant in the Abridged Series, there's surprisingly little difference between him and Pharaoh the Cat, albeit with a more pronounced desire for head scratches and other cat-like behavior.
- Converted Fanboy: Despite his constant jokes about the ridiculousness of the series and the various personality quirks that would make Jaden unlikeable to people around him, LittleKuriboh has gone into Sincerity Mode more than once to admit that he has legitimately become a fan of GX and now genuinely considers Jaden one of his favourite Yu-Gi-Oh! protagonists over the course of watching the show.
- A Day in the Limelight: LK compliments that one of the strengths that the show has is its tendency to give the spotlight not just to Jaden, but other members of the cast from time-to-time, such as giving Chazz his own mini character arc that sees him standing against his elitist brothers in Episode 35, or Bastion being focused on in Episode 36.
- Deadpan Snarker: LK takes the snark up to eleven to make fun of the series and how ridiculous some of it is.
- Diabolus ex Machina: LK (while speaking as Yami Yugi in Episode 32) admits that one of his pet peeves is that a duel will play relatively normally, when suddenly a card is introduced that puts the hero characters on the backfoot, along with putting them in a Hostage for MacGuffin situation in order to force a character to lose the duel (ie. Camula makes Zane choose between winning the duel at the cost of Syrus' soul, when Zane had a card that could theoretically give him the victory, or let Camula win so that she can take his soul and spirit key instead).
- Distracted by the Sexy: In the appropriately titled "Duel Distractions" episode, part of LK's commentary has him distracted and focusing on how much of an Amazonian Beauty Tania and her monsters are.
- Dull Surprise: LK pokes fun at how so many lines were poorly recorded and delivered this way, mostly coming from Jaden or Alexis' VAs.
- E = MC Hammer: One of the things LK hates about Bastion and his gimmick about creating equations for his duels, most of which is total nonsense.
- Eating the Eye Candy: LK plays up his bisexuality a lot more for this series, openly lusting after Avian and Sparkman, two of the trademark Hero monsters from Jaden's deck. He also has a Running Gag about which character has the best butt in any given episode.
- When Episode 36 introduces Tania the Amazoness Shadow Rider, he spends ten seconds lusting over her, even quipping how envious he is that Bastion of all people gets to duel her.
- Insufferable Genius: He considers Bastion to be a massive one, which is why he hates Bastion and keeps calling him a posh sh＊thead.
- Joke and Receive: Comments point out that many of LK's jokes in earlier episodes are surprisingly accurate to later developments. For example, Alexis' brother is exactly the kind of guy who'd carry a picture of himself around for no reason, and Jaden's sexual orientation being "card games" isn't far from the truth, as a monster card is the closest thing to an Official Couple he gets.
- Last-Second Word Swap: In episode 17 when LK is about to say 'rice balls', it's overdubbed with "PASTRIES", spoken completely flatly.
- No-Sell: LK refuses to believe that an especially lame joke in episode 15 counts as one."W-what was that? Was that a joke? Wha- is that really a joke? Who- (outraged) NO!"
- Padding the Paper: How LK imagines Jaden will write a five (later ten) page essay on his Tag Duel with the Paradox Brothers.
- Running Gag: LK has quite a few of these.
- "Ok <x> fantasies" when something that could be considered sexual in real life.
- "Add/Remove it to/from the list" whenever Chumley says something is "licious" or "anti-licious" respectively.
- Whenever someone loses a duel, they usually fall onto their knees, which LK will usually refer to it as the "traditional losing a card game position."
- Whenever Bastion Misawa is on-screen, expect to either hear LK call him a "posh shithead" or say "Ohhhh, I hates that Bastion!''
- As mentioned under Eating the Eye Candy, Martin has one where he tries to figure out which character has the best butt in any given episode.
- During his reviews of Episodes 31-33 (the episodes focused on the series' vampire-themed Shadow Rider, Camula) whenever he says the word Bat, or one is shown on-screen, it is accompanied by a quick voice clip of Laszlo Cravensworth from What We Do in the Shadows (2019) shouting "BAT!"
- Limited to Episode 35: whenever he says Slade Princeton's name, it is usually replaced by another character from Teen Titans or Teen Titans Go! saying Slade's name instead.
- Depicting Pharaoh the Cat of Professor Banner as a Talking Animal as detailed below.
- Various malapropisms, mangling certain words by switching them with either a character name or similar sounding words in a sentence.
- In the Episode 39 review, since Don Zaloog's dub voice is Darren Dunstan doing a Christopher Walken impression, the episode is interspliced with various sound bytes from movies starring Walken.
- Spoof Aesop: LK extrapolates this one, after Syrus says "that's what you get for trying to steal."LittleKuriboh: You heard him, if you try to steal, you deserve to lose your corporeal form, and be turned into a collectible card.
- Talking Animal: Unlike the actual anime where he was a smart but otherwise normal cat, the series makes Pharaoh, the pet cat of Professor Banner, into one, with the same voice and similar personality as Pharaoh Atem who he's named after. As he mentions in Episode 2, this was one of the gags LittleKuriboh wanted to do the most for the series, or would have liked to play Pharaoh in a GX Abridged.
- Totem Pole Trench: In "The New Chazz", Kyle, one of the North Academy top duelists Chazz faces, has an incredibly childish voice despite looking like he's in his late teens like every other student. LK assumes that Kyle is actually two children in a trenchcoat.
- The Scrappy: In-Universe. Ojama Yellow is this for LK, mainly due to his shrill voice and unpleasant design. While his annoyance toward characters like Jaden and Bastion is Played for Laughs, his disdain for Ojama Yellow is completely genuine and almost always expressed with a stern, fed up demeanor. When Ojama Yellow is then joined by his two brothers in Episode 35, he's initially confused as to why the episode is so beloved when it's focused on the three, even wondering if people were trolling him at first.
- Serious Business: Constantly lampshaded, as this trope has been exaggerated from the original series, to the point that card games are now apparently a cornerstone of the global economy, much to LK’s bafflement.
- Shout-Out: In the scene from "The New Chazz" where Ojama Yellow proclaims that he and Chazz are destinted to be best friends forever, there's a cutaway where his dialogue is replaced with the "100 years" speech from the pilot episode of Rick and Morty.
- Skewed Priorities: LK thinks Jaden and the other students firmly have this because there's so many interesting things in the lore that could be focused on instead of the card game.
- What the Hell, Hero?: In the episode "The King Of Copycats", where Yugi's deck shown off at the school as part of an exhibit, LK does a skit where Atem is annoyed that Yugi assumed the title as King of Games after he passed on into the afterlife and calls him out on it.Atem: I am in the afterlife for five minutes, and you have a bunch of posters printed without me?!
Yugi: Hey man, you snooze, you lose!
Atem: I am snoozing forever!! - Why Did It Have to Be Snakes?: He does not like spiders, as shown when the Paradox Brothers use Jirai Gumo (Who keeps getting re-summoned to be used for Tribute Doll), and Dark Guardian (Whose lower body is a spider).
- Virtual YouTuber: The first thirty one episodes originally had LK doing the videos in front of a green screen, but due to his increasing health issues, he couldn't do it for long periods of time anymore. As a result, he replaced himself with Live2D models to do the reviews. Episode 32 saw him do a review as Yami Yugi from Yu-Gi-Oh! The Abridged Series, though fans expressed their concerns about the review show turning into a "Yami Yugi reviews GX" instead of LK. The following episode review sees him switch over to a more personalized model that has him as...well, a Kuriboh.
- You Have GOT to Be Kidding Me!: This was his reaction to the Paradox Brothers occupation apparently being "card game mercenaries" when they appeared in the Tag Duel episode, which he thought was so ridiculous he kept laughing at the concept the whole episode. The following episode has him bewildered that their Dark Guardian's attack name was "Axe Slash Bash," owing to how redundant it sounded.
