Yoshi's Island

Andrew

**Yoshi's Island** is the first official series created and released by **SuperShortsMJ**. The series aired from August 15th, 2020 and September 26th, 2020 with each episode being scheduled to release on Friday every week. It tells the story of the brutal massacre that brews on Yoshi's Island as an imperialist army invades the island.

## Promotion

**Yoshi's Island** was officially announced on August 10th, 2020 with the release of a Channel News that revealed it was in the works. The video mentioned that the channel was finally taking a step forward into releasing their first series in over three years, and also dug into the excitement of them incorporating and implementing new channel features that were not present in 2017, which was when the last series was released. Better editing, smoother plot and better quality were all promises that were talked about before the release of the series.

Before the Channel News video, though it was never official, some of the cast members would send extremely vague and intricate messages on their Discord server that would hint toward some of the key themes of the series. The messages sent were varied significantly between one another. Lots of binary messages were sent as well as lots of terms in mixed and diverse languages. Often times cast members would merge languages together to create vague sayings to hint at key themes. Some recalled messages translating to, "group of four" and "council of four" as well as various different hints.

Between the release date and the release of the Channel News video, a video teaser for the series titled "8.15.20" was released. The video featured a black and white clip of a repeating overview of the island we would soon see in the series, however this was not known to the public at the time of its release. It featured the song "I" by Lil Skies which looped over the short clip. The song itself, despite having been played over the video, had no relevance toward the series to come. The video was deleted within a few hours of its release but managed to create flares within the community.

The day before on August 14th, via the SuperShortsMJ Discord Server, the series was announced to go live via premiere at midnight that night. The title was still not revealed to the public until the premiere had ended, but the episode played as normal once the time came. The premiered version of the video was then deleted until the morning of August 15th where it was re-released as a normal video.

## Release

With its release on August 15th, Yoshi's Island was announced to have around 5 parts to it as well as having a part be released every week on Friday. The release was fairly smooth, as most videos were released on schedule with the exception of few that were uploaded only days late. Due to this, the cast compensated for it by releasing some parts earlier than others, which balanced their upload schedule more. Each episode that was uploaded had a runtime range from 13 minutes to 23 minutes, usually hitting around the 15 minute mark.

During the release of the series, many other videos were put on hold. It was a rare occurrence that any video that wasn't related to the series was released between the two months it aired. This caused the end of the summer to be mainly indulged in the release of this series, which was in a sense purposeful. SuperShortsMJ decided that they needed the extra time to spend recording and editing all the videos to conclude the series before any other content was released on the channel.

## Episodes

Yoshi's Island is composed of 7 parts, each part was released in 2020 between months August and September.

1. **Preface:** Black Yoshi and Blue Yoshi are called back to their home island, and are welcomed back by their fellow Yoshi's as they reacquaint and catch up with them **(August 15th, 2020)**.
2. **Imperialists:** Two imperialists named Bird and Fox propose a deal with the council on the island, to which they consider and argue the point of accepting it. Bird and Fox introduce themselves to the island and are given a home **(August 23rd, 2020)**.
3. **Endeavors:** With reports spreading around about the true colors of Bird and Fox, the council sways their opinions about the deal. They end up declining it, to which Bird and Fox do not like **(August 28th, 2020)**.
4. **Omission:** The council worries about Green Yoshi's disappearance, and conduct a search. The information is revealed to the public and causes mass outcry **(September 4th, 2020)**.
5. **Turmoil:** Riots erupt after the disappearance of Green Yoshi and Bird and Fox plan out the next stage of their plan. More hitmen are introduced to help wipe the island completely **(September 12th, 2020)**.
6. **Onslaught:** The massacre begins as Bird kills his associate Fox to gain more and more power. Almost all the Yoshi's are brutally slain in a messy attack **(September 18th, 2020)**.
7. **Anguish:** As they plan their escape, the remaining Yoshi's fight for survival and team up together to avenge their fallen friends and run away toward safety **(September 26th, 2020)**.

## Plot

Yoshi's Island begins as a normal video, with Black Yoshi and Blue Yoshi sitting on the couch. They suddenly received a call from their former leader, Green Yoshi, who offers them to fly out to their home island for the 50th anniversary of its founding. With the offer in mind they fly out and are reacquainted with some of their former friends and families, catching up and seeing what had changed since they came in. We are introduced to a council which runs the island as well as a rectangular island covered around the edges in various different homes.

Soon after they come back, two imperialists by the names of Bird and Fox seek a possible investment in the island. They provoke the council into hearing out their offer and eventually take it into consideration, giving the criminal duo shelter until they have come to their decision. With lots of factors in mind the council discusses the possible outcomes of the deal as Bird and Fox spend time on the island meeting the other Yoshi's.

The duo of criminals, having rough chemistry between themselves, arise suspicion between the other Yoshi's as they spend time on the island. These reports end up being forwarded to the council, to which they take into consideration the possibility that this deal could be out of their favor. Eventually, the council denies the offer and in response Bird and Fox put violence on the table as a possible back up plan.

Eventually Green Yoshi, the supreme leader, is then murdered by Bird in an alley. After the disappearance of their leader, the search for him causes an uproar in riots across the island. One fellow Yoshi, Tyrone, is ran over during a riot, sparking motivation for the Yoshi's to solve the issue by eliminating the suspicious Bird and Fox. By the time the Yoshi's figure this out, Bird and Fox plan a mass murder on the island by hiring a bigger criminal associate, Frog, who provides them with men to attack.

The group raids the island with a small arsenal of weapons and a strong group of men and together they end up murdering most of the island's population. Bird increasingly becomes more power hungry, as he slays his former associate Fox due to his stupidity interfering with his plans. With only four Yoshi's left alive, they attempt to escape the island at a secret harbor which contained a boat for them to sail off in. Bird and Fox are informed of their whereabouts and find them and during a sudden strike of heroism, Blue Yoshi grabs a fallen pistol and kills Bird and Fox.

On their return to the island, they find out their friend Delilah faked her own death and supplied information and created an alliance with Bird and Frog's army. While she held them at gunpoint, The Mushroom Kingdom, who had been alerted of the situation came in and killed her with the use of a sniper and rescued the Yoshi's. They were brought back to the kingdom where they would recover and stay for a significant amount of time.

## Trivia

* This is the first series uploaded and created on the current SuperShortsMJ channel.
* This series was initially intended to have only 5 episodes.
* All scenes in this series were initially recorded using VideoFX Live.
* All the episodes in this series were edited with the use of iMovie.
* This was the first official SuperShortsMJ series created since 2017.
* This series was part of the "Summertime Smash!" season. It ended up becoming the main attraction of that time period due to the episodes taking up majority of the summer.
* The series makes use of many songs from the "Mario & Luigi Bowsers Inside Story" soundtrack.
* This series storyline connects to a canon universe that is shared between all the series on SuperShortsMJ's channel.
* The concept behind this series was taken from an original SuperShortsMJ series that was created in 2017 also named "Yoshi's Island". This series has concepts such as the council and the imperialists that were incorporated and mastered within this series. It didn't last very long as Mikey and Jake gave up on the concept before the second episode even went live. Most of the key components behind the plot however were changed and made into a unique series.
* This series touches on concepts from mass shootings and terrorist attacks and provides a basis for different events that occur during these situations. It isn't completely confirmed that this series is honoring shooting victims, but it is almost clear that it is.