Forum - View topicNEWS: 4Kids Profit Falls Again
Goto page Previous 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10 Next Note: this is the discussion thread for this article |
Author | Message | |||||||||||||||||||||||||
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
LordRobin
Posts: 354 Location: Akron, OH |
|
|||||||||||||||||||||||||
Times really have changed over the last decade. I can't imagine anyone defending Carl Macek like some are defending 4Kids, back in the day, when he was butchering Castle Cagliostro to make it more accessible. I just thank my stars that none of 4Kids' properties have been anything I personally want to watch.
------RM |
||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Malintex Terek
Guest
|
|
|||||||||||||||||||||||||
Actually, I do remember those, but for purpose of argument, NO, and most people outside of this forum do not nor care about those old shows. Speed Racer or Mach Go Go Go! was an early example of a successful anime in America. But anime was still a niche/cultist market as far as big business was concerned; one small example does not an entire industry make.
Nothing big happened until Sailor Moon and Dragonball Z went on Cartoon Network, which was undergoing the transition from "Hana-Barbera's old library channel" to an actual "animated cartoon channel". Pokemon was the defining show because it had a limited broadcast yet attracted far more viewers than either DBZ or SM at the time.
DBZ aired a lot of places because FUNimation/Saban was having trouble finding an outlet. DBZ came to Toonami in 1998.
Like, what?
Uh, you've missed my point entirely. 4Kids did not introduce those shows, it made them acceptable for adults/mainstream people to watch. Remember that cartoons have since the 1950's been typecasted as a child's genre; Akira and Ghost in the Shell are clearly not children's films.
The vast majority of people also agree it was a superior dub to One Piece, with an uncut DVD release and even incidents of real cursing on the 4Kids.tv broadcast (like "damn" or "bastard"). Shaman King was speculated to be the next Pokemon way back in 2000, but even with a fairly faithful adaptation, the bird "never left the nest" so to say. *That is, of course, provided you not go to the People's Republic of 4chan and ask, "hey gais is shaman king a good dub"?
My assertion is backed by Nielson Media Ratings for all of the shows broadcast in the Winter 2005 sampling period. Surprisingly, the worst rated shows on 4Kids.tv were One Piece and Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles! One of those shows is good, so *obviously*, Nielson made a mistake in their sampling, aye? Saturday Mornings appear to be girl-oriented now. Ergo, 4Kids has removed much of their boy-oriented material, with only TMNT remaining (Sonic X can go both ways, I suppose).
Fighting Foodons is a horrible show. Like with Samurai Pizza Cats, the dub gave it some merits. Imagine what would have happened in 4Kids nabbed Flint the Time Detective (which I also liked).
Behold!
You're citing ratings on an otaku-oriented forum in argument against a corporate action? How silly! That's like going to Orange County in California and polling, "How many of you will support Hillary Rodham Clinton in the 2008 Presidential Election?"
Yameree.
More Big News! 4Kids is not an anime company! They could give a rat's arse about anime fans! They're a children's entertainment company, people! -.-
*whistles* Viz's approach to Naruto was a response to assure fans that something along the lines of 4Kids' One Piece would never happen to an anime again (at least if Viz had something to say about it). That's the positive side of 4Kids' dub of OP; with their failure, the future of dubbing for "wide appeal" shows like the Shounen Jump line would be all for the better. The same applies to Miyazaki. Nausicaä and Cagliostro's dubs were instrumental in leading to Ghibli's "no edit" policy, so everything came out for the better in the end. Last edited by Malintex Terek on Mon Aug 14, 2006 11:25 pm; edited 2 times in total |
||||||||||||||||||||||||||
HayabusaUF
Posts: 5 Location: Jacksonville, FL |
|
|||||||||||||||||||||||||
Interesting how a news report on slowed corporate earnings has led to a discussion about why we hate 4Kids and which show made anime mainstream.
Also, it's important to note that 4Kids still made money. So what if their profits weren't as high this time as they were last year? Many of you are touting it as 4Kids going bankrupt. Next time, read the article before going off on a tirade about how much you hate 4Kids for "destroying" anime. edit:
Last edited by HayabusaUF on Mon Aug 14, 2006 11:25 pm; edited 1 time in total |
||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Chrono Jr
Posts: 12 Location: Richmond, Virginia |
|
|||||||||||||||||||||||||
Malintex Terek, I believe you work for 4Kids or something. Face it, they are THE WORST company when it comes to anime EVER!!! They edit unneccercary things like rice balls to cookies, black people to white people, cutting out episodes and ENTIRE ARCS completely!!! And I definately don't think 4Kids brought anime to main stream, if anyone did it was FUNimation, and they didn't even cut as much as 4Kids did. LOOK AT THE NUMBERS DUDE!!!! 4Kids is sinking faster than the titanic because anime fans are tired of they're bull. If the want to SOMEWHAT change this, they'll make less edits and release Uncuts of they're properties already. Then just MAYBE The numbers will go up slighty. Now go back to your corporate desk where you crawled from 4kids executive.
|
||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Yoda117
Posts: 406 |
|
|||||||||||||||||||||||||
anyone else having fun following this thread other than me?
well, while the medication is kicking in (nasty head cold... I sound like John Madden), there are some things which caught my eye. Anyone else familiar with the size of 4Kids? The 1.7M paid out in the quarter for severence pay is a bit disturbing for me. If memory serves correct, that would correlate to a noticeable % of their workforce. No, it's not like a CPM layoff %-wise, but still large for them. As for the rest, they're changing some of their accounting and announced this news a few weeks back. I expected their revenue to be higher than reported, but until I see an earnings sheet, I'll hold my breath. as for the rest... well, I'm keeping that one to myself. They're a necessary evil, much as Streamline was in the early 90s and Chrono... Saban and 4Kids brought anime and Japanese culture to the masses first. Funimation came shortly after with DBZ. If you want to get technical, Streamline came 10 years ahead of them with airings of some of their titles back in the late 80s, and Macek had other titles that were in national syndication long before then. Considering what Macek did to nearly every title he got his hands on, I feel dirty just saying that, but it's true. Much as I love Funi, they can't take credit for being there first. Last edited by Yoda117 on Mon Aug 14, 2006 11:28 pm; edited 1 time in total |
||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Ataru
Posts: 2325 Location: Missouri (Strikeman) |
|
|||||||||||||||||||||||||
|
||||||||||||||||||||||||||
bluepita
Posts: 465 |
|
|||||||||||||||||||||||||
Anyone ever consider the idea that perhaps 4Kids isn't really looking to cater to anime fans? That we are not their target demographic? Maybe, just maybe, instead of trying to market to anime fans, they are marketing to children?? Why would they try to make their shows friendlier to us than children, when parents spend a ton more money on merchandise for kids than otaku do? That makes no sense at all.
They don't have to try and promote anime. They don't have to make cuts and dubs to please us. All they have to do is get children interested in their shows and release a related line of toys. The arguement about whether Pokemon made anime mainstream really has nothing to do with the profits of 4Kids, because that is not their goal. The decrease in profits has nothing to do with us. |
||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Chrono Jr
Posts: 12 Location: Richmond, Virginia |
|
|||||||||||||||||||||||||
If that's the case, yhen why do they take anime with themes that are not child friendly!? If they want to target children, they should take properties more child friendly like Hikaru No Go or The Prince of Tennis! Shows that may set a good example to childern not OnePiece which has violence and sexual themes, or Shaman King which deals with super natural and black magic. Good God, get some childern friendly material if that's the case. |
||||||||||||||||||||||||||
bluepita
Posts: 465 |
|
|||||||||||||||||||||||||
I think the answer to that is they get what they think they can sell. I find it hard to imagine a bunch of American elementary schoolers sitting down to watch either of the titles you mentioned. I'm not saying there aren't exceptions, but they don't have the elements which capture the normal 4Kids audience's attention.
|
||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Malintex Terek
Guest
|
|
|||||||||||||||||||||||||
*shakes head* 4Kids isn't here to please anyone. They are not here to cater to the world, they'd rather inforce their will on it. Since 1998, that strategy has worked fairly nicely; now 4Kids is experiencing a change in attitudes regarding what they're licensing. Their decreased profits are not entirely due to their dubbing; overall, basic cable Saturday Morning Cartoon blocks have been suffering due to competition from Cartoon Network; not only does CN's nightly broadcast earn a large attendance, their Saturday Morning programming reaches some ears as well. When 4Kids was at its peak, no other network had anything like Pokemon or Yu-Gi-Oh except FoxKids with Digimon; now that interest in those types of shows has dimmed, 4Kids is facing pressure from other fronts like Toonami, which has always boasted of a strong action block all durin 4Kids' reign over television. It's not the selection of shows, or even the demographics, either; it's brandname and time. One Piece is performing on Toonami almost as well as Naruto, but had horrible ratings on 4Kids.tv. This is in spite of the dub! The fundamental problem with everyone I've debated anywhere is that people are not willing to accept that there could be multiple factors involved in some sort of political, economic, social or media phenomenon. One result does not imply one cause! The US Federal Government had to commission an independent counsel to investiate the circumstances leading up the the 11 September 2001 attacks; the commission filled an entire book wit analysis of those circumstances! I'm tired of assaulting this topic, as I'm only addressing the same points and my arguments are landing on deaf ears. I would advise you lot to forgo your biases when evaluating phenomenon, as they get in the way to understanding the truth of matters; consider them not extensions of ego, but commodities that can be freely traded away. |
||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Zalis116
Moderator
Posts: 6896 Location: Kazune City |
|
|||||||||||||||||||||||||
I don't see why people still make such a big fuss about uncut One Piece DVDs...it's pretty obvious that 4kids isn't going to release them, and they don't need to, as anime fans like the ones that post on this website simply aren't in their business plans. I've also heard that the uncut Shaman King and Yugioh DVDs didn't sell too well, which probably led to 4kids' decision. Besides, it's not like One Piece fans don't have easy access to "uncut" One Piece in fansub form.
|
||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Son-kun
Posts: 345 |
|
|||||||||||||||||||||||||
That pretty much sums it up.
|
||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Anime_Freak
Posts: 420 Location: Oklahoma |
|
|||||||||||||||||||||||||
I'm enjoying all of this, personally. Part of me wants 4Kids to fail, but the other wants them to succeed since they have the tv rights to TMNT. I've seen the trailer for the movie that is coming out next year, looks good so far. |
||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Shirotensaki
Posts: 5 |
|
|||||||||||||||||||||||||
OK right now i want to say anyone who has not seen the ORIGINAL Japanese version of animes Licensed by 4Kids has no right to even comment on this... 4Kids is a evil company that if finally been handed what it had coming from a long time ago! Anyone here that knows how great shaman king was woke up a saturday morning only to find out how one great anime series was stripped of it's greatness and turned into a mere shadow of what it was supposed to be would know what i am talking about. From the horrible name changing (Ren - Lenny) to the cheesy music and bad voices (Ren is not british!!). And what is everyone's excuse to support this anime terrorists, " oh but Yugioh and Pokemon turned nice" here is a little bit of information for everyone who thinks this way, Yugioh episode 1 in america is episode 25 in Japan (yes they skipped 24 chapters) almost all the names changed, the oh so awful rap intro and stupid songs they put don't go there, they edit out guns and now it seems everyone is scared of guards pointing...fingers at them...oh and that whole "heart of the cards" theme, it doesn't excists is made up, need i say more. Pokemon turned ok seen is so childish that there was no need to edit anything "even thought, just so u know, every time they eat a hamburger they r really eating a ricecake, but God forbid American children see something like that... and i'm not even gonna get started in one piece... just going to say, they single handedly ruined the best anime ever created, 4kids WILL go down because the true fans have had enough disrespect, it is only a matter of time now until 4kids sink and when it does i'm coming back here with my happy face (like this ) and post it for everyone that supports 4kids
|
||||||||||||||||||||||||||
God Gundam
Posts: 404 |
|
|||||||||||||||||||||||||
I know Cartoon Network has profanity occasionally, but I can't see it on 4KidsTV. And Shiro, learn some grammar. Periods are your friends. Last edited by God Gundam on Tue Aug 15, 2006 1:28 am; edited 1 time in total |
||||||||||||||||||||||||||
All times are GMT - 5 Hours |
||
|
Powered by phpBB © 2001, 2005 phpBB Group