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NEWS: One Piece & Tokyo Mew Mew Not Canceled

You turned One Piece into a children's cartoon when it was originally aimed at teens and up.

They're not showing repeats on the principle that they're repeats.

According to several places, yes, they scheduled One Piece to air in Naruto's place.

The best slot being the last one? Actually that's considered a death slot...

the countdown was probably 4Kids' way of celebrating (what? <_<)...

the uncut DVDs were pulled out of sheer stupidity on 4Kids' part ("Hey look, the DVDs sold good! Let's cancel them anyway!" *plug = yanked*)...

and the action figures? How does that indicate success?

Shaman King actually had a TCG that sold very well and made up quite a bit of the profits earned from it, but Upper Deck canceled it after seeing that the ratings were shit. That's pretty much all there was to it.

Cartoon Network is many things, but one of them isn't being against showing repeats. Under their normal lineup Toonami's first two shows (Dual Masters and DBZ) are repeats, so what's one more? And during their off seasons most of their lineup is repeats. What difference does one more repeat make if it means a chance at better ratings. Perhaps they don't have anything that would do better than One Piece, repeats or otherwise, and are stuck with it, who knows?

Actually that was One Piece's slot already, Naruto now airs at 9pm EST and One Piece airs at 9:30pm, so in fact Naruto aired in One Pieces places, not vice versa like you said. When Batman aired it ended at 9:30pm which would have meant Naruto being bumped from Toonami for the weekend, instead Naruto took One Pieces place and One Piece got bumped off. For as long as Cartoon Network had their schedule up on the website (always a week in advanced, next weeks is up now) it said Naruto would be airing, not One Piece. Those third party schedules were wrong by design, they can't make changes on the fly when it comes to print, they're printed well in advanced, and digital listings like cable boxes have way too many changes to catch them all (it took my cable box two weeks to finally remove Battle B-Daman from the ABC Family schedule). It's not like Toonami was advertising One Piece all week and then showed Naruto when the time came, they did their part.

More like the last chance slot. When it comes to Saturday mornings that last hour is where the shows they're trying to push the most get placed if they aren't performing as well as they want but still hold out hope for. It's like one of those "if you can't make it here, you can't make it anywhere" type of situations.

Or maybe they actually wanted the fans to know it was wrapping up so they wouldn't miss it (since it never got repeated) and wanted it to go out with a bang. Either way, it wasn't left to rot in obscurity.

Can't argue with you there, but that wasn't the point anyway. The point is at least Shaman King got uncut DVDs, even if it was just two. 4Kids could have chosen another show like Pokemon or Ultimate Muscle, but they chose Shaman King. DVDs last virtually forever so it has that much to survive by.

Who said anything about success? You said Shaman King was "left to rot in obscurity because 4Kids didn't do anything with it", and I believe I've proved otherwise by showing that they actually did do something with it, more than just license it, show it, and let it go as you implied.

Then that was Upper Deck's fault, not 4Kids. Maybe if they realized that its popularity could have been contributed to a mildly popular manga they would have kept it running, and I'm sure 4Kids didn't want to see it go. Oh well, that's their (and the fans) loss.

1) they really couldn't give a flying shit about the 7:00 slot
2) DBZ = cash cow

I KNOW Naruto aired in One Piece's place. It's just that many schedules listed that OP would air instead.

It's also a death slot. Yeah, putting it up against Yu-Gi-Oh! was a really smart idea! Why didn't I think of that? Well whatever, I'm not the one with the fledgling company... mhmm...

Or they just wanted to get rid of it.

Ultimate Muscle was pretty much a done deal by that time. In fact they may have even dropped it entirely (indicated by its lack of presence on 4Kids' site). 4Kids also did release an edited DVD for it, but the release was pulled because of *gasp* low sales.

Pokemon? Dude, do you know ANYTHING about 4Kids? They can't release uncut Pokemon because they were given the sublicense for it by Nintendo, and if Nintendo says no uncuts (which they have), then no uncuts. Please, do your research next time.

And 4Kids, despite good sales (it actually outsold the edited Yu-Gi-Oh! discs that were released at the time it was... hell man, it's STILL holding its own on Amazon), decided that uncut Shaman King wasn't worth their time and just pulled it. 4Kids pretty much doomed Shaman King and there's no way around it.

:/ Rave Master and Knights of the Zodiac had action figures, hardly anyone knows about either of them. A toy line doesn't mean it didn't rot in obscurity.

You know, the animated show actually played a VITAL role in the whole merchandising thing (which sadly didn't last long). Do you think that if the only incarnation of Shaman King in America was the manga, it would get the same merchandise it did thanks to 4Kids?

And you know it's kind of 4Kids' fault that Shaman King got bad ratings. Let's see, acquire popular anime, want to make it a hit here, OH I KNOWZ, PUT IT ON A BLOCK NOBODY GETS! Real smart, guys.

Heh, sounds you're trying to justify you're comment about them not showing repeats to me. Just admit that you're wrong and that Toonami does show repeats whenever and wherever they want.

That's not what you said before, you said "they scheduled One Piece to air in Naruto's place." Please, try to stay consistent.

Actually, in 4Kids case it is smart seeing as how both shows belong to them, how can they lose? And 4Kids is hardly a fledgling company, it has been around for over 15 years.

Well, the series was finished, it's not like they were going to keep repeating it to avoid the last episode. It had to end sometime, at least it didn't go out quietly and unannounced.

Ultimate Muscle ended on Cartoon Network just fine, there was even talk off getting Toei to do more episodes because it was doing so well. That doesn't mean that uncut DVDs weren't a possibility, in fact there was some buzz going around for a little while that the DVDs that were released would be uncut.

But personally, I'm glad it wasn't uncut, some shows are just better when they're edited (Ultimate Muscle was a failure in Japan). Some shows just don't do well on DVD, especially when it comes to the finicky kids market.

I don't need to research that, I already know that. In fact I'm usually the one telling people that Pokemon doesn't have a snowball's chance in hell of being released uncut, have been since the 90's. I only mentioned it because it's one of the more popular arguments and with you're constant complaints of how 4Kids should push for this and Cartoon Network should fight for that I thought you could appreciate that. Would rather I had said Fighting Foodons or Kirby?

The lack of uncut Shaman King DVDs after the initial releases didn't doom it, it was already at the tail end of it's TV airings and the manga still runs in Shonen Jump. I'd like to think that if 4Kids should change their mind on doing uncut DVDs Shaman King would be one of them, but who knows at this point?

Hasbro canceled their Rave Master toys so that doesn't really help your argument. Knights of the Zodiac was a WORLD WIDE hit as Saint Saiya long before ADV and Dic caught on with it so it would take more than poor performance in the US for it to become obscure. Most of the people that wanted to see SS in the US already had and already had the toys before Bandai brought them over from Japan.

Besides, I never said any one thing like DVDs or toys prevented a property from becoming obscure, there are several factors involved. Not to mention that wasn't your only argument, you said 4Kids didn't do anything with Shaman King, I proved you wrong.

Of course I don't, manga is rarely popular enough at this point to facilitate a mass market merchandise release. But when a merchandise property remains popular long after the show is gone then there's probably a reason, it's the companies own fault for prematurely ending it.

A block nobody gets? Huh? Fox (along with WB and UPN) is a local affiliated network in most markets, most people can pick it up with a set of rabbit ears. In fact here in Maine alone we have two affiliates. Far more people have access to Fox than Cartoon Network. Hardly a block that nobody gets. Where's your research?

If it helps you sleep at night.

When I said "air in Naruto's place" I didn't mean in its time slot. I meant One Piece was supposed to air instead of Naruto. I should have made that clearer.

Yep, because helping your competitors is a FANTASTIC idea.

Announced on 4Kids TV is pretty much the closest thing to being "unannounced".

Buzz that apparently 4Kids created likely to shut people up. Then they announced the DVDs would be edited.

...

You're kidding right? Success is no indication of quality.

Here's the thing: my "complaints" (more like harsh constructive criticism because face it, most of the stuff 4Kids does IS stupid) actually have some sort of logic to them. Saying that Pokemon could have gotten an uncut release is just stupid.

BTW saying One Piece instead of Pokemon would have been a more realistic approach.

I'm not saying it doomed it. 4Kids doomed Shaman King as a whole. They licensed out the toys to a terrible toy company (dear 4Kids: MATTEL ONLY CARES ABOUT BATMAN AND BARBIE, that is all),

they ensured that the show would have no success by putting it on a crap block at an equally crap time,

they made no attempt to even ADVERTISE the damn thing or its merchandise (Hey, you know how Zatch Bell has TCG ads on-air? LEARN SOMETHING FROM VIZ, 4KIDS), which even extended to leaving it out of the 4Kids TV line-up in advertisements...

4Kids had no idea what the hell they were doing when they picked up Shaman King, and it's the same with One Piece.

Upper Deck canceled their Shaman King toys too, funny how you were just able to gloss over that minor detail.

Knights of the Zodiac failed because the animation was old and the dub was crapshot, killing off whatever audience would have watched it anyway.

4Kids didn't do anything with Shaman King. They got the merchandise out - so what? Any other company would have done the same. 4Kids didn't advertise it, they didn't expose it, they didn't try to make it popular. They failed horribly on Shaman King and there's no one to blame but themselves.

Um, I couldn't understand much of what you said. Could you re-phrase that somehow?

A block nobody gets indeed. Hardly anyone gets the block. What you don't seem to realize is that the airing 4Kids TV is a choice made by local affiliates, NOT the Fox network.

Not only that but so what if more people get Fox? It was still doomed for being in such a shitty time slot.

Well when they're competing against their own show and they know there's nothing they can put there that will out do it they really don't have much of a choice. Either way, it's their show getting the ratings.

The people who were already interested in the show saw the commercials and knew it was coming, that's what really matters. Why advertise elsewhere if those people aren't likely to watch if they hadn't already from the beginning?

Actually it was created by an online retailer that made a listings error, but it was enough to make the news here at ANN and got people talking.

You're kidding right? Quality is no indication of success. But what does quality really have to do with anything? If anime isn't well made it can't be popular too? Tell that Yugioh.

The number one toy company in the world I might add. They'll stop using them once they realize Mattel's other anime properties are starting to fall. But Viz uses them too so they aren't the only ones. In reality none of the major toy companies are do too well with anime based toys, Mattel might actually be doing the best.

Where else would they have put it? By that time they had already made their commitment to Fox for new shows. Only repeats and existing shows when to other networks.

I'll agree the toys didn't get advertised, but that's always up the manufacturer to do, Viz isn't the one advertising the Zatch Bell card games. As for the show, it definitely got its share of ads right on 4Kids TV, I saw them myself.

And both would remain unlicensed today just like they had for the years before 4Kids picked it up. I know you're probably thinking that they would be better off left alone, but I doubt the Japanese companies felt the same way at that point.

Mattel did the toys, not Upper Deck, and I already mentioned that quite a while back.

And? What does that have to do with your comment about being left to obscurity, it was never IN obscurity. Sure, maybe kids in the US aren't aware of it, but most anime fans can at least recognize the characters.

You sure have a high idea of just what accounts for passing and failing. Other companies might have been able to do more with it, then again maybe not.

What do you think Viz would have done with it? Probably the same thing they're doing with Gash Bell; an edit only version of the show, a toy line that probably wont see the light of day (from Mattel), a card game, and a few DVDs. Gee, that sounds an awful lot like what 4Kids did.

What about ADV? Probably wouldn't make it to TV, no toys, and if it didn't work out they'd just cancel it outright without ever finishing it or just rush the remainder.

I forgot to mention the multiple video games which did get multiple ads.

Also forgot to mention that the video game and TCG ads all pointed out that Shaman King was on Fox. It got enough advertising, there's just no making you happy.

Thought that was pretty clearly put... You're right, manga rarely can maintain merchandise on its own. However, when a piece of merchandise, like a TCG in this case, remains popular even after its primary tie-in is gone, there's probably a reason for that and it's Upper Deck's fault for not trying to figure that out before canceling it.

Show me a comparison between the number of markets that 4Kids TV is shown in and other kids blocks like Kids WB or Toonami and we'll see if you've got an argument. I know it's up to the affiliates, everything on their channels is up to them, but a lot of them like to leave certain things intact, usually Saturday morning and weeknights. There's still a number of areas that don't have Cartoon Network as an option from their cable providers, but they have 4Kids TV on their Fox.

Where did this come from? Meaning I would like a link as I can't find it on the Main Page.

Canuckian wrote:

Where did this come from? Meaning I would like a link as I can't find it on the Main Page.

The article is ancient.

animenewsnetwork.com/news/2005-11-23/one-piece-and-tokyo-mew-mew-not-canceled

And ultimately, 4Kids appears to have lied.

-t

Oh wow, that thread is nearly a year before I registered...And yes as it seems 4Kids Lied.