Forum - View topic
NEWS: 4Kids Fiscal 2005 Results

These things are always painted with a bright shade of rose red. They are just stroking the shareholders and speculating just what they plan on doing about the slump. I can understand why things like the Cabbage Patch Dolls are still selling well. The thing with selling to kids from 2 - 8 is that the market refreshes itself every 8 years. Kids in this age group haven't got a clue that One Piece is a buthered cartoon and nor do they care. For them, it's action eye candy that would sell toys if there were any. I'm sure the Japanese license holders, who gave 4Kids the license for their titles, have a clause that will let them pull the licenses back, if need be, to sell to some one who would do the right thing and properly get it out to the market. I have no doubt that 4Kids has felt the sting of getting anime wrong and discovering that not all anime is a Pokemon, or Yu-Gi-Oh. They will do better to get rid of it and stick to what they are good at. It will be best for both sides.

I agree with Rªdì¢âl_£Ð. Provided, I only remember DiC licensing Sailor Moon (and DBZ? No? I know Pioneer also played a part on both...) and Nevela licensing "Cardcaptors" (it's true, kids don't know or care about "originals" once they're watching something in front of them on TV..."Cardcaptors" is a testament of that for me...I was horrified once I realized what I was watching when I surfed the Internet at 4th grade). What other anime did they work with? Because, for an entertainment company, even though they DO want to make profits (we all know it too well), 4Kids seems to have licensed more anime than earlier entertainment companies who made "dubbing disasters" (as fans would say), but correct me if I'm wrong. I'll add that those earlier companies also dubbed "old anime (whose quality is less refreshing, too)" that the younger generations don't watch worldwide anymore, like the ones you see in AZN (previously International Channel) sometimes--and I'm not sure how much the demand for Japanese with English subtitling was back then.

Even though Kahn is "semi-retarded" and apparently hard-headed on some of his views, it would do good for the fans if their anime is sublicensed to an anime company. If it happened, there would be a better chance that sometime in the future, we'd get the original with subtitling on DVD. (Or at least the fans would hold less grudges against an anime company.) But of course, sublicensing works when the company who originally licensed the anime met their downfall, and 4Kids is still going on, regardless of how much "original anime" fans scowl at them. (You can see in their tagboards that some people there, even the born-in-Japan girls, don't care either way on whether or not 4Kids butchers Tokyo Mew Mew--"^^ I liked the Japanese one, but the English one was also good." "I think so too!")

I suppose "product shows" in anime such as Pokemon and YuGiOh! are few and far between. Most fans argue with people who dislike anime that anime has firmer plots than American cartoons. (Anime does have wide-range--from Azumanga Daioh to School Rumble to Love Hina to Fruits Basket to Gravitation to Prince of Tennis to Naruto to X/1999 and on and on.) Pokemon is a lot like some American cartoons on plot basis, and the YuGiOh! Duel Monsters, the anime, doesn't have a firm plot, and the "Yami finding out his name and going back to Egypt" ending that happens soon after Battle City in the manga is delayed. Most fans of YuGiOh! just stick to the manga.

So 4Kids is out of "product anime shows." It seems to me that now, they're not just starting to take anime, they're taking grabs on some of the popular ones that ADV and Funimation and heck, Genon didn't get, like Shaman King and One Piece (it's been pointed out before, these anime are more for teenagers and up). (And there's so much you can edit out until the show just becomes rubble. These anime are apparently easier to chop up up yet still leave something there for the kids to watch.) I mean, the majority isn't screaming for Doremi to be released with the original that's subtitled, are they? And if they'd just left it at licensing titles such as Doremi and Tokyo Mew Mew, fans would have less to ramble on about how they butcher anime (though there are some hardcore fans of TMM).

For the backlashing on 4Kids because of their butchering on anime...it is by fans. If you think about it, say Funimation has some crappy voice actors by the fan's opinion on an anime they licensed. The fan can always watch the Japanese with English subtitling at the bottom, and rant about how much better the Japanese voice actor is, and also how much better the original sayings were. (When script allterations for the Spirited Away movie was made so to fit "mouth-talk", some fans complained that it made the English Spirited Away more "vague," mostly because Yubaba's entrance speech when she talks about the "80,000 gods" was changed, but they happily watched the Japanese with subtitling on the DVD.) So of course, the fan feels disappointment crashing down to their feet when they hear 4Kids licensed one of their beloved shows instead of ADV or Funimation (because 4Kids has that bad reputation among "hardcore" anime fans). Now they'll definitely accuse them of butchering up the anime (which is true), but 4Kids doesn't do that Japanese with English subtitling at the bottom, so they have to take a different method (Internet), still glowering at the company. Most fans just don't like dubs. (Though admittedly, however slowly in some cases, the 4Kids company is starting to release uncut versions of some anime on DVD at later dates, but who knows how long that will last.)

So I'm starting to think if 4Kids is rethinking their Yu-Gi-Oh! Capsule Monsters creation.So this can leave more Anime to the Hands of Nelvana(Which did a good job for the Beyblade series/Movie),and other coporations.But agian if Toei wanted to take One Piece back,they could have done what they did to Sailor Moon snatch back all the rights(Even though it was a Smash Hit in Canada,One of Corus's companies even dubbed more of the series because it was so popular).

Hey some anime fans may get angry for what they have done to their Anime Titles.Here is the answer don't watch it.Some times I wonder why Hasbro hurt Transformers Galaxy Force(Cybertron) so much for it to fit into their Idea of the continuation of Micron Legend(Armada),and Superlink(Energon).Hopefully Voice Box will keep the nice work in the Final Episode that Gonzo created because that ends the story spoiler[Bud wins an Oscar,Coby and Lori get married,Signal Lancer Transforms,and much more.]

Back on Topic,I can see how One Piece is getting some money,Lately I have seen these Horrible One Piece Toys(A Rubber Luffy,Zorro looks stranges,and their waves don't get updated very often),and those One Piece Video Games.

darkhunter:

In case anyone out there is curious, their ticker symbol is KDE, and after this announcement was made their stock has taken a beating, down almost a dollar today.

http://moneycentral.msn.com/detail/stock_quote?Symbol=US%3AKDE

Notice how close it's getting to trading at a 52 week low.

We have to remember that while anime fans are certainly allowed to rejoice at 4Kids' fall, the fall itself probably can't be attributed to the anime market, as 4Kids' audience is not primarily anime fans.

Anime-butchering, and retardo-Kahn comments ("Kids don't read!" "Manga will never be important or popular at all in America") don't make a market dent. It's not "karma for pissing off anime fans." I'd say that the Fall is probably more of a result of essentially "losing" properties-- the Pokemon loss, no more original Yu-Gi-Oh-- and the new properties coming in are... less than stellar in that they aren't particularly hyped (or hype-able) and can barely offset anything. One Piece COULD have been, but 4Kids didn't handle it well-- and this is disregarding the dumbing-down-from-the-original factor

Perhaps they could learn a bit with Viz's treatment of Naruto, the series has been booming on Cartoon Network in a far from butchered format. The merchandise from what I've seen has sold extremely well at Hot Topic. And we've all seen that kids do read manga as it's currently selling extremely well, even moreso now that it's on tv. Viz seems to be working carefully to get the teen and the child market by working with Mattel to release figures for kids and working with Hot Topic to get merchandise to the teens.

Viz has been very smart by keeping their marketing open to two very strong audiences and 4Kids could learn from it. Instead of focusing 100% around children, they could make a lot more by trying to focus on more audiences. Teens have a ton of disposable income so they should take advantage of it.

The end is so near that I can hear the fat lady clearing her throat!!!!

Last edited by Yashouzoid on Thu Mar 16, 2006 10:04 pm; edited 1 time in total

Bad Khan, bad! *smacks with a rolled up newspaper*

Y'see, mister? This is what you get for stuffing everything in the ratings pit that is Fox.

Kids WB was nice to you before. One Piece is faring well on Toonami. Cartoon Network's Miguzi block is doing well with girl-oriented properties like Totally Spies.

Do you see where I'm going here?

	Anime News Network Forum Index -> Site-related -> Talkback	All times are GMT - 5 Hours Goto page Previous 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6 Next
Page 3 of 6

Forum - View topicNEWS: 4Kids Fiscal 2005 Results

Forum - View topic
NEWS: 4Kids Fiscal 2005 Results