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ANNCast - Kirk Up Your Ears


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Dragonpiece



Joined: 12 Dec 2009
Posts: 31
PostPosted: Thu Jul 22, 2010 12:25 pm Reply with quote
Finally! Time to see the world through 4kids!
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Greed1914



Joined: 28 Oct 2007
Posts: 4410
PostPosted: Thu Jul 22, 2010 12:58 pm Reply with quote
I really wish I wasn't at work right now. I want to listen to the One Piece discussion so much.
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sirkoala13



Joined: 27 Sep 2009
Posts: 134
Location: Muscle Tower, U.S.
PostPosted: Thu Jul 22, 2010 1:16 pm Reply with quote
Crying or Very sad I'll always remember Heat Guy J references.
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JacobC
ANN Contributor


Joined: 15 Jan 2008
Posts: 3728
Location: SoCal
PostPosted: Thu Jul 22, 2010 1:23 pm Reply with quote
RIP Heat Guy J references...and a flight of big-nosed angels sing thee to thy rest~

WOO~! Community cast at Comic-Con! Now I would go for that! Comic book fandom on the whole actually gives me the weirds far more than anime fandom, so I have to admit I find the 150,000 in attendance at Comic-con more intimidating than attractive. @~@ Maaaybe I'll go someday.

4Kids...hoo boy. I don't have a personal vendetta against them like a lotta fans, but of course I find them pretty embarrassing all the same...lookin forward to the interview and dreading the Twitter questions.

Boot on a spring gun...pshaw.

EDIT: 41:35 Welp, Zac hath laid down the smack. It had to be said at SOME point, it's so obvious that 4Kids, whether they truly understand it or not, is the buttmonkey of the anime industry. Bless their hearts. He phrased his whole "Well here's how it is guys" thing EXTREMELY prudently, but I was still giggling throughout it. Hoo~

I was kinda surprised that Mr. Kirk felt their reputation was solid without the advent of One Piece, or maybe he honestly was just saying that from obligation. I STILL hear people bitch about the edits for Yu Gi Oh and as a viewer who understands the need for a little censorship in bringing kids' anime to broadcast and isn't even a fan of the show, I STILL think a lot of those edits were ludicrous and assumed a line that is crossed daily by most programming on Nickelodeon or CN originals for children. (Avatar and its maturity of storytelling, anyone? The gleefully grody Billy and Mandy, perhaps?)

What's brought up far less is the quality of the voice acting in 4Kids' dubs. The adapted scripts aside, there's no doubt that their dubs have just...gone...dooooownhill from Pokemon, and that's a low bar to start with. Pokemon is basically the Scooby Doo of anime, though, so it's hard to screw that up much. The show is actually probably wittier in English thanks to Team Rocket's questionable taste in humor now and again. But Yu Gi Oh? Having never seen the original to be biased towards, and HAVING seen the terribly silly Abridged Series where one guy is doing all the voices on a fairly cheap microphone...HIS acting and several of his voice choices were easier on the ears than the ones in the show. Almost every recent 4kids dub I've seen, Yu Gi Oh is just one of the worst, sounds like the director was instructing every VA to assume the kids are REALLY stupid. It's not just zany or kinda poorly acted, no, it actually sounds like "I'm being talked down to and mocked by this grating thing."

That actually bothers me more than the censorship in most cases. Geez people, you're in NEW YORK, there are plenty of good voice actors there. Whatever you're doing to make every word and inflection out of their mouths insulting, cut it out. Kids aren't this stupid, and if we assumed this of them more often, their programming might be better. =w=


Last edited by JacobC on Thu Jul 22, 2010 2:06 pm; edited 3 times in total
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TatsuGero23



Joined: 18 Nov 2008
Posts: 1277
Location: Sniper Island, USA (It's in your heart!)
PostPosted: Thu Jul 22, 2010 1:37 pm Reply with quote
Oh... one of big things the Yugioh fans didn't like about Yugioh subs was that they kept the US names for the cards. Yeah, US names helped them recognize the cards but also confused them cause they were saying different things and ruined it for a good chunk of fans. I think at this point, those who actually care about the sub versions, are at least aware that some cards will have different names or aware of what those names are already. Now if 4kids can't legally use the Japanese names; understandable. But if they are doing so because they think that's what 'fans" prefer? Your probably gonna get a repeat of "Yugioh hate" in the future.

Also for Kamen Rider Dragon Knight, while dragons are all the cool in the west; those had to be the ugliest, clunkiest of Kamen Riders of in the Kamen Rider series. They just didn't look cool compared to other series. True, bug themed don't go over too well in the US, but man, those bug themed ones definitely looked better.

And what the heck! No more Heat Guy J references after this?! sad face. (okay not really but I figure it deserved it.)
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xScar



Joined: 20 Dec 2006
Posts: 288
PostPosted: Thu Jul 22, 2010 1:45 pm Reply with quote
Wow, I never really thought about 4Kids's position on One Piece like that before. Everyone has this thought that they did all the edits because that's "what they do" - they edit stuff.

I can totally buy into that package deal and being stuck. 4Kids knew Pokemon, they knew Tokyo Mew Mew. They saw One Piece. It looked like another kid-friendly show on the outside. Since they were able to make Pokemon work exceptionally well, they thought that they could try with something new without really looking into it.

And since they had already thrown themselves into the license, they simply had to make it work or they would lose an extreme amount of money. I mean, if I had a company... and I was thrown into a situation like that, I would try and make do with what we had to do with. I seriously can't hate them for that. They're a business. They make money.

Thanks for this interview... even though it probably would have been much larger discussion years ago before FUNimation saved the day.

Looking forward to see what 4Kids does with their new "uncut and subtitled" stuff. Funimation/Pioneer edited DBZ... and totally moved out of that. Maybe with the new age of Toonzaki, 4Kids can finally get something steady down lacking as many criticisms that they've obtained lately. Subtitled YGO will be pretty cool.


Last edited by xScar on Thu Jul 22, 2010 1:54 pm; edited 1 time in total
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mark@toonzaki



Joined: 22 Jul 2010
Posts: 5
PostPosted: Thu Jul 22, 2010 1:51 pm Reply with quote
In regards to YGO, using the US card names is desired by the licensor. Additionally, the consumption of the subtitled version in the US would be done primarily by those we do not speak Japanese, thus we believe that this change has no impact on integrity of the story.

The new Toonzaki.com site will allow much of the original content to be available for those who desire it. The Saturday morning block will always require edits in order to comply with standards, however we will now have a forum to display the originals. One note on standards/ratings, there is a clear difference between cable and broadcast as cable does NOT have to worry about the FCC and does not have local affiliates to appease.

One last point that I forgot to make during the interview is that ALL changes in One Piece/Shaman King were approved by the Japanese licensor. That pretty much goes for all our titles.


Last edited by mark@toonzaki on Thu Jul 22, 2010 2:36 pm; edited 4 times in total
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Gasero



Joined: 24 Jul 2009
Posts: 939
Location: USA
PostPosted: Thu Jul 22, 2010 2:10 pm Reply with quote
Even though 4Kids has done some bad stuff in the past, I appreciate what they've done with their shows and streaming media. They were far ahead of the game in getting their shows online.

Problem is, they haven't picked up any good new shows since Yugioh 5D's.

I'd love to hear what they have planned for the future without Ninja Turtles and Pokemon holding them over anymore. Dinosaur King was not a good replacement. I would have rather watched reruns of the first 3 Digimon seasons.
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sirkoala13



Joined: 27 Sep 2009
Posts: 134
Location: Muscle Tower, U.S.
PostPosted: Thu Jul 22, 2010 2:18 pm Reply with quote
Too bad I'm Twitter impaired, cause I might have had a few questions to ask Kirk. For one, whatever happened to 4Sight?
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Divineking



Joined: 03 Jul 2010
Posts: 1293
PostPosted: Thu Jul 22, 2010 2:55 pm Reply with quote
I'd like to know that too.

I am pretty excited though. I'll finally be able to watch CONSISTENT 5D's subs(fansub translations change too much). I'm alos hoping they'll take back Shaman King and post it on there as well.

I'm kinda sad they don't have any major plans for DVD's right now, but since they claimed they'll respond if their's enough demand, when the site is up people much run to the forums and rant like CRAZY for uncut bilingual DVD's...
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TatsuGero23



Joined: 18 Nov 2008
Posts: 1277
Location: Sniper Island, USA (It's in your heart!)
PostPosted: Thu Jul 22, 2010 3:03 pm Reply with quote
mark@toonzaki wrote:
In regards to YGO, using the US card names is desired by the licensor. Additionally, the consumption of the subtitled version in the US would be done primarily by those we do not speak Japanese, thus we believe that this change has no impact on integrity of the story.

The new Toonzaki.com site will allow much of the original content to be available for those who desire it. The Saturday morning block will always require edits in order to comply with standards, however we will now have a forum to display the originals. One note on the interruption of the standards/ratings, there is a clear difference between cable and broadcast as cable does NOT have to worry about the FCC and does not have local affiliates to appease.
Oh hey, Thanks for the interview and all the info in this weeks podcast Mark. The One Piece situation was understandable and I figure that would the explaination for it but its nice to give a more concrete statement so fans can stop arguing in circles about it now.

I'm not looking down on the new direction 4kids is going for with toonzaki and definitely don't mean to critize something that isn't even out yet. But I'm just pointing out one of the complaints fans had with the subs besides it seeming more like a subtitling of the dub dialogue. Granted I don't know if its the same for 5Ds as it was for the Yugioh or the GX series but fans didn't react well to the changes and some fans in general are stickilers when terms like "unedited" or "uncut" get used for subs tracks.

In the dubs, fans at this point in age will understand the need to localize or rename. But in the subs, I think fans won't react with as much understanding. It's distracting since they wonder about the names instead of just enjoying the show and seeing how cool the card may be. But again, if the licensors themselves are asking for it then it can't be helped. But if its something that can be argued, I'm sure the subs fans would appreciate it. Fans can get the english names from the TV versions or the actual cards.

I know its extra work but I know fans will ask, couldn't you just provide translation notes or card notes in the episode descriptions similar to how the mangas list japanese vs english cards and real vs manga only cards (they still do that right)? Plus it'll be one less thing; those (in their words) "seemingly simple things" for the anti-4kids or anti-edit fans to gripe about.

Amongst those anime fans who don't hate 4kids, we wish you the best of luck. I'm sure some wish for iller fates, but from someone who doesn't feel like reading another piece of news about how anime is declining or another company closing its doors, I hope things go well. And really, too bad about Kamen Rider. I'm a fan of that stuff so 1) it hurt to see you start with Ryuki and 2) it hurt to hear it didn't do well dispite personal preferences. If you guys ever get another chance with Kamen Rider, go for Blade or Kabuto.
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Primus



Joined: 01 Mar 2006
Posts: 2758
Location: Toronto
PostPosted: Thu Jul 22, 2010 3:33 pm Reply with quote
Ah, the problem of Twitter, I should've sent an email. The issue with Pretty Cure was that the series was announced by 4Kids in a conference call, but never was released by them. Instead Toei USA handled the series on a variety of web platforms, and eventually partnered up with Ocean Studios, and Blue Water to produce a dub that aired on Canadian TV. I was hoping for some insight on why they lost the series so abruptly (I assume it might have to do with the performance of titles like Doremi, and Mew Mew). Although given the time frame Kirk was hired, I don't think he'd be able to say much anyways. I say all this, even though I don't have much of an interest in magical girl shows, haha.

As for the Uncut DVDs, I never did believe those garbage rumors of the uncut release cutting into the edited sales. At the end of the day a unit sold is a unit sold. Poor sales, and rights issues with voice actors would be a more realistic response.

If Kirk is still here, and willing to reply. Would some series on Toonzaki be other companies children's series? Like shows from Viz, or Nelvana? Or would it be just your own children's series, and other companies series? (I'd imagine the later would mostly be series like Naruto, Bleach, Fairy Tail, etc.)

sirkoala13 wrote:
Too bad I'm Twitter impaired, cause I might have had a few questions to ask Kirk. For one, whatever happened to 4Sight?


4Sight still exists, and has recently picked up new properties. The thing is, they're mostly properties aimed at a much older audience, or just in the merchandise market. If I remember correctly, they recently got the rights to a bunch of Japanese art that isn't anime-esque.
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kawaiibunny3



Joined: 10 Aug 2008
Posts: 534
Location: Houston, Texas
PostPosted: Thu Jul 22, 2010 3:38 pm Reply with quote
yay my question got asked Anime hyper
I feel bad I asked something he wasn't around for so he has to go out of his way to answer it (I'm sorry, and thank you!), but atleast that means we get to hear from him again, right?
But really, after I sent my question in, I found out that the 4kids Mew Mew Power dub was sent to Australia and shown in full and put on DVD, which makes me wonder even more why it didn't show here in the U.S.


anywho. interesting show as usual :3 have fun at Comic-con guys!
R.I.P Heat Guy J references Anime cry


Last edited by kawaiibunny3 on Thu Jul 22, 2010 3:41 pm; edited 1 time in total
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mark@toonzaki



Joined: 22 Jul 2010
Posts: 5
PostPosted: Thu Jul 22, 2010 3:40 pm Reply with quote
The Toonzaki site will have content from many content partners some of which is currently available online, some of which will premiere on the service (in the US). It is our goal to have essentially all the great titles available on various sites housed under one roof in order to service the more "casual" animation fan who may not be seeking a particular title but discovers it because of their interest in something else. Beyond anime, the site will also have titles which originate outside of Japan but skew to an older audience.

Last edited by mark@toonzaki on Thu Jul 22, 2010 3:49 pm; edited 1 time in total
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Primus



Joined: 01 Mar 2006
Posts: 2758
Location: Toronto
PostPosted: Thu Jul 22, 2010 3:49 pm Reply with quote
mark@toonzaki wrote:
The Toonzaki site will have content from many content partners some which is currently available online, some of which will premiere on the service (in the US). It is our goal to have essentially all the great titles available in various sites housed under one roof in order to service the more "casual" animation fan who may not be seeking a particular title but discovers it because of their interest in something else. Beyond anime, the site will also have titles which originate outside of Japan but skew to an older audience.


I see, thanks for answering my question (and sorry for calling you by your last name, haha). I know you guys don't have any control on third party content, but will the 4Kids stuff on Toonzaki be region locked in any way? Or too early to tell?
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