I know exactly what 4kids' next project should be

4kids tried 3 times to find their DBZ

Ultimate Muscle - A moderate success
Shaman King - Dismal Failure
One Piece - Such a failure that the original creators were pissed off.

I'm going to have to agree with Sketch that they either need an anime designed specifically to their whims(A-la Ultimate Muscle) or they need to stop doing anime completely. Also posted on this thread, they are just advertisers, unlike Viz who are distributors, they have a whole other set of hurdles to take care of. If they were able to co-produce a very popular game with Japan that had an Anime and manga with it, I think they'd do pretty well, but when's the last time they had a successful project?


To me, 4Kids is like the middle aged father who tries to get "down" with his kids by talking like a street rapper from the 80s.
 
They tried with Chaotic but they totally miss their mark. Unless the game turns out to be a huge success (which I doubt, I heard it's pretty boring), the whole Chaotic project is gonna turn into a failiure.

They had such potential with their own version of a 'hobby anime' where the character PLAY the game (like in Yu-gi-oh!) instead of the game being based of them (which usually is the downfall of TCG games like DBZ, Naruto, Inu-yasha, Bleach, Shaman King etc etc) but the writers obviously missed the key elements of hobby animes.

In the meantime I got myself a random 'booster' pack for the Di-gata collectable game. It could have used more depth :/ and randomized stone... plus more cards per booster. Two is ridiculous. Couldn't find a starter sadly.
 
One Piece is actually Toei's fault too. Funimation originally tried to get the rights, by $kids put up more money or something. So it's just as much their own fault as 4Kid's. And with Shaman king? Well, at least they tried. unlike all their other DVD's, they did release them uncut with Japanese Dialogue and Subtitles. Too bad they couldn't sell any, or we could have got the entire series.

Seems 90% of the time, the "president" of the company has no freaking clue about what he's doing, and just screws things over. I wouldn't doubt for a second half the reason Nintendo did their own Pokemon dub was they were P.o'd at 4Kid's messing up the sucess of Kirby (they even had a line of toys to produce, we just got kids meal premiums), and whatever they could get of FZero (which, face it, no matter who dubbed it, it was going to be nothing more than a repetitive suckfest).

If they're close to bankrupcy, how do they stay in business? and if money is an issue, why don't they just sell their anime rights to someone who actually knows how to handle a product? Someone who can redub them and release them Uncut.
You see, most people hate 4Kids due to the overediting and Americanization of their anime... not me. I hate them because they constantly screw up and don't know what they're doing. no wonder they're losing in the ratings to Kid's WB. Often times opposite terrible shows.
 
I thought the common accepted explaination for the discontinuation of uncut DVDs was actually due to a dispute between FUNi and 4Kids over the profits?

Coming up with shonen ideas is something I can do on a dialy basis XD give me a few days and I can give you a full on toyetic franchise AND a TCG with full rules ready to be put into motion. Give me some parameters and a theme and I'll cook you a receipe for success 4Kids!

Drop me a line, we'll talk. I'm pretty innexpensive too.

XD
 
If that's true, which it probnably is (first I ever heard of it) then the DVD's would have been pretty successful.

I remember hearing that Funimation lost both Naruto and one Piece to different companies when trying to bid for them. The company that has Naruto (tell me the name please, I forget) made it a humongous success (even though most of the fans watched the fan subs well before anyone considered exporting it), and 4Kids just couldn't get one piece to work. Crappy dub or not, they consistantly aired it at pointless timeslots that never worked out. And the fact it p.o'd the older fan base was no help either.

But luckily Funimation interviened after 4Kids decided to sit on their thumbs. now they're just sitting on the rights to half the series. And the rights to pretty much all these other animes. I bet if they could sell off some of the more popular lines with fans (Tokyo Mew Mew, Shaman King to name a couple) they could fund a project all their own. And hopefully that isn't flash animated. it would be win win for the company and anime fans everywhere.

I mean, they are running out of Japanese companies to alienate. Tatsunoko productions didn't sell their sould to them yet. Maybe they can buy something off them adn screw it up!
 
I haven't seen any of chaotic at all, how bad is it?
Also I figure that Hobby/Game Anime is falling out of style anyway, and thusly 4Kids is running out of game based anime to pick up from Japan. Either shift their focus to creating their own work or shift entirely to a girl focus with shows like Winx and Bratz.

Get back in line!

And Viz has Naruto
 
Well...it's not terrible per sey...but it just lacks the 'spark' that makes you want to play the game.

There's a total lack of overarching narrative, something even Beyblades had. Theres a few arc stories and that's it.

Two seasons in and nobody has yet to question WHY Chaotic exists and where it comes from?! Unbelieveable!

And what I consider the biggest sin of all in this faux-hobby anime: The characters decks have ZERO personality. Beyond knowing that Kaz plays underworlder and just so happen to have in his deck THE big boss of the Underworld and Tom the same for Overworlder (undermining both character's credibility as big shot leader if you ask me), I can't tell you what else they play. They seem to only have a small stock of monster models animated (lame monsters IMHO too) and to make things worst those monsters lack any sort of specialty beyond a few episode specific trick.

Basically in that show anybody can end up playing anything.

You just don't do that in that type of show. The humans and the monsters totally lack any uniqueness in their battle style. Tsk tsk tsk.

and what do you mean get back in line? :p
 
Well, to be fair, The WB wasn't the best-ran network either. Aside from a handful of shows, The WB barely registered a blip on the American consciousness. The CW took The WB's schedule and much of its management, a majority of The WB's last-season shows, and Kids' WB, which kept its name despite being a part of The CW.

The CW is essentially The WB with UPN shows. Even the name is essentially the same (rarely seeing just CW ala UPN). Everything from The WB, with the exception of Smallville, Supernatural, and Beauty and the Geek, is gone. Everything from UPN, with the exception of Chris, Girlfriends, Next Top Model, and Smackdown, is gone. The WB actually got a chance to say goodbye to its audience. UPN, "thanks" to Fox owning most of the major market UPN affiliates, didn't.

And the only thing The WB did right (at least for the first five years) was Kids' WB, and it'll be gone after this season.

Yes, The CW sucks.
 
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