“The Truth Hurts... Especially When Used Against You” By: Jaya Lakshmi
   

"The Truth Hurts...Especially When Used Against You"
I think that most fans of animes dubbed by 4Kids were pleased by this
Anime
News Network interview with CEO Al Kahn, because it mentioned that all
of
their animes were going to get released uncut. (The interview can be
found
here, by the way:
http://www.animenewsnetwork.com/columns/sunday.php?id=35)
I, on the other hand, was pretty indignant when I read some of this
stuff.
JD or Kevin may get into this later, but I want to do my nitpicking
first.
ANN is Anime News Network, AK is Al Kahn, and the bold Draconmouth’s
Comments (DC-) are what I think of it. Get ready for critique and
ridicule.
Lots of ridicule.

ANN: What motivated 4Kids to do a Kirby film?
AK: Because Kirby has been such a popular character for Nintendo for a
long
time, and the TV show is no longer running on our network, we decided
to try
and continue the franchise by doing something like a direct to video
movie
to help the franchise continue to prosper. That's one of the reasons we
are
doing it.
DC- Let’s see, Kirby sounds like an old 4Kids show, but they want to
make a
movie to keep the game going. Jeez! Can’t they choose an anime that is
actually has substance and doesn’t need merchandising a la Pokemon?

ANN: What sort of demographic are you aiming for with this film?
AK: It's a dual-demographic, you know? Because it's got the normal 6-11
crowd, but it's also got some of the 8-14's, so it's got that little
double
demographic.
DC- If you’re aiming to 8-14 with this film, then why don’t you do us a
favor and keep some graphics in that don’t need to be cut out?

ANN: What sort of release will this film have?
AK: Well again, it's a direct-to-video release. It'll be available in
every
store in every retailer, I imagine.
DC- But if enough anime fans spread the word with “bad” reviews, then
you
won’t be making a profit. Those videos will stay in the shops to gather
dust.

ANN: Who will be producing the animation for this film?
AK: By the same animators that created the Kirby television show. It's
pre-imposed to be done for the United States, and then the new footage
is
sent to us from Japan.
DC- Maybe you should write the scripts and send it to the animators
yourselves. Then you wouldn’t have to cut out anything.

ANN: What attributes should a property have before you consider
bringing it
over to the west?
AK: We look at things such as popularity, but also if it has a
merchandising
component; can we license it, can we license products for it? Thats
really
the main issue for us... the playing pattern, if it's popular and how
it
merchandises. If we can't merchandise it, it really doesn't have a lot
of
interest for us.
DC- Like I said before, if you want to get popular, CHOOSE AN ANIME
WITH
SUBSTANCE! Pokemon doesn’t have substance! Yuugiou does, but you
practically
got rid of it!

ANN: Because it's not financially viable?
AK: That's correct, because it's too expensive to do the dubbing and
the
acquisitions because we rewrite, we re-script, we re-score. So it's
very
difficult to do that if you don't have any other revenue streams and we
have
to make sure we get that.
DC- Which is precisely why you haven’t been doing well! As
GreatSaiyaman777
has said, this only makes you look bad. Just look at what happened to
Funimation and Dragon Ball Z! That should be enough of a hint for you!

ANN: A lot of aspects in your adaptations are changed from the original
Japanese version. Some things like dialog, credits and names are
changed for
obvious reasons, but things such as music are re-done. Why do you feel
this
is necessary?
AK: Only to make it more Western. We westernize it so that children in
English-speaking countries will understand it, and to us that is very
critical. It's a mixture of the westernization, the trying to make the
music
appeal to kids who are in the United States.
DC- Once upon a time people liked classical music in the US. They still
do.
Time Warner created Batman: The Animated Series and Superman: The
Animated
Series  in the 1990s, and they only had classical music, yet they did
well
just the same. Even Teen Titans had orchestrations as well a rock
music, and
the BGM is always different for each episode.
And by the way, you’re dubbing animes that aren’t meant for “kids”.
What’s
probably PG in Japan is rated PG-13 or R in the US. There are
exceptions to
“Cartoons are only for kids”, you know. Again bringing up Teen Titans
(which
is rated Y-7), the most recent episodes involved demons and a girl
getting
most of her leotard burnt off. And has anyone made a complaint? Has
anyone
threatened to take the show off the air? No. Therefore, you don’t have
to
tone it down as much as you do provided that you know your limits.
You also don’t have to show it as a kids’ show. That’s what Adult Swim
on
Cartoon Network is for. The Simpsons isn’t for kids, and it’s a
cartoon.
Family Guy, South Park, and American Dad also fall into this category.
Don’t
forget animes like Inuyasha and Yu Yu Haksho, which are dubbed
FAITHFULLY on
Adult Swim. No one’s complained about them yet.
I’m also commenting on how you act racist when trying to bring a
different
culture. Look, Japan may really have perverted people for all that I
know,
but that’s Japan. Setting is important in a story, no matter what kind
of
story. For example, Disney’s Aladdin wouldn’t work well in modern US
unless
changes were made to the story itself. How would you feel if you made a
show
and it was butchered to its intestines in another country? My point
exactly.
Also, by “westernizing” these shows, you’ve also dumbed them down a
lot.
English doesn’t need to be airbrushed!

ANN: Recently 4Kids have acquired certain shows, such as Magical Doremi
and
Tokyo Mew Mew (Mew Mew Power), which look odd considering most of your
titles seem to be aimed at boys and young teens. Do you see a potential
in
girl oriented anime?
AK: We are trying to increase our business mix and it's certain that
girls
make up 50% of the audience in the United States, and that they buy
products
as well. Generally speaking, for the boys' shows we run, the animation
and
merchandise is more traditional to boys, but with these girls' shows,
we
believe we can sell products to girls and also get larger total ratings
because we'll get a girls' comp for the girls' shows as well as a boys'
comp
for the boys' shows. So I think a combination of those two will not
only
increase our ratings on 4Kids TV, but will also allow us to get new
physical
merchandise in terms of categories.
DC- You’re underestimating Tokyo Mew Mew (hereafter TMM) fans. The
manga
came before the dub, just like One Piece. Look you want girls, you do
them
better in the boy animes. Then you can dub mahou shoujo [Translation:
“magical girl”] anime. TMM in your hands just appears to be a Sailor
Moon
clone, which is unfair.
Besides, that’s kind of sexist. I’m a girl, and I’m a Yuugiou fan. I
just
don’t watch the show anymore because it’s dubbed horribly.
And also, you’re doing a bad job of trying to make a girl audience.
Look,
Disney’s doing better with W.I.T.C.H. for a good reason- they created
it! If
you want to be better at this, come up with ideas yourself. Don’t put
them
in your dubs. Dubbing means translating, and apparently it’s hard for
you to
do that accurately.

ANN: 4Kids mainly focus on the children's market, but last year you
surprised fans by announcing uncut Yu-Gi-Oh! and Shaman King. What
encouraged this decision and are you satisfied with the results?
AK: For Yu-Gi-Oh! and Shaman King? Yeah, they've been extraordinarily
successful. We unfortunately (or fortunately, depending who you're
talking
to) have to change those in order to make them compatible for younger
children. Some of these things have situations we couldn't air on our
network, so we have to do them for our network for the parent's sake.
The
real anime fans sometimes feel slighted that we change these things
dramatically, but we have also released original versions into the
trade
market which are uncut and unedited, so that the anime fan who wants
the
original version can get it, and for the younger child we have the
localized
version which we air on TV so it's a combo of what we do. Obviously
Yu-Gi-Oh! has been extraordinarily successful here.
DC- “The real anime fans sometimes feel slighted”? “We unfortunately
(or
fortunately, depending who you’re talking to) have to change those in
order
to make them compatible for young children”? Mr. Kahn, you are
understimating two parts of the US population- anime fans and children.
Look, I grew up watching The Lion King and The Little Mermaid. So did
my
older siblings. If those aren’t dark children movies, then I don’t know
what
they are.  I’m pretty tough when watching animated violence. I saw
Princess
Mononoke uncut without covering my eyes once.
And who are the “real” anime fans? Are they the people who watched the
original but not the dub? People who only watch the dub to make fun of
it?
Look, anyone who likes a Japanese anime is an anime fan in my opinion,
dubbed or original. You’re insulting your own viewers.
Also, there are manga fans who are probably mad at your dubs (Shonen
Jump,
anyone?) but don’t watch the anime.
Anime fans do not “sometimes feel slighted”. “Slighted” means ignored.
No,
we’re indignant! And we’re almost always indignant when it comes to you
because there are things that you could keep, but don’t! You try to
make
your own show out of a good anime. Once you stop doing that, then maybe
we’ll actually watch the show with appreciation.

ANN: I was actually referring to the uncut releases... your thoughts on
them?
AK: We do those, at some level, for the anime fan and those things do,
you
know, reasonably well. The market for them just isn't as large as the
one
for the cut version.
DC- Wrong there. Mr. Kahn, you don’t know your anime fans, me
especially.
Princess Monoke had an accurate dub, but I watched the original uncut
with
English subtitles on the DVD anyway IN CASE it wasn’t dubbed well.
Maybe if
you actually TRIED to participate, then you’d get your figures right.

ANN: Some critics cite that the uncut releases contain
uncharacteristically
low episode counts, English translations and release schedules. Any
thoughts?
AK: I don't know, I don't work in that area so I don't know what's
going on
with them. I think again everything is related to how we release the
cut
version.
DC- You don’t know? You were just commenting on the market and it’s so
that
anime fans won’t get “slighted”! Way to contradict yourself! You can
control
the DVD qualities and when they’ll get released. You’re the CEO! You’re
in
the same position as Michael Eisner! (Oh wait, bad example.)

ANN: Can you shed any light on why Shaman King and Yu-Gi-Oh! uncut were
postponed?
AK: I think it's because we are still releasing them as cut versions,
and we
don't want to put the cut versions and the uncut versions at the same
time.
So we try to stagger the uncut episodes after the cut episodes have
aired.
So it's just a function of getting those things to play.
DC- Stupid. You’re afraid that once people realize how much better the
original is, they’ll stop watching the show. You wouldn’t have this
problem
if you weren’t dubbing it badly in the first place. At least you
haven’t
banned the manga, or you’d really be in boiling water...

ANN: So they aren't competing against each other?
AK: Yes, that's exactly right.
DC- Translation: We don’t want to lose viewers.

ANN: In recent years due to the popularity of anime the cost of
licensing
Japanese animation has gone up. Has this affected the way in how your
company does business and how you will do business in the future?
AK: I think we've become more selective. You have to be very careful
about
how you do it, because if you don't then you're going to end up with a
much
more difficult situation. So we definitely believe that you have to be
careful in terms of the price of your thing and we're certainly
concerned
about that.
DC- Only you haven’t been doing it well, which is why you get into bad
situations.

ANN: At a licensing convention last year, where 4Kids revealed a first
look
at One Piece, a version of the Japanese opening with English vocals was
played. However, 4Kids used an original rap opening in the broadcast
version. What made you consider this opening over the other one?
AK: Yeah, well.. we liked it, we thought it was good. And we thought it
was
going to be something that'd have a lot of popularity. There wasn't
anything
more to it than that.
DC- Only, it wasn’t. See GreatSaiyaman’s response to the rap song in
his
opinion "The Problems With 4Kids, and What They Need To Do In Order To
Improve Back Again Into A Successful Company" since I haven’t seen One
Piece. I don’t like rap or hip-hop anyhow.

ANN: Is there a possibility of an uncut release of One Piece?
AK: Yes, definitely
DC- At least you’ll get some good points on that anime...

ANN: Is there a time-frame of when it might come out?
AK: Not sure, but we're definitely looking at it.
DC-... or maybe not.

ANN: On a similar note, do you have any intentions of releasing any
other
Japanese series in their original format?
AK:We expect every series we license to be released in its original
form.
DC- But will every release will be done well, I wonder?

ANN: Finally, is there anything you'd like to say to the 4Kids
nay-sayers in
Anime fandom?
AK: I think they have to understand that because the price of these
acquisitions is so high, that if they want this programming to come to
the
United States then they're going to have to accept the fact that it's
going
to be available in two styles. Because the only money that can be made
that
helps pay for the acquisition is obviously whether or not we're able to
outfit it for the masses. And fitting it for the masses requires
editing.
And if we didn't do that, it'd be very difficult for us to afford to
bring
it in, just to release it to the anime fan who would be looking for the
uncut version. I think we're trying to satisfy both sides of that by
having
it both ways so that we'll be able to afford them.
DC- Or you could do a Teen Titans and find out just how
dark/innappropriate/scary you can go. It’s not that hard- unless you
have
big limits.

Yeah, I’m cynical when it comes to 4Kids. But remember, I’ve been
fooled
seven times by badly dubbed animes. That makes a person like me
cynical.
Did this change my opinion on 4Kids? Well, no. At least now we know
that
they dub the animes horribly on purpose. That is true evil. (No,
really; if
they had only done it once or twice then got better, I would’ve been
fine.
But they’ve done it FIVE times already, and are aware of it. I’m not
even
going to put a comparison here because people who believe that Galileo
was
wrong about the universe will get offended if I compare Galileo to
this.)
I’m so glad that they didn’t get their hands on Princess Mononoke and
Spirited Away. Miyazaki would’ve been after their blood. Well, not
really,
but he would’ve never given them any of his other movies again. He’s
learned
to state in the binding contract to keep the movie 100% intact with no
cuts
or edits. No offense to Toei or other animating companies, but this
would be
a good idea if you want the same show to hit home in another country.
Why
haven’t you done it yet?
Face the facts, 4Kids; you’re gonna die (not literally, but the company
will
close down) if you don’t improve sooner or later. After One Piece, the
anime
community is looking down upon you. Even Winx Club may not be able to
save
you when it gets fansubbed. (I’m saying “when” because I have great
faith in
GreatSaiyaman777.)
That’s it for now. Matta ne!