Yuugiou and Pokemon: Gone from Kids WB, but Not Forgotten by John A. D'Adamo

Let me begin by saying that it would be extremely, and I mean extraordinarily hard to top Kevin's final editorial, and I'm not going to try.  I'd like to begin by talking a bit about it before I begin the topic at hand.  Kevin has had a long and prosperous time here at Yuugiou Uncensored, starting it over three years ago and ending his tenure last April.  He is who inspired me to create Yuugiou Uncensored II, which later merged with this site.  I was honored when he asked me to be a co-webmaster with him and happily merged this site with mine.  I didn't care I was no longer a one-man show, I was glad to work with the man who started it all, the first website to really detail the changes between the Japanese version of Yuugiou and the dub, which if you read the site, are vast.  In his swan song, he talks about having a spiritual calling to work on his book, yet being stopped many times to do other things, then finally getting down to it.  I say, good for him.  A spiritual calling, in my opinion, trumps any horrid dubbing company, any anime, and any manga out there (although Naruto comes damn close in the manga department). Ok, I kid there, but I know that if God talked to me and told me to retire from YGO Uncensored, I would do it in a heartbeat.  It hasn't happened yet, but you never do know.  I also respect the man for interjecting the religion into his Editorial.  He kept a straight journalistic approach (with humor thrown in), without putting a God, a Jesus, or anything in his many editorials and material for this site, and I would have been fine with him putting the word "God" back to back one hundred thousand times in his article if he wanted to.  He deserved that.  He was the Chris Psaros of this site, and it doesn't matter how many staffers I add to help me with this grand website, I could never come close to the experience this man has had.  He will be sorely missed at this website, however if you want to view his material you still can here, also he is now heading up The Comic Book Guy, a website where he and Jaya Lakshmi review manga series, plus his own blog. Onegaishimasu, friend. Now, let us delve into Warner Brothers/ Columbia Broadcasting's terrible decision to pluck Pokemon from the lineup.  Although Yuugiou ended anyway in June, Pokemon is still going strong, with a new voice cast from Pokemon USA in the fall and the retention of the original Japanese score.  Why, oh why, couldn't 4Kids have done that with Yuugiou?  It truly would have made the series that more epic, even with the dramatic cuts made!  Anyway, why did they do this?  I understand that the WB and UPN are merging together to form the CW in the fall, but why did they have to drop a staple of the Saturday morning cartoon block?  Are they doing it to make the block seem more adult, with shows like Zao-lin Showdown remaining on the schedule?  Cartoon Network, known for its airing of anime and well-known cartoons, used to air episodes from the first and second seasons of Pokemon way back when.  For a while, they seemed to replay the same first season episodes over and over, until they finally acquired the Orange Islands set.  The tables are turning now, though, with the brand new season of Pokemon airing on the network, fresh with the new Pokemon USA voice cast.  The dubbing is said to be more accurate, and the Japanese score has been retained, so wouldn't this really make the show more adult than it ever was under 4Kids?  What is the logic here?  Yuugiou has also been taken off the network, despite more new series being created for the franchise than I can count.  This is another extraordinarily dumb move, as they could re-dub the original 226 episodes with the original score and a closer translation of the script and it would seem like a completely different show!  Therefore, if the argument of the CW was that Pokemon and Yuugiou were kiddie shows, that argument has been thoroughly slashed in the face.  It was 4Kids' intention to make the shows seem kiddie to appeal to the seven-year-olds instead of teenagers, the demographic that the original Japanese series have!  Again, what is the logic? The Yuugiou franchise is at its peak of popularity, thanks to the recent unexplained insurgence of interest for the Upperdeck TCG.  I have been playing the TCG since  its inception and I can tell you it features a more clever rule system than Magic: The Gathering and Pokemon combined.  Plus, the Shonen Jump manga is getting teenagers interested in the show, whereas the original 4Kids dub never did this.  An entire new generation is being woken up to the brilliance of the franchise.  Why, now, at its peak of popularity, would CW pull the show off the schedule?  Instead, in my humble opinion, it should have spend money acquiring the license and finding a new voice cast and writers for the show, redubbing it for an entire new audience to discover.  Words can not describe how stupid this decision was. I guarantee Pokemon will see a return to the CW after the ratings on Cartoon Network spike due to the attention and money Pokemon USA is spending on the anime.  Until then, I am sure the executive that made this decision to red-light Pokemon, and possibly Yuugiou as well, will be kicking himself. NEXT TIME: Will uncut DVDs ever be released to the public? My thoughts.