Kazamatsuri
GO FOR THE GOAL!
- Joined
- Jul 22, 2006
- Messages
- 541
- Reaction score
- 1
A few things I want to point out to put things into perspective.
For one thing, a Chapter 11 bankruptcy doesn't expel debt owed by a business... it merely delays the deadline with which they would be required to pay it off (similar to forbearance in mortgage). 4Kids will need to prove to a judge and its creditors that can eventually become profitable again and pay off its debt. It may not be the end game, but it's pretty much the last resort to staying in business. Given what I know, this pretty much it for 4Kids, and they're just delaying the inevitable. Over the past 5+ years, the following has occurred with 4Kids:
- They lost the licensing rights to Pokemon and One Piece.
- They publicly reported a net loss of income in almost every 3-month quarter.
- They laid off 15% of their workforce by year end 2008.
- They publicly considered options such as a joint money market merger or a buyout of the company.
- The CEO (at the time) Alfred Kahn reportedly took a 20% pay cut.
If the lawsuit by the makers of Yugioh is successful, which seems most likely, it will just add further to 4Kids debt, not to mention diminish its credibility even more with its affiliates.
As far the people who work at 4Kids, I'm far more concerned about the full time employees who will have to constantly fill out job applications and interview for new work, just to keep up their employment benefits. Voice actors and other contractors have it easy. It's a little inconvenient for them, but don't forget that VAs are freelance and do work for multiple businesses. They are naturally trained to go out and look for work as it is part their everyday life in their career of choice.
This also make me wonder if 4Kids' standard editing practices and revelations of corruption go hand-in-hand. To be fair, other companies have produced Anime Dubs that are considered just as bad or even worse than your standard 4Kids Dub (Cardcaptors anyone). And assuming the edits made to a particular Anime are infrequent, the changes made are insubstantial to what was done in the original version, and/or they are arguably necessary, I might find them more acceptable depending on the nature of these edits (for example, the paint edits done to Naruto during its days on Toonami weren't that bad).
But 4Kids takes things much further than that. They seem to have this policy of 'Americanization'. And their definition of Americanization apparently means the following:
- Having blank signs with no text on them.
- Writing scripts that don't match up to the onscreen plot and don't adequately reflect the overall full nature characters in a story.
- Saturating entire shows with generic synthesizer music that frequently changes up every 10 seconds.
And then you have their shitty fan-service in which they attempt to justify their editing policies. For example, you have the BS interview that Michael Haigney did back in 06 with Anime Boredom. Then there was the Nameless Cubicle Office Guy's PR blitz, in which he posts a FAQ where those who have legit concerns about 4Kids' edits are mischaracterized as Otakus who are obsessed with guns and blood. And who can forget all of Al Kahn's infamous controversial quotes.
Now I know some people say that 4KIds' paint edits are no big deal to them. Fair enough, but consider this. For sake of the business, paint edits cost extra money to the company. That's fine, but there is something called a budget, which every business needs in order to stay. If you're going to add to your expenses, you must first make sure you have the money to do so, and/or guarantee that doing so will result in revenues in excess of said expenses. In the case of 4Kids, their expenses obviously exceeded their revenues. As a result, seem to expect their affiliates carry the burden of their mistakes, either by charging them super high fees, or going through back room deals to secretly generate income.
And then you have the fact that 4Kids pays to have the rights to license their Anime to all western countries. That means that the adaptations in European countries such as France are entirely faithful to the original version. And by that I don't mean the original original version from Japan, but the heavily edited version by 4Kids. So basic, 4Kids insists that European countries remain entirely faithful to their 'Americanized' adaptations of Japanese Anime (can we say hypocrisy).
With all the money that 4Kids spends on needless paint edits and Western licensing rights among other things, just to maintain their shallow philosophy of 'Americanization' and impose it on other people, it's no wonder they've gotten themselves into debt. And because they refuse to account for their mistakes, everyone else ends up having to pay the tab. So yeah, I do think their standard editing practices and latest revelations of corruption go hand-in-hand.
For one thing, a Chapter 11 bankruptcy doesn't expel debt owed by a business... it merely delays the deadline with which they would be required to pay it off (similar to forbearance in mortgage). 4Kids will need to prove to a judge and its creditors that can eventually become profitable again and pay off its debt. It may not be the end game, but it's pretty much the last resort to staying in business. Given what I know, this pretty much it for 4Kids, and they're just delaying the inevitable. Over the past 5+ years, the following has occurred with 4Kids:
- They lost the licensing rights to Pokemon and One Piece.
- They publicly reported a net loss of income in almost every 3-month quarter.
- They laid off 15% of their workforce by year end 2008.
- They publicly considered options such as a joint money market merger or a buyout of the company.
- The CEO (at the time) Alfred Kahn reportedly took a 20% pay cut.
If the lawsuit by the makers of Yugioh is successful, which seems most likely, it will just add further to 4Kids debt, not to mention diminish its credibility even more with its affiliates.
As far the people who work at 4Kids, I'm far more concerned about the full time employees who will have to constantly fill out job applications and interview for new work, just to keep up their employment benefits. Voice actors and other contractors have it easy. It's a little inconvenient for them, but don't forget that VAs are freelance and do work for multiple businesses. They are naturally trained to go out and look for work as it is part their everyday life in their career of choice.
This also make me wonder if 4Kids' standard editing practices and revelations of corruption go hand-in-hand. To be fair, other companies have produced Anime Dubs that are considered just as bad or even worse than your standard 4Kids Dub (Cardcaptors anyone). And assuming the edits made to a particular Anime are infrequent, the changes made are insubstantial to what was done in the original version, and/or they are arguably necessary, I might find them more acceptable depending on the nature of these edits (for example, the paint edits done to Naruto during its days on Toonami weren't that bad).
But 4Kids takes things much further than that. They seem to have this policy of 'Americanization'. And their definition of Americanization apparently means the following:
- Having blank signs with no text on them.
- Writing scripts that don't match up to the onscreen plot and don't adequately reflect the overall full nature characters in a story.
- Saturating entire shows with generic synthesizer music that frequently changes up every 10 seconds.
And then you have their shitty fan-service in which they attempt to justify their editing policies. For example, you have the BS interview that Michael Haigney did back in 06 with Anime Boredom. Then there was the Nameless Cubicle Office Guy's PR blitz, in which he posts a FAQ where those who have legit concerns about 4Kids' edits are mischaracterized as Otakus who are obsessed with guns and blood. And who can forget all of Al Kahn's infamous controversial quotes.
Now I know some people say that 4KIds' paint edits are no big deal to them. Fair enough, but consider this. For sake of the business, paint edits cost extra money to the company. That's fine, but there is something called a budget, which every business needs in order to stay. If you're going to add to your expenses, you must first make sure you have the money to do so, and/or guarantee that doing so will result in revenues in excess of said expenses. In the case of 4Kids, their expenses obviously exceeded their revenues. As a result, seem to expect their affiliates carry the burden of their mistakes, either by charging them super high fees, or going through back room deals to secretly generate income.
And then you have the fact that 4Kids pays to have the rights to license their Anime to all western countries. That means that the adaptations in European countries such as France are entirely faithful to the original version. And by that I don't mean the original original version from Japan, but the heavily edited version by 4Kids. So basic, 4Kids insists that European countries remain entirely faithful to their 'Americanized' adaptations of Japanese Anime (can we say hypocrisy).
With all the money that 4Kids spends on needless paint edits and Western licensing rights among other things, just to maintain their shallow philosophy of 'Americanization' and impose it on other people, it's no wonder they've gotten themselves into debt. And because they refuse to account for their mistakes, everyone else ends up having to pay the tab. So yeah, I do think their standard editing practices and latest revelations of corruption go hand-in-hand.