4Kids Entertainment

4Kids Entertainment is a United States film and television production company specializing in the acquisition, production and licensing of children's entertainment around the world. They are most known for their acquired television programs.

4Kids Productions
4Kids Productions is a wholly owned subsidiary of 4Kids Entertainment, and is responsible for the production of original or licensed properties owned by the company.

History
On August 6, 2004, 4Kids announced they had acquired the license to domestic distribution over One Piece.

After this 4Kids set to work on an English version of the series. On August 14, 2004, the first promotional trailers were released for viewing alongside Mew Mew Power and F-Zero: GP Legend. Their English dub of One Piece debuted on the 4Kids TV block (formally FoxBox) on September 18, 2004. on November 18, 2004 Toonami announced it was allowed the broadcasting rights to air the show in the UK, the series began airing on Saturday, April 23, 2005. The next channel to announce production was Cartoon Network on February 16, 2005.

Later it was reveal on April 24, 2005 that One Piece, along with many other shows, would receive an uncut DVD release. On September 6, 2005 the DVDs for the series were released with the words "English TV Version" on the box, however Al Kahn had previously stated that things would come in two formats. Later, uncuts DVDs were announced by Viz media as a no-go as they were not involved with the series.

On November 11, 2005 One Piece along with another show dubbed by 4Kids, Mew Mew Power, were reported missing from the 4Kids line-up. However, the show was announcement as "not canceled" on November 23, 2005 and was expected to return later on, but 4Kids did not announce when. On December 22, 2005, 4Kids announced the show would return after the holiday season and on January 2, 2006 the series was announced to be continuing on February 11. The dub's naming conventions were used in One Piece-related media in North America, such as the English version of the fighting game One Piece Grand Battle for the PlayStation 2 and Nintendo Gamecube.

Changes
On September 9, 2004 4Kids answered the problems of Sanji smoking in the show. This was one of the few announced changes made to the series and the first alteration 4Kids spoke of in regard to the dub.

One of the more noted changes that was spotted was in episode 5 when 4Kids changed the skin of a character from black to white. This was common practice made by 4Kids to avoid a certain stereotype and was seen in other animes at the time.

The most note worthy problem with the 4Kids dub is that many arcs were cut from the original storyline. These included:


 * Warship Island arc
 * Laboon arc
 * Little Garden arc

In all cases, the storyline had to be altered resulting in significant problems. At the time, there was no way of knowing which way the mangaka Oda was taking the storyline, therefore many plot holes were later caused in this version. These changes were never given reason for and remains the subject of much speculation amongst fans. While there are also many other complaints on the company in regard to alterations, such as visible alterations, poor translations and low-quality dubbing, this remains the only non-opinion based problem caused by the dub.

Plot Hole Creation: Warship Island
Information left out in the Warship Island arc on entry into the Grand Line created problems in explaining why one cannot just sail into the Grand Line.

Plot Hole Creation: Reverse Mountain
Laboon was removed, had 4Kids continued the series this would have left Brook without reason to join the crew later on.

Crocus was removed resulting in the storyline being reworked to fit around his absence. The rework initially included just his Log Pose explanation that he gave the Straw Hats. Crocus however was a focused character during Thriller Bark arc and Sabaody Archipelago arc. At the time other storylines that mention his importance to the One Piece world had not been reached in the original Japanese version.

Plot Hole Creation: Little Garden
Because the Little Garden arc was removed, there was no explanation behind much of Mr. 3's later appearance in Alabasta. He was said to have been chasing the Straw Hat Pirates since Rogue Town yet Baroque Works did not know about the crew in the actual storyline until Misty Peak. Mr. 3 and his partner Ms. April Fool's were also spoken about during the explanation about Baroque Works given on the organization as if the crew had met them. This also creates a problem in the Impel Down arc as Luffy never met Mr. 3 previously and thus wouldn't know who he was.

Because the Little Garden arc was removed, Dorry and Brogy were NOT part of the storyline. This meant later on another plot hole would have been created for Oimo and Kāshī.

Nami has gotten sick due to being bitten by a Kestia in Little Garden but because 4Kids skipped it, they attempt to explain her illness by calling it "Grand Line fever," but 4kids would later contradict this by letting Kuraha ask Nami if she had been waling around on a prehistoric island.

Elbaf also plays a small part on the story, as Usopp wanted to go there, yet 4Kids removed it.

Cancellation
Following an announcement on March 16, 2006 by 4Kids, the company stated they will concentrate only on producing its own shows. A fall of profit was blamed on the shortfall of several of their dubbed licenses such as Pokémon and Yu-Gi-Oh, although One Piece and several other licenses they held were said to offset the results. The company as a result later dropped a few shows including one of one of their biggest earners, Pokémon. The dubbing of new anime lessened, and 4Kids announced on December 6, 2006 that they had canceled production of their dub. As of September 2007, 104 English-dubbed episodes have been produced from the first 143 Japanese episodes. 4Kids dropped the license afterward.

Reception
The full list of fan complaints is long, but it is important to remember that this particular dub is subject to much dislike and at times it can be difficult to pick noted facts from the fan based propaganda from anti-4Kids anime fans. In fact, fan disappointment remains the biggest factor to date in how the series was received. When FUNimation took over, while anime magazines did note the take over, the fan disappointment at 4Kids was over things that articles would note the most and the actual magazines themselves did not seem to express their own editorial based opinions.

Script was rewritten constantly for one reason or other (see "Changes" on this page). However despite the fan propaganda, the early episodes were often well translated, sometimes better then other English translations but fell subject to common mistakes such as translation the fishmen to mermen. However, speech was added in scenes which in the original dub had total silence in them. This however was common practice in 4Kids dubbing but not something that would appear in 4Kids own animations.

The first immediate complaint is animation censorship, which in actul fact is often a common complaint at anime dubbing in general. When FUNimation took over the series, a FUNimation rep. was also noted to have explained some of the TV censorship rules on-line to fans of One Piece. Particularly, the most common complaint aside form the fact the series was censored to begin with, is the removal of many child-sensitive issues such as alcohol and guns. The real problem is however 4Kids did not explain their need for many of the things they censored and some edits were done without explanations. This was made more apparent when FUNimation rep. gave details away that made on-line fans question the need to censor some of the animation that they did. However, some of their edits were justified and FUNimation's rep confirmed some of the needs for TV censorship. While these issues are left to fan debate, the fact many episodes were skipped (see "Changes") is by far the biggest and most apparent complaint of all. While not so much a complaint, inconsistency with edits to animation were often pointed out by fans and noted. An example would be Robin who was subject to breast line removals, but in some scenes she would have an undergarment, then the edits would switch back to only the lines removed.

The series was often noted at times to sound "flat" or monotone. The pace of the music, the range of the voices and the removal of sound effects are often pointed out. 4Kids did not air the shows with their original music scores, leaving a large number of bitter fans. The replacement music was considered below par, and was noted that some scores were reused from other shows 4Kids had dubbed. One Piece Rap, the 4Kids dub introduction however remains the most controversial music usage of all and often divides One Piece fan feelings. Amongst this general complaint is also poor Voice acting. This is particularly aimed at Vivi and often at times also Luffy, fans have strong opinions on voices throughout the series because emotions were not conveyed well in the 4Kids dub (though this is more the fault of the voice director rather than the voice actors themselves).

In the later episodes, stereotyping became a common complaint with new voices being chosen for their stereotype rather then characterization, the most notable example being Miss Father's Day and due to her frog outfit was given a French accent. This was a play on the fact Frog legs is one of many delicacies in France, but was also pointed out that this association could be interpreted as a racist slur.

An Anime News Network interview with Mark Kirk, a 4Kids representative, states that One Piece was acquired in a package with other anime such as Shaman King and Yu-Gi-Oh!, but 4Kids had not screen tested One Piece prior to its acquisition. Therefore, 4Kids pretty much had to do what they could do with the series until they could legally drop the license.

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