Sometime ago I remember reading a news article which included a brief interview with someone from 4Kids. They commented that they take "cartoons from Japan" (animes) bring them over then "package" them for the wide-viewing American audience in order to boost their company's shareholder profits. As I read this I understood something... 4Kids is a worse anime dubbing company than FUNimation, and are quite possibly the worst anime dubbing company in all of North America. Pretty much everything they touch turns to crap. And you know what? FUNimation would probably be just as bad as 4Kids is today, had nobody ever stood up to FUNimation.

Just look back a few years ago at where FUNimation was. They were just like what 4Kids is today. When they grabbed DBZ they chopped away over 9 episodes of content from the first season to "bring fans into the action" and "skip the boring stuff." (While, similarly, the Yu-gi-oh! dub skipped about 25 episodes and pretended they didn't exist.) And they were also extremely reluctant to release an Uncut version as that would have "hurt" and not fit with their designed "image" of the show they were bringing over. But fans bitched and bitched and bitched at them so much... that as of Season 3 they started releasing the episodes in an "uncut" format. (ie, aside from cursing and other stuff like eyecatchers they remove, the "core" of the show itself remains visually uncut during the dubbed episode) However, it was still so horribly dubbed that fans still kept complaining heavily as they still weren't happy with the way things were.

And over the years since it first began, fans repeatedly complained to FUNimation about releasing a subtitled version. FUNimation was extremely nervous about doing so and repeatedly said they couldn't. (Again, perhaps it was the "image" factor? Or they were afraid of how inferior their product would look next to the original version?) Eventually toriyama.org did a "DBZ on DVD" petition and gathered about 10,000 signatures and presented it to FUNimation. FUNimation, tired of all the complaints and anxious to help stop criticisms towards them, began (albeit extremely slowly) releasing the original series on DVD. Sure, their "corrections" still had lots of enormous problems, but now their releases were dual-version on DVD and eventually as visually uncut as possible in later releases.

After Season 4 FUNimation acquired Blue Gender, an anime show heavy with violence and sexual content, much more so than Dragon Ball Z. Why? Well for one it was to branch out since DBZ won't last forever. But more than that, FUNimation was desperate. They had been receiving 100,000's (if not more) hateful e-mails, and everywhere they'd look on message boards they'd see people complaining about them, insulting them, and they'd be complained at at conventions many times too. (Like at one major convention in New York City last year where lots of fans passed out and wore anti-FUNimation stickers and badges.) FUNimation also wanted to "patch" up their reputation and "prove" themselves as a "real" anime dubbing company. After Blue Gender came and got rave reviews they started saying that they were "now a real dubbing company, so you all should stop insulting us now, this show has sex and violence and shows how adult and mature we can be" and other statements to that effect.

Then there's Yu Yu Hakusho, slightly Americanized and with a couple of bad voices, but mostly a pretty good dub. (lightyears beyond DBZ) And Fruits Basket. (Probably their best dub to date.) And Lupin III. (Haven't seen it, but it's gotten mixed reviews. It still has the original version on there) And Dragon Ball has been a pretty good dub too. (not counting the censorship on tv, the DVD's are uncensored in both language formats)

Although DBZ thus far still hasn't been dubbed completely right (even their last DBZ movie suffered from language "PG 13" censorship and the incorpation of a "real live band feel" inferior-sounding American soundtrack) they've improved a lot. And although GT looks like it's probably been butchered beyond any hope of salvation, their other animes look like they'll be turning out fine. (Kiddy Grade and Tenchi XP, and perhaps others.) DBZ's even being partially redubbed because the first 2 dubbed seasons were originally so horribly butchered.

Why did all of this happen? Why didn't FUNimation stick to only selling edited versions, never offering dual-versions on DVD and just taking random animes and all "adapting them" to fit the goofy, inferior "Americanized version" that so many on tv do? And why were they even willing to touch an anime like Blue Gender? (which a company like 4Kids would never so much as even poke at with a 50 foot stick) Because people bitched at them nonstop. And people still bitch at them nonstop. And FUNimation keeps getting tired of it and it wants fans to stop doing that and treat them with respect and like them.

FUNimation are humans like you and me. And they have feelings, and are hurt that fans dislike them so much. And they try and keep trying to win fans over and get their respect. It's thanks to guys like Chris Psaros, Greg Werner, VegettoEX and their websites and many others that opposition to them is and has been so strong. Futhermore, "knowledge is power." By revealing so much information about FUNimation, Psaros has made it tough for them to hide what they do and for them to try to defend themselves in arguments. There's so much strong criticism out there focused on their company like a laser that FUNimation's only option really is to try to improve to deflect their criticisms to win over fans and stop complaints. Despite all the money they make, they still want to be taken seriously as an anime dubbing company and they want fans to revere the name "FUNimation" and associate it with great dubbing and fine, highly skilled individuals. They're not there yet, but they keep trying and improving.

On the other hand, 4Kids is the EXACT opposite and they don't even so much as remotely care what people who complain about them think. And they don't even bother to make pretensions of doing so- they simply don't give a shit at all. Why? Because fans against them are so incredibly UN-united in their opposition against them. Just look at FUNimation- imagine if fans had never bothered to stand up to them and complain about what they did, or if they had done so in a haphazard and unorganized fashion. FUNimation would still be releasing edited-only versions of their shows. None of FUNimation's DVD's would include the original version. Season 5+ might have also been mistranslated. (Steven J. Simmons was hired soley for the DVD original scripts, FUNimation never hired a translator beforehand because of their "free" Toei Engrish scripts. They later decided to "shoot 2 birds with one stone" and use his translations instead of Toei's) Animes like Blue Gender would never be glanced at by FUNimation. (much less even inoffensive "non-American kiddies mainstream" shows like Fruits Basket which they'd consider too "anime-ish and Japanese" to be "marketable enough") And stuff like Yu Yu Hakusho would probably be as badly butchered as something like anything between the first 4 Seasons of DBZ. (Try to imagine Yusuke saying, "I can't belive we were able to knock (insert name of bad guy here) unconscious!" The Yu-gi-oh! dub tends to avoid the existence of death and afterlife very much too.) Basically, FUNimation would have just wound up turning into another 4Kids.

So what I'm basically saying is this- why don't you fans who are unhappy with 4Kids get together and start a website? That's exactly what DBZOA founder Azrael-sama asked years ago at the website Planet Namek's message boards and because of that, the DBZOA was created and still stands to this day. A person e-mailed Azrael and me asking for permission to maybe start a "Yugioh Otaku Alliance" (and man, she got permish pretty quickly all right) and I think something along that lines would be a wonderful idea.

Just think about it- if fans would stand up to 4Kids just like fans have stood up to FUNimation, then maybe- they'd change. If even FUNimation could evolve and improve this much over the years, then even a company as bad as 4Kids has the potential of doing so too. The way it is now however, 4Kids pisses on and ignores anyone who dislikes them and treats them and all of their animes like shit. Kind of like one of their most recent anime dubs Shaman King- it had a really nice soundtrack, and intelligent dialogue. Now the main character sounds like Sonic the Hedgehog which he didn't sound like at all in the original (hyper-arrogant, "I'm going to be Shaman King someday!" when he's really a lazyass and never talks about being SK until he's heavily prodded along in that direction) and they've got some cheesy, ridiculously cheap techno soundtrack in there. (with, of course, no moments of silence either. Like FUNimation has repeatedly said about DBZ's American score, "Americans have short attention spans and will flip the remote unless the music never shuts up.") And after only 5-6 dubbed episodes, many anime fans have already essentially disowned the dubbed series and now despise the dub of it.

If 4Kids was more like FUNimation then at the very least there'd be an uncut version on VHS and DVD. Plus, and even moreso, the original episodes would be on DVD with topnotch translations. (Hey, I'd love to buy those!) But at this rate Shaman King is doomed to be butchered up until it's final episode. And all of the many, many, many other future animes they've got their eyes on at this rate are destined for the exact same fate in order to be "packaged" for what 4Kids conceive to be their "wide viewing American audience" and what they want and their consultants and overpaid psychologists tell them 2-11 year old kids will want. Only, and ONLY if fans get together and give 4Kids the same treatment FUNimation's been given will that company ever have any hope of improving and treating it's anime respectably.

How can this happen? Well, there is one way. Back in the day, Planet Namek was the largest DBZ site on the net. When people got pissed at FUNimation and wanted to discuss their thoughts and feelings, where did they go? They went to the message boards there, specifically the "FUNimation" section. After much talk and deliberation on that board with many others who were unhappy, Azrael-sama proposed the idea and he and others then later created the DBZOA. Basically what I'm saying is, because the fans upset with FUNimation all had one focal point where they could converge, enough of them got together that eventually some of them decided to try and do something about it.

Unfortunately, fans of all the various animes 4Kids has messed-up are extremely disorganized, and don't really have any focal point where they can all converge. Without any unity, most complaints are simply being lost in the crowd and are being ignored by 4Kids and other fans. There's no enormous site focused on 4Kids with a message board like Planet Namek's. And there's no message board out there where fans unhappy with 4Kids can all gather at. After thinking about this I decided to create a "4Kids" message board right at the DBZOA site where fans can converge. You can visit the board right here. It's not quite a whole "Yu-gi-oh! Otaku Alliance" site but it's something of a start, right?

So to everyone who's ever seen one of their favorite shows like Shaman King, Yu-gi-oh! and many others be butchered and is unhappy 4Kids for treating all of their animes crap, I encourage each and every one of you to come to the DBZOA's 4Kids message board and unite there and to get every other person who know who's unhappy with 4Kids to do so as well. If enough of you fans unhappy with how 4Kids meet up there and discuss your differences... then perhaps someone like Azrael-sama will emerge there for an idea with a site. And who knows? Perhaps something like "The Yu-gi-oh! Otaku Alliance" might be born.

- GreatSaiyaman777