Tuesday, June 08, 2004
One Piece is now 4Kids...
Yikes, anime fandom is in a huge uproar. The One Piece anime finally got licensed, but the company that did so is 4Kids! With all of the violence in this series, it seems unlikely that the show will get on something like Fox Box without some very severe edits going on, as well as possible name changes (though most of OP's names aren't too Japanese).
Now, there have been some bright spots lately. Funimation usually makes the DVD for 4Kids, and recently 4Kids gave them permission to release uncut DVDs of Yu-Gi-Oh and Shaman Kids. Unfortunately, things like name changes will still be present in the dub, but the subtitles should be accurate. Not a perfect situation, but a lot of people thought 4Kids wouldn't allow this to happen. It also seems like Tokyo Mew Mew won't be renamed to Hollywood Mew Mew after all.
Now, two people from Funimation posted on the thread saying this was the first time they heard about the aquisition either, which is making a lot of people nervous. However, I'm not so sure that has any bearing on whether they'll do a release, since Funimation is usually involved to some degree with all of 4Kid's DVD releases. Hopefully they will be filled in as time goes on...
The great irony here is that Funimation used to be a reviled company with a lot of issues. Lately, they've done a lot better with their releases (like YuYu Hakusho and Blue Gender) and people are hoping that Funimation can "save One Piece". How times change!
In any case, it will still be a shame if One Piece is stuck on something like Fox Box instead of Toonami or even Adult Swim. I'm really enjoying the manga, and it'd be cool to see the anime on TV relatively unedited. It seems like that is not to be...
Now, there have been some bright spots lately. Funimation usually makes the DVD for 4Kids, and recently 4Kids gave them permission to release uncut DVDs of Yu-Gi-Oh and Shaman Kids. Unfortunately, things like name changes will still be present in the dub, but the subtitles should be accurate. Not a perfect situation, but a lot of people thought 4Kids wouldn't allow this to happen. It also seems like Tokyo Mew Mew won't be renamed to Hollywood Mew Mew after all.
Now, two people from Funimation posted on the thread saying this was the first time they heard about the aquisition either, which is making a lot of people nervous. However, I'm not so sure that has any bearing on whether they'll do a release, since Funimation is usually involved to some degree with all of 4Kid's DVD releases. Hopefully they will be filled in as time goes on...
The great irony here is that Funimation used to be a reviled company with a lot of issues. Lately, they've done a lot better with their releases (like YuYu Hakusho and Blue Gender) and people are hoping that Funimation can "save One Piece". How times change!
In any case, it will still be a shame if One Piece is stuck on something like Fox Box instead of Toonami or even Adult Swim. I'm really enjoying the manga, and it'd be cool to see the anime on TV relatively unedited. It seems like that is not to be...
