4Kids
4Kids Entertainment was a dubbing company that, throughout the '90s and 2000s, destroyed anime by Americanising Americanizing them. The company was owned by former New Line Cinema busboy Alfred R. "Al" Kahn. Thankfully, they have been dissolved since 2012.
Notable shows[edit]
The following are shows dubbed by the 4Kids actors, removing any remote truth to their original franchises, and adding Americanised Americanized voices for characters. They also make shows aimed at older audiences suitable for toddlers by adding dialog changes.
- Pokémon - Once dubbed by 4Kids, the show turned out from Japanese-style, high quality animation to a cheap low-quality American show that is completely too American for a Japanese show. This should not be confused with their other show based upon a trading card game, Yu-gi-oh.
- Viva Piñata - Strictly displaying the gameplay videos for no apparent reason whatsoever. It is constantly the stations best-rated show.
- Sonic X - The story of Sonic the Hedgehog landing on to the real world from the game world. Due to this, the Sonic franchise income has fallen by 80%. The series fails to even look good. Even in Japanese. It involves complex plots including Fox/Plant relationships, Sonic characters taking up 0.5% of the new world, and police that drive racecars. Sonic puts the "run" in rerun.
- Baghdad Mew Mew' - In which 5 terrorist girls are genetically enhanced so they can fight off the evil Cyniclons. Apparently it was taken off the air shortly after the War on Terror went south.
- Yu-Gi-Oh! - dubbed by 4Kids until its bankruptcy and subsequent confiscation by the Japanese after being discovered that billions of money is still unpaid to them for licensing of this anime.
Americanisation Americanization of anime[edit]
Fox has long prided itself on being able to appeal to the broadest possible audience. In order to maintain their high levels of integrity and appeal, they have made some horrible minor amendments to their line up.
Race[edit]
As the American audience cannot watch any TV show with a black actor or character, unless it also has a voice-over stating "witnesses describe the assailant as African-American." One of the main changes that needed to be done was to changing any black guy into a white guy. Also to appeal to the differences in language and voice they have given Joey Wheeler and Sanji lousy Brooklyn accents. A simple voice over and Voilà! Bada-bing! You have an American produced show.
Food[edit]
Of course the differences in culture also extend to the American diet. As such rice balls are edited to make them look like sandwiches and crackers, or turning a cigarette into a lollipop.
Sex and violence[edit]
Of course we don't want our children to be exposed to sex and violence until they are at least old enough to use a computer, so many violent aspects of the show like people's guns are "cropped" from the final showing. Males become females, and vice versa (although not within the context of the show of course.) And any overly sexual bulge (breasts and groin) become mysteriously invisible. This does have the tendency to make some of the characters look ambiguously camp.
Religion[edit]
Of course as the American audience is undoubtedly American, and as 95% of all American people are non-denominational Christian, characters are at times sent to "The Shadow Realm", although of course the heroes always do escape. Christmas, of course, does come but once a year, however it is repeated a number of times over that same period.