This is the part where you learn:

One Piece
    
In 2004, Eiichiro Oda’s One Piece began airing on American television. The series was being localized by the then-famous, now-infamous 4Kids Entertainment. Numerous changes were made to the original version of the show: guns were changed to squirt guns, cigarettes to lollipops, and the opening sequence was “improved” upon. There were even edits that seemed to be made simply for sake of editing; words like “coffee” were removed from items in the background.

As expected, fans of the non-localized One Piece broadcast were considerably upset about this. In a matter of days, websites like YouTube were flooded with slideshows and videos comparing the two entirely different shows. Toei, the Japanese company, was upset with the treatment their show had received. Petitions were made by in an attempt to have production ceased. There was even a rap song made all about how the 4Kids was ruining anime.

Three years ago, and 104 episodes later, One Piece was relicensed to Funimation. In hopes to save the show, they began advertising how they were going to reverse 4Kids' mistakes. In actuality, all they really did was redub the show and market it as the “uncut” version. They are currently releasing the series in thirteen-episode boxsets every few months.

4Kids Entertainment

4kids Entertainment is headed by Al Kahn, who is partially responsible for the creation of Cabbage Patch Kids. In the late 90’s, the company brought the Pokemon franchise to America. Before the Pokemon boom, anime was considered to be nothing more than violence and porn (no thanks to Ninja Scroll and Urotsukidoji). The Pokemon craze quickly swept across American and, at its peak, brought in $90 million in revenue.     

The second "big thing" 4Kids is responsible for is the Yu-Gi-Oh brand in North America, which spanned anime series as well as card games. Yu-Gi-Oh rode the waves that Pokemon had created in the market. They used a viral marketing tactic. Instead of being force fed ads, the consumer thought that they discovered the next big thing themselves. This seemed to work out pretty well because even today, Yu-Gi-Oh is among the most well know anime franchises in America.

4Kids is also known for the reintroduction of the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles brand, the Chaotic trading card game, the brand surrounding Xbox 360 game, Viva Piñata, and much more.

This is part where you disagree:

From a marketing standpoint, 4Kids Entertainment didn’t do anything wrong with One Piece. Don’t get me wrong, I’m not saying I agree with all of their “improvements,” but if you take a look at the company's history, it makes sense. 4Kids gave the same treatment to Pokemon and Yu-Gi-Oh, and it put them at the top of the proverbial food chain. They removed entire episodes from Pokemon and no one batted an eye. American fans praised Pokemon's various themes. Go to any convention and start wailing the Pokemon theme and I guarantee you that small crowd will gather around you to join in song. Acceptance of this dub is uncanny. I can’t watch Pokemon in its original Japanese form because it feels so unnatural to me, and I know that many of you feel the same.

This is not limited to Pokemon, either. Similar localization techniques were being employed as far back as Robotech. Companies didn’t even attempt to remain faithful to the source material. Hell, three shows--Macross, Southern Cross, and Mospeadea--were combined together. This was not an uncommon practice. Back when these shows were popular, the script writing process for localizers was simple: turn the volume down and create your own story to fit the picture. Good luck asking Robotech fans to watch the the original English series. Some might do it, but most of them will probably laugh at you.

What bothers me the most is that so many series get a similar treatment with no nerd uprising.Tokyopop did the same thing to Rave Master: new song, bad script, no uncut DVDs. Sales were so poor, they had to halt operation after the third DVD was released and begin selling the first three in a pack for $20, in hopes to clear inventory.

What about the Cartoon Network version of Duel Masters or Viz’s Zatch Bell? What about Prince of Tennis? What about SD Gundam? What about me, what about Raven?

Here's the thing:One Piece fans who decry the localization have already seen the Japanese version. Or at least I assume so. How else would they know the show was altered? More importantly, why do they care? A noble soul once compared One Piece's treatment to an omelet you have at a dive. If you eat that omelet and it’s really good, you’re going to go home satisfied. If you find out later that there was a hair in you omelet, you’re going to get pissed. I doubt that you’ll rant about it in your blog, but you might complain to the manager of the dive. (Of course, he wouldn't really care, anyway.) Another thing people seem to forget is that no matter how tortured or "reimagined" something is it, the original is not "canceled out". If you don’t like the recently localized version of a show, don’t watch it. If you want to watch the series again, why not rewatch the fansub? I doubt you were planning to buy the DVDs anyway.

On a related note, the idea of purchasing DVD volumes for a series as long as One Piece is ludicrous. The companies know this and that’s why they have merchandising. The idea of relying exclusively on DVD sales is a mistake that many of the American anime companies are guilty of. And, to be frank, a lot of anime in Japan is effectively glorified commercialism. While some shows are made purely for entertainment, many of them are meant to sell you something, whether it's the manga, model kit, or hentai dating sim it was based on. In the case of Pokemon and Yu-Gi-Oh, it was the videogame and the toys. 4Kids took full advantage of the success of the videogame in America. In those terms, 4Kids is the only company that seems to be thinking straight in terms of selling their products, with the exception of Viz. Most anime and manga licenses are held by different companies, thus shows do not in the way of merchandising over here. When was the last time you saw a Gantz figure at the store?

Anime News Network recently posted an article concering 4Kids. Unsurprisingly, they haven’t been doing so well in the economic climate. With stores closing left and right, it’s understandable that a company which relies mostly on sales of cartoons and toys would be doing this poorly. It wasn’t the article so much that made me think, but the dozens of responses to it in the forums. People were saying that 4Kids was getting what they deserve, which can be perceived as a natural response. If someone did me an injustice, I wouldn’t be very upset if something terrible happened to them. But as I’ve stated, I don’t think they did anything wrong.

They’ve had the same business model on anime for a decade and it’s been working just fine. One Piece brought in a lot of money for them. 4Kids probably sold the anime to Funimation because of the bad publicity more than anything else. I seriously doubt that poor treatment of one cartoon would kill the whole company. It’s more likely that it’s due to the loss of the Pokemon brand and the declining popularity of the Yu-Gi-Oh franchise. Not to mention the fact that Chaotic seems to be a failure.

People say that 4Kids shouldn’t have bought the license in the first place, but if we look at it from the perspective of Toei, it’s not that unfeasible. After seeing what 4Kids achieved with the Pokemon and Yu-Gi-Oh franchises, it’s only natural that Toei would want the same for their gem, One Piece. In fact, it was most likely part of the original contract. If they hadn’t made the changes they did, the show would’ve never made it on television. They could have made uncut DVDs but it would have mostly likely caused more problems than not. Having to do multiple dubs is incredibly expensive. Also, what happens when a parent accidentally buys the wrong one for their child? And, oh--they tried it with Yu-Gi-Oh, and nobody bought it.

So what does the future hold? Will 4Kids evolve their strategy to meet the demands of the anime community? Probably not. Will this article change the minds of the fans who get upset when a company does a poor localization job? No. I’m showing that there is an alternative, logical side to this argument. And seriously, how can hate this song? It’s hilarious.

John-Paul "Fightbait" Natysin is the host of the Fightbait Anime/Gaming Podcast and frequent contributor to the Anime 3000 Podcast. If you have any feedback, shoot him an email at This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it , or leave a voicemail at 206-203-2149.