4Kids Raises Going Concern Doubts

by dtshyk
Apr 3, 2011 4:44 AM | 76 Comments

According to Anime!Anime!, 4Kids Entertainment has announced their earnings from the fiscal 2010 year. Their yearly sales were $14.5 million, down 58% from the last year and the net loss was $27.2 million. 4Kids has raised substantial doubt about its ability to continue as a going concern considering the large deficits and the lawsuit against TV Tokyo and ASATSU-DK over Yu-Gi-Oh!'s license. The license income of Yu-Gi-Oh! made up 36 % of 4Kids' total sales.

4Kids stated that TV Tokyo's claim was baseless, but 4Kids had proposed a one million dollar payment early this March to show their "good-faith" to the Japanese companies. TV Tokyo has been demanding $4.7 million of the unpaid royalties. 4Kids currently owns $4.2 million of cash and $7.1 million of securities, but they mentioned the possibility of bankruptcy if they lose the license of Yu-Gi-Oh.

Source: Anime!Anime!
Previous topic: 4Kids Gets Sued By Japanese Producers For Illegal Transactions of Yu-Gi-Oh

20 of 76 Comments Recent Comments

5D's was a MATURE ANIME

I'll never forgive them for butchering it

But it seems they are dubbing Zexal still.....

Oct 11, 2011 5:48 PM by GodlyKyon

kokocho said:
And nothing of great value will be lost.

I do feel sorry for the people who might lose their jobs, but if it means one less company butchering anime then I'm not particularly sad about it.

My thoughts in a nutshell.

Oct 11, 2011 10:11 AM by DraconisMarch

To those who think people losing their jobs thanks to the bankruptcy is bad, consider this. When you do a bad job, you get fired. Its as simple as that. If they had been doing a great job they would have nothing to fear but where to stuff the mountains of cash they would be earning. Truly, trying to bend anime to suit tiny twirps that it wasn't even made for is wrong no matter how you slice it. They dug their grave with TV Tokyo and I'll be happy to urinate on it once they're buried. As the song goes.. "Ding dong the witch is dead" .

Oct 11, 2011 8:37 AM by Xizzzy

Wow, Onibokusu, best post in the whole thread. I agree 100%. Very eloquent.

Apr 5, 2011 9:22 PM by CorallineAlgae

4Kids isn't all that bad. They did bring over Dinosaur King.

Now if only they would put it back on TV.

Apr 5, 2011 12:38 PM by clipant

I'd prefer the Yugioh license to go elsewhere anyway. And maybe this means the end of pokemon movies as well too. ;D

Apr 4, 2011 5:16 PM by soulless4now

Leon-Gun said:
In other words, you can spin it however you like but this shows weren't geared toward OUR youngsters, yet 4Kids saw it fit to rape their content and made them suitable for little kids rather than market it toward the demographic they thought could understand it. They are one of the biggest examples of why America considers anime something "for kids".

Of course they aren't geared towards American youngsters, no Japanese anime is. It was made in Japan with the intended audience being the Japanese. The Japanese have different censorship laws and different opinions on what is and what isn't suitable for children.

I don't believe removing a cigarette, some blood and guns counts as 'raping' the content. Why? US TV standards are different. 4kids had to remove such content to market it towards the same demographic in the USA.

Just because you don't understand the difference between what's fine on Japanese TV for that demographic and what's fine on US TV for that demographic doesn't mean they were 'raping' the content.

Did you even see the uncensored and uncut episodes of YuGiOh 4kids put out? They were excellent. It was an example of what 4kids would have been like if they were a direct-to-DVD company. They're not, they're a company designed solely for televised broadcast.

Apr 4, 2011 2:34 PM by no-thanks

I remember waking up early before school and watching edited episodes on Zoids Chaotic Century on Cartoon Network. At least that was cut well, compared to some stuff 4Kids did.

Apr 4, 2011 1:20 PM by Waffocopter

I don't really care for anything that has been licensed by 4kids, but I'll say that if something requires censoring to fit a certain demographic, then it's not meant for that demographic in the first place. Else there would be no need for any censoring. Pretty simple logic.

Apr 4, 2011 11:07 AM by RedSuisei

Onibokusu said:

sm said:

I don't see how themes like slavery (tenryuubito), corruption (marines), god (eneru), torture (robin during CP9 arc), war, etc are targeted at little kids. One piece might of been targeted at children back then I don't know, but now it's definitely not a kid show.

The sooner 4kids go under, the better.

Dragon Ball dealt with corruption (Red Ribbon Army), God (Kami), torture (Red Ribbon Army), the mafia (Rabbit), the effects and devastation of natural disasters (erupting volcano), dictatorship (King Piccolo), World Domination (King Piccolo, Pilaf), and assassination (Tao).

It's doesn't change the core demographic. Dragon Ball and One Piece are marketed to the younger side of the shounen demographic.

You should also realize that the localization companies decided that all those mentioned elements had to go because american kids couldn't be tainted by them, or some crap like that. So maybe Japan gave more credit to their kids, but America certainly thinks those themes are more geared toward the older teenagers.

In other words, you can spin it however you like but this shows weren't geared toward OUR youngsters, yet 4Kids saw it fit to rape their content and made them suitable for little kids rather than market it toward the demographic they thought could understand it. They are one of the biggest examples of why America considers anime something "for kids".

Apr 4, 2011 10:41 AM by Leon-Gun

For God's sake they are not the only company out there. Just let them die in peace.

Apr 4, 2011 10:12 AM by Megaphy

they could just disband for all i care

Apr 4, 2011 5:05 AM by Mr_Gutts

thats for ruining anime... you reap what you sow

Apr 4, 2011 3:43 AM by battleknight45

Apr 4, 2011 12:39 AM by no-thanks

Meh, bye 4kids. Had fun trolling?

Apr 4, 2011 12:20 AM by herox3

jpem said:

more older people watch it though. i believe there was even a thread on MAL with statistics proving it.

One Piece started back in 1997, it's no surprise that there is an ageing audience. One Piece is still marketed towards pre-teens though.

Who reads if differs from its target demographic.

Apr 3, 2011 8:56 PM by no-thanks

Onibokusu said:

Gogetters said:

Onibokusu said:

Gogetters said:
lolno
One Piece wasn't really a children's anime, but they turned it into one...

I'm glad to see them go because i hate stupid pointless unnecessary censors!

One Piece's core demographic is the 10-13 year range, the younger end of Shounen spectrum. One Piece is no where near the top end, 15-18, wherein a serial is considered near-seinen. One Piece is not seinen.

Yeah but it's no children's show.

Pre-teen anime.

How about that? I still consider pre-teens children.

more older people watch it though. i believe there was even a thread on MAL with statistics proving it.

Apr 3, 2011 8:34 PM by removed-user

Metty said:
bye bye 4Kids

Apr 3, 2011 7:02 PM by Sealkid

Gogetters said:

Onibokusu said:

Gogetters said:
lolno
One Piece wasn't really a children's anime, but they turned it into one...

I'm glad to see them go because i hate stupid pointless unnecessary censors!

Yeah but it's no children's show.

Pre-teen anime.

How about that? I still consider pre-teens children.

Apr 3, 2011 6:37 PM by no-thanks

Onibokusu said:

Gogetters said:
lolno
One Piece wasn't really a children's anime, but they turned it into one...

I'm glad to see them go because i hate stupid pointless unnecessary censors!

Yeah but it's no children's show.

Apr 3, 2011 6:24 PM by Gogetters

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