31 replies to this topic

[Fabbrizio]

4Kids Entertainment has made quite a business out of taking Japanese anime programming like Pokemon and Yu-Gi-Oh! and dubbing it into English for the pleasure of U.S. children. Just how lucrative? The Yu-Gi-Oh! franchise, including a popular TV show and various merchandising, is said to have earned 4Kids over $152 million in income between 2001 and 2009.

But now, the Japanese animation studio that first created the anime hits is attacking, claiming that 4Kids owes it millions of dollars for making secret agreements with TV networks and home video distributors as well as making improper royalty deductions, including for the cost of the actual dubbing. As the result of alleged contractual breaches, the Japanese companies behind the show reveal they have just terminated their licensing agreements with 4Kids. They now want past money owed too.

TV Tokyo Corporation and Nihon Ad Systems filed the lawsuit last week in New York federal court.

According to the complaint, the plaintiffs exercised their right to audit 4Kids' financial books in 2010 to see whether they were getting paid 50% of gross income, minus pre-defined expenses, as agreed upon in the original licensing agreement.

The auditor allegedly turned up some questionable accounting concerning deals made by 4Kids with the Cartoon Network and other parties.

For example, 4Kids is said to have made an agreement with Funimation Productions, giving it the right to exploit the YGO series on home video. "4Kids conspired with Funimation to fraudulently hide from Plaintiffs more than 45% of the total income Funimation paid to 4Kids from the sale of the home videos," the complaint states.

Allegedly, 4Kids not only licensed YGO, but also several other Japanese animation series it didn't own. Under the terms of this supposedly secret deal, which allegedly included a strict confidentiality clause, 4Kids didn't have to do much besides perform certain marketing services. It was Funimation's job to produce and distribute the series, and for this right, Funimation paid a $1.3 million advance and gave over nearly $4 million in a service fee, which was allegedly then hidden from the plaintiffs.

4Kids is said to have made a similar "strictly confidential" deal with Majesco Sales Inc. to produce and distribute videos of the YGO episodes on Nintendo's Gameboy Advanced game system, and allegedly never turned over any royalties.

The complaint also details some improper deductions, including more than $2.5 million worth of international withholding taxes, bank charges, insurance coverage, YGO style guide art, the cost of the audit itself, and even the cost of the dubbing. TV Tokyo says 4Kids "expressly agreed to bear [such costs] under the agreement."

After the auditor's report, the parties met in February to discuss the situation. The plaintiffs are said to have made an offer, which was rejected. After further discussions, on March 17, 4Kids wired $1 million as a "good faith" initial payment. The next day, reps for the Japanese companies flew to the U.S. for a final meeting to see if they could resolve the mess.

"4Kids abruptly terminated this meeting without a resolution to any of the outstanding issues," says the complaint.

In response, TV Tokyo Corporation and Nihon Ad Systems have cancelled the agreement and filed a lawsuit, seeking more than $4 million in damages and other relief for breach of contract and fraud. The legal dispute also leaves the future of some of the most popular Japanese programming on U.S. television in some doubt.

Attempts to reach 4Kids for comment were unsuccessful.

Taken from http://www.hollywood...nates-us-172273

Just gotta say, though I was enjoying having my mind messed with watching Yu-Gi-Oh! on Hulu, I am really glad this happened. Considering 4kids is a bunch of money hogs who just go around dubbing any series that will sell a gazillion copies (all my old VHS tapes of Pokemon are my shameful proof), I would actually be surprised if they WEREN'T doing something illegal to rake in more cash.

Plus (I'm going to have an otaku moment here) with this there is a possibility that Yu-Gi-Oh! can get re-dubbed; hence: better lines and cooler music, guns will no longer be replaced with pointing fingers, and best of all, NO BROOKLYN ACCENTS. Seriously, if Toji Suzuhara from Evangelion is any indication, NOT EVERY ŌSAKA ACCENT NEEDS TO BE PUT INTO ENGLISH TERMS. THEY CAN JUST HAVE REGULAR VOICES. SERIOUSLY.

Anywyay...discuss.

[Old-Skool]

hahaha

hahaha

hahaha

HA HA HA

F*in' A, Man. Can someone provide me (in post form) with a list of all the shows 4kids has mutated, along with before and after information?

For Example:

ONE PIECE. Before: Luffy is a grown dude with an attitude hunting down treasure. After 4kids: Luffy is a child or something, so all those extra sex scenes from the original sound really weird now.

[Fabbrizio]

Gotta say, out of all their series, they really did a number on Shaman King. SERIOUSLY, WHAT THE FRICK KIND OF JAPANESE TEENAGER IS NAMED MORTOMER? MOREOVER, WHAT THE FRICK KIND OF AINU NAME IS TRE? Seriously, they didn't even try. I will never forgive them. If you feel you need to change the names, AT LEAST MAKE IT SEEM LIKE YOU'RE TRYING. And it's not like Pokemon or One Piece where they exist somewhere other than earth so it's okay to have freaky names. No, it's fricking called THE SHAMAN FIGHT IN TOKYO! AS IN JAPAN! AS IN THE NAME IS MANTA OYAMADA! As in, "man" in hiragana, "ta" as in the kanji for large, "o" as in the kanji for small, "yama" as in the kanji for mountain and "da" as in the kanji for field! Or are your voice actors too noobish to pronounce languages other than American? Yes, American is a language now. Bandit Keith says so.

</tangent>

Edited by PowerGauntlets, 04 April 2011 - 05:22 PM.

[Radien]

I've heard about 4Kids, but only in that everybody who has watched them seems to complain about their translations. I haven't heard anything good about them, they don't do any series I like, and they obviously seem dead-set on branding anime as "for kids," given their obvious name... so I don't see any reason to feel bad if they get blackballed out of the anime translation business.

[Fabbrizio]

I've heard about 4Kids, but only in that everybody who has watched them seems to complain about their translations. I haven't heard anything good about them, they don't do any series I like, and they obviously seem dead-set on branding anime as "for kids," given their obvious name... so I don't see any reason to feel bad if they get blackballed out of the anime translation business.

Well considering they owe 4 million dollars to TV Tokyo in unpaid royalties, and are no longer allowed to market their cash cow (since Pokemon is now by Funimation) I would be surprised if they can still keep themselves afloat after all this.

[Mitchfork]

$4 million isn't that much for a company of 4Kids' size and clout, to be honest. Also keep in mind that such lawsuits almost never end up paying the full amount that the plaintiff sues for. The damage to reputation will be the thing that does 4Kids in (if anything), not the money they may or may not lose.

I'm in the same boat as Radien; I've only heard bad things about the company and can't say I feel too bad about this, but I'm not interested in any of the titles they've localized.

[Moosh]

Nyeh nyeh nyeh nyeh nyeh! Go suck it 4kids.


Seriously though, karma anyone?

[Jared]

Very long, I got pretty lost. Can someone summarize? x3

[Fabbrizio]

4kids licensed episodes that weren't theirs to license (4kids may have dubbed it but it still belonged to TV Tokyo), and through that licensing, 4kids owes 4 million dollars to TV Tokyo for royalties and damages. Not only that, but 4kids is no longer allowed to dub/release anything pertaining to Yu-Gi-Oh.

Edited by PowerGauntlets, 04 April 2011 - 07:10 PM.

[Jared]

Ohh, and they put it on DVD and stuff without permission. Gotcha!

[trucky5]

All I can say is YUTH!!!
Seriously. I've been mad at 4kids for like, my whole childhood for ruining Yu-Gi-Oh!. I'm glad that justice is finally being dealt. And justice tastes sooooo good.

[Russ]

Thought I really don't watch any of the shows they dub, I am familiar with how the ruin TV shows, and I'm almost glad they're getting what's coming to them now. Except I gotta feel sorry for Jason Griffith. After losing his job voicing Sonic, he's mostly likely going to lose his job dubbing stuff for 4kids. Ouch.

[Fabbrizio]

Except I gotta feel sorry for Jason Griffith. After losing his job voicing Sonic, he's mostly likely going to lose his job dubbing stuff for 4kids. Ouch.

Him and Dan Green, who aside from being THE VOICE of Yugi, also voiced Mewtwo in Pokemon the First Movie. Seriously, if nothing else, 4kids gets some cool voice actors. It's not the actors' fault that the scripts suck.

@Lynker, the main issue was actually those Gameboy Advance cartridges that you could find episodes of TV shows on. I don't believe the DVDs were actually an issue.

Edited by PowerGauntlets, 06 April 2011 - 03:58 PM.

[Koh]

This is pretty funny XD. Their translations were SO bad, and they cut soooo much stuff out, that many plots didn't make sense at certain points.

[Radien]

$4 million isn't that much for a company of 4Kids' size and clout, to be honest. Also keep in mind that such lawsuits almost never end up paying the full amount that the plaintiff sues for. The damage to reputation will be the thing that does 4Kids in (if anything), not the money they may or may not lose.

I'm in the same boat as Radien; I've only heard bad things about the company and can't say I feel too bad about this, but I'm not interested in any of the titles they've localized.

Since you just agreed with me, would it be silly for me to agree with you?...

Seriously though, the part I agree with is that 4-million is not that much for a company, and the damage to their reputation will be much more harmful to 4Kids. If they can't get licenses for popular shows in the future, they're pretty much finished.