An Absurdly Deep Dive into the History of 4Kids | Part 17: 4Kids TV 2 – The Kidsening (2007)

2007 was a light year for 4Kids in regards to premiering new content – they only premiered one new show.

On September 8, 2007, 4Kids released their dub of Dinosaur King, which was based on an arcade game in Japan that implemented trading cards, and it’s generally regarded as 4Kids’ attempt to replace Pokemon. When 4Kids got the rights to the show, they immediately created a Dinosaur King TCG with Upper Deck sometime in 2008. I imagine this was another effort to avoid high levels of overhead since they were already experiencing losses with producing Chaotic’s TCG in-house. The original cards could be scanned to play the dinosaurs, characters and abilities in the arcade game in Japan. However, the American version of the trading card game had no scanning capabilities whatsoever. It was simply a trading card game. The American TCG was never made available in Japan since the original cards used with the arcade game already acted as their TCG.

In terms of dubbing, Dinosaur King has all of the typical 4Kidsisms, but it’s considered one of the better dubs to come out of 4Kids. It definitely helped that Dinosaur King feels very reminiscent of Pokemon, especially with Veronica Taylor voicing the lead, who has a yellow lightning-based sidekick, and the Alpha Gang almost being a carbon copy of Team Rocket, with Ursula, the leader of the most commonly seen three, being voiced by Rachel Lillis.

Despite not being another massive title for the company, and definitely not a series many people remember very much, Dinosaur King did okay for itself. It tended to do well in ratings, at least in comparison to the other 4Kids TV shows, it had a bunch of toys, a Nintendo DS game, the TCG lasted until 2010 or 2011 with fairly regular releases every year, and the TCG reportedly sold well in other countries too. The show lasted until 4Kids died in 2012, and, for some reason, they latched onto the license even long after 4Kids had died and stayed gasping for air as 4Licensing until 2017 when they let out their final death rattle. In 2017 the license was handed over to Discotek Media, who retains it to this day.

Sega, the owners of the franchise in Japan, never continued the series either in anime or video game format. According to Negative Legend on Youtube, there is no official information anywhere about why Sega has shelved the franchise for so long, but the best anyone can guess is the most obvious one – it probably wasn’t profitable enough. This was most likely especially true since 4Kids, as I mentioned, latched onto the international licensing rights until 2017. Meaning, presumably, Sega was stuck without an international market after 4Kids went belly up. I have no idea how popular it was in Japan, probably mildly popular at least, but it simply wasn’t worth it to keep it in production without the international rights. Perhaps it wouldn’t have been profitable enough even with the international rights. It’s impossible to know without a direct answer from someone at Sega.

Everything else they aired in 2007 was already established, which signified the start of stagnation for 4Kids. They obviously had a bunch of cogs in motion, but they needed to keep taking new opportunities in order to get back up after they took their big Pokemon-shaped punch to the stomach.

That opportunity came on October 2, 2007 when Warner Bros. and CBS would announce that Kids WB would be going off the air in 2008 following the merging of the WB and UPN. They created the CW in the two networks’ place, but opted to shut down the Kids WB block due to content restrictions, the competitive time slot and the increasing difficulty to get advertising, specifically food-related advertising, on the block due to government restrictions. At the same time, they announced that they would be selling the five hour time slot to 4Kids, meaning 4Kids now owned and operated two of the biggest Saturday morning cartoon blocks on TV that year at the same time – which I’m certain has to be a level of hell.

On May 17, 2008, Kids WB would air for the final time.

On May 24, 2008, The CW4Kids would air for the first time.

Yes, that’s what they named it. Isn’t it clunktastic?

One other notable event that happened this year was Al Kahn dining on his foot at ANOTHER ICv2 panel, this time centered on anime and manga.

“I think basically it’s over in Japan, for the moment… I think Japan is tired, I think manga is tired… [There’s] a tremendous reduction in the sale of manga on a weekly and monthly basis… [Japanese] publishers and creators don’t really care what you want. It’s a real systematic problem… We’ve walked away from Japan to a great extent… [I’m] very skeptical of the Japanese model. If you’re big in manga, you should be looking elsewhere, because it’s going south.”

“Nothing new has come from Japan in ten years.” (What?) “Kids there are tired of manga. They don’t want to carry around a three pound book anymore.” (He really has never seen a manga in his life has he?) “They’re more interested in devices. Pretty soon, there won’t be any physical media, just digital.”

“(The Japanese anime and entertainment industry) is in the duldroms.” “(Innovation) has moved to Korea.”

“Manga is dead.”

Let me remind everyone, he was, again, saying this at an ICv2 panel for anime and manga, which was being held during NY ComicCon….

Again, Kahn had a slight point among his ramblings. Both anime and manga experienced downward sales in the 2000s. Anime had dropped ¥20bil in 2007 from 2006, while manga book sales were down 4.2%. However, as I mentioned previously, part of this was attributed to the fact that manga was now available to read on cellphones, and sales of manga via this option were exploding. They really hadn’t caught up with the development in technology to properly factor in this part of the manga industry when calculating their sales.

In America, however, this situation was slightly different. Yes, anime was also on a downward trend in the US, at least in regards to DVD sales. It wasn’t so much that anime wasn’t popular and moreso that DVD sets of anime were insanely expensive in America, and most people, either kids or adults, just couldn’t afford them. That’s one of the reasons why buying anime movies was so much more appealing – it’s just one DVD to buy of one feature. Manga was cheaper and more accessible, which is why manga sales kept improving, but the insane prices of anime in the middle of a recession were unreasonable.

4Kids DVDs were cheaper because they tended to include very few episodes, instead of whole seasons (usually) and almost never included the original Japanese track/footage. They usually only included their English dubs, maybe some other language dubs that were based on their scripts, and their music/sound effects etc. which made their DVDs cheaper to produce and sell. However, DVDs for 4Kids shows were constantly scattered all over the place, if a show got a VHS or DVD release at all, and rarely did a show get a complete DVD release.

Piracy was considered a significant problem at that point too, even though that’s, oddly, one of the things Kahn thought he was more or less immune to, because actual anime fans wanted quick and easy access to their favorite anime without paying insane prices or dealing with mutilated TV broadcasts. Piracy, however, was actually noted as being overall beneficial to making anime popular in the west because it allowed fans to access anime they loved and discover new titles all the time because they either couldn’t afford to watch those shows legally or they were simply not available in their region. Their increased interest would increase word of mouth, creating new fans, increasing DVD sales and increasingly availability, making legal acquisitions increase as a result.

I’m sure they didn’t see it that way, however. There is certainly a debate to be had over the positives and negatives of piracy, especially back when anime wasn’t nearly as widely and readily available as it is now, but it’s always hard to tell exactly how sales are impacted by piracy. You can equate every download to a lost sale, but in many cases the person illegally watching or downloading the anime (or manga) either wouldn’t or couldn’t buy the legal copy to begin with. And you also have to somehow factor in how many more anime or manga related items a person has bought because piracy allowed them to consume and enjoy it more.

But I’m getting a bit ahead of myself because, as we know, Al Kahn doesn’t know his ass from a hole in the ground when he talks about this stuff, especially when he’s talking about manga. What he’s actually talking about isn’t innovation or artistry or catering to the fans – it’s about money again.

Kahn noted that, in particular, he was frustrated with the fact that the anime industry currently didn’t premiere any massive hard-hitters like Dragon Ball Z, Pokemon, or Yu-Gi-Oh! were. Basically, he was viewing anime as a dying form of media overall because they weren’t creating new kid-friendly (or can be made kid-friendly) massive powerhouse merchandise machines that he could hopefully get the rights to. And he was mostly saying manga was dying because I don’t know. Why he keeps talking about manga when his company is almost entirely divorced from the manga industry is beyond me. Given his views on manga and American literacy in children, I doubt he could even name one manga that wasn’t related to one of his anime titles.

Take note of the fact that he specifically said “Nothing new has come from Japan in ten years.” He was entirely ignoring literally anything that came out of Japan during that full decade (kinda throwing shade at big mainstream shows that had been dubbed by other companies at this point, like Naruto, as well) and treating them as if they didn’t count because they were either not geared towards his demographic, were not hugely popular or were not merchandisable.

Dragon Ball Z Kai was never theirs, even if they got the broadcast rights to the show in the following year. Yu-Gi-Oh! was still theirs, for the moment, but it was also on a downward trend and hadn’t managed to reach the same peaks it had upon its initial debut, even though 4Kids was injecting a lot of money into it. They just lost the license to Pokemon. They abandoned the license to One Piece. And they lost the bid to acquire the rights to Naruto. Without another big name that would also be family-friendly (or could be edited down to be such) and ripe for merchandising, 4Kids had no interest. Anime as a whole was dying to him because the anime he licensed were dying and Japan wasn’t nice enough to birth him more cash cows.

As ANN stated,

“Al Kahn reminded all those assembled for the session that publishing does not have to be about transferring physical objects, but that the entire anime industry has not yet figured out the best way to monetize digital content and embrace the technology of online distribution. To him, one of the greatest contributions of the popularity of anime in the West has been the fact that as Western animators and producers have been learning new techniques and honing their skills, Japan may be less and less relevant to the most cutting-edge popular culture products throughout the world.”

The concept of digital manga was already firmly in place for several years and was enjoying massive success in Japan while it wasn’t as such in America. Streaming anime was a bit of a different bag. In Japan, anime was already available online through various sources. Plenty of companies were only a few years away from launching digital avenues of anime distribution that would prove to be successful, and it was already in the process in 2007. For example, Toonami’s Jetstream had some anime streaming online, and Crunchyroll, while, at the time, using illegal means of anime distribution, was already created in 2006 as what some have credited as the first official anime streaming service. It would become legitimate and legal in 2009.

Manga is a bit easier to distribute online since it’s just scanned images. That’s why digital manga took off several years before digital anime. Creating a digital marketplace for anime that wasn’t in garbage quality and could still work well on internet speeds of the day was a work in progress, but you can rest assured that it was very much in progress. Did Al Kahn not understand that this stuff takes time? He is right that the anime industry in both Japan and America would need to capitalize on digital anime in order to stay relevant and profitable, but he’s acting as if such developments were decades off not two or three years.

“According to Kahn, there is little coming out of the Japanese anime studios that is truly innovative, and the most creative new animation is now coming out of South Korea and other countries in the region. “I think it’s over in Japan,” said the 4Kids executive, and he added that the problem is on a systemic level, as publishers and creators do not care about actual user demand. For its part, 4Kids itself is not interested in Japanese products, with the exception of Dinosaur King, nearly to the extent that it was at one point.”

While there is definitely something to be said about Korean animation, and there is a lot to praise there, Kahn was obviously either incredibly jaded on Japan because there hadn’t been another massive title for him to milk recently or he was just talking out of his ass – or both – especially because he acknowledges that the market was catering to niche titles at the time, as in creative titles that have smaller audiences but are typically very well-received critically, but also said there was no innovation in Japan.

I don’t know what prompted the Korea comment. Was something really big animation-related going on there in 2007 that I don’t know about? 4Kids had only worked with South Korea twice before this point, and that was with Cubix, which was one of their bigger properties, but it definitely wasn’t massive, and the new seasons of Chaotic. In 2010, they would work with South Korea again for Tai Chi Chasers. Oops. I meant to say they’d work with Japan and South Korea for Tai Chi Chasers……after Al Kahn had eaten enough crow and went crawling back to Japan and anime.

He and his other executives have stated several times in the past that their fans don’t even know anime comes from Japan, but he also notes;

“In Al Kahn’s view, fans monitor the success or failure of shows in Japan very carefully, but American marketers have to remember how particular properties relate to specific age groups in the United States. For example, popular as it was with vocal fans, 4Kids had a very hard time localizing One Piece in a way that would satisfy fans on one side, and advertisers and television company executives on the other. Approaching that series, his company found itself between a rock and a hard place, and Kahn said it learned the valuable lesson that popularity in Japan is only one of the factors that governs how well any given title will perform in America.”

A valuable lesson no one else really had to learn because it was easy enough to figure out. Why don’t you explain that lesson to Funimation, which is about a year or two from swimming in cash from their dub of One Piece?

So which is it? Do their fans not know about or care about the anime industry in Japan or do they monitor it so closely that they base everything they watch, anime-wise, on what is popular over there? Fans did and still do monitor what is popular in Japan for a variety of reasons, (I wouldn’t say many people are monitoring it “closely”, but we do keep an eye on it. I doubt many children back then were doing it, though.) but this statement is just Kahn trying to fancifully avoid saying that they didn’t do adequate research with One Piece before buying it and then screwed everything up.

“Al Kahn, however, again was not as optimistic, and cautioned that frequently, buyers are now looking not only at a particular toy’s immediate sales potential, but also at its staying power on the shelves. Many only want to stick to only buying products that they are already familiar with, and are not willing to experiment or expand into new areas.”

Again, Al, which is it? Is anime dying because there’s no innovation and we need new exciting titles to introduce to stores, or does the innovation exist but it’s just not feasible to work with because stores want more of the same and nothing new?

Basically, Kahn does have some points, kinda, but they’re constantly buried in contradictory statements, odd opinions and flatout incorrect information that it’s difficult to see them.

While they were able to find some common ground, most of the other panelists never agreed with Kahn, and some noted that 4Kids seemed like they were isolated because 4Kids’ experiences largely didn’t reflect in the experiences of their companies.

It’s a rather intriguing debate to read about because it highlights just how much Al Kahn thought he knew about the anime and manga industry based almost entirely on his experiences in America with an American audience that was purely children while similar companies who had immersed themselves in Japanese culture and their market trends and were more diverse in their audience had a better understanding of the market as a whole. Outside of Yu-Gi-Oh! and Dinosaur King, 4Kids would basically stop dubbing anime for three years after this.

To wrap up this year, 4Kids didn’t do very well. You could say it did bad. Or horribly. Whatever. They were down in net revenue with $55,609,000 compared to $71,781,000 in 2006. Their expenses were up with $81,378,000 compared with $80,917,000 in 2006. Overall, they had a net loss at the end of the year of $23,326,000 compared to the net loss of 2006 of $1,006,000. Decline in the revenue from Yu-Gi-Oh!, TMNT, their residuals from Pokemon and One Piece were given blame for this while Viva Pinata was noted as helping offset them.

Their stocks also took a significant tumble that they would never rebound from. Chaotic still hadn’t truly gotten off the ground yet. They had launched the website for the online game on October 24, 2007, and the TCG had been launched with it, so 2008 would be the real flagship year for the franchise and wouldn’t really be a component of their financial report outside of noting the huge investments they had put in place for it.

Next – Part 18: 4Kids is No Longer Foxy

Previous – Part 16: Yu-Gi-Oh No!

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An Absurdly Deep Dive into the History of 4Kids | Part 2: Pokemon – I License You! (1998-99)

To say 4Kids lucked out beyond belief with Pokemon is an understatement. Their existing deal with Nintendo was already very lucrative, but they truly didn’t know full-blown success until Pokemon came on the scene. The Pokemon games had already gained massive success in Japan, due in part to the fact that there were two different versions of the game, Red and Green, and, later, Blue and Yellow, prompting consumers to buy the entire set, or at least Red and Blue or Red and Green, to complete their Pokedexes. It also prompted a lot of socializing with other players since, if you couldn’t afford to buy the other game, you could trade Pokemon with someone else who had the other version.

The game series was certain to be a success in America, and it was, but it was slightly preempted by the anime. Just 20 days prior to the release of the games in North America, on September 8, 1998, 4Kids premiered their first ever venture into English dubbed anime with the premiere of Pokemon.

The first episode of Pokemon that aired in the United States was not actually the first episode in order. To help draw attention to the show and create tension, 4Kids released Battle Aboard the St. Anne with altered narration from its future normal broadcast cut which indicated this was a special preview of the show. At the end, the narrator wondered if the kids would make it through the shipwreck and explained that the viewers would see the start of Ash’s journey the following day when the series would properly start.

While I understand what they were doing, this is a little messed up. ‘Will this group of small children die a horrible death via drowning!?….Anyway, here are the goofy adventures of how these small children started their journey!’ Admittedly, that would make my suggested trolling of them just showing the funeral part of the next episode, cutting to black and rolling the end credits a hundred times funnier. ‘And that’s how these small children got here…..and then they died. The end!’ (Thanks to Bluebaron on Twitter for reminding me of this preview.)

Pokemon quickly became 4Kids’ most popular franchise by several miles, and it would retain that title over the entirety of 4Kids’ life. Being completely fair, 4Kids didn’t dub the series themselves at first. They only produced the dub. 4Kids didn’t have their own dubbing studio at the time nor did they really know how to dub anime, so they contracted out TAJ Productions to do the dubbing work.

TAJ originally started out as a music production company, but they eventually started creating English dubs and other post-production work for anime, video games and cartoons after doing several related projects for clients.

It’s unclear exactly how much 4Kids controlled in regards to the dubbing job. According to Bulbapedia, TAJ was responsible for the casting, script adapting, voice recording and mixing. Everything else was handled by 4Kids Productions.

Considering that 4Kids has an extremely distinct editing, writing, dubbing and production style, it can be assumed that TAJ was following a lot of orders from 4Kids when they were adapting the scripts. Pokemon is known for being one of 4Kids’ most loyal adaptations, all things considered, especially in the early years, and I think a good chunk of credit for that goes to TAJ, especially considering that they were responsible for casting, which meant that they were originally the ones who brought in what would become 4Kids’ dream team.

TAJ dubbed seasons one through five of Pokemon, as well as several anime series 4Kids had acquired the rights to over the years (and one live-action show), but, in 2003, 4Kids would take dubbing duties away from TAJ when they created their own dubbing studio. 4Kids would dub Pokemon for three more seasons until 2006 when The Pokemon Company would take the international rights to Pokemon back and dub the series themselves under Pokemon USA.

Funnily enough, in 2006, PUSA hired TAJ once again to help with the production of the dub from their first outing with the special, The Mastermind of Mirage Pokemon, through seasons nine and ten and Movie 09. However, on January 2, 2008, TAJ announced that they were losing Pokemon again when PUSA decided to hire DuArt Film & Video as their dubbing studio for season eleven and Movie 10 onward. In 2013, dubbing responsibilities would be handed over to Iyuno-SDI Group, who dub the series to this day.

One of the aspects that 4Kids had full control over was the music, leading them to create what is one of the most beloved English dubbed anime theme songs of all time with the first Pokemon season’s theme song.

And you can bet your ass that 4Kids loved it some music, eventually selling many of their in-house recorded songs for their properties on standalone soundtracks or compilation albums. 4Kids knew how to make music that was marketable. No matter if it was genuinely great as Pokemon’s first theme or as cringe-worthy as One Piece’s theme song, they always knew how to make earworms. Nearly all of their tracks still stick with many of their fans to this day. Even if we all make jokes about 4Kids and their rapping, there’s no denying that they definitely knew how to make music that was at least catchy and, at most, truly good.

There’s definitely some criticism to be had in that regard, though, as, for the most part, changing all the music for Pokemon or any other show or movie was entirely for their own profit. Selling a soundtrack they made for the property makes them much more money than if they tried to sell the original soundtrack, if they were legally allowed to do so in the first place. Instead, they would choose to remove a great bulk of the music from any property they had, Pokemon included, for many years, and made their own soundtracks and CDs that they could sell and make profit from. Little to none of the revenue from those CDs would need to go back to the original owners since 4Kids made the music on their own and only used the logos and other imaging from what they licensed to sell the product.

4Kids, under LCI, had also partnered with Hasbro to make them the main toy licensee for Pokemon while also signing on a reported “over 100” domestic licensees for other products, including Kraft, General Mills, Welch’s, Colgate-Palmolive, Scholastic and American Greetings. They were going in hard with Pokemon once they knew what they had on their hands.

In November of 1999, 4Kids needed to take Pokemon to the next level with the premiere of their first ever dubbed theatrical movie, Pokemon the First Movie: Mewtwo Strikes Back, as well as their first Pokemon Short, Pikachu’s Vacation.

And it was…….a complete mess. 4Kids decided to absolutely mangle the movie from what it originally was. They removed the 20 minute long backstory segment of Mewtwo and the other clones. They changed Mewtwo’s motivations to make him, as Norman Grossfeld, President of 4Kids Productions at the time, stated “clearly evil.” This change included making Mewtwo want to completely destroy the world when he didn’t in the original so American audiences wouldn’t be confused by the morally ambiguous Mewtwo who was struggling with existentialism and self worth in the Japanese version.

As mentioned before, they also completely rescored the movie to, quoting Grossfeld again, “better reflect what American kids would respond to.” while also including numerous American pop music tracks, several songs of which have absolutely nothing to do with the movie, lyrically. I’d say the most confusing track on the CD is ‘Don’t Say You Love Me’ by M2M. There’s 100% no romance in here, so it feels completely out of place.

While the pop music thing was obviously done for the sake bolstering soundtrack sales, the score, which would be released on its own separate CD, didn’t need to be made, and the comment about creating a new score to better suit an American audience makes no sense. This statement has no studies or anything to explain why they didn’t think American children responded well to Japanese music, especially orchestral music that had no vocal track. If they wanted to make English versions of the songs with lyrics, fine, completely understandable, but they didn’t, because they very, very, very rarely ever did that, especially in their early years. It’s pretty clear that they were just trying to cover up the fact that they wanted to sell their own soundtracks to the movie. This is especially true since, as Dogasu notes, the orchestral background tracks they omitted from this movie are kept in the dubbed versions of future episodes.

However, replacing the score and nearly all music for their properties will very much become the norm for 4Kids from here on out, whether they actually went ahead with a soundtrack release for the property or not.

Oh and, something interesting that I found while researching for this retrospective – 4Kids recognized that they made the Pokemon identification errors with Pidgeot being called Pidgeotto, Scyther being called Alakazam and Sandslash being called Sandshrew, but they left in the errors on purpose. Why?

According to the audio commentary, they wanted kids to notice….for some reason? I dunno, to make them feel smart or something? They also thought it was plausible for Team Rocket to make those identification errors since they’re dumb.

……Of course that doesn’t change the fact that only two of those misidentifications were Team Rocket’s doing. The third, Pidgeot/Pidgeotto, was done by it’s own Trainer, and with a Pokemon that we’ve seen many times before since Ash has one, which is completely inexcusable if not downright insulting. It’s clear that 4Kids just realized the errors too late and didn’t care enough to fix them or own up to them honestly.

They probably should have been a little more careful with their identifications considering we were literally being taught how to correctly identify every single Pokemon in existence by their silhouette in every episode of Pokemon with the ‘Who’s That Pokemon?’ segment. This really was just a gold star moment for 4Kids in regards to both being incompetent while also being disrespectful to their audience.

4Kids would continue to frequently make Pokemon misidentifications, most notably and most commonly in their movies and short films. So either they continued to do this on purpose for no other reason besides to make them look foolish or they seriously didn’t notice nor care until it was too late – and even then they still didn’t really care.

My money’s on the latter, especially considering that they practically flaunted how little they really knew of Pokemon and how little they cared about making mistakes in this realm when they made the ‘Trainer’s Choice’ segment during Advanced Challenge. ‘Trainer’s Choice’ was a multiple choice question game for viewers to play during commercial breaks that replaced ‘Who’s That Pokemon?’ in the English dub while the Japanese version had removed the ‘Who’s That Pokemon?’ segment and replaced it with a normal eyecatch.

Over the course of the use of this segment, 4Kids made many errors, some more obvious than others. Some of them were misunderstandings of Pokemon types, what had advantages over what, ignoring that some Pokemon had immunities to certain types, while many other mistakes were just flatout embarrassing like frequently misspelling Pokemon names, sometimes giving Pokemon other Pokemon’s names (like mislabeling a Beautifly as a Nuzleaf and then later mislabeling a Sealeo….as a Nuzleaf), and, of course, the most famous Trainer’s Choice mistake, claiming Arbok evolved into Seviper.

To 4Kids’ credit, they did hire someone during Advanced Battle to handle the segment who seemingly knew more about the franchise that 4Kids had owned the rights to for about seven years at that point. Lawrence Neves was credited as handling the segment from then on, and the mistakes lessened by a significant amount, but some fairly obvious mistakes and even another name misspelling remained until the segment was finally removed after PUSA took over.

The film had additional issues in that it was originally released in widescreen in Japan, but the English version had to use a 4:3 aspect ratio, which caused some issues with the cropping and required some additional edits to keep characters in frame when they were talking, but this was more of an issue with Warner Bros. that would be a continued problem for several movies. In 2016, this issue was fixed for this movie as it was finally released in 16:9 widescreen.

Audiences also didn’t appreciate that the English movie was trying extremely hard to jam an anti-violence message down viewers’ throats when it’s based on a series centered entirely around battling captured monsters who utilize incredibly violent and dangerous abilities in battle. All of that seemingly made okay because the Pokemon fighting in this movie during the clones vs. originals match were doing so without the aforementioned dangerous abilities – they were punching, kicking and slapping, which is much less harmful.

They did imply that this was worse because, unlike in Pokemon battles where Trainers or Pokemon will usually stop when the match is clearly decided, they were intending on fighting to the death in the movie’s battle. Still, it came off as largely hypocritical and most likely 4Kids’ desperate attempt to placate parents’ groups who had come to lambaste Pokemon as a whole for being a series about ‘glorified cock-fighting’ that solved most problems with violence.

Even the short, Pikachu’s Summer Vacation, the title of which had been shortened to Pikachu’s Vacation, didn’t get away without being sufficiently messed with. While some edits are understandable, such as changing the Japanese text to English, and removing the end credits to be included in the movie’s end credits to ensure parents didn’t walk out of the movie thinking the short was the entire movie (This was seriously was a viable concern. Some people have stated that, even with the credits removed, some parents tried to leave after the short was over, thinking the short was the movie, and their kids had to convince them to stay.) some changes were not. The most notable being changing the narrator from a gentle woman, voiced by Satou Aiko, to the Pokedex, for some reason, as well as changing the entire score, again, and messing up the opening credits.

While Pikachu’s Vacation didn’t retain the end credits, they did keep the opening credits, and they not only got names wrong, but they wrongfully attributed some credits to the incorrect people. You can see an entire Japanese/English breakdown on BulbaGarden here.

Problems with the movie and short aside, 4Kids knew a major marketing opportunity when it saw one. This was not only their first theatrically released movie, but it was also their first theatrical movie release of a majorly popular franchise when the movie already proved to be crazy successful in Japan. They went hard with their marketing. They not only had the normal trailers and newspaper spots, but they also hooked people in by offering exclusive Wizards Black Star promotional Pokemon cards in select theaters that showcased Pokemon from the movie and short, such as Pikachu, Mewtwo, Dragonite and…..Electabuzz? …Electabuzz wasn’t in the first movie….?

*one Google Search later*

Okay, according to Bulbapedia, an Electabuzz was in the movie as a Pokemon belonging to one of the Trainers in the wharf (Not one of the three who made it to New Island). I honestly didn’t believe that, so I re-watched that scene, and yup. There it is.

That is literally the only shot of that Electabuzz. It doesn’t even reappear in the end when they’re back in the wharf after having their memories erased. There are so many more Pokemon I can think of that were more prevalent in the movie that would have deserved that exclusive card spot much more than Electabuzz, but I guess they just liked Electabuzz, and I can’t say it wasn’t in the movie.

Nintendo of America or 4Kids or both made a deal with Burger King to produce toys based on the first movie that would be distributed in Kids and Big Kids Meals – little Pokemon plushies that were encased in plastic Pokeballs that doubled as keychains. Oh and there were also the INCREDIBLY COOL 23 karat gold plated Pokemon cards that you could purchase separately at Burger King.

There were six different variations to collect – Mewtwo, Togepi, Pikachu, Jigglypuff, Charizard, and, for some reason, Poliwhirl. Again, I didn’t believe Poliwhirl was in the movie. But, again, technically it was. In the same panning shot where you see Electabuzz briefly, you also see Poliwhirl from the back.

*shrug*

I guess I should also question Jigglypuff’s inclusion, but it was an established semi-regular character in the show so it’s not that questionable. Also, maybe it counts by proxy because there was a Wigglytuff in the movie.

I had several toys from this, including two of the gold Pokemon cards (Jigglypuff and Togepi) and one of the plastic Pokeballs with which I got a little stuffed Meowth.

Sadly, the plastic Pokeballs were later found to be a suffocation risk, which resulted in the deaths of two children. On December 11, 1999, 13-month-old Kira Alexis Murphy suffocated in her playpen after half of the ball stuck over her nose and mouth. Burger King eventually recalled the toys, but they were heavily criticized for acting too slowly – at first refusing to recall the toys after the initial death because they didn’t want to incite a panic in their customers. It wouldn’t be until another child nearly died from suffocating on the toy that Burger King agreed to recall them. Even then, they tried to keep it lowkey until the US Consumer Product Safety Commission pushed them on the situation.

To their credit, after that push, they did launch a pretty massive recall effort with commercials explaining the situation airing on TV, offers to exchange the Pokeballs for free small fries, warnings all over Burger King itself as well as the trays, bags and items and even a dedicated 800 number to call for information. However, even with the recall efforts, another child, four-month-old Zachary Jones, wound up dying a month later from suffocating on a Pokeball.

Burger King would eventually get sued by the families of the victims, which was settled for an undisclosed amount, and they quickly made changes to their safety practices and warning labels to prevent future incidents from happening ever again.

Upon the release of Pokemon The First Movie, despite the various issues, it was immediately a massive hit. In Japan, it was the second highest grossing film of 1998, grossing ¥7.6 billion. It debuted at number one at the box office in the US with $10.1mil on opening day, was the only anime film to ever achieve such a status until 2021 when Demon Slayer: Kimetsu no Yaiba – The Movie: Mugen Train debuted in America, was the highest-grossing movie based on a video game until 2001’s Lara Croft: Tomb Raider, and finally wracked up $85.7mil after closing on February 27, 2000.

In fact, it was such a highly anticipated movie that kids were actually skipping school in droves on the Wednesday that it initially premiered, feigning sickness, and it was so widespread of an issue that it came to be known as the Pokeflu.

Despite being so successful with audiences and financially, it wasn’t nearly as well received by critics, and the entire accolades section of the Wiki, barring one entry, is nothing but nominations for the Stinkers Bad Movie Awards, which was pretty much just the Razzies before they became a thing.

The movie was nominated for Worst Screenplay for a Film Grossing More than $100 Million Using Hollywood Math (Takeshi Shudo), Worst Screen Debut (for all 151 Pokemon), Biggest Disappointment (Films that Didn’t Live Up to Their Hype) (Toho (the original Japanese distributor of the movie) and Warner Bros.), and it won Most Unwelcome Direct-to-Video Release (All nine Pokemon videos released in 1999, including this movie, which is weird because Pokemon The First Movie obviously wasn’t direct-to-video….) The only good award it won was the Animation Kobe award for theatrical films, and, being fair, that was purely a Japanese award for the Japanese version.

The Indigo League series of the Pokemon TV show as well as the first Pokemon movie cemented 4Kids as being a staple in the childhoods of an entire generation, no matter if 4Kids cared about such a thing or not. Truth be told, looking back, the first Pokemon movie’s complete mutilation was a huge warning sign of things to come for the company. It was the first window into their true views on their audience and their level of respect for their licenses. However, as children, fans simply didn’t tend to notice nor care. In fact, many, like myself, were most likely completely unaware of most of the issues with the movie until they were well into adulthood, if they ever learned about them at all, and by that point 4Kids was already long gone.

Still, even I treasure the first seasons of Pokemon and the first movie no matter what 4Kids did to them. Being so tough on the first movie when I initially reviewed it actually hurt my heart because of how beloved it was and still is to me. It’s a terrible commercialized shell of what it once was, but I’d still easily sit down, watch it and enjoy it right this second, just as many other people who were fans as children can also attest.

Pokemon was certainly the goose that laid the golden egg for 4Kids. Financially, they were growing quickly as a result. In just the three months of 1998 that Pokemon had been on the air and the video games and TCG had been in stores, 4Kids enjoyed a 46% jump in revenue from $10,116,800 in 1997 to $14,767,429 in 1998. And for 1999, revenue jumped 310% to $60,482,269. Their net income skyrocketed over these three years from $739,135 in 1997 to $2,743,069 in 1998 and an impressive $23,638,426 in 1999.

One last note for 1999 before we move on – there was a lawsuit where 4Kids as well as Nintendo and Wizards of the Coast were named as defendants. The plaintiff, the law firm of Milberg, Weiss, Bershad, Hynes & Lerachon, on behalf of all Pokemon trading card consumers, sued them, claiming their trading cards were illegal gambling, especially in regards to some packs containing rarer cards than others. The lawsuit was requesting an unspecified amount be paid back to consumers in monetary damages.

In a funny turn of events, the aforementioned law firm that started the lawsuit backed down when they realized that 4Kids was actually one of their clients. Even though they had withdrawn, reportedly three other law firms were continuing with the lawsuit. According to the financial report for 2000, the lawsuit was dismissed without prejudice because the plaintiffs couldn’t or wouldn’t prove why their case shouldn’t be dismissed due to lack of standing. It was appealed, but the appeal was denied in 2002, and the dismissal was upheld.

Next – Part 3: 4Kids 2000

Previous – Part 1: 4Kids as a 4Baby

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Pokemon Episode 53 Analysis – The Purr-Fect Hero

CotD(s): Timmy – A preschooler who was saved from a Beedrill by a wild Meowth, Timmy wants nothing more than to meet his hero, Meowth, and be with him forever.

Reappear? No.

Pokemon: Meowth…I guess? I think. This wild Meowth who is insanely strong and brave keeps saving Timmy. At the end of the episode, it’s implied that Timmy adopted/caught the Meowth.

Plot: It’s Kids’ Day, and wouldn’t ya know it, the group just happens upon a preschool today. The teacher at the school is upset because she hired some Pokemon Trainers to come to the school to allow the kids to play with their Pokemon for Kids’ Day, but they canceled at the last minute. Ash, Misty and Brock offer to have the kids play with their Pokemon for the day, and the teacher happily accepts.

The kids all have a great time tormentin—playing with the Pokemon, but Ash and the others notice a little boy named Timmy standing all alone. When they ask him what’s wrong Timmy replies that the only Pokemon he wants to play with is a Meowth.

A little while back, Timmy was playing in the woods when a Beedrill suddenly started chasing him. He looked like he was bound to be stung, but a Meowth suddenly leaped from the trees, attacked the Beedrill and sent it packing. Timmy tried to thank the Meowth, but it ran away before he could do anything.

To err on the side of caution, they make sure this Meowth isn’t the one from Team Rocket.

Suddenly, a strange traveling magic show appears offering a free show for Kids’ day. They ask for Pikachu to help with a disappearing trick. Presto! Pikachu is gone and is replaced with a Meowth.

Plot twist to end all plot twists, it was Team Rocket and they’re stealing Pikachu. They Smokescreen the place up and book it.

When the smoke clears, they find that Pikachu escaped the box, but Timmy was taken by mistake.

Later, Team Rocket discovers Timmy in the magic box. When he emerges, he explains that he thinks their Meowth is the Meowth that saved him. Taking this as an opportunity to get Pikachu, they convince Meowth to pretend to be this wild hero Meowth, further instilling the belief by pretending to attack Timmy and having Meowth save him.

Meowth follows Timmy back to the preschool, but slips up and talks in front of the kids, instantly causing Misty and everyone else to get suspicious.

Meowth runs away in a panic and Timmy follows. Ash, Misty, Brock and the whole class follow as well. They’re lead into a canyon where Team Rocket is waiting. When they hear Meowth blew his cover, they’re relieved and spring their trap on Ash and the others. They attack the group, but they successfully fight back. However, the shockwaves of their battle loosen a nearby boulder, causing it to careen down the canyon.

It’s about to hit Timmy and Ash, but they’re suddenly saved by the wild Meowth who kicks the boulder in half.

Team Rocket skitter away in fear of the boulder.

Later, Timmy has seemingly adopted the wild Meowth and proclaims that he wants to be a Pokemon Trainer when the grows up.

Ash and the others bid farewell to the kids as they head off once again to Cinnabar Island and Ash’s next Gym challenge.

——————————————

– Oh boy, an episode centered around small children. I…I can’t wait. My patience needs a good workout.

– Is there any particular reason why Ash is staring at Brock with his mouth wide open like this?

By the way, this is one of those ‘Togepi’s a noiseless doll in Misty’s arms’ episodes. Oh well, at least it’s here this time, as opposed to Princess vs. Princess where I guess it was taking a vacation day.

– It’s funny that Ash and Brock want Kids’ Day to be Boys’ Day since Misty and all femaledom just had Princess Day when, in actuality, Children’s Day did used to be Boys’ Day, but they changed it to Children’s Day in 1948 to celebrate family unity. However, unofficially, the day is still treated as Boys’ Day to parallel Girls’ Day.

While we’re on the topic of the history of the holiday, the banners/wind socks also have significance that isn’t explored in this episode. Here, they just seem to take banners as being a sign that it’s Kids’ Day.

Boys’ Day is also called the Feast of Banners. The Water Pokemon banners are meant to reflect koinobori (carp streamers) which are flown across Japan to represent families. The black carp represents the father, the red or pink one represents the mother, and blue, orange or green carp represent each child.

When it was called Boys’ Day, the arrangement was different. The red carp would represent the eldest son, and the blue and miscellaneous colors would represent the other younger sons.

– I can understand Jessie not getting a bunch of special stuff for Children’s Day when she was younger, but I’d think all the schools would offer the day off, not just James’ school.

– Oh boy, here come the cute little kids. I sure hope the very first thing they do isn’t irritating.

– Oh look, they’re grabbing and tugging at Pikachu like he’s the last pretty dress in the sale bin on Princess Day. Wonderful.

– Seriously, though, they’re tugging on his ears, pinching his chest and yanking on his face. Why weren’t these kids taught how to safely approach and handle Pokemon before they were allowed to do this?

After all, Pikachu’s an Electric Pokemon who can freak out and shock people when he gets upset.

Like that.

– Ah, and the first outburst from their two-faced bitch of a teacher. Because no one can just be pleasant.

– Can I also note that it’s a really weird message you’re giving off to your audience when the kids only respond and obey the teacher when she yells at them and calls them brats? You’re kinda normalizing abusive behavior.

– Kid #1: “Hey we wanna see more Pokemon!”

Kid #2: “SHOW US MORE!!”

So this holiday is to celebrate kids, huh?

– Oh look, poor Psyduck’s being physically abused now. Can’t you writers lay off that little guy?

– Misty: “Yeah, and even the Pokemon seem to be having a great time.” You might want to check on your Psyduck because he has one kid on its shoulders and another pulling its tail.

– Brock: “It seems like playing with children helps the Pokemon relax.” He says literally as Psyduck runs by in terror as the kids chase after it.

– Ash: “Meowth!?”

Brock: “Why a Meowth!?”

Misty: “Timmy, why is the only Pokemon you want to meet a Meowth?” Maybe if you all stop asking the same question for five seconds he’ll tell you.

– Oh good, let’s have the little kids fight amongst themselves now. That’s not annoying.

– Is there any particular reason why everyone is intently focused on Pikachu before they even hint at suggesting Pikachu for the trick?

– Okay, I can understand them harassing the Pokemon, but why are they climbing all over Jessie and James? And why, pray tell, is that one kid hugging James’ face?

– Yet they leave Meowth entirely alone and play with Weezing? When they were just chanting Meowth’s name a second ago? I don’t get these kids.

– Annoying outburst by teacher #2….

– Timmy just tackles Meowth…..

– Why did he stare at Meowth for 3+ minutes before deciding to go to him?

– I don’t get it. If Timmy already believes Meowth is the wild Meowth who saved him, why is there a need to pretend to attack him so Meowth can save him?

– James: “Team Rocket may be rotten cheaters, but we’re not in the business of destroying children’s dreams! At least not yet.”

Uhhh, you guys steal Pokemon every single week, or at least attempt to do so. Nearly everyone you steal from is a ten-year-old or at least younger than 18, and stealing their Pokemon might as well be destroying their dreams.

– Holy shit, those scratches look brutal. Dear god, Meowth got Jessie on the boob! Sympathy pain….Oh the sympathy pain.

– Annoying outburst by teacher #3…..

– Brock: “This wild Meowth looks just like the Meowth from Team Rocket.”

Not to be…Pokemon-ist?….but how would you tell them apart? Team Rocket’s Meowth looks no different than any normal Meowth – He just talks and walks on his hind legs. Brock SHOULD have said, “Huh, this Meowth walks on its hind legs just like Team Rocket’s Meowth.”

– Timmy bringing back some random wild Meowth proves he wasn’t lying about a Meowth saving him from a Beedrill? Okay.

– How did no one else but Misty hear Meowth say ‘That’s right!’?

– I really don’t understand Team Rocket’s plan. Tell Timmy their Meowth is the hero Meowth…..?????….Profit?

It’s like they were planning on luring Ash and the others into this canyon, but they didn’t count on Meowth slipping up and running away and they didn’t know Ash and the others would follow Timmy. They didn’t even know Timmy would follow Meowth, because if the teacher was actually doing her JOB she’d stop him from leaving school grounds again.

– They know Meowth slipped up and talked in front of the kids and they said they were happy the hero jig was up, so why did they slap Meowth right as he was about to do his part of the motto?

– Jessie: “Hehehe, go back from where you came from little brats.” Again, this is a Children’s Day episode, right?

– Oh my god, Arbok’s mouth in this shot. What the hell?

– Ya know, Ash, maybe you could’ve saved Timmy on your own if you actually, ya know, moved out of the way or ran or done something outside of standing there like an idiot for ten seconds waiting for the boulder to crush you.

– Uhmmmm….

Bull…..

Shit.

They seriously weren’t even trying with this episode, were they?

– So Timmy just owns this Meowth now?

– Ash: “The Pokemon League, huh?”

Misty: “That means, some day, you’ll be competing against Ash.”

Uhh, he’s like, what, four or five? I know I rag on this show for taking forever to make progress sometimes, but it’s not going to take Ash another five+ years to get to the Indigo Plateau.

– Narrator: “And as they head towards their next Pokemon adventure, our heroes know this is a Kids’ Day they and their new friends will never forget.” Why? I constantly forget this episode exists. Nothing happens. Some little kid wants to meet a hero Meowth, Team Rocket tries to trick him with their Meowth, the hero Meowth shows up. End.

Well, I guess a ten pound cat KICKING A 50 TON BOULDER CLEAN IN HALF is pretty memorable.

– Did someone forget to draw Brock’s arm waving? Because he kinda looks like an idiot walking backwards and smiling like that.

– Jessie: “Too bad, Meowth. If you had kept your mouth shut, you could’ve made everyone think you were the hero.” Make up your damned mind. Are you happy he dropped the act or not?! Also, he didn’t say an (audible to the others) word after the incident at the school, so what are you even on about?

– Nice obvious walk cycle, by the way.

– Meowth: “Nah, that helpless little sticky bunch of brats would’ve driven me nuts.” Again with the ‘brats.’

Meowth: “Besides, you two need me more than they do.”

James: “Dream on Meowth—By the way, what do we do now?”

Jessie: “Meowth, we’ve got to get that Pikachu!”

James: “Don’t worry, Jessie. Meowth always has a plan. Don’t you, Meowth?” This dialogue and line delivery is so awkward, fast and stilted. Not even the voice actors are trying today.

—————————————————-

Sloppy. Lazy. Boring.

That’s this episode in a nutshell.

What a disappointing follow-up to the Girls’ Day/Hinamatsuri/Princess Day episode. Sorry, boys. We’re more than glad to dedicate an entire episode to the ins and outs of Princess Day, but we’ll just sneeze out something for you guys.

Not only that, but with how irritating the kids are, and the several instances of the word ‘brat’ this isn’t a very nice episode for little kids to watch on Children’s Day either.

Granted, I thought it would be much more irritating than this because, well, shows and movies just have a habit of making little kids out to be as annoying as possible. However, even though they were grating my nerves sometimes, I really just tuned out these kids most often than not. Don’t worry, though. Their shrieking harpy of a teacher made up for that.

This entire plot is just lazy and makes zero sense. Ash and the others visit a preschool on Kids’ Day and let the kids play with their Pokemon….I think that’s as far as the idea train went before they just started throwing in the regular conflict of ‘Team Rocket tries to capture Pikachu’ The details were an afterthought, and they were probably written during a writer’s lunch break.

I still can’t make heads or tails of Team Rocket’s plan. They could’ve brainwashed Timmy into thinking Ash and the others were evil Pokemon Trainers that Hero!Meowth has been trying to thwart in an effort to save the captive Pikachu or something. But no, it’s ‘Convince Timmy our Meowth is a hero….lure them into a canyon…I guess?…Take Pikachu—Whatever. Just get the episode animated! We’re on a time crunch!’

I can imagine that scene with Meowth and the boulder was originally it kicking away a rock the size of a basketball or something, but then they were like ‘Eh, make it the size of a house. Who cares if it makes sense? These are little kids. They’re stupid. Happy Children’s Day, by the way. Tell your little brats I said ‘Hi!’’ Even when I was a kid, that boulder thing was too much for me to swallow.

Not to mention that the art and animation for this episode are some of the worst I’ve seen in Pokemon.

Proportions are all over the place. For example, Arbok’s about ten sizes too big when he’s thrown by Onix, Brock seems like he’s shorter than Ash with Misty being the tallest half the time, and all of them are about as tall as this adult teacher.

The mouth movements are so oversized and awkward that their mouths are going into their noses half the time, Togepi looks like a bootleg Togepi plushy, and there are several instances of characters sliding along when they walk.

There was zero effort put into this episode, which is a damn shame for their Children’s Day special. A day dedicated to kids, their target demographic, and they just didn’t care enough to make anything worth a damn. Like I said, I usually forget this episode even exists.

And, like the Hinamatsuri special, this episode was meant to air on Children’s Day in early May, but it got bumped back to early July due to the Pokemon Shock incident screwing up the lineup.

So, kids got no Pokemon on actual Children’s Day, and when they finally got their Children’s Day special, it was this….thing. Good job.

Next episode, Jenny and Growlithe fight crime! Kinda.

…..Previous Episode

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Episode One-Derland Kill La Kill

Plot: Ryuko is a new transfer student at Honnouji Academy, a…’prestigious?’ academy that is run like a crazy house. The students and faculty alike are under the reign of the student council, especially the president, Satsuki.

Ryuko is in search of her father’s killer, who holds the other half of her signature weapon, a giant pair of scissors. She believes Satsuki knows something about the killer, but needs to get through the crazy and powerful goku-uniform-wearing student body in order to even get a chance at challenging her and learning of her father’s killer.

She doesn’t stand a chance against them without her own form of the goku uniform, which she finds underneath her destroyed house. With her powerful and skimpy outfit on and her scissor in hand, she will take down anyone in her way.

Breakdown: Ah, Kill la Kill. Another of those ultra-hyped mega anime that everyone swamps their panties over yet continue to disappoint me when I give them a chance.

Well, I gave this a chance, and so far it’s disappointing.

If I had to describe Kill la Kill in one phrase it would be ‘trying too hard’. It really seems like it’s trying to be as crazy, hyper and outlandish as possible at every turn. Even when it’s seemingly taking a break, it’s really not. The fact that it can’t go two minutes without bombarding the audience with gigantic blocks of red text to introduce characters and weapons is just a highlight of how much it wants the viewer to pay attention to how crazy and loud it is.

And it’s doing it with such a lazy plot. Main character wields a powerful weapon or two that she inherited from her dead father, the one who was murdered. She’s avenging said father by fighting a bunch of overpowered cronies of a person who is clearly either responsible for it or is strongly linked to it. Each crony has their own unique abilities and trademarks that the main character will have to overcome until the big ultimate showdown of ultimate destiny with the main baddie who, in the end, will likely not be the actual main baddie.

Really, outside of the weird murderous crazy monarchy of the school, that’s about it. It’s pretty much as cliché as you get. Speaking of the school, everyone who is not a zero-star student gets something called a goku uniform. These are uniforms that somehow give the wearer special abilities that can be tailored to the user’s preferences and capabilities. The weakest is one-star, while the strongest, I assume, is the four-star, which Satsuki, I assume, must wear.

Ryuko’s not much to write home about so far. She’s a fight-happy brute with lots of determination and heart. Tournament fighter protagonist activate.

Satsuki’s not really that impressive either. We don’t see her do anything in this episode besides stand above everyone else looking intimidating.

The only other character of note who looks to be a main character is Mako, a zero-star student at the school who is a really nice airhead.

As for the episode as a starter, it’s all over the place. We start with some kid getting reprimanded for stealing a one-star goku uniform. He tries to combat one of Satsuki’s most loyal cronies, whose name has already escaped me despite being thrown in my face giant-red-text-style at least twice.

He obviously loses and ends up later getting killed and hung outside the school as a message to other students about what happens when you oppose the student counsel. While this is a decent introduction to the workings of the school and the goku uniforms…..was this kid a complete dumbass?

I assume being a student of the school meant he was well aware of the powers of the uniforms yet he stole, of all things, a one-star uniform? And thought he could combat a three-star with it? Other than depicting the differences in power in the rankings of the uniforms, I see no reason for this complete moron to have done such a thing.

Ryuko shows up and already causes trouble when she first comes across Satsuki who recognizes the scissor sword thing and has some knowledge of Ryuko’s father’s murder.

She tries to challenge her but ends up fighting a three-star crony who is decked out in a uniform specially tailored for those in the boxing club. She tries and completely fails to even land a strike on the guy and subsequently has to flee before getting finished off.

As she sulks in her burned down home, she falls into an underground section of the house that she never saw before. An open wound causes blood to spill on a rock, and out comes a crazy talking and moving sailor uniform that forces itself on her in exchange for more blood. This was one of two moments in the series that got a ‘wtf’ out of me. I mean, what is this thing? Why does it thirst for blood? Why can it talk and move? Why is it crazy?

Later, Mako is being held hostage by the student counsel in order to flush Ryuko out of hiding. They’re hanging her upside down because fanservice and plan to dip her in a vat of boiling oil to literally fry her. Out from the audience bursts Ryuko who saves Mako and is again challenged by the boxing three-star dude. However, a quick removal of her cloak reveals what is one of the dumbest outfits I’ve ever seen.

What the hell is that? I thought she had a sailor uniform on. That is most definitely not a sailor uniform. That is some shoulder pads, suspenders, tiny panties, an even tinier skirt and topped off with red high heels and thigh-high stockings that are also being held up by suspenders. Our hero, a cosplaying stripper.

This was the second wtf moment, because I really thought, at the very least, that they’d try to make Ryuko a respectable and kick-ass lead. But nope. She has to wear….that.

I’m not going to get into a rant on ‘strong female leads’ being turned into fanservice dispensers, but, really, guys in the audience, would you like it if every shounen fighting anime protagonist wore a thong all the time, even in battles? Would Goku seem as bad-ass? Yusuke from Yu Yu Hakusho? Luffy from One Piece?

The reason I wtfed at this was because, up until now, the fanservice has been light at most. Even Mako hanging upside down only showed some side-boob (underboob?) and…well, they said her panties were showing, but I couldn’t see them. We also had a girl in a bikini introducing the boxing rounds, but that wasn’t much. This just came out of nowhere. I was bitchslapped by fanservice.

You want to know something else? The design of that thing isn’t even the real reason I’m upset. It’s the fact that this outfit is so OP that she can take out boxing guy with 100% no problem now. The guy who handed her ass to her in a gift-wrapped box with a bow made out of her teeth was completely blown away without a sweat all because of that outfit. Because screw having to actually work and get stronger on your own. It’s all about getting things that make you powerful.

What’s even more disturbing is….that uniform supposedly used to belong to her father….so….he wore that?…..uhhhh….huh.

So yeah, the entire series is seemingly gearing up to be kinda like a tournament fighter….only, considering she already beat a three-star with no problem, will be probably be inconsistent with her opponents in the future.

I saw a commenter on Hulu saying this reminded them of FLCL, and while FLCL was indeed crazy, at least it knew when to take breaks and when to spring craziness on us to be funny. At least it had an original, albeit confusing and unfinished, story. This just leaves me tired and confused with little incentive to get invested.

Otherwise, the animation is terrible in a lot of spots and only decent at best with art that is very reminiscent of Gurren Laggan, which makes sense given this is animated by Trigger, the same company who produced Gurren Laggan.

The music is fine, but none of it really stuck with me.

The voice acting gets some decent points with me as I believe everyone, Japanese version, were really good and putting their all into their roles. One exception being some pink-haired chick in Satsuki’s posse. That girl’s voice is horrendous.

Verdict:

I was just going to throw a ‘yes’ at this because I can see myself randomly flipping this on to see if the show is getting any better, but I suppose that does fit more with ‘undecided.’ I only got a little bit of entertainment from this episode no matter how much the show really tried to force me into enjoying it. Maybe if it finds a better rhythm later on I might enjoy it more, but for now it’s on the fence.

Edit – 6/11/17: After a long break from this show, I returned to it to give it another chance and….I quit halfway into episode two. I don’t usually like suddenly dropping shows like that, especially without completing an episode I started watching, but I quickly came to the realization that this show is even more annoying that I remember. It is just constant noise, and blocks of red text and yelling and cuts and randomness that they keep insisting is comedy. I just couldn’t sit through it, let alone get invested. I can see how someone might get into this, but it’s just not for me.

Updated status: Incomplete, but altered to a no.

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The Sunshine Award

I’ve been nominated for a Sunshine Award! Otherwise known as an irony award because it’s been super cloudy and rainy all day.

I’m very honored and happy to be nominated for the Sunshine Award, and I like to thank Mangataku-kun for the nomination! ^_^

I had no clue what this was until I was nominated, but I see that it’s a cool chain for anime (and manga?) bloggers where people can spotlight some of their favorite blogs, spread some exposure (ooh lala) ask some questions and share some of our experiences and opinions with other fans. Sounds like fun. 🙂

How it works:

1) Thank the person who nominated you.

2) Answer the questions given by the person who nominated you.

3) Nominate a few other anime bloggers.

4) Write the same amount of questions for your nominees to answer.

5) Notify the nominated bloggers on their blog.

6) Put the Sunshine Award badge (the above picture) on your blog post.

My Nominees!

I can’t see anywhere in the rules where there’s a set number of people to nominate so here are some great bloggers that I nominate for the Sunshine Award!

Fujinsei A ton of really interesting and well written blog posts about anime, manga, and basically ever facet of Japanese culture.

Mocorochi  Great blog with a great writing style, Mocorochi focuses on anime, games, manga and dramas. On a bit of a hiatus right now, but I still wanted to include this one, plus the blog will supposedly be back up and running very soon. ^_^

Standing on My Neck Like this blog’s namesake, and points for the Daria reference from the getgo, this blog tells it like it is and pulls no punches when reviewing any anime.

Moe Sucks  Really well-formatted, organized, detailed and funny reviews on anime done on an episode by episode basis. I got hooked on their Ore Monogatari!! reviews.

Anime World  Insightful and well-written reviews and discussions on anime.

Now to address Mangataku-kun’s questions.

1: When Did You Start Blogging?

Technically, I’ve had a blog for over seven or eight years on a general discussion forum (That was created from an indie Pokemon game website) that I moderate, but I’ve only been properly blogging with a legit blog for a little over a year. In regards to reviewing, I’ve also been doing that since 2008 on the same forum I mentioned, though I didn’t start doing it very regularly until a few years ago, and I enjoyed it so much that I made a WordPress blog about them. 🙂

2: What Anime Will You Watch Summer 2015?

I don’t really get a chance very often to check out the latest anime since the way I select things to watch is typically pretty random and spans all sorts of genres and release dates. I really only go out of my way for that if it’s something related to a show I know and love or if one of my friends strongly suggests it. While it’s not coming out in summer, I am really excited to watch the new Digimon movies. 😀 And I hope Working!! Season 3 is great.

3: Can You Suggest Me More Anime, Otaku, Japanese Blogs to Follow?

Sure thing!

Outside of my nominations, here are some other great anime, manga, all-things-Japan blogs for ya!

IntrovertJapan: For any and all things Japanese. They also have cool book giveaways on occasion, if you’d be interested.

Otaku Lounge:  I really love the way this blog is set up. There are plenty of thorough and interesting reviews as well as articles on various aspects of anime.

IlostMyHeartInJapan:  A blog made with a lot of heart (hehe, puns) about all sorts of great aspects of Japanese culture.

Denny Sinnoh: Cool guy with a bunch of stuff on Japanese culture on his blog. 🙂

Sequential Ink:  If you like manga, you belong here.

Otakuness Anime Reviews: In-depth and interesting anime reviews going episode by episode most of the time.

TheAnimeMan: Tons of reviews on anime, top lists and some stuff on Japanese culture.

Viewer Discretion is Advised:  Probably would’ve been nominated but I see they’ve been nominated twice lol. Piles of anime and manga reviews at your service.

Beneath the Tangles: An interesting look at anime through a Christian analytic eye. No matter if you’re religious or not, they have some very interesting articles.

IcySquirrel:  I love the tone of this blog. It’s just a lot of fun. Lots of quick and insightful impressions and full reviews on anime.

Slightly Biased Manga:  Another great place for in-depth manga reviews.

If you’d like to discover more, I tend to find mine either through the follow lists of bloggers I’m following or using the tags “anime” and “manga” on the WordPress reader. 🙂

4: Are There Any Anime You Can Suggest to Me?

I’m not sure of your tastes in that regard, but here are some off the top of my head, in handy-dandy alphabetical order. ~~So fancy~~

07 Ghost: Love this series, and it still makes me cry. Lovely soundtrack, great art and characters and decent story. However, the anime does end on basically a cliffhanger with no second season in sight, fair warning.

3000 Leagues in Search of Mother: A bit of a long one and pretty old, but this is still a very heartbreaking and fantastic story.

Baccano!: Absolutely adore this series. Tons of fun, very interesting method of storytelling, and incredibly memorable characters. Be warned of violence and gore, though.

Cowboy Bebop: Contractual obligation as an anime fan to suggest to everyone. Though it is and will always be awesome.

Ef Series: Both Memories and Melodies. Beautifully made, great characters and music, some really heavy storylines. I’d suggest Melodies over Memories, though.

Hell Girl: For lovers of ‘horror’ anthologies and sending bad people to hell.

FLCL: A quick burst of insane fun in every bite.

Fruits Basket: Classic, will never stop loving this series. Though, like 07 Ghost, it does end with no real resolution of the main issue of the series, and they leave off without introducing two characters of the zodiac.

Haibane Renmei: Relaxing and intriguing, I’d love to see more of this series.

Paranoia Agent: Confusing sometimes, but a great ride and a fantastic psychological thriller.

Trigun: Another classic and contractual obligation. Love and PEACE! 😀

Yu Yu Hakusho: I believe this to be one of the best Shounen fighting anime ever made and probably my favorite one.

5: Do You Have Any Other Hobbies Besides Consuming Anime/manga/LN/VN/or Basically Aside from Japanese Visual Goods?

I love drawing, and I’ve been doing it as long as I can remember. Wrist problems kinda restrict me lately, and I had a big slump the past couple of years, but I am working to get back into it. Outside of that, I love learning about animals and playing with my dog, Skye. I also love playing video games with RPGs and horror games being my favorite genres, and I love listening to all different kinds of music.

6: What Part of Japan Do You Love Most?

I’ve never had the pleasure of going to Japan, but I love the temples, national parks/natural spots in general and historic sites. While I’d love to see it at least once, I can’t imagine enjoying Tokyo or the big cities too much. I’m too much of a small town bumpkin. 😛

7: Are You a Certified Otaku?

I’m practicing without a license. *rebel*

8: What Japanese Food Do You Like Most?

Sadly, I also haven’t been able to try much Japanese food in my life. However, I do hear they have some awesome candy. :3

9: What are Your Strategies in Surviving School?

Don’t take your school days for granted. They may be tough in regards to schoolwork, but they can also be some great times that you may not ever get again. Appreciate your good teachers; they do a lot to ensure that you succeed and finding teachers that care is a wonderful thing. Be organized with your schoolwork, especially homework. It’ll save you someday, trust me. Finally, play kickball. Because kickball’s awesome yet no one ever seems to want to play outside of school.

10: Did Someone Introduce You to Anime?

Yes, actually. One of my best friends at the time, Monica, introduced me to Pokemon, Sailor Moon and Digimon in that order. To be fair, I first heard of Pokemon through some student at my school one day as he was playing Pokemon Red, which is the same version I bought shortly afterward, but Monica told me about the anime series. She also was the first person to introduce me to manga, which was, not surprisingly, more Sailor Moon. I also remember us labeling ourselves as certain Sailor Scouts when she said which ones reminded her of me and my other best friend, Beth. She said I reminded her or Sailor Venus and Beth reminded her of Sailor Mercury. After I got into the series, Sailor Venus did indeed become my favorite. 🙂

Questions for my Nominees:

1: What first drew you into the anime fandom?

2: What’s one anime that sticks close to your heart?

3: Has an anime ever made you cry? If so, which one and why? (Mark spoilers!)

4: Do you collect anime merchandise? If so, what’s your favorite type of merchandise?

5: What’s your most hated/disliked anime?

6: A character that nearly ruined an anime that you like?

7: What’s your favorite type of show to discuss on your blog?

8: Are you a fan of Japanese music?

9: Have you every been to Japan or plan to go?

10: What anime show or movie would you pick to show to someone who has never been exposed to anything anime in order to show them how cool it can be?

Thanks again to Mangataku-kun for the nomination, and happy blogging everyone!