Ask John: Is the 4Kids Acquisition of One Piece a Good Thing?

Question:
I just read that One Piece was taken by 4Kids and am very upset. I was always hoping personally that Funimation didn’t even get One Piece because they would “kiddy it up” too much, but 4KIDS! Why do companies think they have the right to destroy artwork. But I guess my real question is, why would the japanese company sell the rights to a company that will end up changing their creation to fit their own needs? I understand money is important, but One Piece is obviously making the creators money already, then why!? And what do you think will come of One Piece now?

Answer:
Although anime fans want anime to be “about” art, we have to concede that anime is also a commodity. The vast majority of anime is made to sell and be sold. Furthermore, although we know that Japanese manga creators and animators have some control over the creation and development of anime, original creators have very little control over distribution. A manga creator may make stipulations on an anime adaptation, and a director may choose when and how to end or continue a series, but once the anime is completed an entirely different company takes over to handle home video sales and international licensing. Hardcore American anime fans concerned about the artistic integrity of a series like One Piece may be unhappy that the series has been acquired by 4Kids Entertainment, but from the perspective of the Japanese licensor, selling One Piece to 4Kids is probably the best scenario imaginable. The chances are good that the Japanese businessmen that negotiated the licensing deal were not artists that actually worked on the production of the One Piece anime. The people that licensed One Piece to 4Kids Entertainment are international businessmen whose priority is earning the highest licensing fees and widest international exposure for One Piece possible. The affluent and powerful 4Kids Entertainment, with the power to get One Piece onto national American television quickly, fulfills all of the ideal conditions that a Japanese licensor would theoretically desire.

Since the One Piece anime has been licensed for American television broadcast by 4Kids, it’s inevitable that the animation will be heavily edited for American release. Especially if the Cartoon Network had to digitally remove scenes of cigarette smoking from its broadcast of Blue Submarine No. 6, a mainstream show broadcast on Fox Box and targeted at children will certainly censor Sanji’s chain smoking, scenes involving Zorro being cut by swords and bleeding profusely, Shanks’ pirate gang murdering an enemy with a point blank gunshot to the head, and likely much more. While One Piece is a popular family show in Japan, it’s still far too intense to pass uncut through strict American television broadcast requirements for children’s programming. On the positive side, One Piece is finally coming to America, which will increase exposure and awareness of this deserving, wonderful animated series. However, hardcore American anime fans that prefer to see anime the way it was meant to be seen will probably be severely under served. Barring a staggering surprise and change of heart from 4Kids, which I don’t imagine is likely to happen, American anime fans will need to petition 4Kids (through letter writing and face to face discussion at anime conventions) and their some time business partner FUNimation for an uncut, Japanese language DVD release. With the recent announcement that FUNimation will be releasing uncut DVD versions of Shaman King and Yu-Gi-Oh, there’s a good chance that FUNimation is also aware of the interest in and demand for an uncut DVD release of One Piece, and eager to satisfy that demand.