Wall Street Journal Interviews 4Kids Entertainment

The Wall Street Journal has published an extensive article analysing the marketing blitz 4Kids Entertainment is generating in an effort to lure young male viewers away from Nickelodeon to their own Saturday morning FoxBox programming that includes Kirby, Ultraman and Kinnikuman. The article may be especially interesting to some readers for its detailed accounts of American profits and gross results on 4Kids anime sales.

Clearly illustrating the fact that imported Japanese animation is still not widely understood or given any artistic credibility by mainstream American culture, the article refers to 4Kids anime titles as “more-violent, more-action-packed Japanese cartoons,” and discusses how 4Kids edits and alters anime so that it’s “better-suited to U.S. tastes.” According to 4Kids President Norman Grossfeld, “The U.S. versions of Japanese shows… sometimes need a lighter touch.”

Source: Cartoon Research