This is my response to the 4Kids interview done by the Anime News Network site.

The original article is found here.

The article sheds new light on many things, and some of them are actually in the right direction.  Though, not much...

Article:

What motivated 4Kids to do a Kirby film?

Because Kirby has been such a popular character for Nintendo for a long time, and the TV show is no longer running on our network, we decided to try and continue the franchise by doing something like a direct to video movie to help the franchise continue to prosper. That's one of the reasons we are doing it.

What sort of demographic are you aiming for with this film?

It's a dual-demographic, you know? Because it's got the normal 6-11 crowd, but it's also got some of the 8-14's, so it's got that little double demographic.

What sort of release will this film have?

Well again, it's a direct-to-video release. It'll be available in every store in every retailer, I imagine.

Who will be producing the animation for this film?

By the same animators that created the Kirby television show. It's pre-imposed to be done for the United States, and then the new footage is sent to us from Japan.

Response:

Here, they do the right thing and get the original producers of the show to create more of the stuff.  Maybe they learned how shitty their own animation staff was when they made their Yu-Gi-Oh movie.

Article:

What attributes should a property have before you consider bringing it over to the west?

We look at things such as popularity, but also if it has a merchandising component; can we license it, can we license products for it? Thats really the main issue for us... the playing pattern, if it's popular and how it merchandises. If we can't merchandise it, it really doesn't have a lot of interest for us.

Because it's not financially viable?

That's correct, because it's too expensive to do the dubbing and the acquisitions because we rewrite, we re-script, we re-score. So it's very difficult to do that if you don't have any other revenue streams and we have to make sure we get that.

A lot of aspects in your adaptations are changed from the original Japanese version. Some things like dialog, credits and names are changed for obvious reasons, but things such as music are re-done. Why do you feel this is necessary?

Only to make it more Western. We westernize it so that children in English-speaking countries will understand it, and to us that is very critical. It's a mixture of the westernization, the trying to make the music appeal to kids who are in the United States.

Response:

Bad things here.  Being a corporate mega-whore, it's not unexpected that they're always looking for the biggest cash cows in anime land.  However, stating that they have to rewrite and re-score it is just wrong. 

For the opening and endings, it's understandable if they don't want to deal with licensing those songs.  For background music, it doesn't make sense.  One Piece's bgms were perfect the way they were.  Re-scoring?  That just made it shittier and made many of the dramatic scenes have a lot less impact.  Those bgms were part of the reason it was popular in the first place.  No, it wasn't the biggest part of the show that made it popular, but it was a piece nonetheless.  They want to call their bgms "westernized" for America, I call it "retardation."  An American kid will not know if a bgm is from Japan or America or from Africa for fuck sake.

As for the complete rewriting, once again they are changing a piece of what made it popular in the first place.  Yes, I do know that the Japanese animators rewrote a small part of One Piece.  In the manga, Sef ate his own leg to survive being stranded on that island.  The animators rewrote it so that his leg was caught while he swam to save Sanji, and he chose to tear it off quickly so he could save Sanji from drowning.  This is simple rewrite that in the end, has the same result.  Sef lost his leg so Sanji could live.  The rewrites 4Kids did so far?  Bellmeil instead of being killed is "thrown into a dungeon" for the rest of her life.  Nami wouldn't have joined Arlong's crew and spend 8 fucking years to gather money to buy her village if Bellmeil was just imprisoned.  Killing people is bad; everyone should have been taught this.  This show is very clear about who the good guys are and who the bad guys are.  Having Arlong shoot and kill Bellmeil shouldn't have needed rewriting because this is not a situation where killing is glorified.  4Kids isn't doing anyone a favor by keeping the idea of death away from children.  Personally, I think it creates more of problem.

Article:

4Kids mainly focus on the children's market, but last year you surprised fans by announcing uncut Yu-Gi-Oh! and Shaman King. What encouraged this decision and are you satisfied with the results?

For Yu-Gi-Oh! and Shaman King? Yeah, they've been extraordinarily successful. We unfortunately (or fortunately, depending who you're talking to) have to change those in order to make them compatible for younger children. Some of these things have situations we couldn't air on our network, so we have to do them for our network for the parent's sake. The real anime fans sometimes feel slighted that we change these things dramatically, but we have also released original versions into the trade market which are uncut and unedited, so that the anime fan who wants the original version can get it, and for the younger child we have the localized version which we air on TV so it's a combo of what we do. Obviously Yu-Gi-Oh! has been extraordinarily successful here.

I was actually referring to the uncut releases... your thoughts on them?

We do those, at some level, for the anime fan and those things do, you know, reasonably well. The market for them just isn't as large as the one for the cut version.

Response:

While they don't show much care for their uncut releases.  They at least know that the real anime fans want their anime in their original form.

Article:

Some critics cite that the uncut releases contain uncharacteristically low episode counts, English translations and release schedules. Any thoughts?

I don't know, I don't work in that area so I don't know what's going on with them. I think again everything is related to how we release the cut version.

Can you shed any light on why Shaman King and Yu-Gi-Oh! uncut were postponed?

I think it's because we are still releasing them as cut versions, and we don't want to put the cut versions and the uncut versions at the same time. So we try to stagger the uncut episodes after the cut episodes have aired. So it's just a function of getting those things to play.

So they aren't competing against each other?

Yes, that's exactly right.

Response:

I call bullshit here.  Why the hell wouldn't they want cut and uncut to be out at the same time?  After all, they tout that that market for the cut anime to be much larger than the uncut market.  What is so troublesome about releasing cut and uncut to the market at the same time if they're different?

I think they're just afraid that the people will go for the uncut because people don't like when stuff is changed.  If their sales of uncut stuff outsell their cut stuff, then all that time and money spent rewriting and re-scoring will have been for naught.  Their stubbornness to not see the real market for their anime is, and always will be, their most fucking stupid mark.

Article:

At a licensing convention last year, where 4Kids revealed a first look at One Piece, a version of the Japanese opening with English vocals was played. However, 4Kids used an original rap opening in the broadcast version. What made you consider this opening over the other one?

Yeah, well.. we liked it, we thought it was good. And we thought it was going to be something that'd have a lot of popularity. There wasn't anything more to it than that.

Is there a possibility of an uncut release of One Piece?

Yes, definitely

Is there a time-frame of when it might come out?

Not sure, but we're definitely looking at it.

On a similar note, do you have any intentions of releasing any other Japanese series in their original format?

We expect every series we license to be released in its original form.
 

Response:

Oh I see.  You liked the rap, so you used that instead.  Good decision...THAT WAS NOT.  One Piece is great kids' epic, and that song they dubbed was perfect.  They did a great job.  You can download it here and see for yourself.  Again, they fix something that wasn't even broken only to break it more.  This is One Piece and it's a very upbeat anime and the song they dubbed matched up perfectly with it.  Who are these morons that thought up that piece of shit rap?

The good thing is that there will be an uncut release.  While the changes they have done are stupid and most of the time unnecessary, they don't matter as long they give the real anime fans what they want.  So, in reality much of what I've already said can be thrown out the window so long as they scrap together an uncut release.  My opinions still stand and will waver, but should they stop the releases my opinions will stand strong.

Article:

Finally, is there anything you'd like to say to the 4Kids nay-sayers in Anime fandom?

I think they have to understand that because the price of these acquisitions is so high, that if they want this programming to come to the United States then they're going to have to accept the fact that it's going to be available in two styles. Because the only money that can be made that helps pay for the acquisition is obviously whether or not we're able to outfit it for the masses. And fitting it for the masses requires editing. And if we didn't do that, it'd be very difficult for us to afford to bring it in, just to release it to the anime fan who would be looking for the uncut version. I think we're trying to satisfy both sides of that by having it both ways so that we'll be able to afford them.

Final Response:

Last Exile.  Inu Yasha.  Gundam.  Ghost in the Shell: Stand Alone Complex.  Wolf's Rain.  Samurai Champloo.  Cowboy Bebop.  Fullmetal Alchemist.

All these series were edited for TV and sold as uncut.  They have all sold DVDs very well.

Even series such as Initial D and Chrno Crusade, which haven't been aired in the U.S., have sold DVDs exceptionally well.

Fuck you 4Kids.  Don't give that bullshit that to license anime it has to be in two different styles.  You just want to make as much money as possible.