An Official End of an Era

[HG Revolution]

http://www.animenewsnetwork.com/news...r-kahn-retires

KAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHHNNNNNNNNN is gone. If 4Kids stays in business, hopefully their business will be smarter without that condescending xenophobic possible-lolicon in charge. The rest of the people at 4Kids seem like pretty cool people who actually care about the products they're working on (by the way, how's Toonzaki been doing business-wise?); hopefully one of them will take his place.

[anime_guru]

whoa
I dunno what to say...oh yes
AMEN!

[Sketch]

After all these years I don't imagine much will change at 4Kids post-Kahn. But then again much has already changed with the introduction of Toonzaki and recent uploades of uncut subtitled versions of 4Kids anime licenses.

I do hope Michael Goldstein can steer the company in a more profitable direction making even better use of their Saturday morning block, the Toonzaki website and future DVD and merchandising deals. He was chairman of the board of directors at Toys "R" Us Inc. and has been the director of 4Kids since March of 2003. But he's been in that level of power since 2003? I have my doubts we'll see dramatic change.

[Marvin Tikvah]

They should work on getting another evergreen property that can keep them afloat for some time instead of throwing whatever they can at the wall. Is it any surprise they nosedived into the red after TPCi took back the Pokemon license, Toei took back One Piece, and Nick purchased the TMNT franchise?

[D Dubbs]

I do hope Michael Goldstein can steer the company in a more profitable direction making even better use of their Saturday morning block, the Toonzaki website and future DVD and merchandising deals. He was chairman of the board of directors at Toys "R" Us Inc. and has been the director of 4Kids since March of 2003. But he's been in that level of power since 2003? I have my doubts we'll see dramatic change.

For now, Goldstein is just an interim chairman. Sounds like they're searching for a new CEO and he's just managing the company until they do. I mean, I'm sure it'll probably be someone from the board of directors but it might not be Goldstein.

They should work on getting another evergreen property that can keep them afloat for some time instead of throwing whatever they can at the wall. Is it any surprise they nosedived into the red after TPCi took back the Pokemon license, Toei took back One Piece, and Nick purchased the TMNT franchise?

Well, they've kinda been trying to do that. Look at Chaotic, Dinosaur King, Huntik, Kamen Rider, GoGoRiki...all were well promoted, had decent time slots, and had a chance to succeed and none of them really did (at least domestically).

On a side note, I find it funny that the article makes like it sound that 4Kids is paying $1.5 million for Kahn to leave.

[CyberCubed]

There is a God! It's like the cries from 1999 have finally been answered!

This is just one more step leading to 4kids eventual demise. I give them two years more, at tops.

[firecrouch]

There is a God! It's like the cries from 1999 have finally been answered!

This is just one more step leading to 4kids eventual demise. I give them two years more, at tops.

That's not cool. I mean do you really want this company to die? Why? Is it what I think it is? Because if so that's not a good reason to want a company to go under.

[Sgt.Frog]

There is a God! It's like the cries from 1999 have finally been answered!

This is just one more step leading to 4kids eventual demise. I give them two years more, at tops.

CyberCubed I can't believe you, I don't want 4kids to die, just to learn from their mistakes, what about all the jobs? What about the families? I hope who ever takes over can make things work.

[Marvin Tikvah]

Well, they've kinda been trying to do that. Look at Chaotic, Dinosaur King, Huntik, Kamen Rider, GoGoRiki...all were well promoted, had decent time slots, and had a chance to succeed and none of them really did (at least domestically).

Yeah, they've definitely been trying to find gold with some of their licenses, but I guess what I mean is they should secure a guaranteed moneymaker license, though i can understand why they would want to have something they could own 100%.

[Gilgamesh]

I'd say "Thank God, now people can stop whining", but 4Kids has online streaming and is working at getting subtitled content and people still whine, so...yeah, nothing's going to change because of otaku manchildren entitlement complexes.

CyberCubed I can't believe you, I don't want 4kids to die, just to learn from their mistakes, what about all the jobs? What about the families? I hope who ever takes over can make things work.

I don't care about the survival of families, they edited rice balls out of my cartoonimays.

[CyberCubed]

CyberCubed I can't believe you, I don't want 4kids to die, just to learn from their mistakes, what about all the jobs? What about the families? I hope who ever takes over can make things work.

All these people are not incapable of getting jobs elsewhere, so I don't see what the problem is.

4kids really has no reason to exist anymore. 90% of their block is reruns. Any new shows they get bomb in 1 or 2 years.

Why not just call it quits?

[Sgt.Frog]

All these people are not incapable of getting jobs elsewhere, so I don't see what the problem is.

4kids really has no reason to exist anymore. 90% of their block is reruns. Any new shows they get bomb in 1 or 2 years.

Why not just call it quits?

You just don't get it do you?

[GWOtaku]

without that condescending xenophobic possible-lolicon in charge

.......what? What! What is this. I defy anyone to back that up. We're not going to do any more of that here, got it?

And the rest of you can stop this argumentative stuff or the thread can be locked very quickly. Try for some maturity here please.
____________

I'm not exactly a fan of Al "kids today don't read" Kahn, but let's be real: this is years too late to be celebrating over. If I had to identify an "end of an era" for 4Kids it would be their decision to let go of when they lost Pokemon, an undisputed big hit that they've unfortunately yet to reproduce. But the hidden gems they were holding back or hacking up egregiously are all over, they're without a doubt focused on kid programming today. If Kahn's departure means some fresh blood that can get the company in a more successful direction, great. But his departure now isn't a special victory for anti-edit fans. The damage (and "damage") is long since done.

Frankly anyone coming up with the "next Pokemon" would do a lot to help the anime industry in the U.S., so best of luck to em from now on as far as I'm concerned. Toonzaki hasn't really made a splash yet in terms of fresh content and their current TV programming definitely isn't what it could be, but who knows what the future holds.

[Gilgamesh]

.......what? What! What is this. I defy anyone to back that up. We're not going to do any more of that here, got it?

And the rest of you can stop this argumentative stuff or the thread can be locked very quickly. Try for some maturity here please.

In my defense, CyberCubed proved me right.

COUNT IT.

[Marvin Tikvah]

I defy anyone to back that up.

We had a whole thread about it a couple years ago when they licensed DoReMi for American TV. It's incredibly funny looking back on it now.

[GWOtaku]

We had a whole thread about it a couple years ago when they licensed DoReMi for American TV. It's incredibly funny looking back on it now.

Heh. Well, as bad/funny as that is, let's still not go there. I choose to believe he was attempting to promote the appeal young boys would find in certain shows......not that this exactly makes him look like a genius anyhow.

[Jacob T. Paschal]

Sounds like good news all around. The industry gets a chance to get a smarter head in position and Kahn gets a million bucks.

[Mr. Hypocrite]

It may be the end of Al Kahn, but the hammer gun will live on in all our hearts.......

because that's where it painfully imbedded itself.

I agree it's somewhat too late, but hey, there was a time when Funimation wasn't much to look at either. 4kids might surprise us one day.

And if not, you can all feel free to stomp me into the ground...

At some far future point in time.

[Collie]

Bummer.

[Light Lucario]

I'm not exactly a fan of Al "kids today don't read" Kahn, but let's be real: this is years too late to be celebrating over. If I had to identify an "end of an era" for 4Kids it would be their decision to let go of Pokemon, an undisputed big hit that they've unfortunately yet to reproduce. But the hidden gems they were holding back or hacking up egregiously are all over, they're without a doubt focused on kid programming today. If Kahn's departure means some fresh blood that can get the company in a more successful direction, great. But his departure now isn't a special victory for anti-edit fans. The damage (and "damage") is long since done.

I'm pretty sure that 4Kids didn't choose to let go of Pokemon. While it wasn't as huge as it was back in the late 90's, the show was still going strong on Kids' WB, usually getting the best ratings on the block, and I believe that they got some of the profits for the merchandise, at the very least related to the show like DVDs and action figures. There wasn't a financial reason for them to let the license for the series go. I forget the details of how TPCI picked it up from them, but I believe that Kahn did say something about how they thought that had more control over the contract for the license than they actually did, or something along those lines.

But I agree that losing Pokemon was more like an end to an era for 4Kids than Kahn retiring. I was never a big fan of Kahn either and some of his statements did seem pretty bad, but I don't see a reason to cheer over this news myself. Though, it helps I never got that upset over the edits in most of their shows anyway. I'm hoping that whoever they'll get to be the CEO of the company will help move 4Kids in a more positive direction, possibly getting more ads for Toonzai and Toonzaki, working on DVD releases and acquiring new TV shows for their block. The press release did confirm that they were still looking for new television properties, so at least they're still trying.