Was 4kids the reason why the 2000s was seen as the worst decade for the US anime industry?

[Dwain345]

I've seen post saying that the 2000s was the worst decade to be an anime fan in the United States and it might have something to do with 4kids.

Remember people hated 4kids back in the 2000s because it was visibly antiquated even in its own era. So was 4kids the cause of why people said that the 2000s was the worst decade ever for the US anime industry?

 

[Golden Geek]

I haven't seen a lot of this sentiment about the 2000s as a whole. I've seen comments about how parts of it were more of a hassle than now - DSL internet, slowly releasing DVDs by the volume, and yes, edited dubs - but there are plenty of things that people remember fondly about the time too, such as Borders, Shonen Jump, and daytime Toonami.

I think the end of the 2000s might have started to feel glum since the bubble had burst and into the early 10s with the death of ADV, Bandai Entertainment, Borders, Suncoast, Toonami (before 2012), etc. I wouldn't directly connect it to 4kids because of how many shows and different licensors there were at the time.

 

[PicardMan]

Woah. That's not exactly accurate. The early 00s were the anime boom and the late 00s-early 10s were the anime crash whereas Attack on Titan started the anime renaissance. 4kids did not cause Toonami's cancellation and anime licensors going out of business in 2008. Hell, Pokémon and Yu-Gi-Oh were pillars of the early 00s boom. Some people blame the Naruto filler hell and the Bount Arc of Bleach for causing the severe decline of the American anime fandom in the late 00s-early 10s, but really there was no single factor that caused the dark ages and even the so-called dark ages had some light (FMA: Brotherhood, Soul Eater) and those believing that the American anime fandom was on verge of dying ended up being proven wrong, although I understand why the panic happened.

 

[Dwain345]

4kids did not cause Toonami's cancellation and anime licensors going out of business in 2008.