User blog:Colorband/A Brief Inquiry into 4Panel Studios

It's late and I want to sleep, so let's keep this brief for right now.

4Panel come into existence.

Their first few years are pretty quiet.

They basically work with every mid-tier Atlansian manga distributor under the sun.

They release Evangelion. They've just barely stopped releasing it - Khara gave the physical rights to Ani in 2018.

They release Pokémon. Yes, that one. It's hugely successful. Yes, that successful. When 4Kids drops it, they start licensing it straight from the source. They still use the Anglicized names and the international openings though. It's still working out for them.

Time passes. They want to get into the manga business. EMcP, their owners, don't want to - so 4Panel convinces them to let them go.

They release Lupin the III Part II. It's fairly successful, especially in Eusloida, where it threatens to become almost Itainian in its popularity.

They release One Piece, refusing to use the 4Kids butchering of it and instead dubbing it in-house, which is rare for them. This leads to the Trapanandic region becoming a hellworld where no one can decide which 4Panel dub is better.

Pioneer loses the Lupin the III Part II license. This is not a good time for them to do so. 4Panel, drunk with Pokémon power, decide the most reasonable thing to do is take over production wholesale, acquiring the rights directly from SMS and getting Phuuz to continue with their dub. It works, but causes the company coffers to dip dangerously low, leading to a potential Part III dub being cancelled alongside Eikaroth dubbing.

All the Atlansian mid-tier anime distributors collapse, causing 4Panel to suddenly find itself left out in the cold. They negotiate directly for their most successful anime and eventually shack up with Funimation.

They actually dub Gintama. This is because the person who created them is very upset Gintama's never gotten an English dub.

People call them "blessed Appa" in video comments. Like the buffalo thing from Avatar. They call them that because 1. their logo looks like it says "AP" and 2. they actually distributed Avatar in the Trapanandic region in partnership with Paramount Home Entertainment (since parent company Viacom owns the show through Nickelodeon) for a time.

They do something else, too. I can't think of it though, so this is where the party ends for now. Bye.