Anime fans might feel a surge of nostalgia at seeing the name 4Kids Productions. Back in the late 1990s and early 2000s, they were responsible for some of the earliest licensing efforts for various anime series like Pokémon, Shaman King, and Yu-Gi-Oh!. Admittedly, they were also responsible for some very notorious English localizations and dubs of those anime series. Remember how that early English dub of One Piece even censored out the weapons and cigarettes with a weird gadget and lollipops of all things? Yeah, that was 4Kids too. Whether that’s funny or horrific probably depends on the person. Regardless though, 4Kids Productions still managed to earn its place in anime history. It’s probably why there’s now going to be an entire podcast all about the 4Kids era.
4Kids Flashback Podcast: Details
4Kids Flashback is proud to announce nothing less than itself. This is an ongoing weekly podcast all about those wacky 4Kids Productions-localized anime series of that golden time we call the late 90’s/early 2000s. This alone will provide a great deal of nostalgia, but there’s more.
The hosts for this 4Kids Flashback podcast are none other than voice actress Tara Jayne Sands and artist/podcaster Steve Yurko. The former especially will be familiar to fans of those 4Kids Productions anime. After all, she did voice Bulbasaur and Ritchie (among others) in Pokémon, Anna Kyoyama in Shaman King, and Mokuba Kaiba in Yu-Gi-Oh! Duel Monsters. If you recognize all those characters without having to look them up, then congratulations. You too are from the late 90’s generation, and are feeling the weight of nostalgia.
That’s not all though. In addition to the hosts of 4Kids Flashback, we also have some guest stars. Said guests are actually all voice actors/actresses and production staff from 4Kids Productions. These guest stars include “former 4Kids Productions president Norman Grossfeld, actors Veronica Taylor (Pokémon), musician John Siegler (writer of the Pokémon theme song), Eric Stuart (Yu-Gi-Oh!) and Critical Role’s Sam Riegel (Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles), Yu-Gi-Oh! producers/writers Michael Pecoriello and Matthew Drdek, and more.”
So where can you watch this podcast? Well, 4Kids Flashback does have an official website where you can watch almost all currently available episodes. If you want to watch the episodes early and free of ads though, then you need to go to their Patreon site.
