Just caught word via
AICN Anime, and
confirmed on 4Kids' own website, that
Magical DoReMi will return to television starting tomorrow morning at 7am on the CW4Kids Saturday morning cartoon block-- meaning
yet another potential anime gateway for the young'uns!
Back when
4Kids TV was shown on Fox, 4Kids launched Magical DoReMi, also known as Ojamajo Doremi, in 2005-2006. The series was pulled from TV, but continued to stream online from '07-'08, with all 51 episodes currently available to stream on the site.
CW4Kids Saturday Morning Block
It's an interesting move, considering the show is a bit older; on the other hand it has the first block of the morning at 7am and was already dubbed, so it might have just been an easy filler for the time slot. It's on right before the Winx Club, which is about it for specifically girl-focused shows; 8am on is
Dinosaur King, Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles,
Sonic X, and
Yu-Gi-Oh!.
I have an e-mail out to a 4Kids contact to see if this means we might see more DoReMi stuff-- there are several seasons that were made in Japan that 4Kids has yet to touch --and the answer to that, if we get one, may give a few hints as to whether the show is being used as a filler or whether they're hoping for it to really draw in new viewers.
I've never actually watched DoReMi, but I understand that the 4Kids version is, true to form, heavily edited for localization. Have any of you watched it? Do you think it has a shot at picking up some new fans?
I use a VCR regularly. You don't want to do that. Trust me.
The localization is heavy, but doesn't change the nature of the characters. Majo-Rikka is still herself, so is Doremi, Pop is still precocious. It ups the amount of jokes in the dialog and westernizes everything, and there are subtle edits like removing anything hinting at domestic arguments etc... I believe an entire episode focused on a kidnapping is rewritten to not place any character in any real danger.
For a 4kids dub job, it succeeds in keeping the heart of the show pretty much intact, even while still editing a lot. So I suppose that I'd call it a success.