TP cancels volumes with release dates after May 4

[digitalskye.livejournal.com]

As we all know, Tokyopop is going to be shut down by May 31. I'm fairly certain that most of us were expecting that the 3rd volume of Hetalia (along with any other series with volume releases in the near future) were going to be canceled. This is just official confirmation from RightStuf: that volumes with release dates before May 4 seem to be okay, but volumes slated to be released after have been canceled. Being that Hetalia vol. 3 was scheduled for a May 31 release date, it has been canceled.

http://www.rightstuf.com/rssite/main/news/individual/?ForumThreadName=FT0000002354&Offset=0&ReturnTo=Archive

EDIT:
Just to let people know, the closing of TP's North American publishing branch appears to affect the United Kingdom as well, as the UK's books are all imports from NA. The German branch of Tokyopop will be unaffected.

Comments

[yamikisara.livejournal.com]

oh my, I had no idea Tokyopop is being closed...somebody care to tell me why?

[sacygnus.livejournal.com]

Financial issues mostly. The Boarders bankruptcy hit them hard though.

[yamikisara.livejournal.com]

ah, I see, thank you~

[arachnes-web.livejournal.com]

Actually it's a lot more complicated than just Borders...Tokyopop made lots of really bad business decisions over the years, not realizing the long term effects it would have on the company.

Back in the day, Tokyopop was THE manga publisher, with hits like Sailor Moon, Love Hina, and all things CLAMP. But since they didn't have the same exclusive relationship with a Japanese publisher like Viz did with Shueisha, they couldn't get all the other licensing rights for VHS/DVDs and merchandise. Rather than focus on publishing books like they should have, Tokyopop got the "brilliant" idea to start publishing OEL (original English language) manga, so they could control all the rights. Well OEL manga is essentially what led to Tokyopop's downfall. I know a few of their titles were popular, but overall the whole line was a financial drain on the company. But more importantly, Tokyopop got so caught up in their in-house (some would say vanity) projects like OEL manga and the Priest movie, they forgot ignored the importance of strengthening their ties with the Japanese publishers.

Looking back on it, I think the real beginning of the end for Tokyopop was when Kodansha decided to let Del Ray publish xxxHOLIC and Tsubasa (not because of the money those two made, but because it showed how far out of favor Tokyopop had fallen). For several years the only hit Tokyopop had was Fruits Basket, with the rest of their titles being B or C-List series that Tokyopop could buy cheaply and flood the market with. This set Tokyopop for disaster, because when the whole economy crashed, people cut back their purchases of B and C-List titles so they could afford to buy those must-have A-List titles. Fruits Basket finished up back in 2009, and it wasn't until a year later that they had another huge hit with Hetalia- a year where Tokyopop had no A-List titles to carry them through the hard times...Borders declaring bankruptcy was just the final nail in the coffin for the company.

[hoshiko-2000.livejournal.com]

Yeah, I used to be a massive buyer and follower of Tokyopop's series when I first became a manga fan, and I definitely agree that Tokyopop's focus on publishing OEL 'manga' played a big role in it's downfall. Those 'mangas' were tacky, talentless, and embarassingly awful, and largely the work of (unsucessful) mainstream comic artists who were trying to get a bite out the recent manga fad, by drawing big eyes on top of their usual style and calling it manga. Some of them weren't even manga at all, but just mainstream style comics published under Tokyopop's name.

And most importantly, none of them had the charm of Japanese manga, which is such a big reason reason why us manga fans are attracted to it, and the reason why American drawn mangas are rarely going to work. There were a couple of OEL mangas I've seen that were Ok-ish, but the majority just made me feel embarressed for them, and for Tokyopop too. And finally, when Tokyopop began publishing 'manga' adaptations of Meg Cabot's books was the point where I just stopped taking Tokyopop seriously. Tokyopop used to be a distinguished, select publisher of the best manga's out there, and by this point it was just publishing trash. It really is sad, because it used to be so brilliant.

[ackisnotback.livejournal.com]

Cause Stu Levy is a doofus who keeps wasting money on his reality tv crap and movies.

oh, and Borders and whatnot too.

[arachnes-web.livejournal.com]

Cause Stu Levy is a doofus who keeps wasting money on his reality tv crap and movies.

For all my academic mailing lists, I think this is the best summery of the situation yet.