[News] Tokyopop will not be publishing Hetalia Volume 3, or anything else

[fh14]

The Tokyopop Facebook account just updated with this message:

Loyal Fans, we're very thrilled by your excitement but need to clarify: unfortunately we are not re-launching the manga - those properties have reverted to their owners and are amazingly difficult to get back. We’re launching an all new editorial TOKYOPOP newsletter about all things otaku and Asian pop-culture, powered by our friends at GeekChicDaily. We think you’ll really enjoy the news we’ll be bringing and apologize for the initial misunderstanding.

While it doesn't explicitly mention Hetalia by name, the message seems to indicate that all properties have reverted back to their original owners, and Hetalia was the only series that they were publicly toying with "re-launching".

Here's hoping that now that this is settled Yen Press, Viz, or another publisher will license the series and give it a full release.

Comments

[fmavatard.livejournal.com]

.....so then what was the point in riling so much interest if they weren't doing it themselves?

I think we all knew we'd get picked up eventually. It just sounds like they've delayed that process...

[fh14]

The prospect of possibly making more money in order to fund more of Stu Levy's vanity projects. I'm sure they thought "Hey if lots of people like this idea maybe we can get the publisher to give us the license back."

[taylorphantom.livejournal.com]

Riiiiiiiiight~

What they were suggesting doing with Hetalia vol 3 was totes not misunderstood. They wanted to sell copies of it, and they've obvs been told they CANNOT, and now they are trying to clear that up as if fans misunderstood what they meant...

hurr hurr no 8I

[jevia.livejournal.com]

:T Agreed with, completely.

[mizu-takishima.livejournal.com]

This :\

Honestly every time this dude opens his mouth, I feel like my intelligence is insulted. Just ugh.

At least this means that he won't be touching Hetalia or any other manga any time soon. Also most of us anime/manga enthusiasts/otaku/even casual fans have Anime News Network, so I kind of hope his little Otaku news project fails.

[mintbun.livejournal.com]

Seriously.

[reyechan.livejournal.com]

fft
I don't care about Tokyopop anymore; I just want my Hetalia. BT

[idraax.livejournal.com]

Agreed

[wafflesama.livejournal.com]

OH HELL YES. IT'S PARTY TIME! |D

[juandalyn.livejournal.com]

That's good news. Now another publisher can pick it up.

[omgimsuchadork.livejournal.com]

Anyone know why TP tanked to begin with? I can find a lot of sources saying that it did and when it did, but none saying why it did.

I would like to know exactly what this dude thinks we misunderstood. because

Hey everyone! Quick Hetalia question for you Hetalia fans out there: if there is a way to bring you Hetalia V. 3 ... would you be interested?

was the original question, as posted on Facebook. IDK BRO SEEMS PRETTY STRAIGHTFORWARD ¯\(º_o)/¯

[kyoko215.livejournal.com]

"Anyone know why TP tanked to begin with? I can find a lot of sources saying that it did and when it did, but none saying why it did."

It tanked because it was running out of money. Part of this is because Borders went under and the bad economy, but the majority of the money problems came because Stu couldn't stay focused on one idea enough to make it work, and he'd take TP's money out to fund expensive and ridiculous projects like the "America's Greatest Otaku" reality show and the Priest movie. Neither of which brought back enough revenue to make even from the money spent, let alone make a profit.

Also, Stu's been wanting to get into filming, so he went off to make a documentary about the Japan earthquake. He shut down the company right before doing this, I"m assuming so he could take what money the company had left to fund his project.

Now it looks like he's running out of money again, but he shot himself in the foot by shutting the company down.

[omgimsuchadork.livejournal.com]

lol i was totally on america's greatest otaku

Aw, man. I had figured that TP was doing well if it was doing side projects like America's Greatest Otaku, and throwing us the little bone it did for Hetalia Day last year. That's a real shame (and also one that ... no one thought to stop this guy from wasting money?). But thanks.

[bosscookie.livejournal.com]

Tokyopop, you are supposed to be gone. Please really go away and stop confusing us if you are gone.

At least someone else can really snatch it up now!

[kyoko215.livejournal.com]

VICTORY.

I couldn't care less about why he did this or if he's trying to cover his ass now, all I care about is THEY'RE PROBABLY NOT GONNA SELL VOL 3.

[pixelmicrocat.livejournal.com]

Finally.

[tokyohottie11.livejournal.com]

A WINNAR IS US!

Some other company picking up Hetalia is sure to go significantly quicker now.

Also, LOL TOKYOPOP. JUST LOL.

[rosetteroulette.livejournal.com]

Ah, I figured this was going to be the case.

I just hope another company can pick it up!

[dilemina.livejournal.com]

Good.
If Levy really wanted to relaunch something then he shouldn't have closed his precious little company. TOKYOPOP and it's overpriced stupidity is gone, time to move on.

And I'm very happy the license is back in Gentosha's hands. Maybe now we'll find a company that'll license it and not flake on the fans.

[lorelii-peony.livejournal.com]

This doesn't surprise me, but hopefully now that Tokyopop has left Hetalia alone, another company will pick it up and re-release volumes 1-2 and release 3. It would be ridiculous if they didn't. There's a raging hoard of fans out there who need their Hetalia.

like me...lol.

[starrdust411.livejournal.com]

I hope Viz picks up Hetalia, only because I have the most experience with them and they're fairly reliable.

[likliklovestas.livejournal.com]

The fans should just pick one company and focus on petitioning or emailing them for rights to Hetalia. If they see enough fan interest and know we're behind them, then maybe someone will pull the trigger and lay down the money for Hetalia rights. My vote is Yen Press, but that's just me.

[jevia.livejournal.com]

My hopes are that Yen Press gets it, I've been pretty happy with them. I can't think of a complaint right off the top of my head. (I'd like to hear if someone else has noticed issues though.)

[jammerlea]

Misunderstanding riiiiiiiiiiight~

I'm glad, honestly. I sure hope a more reliable company picks up the title.

It always bothers me how generalized these statements are. Does anyone else pick up on that?

[mizu-takishima.livejournal.com]

Tch, misunderstanding my butt. We totally knew what was going on, even the stuff he *wasn't* saying we pretty much were able to guess. like him being desperate for money to gauge interest of the Hetalia fanbase because of the series's popularity

Heck, if he were straight forward and less vague, there wouldn't have been any misunderstanding, though really I don't think there was a misunderstanding. We're not stupid 8I

Anyway, I'm happy that Hetalia's license has been returned to Gentosha, (at least that's what I'm assuming he means) along with like every other series returning to their rightful owners.

Do you think I should make a poll on the main comm to figure out what publishing companies we should contact/what we're more interested in? I did it on Captalia before, but I know not everyone who checks the main comm goes on Captalia.

[miezen.livejournal.com]

Good. Now hopefully Yen Press or some other company that I actually like and respect can pick up the license and release it here. I'm sure the license won't be left to rot forever. I'd honestly consider buying rereleases of volumes 1 and 2 even though I already own the Tokyopop releases if they did something to spiffy it up a bit and make that worth my money.

I haven't been a fan of how Tokyopop handles things for a long time. At this point the only thing I'm sad to see go is all the light novels; those are doomed. That and if Loveless doesn't get rescued. They also had a volume out of a Koge Donbo title called Pavane for a Dead Girl that I'm sure won't get rescued, that disappoints me. But overall, goodbye Tokyopop, I do not miss you, get your hands off my Hetalia already.

[sindragosa.livejournal.com]

I pretty much feel the same way about Tokyopop and was just hanging in there for their extreme loyalty to the .hack series. It really struck me odd that they'd continue to license every manga/light novel thing .hack produced, it never really seemed to have a fanbase that large to support all of that.

[sindragosa.livejournal.com]

Oh whatever, Stu. Please continue to drum up your Hetalia cock teasing and insisting WE were the ones misunderstanding things!

Meanwhile, I hope someone jumps on the manga rights asap. I didn't get into Hetalia when the Tokyopop volumes were aplenty, but from my experience with Tokyopop's later printings (particularly, the near toilet paper print of the last volume of Fruits Basket), it probably wouldn't have lasted long under my compulsive reading.

[hystree.livejournal.com]

He is such a fucking idiot. "And no one was fooled at all..."

Whatever, good. Hope it can be picked up and reprinted eventually.

[jammerlea]

Looking back at Tokyopop's Facebook page, apparently around the time the post was made concerning their new connection with GeekChickDaily, people started interpreting that as if they thought Tokyopop was returning to publishing. And really, TP only teased those replies...

DC: Returning..? RETURNING?!?! PLEASE DON'T BE HAVIN' A LAUGH!!! TELL ME IT'S SO!!!! And, maybe, y'know...that I'll be able to order the latest Battle Vixens..>_>

TP: DC, no foolin'! TOKYOPOP is coming back in a brand new way! Check out the link for more details!

MG: does this mean that we might see some manga from you again?

TP: MG, We'll be addressing manga in our newsletter tomorrow, please sign up to read all about where TOKYOPOP is heading! :)

How hard it is to say "No, we're doing something different than publishing"?

So THAT is what this message is addressing, not the Hetalia ordeal from earlier. DX;; And this is why I hate their vague posts and replies. They really do lead to these sorts of misunderstandings.

I really do wish they'd let us know what the heck happened with the Hetalia stuff.

[mizu-takishima.livejournal.com]

Ugh. Sounds to me like they *know* people won't check out their newsletter if they just tell people that "no, we're not doing manga anymore" right away.

Rather than be blunt, they'd rather just tell people to "wait and see!" so they won't lose any loyal fans or whatever.

It's kind of annoying...

How to make people regard you as a complete douche in 6 easy steps.....

[hoshiko-2000.livejournal.com]

1. Let your readers down by letting your company collapse.

2. Even after your company has *collapsed*, continuing to find every way possible to milk cash out of the readers you've let down.

3. Despite being unable to publish them, continuing to cling to liscence rights, making it impossible for other publisher to relisence them and continue publishing them.

4. Intentionally mislead fans in to believing that a book may still be published.

5. Very patronizingly correct said readers about their 'misunderstanding' over the books 'publication'.

6. Even after this, start ANOTHER money-milking endevour and CONTINUE to mislead and insult readers intelligence.

Tokyopops collapse really has revealed volumes about Stu Levy's character. We now know that we don't mean shit, and this is all, completely, totally about the money. To the point where they will deliberately mislead their fans, and use *ANYTHING* possible to milk any last scraps of cash from them. Seriously Stu Levy, just get screwed.

[kenichi-bokushi.livejournal.com]

It's nice to see that Tokyopop and especially Stu Levy are going to finally bugger off as far as Hetalia is concerned. (In a perfect world, Levy would bugger off completely, but at least him not being able to use Hetalia to fund another of his asinine projects and fuel his massive ego is a step in the right direction.)

May the most reliable and ethical company end up with the rights this time. It's pretty much a foregone conclusion that someone will end up licensing it; now it's just a question of who will license it.

[randamonian.livejournal.com]

Good. Now that that little unpleasantness is over, we can look forward to a proper publisher taking Hetalia.

Honestly, I don't know too much about what this company is all about, other than the fact most of the old manga I grew up with was from them. Love Hina was a really good release and so was everything else, but I was just disappointed with Hetalia, which was the first book I bought off them for a couple of years. Really, pixelated images don't fly. I know manga is a bit of a niche market, but I still have standards that I expect from any book publisher. One thing I am thankful for is they finished the Gatcha gacha series, even if I had to wait around a year for the final release.

As for who I'd like to take Hetalia. Hmm, I like Viz, but they don't put sound effects in with the comic, but put them in the back. Yen Press?

[hoshiko-2000.livejournal.com]

'We’re launching an all new editorial TOKYOPOP newsletter about all things otaku and Asian pop-culture, powered by our friends at GeekChicDaily.'

So you've collapsed, led fans on with false promises, tried to find ways to squeeze out any last bits of money from the readers you let down.........and now you want people to read your 'all new' newsletter 0.0? Tokyopop, seriously, just get lost (>.<).

[lord-sandwich.livejournal.com]

They've been doing an awfully good job of being vague about everything. First there was the promise of bringing Hetalia back but with no indication of what form it was going to take. There was no way I could support that without knowing exactly what we would have been getting (and if there were going to be no downsides then why the lack of clarity?).

Here's hoping someone else picks it up. I hope they re-release volumes 1 and 2 as well, as like many other fans I would re-purchase them so I had a complete set. I would love to see some of the other series I've been following get picked up too but since most of them are much further along, Hetalia is what I hold out the most hope for.

[mizu-takishima.livejournal.com]

Looks like Tokyopop is going back to publishing manga after all:

http://www.animenewsnetwork.com/news/2011-10-12/tokyopop-confirms-intent-to-publish-manga-again

[hypercoffee117.livejournal.com]

http://www.animenewsnetwork.com/news/2011-10-12/tokyopop-confirms-intent-to-publish-manga-again Stop changing your damn minds, Tokyopop! Just yet YenPress get the rights, for crying out loud!