TOKYOPOP Comes To An End

[Damius]

Not surprised by this, but of course it's still bad news...

[dragonrider_cody]

Originally Posted by guyverfanboy

That's pretty much what I figured. Tokyopop shouldn't have licensed so much crap and they would still be around (hopefully).

Unfortunately, I don't think TP had much of a choice. All of it's major competitors were either owned by major American or Japanese publishers, or had much closer ties to them. That there cut off a lot of access to major titles. The reason they had so many big series in the past was because there were fewer publishers with ties to major corporations.

In the end, they just couldn't compete for series with the likes of Viz, Yen, Del Rey, or Kodansha. In fact, the entrance of Del Rey into the market was one of the reasons ADV cited for deciding to shutter it's manga business. I'm sure it played into TP's demise as well.

I think the situation at Borders and the generally declining sales were just the final nails in the coffin.

For better or worse, TokyoPop pioneered a lot of things we take for granted in the market these days, like unflipped translations, price points, OEL manga, etc. A lot of us also started our collections with their titles. My collection is still largely from them and will likely stay that way for quite a while. TokyoPop was always one of my favorite publishers (the other is also gone now) and they will have always have a special place in my heart. I am sad to see them go.

[Gold_guardian]

Gosh darn it, Chibi Vampire the novel series only had one volume left to go before being complete... Same for the .hack//Gu novel series.

This stinks

[Suwako Moriya]

Originally Posted by guyverfanboy

That's pretty much what I figured. Tokyopop shouldn't have licensed so much crap and they would still be around (hopefully).

Perhaps, but I have a problem with this whole crap theory. We keep crying crap as if it's some buzzword. Yet, there's the question of the following and I'll go through it one by one,.

First, the term crap is mostly subjective anyway. For example, I liked Magical x Miracle over all, but I'm sure a bunch of people will claim it was the worst series ever and it caused them ea

Second, I think it's less an issue of crap and more the issue of fractions. Take any ten random titles. I would guess there's a higher chance of the person hating all "ten" of them than there is a chance of the person liking more than two of them.

Third, getting back to the subjective. The titles we find to be high quality and the titles that are actually selling may not be the same thing. So just think about that for a minute.

[Tratious]

just when I started buying TP books again, crap....
I hope whoever is left at TP gets new employment soon, I hope the best for them.

[Suwako Moriya]

Originally Posted by Tratious

just when I started buying TP books again, crap....

The gods of timing are cruel, aren't they? Not that I was collecting much, but I was thinking about doing an order that would have included Aria 5 and 6.

[Astrael]

Originally Posted by Suwako Moriya

Perhaps, but I have a problem with this whole crap theory. We keep crying crap as if it's some buzzword. Yet, there's the question of the following and I'll go through it one by one,.

First, the term crap is mostly subjective anyway. For example, I liked Magical x Miracle over all, but I'm sure a bunch of people will claim it was the worst series ever and it caused them ea

Second, I think it's less an issue of crap and more the issue of fractions. Take any ten random titles. I would guess there's a higher chance of the person hating all "ten" of them than there is a chance of the person liking more than two of them.

Third, getting back to the subjective. The titles we find to be high quality and the titles that are actually selling may not be the same thing. So just think about that for a minute.

I agree that the quality of their licenses was subjective, but I think they overestimated the demand and got too comfy with how much trust the B&M stores put in them.

[Draneor]

Originally Posted by Suwako Moriya

Third, getting back to the subjective. The titles we find to be high quality and the titles that are actually selling may not be the same thing. So just think about that for a minute.

Shh. Everyone knows that if only the manga industry would publish artsy, innovative titles like manga critics say they should, sales would exploded. Bookscan may not seem to indicate that this is the case, but it must be because there's no way thousands of tweens would buy a work a manga critic deems derivative rubbish.

[Njr Scrawl]

Originally Posted by ZenErik

D: I'll never see the rest of the Aria manga printed in English.

I'm not too surprised, but this is bad news. :/

How many Aria volumes left? 4? I hope it gets rescued - I have the remaining unpublished ones in Japanese but want a translated set too. Hoping for Dark Horse to rescue this title...

[Pelianth]

Originally Posted by Njr Scrawl

How many Aria volumes left? 4? I hope it gets rescued - I have the remaining unpublished ones in Japanese but want a translated set too. Hoping for Dark Horse to rescue this title...

Six left. And after two failed attempts at release in the US market, I wouldn't hold your breath.