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mgosdin
Joined: 17 Jul 2011
Posts: 1302
Location: Kissimmee, Florida, USA
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Posted: Fri Jul 03, 2015 4:29 am
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Paragonias wrote: | Tokyopop isn't as bad as everyone says it is. I mean, they are one of the biggest publishers of manga in Germany, so they're doing something right over here. In fact, most of the manga I buy is published by Tokyopop. I don't know what they did in the US to piss off so many people, what happened? |
As I understand it Tokyopop in Europe is basically just the name and logo being used by Bertlesmann as a sub-licensee to publish the Tokyopop titles there. In a perfect world Bertlesmann would have been able to pick up the pieces of Tokyopop in the rest of the world and make a go of it, alas that didn't happen.
Mark Gosdin
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mgosdin
Joined: 17 Jul 2011
Posts: 1302
Location: Kissimmee, Florida, USA
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Posted: Fri Jul 03, 2015 4:32 am
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Utsuro no Hako wrote: | This sounds to me like, "We burned our bridges with the major publishers in Japan, so we need to find some new suckers." |
I believe this is the winner, Hako cut to the core of Tokyopop's future - whatever there is of it - in that once burned the Japanese are no fools and will likely not be willing to deal with them again.
Mark Gosdin
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Lostlorn Forest
Joined: 03 Apr 2014
Posts: 544
Location: USA
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Posted: Fri Jul 03, 2015 4:52 am
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There's a lot of reasons for people not to jump at the first chance they can to support TokyoPop
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machetecat
Joined: 06 Jan 2010
Posts: 396
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Posted: Fri Jul 03, 2015 4:57 am
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*groans and places face in hands* what's up, Stu? Didja run out of money? Did Hetalia pull off enough of a profit that you realized manga wasn't nearly as dead as your film career? I am SO mad at you right now.
You want my money? Finish off Gosick and FMP, if you even have those licenses anymore. As of now, my manga collecting has been reduced to series I either know of through anime, or am collecting until complete, so good [expletive] luck with getting my money if it doesn't involve those light novels or DNAngel.
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Kalessin
Joined: 15 Aug 2007
Posts: 931
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Posted: Fri Jul 03, 2015 5:24 am
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RAmmsoldat wrote: |
Paragonias wrote: | Tokyopop isn't as bad as everyone says it is. I mean, they are one of the biggest publishers of manga in Germany, so they're doing something right over here. In fact, most of the manga I buy is published by Tokyopop. I don't know what they did in the US to piss off so many people, what happened? |
tried to publish every little thing they could, over-reached and lost focus on their main business while blowing money of stupid side projects and then dropped dead leaving loads of series incomplete and out of print thus leaving a lot of people who had invested time and money in those series out in the cold.
Manga buyers frown on that kind of thing. |
Exactly. In general at this point, it's going to be a bad thing if Tokypop picks up a series, because it means that a more responsible publisher didn't publish it. For a series that has been around a while and no one has picked up yet, maybe it'll be a good thing if they pick it up, because then at least we'd get something, but I don't see how any of us can trust Tokypop at this point.
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enurtsol
Joined: 01 May 2007
Posts: 14773
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Posted: Fri Jul 03, 2015 5:46 am
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Most of Tokyopop's licenses have reverted back to their original publishers, so they'll have to pay for 'em again if they want to continue 'em.
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Paragonias
Joined: 03 Jul 2015
Posts: 7
Location: Europe
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Posted: Fri Jul 03, 2015 5:58 am
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RAmmsoldat wrote: |
Paragonias wrote: | Tokyopop isn't as bad as everyone says it is. I mean, they are one of the biggest publishers of manga in Germany, so they're doing something right over here. In fact, most of the manga I buy is published by Tokyopop. I don't know what they did in the US to piss off so many people, what happened? |
tried to publish every little thing they could, over-reached and lost focus on their main business while blowing money of stupid side projects and then dropped dead leaving loads of series incomplete and out of print thus leaving a lot of people who had invested time and money in those series out in the cold.
Manga buyers frown on that kind of thing. |
Wow, seems like the American Tokyopop really sucked. I didn't think it was this bad... holy *****.
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Kruszer
Joined: 19 Nov 2004
Posts: 7985
Location: Minnesota, USA
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Posted: Fri Jul 03, 2015 6:09 am
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All I want from them is the properties they didn't finish last time, which doesn't sound like it's going to happen. Oh, and for them to license the Ga-Rei, Kurenai and Sekirei manga.
What I want most I guess would be the rest of the Crest/Banner of the Stars and Scrapped Princess novels.
Last edited by Kruszer on Fri Jul 03, 2015 6:28 am; edited 1 time in total
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Paragonias
Joined: 03 Jul 2015
Posts: 7
Location: Europe
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Posted: Fri Jul 03, 2015 6:25 am
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mgosdin wrote: |
Paragonias wrote: | Tokyopop isn't as bad as everyone says it is. I mean, they are one of the biggest publishers of manga in Germany, so they're doing something right over here. In fact, most of the manga I buy is published by Tokyopop. I don't know what they did in the US to piss off so many people, what happened? |
As I understand it Tokyopop in Europe is basically just the name and logo being used by Bertlesmann as a sub-licensee to publish the Tokyopop titles there. In a perfect world Bertlesmann would have been able to pick up the pieces of Tokyopop in the rest of the world and make a go of it, alas that didn't happen.
Mark Gosdin |
Interesting, never heard of Bertelsmann owning Tokyopop.
Anyway, I called an acquaintance of mine who works at Tokyopop Germany and he said that apparently they're going to try licensing some titles for a US release which are already on sale in Germany.
At least the ones that aren't licensed by any other NA publisher yet.
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rahzel rose
Subscriber
Joined: 19 Apr 2011
Posts: 826
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Posted: Fri Jul 03, 2015 6:29 am
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If they manage to pick Silver Diamond and KKM back up, I will be annoyed, but slam my money down on them anyway because chances are (as we've seen) that no other company ever will instead.
Last edited by rahzel rose on Fri Jul 03, 2015 6:42 am; edited 1 time in total
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Ali07
Joined: 01 Jun 2014
Posts: 3333
Location: Victoria, Australia
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Posted: Fri Jul 03, 2015 6:35 am
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Utsuro no Hako wrote: |
Quote: | The company is seeking to license "hidden gems that are not yet noticed" from small or independent publishers. |
This sounds to me like, "We burned our bridges with the major publishers in Japan, so we need to find some new suckers." |
Judging from what Steven Cummings (someone who once worked with TP) tweeted, I don't think you're far off. He currently lives in Japan, and I guess he has connections with some publishers, but he did mention that people over there haven't forgotten what happened with TP.
I'd say, if people are hoping that they finish off a series they used to publish, don't hold your breath. Though, I'm not sure if TP publishing a series in another language would make a difference.
I'm sure there'd be some overlap between what they were releasing in English and what they've done in, say, German. If that's the case, Hyouka manga please!
Don't mind if TP does go for lesser known titles. And, if they're going for LNs, maybe they could bring over Utsuro no Hako to Zero no Maria?
Since I wasn't collecting manga what TP were around, the hurt isn't the same. Yes, I was disappointed when I found out some series weren't completed, in retrospect (like Future Diary). But, recently, I've been enjoying some completed OOP TP manga. Like Chibi Vampire and NG Life.
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invalidname
Contributor
Joined: 11 Aug 2004
Posts: 2450
Location: Grand Rapids, MI
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Posted: Fri Jul 03, 2015 6:46 am
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Just a couple reminders about Tokyopop's business practices:
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RAmmsoldat
Joined: 19 Oct 2005
Posts: 1261
Location: North wales coast
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Posted: Fri Jul 03, 2015 6:58 am
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to this day ebay is flooded with old tokyopop books , honestly i pray to the manga gods they dont manage to get hold of anything im wanting.
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Kalessin
Joined: 15 Aug 2007
Posts: 931
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Posted: Fri Jul 03, 2015 7:09 am
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Paragonias wrote: | Wow, seems like the American Tokyopop really sucked. I didn't think it was this bad... holy *****. |
For the most part, Tokypop was fine for years. They weren't without their problems, but they generally did as well as any of the other publishers. However, they suddenly pulled the plug on the whole operation, which of course meant that all of their series were dropped. And it seemed to fans like they stopped simply because their CEO, Stu Levy, felt like stopping because he wanted to focus on other projects that no one else cared about (certainly, he'd been spending time and money on such projects already instead of focusing Tokypop entirely on manga, which is what all of the fans cared about). I don't remember the details now, and I think that at least part of the problem was financial, but it definitely came across like Stu left everyone in the lurch on a whim, and that left a bad taste in everyone's mouths. Lots of series got dropped midway, and many others went out of print. Some have been saved by other companies, but many have not.
So, Tokyopop used to have a good name, but now, it's pretty much mud. Nostalgia and/or unfounded optimism are probably the only things that are going to get people excited about this. Stu has already proven that he can't be trusted.
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Wildcat17
Joined: 29 Mar 2013
Posts: 54
Location: Portugal
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Posted: Fri Jul 03, 2015 7:25 am
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This will be good if they reprint and continue to release their old series.
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