Forum - View topicNEWS: Tokyopop Restarts Manga Licensing With Konohana Kitan, Hanger, Futaribeya
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ZeetherKID77
Posts: 980 |
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They had a good cast for it (Steve Blum as Keisuke sounded alright from what I've seen) but it was ruined with dialogue like "YO, TAK!!" |
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Kadmos1
Posts: 13540 Location: In Phoenix but has an 85308 ZIP |
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One thing to commend TP about is that it was their version of "Fruits Basket" that sold over 2 million copies in North America. The only other manga I know of that sold 1+ million copies in North America was "Naruto".
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Weazul-chan
Posts: 625 Location: Michigan |
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lys
Posts: 1006 Location: mitten-state |
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Sorry, friend. I became a huge fan of Banri Hidaka through that series and two others released around the same time by CMX (another company with great people and excellent (though probably unprofitable) series, closed abruptly at the whims of higher-ups... that was a rough couple of years). I'm fortunate to know some Japanese, so I was able to import volumes and finish series that way, at least. Now it's the author herself who dropped off the face of the planet and left her newer series hanging... :) |
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Alan45
Village Elder
Posts: 9812 Location: Virginia |
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@lys
I was also following Banri Hidaka. Her Tears of a Lamb was at least finished here. I Hate You More Than Anything was left unfinished by CMX even though the predictable end was shown in V.B. Rose. CMX had, if anything, even less justification for closing shop than TokyoPop did. As part of DC Comics they could have completed the series they started without noticeable effect on the bottom line. It was obvious that someone pulled the plug on CMX without any notice to the people working there. They were licensing and soliciting new titles right up to just before the end. Last edited by Alan45 on Thu Jan 25, 2018 7:50 am; edited 1 time in total |
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leafy sea dragon
Posts: 7163 Location: Another Kingdom |
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Some of them were actually quite nice, like Sgt. Frog and Magical Shopping Arcade Abenobashi. And the former was what kicked off all the demand for a Sgt. Frog dub, then a lot of demand for Toonami to acquire it and broadcast it. Despite all of the hate directed at Tokyopop, they were actually an industry first in keeping manga from right-to-left and was the company most dedicated to fishing up old classics no one else would touch (I have a few volumes of Cyborg 009 from Tokyopop, for instance, a series I doubt anyone else will ever visit again). Over time though, Tokyopop, particularly its president Stu Levy, got complacent and let their competitors Viz, Dark Horse, Yen Press, and others overtake them in quality. Tokyopop, more than any of the other companies, was a business first, publisher second. They picked up licenses and handled them based on what could potentially bring the most money into the company and how they could best do that. That's why they have the reputation of dropping series, poor paper quality, and rush translations. Tokyopop, also more than their competitors, was also very focused on strengthening the company's brand recognition. You can see it in how the Tokyopop logo and icon were larger than that of any other publisher, and always in bright red so as to be recognizable. Any Tokyopop presence at a convention's exhibition hall will have its logo plastered everywhere. That's why I'm feeling more optimistic about this than most other people who read this article: Tokyopop wanders to wherever the money is. Now, the money in manga seems to be mostly in faithful translations for readers savvy in Japanese culture, meaning there's a good chance modern Tokyopop manga will be exactly that. Notice that the Tokyopop logo is nowhere in sight for any of these covers.
If you're talking about books that would be placed in the manga section of a bookstore that was always in English, that kind of fizzled out after Tokyopop went under. Viz tried it a bit (Dark Horse and the others didn't have to as they were also in non-manga publishing), but never to the exten that Tokyopop would do, like releasing Family Guy and such. In its place, there has been a growing presence of indie comics (best standout examples being Scott Pilgrim and Irredeemable) and more big-publisher American comics released as volume sets. IDW also burst onto the scene in the early 2010's and is now THE name with licensed-property comics, even nabbing the Sonic the Hedgehog comics license from Archie. That is, if you want to be a comic book writer and illustrator, your best bet now is to look to your own country's comic book publishing. And if you just want to read comics of something you've been enjoying on TV, in games, as toys, or on the big screen, IDW is your way to go (and Boom! Comics, to a lesser extent).
Levy is insane, but I think he was well aware of the financial status of his company. Tokyopop's competitors, particularly Viz, are committed to finishing a series, but that's because they are run by people who genuinely love manga and will push on with a series, even at a loss. It takes some really bad sales for a company like Viz to cut a series off before it ends. Tokyopop, however, was run under the principle of "know when to fold 'em." That is, if a series's sales were sinking and it was deemed no longer profitable, Tokyopop would just cancel it. It may be Tokyopop was not as good at selling to general readers the way the other companies are, though, and that those other publishers may have been able to keep a series profitable for longer than Tokyopop could.
It was an incredibly exploitative contract, more so than even other contracts in publication of literature. I WOULD say that one such exploitative trait I remember seeing, reading its contract (I was considering entering the program myself, but I decided not to after reading it) was that the OEL authors were not allowed to take Tokyopop to court or enter any direct disputes with them. Instead they would have to come to Los Angeles (where Tokyopop was headquartered), on their own dime, and let an arbitration company there (well, here because I live in Los Angeles) handle it instead. This is not the same thing as taking someone to court, as arbitrators are private and aren't bound by the same rules as courts. I WOULD say that, except that Toykopop truly was ahead of its time in that regard, because now arbitration is widespread in all sorts of contracts and license agreements, as arbitration is advantageous to the company.
Unfortunately, that "someone" was likely a new face at the executive level who decided to wipe the department out to replace it with something they really, really want to do. When a series (whether in print or on TV) run by an American/Canadian company suddenly ends with no clear reason behind it, odds are it's because there's been a change in ownership or management that wants to put its thumbprint on the company. And it's more unfortunate because parts of the entertainment industry is based on the thumbprint model. I learned this firsthand when I worked in movies: High-ranking people in big studios tend not to take seriously any writer, director, or artist who, when given charge of a pre-existing franchise or company, remain TOO faithful to the original work and won't give it their own personal spin, because it's seen as a lack of initiative and assertiveness. That is, it comes across as, "This person has no style of their own; they can only ape other people's styles." For this reason, adding such a work to your portfolio can actually harm your chances (though it depends on whom you present it to). More likely, though, it's a clash of ideas at DC of where the company should go. I mean, there are already a lot of feuds over where particular series should go within DC and Marvel, with writers negating other writers' contributions through deaths, revivals, and other resets. Wouldn't be surprised if it happened at the executive level too. |
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jirg1901
Posts: 150 |
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The logo isn't on any covers because they're Japanese covers.
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leafy sea dragon
Posts: 7163 Location: Another Kingdom |
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Nevertheless, they COULD have put the logo on there, but they haven't, at least not yet. |
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Sakagami Tomoyo
Posts: 940 Location: Melbourne, VIC, Australia |
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That makes me even less optimistic. The minute they think the money is no longer with any given series, or manga in general, they'll wander back away from it again.
None of the US manga publishers ever slap their logos on the Japanese covers they use for promoting books before they've done a proper one. |
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leafy sea dragon
Posts: 7163 Location: Another Kingdom |
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Perhaps the manga readers are kind of spoiled, then, as most other entertainment businesses don't work quite the same way as manga publishers do and are more like Tokyopop. (For instance, the Japanese manga publishers are at liberty to cut off a series whenever they want too. They just provide advance notice to the author.) At the same time, though, it's quite fortunate for manga readers that much of the industry is run by fans, willing to take a loss to give what their readers want. Stu Levy is something of a character though. It can be hard to predict what he's going to do, and his business decisions can come across as rather spontaneous at times. |
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Sakagami Tomoyo
Posts: 940 Location: Melbourne, VIC, Australia |
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The key difference between the US manga publishers and the Japanese manga publishers here is that when the Japanese pull the plug on a series, they provide notice to the author so that they can bring the series to some kind of conclusion. There might be plans the author had that will go unrealised, but there is no existing work unavailable to the readers and they do get some kind of closure. But with translations into other markets, no such luck. |
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leafy sea dragon
Posts: 7163 Location: Another Kingdom |
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True, though that is something out of the control of any company but the original publisher. Nevertheless, my point remains, that even they can cut off a manga series if it proves to not sell, and while the authors get advance notice, the readers don't. (That, and we have series that just end without a conclusion. Takamagahara even began a new story arc on its final chapter, which was set up and suddenly stopped, though that may have been an act of protest from the author.) I know it doesn't compare to suddenly ending a series the way Tokyopop does, though, and it would be much better were there some announcement that they're stopping. With series like Sgt. Frog, which go on forever, it's inevitable it would've had to stop somewhere. Even Viz has done so with very long runners that aren't One Piece or JoJo's Bizarre Adventure (and the latter seems to have stalled going into Part 4). On another note, something I find pretty interesting is that Viz is remaining quite faithful to Tokyopop's graphic design decisions during Viz's publication of Sgt. Frog. I don't know if Viz has surpassed Tokyopop in how far into the series it's gone, but the style for the covers and spines have been remarkably consistent with Tokyopop's. |
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Lord Geo
Posts: 2532 Location: North Brunswick, New Jersey |
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Sgt. Frog is part of the Viz Selects digital-only line, right? Those are nothing but Viz re-releasing what TokyoPop did, right down to the same translations, lettering, covers, spines, & even number of volumes released. Not a single Viz Selects series that TokyoPop never finished has actually gotten "new" releases, because it's just a re-release line. |
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leafy sea dragon
Posts: 7163 Location: Another Kingdom |
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Ah, all right then. I noticed in my Viz newsletters that they kept popping up, so I wasn't sure.
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zensunni
Posts: 1291 |
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Oh, I'd say it's yuri. It may be a bit of a slow burn and it's 4-koma so it's largely comedy, but it has it's moments... When we get to volume 3 there's a great scene where, from all appearances, (it hasn't been translated yet, I've only seen images) spoiler[they have an "accidental kiss", the kind of thing where they turn toward each other at the same time and their lips meet, then pretty much start making out.] In volume 2, when Sakurako gives her email address to one of the other girls, it is: spoiler["[email protected]" which I presume is supposed to stand for "Love Kasumi" and when the other girl seems a little weirded out by it, she laughs and says "Kasumi-chan got mad and wanted me to change it." while smiling with a total "Not gonna change it" look on her face.] And let's not forget that they sleep together from day one and Kasumi pretty much treats Sakurako as if she were her wife. |
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