Forum - View topicNEWS: Tokyopop to Restructure
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Fronzel
Posts: 1906 |
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What obscene weeaboory... Or maybe it's because so few OEL are worth reading. |
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Grico
 Posts: 201 Location: Fort Wayne, IN |
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Yeah, I think the biggest worry for me is that they might decide to focus on the OEL books since they are much cheaper to make. I do wonder how good the sales are on the OELs. If the sales are anywhere close to average manga releases, it makes business sense profit wise to focus more on them. The effect on future licenses seems to be more clear (less risk taking, less titles as a whole) but current series fates are unclear. I would think they are likely to finish series that are close to completion (like W NHK) and just not replace them in the next wave of books. For early in the run series that are long and not selling well, it seems like they might be the most likely for premature ends. My thought would be tertiary lines get hit the hardest (like the novels) and some things might stick until the license runs out to try to recoup costs (I'm thinking of the American licensed stuff here like Familiy Guy). It will be interesting to see if there are any license sales to other manga companies, such as when ADV sold off the Tactics anime license.
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VLOXY
 Posts: 41 Location: Texas |
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Why is it that Naruto is always in the top lists in the best selling news articles that AnimeNewsNetwork posts?
Simple. They are sold at Wal-Mart. Anime and manga companies should embrace the Wal-Mart relationship and profit. I don't understand why I don't see more anime and manga titles at Wal-Mart. I guess it is because they think they can survive on their $20 DVD and $10 manga model. Well, high fuel prices are clearly shredding that model to pieces. I was at a con recently and people were going ape over $5 DVDs. Granted, they were older titles, but the volume was flying off the shelf. Cut the DVD price to $11 and the manga to $6 and that inventory will start to move. That would also cut into the population that waits for Box Sets. Any other ideas? |
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Sheleigha
 Posts: 1671 |
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Yeah that wouldn't work. The amount that it would take to create one disk would be expensive enough, I imagine. Not to mention they have to pay their staff and earn nice profits from it. I understand (and hate) how expensive single disks are, but they won't be getting cheaper anytime soon. I WAS happy to see in HMV (Canadian music/video store) that the Tsubasa/xxxHOLiC movie bundle was ONLY $15.99CAN which is an AMAZING deal to find, especially in Canada. ....by the way, I freaken hate how long the Tokyopop site takes to load -_-; Either it's my NoScript or 'zomg flash advertisments!!?!?!' are at fault :/ |
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marie-antoinette
 Posts: 4136 Location: Ottawa, Canada |
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Cutting prices that much is ridiculous. Especially for books because the profit margin has always been low. The best strategy is the one that TokyoPop is going with: lower the amount of titles being put into the market, in order to avoid flooding it with too much product.
I'm glad to hear that people think NHK is pretty safe, with only two volumes left (and it seems popular enough that I'd think sales for it are decent, if not amazing). The only other series I'm working on from them is Suppli, which I'm going to join in worrying about. I also am wondering about the Twelve Kingdom novels. However I will take some solace in the fact that they continued the hardcover release with the second book, which suggests that the sales from the first were fairly good, because hardcovers do cost more to produce and have a higher selling point and thus only books that are expected to sell quite well get that treatment. Especially when you're talking genre fiction. ALSO, as for the Wal-Mart comment...I don't know for certain that it is like this in the US, but in Canada Wal-Mart sales figures are NOT used when the list of best selling books is made, because Wal-Mart will not allow BookNet access to their sales records. |
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HitokiriShadow
 Posts: 6251 |
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I'd imagine that anything with a solid release date will be okay. I would also think, or hope anyway, that anything that's nearly complete (i.e. one or two volumes left) would be allowed to be finished. If they've signed a contract for something, they are probably obligated to release the portion they signed for unless certain certain circumstances allow them to activate a get out clause. I'm skeptical that company restructuring and general market conditions would be sufficient. It would probably be easier to just complete whatever portion they are contracted for and not renew contracts for whatever they deem to be unworthy.
They could sell DVDs for $5 because they were clearing out backstock of stuff that simply wouldn't sell any other way. But charging that kind of price for new releases would be suicide. How much do you think ADV, Viz or whoever actually gets for that $29.99 MRSP DVD? I don't work for them so I can't say for sure, but I can guarantee they see get about half of it at best (it probably varies a bit by the retailer). If TRSI can sell a $29.99 MRSP disc for ~$16, ADV couldn't be getting seeing more than about $14 or $15. And if ADV has someone else contracted to carry their product to retailers, they need a piece of the pie as well. Even Hollywood movies sell for $15-20 at retailers. It's complete insanity to drop the prices by 60%. You're price drop for manga is slightly less insane, but it faces similar problems. The sales simply wouldn't increase anywhere near enough to justify it.
Wal-Mart is also known for practices that are not very fair to those they deal with. I'd imagine it simply wouldn't be worth it for companies like Tokyopop to deal with Wal-Mart for anything short of Bleach and Naruto sized sellers. And Wal-Mart probably wouldn't want to carry anything that didn't have that kind of sales potential anyway. |
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Beruda
Posts: 114 |
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This is really unfortunate especially for the people who will lose their jobs. I always wondered how TP could put out so many books. I am also concerned about the FMP books that I've been waiting years for someone to publish and there's INVU and Kino's journey.
I also hate people who sit in Borders and BN reading manga. I was in Borders a couple of weeks ago and the cashier marveled at the fact that I was able to get a book that wasn't beat up. And you can't even walk because there are so many people sitting on the floor. B. |
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angieness
Posts: 162 Location: Columbus, OH |
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Wow, that really sucks. But everyone saw it coming from a mile away. I do feel for the employees that lost their job and hope they're able to find work elsewhere.
I really only follow a few series from TP, that being Beck, Welcome to the NHK, Sgt Frog, and Fruits Basket. FB is in no danger, Welcome to the NHK should be fine, I'm concerned about Sgt Frog and Beck though. |
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LKK
 Posts: 426 Location: Virginia, USA |
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I'm very sorry to hear that you are among the 39 laid off employees, Peter. I have several favorite TP titles whose sales have not been doing well including at least one title you were in working on. (Dazzle) I fear for their continued release.  I hope you and the other former employees will be able to find new work soon. Good luck!
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Hon'ya-chan
 Posts: 973 |
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Oh goddamnit, thanks for reminding me they still have Cine-Manga and the Warriors license. |
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VLOXY
Posts: 41 Location: Texas |
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Yikes...I guess my price cut idea was a bit abrupt. Hmmm...nevermind.
I am pretty sure Tokyopop could leverage their print margins way down as printers are struggling. I am sure they could leverage their preproduction of files way down with more efficent workflows (however this all still results in job losses as computers have eliminated many press jobs). With the end result being a more viable price for the consumer. Those cheap people reading books at Borders and the like won't be doing that much longer. Those companies are starting to default, close down and merge together. Say so long to reading product freely at the bookstore. Hope you like the selection at the library. Why are they reading it instead of buying it? Price. Manga and anime is a brilliant art form and that is its main allure in my opinion. The freedom of expression in all the variety of books and DVDs is addicting. "If this one is WOW, what is it like in that one, I bet it to is WOW, and that one over there...yes...WOW." *sigh* |
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castmodean
Posts: 4 |
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Most of the lists I use don't even factor walmart into their matrix when computing sales, in fact I don't know that bookscan even has a deal with walmart to gather data from them(though I could be wrong on this point). Embracing walmart honestly will not 'save' the manga industry and Tokyopop specifically from contracting. And a contraction is honestly not necessarily a bad thing either. We can blame the economy and this and that, but when it comes down to it, it is the fact that there is just so much stuff coming out that consumers do not want. Because they don't want it, it doesn't sell, which has a two fold effect of taking up shelf space for things that might sell if given a chance and eventually being returned to Tokyopop for credit, thus loosing them money. As I stated previously, one of these lines is the fiction line, which breaks my heart. I bought all of the Crest of the Stars series, I was planning on all 14 volumes of Scrapped Princess. I was hesitant about the Slayers novels when they got harder and harder to find. Frankly I am happy that Kurt Hassler is going out on the 'limb' as it were and getting the Harhui novels published over in his end of the world. TP is going to continue to publish, and not disappear into the night. They might even revisit some of the series we want saved in the future of the demand is high enough and the shelf space plentiful enough to support more titles. |
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castmodean
Posts: 4 |
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I think, and this is getting into the realm of speculation, that its more that they don't want to spend their money on the particular titles, but still want to read them. Along the same lines of adherents to scanslations. As the dvd producers are figuring out, the North American market is a widely different market then the Japanese one where Otaku, and I believe I am actually paraphrasing someone else here, look upon it as a badge of honor to spend huge sums of money on an item and live at the line of destitution to support their devotion. |
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Teriyaki Terrier
 Posts: 5689 |
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Ah dang, I hope those 39 employees are able to find new jobs soon. Though I haven't bought any Tokyo Pop manga since Love Hina*, I hope this doesn't mean Tokyo Pop is going to have to shut down.
I've said this for a while now, but the economy isn't doing that well. Hopefully Tokyopop won't have to close down like Geneon, but I am sure this company has hopefully secured funds in this event. Hopefully people will continue to purchase manga they enjoy from this company, the economy needs the money badly to remain stable. *Love Hina was the first manga I ever read and bought. Ken Akamatsu is an excellent manga and anime creator. Tokyo pop, Del Ray, Viz Media are some of the best manga companies out there. |
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ikillchicken
 Posts: 7272 Location: Vancouver |
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It almost sounds like they're going to focus on quality over quantity. That's not very Tokyopoply though...
Too bad as though that as people have already said, "quality" in this case will likely not mean actual quality but just volume of sales numbers. |
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I hope the titles I loved working on will be spared, because I at least want to keep collecting them.  |
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