Manga Revolution Apparently Over: Tokyopop to Shut Down

Remember the time, a few years ago, when it looked like manga was going to totally take over American comics? Probably not happening anytime soon: Tokyopop announced on Friday that it’s shutting down its American publishing operations at the end of May. (A German office handling global rights will remain open.)

(More on TIME.com: “Sailor Moon” Manga Returning to America)

Founded in 1997, Tokyopop became one of the biggest American publishers of translated Japanese manga, including the Sailor Moon, Love Hina and Fruits Basket series, all popular in their time. They also experimented extensively with original English-language works created in a manga-style format, as well as translations of Korean manhwa titles.

(More on TIME.com: DC Comics Closes Manga Imprint)

Over the past few years, though, Tokyopop lost the licenses to some of its more popular series, including all the titles from Japanese manga giant Kodansha. The company underwent several rounds of layoffs, beginning in 2008, and the collapse of the Borders bookstore chain, which had been one of the largest outlets for manga in America, was apparently the final straw.

pks29733steel

Finally!!! Never was a fan of ‘Manga’.
http://pictoralwanderings.blogspot.com quellejoie

Pity. Though I own several Tokyopop titles, there’s something to be said of Kodansha get their rights back for many of their original titles.
I AM, however, still excited about Kodansha publishing Sailor Moon!
realinvalidname

The headline and analysis are badly misleading. Tokyopop is done because the company’s CEO got bored with publishing and fancied himself a filmmaker, pouring book revenues into vanity video projects that went nowhere.

Meanwhile, the North American manga market has matured to the point where the Japanese companies want to manage their titles themselves (and reap the profits), rather than license their properties off and just get a cut of revenues. You acknowledge as much in pointing out that Kodansha took back their titles from Tokyopop, and overlook the fact that several other major NA manga publishers are now owned by Japanese companies (Viz) or are being acquired by them (Vertical). Of the rest, most are part of larger publishers, like Hatchette Group’s Yen Press.

The failure of a single, poorly-run, independent company does not augur the death of an entire format.