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More on TokyoPop Fallout
Jun. 4th, 2008 02:40 pmI've been trying to piece together what's happened at TokyoPop. While not everyone reading this is a manga fan, it IS part of the North American comics market.
Here's what's known:
- TokyoPop has entered massive restructuring.
- The company has split into two smaller companies - Tokyopop Inc, a publishing house, and Tokyopop Media LLC, a digital/new media house.
- Publishing will drop from 470 volumes a year to 225-240 volumes a year.
- "39 positions" have been cut.
- Some of those positions belonged to people who had contact within the fandom and posted at forums and such.
- The announcement follows a massive storm after TokyoPop's "pact" for their Shining Stars Manga Pilot Program was noticed by members of the comics community.
Here's the heresay. None of this should be taken as truth, but there may be truth in them.
- This is rumoured to be tied to the fallout of Borders in the US.
- No one is sure what the impact of this is on a whole. It could be around 40% of the current staff.
- The PR rep who wrote the press release was tossed.
- This could be all PR spin and the actual job losses are much higher. I'm not sure where that number is from, but I think if there's truth to it, the higher number is from freelancers.
And here's a post from an recently ex-TokyoPop staff member about the potential future of some titles (post was from June 3rd, 2008, on the Anime on DVD forums):
I don't have any firm info on which titles are on the unfortunate end of this restructuring, and even the editors who are left at TOKYOPOP probably won't find out until tomorrow. But I'll make a few educated guesses (on the titles mentioned in this thread).
Safe: Fruits Basket, .hack//XXXX, .hack//G.U.+, D.N.Angel, Karin (Chibi Vampire), Kingdom Hearts II, CLAMP no Kiseki (book 12 is done, but absolutely no hope of the bonus figures or board)
Probably safe: Karin novels, Battle Vixens, Rave Master, Rose Hip Rose, Tokko
Guessing safe: Battle Club, Kyou Kara Maoh (manga), GTO: The Early Years
Probably not safe: Chronicles of the Cursed Sword, Rebirth (having had a vol. 1-3 omnibus is no guarantee; CotCS had one as well), Queen's Knight, Magic Moon
Guessing not safe: Atelier Marie and Elie Zarlburg Alchemist, Boys Be, Strawberry Marshmallow, Shrine of the Morning Mist, Sakura Taisen, Kindaichi
That's all I'm willing to speculate on, and even then I'm not sure it's wise. I would hope for more concrete word later in the week, but you may only end up finding out through Diamond cancellations.
This isn't the first collapse seen in the anime/manga market. Geneon pulled out of North America last fall, ADV has been struggling both on the DVD and publishing end for the past few months and Bandai Visual USA was liquidated to Bandai Entertainment just last month. You could argue that ALL of these had poor business practices, though. However, aside from ADV's manga publishing being very stop-and-go, this is the first major hit against the manga market in the recent round of market unstablity.
Some people are guessing that we could be reaching the edge of the current manga bubble. This would make sense, as TokyoPop flooded the market with titles. They seemed to appeal to young teens who wanted create comics, as can be seen in their official website. It's closer to a fansite than a publisher's site. While it may have been cute, the problem is a lot of the market is growing up. I'm almost 25. I like anime and read manga and comics, but avoid most of their fandom. TokyoPop's site looks like shite.
I'll also argue that their licenses don't appeal to people beyond an certian age group, however this is more based on my personal tastes. Yeah, they licenesed Planetes, which was some awesome hard science fiction, but there's been nothing like that since then. The only one I really got into was Aria, which was a blind buy after I heard good things about it. Meanwhile, other companies like Viz, Yen Press and Dark Horse (and ADV, whenever they start again) are publishing titles I'd actually buy. Again, this is personal tastes and my tastes are STRANGE.
Here's what's known:
- TokyoPop has entered massive restructuring.
- The company has split into two smaller companies - Tokyopop Inc, a publishing house, and Tokyopop Media LLC, a digital/new media house.
- Publishing will drop from 470 volumes a year to 225-240 volumes a year.
- "39 positions" have been cut.
- Some of those positions belonged to people who had contact within the fandom and posted at forums and such.
- The announcement follows a massive storm after TokyoPop's "pact" for their Shining Stars Manga Pilot Program was noticed by members of the comics community.
Here's the heresay. None of this should be taken as truth, but there may be truth in them.
- This is rumoured to be tied to the fallout of Borders in the US.
- No one is sure what the impact of this is on a whole. It could be around 40% of the current staff.
- The PR rep who wrote the press release was tossed.
- This could be all PR spin and the actual job losses are much higher. I'm not sure where that number is from, but I think if there's truth to it, the higher number is from freelancers.
And here's a post from an recently ex-TokyoPop staff member about the potential future of some titles (post was from June 3rd, 2008, on the Anime on DVD forums):
I don't have any firm info on which titles are on the unfortunate end of this restructuring, and even the editors who are left at TOKYOPOP probably won't find out until tomorrow. But I'll make a few educated guesses (on the titles mentioned in this thread).
Safe: Fruits Basket, .hack//XXXX, .hack//G.U.+, D.N.Angel, Karin (Chibi Vampire), Kingdom Hearts II, CLAMP no Kiseki (book 12 is done, but absolutely no hope of the bonus figures or board)
Probably safe: Karin novels, Battle Vixens, Rave Master, Rose Hip Rose, Tokko
Guessing safe: Battle Club, Kyou Kara Maoh (manga), GTO: The Early Years
Probably not safe: Chronicles of the Cursed Sword, Rebirth (having had a vol. 1-3 omnibus is no guarantee; CotCS had one as well), Queen's Knight, Magic Moon
Guessing not safe: Atelier Marie and Elie Zarlburg Alchemist, Boys Be, Strawberry Marshmallow, Shrine of the Morning Mist, Sakura Taisen, Kindaichi
That's all I'm willing to speculate on, and even then I'm not sure it's wise. I would hope for more concrete word later in the week, but you may only end up finding out through Diamond cancellations.
This isn't the first collapse seen in the anime/manga market. Geneon pulled out of North America last fall, ADV has been struggling both on the DVD and publishing end for the past few months and Bandai Visual USA was liquidated to Bandai Entertainment just last month. You could argue that ALL of these had poor business practices, though. However, aside from ADV's manga publishing being very stop-and-go, this is the first major hit against the manga market in the recent round of market unstablity.
Some people are guessing that we could be reaching the edge of the current manga bubble. This would make sense, as TokyoPop flooded the market with titles. They seemed to appeal to young teens who wanted create comics, as can be seen in their official website. It's closer to a fansite than a publisher's site. While it may have been cute, the problem is a lot of the market is growing up. I'm almost 25. I like anime and read manga and comics, but avoid most of their fandom. TokyoPop's site looks like shite.
I'll also argue that their licenses don't appeal to people beyond an certian age group, however this is more based on my personal tastes. Yeah, they licenesed Planetes, which was some awesome hard science fiction, but there's been nothing like that since then. The only one I really got into was Aria, which was a blind buy after I heard good things about it. Meanwhile, other companies like Viz, Yen Press and Dark Horse (and ADV, whenever they start again) are publishing titles I'd actually buy. Again, this is personal tastes and my tastes are STRANGE.
