Tokyopop closes North American offices

• BobYoMeowMeow wrote on 2011-04-19 02:06

  US manga publisher Tokyopop has officially announced that it will close its North American publishing division next month.
  
  The Beat reports that the company's Los Angeles offices are to close on May 31, while Tokyopop's German-based offices will continue to run alongside the film and television division.
  
  Tokyopop founder and CEO Stu Levy released a personal statement confirming the news, and thanked the company's fans for helping bring manga to the US.
  
  "Together, our community has fought the good fight, and as a result, the manga revolution has been won - manga has become a ubiquitous part of global pop culture," Levy said. "I'm very proud of what we've accomplished, and the incredible group of passionate fans we've served along the way.
  
  "My dream was to build a bridge between Japan and America, through the incredible stories I discovered as a student in Tokyo."
  
  Levy founded Tokyopop in 1997 and the company was responsible for kick-starting the English language manga craze of the last decade, with the likes of Sailor Moon and Fruits Basket among the publisher's more popular titles.
  
  Despite Tokyopop's well-documented financial troubles over the past few years, it was only in January that the company signed a new distribution deal with Diamond.
  
  However, by February the Tokyopop Los Angeles office had only six employees following a string of staff cuts, and Blizzard ended its licensing deal with the company last month.

  
  
  http://www.digitalspy.com/comics/news/a315003/tokyopop-closes-north-american-offices.html
  
  only 6 employees?
  thats harsh... then again who buys manga anymore
• Okitaru wrote on 2011-04-19 02:08
  Buy-fags buy manga by the metric duck tons.
  Even normal people buy a bit of manga.
  A lot of people buy manga.
• Juno wrote on 2011-04-19 02:21
  It's so readily available online...in order for things to work out for them, they'd need to make them just as available in stores...which is relatively impossible.
• RicochetOrange wrote on 2011-04-19 02:48
  So what is going to happen with all the manga they were selling?
• Taycat wrote on 2011-04-19 02:50

  Quote from RicochetOrange;415339:

  So what is going to happen with all the manga they were selling?

  
  
  The manga that stores already have will be sold still but they won't have anymore to restock.
• Sedia wrote on 2011-04-19 02:53
  I buy manga because I read it in class when there's nothing else to do. Then again online manga is free and there are a lot of sites that offer it.
• Yoorah wrote on 2011-04-19 19:15
  Piracy fail. >_>
• Adelynn wrote on 2011-04-20 01:42
  I buy manga when I actually have money. There was manga from TokyoPop I wanted to buy, but it looks like I'm not going to get to.
• otto wrote on 2011-04-20 17:16
  I buy manga when i have money because i like holding books in my hand Dx
  Not to mention, i like supporting a series if i really like it dammit. Reading manga online is fine if im impatient or if im just testing out a series, but i trust official translators more than i trust scanlating groups.
  
  Dammit man, i was gonna apply for their internship next year too -flipdesk-
• Sumpfkraut wrote on 2011-04-20 17:21
  I buy physical scripts because I can't stand reading books on a screen. Also physical copies are pretty.
  
  The last manga I bought was Akira vol. 1 and I plan to buy physical copies of all the others aswell.
• otto wrote on 2011-04-20 17:26

  Quote from Sumpfkraut;417011:

  I buy physical scripts because I can't stand reading books on a screen. Also physical copies are pretty.
  
  The last manga I bought was Akira vol. 1 and I plan to buy physical copies of all the others aswell.

  
  
  Indeed. You can appreciate the art more when you can see details that scanners dont always pick up -u-
• Adelynn wrote on 2011-04-20 17:57
  That and like it was said before, holding it in your hands just feels a lot nicer.
• Cucurbita wrote on 2011-04-20 18:15

  Quote from Yoorah;415941:

  Piracy fail. >_>

  
  
  I bought a few tokyopop mangas, and never freaking ever again.
  
  Sorry, but when you're being paid to make translations and edit, you should really do a bit better of a job.
  
  Its not even the "speed of release" everyone is talking about in their point of argument. The quality of the translation and editing is so horrendously poor, and the books themselves are completely made of the cheapest materials. They fall apart so easily. Compared to shonen jump's mangas, which are binded properly and doesn't use recycled newspaper to print their works.
  
  As a first time reader I found over 4 mistakes in the first volume of Rozen Maiden, and on the second read I found 5 more. Grammar, spelling, translation errors, and inconsistencies in names.
  
  And people wonder why even legit buyers are tempted to just stick to piracy.
• Adelynn wrote on 2011-04-21 16:02
  Rozen Maiden is probably the worst one I've run into. Other than that, I haven't really seen any problems with my TokyoPop.
  But still, the fangirl in me is like I'TS SuiginTOU.
  
  As for the falling apart thing..None of my manga has started to fall apart, except for one from Shonen Jump. They forgot to print some of the back,too, which was funny. I didn't know til I took the sticker off (can't stand stickers on my books).
• Taycat wrote on 2011-04-22 10:24
  I can tell you my KH manga from Tokyopop have indeed begun to fall apart.....
  
  And there's definitely at least one error in translating. Grammar error actually.