Tokyopop: История американского издательства манги и аниме

German American entertainment company

Tokyopop (styled TOKYOPOP; formerly known as Mixx Entertainment) is an American distributor, licensor and publisher of anime, manga, manhwa and Western manga style works. The German publishing division produces German translations of licensed Japanese properties and original English language manga, as well as original German language manga. Tokyopop's US publishing division publishes works in English. Tokyopop has its US headquarters near Los Angeles International Airport in Los Angeles, California. Its parent company's offices are in Tokyo, Japan and its sister company's office is in Hamburg, Germany.

Tokyopop was founded in 1997 by Stuart J. Levy. In the late 1990s, the company's headquarters were in Los Angeles. Tokyopop published a manga magazine called MixxZine which serialized four classic manga including Sailor Moon, Magic Knight Rayearth, Parasyte, and Ice Blade. Eventually, MixxZine became an Asian pop culture publication entitled Tokyopop Magazine. Additionally, the company published a manga and tech magazine entitled Smile Magazine. Cultural anthropologist Rachel Thorn praised Stu Levy for opening up an untapped market for animation with the publication of Sailor Moon and other. Before Sailor Moon, the belief among entertainment executives was that "girls don't watch cartoons." Due to Sailor Moon's immense popularity, Tokyopop discontinued the serial from its magazines, and released it separately as its first manga graphic novel. They engineered prominent book distribution via retail stores, standardized book trim size, created a basic industry wide rating system, and developed the first ever retail manga displays and introduced the world of graphic novels to an audience of teenage girls. Also, together with Diamond, Tokyopop offered retailers free spinner rack displays for Tokyopop manga, thereby increasing the visibility of the medium in bookstores. Tokyopop also licensed and distributed Japanese anime. In 1996, Mixx Entertainment acquired the rights to the anime biopic of Japanese poet Kenji Miyazawa, and Stu Levy produced and directed the English version of the anime film, entitled Spring and Chaos. The film was directed and scripted by Shōji Kawamori, who created Super Dimension Fortress Macross and The Vision of Escaflowne. Taste of Cinema ranked "Spring and Chaos" thirteenth in its list of Top "25 Weird Animated Movies That Are Worth Your Time." From 2000 to 2004, Tokyopop released multiple film and television projects such as Street Fury, which Stu Levy created, GTO (English version for Showtime TV), Rave Master (English version for Cartoon Network's Toonami), and Reign: The Conqueror (English version for Cartoon Network's Adult Swim.) Tokyopop also released English version DVDs for: Initial D, Marmalade Boy, Saint Tail, Samurai Girl: Real Bout High School, Vampire Princess Miyu, Brigadoon, FMW, High School Ghostbusters.

In 2002, Tokyopop launched its line of "100% Authentic Manga", which was printed in the original Japanese right to left format and included the original Japanese printed sound effects. In Japan, most published manga is written to read from right to left, but when an English translation was published in the U. S., however, the common practice was to use computer reversed or mirror images that allowed the books to read from left to right. As a result, this distorted the artwork. Tokyopop's decision to use the original right to left format allowed the artwork to keep its original form and also enabled Tokyopop to release most graphic novel series on a frequency three to six times faster than the industry standard at the time. Tokyopop volumes hit the shelves monthly, bi monthly or quarterly versus the six months or longer typical of competitors. It also allowed Tokyopop to sell books for an industry leading price point of $9.99 per book, at a time when most competitors charged $12.99 to $16.99 per book. Tokyopop was the first U. S. publisher to adopt such a sweeping policy. While some Japanese manga artists had required that the English versions of their manga be published from right to left, Tokyopop was the first American publisher to unilaterally announce that it would maintain the original format for all of its future manga titles. An "authentic manga" how to guide was included in each graphic novel to keep readers from accidentally reading the final page first, and the authentic manga also featured special packaging.

Tokyopop launched their Global Manga publishing program in 2003 via the introduction of its "Rising Stars of Manga" talent competition. The competition called for American manga artists to submit 15–25 page English language stories of any genre. The top 10 entries, as judged by Tokyopop editors, received cash prizes (between $500 – $2500) and were published in an anthology of the winning works. The grand prize winners were also given the chance to pitch full length manga projects to Tokyopop for a chance to become professional manga ka. Tokyopop launched its first "Rising Stars of Manga" contest on August 15, 2002, and ended it on December 16, 2002, with more than five hundred American artists submitting their 15–25 page, English language stories. The 5th Rising Stars of Manga competition added the People's Choice award, where the top 20 finalists had their entire entries judged by the fans on the Tokyopop website. "We are really pleased to open up the Rising Stars judging to the fans," commented Tokyopop editor Rob Valois. "Since so many people have been vocal on the message boards and at industry conventions, we're offering them all a chance to shape the future of manga. I'm personally excited to see how the fans' favorite will compare to our own." Tokyopop held eight Rising Stars of Manga competitions between 2002 and 2008, as well as one in the UK in 2005. Several Rising Stars of Manga winners went on to publish full length graphic novels with Tokyopop, including Josh Elder with Mail Order Ninja, M. Alice LeGrow with Bizenghast, Mike Schwark and Ron Kaulfersch with Van Von Hunter, Lindsay Cibos and Jared Hodges with Peach Fuzz, Wes Abbot with Dogby Walks Alone, Felipe Smith with MBQ, Nathan Maurer with Atomic King Daidogan,. As of July 2022, a new Rising Starts of Manga 25th Year Anniversary edition was announced.

Tokyopop became one of the biggest manga publishers outside Japan, and as such, was attributed with popularizing manga in the United States. By 2004, it boasted the largest market share of manga sales in the U. S., reaching as high as 50% of manga exports to the United States, according to Nissei Weekly. Tokyopop was also instrumental in the introduction of manhwa to western audiences. Brad Brooks and Tim Pilcher, authors of The Essential Guide to World Comics. London, said that Tokyopop "published many Korean artists' work, possibly without Western fans even realizing the strips don't come from Japan. Series like King of Hell by Kim Jae hwan and Ra In soo, and the Gothic vampire tale Model by Lee So young are both Korean, but could easily be mistaken for manga." In 2005, Tokyopop began a new, free publication called Manga (originally Takuhai) to feature their latest releases. Tokyopop secured newspaper distribution in the form of Sunday comics, featuring its titles Princess Ai, Mail Order Ninja, Peach Fuzz, and Van Von Hunter. In March 2006, Tokyopop and HarperCollins Publishers announced a co publishing agreement in which the sale and distribution rights of some Tokyopop manga and books, under this co publishing license, would be transferred to HarperCollins in mid June 2006. The agreement enabled Tokyopop to produce original English language (OEL) manga adaptations of HarperCollins' books. Meg Cabot's books were the first to be adapted into the manga format, along with the Warriors series by Erin Hunter. The first line of Tokyopop HarperCollins OEL manga was released in 2007 with the goal of publishing up to 24 titles each year. Tokyopop entered a licensing arrangement with Kaplan, a leading provider of educational and training services in 2007, to help students study vocabulary words in preparation for the SATs. Tokyopop has released several series based on American games, films, and characters, such as Warcraft, the Kingdom Hearts video game series, and Jim Henson films. They released the first volume of a series based on the Hellgate: London video game in April 2008.

TOKYOPOP pioneered the Cine Manga format, which took popular animated and live action series and films and turned them into colored print editions. Titles included popular Nickelodeon cartoon series like Avatar: The Last Airbender and SpongeBob SquarePants. As well as franchises such as Star Wars, Akira, Lizzie McGuire, Card Captor Sakura, Kim Possible, Family Guy, Hannah Montana, amongst many others.

In June 2008, Tokyopop announced that it was being restructured, with its name being changed to Tokyopop Group, a holding group for several new subsidiaries. The Tokyopop operations in the United States were split into two subsidiaries: Tokyopop, Inc., and Tokyopop Media. Tokyopop, Inc. consisted of the company's existing publications business, while Tokyopop Media focused on the company's digital and comics to film works. Tokyopop reported that it would be cutting the volumes released per year by approximately 50%, to an average of 20–22 volumes per month. Tokyopop's Japan division was also to be split, with one unit operating under Tokyopop Media and the other becoming a subsidiary under the overall Tokyopop Group. In December 2008, citing "dramatically low sales" in the publishing industry as a whole, Tokyopop, Inc., laid off eight more employees, including three editors, and noted that the company would have to rearrange some of its upcoming publication schedules.

Licenses from the Japanese manga publisher Kodansha, historically, were a large part of Tokyopop's catalog. In the years leading up to 2009, the number of Kodansha titles licensed by Tokyopop decreased. The final new Kodansha title was Tokko by Tohru Fujisawa, and the final batch of volumes of Kodansha titles appeared around March 2009. Around that time Kodansha began to consistently give licenses to its manga to competitor Del Rey Manga. Deb Aoki of About. com said "Well, more or less. You get the idea. If you're the type who reads the tea leaves of the manga publishing biz, you kinda sensed that things weren't quite the same as they used to be." On August 31, 2009, Tokyopop announced Kodansha was allowing all of its licensing agreements with both the North American and German divisions of Tokyopop to expire for reasons unknown. Due to this loss in licensing, Tokyopop was forced to leave several Kodansha series unfinished, including the popular Rave Master, Initial D, GetBackers, and Life series. It would be unable to reprint any previously published volumes, rendering all Kodansha owned Tokyopop releases out of print. Several other titles licensed and published by Tokyopop, including best sellers Cardcaptor Sakura, Chobits, Clover, and Magic Knight Rayearth, were reacquired by Dark Horse Comics, though two other titles Kodansha licensed to Dark Horse had since transferred to Random House by then.

In February 2011, the president and chief operating officer, John Parker, resigned from the company and took the position of vice president of business development for Diamond. This came shortly after Diamond became Tokyopop's new distributor, taking the business from HarperCollins. Tokyopop did not name a replacement for Parker. Parker's departure left only three remaining executives: the founder and CEO, Stuart Levy; Publisher, Mike Kiley; and Vice President of Inventory, Victor Chin. On March 1, Tokyopop continued to lay off workers, removing many high profile employees such as long time manga editors Lilian Diaz Przyhyl and Troy Lewter. Tokyopop's management also eliminated the position of director of sales operations. In an interview with ICv2, Stuart Levy revealed that the layoffs were due to Borders Group, Tokyopop's largest customer, filing bankruptcy in March 2011, no longer carrying Tokyopop stock, and not paying debts that the company owed to Tokyopop.

On April 15, 2011, Tokyopop announced that it would close its Los Angeles, CA–based North American publishing operations on May 31, 2011. According to the release, Tokyopop's film and television projects, as well as European publishing operations and global rights sales, would not be closing. The UK branch would cease to operate after May 31 due to their reliance on the importing of the North American branch's product. Stuart Levy, Tokyopop's founder, released a personal statement reaffirming Tokyopop's role in introducing manga to the mainstream North American audience and thanking fans, creators, and employees for their dedication. On May 24, Tokyopop stated that the manga they licensed would revert to their original owners, who may license the titles to other companies.

Tokyopop's European entity is located in Hamburg, Germany and publishes both print and digital titles across a range of content and formats. In 2021, Tokyopop GmbH was one of Germany's Top 100 publishing companies. The first manga and manhwa by Tokyopop Germany were published in November 2004, and the first anime in the fall of 2005. In 2006, Tokyopop GmbH entered a "strategic partnership" with the Japanese publisher Shueisha, allowing them to publish popular titles such as Death Note and Bleach. The company has also released a number of original German language manga, including Gothic Sports, winner of a 2007 Sondermann award. Tokyopop GmbH continues to operate as a publisher of German language manga for the international market after the closure of the US publishing office. In addition to publishing popular manga titles, Tokyopop GmbH also expanded the market by producing new and exciting cross media content, including licensing popular video game franchises such as Assassin's Creed and Zelda and bestselling novels such as James Patterson and Warriors. In 2013, the company launched a prestige project called Manga Library, which adapted classic literary novels into manga. According to GFK Entertainment, as of 2014 in the core segment of manga, Tokyopop GmbH is currently the second largest provider, with a market share of 27%. Additionally, in the last two years, Tokyopop GmbH had the fastest growth rate out of the big three manga suppliers in the German market, with a growth rate of 29% in 2014. This compares with Egmont Ehapa at 6.5% and Carlsen Verlag at 1.8%.

In 2004, Tokyopop set up a division in the United Kingdom based in London that mainly imported books from its original American counterpart and distributed them to bookstores in both the United Kingdom and the Republic of Ireland. Tokyopop released an anime collection in both countries in late 2006, including titles such as Initial D and Great Teacher Onizuka. Vampire Princess Miyu was released on DVD by MVM Entertainment and the Toonami television channel aired the first half of Rave Master in early 2005. It was announced on the official Tokyopop Facebook page that because the British division mainly imported the North American branch's translated titles, it would become defunct with the only open branch being the German division. Tokyopop distributed some of its titles to Australia and New Zealand via Madman Entertainment/Funtastic and in Greece, Tokyopop properties were licensed by Anubis Comics. Tokyopop partnered with IDW International in February 2018 to license its original intellectual property (IP) and manga in overseas markets.

Blu Manga is an imprint under which Tokyopop published shōnen ai and yaoi manga titles. The imprint was launched in 2005. Initially, the company denied that it owned Blu, stating that it was only distributing for another company. The company released no editor names, nor company contact info out of fear there would be backlash and hate mail from "moral crusaders". Blu Manga considered that their "non girly" branding had enabled the imprint, in a genre stereotypically created by women for women, to reach out to a male and gay audience. Early titles published by BLU were Earthian, Love Mode, and Shinobu Kokoro.

In 2020, Tokyopop introduced a new Inclusive Romance manga lineup, with a focus on providing BL/Yaoi manga, GL/Yuri manga, and male/female romance manga under the same imprint.

Fans critical of possible mishandling of the Initial D property voiced concerns regarding "editorial changes" in the language localization of the manga and anime. The changes included renaming of several characters and the removal of one character's involvement in enjo kōsai, a practice in Japan where younger women are paid to provide older men with companionship. In a letter sent to Anime News Network, Tokyopop responded to the criticisms, noting that they felt the edits were necessary because they were marketing the series to a younger target audience than it was originally designed for in Japan. In an interview by Anime News Network, Tokyopop staff stated they also felt that the series would reach a larger audience if it had a broader American appeal.

The company published books for younger children including picture books based on Japanese character Stray Sheep.

Tokyopop has licensed several Disney manga titles and series in the US, including Nightmare Before Christmas, Descendants, Kilala Princess and Donald Duck Visits Japan.