It has been confirmed that [sitelink=publishers.html?id=234]Tokyopop[/sitelink] is shutting down it's North American publishing operations. However, their film and European divisions will still remain open. It's still unknown what will happen to their licensed series. More information will be released in the coming weeks.

Information from Anime News Network

A just ruler amongst tyrants

OMG worst news I've read today. Most of my collection will just be left hanging... now

I exist to destroy you.

All of my cries. I'm not following a ton of their series but this is still such a big blow. I can't believe I'm actually going to cry.

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If this is an attempt to stop illegal scanning, then its the worst one ever lol. They just gave Scanlators more reason to pirate hahahahaha.

wheres the like button 🙂

Errr. If anything, I'm guessing it's the illegal scanlations that contributed to them closing shop.

Tokyo Illusion

Tokyopop had their Kodansha licenses pulled out some months ago, considering how Shueisha recently taken over Del Rey licenses to establish their own publishing name in NA ...

Tokyopop really did not had much going beyond the odd series from smaller publishers, besides they really butchered series (as Ikki Tousen) that make it unlikely to compete with other English publishers, also add the closing of Borders and how chain bookstores are struggling and that should be about it.

What part of "Please do not put in huge images!" did you fail to understand?

I agree with this. Most likely people aren't buying so they're losing profit.

Illogical posters are illogical.

Check out my deviantart at jennerality!

Don't be fooled. This isn't about copyright infringement in ANY way shape or form. This is about Stu Levy's mismanagement of the company. He did the same thing ADV did-- tried to spin off a media company by siphoning off profits.

Tokyopop sold LOTS of stuff. Because Stu was busy blowing the wad on his latest extravagant project (The live action PRIEST film), they couldn't afford to keep their licenses or pay their staff. Note in the article that he blames Borders' bankruptcy for Tokyopop going bankrupt... which is PURE BS being that Amazon and B&N are doing brisk business.

Don't blame scanners, fans, or anyone else for this but Stu Levy. This was his baby, and he let drown in the bathtub.

Yup, I think airbattler summed it up perfectly.

I agree totally but you know it wasn't just the movie. The fancy Ai princess trailer they made? The OEL manga, the anime they began selling and lots of the titles....please.
After the failure once where you had to drop all the good manga titles cuz you fucked up the readers and the company, you don't go and drop all of the manwha, and still keep the OEL and buy lots of new titles going: "We will work on what we want to in the future."
That's crappy management and then a few months ago they screamed: "Don't expect us to not drop the title if you aren't buying it before it's complete"...again please.

If we could trust that much on them we wouldn't wait for the title to complete but "Fool me once, shame on you; fool me twice, shame on me", and after losing half the title I bought from them cuz they discontinued and blamed others for it...well I'm not trusting them. Good thing I didn't cuz other wise I would have 75% of my titles dropped again this time.

YaY for taking Japanese seriously!

It is a bit sad to see Tokyopop go. They put out good titles in the past and streamlined the translation process for the better in most cases. Still, they didn't offer a good enough alternative to scanlations and that killed them more than any loss of Kodansha titles.

Still, a part of me wouldn't mind seeing most of the publishers of licensed manga just stop. Every time I hear a series is going to be published in the US, the time lag before translation/release coupled with fears of censorship and general mishandling of the title bothers the hell out of me. I won't be surprised to see if/when Viz or Del Ray drops next.

second this

i think this is the best news in a while.

tokyopop is on my hate list number one.

and srew this stupid arguemnt the industry is loosing to much profit because of piracy. they made more money then every before.

scanlation is so small the number of people who dont buy because of scanlation is a fraction of the people who do read their series. i would be willing to bet that people who read in bookstores but dont buy make up a bigger % of the industry than scanlation. you know why it takes so long for groups to get C&D letters? its because (the legal system takes a while) and the big publishers aren't even aware of most of the groups scanlating.