All Topics  
Tokyopop

 

 
   Email Print
   Bookmark   Link
 

 

Tokyopop
 
 
  Topics Tokyopop Topic Home

For the music movie, see Tokyo Pop
Tokyo Pop

is a music-centric movie from 1988 that tells the story of a girl from the USA, a boy from Japan, and a briefly successful pop band. The movie contrasts American customs with Tokyo lifestyles, as it presents an evolving love story between the two main characters....
.


Tokyopop, stylized TOKYOPOP, and formerly known as Mixx, is a distributor, licensor, and publisher of anime
Anime

is animation in Japan and considered to be "Japanese animation" in the rest of the world. Anime dates from about 1917.Anime, in addition to manga , is extremely popular in Japan and well known throughout the world....
, manga
Manga

, , are comics and print cartoons , in the Japanese language and conforming to the style developed in Japan in the late 20th century. In their modern form, manga date from shortly after World War II, but they have a long, complex pre-history in earlier Japanese art....
, and Original English-language manga
Original English-language manga

Original English-language manga or OEL manga is the term commonly used to describe comic books or graphic novels in the "international manga" genre of comics whose language of original publication is English language....
 in English
English language

English is a West Germanic language that originated in Anglo-Saxon England and has lingua franca status in many parts of the world as a result of the military, economic, scientific, political and cultural influence of the British Empire in the 18th, 19th and early 20th centuries and that of the United States from the mid 20th century onwa...
, German
German language

German is a West Germanic languages, thus related to and classified alongside English language and Dutch language. It is one of the world's world language and the most widely spoken mother tongue in the European Union....
, and Japanese
Japanese language

IPA: [n?iho?go] is a language spoken by over 130 million people in Japan and in Japanese emigrant communities. It is related to the Ryukyuan languages....
. Tokyopop is incorporated in Tokyo
Tokyo

, officially , is one of the 47 prefectures of Japan of Japan and located on the eastern side of the main island Honshu. The twenty-three special wards of Tokyo, each governed as a city, cover the area that was once the Tokyo City in the eastern part of the prefecture, and total over 8 million people....
, Japan
Japan

Japan is an island country in East Asia. Located in the Pacific Ocean, it lies to the east of the Sea of Japan, People's Republic of China, North Korea, South Korea and Russia, stretching from the Sea of Okhotsk in the north to the East China Sea and Taiwan in the south....
, with headquarters in Los Angeles
Los Angeles, California

Los Angeles is the largest city in the U.S. state of California and the List of United States cities by population in the United States. Often abbreviated as L.A. and nicknamed The City of Angels, Los Angeles is rated as a beta global city, has an estimated population of 3.8 million and spans over in Southern California....
, California
California

California is a U.S. state on the West Coast of the United States of the United States, along the Pacific Ocean. It is bordered by Oregon to the north, Nevada to the east, Arizona to the southeast, and to the south the Mexico state of Baja California....
 and branches in the UK
United Kingdom

The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, commonly known as the United Kingdom , the UK or Britain,is a sovereign state located off the northwestern coast of continental Europe....
 and Germany
Germany

Germany , officially the Federal Republic of Germany , is a country in Central Europe. It is bordered to the north by the North Sea, Denmark, and the Baltic Sea; to the east by Poland and the Czech Republic; to the south by Austria and Switzerland; and to the west by France, Luxembourg, Belgium, and the Netherlands....
. Tokyopop products are available internationally.

opop was originally founded in 1997 by Stuart J.






Discussion
Ask a question about 'Tokyopop'
Start a new discussion about 'Tokyopop'
Answer questions from other users
Full Discussion Forum



Encyclopedia


For the music movie, see Tokyo Pop
Tokyo Pop

is a music-centric movie from 1988 that tells the story of a girl from the USA, a boy from Japan, and a briefly successful pop band. The movie contrasts American customs with Tokyo lifestyles, as it presents an evolving love story between the two main characters....
.


Tokyopop, stylized TOKYOPOP, and formerly known as Mixx, is a distributor, licensor, and publisher of anime
Anime

is animation in Japan and considered to be "Japanese animation" in the rest of the world. Anime dates from about 1917.Anime, in addition to manga , is extremely popular in Japan and well known throughout the world....
, manga
Manga

, , are comics and print cartoons , in the Japanese language and conforming to the style developed in Japan in the late 20th century. In their modern form, manga date from shortly after World War II, but they have a long, complex pre-history in earlier Japanese art....
, and Original English-language manga
Original English-language manga

Original English-language manga or OEL manga is the term commonly used to describe comic books or graphic novels in the "international manga" genre of comics whose language of original publication is English language....
 in English
English language

English is a West Germanic language that originated in Anglo-Saxon England and has lingua franca status in many parts of the world as a result of the military, economic, scientific, political and cultural influence of the British Empire in the 18th, 19th and early 20th centuries and that of the United States from the mid 20th century onwa...
, German
German language

German is a West Germanic languages, thus related to and classified alongside English language and Dutch language. It is one of the world's world language and the most widely spoken mother tongue in the European Union....
, and Japanese
Japanese language

IPA: [n?iho?go] is a language spoken by over 130 million people in Japan and in Japanese emigrant communities. It is related to the Ryukyuan languages....
. Tokyopop is incorporated in Tokyo
Tokyo

, officially , is one of the 47 prefectures of Japan of Japan and located on the eastern side of the main island Honshu. The twenty-three special wards of Tokyo, each governed as a city, cover the area that was once the Tokyo City in the eastern part of the prefecture, and total over 8 million people....
, Japan
Japan

Japan is an island country in East Asia. Located in the Pacific Ocean, it lies to the east of the Sea of Japan, People's Republic of China, North Korea, South Korea and Russia, stretching from the Sea of Okhotsk in the north to the East China Sea and Taiwan in the south....
, with headquarters in Los Angeles
Los Angeles, California

Los Angeles is the largest city in the U.S. state of California and the List of United States cities by population in the United States. Often abbreviated as L.A. and nicknamed The City of Angels, Los Angeles is rated as a beta global city, has an estimated population of 3.8 million and spans over in Southern California....
, California
California

California is a U.S. state on the West Coast of the United States of the United States, along the Pacific Ocean. It is bordered by Oregon to the north, Nevada to the east, Arizona to the southeast, and to the south the Mexico state of Baja California....
 and branches in the UK
United Kingdom

The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, commonly known as the United Kingdom , the UK or Britain,is a sovereign state located off the northwestern coast of continental Europe....
 and Germany
Germany

Germany , officially the Federal Republic of Germany , is a country in Central Europe. It is bordered to the north by the North Sea, Denmark, and the Baltic Sea; to the east by Poland and the Czech Republic; to the south by Austria and Switzerland; and to the west by France, Luxembourg, Belgium, and the Netherlands....
. Tokyopop products are available internationally.

History

Tokyopop was originally founded in 1997 by Stuart J. Levy.

When they were known as Mixx, they sold MixxZine, a manga magazine. Mixx also sold the shojo
Shojo

The term refers to manga marketed to a female audience roughly between the ages of 10 and 18. The name Romanization of Japanese the Japanese language wikt:?? , literally "young girl"....
 manga
Manga

, , are comics and print cartoons , in the Japanese language and conforming to the style developed in Japan in the late 20th century. In their modern form, manga date from shortly after World War II, but they have a long, complex pre-history in earlier Japanese art....
 anthology Smile
SMILE (magazine)

SMILE is an international magazine of multiple origins. Since 1984, an estimated 100 different issues of SMILE have been published by different people in different countries of the world....
. Mixxzine later became Tokyopop
TOKYOPOP (magazine)

Tokyopop magazine, originally named MixxZine, was a manga anthology published in North America by Tokyopop .MixxZine at the start published four series, two of which were shojo and two of which were seinen:...
 before it was discontinued. In 2005 Tokyopop began a new, free publication, called Manga
Manga (magazine)

Manga magazine, formerly known as Takuhai, is a free quarterly magazine published by TOKYOPOP, which gives preview chapters of a selection of the company's new manga titles, as well as fan art and short articles....
 (originally Takuhai), to feature their latest releases.

Tokyopop is one of the biggest manga publishers outside of Japan and as such has been attributed with popularizing Manhwa
Manhwa

Manhwa is the general Korean language term for comics and print cartoons . Outside of Korea, the term usually refers specifically to South Korean comics.a has been influenced by the dramatic modern history of Korea, resulting in a diversity of forms and genres, including a mainstream style similar to manga....
 in the United States. Tokyopop "published many Korean artists' work, possibly without Western fans even realizing the strips don't come from Japan. Series like King of Hell
King of Hell

is a Korean manhwa written by Ra In-soo and illustrated by Kim Jae-hwan. In the United States, King of Hell is published by TOKYOPOP.Plot...
 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 March 2006, Tokyopop and HarperCollins Publishers
HarperCollins

HarperCollins is a publishing company owned by News Corporation. It is the combination of the publishers William Collins, Sons and Co Ltd, a British company, and Harper & Row, an American company....
 announced a co-publishing agreement in which the sale and distribution rights of some Tokyopop manga and books, under this co-publishing license, are transferred to HarperCollins in mid-June 2006. The agreement also enables Tokyopop to produce Original English-language manga (OEL) adaptations of HarperCollins' books. Meg Cabot
Meg Cabot

Meg Cabot is an United States Chick lit author of romantic comedies for teens and adults. She has written under the name Meggin Cabot, as well as the pseudonyms Patricia Cabot and Jenny Carroll....
's books will be the first to be adapted into the manga format, while another series will be the Warriors series by Erin Hunter. The first line of Tokyopop-HarperCollins OEL manga will be released in 2007 with the goal to publish up to 24 titles each year.

Tokyopop has released several series based on American games, films, and characters, such as Warcraft
Warcraft

Warcraft: Orcs & Humans is a real-time strategy game, developed and published by Blizzard Entertainment in 1994. The game is set in the Kingdom of Azeroth, part of the fictional Warcraft universe....
 and Jim Henson
Jim Henson

'James Maury "Jim" Henson' , was one of the most widely known puppeteers in American television history. He was the creator of The Muppets, Fraggle Rock, and the leading force behind their long run in the television series Sesame Street and The Muppet Show and films such as The Muppet Movie and The Dark Crystal and Labyrinth...
 films. They recently released the first volume of a series based on the Hellgate: London
Hellgate: London

Hellgate: London is a now-defunct dark fantasy-themed action role-playing game Software developer by Flagship Studios and released on October 31, 2007....
 video game in April 2008.

2008 restructuring

In June 2008, the company announced that the company was being restructured, with its name being changed to Tokyopop Group, a holding group for several new subsidiaries. The existing Tokyopop operations in the United States will be split into two subsidiaries: Tokyopop, Inc. and Tokyopop Media. Tokyopop, Inc. consists of the company's existing publications business, while Tokyopop Media focuses on the company's digital and comics-to-film works. Tokyopop Media will also manage the Tokypop website, which will continue to promote its publications. According to Tokyopop representative Mike Kiley, the division into two companies will allow the company to "set things up in ways that would very clearly and definitively allow those businesses to focus on what they need to do to succeed. The goals in each company are different and the achievement of those goals is more realistic, more possible if everyone working in each of those companies is very clearly focused."

During the restructure, Tokyopop laid off 39 positions, equating to 35-40% of its total American workforce. Most of the positions cut were those involved in the direct publication of its books. The publication output from Tokyopop, Inc. will be scaled back. 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 will also be split, with one unit operating under Tokyopop Media and the other becoming a subsidiary under the overall Tokyopop Group. In response to Tokyopop's restructuring, declining sales, and losing 20% of its manga market share, Tokyopop UK cut its publication release schedule from approximately 25 volumes a month to 20.

In December 2008, citing "dramatically low sales" in the publishing industry as a whole, Tokyopop, Inc. laid off an eight more employees, including three editors, and noted that the company would have to rearrange some of its upcoming publication schedules.

Foreign markets

In summer 2004, Tokyopop founded its first foreign branch in Germany
Germany

Germany , officially the Federal Republic of Germany , is a country in Central Europe. It is bordered to the north by the North Sea, Denmark, and the Baltic Sea; to the east by Poland and the Czech Republic; to the south by Austria and Switzerland; and to the west by France, Luxembourg, Belgium, and the Netherlands....
, headquartered in Hamburg
Hamburg

Hamburg is the second-largest city in Germany , and is the Largest cities of the European Union by population within city limits. The city is home to approximately 1.8 million people, while the Hamburg metropolitan area has more than 4.3 million inhabitants....
. The first manga and manhwa by Tokyopop Germany were published in November 2004, and the first anime in fall 2005.

Also in 2004, Tokyopop set up a London
London

London is the capital of both England and the United Kingdom, and the most populous municipality in the European Union. An important settlement for two millennia, History of London goes back to its founding by the Roman Empire....
, UK
United Kingdom

The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, commonly known as the United Kingdom , the UK or Britain,is a sovereign state located off the northwestern coast of continental Europe....
 office that mainly imports books from the U.S.
United States

The United States of America is a Federal government constitutional republic comprising U.S. state and a federal district. The country is situated mostly in central North America, where its Contiguous United States and Washington, D.C., the Capital districts and territories, lie between the Pacific Ocean and Atlantic Oceans, Borders of the U...
 and distributes them into bookstores in the United Kingdom
United Kingdom

The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, commonly known as the United Kingdom , the UK or Britain,is a sovereign state located off the northwestern coast of continental Europe....
. Tokyopop released an anime
Anime

is animation in Japan and considered to be "Japanese animation" in the rest of the world. Anime dates from about 1917.Anime, in addition to manga , is extremely popular in Japan and well known throughout the world....
 collection in the United Kingdom market in late 2006, including titles such as Initial D
Initial D

is a manga by Shuichi Shigeno which has been serialized in Kodansha's Young Magazine since 1995. It has been adapted into a long-running anime series by Pastel, Studio Gallop, and OB Planning, which premiered in Japan on Fuji TV and Animax, and a Initial D by Avex and Media Asia....
 and Great Teacher Onizuka
Great Teacher Onizuka

, officially abbreviated to GTO, is a Japanese shonen manga written and illustrated by Tohru Fujisawa. It was originally serialized in Weekly Shonen Magazine from May 1997 to April 2002....
. Vampire Princess Miyu
Vampire Princess Miyu

is a Japanese horror fiction manga series by Narumi Kakinouchi and Toshiki Hirano, as well as an anime adaptation by the same creators. The anime was originally presented in a 4-episode OVA licenced by AnimEigo in 1988, and was later adapted into a 26-episode television series licensed by Tokyopop and released in 1997....
 was released on DVD
DVD

DVD, also known as "Digital Versatile Disc" or "Digital Video Disc,"is a popular optical disc data storage device media format. Its main uses are video and data storage....
 by MVM Entertainment, and Kids TV channel Toonami
Toonami

Toonami was a registered trademark of Cartoon Network , used initially for action-oriented programming blocks on Cartoon Network television channels worldwide, mostly showing American and Japanese cartoons, originating in the United States on March 17, 1997 and ended on September 20, 2008....
 aired the first half of Rave Master
Rave Master

, is a manga series written and illustrated by Hiro Mashima. The manga was serialized in Shonen Magazine from July 1999 through July 2005, and published in thirty-five tankobon ...
 in early 2005.

Tokyopop also distributes some of their titles to Australia
Australia

Australia, officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a country in the southern hemisphere comprising the Australia of the world's smallest continent, the major island of Tasmania, and numerous list of islands of Australia in the Indian Ocean and Pacific Oceans....
 and New Zealand
New Zealand

New Zealand is an island country in the south-western Pacific Ocean comprising two main landmasses , and numerous Islands of New Zealand, most notably Stewart Island/Rakiura and the Chatham Islands....
 through Funtastic who recently acquired Madman Entertainment
Madman Entertainment

Madman Entertainment is an Australian company that specialises in the distribution of Japanese anime and manga in Australia and New Zealand. The company is owned by the ASX listed Funtastic Limited and Madman Entertainment is one of the major entertainment companies in Australia, along with Warner Bros....
. In Greece, Tokyopop-owned properties are licensed by AnubisComics
Compupress

Compupress is a Greek publishing company formed in 1982. Originally the company was formed in order to publish computer magazines and books, through the years though it developed into an innovating little company that created a number of significant new projects helping the propagation of technology awareness mainly among the younger generati...
.

Criticism


Americanization


Fans critical of possible mishandling of the Initial D
Initial D

is a manga by Shuichi Shigeno which has been serialized in Kodansha's Young Magazine since 1995. It has been adapted into a long-running anime series by Pastel, Studio Gallop, and OB Planning, which premiered in Japan on Fuji TV and Animax, and a Initial D by Avex and Media Asia....
 property, voiced concerns regarding "editorial changes" in the localization
Localization

Localization or localisation may refer to:* GSM localization, a technique for determining the location of a user of a cell phone or wireless transceiver...
 of the manga and anime. The changes included renaming of several characters and the removal of one character's involvement in Enjo kosai
Enjo kosai

means "compensated dating" and is a practice which originated in Japan where older men give money and/or luxury gifts to attractive women for their companionship, and possibly sexual favors....
, a practice in Japan where younger women are paid to provide older men with companionship. In a letter sent to Anime News Network
Anime News Network

Anime News Network is an anime industry news website that reports on the status of anime, manga, J-pop and other otaku-related culture within North America and Japan....
, 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. They also felt that the series would reach a larger audience if it had a broader American appeal.

The company alleviated some of the concerns by noting that the anime series would receive an "unedited, subtitled, Japanese language" DVD release. The manga series remained edited except for the first volume, which was accidentally printed before the editing decisions were made.

There are other criticisms of Tokyopop's editing of manga. The sound effects are often left untranslated, and honorifics are removed. Translations of light novel
Light novel

A is a novel primarily targeting teens and young adults. The term "light novel" is a wasei-eigo, or a Japanese term formed from words in the English language....
s have been criticized as being "stilted and unnatural to the point of being distracting", and manga texts include "numerous misplaced and dangling modifiers, a couple of verb tense and punctuation errors, and a number of misused words that were probably typos that passed the spellcheck test".

See also

Category:Tokyopop


External links