Tokyopop Ends North American Distribution

You know those days where you wake up, eat some breakfast, and then log on to the internet and low and behold, it seems that the world ended while you were sleeping and blissfully unaware?

That's what it felt like Friday when I heard that Tokyopop had announced that it was closing it's North American publishing division. I've been buying from Tokyopop since I first bought Marmalade Boy way back in 2005, so hearing that Tokyopop was shutting down it's North American division was quite disheartening.

Tokyopop was one of the leading manga distributors in the United States, along with Viz Media and DelRey. They were the first to pioneer publishing manga in it's original right to left reading format, instead of flipping it to be read left to right. With the trouble that manga industry has been facing due to illegal scans of manga being freely and easily available on the internet.

Tokyopop also cited Borders' recent filing for bankruptcy as one of the reasons for them closing. People are spending less and less time in physical bookstores, and I have personally noticed that the bookstores I frequent don't keep their manga stock very current.

What's even more discouraging is that last December Tokyopop opened up a print on demand store for some of their older titles. I was very excited about this, and was hoping that it would be a change to help the manga industry increase it's sales, since it would provide them with an additional revenue stream without the risk of not being able to sell all the stock they've purchased. Unfortunately, the print on demand store, along with the rest of their publishing, is not closed.

I'm hoping another company, like Viz, which has some of the most popular manga series like Naruto and Bleach, will make a move to do a print on demand model with some of their titles. While the popular ones will always sell in stores, it will hopefully be more economically safe for them to sell the more niche or older manga as print on demand purchases.

Here's hoping things start to look up, and as always, don't be a parasite.

Source: http://www.animenewsnetwork.com/news/2011-04-15/tokyopop-to-close-north-american-publishing-division

PodKAAst

Finally put up the first episode of the PodKAAst, where myself and other people involved with KeepAnimeAlive.com talk about the anime industry and what we are up to at KeepAnimeAlive.com.

Greg Ayres: State of the Industry Panel

Having finally finished uploading the Bootleg Panel from Bakuretsu Con 2010, I've moved on to the other panel Greg Ayres hosted concerning the welfare of the anime industry.

Greg Ayres talks about the state of the anime industry as it currently stands, detailing the damage he's seen done to the industry in his time, as well as the difficulties the industry has faced in attempting anime simulcasts.