Whenever I find a vendor booth or a shop selling Tokyopop manga from before the 2008 layoffs I look through books to find ones with my older sister's name on the credits page. She used to do graphic design work for the book covers and when I was in my biggest weeb phase it was a point of pride to show off that my big sister worked for Tokyopop.
does she still do any graphic design work? i think graphic design is awesome and i would love to see some of her work in case you have any links or something - thanks for reading and have a great day!
Red: Tokyopop is dead Me, a German dude: What? Half of my manga are from Tokyopop. How can this be? Red: But the german branch still exist. Me: aaaaaaaaah
I remember giving my Tokyo Pop Love Hina collection to my local library. I wanted under privileged kids to enjoy the series as much as I did. When I walked in, an elderly black lady was in charge of the "Teens Section" where manga was shelved (bless their hearts, they didn't know), and when I showed her my original first run Tokyo Pop Love Hina that I was just giving to her, she said suddenly "You do realize they don't publish this anymore. They're collector items. Furthermore, we couldn't replace them when they're inevitably damaged." I told her my reasoning, and insisted she put them up there anyway. She did, and only a few days ago did I return to see most of the collection remained! Regardless, I thought it was very funny an old black lady was more "in tune" with the manga craze of yester year than even I was. In my mind, I imagine her more of an otaku than myself, and that makes me smile.
@@alronkevinarzaga5936 Back in the day libraries used to keep mexican novella sections that were way more freaky than manga. They had those sections in the 80's and 90s and they were floor to ceiling crazy.
Yoooo I’ve been reading manga forever and didn’t realize Tokyopop was gone until I went to a thrift store and looked at all the Tokyopop manga they had. I was like woah hold up what happened to them?!? It was everywhere when I was little!! Then this video popped up on my recommendations! So perfect, thank you, great video :)
it was common back then. i have glenat's (france's monument of comics and manga) mag at home. same thing. shonen mixed with seinen that were waaay child unfriendly.
Hah - YEP. I was a wee thing when my sis handed a copy of the Mixxzine to me, she'd only skimmed it and seen the first couple of stories which were Rayearth and Sailor Moon. The rest of the book was Ice Blade which went over my head and Parasyte which gave me nightmares.
It literally traumatized me as a kid reading Parasyte after the Sailor Moon and Rayearth chapters, ah good times. I still have my copy of the first issue
Mine's a Five Below now. Not a terrible tradeoff, but I miss that book store so much. I was planning to get the DnD monster manuals they had there, among other things. :(
Tokyopop hasn't been on my mind for well over a decade, despite those terrible contracts I think they deserve credit for what they did for the industry. I'm glad the initial video concept evolved into something like this, it really reflects your skill as a researcher and as a video producer by bringing to light stories that were otherwise lost to obscurity. Excellent video Yaoi Paddle Historian.
@@Peannlui it would be really interesting to hear more from your side. If you're under an NDA or cannot disclose information for any other reason that's understandable though.
It's also common concensus that that TP managed to churn out so much manga so fast (and be cheaper) was because they also had a fairly rush job approach to their translations and editing. Whilst not as terrible as Google Translate quality... there was a fair few grammar and spelling errors and their clean-up and editing was also lazy at times ie. not bothering to change onomatopoeia or just do a really dodgy put a white box/paint job cut on the sound effects/speech ballons and overlay translations instead of doing proper redraws/touch ups and on some occasions the cut/paste box doesn't even completely cover the original jp txt so you would see portions of it peeking under the obvious space they cut/paste.
@@RocKM001 I always remember thinking TokyoPop was inferior quality to Shonen back when I was in Highschool, so I tended to avoid Tokyopop in favor of other distributors.
That was SUCH a good manga. I remember I binged it in like a week or so, back when I was in eighth grade. I had to borrow it from friends because I felt like I would be judged by my parents if I went out and bought it myself, but oh man I loved it so much. I just saw it on the shelf at the library I work at and if I had time I'd definitely give it a reread, but between school and work right now I just... don't.
@@lkj2145 When I was a kid, I had a short attention span, so I didn't manage to keep up with it after I bought the first three volumes. I regretted that so much that I bought the remaining eight volumes from Amazon for my birthday last year and binged the whole thing in a single day. It was beautiful, but it also made me realize how much I had missed out.
*deep sigh* Ah, Tokyopop.... their fall led to my absolute favorite manga series never getting its last two volumes getting translated. It's one of those series that Kodansha doesn't want to put money in, and I'm super sad.
The same thing happened to me. They stopped translating my favourite manga, Immortal Rain, after volume 8. Luckily, Vertical have started publishing the author's other work (Kaori Ozaki)
I remember one panel at a con years ago, with one of the OEL authors (The Dreaming) and that's where I heard about the shadiness, and how she told me, it was a nightmare to deal with.
I’d love a video on that just to fully understand what was going on with that. I’ve only ever really heard fragments outside of Tokyopop’s spins, and having something comprehensive would be nice.
This really explains everything when I was back in high school and finding manga was hard, because there was no Borders in my town, but Barnes and Noble. Even though Barnes and Noble had manga, it was just two small shelves full of maybe a few volumes of Shonen Jump, Shojo manga, and Korean comics. Today, there is entire row of manga and Tokyopop was no where to be found.
The only proper bookstore where I live is Indigo in the local mall. It's a fairly small bookstore and they have two shelves for manga, most of which are Viz.
Hex Maniac Anina There are still some publishers that have their books around that price. : ) Viz Media’s Shonen Jump titles are usually around 9.99. I suggest looking at Right Stuf’s website as they have deals pretty frequently. 👍
I can defintely agree with Borders being ground zero of the manga boom. I was in middle school around that time. Initially to buy manga, I remember going to local movie shop having to walk all the way to the back of the store and they have a super small rack of like 20 manga or something. Was same for the few bookstores that carried them, super hard to find, and almost impossible to find the volume you actually needed. But when Borders came it was a game changer. Aisles of manga with basically every volume offered. Which doesn't sound like a big deal these days but back then it felt like a miracle.
I remember that, too. I had to find a way to order mine, go to comic book stores, or to Suncoast in the mall (which mostly had anime anyway). Seeing them all sitting there in Borders didn't seem real.
@@PeanutButterZombie00 ordering manga online was a pretty big gamble. I remember ordering a yugioh manga on rightstuf. It was on backorder for like 8 months.
I remember spending hours browsing the manga selection in Borders, it was my favourite place in the world. They didn't only have main titles, but tons of spin offs like the Samurai Champloo 2 volumes collection.
I actually feel bad for America for once, in Germany we always had a big selection of manga in our big book stores, not all volumes of a series, but you could let the book store order them for you.
As a kid in the early 2000s, I would buy those "How To Draw Manga" books and just gobble them up! I can't believe it's been almost *10 YEARS* since Borders closed!
@@iamsosorry3175 Woah, no need to get so aggressive, I commented this right after the video came out, because I thought the title was very surprising, hence why I worded it like that.
I remember Tokyopop. That name brings up old memories. For me, the loss of Tokyopop meant the loss of D.N Angel. We are still 1 book short of the Japan series because they closed their doors. RIP D.N. Angel.
Very interesting...and sad as hell. I worked for a Borders during the manga boom, and you couldn't keep manga on the shelves. Boy's Love/yaoi was also becoming big at the time as well, and Tokyopop pretty much clinched that market with their Blu line. Yaoi is pretty well-known about now, but at the time, it was still pretty taboo. And it sold. Boy did it sell. I was in charge of the manga section, and it took me years to convince my boss to expand the manga section. He didn't listen until he looked at our profits one day and saw that manga accounted for 40% of our sales. 40%. Like, holy shit! That's an incredible amount, for those who don't realize. It also explains why the manga bust hurt Borders so badly. But Borders had problems even before the new CEO. They were always, ALWAYS too top heavy when it came to management, and that became a major issue later. They were never shy when it came to promotions, which was both good and bad. Good, because, yay, upward mobility! Bad, because eventually the demands of supporting so much management became a drain on the company. They pushed sales, but cut jobs at the store level.
I was a Borders Rewards member, and by the end there, I swear they had to be taking a loss on basically every book they sold, because the membership was free and we got 40-60% off coupons every freaking week.
god, I remember going to borders and plopping down in the little seating area they had in the manga section and just reading Tokyo Pop titles for hours. Those were the days :')
Me a german: thinks "tokyopop is dead? really?" and looks up their german website Several minutes later: exactly that website with the picture of a dog sitting besides a shipping box shows up in the video. Coincidence... i think n- Just kidding.
Anyone remember when people would upload their own manga to the Tokyopop website? In the late 2000s I spent so much time reading what other people created and it was a fun platform for me as a young artist :) It was a cool time to be an otaku!
I had a Borders nearby during my late teens/early 20's, and I was sad to see it go. Like, I was just starting to enjoy the whole vibe of a bookstore mainly for the draw that manga had on me, and then it was all suddenly ripped away. And yeah, I did in fact notice how much manga was published by Tokyopop, but didn't think much of it afterwards. This video definitely educated me on this. Thank you!
I think a few more factors contributed to Tokyopop's downfall. First, if my memory serves me correctly, the mid to late 2000's was a great time to read fan translations on scan sites. Meaning you could be up to date on your favorite series before everyone else and not be out ten bucks. And there's the fact that Tokyopop, when compared to other localization companies (like Viz media), didn't always have the most solid translations. As a person who's gone through and read old Tokyopop manga recently, there's some pretty weird/obvious mistakes (like some spelling, putting certain dialogue in the wrong box) and just weird decisions (like deciding for Sailor Moon to call/translate Usagi to Bunny). Also after some of their major series were done, it didn't seem like they tried to pick up any new titles (most likely due to finances) or they decided to try and publish older (sometimes not as good) works of some of the mangaka behind their more popular series.
I'm not sure how the fan translations impacted sales in reality overall, but in my case they increased spending since I got to test out more series and consequently purchased more series on paper than I would have if I hadn't gotten the chance to test them out beforehand. Oh I remember Tokyopop's translation of Aria fondly though so much worse than the fan translations it was hilarious
usagi does mean rabbit. so i'd assume calling usagi, bunny was easier then calling her rabbit and was cuter. i mean the black moon called chibiusa rabbit....
@@Kaefer1973 Well if you were a preteen/teenager/college student without a ton of expandable income, fan translation sites were a pretty good way to stay up to date without spending your limited pocket money in one go. At least that's what I remember.
@@evar.7093 Sure but they probably wouldn't have purchased that many comics anyway. Well I did, but I was always anal about getting people payed about their work (and I actually had money since I didn't drink or do drugs).
TP was basically the cheap/faster alternative to Viz and Dark Horse at the time... they churned out a lot because they did the minimal with editing.. this did improve somewhat later but if you look at early stuff like Sailormoon, MKR and CCS they skimped on a lot of redrawing specially for sound effects and literally did a paint job "cut" on the jp text as can be seen by the obvious boxes overlaid over jp text/panels and "pasting" the english translation.
I understand that Tokyopop is hanging by a Disney thread, but Kilala Princess is an underrated masterpiece and deserves more recognition. It was one of the first manga that I ever read and it inspired me to start doing art and create my own stories and eventually put me on the path I'm on now which is wanting to be an animator.
I hope that enough interest is generated in .hack books that Kodansha can bring them back to the West and hopefully not do a a lackluster localization job like Tokyopop did.
It's nice that you discussed the history of Tokyo Pop. Some titles will never finish being licensed in English that's the sad part about Tokyopop ending licenses with most of their Manga titles.
Right stuf anime still has some of the old Tokyo Pop versions of the series. I only wish that more of the incomplete Tokyo Pop series had actually been completed in their translations.
A good friend of mine was actually one of the contestants for America's Greatest Otaku. Some of the stories they told me about behind the scenes were crazy! Looking back over 9 years later, my friend has many cringe-filled regrets lol
In one of the cities they stayed in, one of the managers booked a hotel in a really sketchy part of the city. It was so bad, everyone stayed and slept in the bus even though they had traveled across the country in it. Also, most of the company is run by unpaid or very low paid interns.
I remember them mostly for their cine manga titles (the ones using screencaps and speech bubbles instead of new art). I also have some of the old Junjou Romantica manga published by their Blu sector, and am on the hunt for the Star Trek manga they did (I can't believe I strung those words together). Side note, hearing their name and Borders makes me feel old.
I still have appreciation for Tokyopop for I own the 8 volumes of my favorite manga by far: Welcome to the NHK. The Tokyopop release has Satou's hand written monologues an the end of each volume translated into English. Let me tell you, the monologues were not vital to the plot, but boy they were amazing pieces of Satou's mind deterioration throughout the series. The author's note at the end of the last volume was also a really nice touch. You can't find that in most re-releases or scanlations online.
In 07-08, I was at the peak of my weeb phase in middle school and I spent many a weekend at Borders picking out entire stacks of manga. Almost everything I picked and a good half of the collection I retained through the years is published by Tokyopop. From my obsession with Peach girl to more obscure one off horror manga, I could find nearly anything from Tokyopop. I think I want to dig up my manga collection again. I never did finish collection all the volumes of the various Peach Girl series. Thanks for the trip down memory lane. RIP Borders.
I know Tokyopop from the Kingdom Hearts manga that they published. In fact, the very first Manga I read was the adaptation of Kingdom Hearts: Chain of Memories. Good times.
I remember my sister and I going anywhere we can go (we're sisters) to get the latest Fruits Basket manga when it was released. We went into dinky comic book shops, and we even had a Borders book store, which I loved going and bought other kinds of books too back then. Those were my high school days, manga gave us sisters something to share. :)
Id love to hear more about the western manga market from 2005-2010. Reminds me of my high school days and how I was known as that guy who had a bunch of manga in his locker always.
Ah, Tokyopop, I remember how many manga series I was introduced to from that company, and this was in my middle school days when I was EXTREMELY obsessed with anything and everything Japan related. It's a shame that they pretty much lost everything and was resurrected to be a slave of Disney (probably through the Impure World Reincarnation Jutsu), since many of their manga I ended up never finishing. Though in all fairness, by the time they went bankrupt I pretty much fell out of interest in anime and manga until around 2014-2015 or so, mostly because of the cancellation of the original Toonami block and the fact that most of my friends were more into gaming than anime. That and we live in a time when anime and manga are far more acceptable as a medium outside of Japan, so there are more companies that are going to capitalize on that market rather than back then when it was just Tokyopop and Viz.
To add to the layoffs, TokyoPop was also infamous for licensing & releasing a crap ton of various series, so when the layoffs happened, tons of stuff wound up being left unfinished. Even series that had only a single volume left to go, like Saiyuki Reload or Culdcept, were never finished by TokyoPop, which only damaged their reputation with the fans. I can understand not getting back to lesser-selling series that still had at least 4 or 5 volumes left to go, but they really should have made sure to finish up the series that they were literally at the very end of, if only to maintain a feeling or reliability during troubling times.
I'm still sad about Gakuen Alice and Twelve Kingdoms never being picked up by anyone else. Despite its US fall Tokyopop still managed to a small degree to keep their Hetalia translation going through a collab with Right Stuf but stopped it once finishing Axis Powers in 2014 and didn't continue on with World Stars despite World Stars tending to be more popular.
I think there's one more aspect of this whole story that your video didn't touch on. With regards to the Kodansha-Tokyopop split in 2009, the writing was on the wall about half a decade before it happened. As you may recall, around that time, Kodansha established a partnership with Del Rey Manga. So while Tokyopop could still publish their older Kodansha titles, anything new (which included such hits as Genshiken, Tsubasa Chronicle, and Negima) went to Del Rey. That, combined with the fact that Viz was basically co-owned by the other two Japanese publishing giants (Shogakukan and Shueisha), meant that in the mid-2000s, Tokyopop was basically barred from licensing any of the biggest names in the industry. So what did they do? They doubled, nay, tripled down on the OEL shit, which never really caught on in the United States. The whole thing was really scummy, and this goes beyond the atrocious contracts they forced their artists to sign. Do you remember the title Tokyopop was pushing the hardest around 2006 and 2007? It was Princess Ai. Nobody ever cared about Princess Ai, yet they pushed it HARD. Princess Ai, aside from being an abysmal comic, was co-created by one "DJ Milky." "DJ Milky" is, in fact, a pen name of Stu Levy, the CEO of Tokyopop. So while the writing of Tokyopop's demise was clearly on the wall, Stu Levy made the executive decision to allocate a not-insignificant percentage of their resources to promote...himself. Yeah. Combine that with the horrible music replacements they did for their anime releases, their attempts to trick American artists into believing they could become manga-ka, and the aforementioned atrocious contracts, I was thrilled to see that company burn. I hope they remain but a bit player in the manga scene from now on, despite what Stu Levy may wish for himself. Sorry for the long comment, but there's obviously a lot that can be said about Tokyopop.
GOD PRINCESS AI I never properly read it but after googling it to refresh my memory I did read a sporking (snarky recap, for all you young'uns) on LJ of like the first volume or so. iirc a looooot of people side-eyed that series for the parallels between the main heroine and the other co-creator, musician Courtney Love. (It's still weird to me that a musician decided to co-write an OEL manga. Like, "DJ Milky" was already involved in the industry but how tf did Courtney Love get involved?)
The unfortunate thing is that they still haven't learned from their mistakes. They uploaded an illegal fansub of Angel's Egg they haven't licensed onto their official RUclips channel, having to be reprimanded before taking it down and business tactics remain the same
Well yeah. Anime was HUGE and for many people it was an influential part of their childhood. So it makes sense that they would incoporate that style, but creating their own stories with it, while putting their own personal touches on the art style to make it their own
I remember riding/driving for an hour from my rural small town to the nearest Borders just to buy Tokyopop manga, and discussing the stories/drawing fanart with my friends. Those are fun memories and it's sad that both institutions are pretty well gone now.
I'll always be grateful to Tokyopop for publishing Love Hina in the States, because that was the series that got me into collecting manga some 15 or 16 years ago. Borders/Brentano's was also the best place to go because unlike B&N they sold mature titles, more specifically Berserk. My go-to Borders is now an H&M and whenever I'm there with my SO I like to tell her the former manga section is now the women's underwear section
Great video perusal, Bard. But this part bugs me a bit. 2:06 "Keep in mind it's 1997 at this point. Anime is currently experiencing an unprecedented boom in western popularity thanks to shows like *Pokemon* and Sailor Moon." As someone who grew up in the 90s, and remembers each year of it quite vividly. The Pokemon Anime would've had little barring on the western anime boom in 1997. Yes, the Anime first aired in Japan in 1997, but it wouldn't start airing in English until late 1998, and at that point it was only on very early in the morning, it was a pain to catch, and only the first handful of episodes. Local networks had little faith in it at this time. The Pokemon Phenomenon wouldn't hit it full stride until 1999. That's when the Anime, Movies, Games, Toys and Cards were everywhere. For those of us who remember it, 1999 was the year of Pokemon. Oh, and Y2K...
Yeah, anime as a whole didn't really start to take off in America until the early 2000s. Up until that point we only had a handful of anime shows (Pokemon, DBZ, Sailor Moon, Digimon, Cardcaptor Sakura) airing on a few networks. In 2000 though, Toonami, Fox Kids and Kids WB all started airing _a lot_ more anime, and even more the following year. That's when it started becoming really popular.
I wish I swiped up all the decent Tokyopop titles while I still have the chance. Now I'm left with going to the few cons that are nearby praying for a used manga booth and broken dreams of being able to have all the Kare Kano and GTO manga. By the way you HAVE to talk about the fall of ADV. It too had a HUGE manga and anime collection with quality titles but fell from grace.
I only saw those commercials a few times on TV as a teen. That was when I first heard the word manga was pronounced "mahn-gah" and not "man-gah." I was confused at first, but I eventually realized that I was mispronouncing the word during my early days of reading manga.
Well, the fall of ADV isn't as bad when you remember that Sentai Filmworks has basically gotten back up to the level of the ADV days. Still, the ADV/Sentai Filmworks story is a wild one!
oof. 80% of the manga in the bookstore i work at is tokyopop having finished the video, i now know why, haha. apparently their german branch still has all their licences
I am SO glad that you brought up the issue about the OEL creators. I was there for that whole thing, and completely side with the creators. Tokyopop did SO wrong by them. One artist I had been following for SO long before her working with Tokyopop had been working on her story for a VERY long time. I was BEYOND pissed for her when she pretty much lost ALL rights to her story, her artwork, her characters.
Thank you for making this! I have wondered about this for years! As someone who was in highschool in the 2000s, Tokyo Pop was a huge part of my teenage years. Sad that they made so many bad decisions, but I am grateful that they brought manga into the mainstream the way they did.
3:25 wait holy shit that's the exact Borders I used to shop in as a kid! I remember being so antsy about going there so I asked my parents if we can go in that very mall. I still have my collection of Shonen Jump and Tokyopop titles to this day, and it feels so surreal seeing it again. It's now a DSW shoe store..
another awesome and interesting vid kennedy awesome job as always this was an interesting dive GG to dan for getting the abandoned borders footage and was the fighterZ footage him as well? cuz i thinks thats his team right lol
Thank you for this video, I never knew TP had a partnership with Borders! Gawd, Manga shelves used to be 2 aisle sections worth, maybe 2 1/2, B&N and Borders, and when the Great Recession hit, literally it became only one shelf side in size, or only 3/4. It’s recovered, but it’s more like only one full aisle. I swear some comic shops that specialized in manga made their best during those years up to the recession. I really miss my local manga shop because I actually got recommendations from them! I personally think TP got too big and got really sloppy and took their audience for granted. Yay for a massive library, but the variety was becoming bland on the same theme on how they published; series that spanned 20+ books ensured them a revenue stream, but you had to also have a series that would be worth continuing justification to keep publishing. That massive library probably had series that have multiple volume numbers that could potentially pay off in bulk, but only if they were popular. It’s why I stay away from titles that are 20+ as a rule of thumb, because the publisher would rather worry about dwindling copies sold than finishing publishing the series. It’s why you may see some publishers putting out Tonkobon (spl?) volumes now in order to reduce printing costs of individual volumes over a bulk collection. Long series, and spin off series I shy away from because it just over saturated the field with just one IP (AOT and it’s spin offs are an example) Those OEL contests were a joke. Yeah TP was a great way to jump in, but when you saw competition and how they publish smaller series that you enjoy and even larger formats (near every TP publication was trimmed to the same size, save for some at the end) those larger paper size publications suddenly look more attractive (personally) than the neat cookie cutter rows of cranked out like no tomorrow series that TP had a habit of flooding with.
Hey, talk about the controversies of their original manga series. You just mentioned the creators didn't have full custody of their intellectual property.
I actually submitted a comic for their contest near the end of the compy. Never heard anything back, and I don't even know if the fully ran that contest that year, but in retrospect that was probably for the best. I still have that comic too.
Well sure, but the reason given was that less "Hey we do it for the fans" and more "This will save us money on having to mirror and correct anything that look stupid because of it" It just so happened to also be a lot better for fans
@@midnightumbreon6664 Yep, people forget that. Tokyopop under the Mixx label was pretty awful, they improved dramatically once they started calling themselves Tokyopop and stopped printing manga flipped.
Most of the manga I bought back then were only Tokyopop titles. I was so disappointed when Amazon had to refund my money for preordered titles because they collapsed. :( I I still have my copies of Mixx/Tokyopop Sailor Moon manga. I remember when the change of publishing format happened.
![Stromae, Pomme - “Ma Meilleure Ennemie” (from Arcane Season 2) [Official Visualizer]](http://i.ytimg.com/vi/1F3OGIFnW1k/mqdefault.jpg)
Tokyopop...
(lights cigarette)
Now that's a name I haven't heard in a long time...
That PP suits the comment
_Oh yeah everything is coming together_
Borders...
(also lights cigarette)
Has it really been that long?
wish it stayed that way
**coughs** god why is everyone a smoker when they get nostalgic.
@@minunahein (lights cigarette)
i miss DNAngel good manga that was.
Whenever I find a vendor booth or a shop selling Tokyopop manga from before the 2008 layoffs I look through books to find ones with my older sister's name on the credits page. She used to do graphic design work for the book covers and when I was in my biggest weeb phase it was a point of pride to show off that my big sister worked for Tokyopop.
does she still do any graphic design work? i think graphic design is awesome and i would love to see some of her work in case you have any links or something - thanks for reading and have a great day!
That's just amazing :)
@@albinocify That's an awesome memory :)
Aww, thats adorable! I bet your pride brought her a lot as well ❤
Red: Tokyopop is dead
Me, a German dude: What? Half of my manga are from Tokyopop. How can this be?
Red: But the german branch still exist.
Me: aaaaaaaaah
That explains why I was unable to find an English translation of some Manga while I could easily find a German translation at Thalia.
SAME BAHAH
Einfach so 80% von meinen mangas sind Von tokyopop 🥴
Yee xD
I didn't even know tokyopop exists outside of Germany...
Praise Joachim Kaps for that one. He used to be the CEO of Carlsen Manga and is now CEO of Altraverse :)
As a teenager, I used to measure my income in ten-dollar "this could buy me one Tokyopop manga" increments.
To be fair, that is a really great way to manage money. In fact, I should be doing that more often than I currently am.
I remember giving my Tokyo Pop Love Hina collection to my local library. I wanted under privileged kids to enjoy the series as much as I did. When I walked in, an elderly black lady was in charge of the "Teens Section" where manga was shelved (bless their hearts, they didn't know), and when I showed her my original first run Tokyo Pop Love Hina that I was just giving to her, she said suddenly "You do realize they don't publish this anymore. They're collector items. Furthermore, we couldn't replace them when they're inevitably damaged." I told her my reasoning, and insisted she put them up there anyway. She did, and only a few days ago did I return to see most of the collection remained! Regardless, I thought it was very funny an old black lady was more "in tune" with the manga craze of yester year than even I was. In my mind, I imagine her more of an otaku than myself, and that makes me smile.
@@alronkevinarzaga5936 Kids gotta transition at some point......although....Love Hina probably isn't the best model. -_-"
@The Strawberry Pimp Our library used to have Lady Snowblood until someone stole it. Lol
@@alronkevinarzaga5936 Back in the day libraries used to keep mexican novella sections that were way more freaky than manga. They had those sections in the 80's and 90s and they were floor to ceiling crazy.
@@alronkevinarzaga5936 Those too but they were outnumbered by far where I was living.
@@alronkevinarzaga5936 These weren't even donations they were buying them.
TokyoPop and Borders... two brands that take me right back to middle school.
I’m in middle school and the library has an entire manga section because of crazy high demand so TokyoPop is still going strong at my school today.
Yeah. Borders was where I got my first manga, the first 3 volumes of Ouran High School Host Club.
@@jessepinkmansimp6090å
Wow do we all share a collective memory? Lol
YES. I remember buying Pet Shop of Horrors Tokyo manga from Borders. XD
The Fall of of Tokyopop
(incomprehensible German in the distance)
MrZurata I was really like.....wait, haven‘t I just looked at their online store a few days ago.
Yeah, right? They are definitely one of the top publishers here?
I still see tgem everywhere
Aswell
@@marmelaota1703 yes there literally beside other Publisher the biggest Here nearly 90% of my Manga are from them
Its more like How they went from 'Majority of the world' to 'Essentially Life Support in the US and big only in Germany'
"Disney Manga"
I haven't heard a such vile mixture of words in my life before
Manga messiah. Look it up and weep.
I can imagine the father fish in finding dory just falling to the ground dramatically while screaming, "DOOOORRRYYYYYYY"
TokyoPop also published all of the Kingdom Hearts manga, which is Disney. I'm surprised Disney hasn't bought them at this point.
@@lazaronen1786 I read it religiously. Pun intended.
its good to read as a kid but later it gets bad (i still like 'princess kailila a bit tho lol)
What's that gonna do, cause me to totally go bankrupt?
-Tokyopop when Kondansha pulled out their titles probably
(cheery music)
*Kondansha pulling out causes Tokyopop to go bankrupt"
Why did they even do that in the first place?
@@Dave102693 Because they are able to open their own manga publisher in America.
Yoooo I’ve been reading manga forever and didn’t realize Tokyopop was gone until I went to a thrift store and looked at all the Tokyopop manga they had. I was like woah hold up what happened to them?!? It was everywhere when I was little!! Then this video popped up on my recommendations! So perfect, thank you, great video :)
I didn't realize until this video that Tokyopop logo is missing from my life.
Don’t thank her, thank your FBI agent who put it your recommendation.
Crazy! There's a Manga & Anime store here in London UK going by the name of Tokyo Pop. ❤
I guess you could say that Tokyopop's bubble... Tokyopopped.
Sir, I'm going to have to confiscate your license for those sunglasses.
ta dum tsss!
Wait, MixxZine had Parasyte right next to Sailor Moon?
...damn, that's brutal.
it was common back then. i have glenat's (france's monument of comics and manga) mag at home. same thing. shonen mixed with seinen that were waaay child unfriendly.
Hah - YEP.
I was a wee thing when my sis handed a copy of the Mixxzine to me, she'd only skimmed it and seen the first couple of stories which were Rayearth and Sailor Moon. The rest of the book was Ice Blade which went over my head and Parasyte which gave me nightmares.
Might as well add in berserk while your at it.
@@thatguy8637 I'd read Mixxzine happily if it had Sailor Moon right next to Parasyte and Berserk.
It literally traumatized me as a kid reading Parasyte after the Sailor Moon and Rayearth chapters, ah good times. I still have my copy of the first issue
Talking about Tokyopop made me realise how absolutely old I am
Feeling that pain here too.
I am old
being old is part of life, yes.
I feel really young because of it.
(Dont think about it)
(Dont think about it)
As soon as you said "Borders", a massive wave of nostalgia slapped me in the face.
God, I miss that store. :(
Hey same.
Same here.
My local one is a bloody TJ Maxx now...
Mine's a Five Below now. Not a terrible tradeoff, but I miss that book store so much. I was planning to get the DnD monster manuals they had there, among other things. :(
Tokyopop hasn't been on my mind for well over a decade, despite those terrible contracts I think they deserve credit for what they did for the industry. I'm glad the initial video concept evolved into something like this, it really reflects your skill as a researcher and as a video producer by bringing to light stories that were otherwise lost to obscurity. Excellent video Yaoi Paddle Historian.
I signed one of those contracts. :I
@@Peannlui it would be really interesting to hear more from your side. If you're under an NDA or cannot disclose information for any other reason that's understandable though.
Snow from Morgan luthi.
It's also common concensus that that TP managed to churn out so much manga so fast (and be cheaper) was because they also had a fairly rush job approach to their translations and editing. Whilst not as terrible as Google Translate quality... there was a fair few grammar and spelling errors and their clean-up and editing was also lazy at times ie. not bothering to change onomatopoeia or just do a really dodgy put a white box/paint job cut on the sound effects/speech ballons and overlay translations instead of doing proper redraws/touch ups and on some occasions the cut/paste box doesn't even completely cover the original jp txt so you would see portions of it peeking under the obvious space they cut/paste.
@@RocKM001 I always remember thinking TokyoPop was inferior quality to Shonen back when I was in Highschool, so I tended to avoid Tokyopop in favor of other distributors.
I'm just sitting here mourning for "+Anima", one of my first and favorite manga which will now forever be obscure because of Tokyopop going under.
That was SUCH a good manga. I remember I binged it in like a week or so, back when I was in eighth grade. I had to borrow it from friends because I felt like I would be judged by my parents if I went out and bought it myself, but oh man I loved it so much. I just saw it on the shelf at the library I work at and if I had time I'd definitely give it a reread, but between school and work right now I just... don't.
@@lkj2145 When I was a kid, I had a short attention span, so I didn't manage to keep up with it after I bought the first three volumes. I regretted that so much that I bought the remaining eight volumes from Amazon for my birthday last year and binged the whole thing in a single day. It was beautiful, but it also made me realize how much I had missed out.
I have a new title to look up for reading material, thank you.
@@RexcorJ :D
I feel the same about Immortal Rain
Tokyo Pop was the pioneer to spreading japanese entertainment to young weebs everywhere during the 2000s.
and my friend says anime is niche and should not be mainstream.
Dark Horse Comics & Viz were translating manga long before them though.
Back when we called ourselves "otaku"!
*deep sigh* Ah, Tokyopop.... their fall led to my absolute favorite manga series never getting its last two volumes getting translated. It's one of those series that Kodansha doesn't want to put money in, and I'm super sad.
The same thing happened to me. They stopped translating my favourite manga, Immortal Rain, after volume 8. Luckily, Vertical have started publishing the author's other work (Kaori Ozaki)
Kitsune Aitsuki, which?
We definitely need a second video about their OEL shadiness...
What? Now I'm interested
I would love to know more about that bc this video is the first I've ever heard of it
I remember one panel at a con years ago, with one of the OEL authors (The Dreaming) and that's where I heard about the shadiness, and how she told me, it was a nightmare to deal with.
I’d love a video on that just to fully understand what was going on with that. I’ve only ever really heard fragments outside of Tokyopop’s spins, and having something comprehensive would be nice.
I agree! I would love to know more, as I remember several friends and I wanting to get published by then. Thank God we weren't good enough yet lmao.
This really explains everything when I was back in high school and finding manga was hard, because there was no Borders in my town, but Barnes and Noble. Even though Barnes and Noble had manga, it was just two small shelves full of maybe a few volumes of Shonen Jump, Shojo manga, and Korean comics. Today, there is entire row of manga and Tokyopop was no where to be found.
The only proper bookstore where I live is Indigo in the local mall. It's a fairly small bookstore and they have two shelves for manga, most of which are Viz.
I still have my Borders card despite it being useless now lol How I wish manga was still 8-10$....
Hex Maniac Anina There are still some publishers that have their books around that price. : ) Viz Media’s Shonen Jump titles are usually around 9.99. I suggest looking at Right Stuf’s website as they have deals pretty frequently. 👍
brandon roberts Is this a joke, because the series hasn’t been licensed
They still are for the most part, unless it is an anthology or hardback.
OMG, yes! Now all my manga is $12.99. :(
@@jennifersaar1611 shit 12.99 not bad.
"Disney manga" sounds like one of their divisions where they just never check on it and havent noticed if it's even making money or not.
I can defintely agree with Borders being ground zero of the manga boom. I was in middle school around that time. Initially to buy manga, I remember going to local movie shop having to walk all the way to the back of the store and they have a super small rack of like 20 manga or something. Was same for the few bookstores that carried them, super hard to find, and almost impossible to find the volume you actually needed. But when Borders came it was a game changer. Aisles of manga with basically every volume offered. Which doesn't sound like a big deal these days but back then it felt like a miracle.
I remember that, too. I had to find a way to order mine, go to comic book stores, or to Suncoast in the mall (which mostly had anime anyway). Seeing them all sitting there in Borders didn't seem real.
@@PeanutButterZombie00 ordering manga online was a pretty big gamble. I remember ordering a yugioh manga on rightstuf. It was on backorder for like 8 months.
I remember spending hours browsing the manga selection in Borders, it was my favourite place in the world. They didn't only have main titles, but tons of spin offs like the Samurai Champloo 2 volumes collection.
I actually feel bad for America for once, in Germany we always had a big selection of manga in our big book stores, not all volumes of a series, but you could let the book store order them for you.
Mitsuru Tsukinaga Barnes n Nobles has a pretty good amount of manga tbh at least the one that’s near me
As a kid in the early 2000s, I would buy those "How To Draw Manga" books and just gobble them up! I can't believe it's been almost *10 YEARS* since Borders closed!
Borders are closed?! They’re still around in my country, hmm
@@noranizaazmi6523 Well in America, they went belly-up in 2011.
This title surprised me, because Tokyopop is still alive and kicking in Germany, it's one of the big three here!
ikr!! i'm german and i own a shit ton of manga and i'm pretty sure like 99% of them are published by tokyopop lol
If you watch the video she says how it's one of the last branches open. Maybe watch before you comment?7
@@iamsosorry3175 Woah, no need to get so aggressive, I commented this right after the video came out, because I thought the title was very surprising, hence why I worded it like that.
I'm actually surprised to see it's alive in Germany lol. Thought it was totally gone
here in argentina too
the big 3 here are ivrea planet manga and tokyopop
I remember Tokyopop. That name brings up old memories. For me, the loss of Tokyopop meant the loss of D.N Angel. We are still 1 book short of the Japan series because they closed their doors. RIP D.N. Angel.
Damn, weird gothic titles from Tokyopop was my childhood
YBPaladin Bizenghast tho
@@karaleeweaver4969 Bizenghast. That's what it was called! I was wracking my brain trying to remember that weird manga I read once. Thanks.
@@FlutterMouse first manga I ever owned
Me, a Spaniard weeb who has barely heard of Tokyopop before: Let's check how this company fell from glory! :D
Tokyopop is a name that formed my early, admittedly weeby, years as an anime fan.
Same here!
So what you're saying is that you're now a "Mega-Weeb"?
Very interesting...and sad as hell. I worked for a Borders during the manga boom, and you couldn't keep manga on the shelves. Boy's Love/yaoi was also becoming big at the time as well, and Tokyopop pretty much clinched that market with their Blu line. Yaoi is pretty well-known about now, but at the time, it was still pretty taboo. And it sold. Boy did it sell.
I was in charge of the manga section, and it took me years to convince my boss to expand the manga section. He didn't listen until he looked at our profits one day and saw that manga accounted for 40% of our sales. 40%. Like, holy shit! That's an incredible amount, for those who don't realize. It also explains why the manga bust hurt Borders so badly.
But Borders had problems even before the new CEO. They were always, ALWAYS too top heavy when it came to management, and that became a major issue later. They were never shy when it came to promotions, which was both good and bad. Good, because, yay, upward mobility! Bad, because eventually the demands of supporting so much management became a drain on the company. They pushed sales, but cut jobs at the store level.
I was a Borders Rewards member, and by the end there, I swear they had to be taking a loss on basically every book they sold, because the membership was free and we got 40-60% off coupons every freaking week.
Borders Rewards ended up being a big mistake for Borders. They ended up scaling it back because the initial benefits were insane.
@@erraticonteuse
Wow. That's crazy.
Tokyopop: I. Am. Inevitable.
Kodansha: And I. Own. The licenses
I was so confused when you said Tokyopop is gone, cause I’m from Germany and it feels like the publish about a quarter of our mangas 😅
God, I remember seeing entire walls of the TokyoPop logo
When you mentioned that they struck a deal with Borders, my heart sank. I miss Borders so much. :(
Just saying
I appreciate you making videos less about specific anime, and more about aspects of anime culture
god, I remember going to borders and plopping down in the little seating area they had in the manga section and just reading Tokyo Pop titles for hours. Those were the days :')
Me a german: thinks "tokyopop is dead? really?" and looks up their german website
Several minutes later: exactly that website with the picture of a dog sitting besides a shipping box shows up in the video.
Coincidence... i think n-
Just kidding.
Yes, yes, it's still prominent in Germany. And only in Germany. So, yeah, it's pretty much dead.
Anyone remember when people would upload their own manga to the Tokyopop website? In the late 2000s I spent so much time reading what other people created and it was a fun platform for me as a young artist :) It was a cool time to be an otaku!
*shows off all those fruits basket volumes*
MY WIG
I had a Borders nearby during my late teens/early 20's, and I was sad to see it go. Like, I was just starting to enjoy the whole vibe of a bookstore mainly for the draw that manga had on me, and then it was all suddenly ripped away. And yeah, I did in fact notice how much manga was published by Tokyopop, but didn't think much of it afterwards. This video definitely educated me on this. Thank you!
I think a few more factors contributed to Tokyopop's downfall.
First, if my memory serves me correctly, the mid to late 2000's was a great time to read fan translations on scan sites. Meaning you could be up to date on your favorite series before everyone else and not be out ten bucks.
And there's the fact that Tokyopop, when compared to other localization companies (like Viz media), didn't always have the most solid translations. As a person who's gone through and read old Tokyopop manga recently, there's some pretty weird/obvious mistakes (like some spelling, putting certain dialogue in the wrong box) and just weird decisions (like deciding for Sailor Moon to call/translate Usagi to Bunny).
Also after some of their major series were done, it didn't seem like they tried to pick up any new titles (most likely due to finances) or they decided to try and publish older (sometimes not as good) works of some of the mangaka behind their more popular series.
I'm not sure how the fan translations impacted sales in reality overall, but in my case they increased spending since I got to test out more series and consequently purchased more series on paper than I would have if I hadn't gotten the chance to test them out beforehand.
Oh I remember Tokyopop's translation of Aria fondly though so much worse than the fan translations it was hilarious
usagi does mean rabbit. so i'd assume calling usagi, bunny was easier then calling her rabbit and was cuter. i mean the black moon called chibiusa rabbit....
@@Kaefer1973
Well if you were a preteen/teenager/college student without a ton of expandable income, fan translation sites were a pretty good way to stay up to date without spending your limited pocket money in one go. At least that's what I remember.
@@evar.7093 Sure but they probably wouldn't have purchased that many comics anyway. Well I did, but I was always anal about getting people payed about their work (and I actually had money since I didn't drink or do drugs).
TP was basically the cheap/faster alternative to Viz and Dark Horse at the time... they churned out a lot because they did the minimal with editing.. this did improve somewhat later but if you look at early stuff like Sailormoon, MKR and CCS they skimped on a lot of redrawing specially for sound effects and literally did a paint job "cut" on the jp text as can be seen by the obvious boxes overlaid over jp text/panels and "pasting" the english translation.
True Story: My senior year of high school they added manga to the library. I went through four a day.
@mariokarter13
You had manga at your highschool library too? My crush got me into Faerie Landing and Fruits Baskets that way...
Why do you guys have it good
RIP Tokyopop... but also, welcome back (to America) Tokyopop?
Didn't expect you all to check out this video! Hi from a subscriber of both this and your channel☺💕
Hey guys lmao
I loved Kilala Princess from TokyoPop
They still suck though. From uploading illegal fansubs on their RUclips channel to scamming creators, I'm over it
@@SkaryMisfit seriously? Lmfao. That's some Crunchyroll bullshit.
I understand that Tokyopop is hanging by a Disney thread, but Kilala Princess is an underrated masterpiece and deserves more recognition. It was one of the first manga that I ever read and it inspired me to start doing art and create my own stories and eventually put me on the path I'm on now which is wanting to be an animator.
God I remember when Tokyopop was big. What a time to be alive.
This was so well-researched! I always wondered what happened to Tokyopop. Subscribed!
I love your documentary style dissections of otaku culture and history. They really help give context to the media we consume. Keep up the good work!
Anime documentaries is what I wish more anime RUclipsrs did than just weekly episode reviews or drawn out video essays.
I remember high-school me sitting in Borders reading Neon Genesis Evangelion manga...
I hope that enough interest is generated in .hack books that Kodansha can bring them back to the West and hopefully not do a a lackluster localization job like Tokyopop did.
It's nice that you discussed the history of Tokyo Pop. Some titles will never finish being licensed in English that's the sad part about Tokyopop ending licenses with most of their Manga titles.
Right stuf anime still has some of the old Tokyo Pop versions of the series.
I only wish that more of the incomplete Tokyo Pop series had actually been completed in their translations.
A good friend of mine was actually one of the contestants for America's Greatest Otaku. Some of the stories they told me about behind the scenes were crazy! Looking back over 9 years later, my friend has many cringe-filled regrets lol
I request you share some stories. Please and thank you
In one of the cities they stayed in, one of the managers booked a hotel in a really sketchy part of the city. It was so bad, everyone stayed and slept in the bus even though they had traveled across the country in it. Also, most of the company is run by unpaid or very low paid interns.
@@nannette_ ooof yikes that's horrible. Hope your friend managed to leave unscathed
@@nannette_ Fuuuuuuuuuuck. That is HARDCORE bad T_T
I remember them mostly for their cine manga titles (the ones using screencaps and speech bubbles instead of new art). I also have some of the old Junjou Romantica manga published by their Blu sector, and am on the hunt for the Star Trek manga they did (I can't believe I strung those words together). Side note, hearing their name and Borders makes me feel old.
RIP Borders. I read so much manga there without paying a single cent, save for coffee.
What I would do, is typically read a bunch there, and then buy one to take home with me to read later.
I couldn't do that. One of the ladies that was working always seemed to circle around if I would even try. It sucked!
@@rurig3608 Man that totally sucks!! Most places I know were really chill. I guess a small handful had some employees who were really anal about that
You too, eh? I remember reading Neon Genesis Evangelion there...
I still have appreciation for Tokyopop for I own the 8 volumes of my favorite manga by far: Welcome to the NHK.
The Tokyopop release has Satou's hand written monologues an the end of each volume translated into English. Let me tell you, the monologues were not vital to the plot, but boy they were amazing pieces of Satou's mind deterioration throughout the series. The author's note at the end of the last volume was also a really nice touch. You can't find that in most re-releases or scanlations online.
In 07-08, I was at the peak of my weeb phase in middle school and I spent many a weekend at Borders picking out entire stacks of manga. Almost everything I picked and a good half of the collection I retained through the years is published by Tokyopop. From my obsession with Peach girl to more obscure one off horror manga, I could find nearly anything from Tokyopop. I think I want to dig up my manga collection again. I never did finish collection all the volumes of the various Peach Girl series. Thanks for the trip down memory lane. RIP Borders.
I recognize tokyopop because I was a student librarian at my high school and they had 4 bookcases of manga, the majority with tokyopop spines
I know Tokyopop from the Kingdom Hearts manga that they published. In fact, the very first Manga I read was the adaptation of Kingdom Hearts: Chain of Memories. Good times.
Yoo same here I had some of the kh2 manga I got at book fair way back in the day kinda sad to see the full history and what's become of Tokyopop
I remember my sister and I going anywhere we can go (we're sisters) to get the latest Fruits Basket manga when it was released. We went into dinky comic book shops, and we even had a Borders book store, which I loved going and bought other kinds of books too back then. Those were my high school days, manga gave us sisters something to share. :)
Id love to hear more about the western manga market from 2005-2010. Reminds me of my high school days and how I was known as that guy who had a bunch of manga in his locker always.
It's amazing how you destroy my childhood and make me feel so nostalgic for it over and over again with every video.
You wouldn’t need to watch this video if you *READ THE MANGA*
Ah, Tokyopop, I remember how many manga series I was introduced to from that company, and this was in my middle school days when I was EXTREMELY obsessed with anything and everything Japan related. It's a shame that they pretty much lost everything and was resurrected to be a slave of Disney (probably through the Impure World Reincarnation Jutsu), since many of their manga I ended up never finishing. Though in all fairness, by the time they went bankrupt I pretty much fell out of interest in anime and manga until around 2014-2015 or so, mostly because of the cancellation of the original Toonami block and the fact that most of my friends were more into gaming than anime.
That and we live in a time when anime and manga are far more acceptable as a medium outside of Japan, so there are more companies that are going to capitalize on that market rather than back then when it was just Tokyopop and Viz.
To add to the layoffs, TokyoPop was also infamous for licensing & releasing a crap ton of various series, so when the layoffs happened, tons of stuff wound up being left unfinished. Even series that had only a single volume left to go, like Saiyuki Reload or Culdcept, were never finished by TokyoPop, which only damaged their reputation with the fans. I can understand not getting back to lesser-selling series that still had at least 4 or 5 volumes left to go, but they really should have made sure to finish up the series that they were literally at the very end of, if only to maintain a feeling or reliability during troubling times.
I'm still sad about Gakuen Alice and Twelve Kingdoms never being picked up by anyone else. Despite its US fall Tokyopop still managed to a small degree to keep their Hetalia translation going through a collab with Right Stuf but stopped it once finishing Axis Powers in 2014 and didn't continue on with World Stars despite World Stars tending to be more popular.
Didn't tokyopop release a "cine-manga" for malcolm in the middle
People think we're kidding when we say that Malcom, Cory, Shrek, and Spy Kids are technically anime.
@@midiagain828 ...but did TokyoPop release cine manga of Cory in the House though?
I think my sister still has the first issue of MixxZine laying around somewhere...
I do too.
I think there's one more aspect of this whole story that your video didn't touch on.
With regards to the Kodansha-Tokyopop split in 2009, the writing was on the wall about half a decade before it happened. As you may recall, around that time, Kodansha established a partnership with Del Rey Manga. So while Tokyopop could still publish their older Kodansha titles, anything new (which included such hits as Genshiken, Tsubasa Chronicle, and Negima) went to Del Rey. That, combined with the fact that Viz was basically co-owned by the other two Japanese publishing giants (Shogakukan and Shueisha), meant that in the mid-2000s, Tokyopop was basically barred from licensing any of the biggest names in the industry.
So what did they do? They doubled, nay, tripled down on the OEL shit, which never really caught on in the United States. The whole thing was really scummy, and this goes beyond the atrocious contracts they forced their artists to sign. Do you remember the title Tokyopop was pushing the hardest around 2006 and 2007? It was Princess Ai. Nobody ever cared about Princess Ai, yet they pushed it HARD. Princess Ai, aside from being an abysmal comic, was co-created by one "DJ Milky." "DJ Milky" is, in fact, a pen name of Stu Levy, the CEO of Tokyopop. So while the writing of Tokyopop's demise was clearly on the wall, Stu Levy made the executive decision to allocate a not-insignificant percentage of their resources to promote...himself. Yeah. Combine that with the horrible music replacements they did for their anime releases, their attempts to trick American artists into believing they could become manga-ka, and the aforementioned atrocious contracts, I was thrilled to see that company burn. I hope they remain but a bit player in the manga scene from now on, despite what Stu Levy may wish for himself.
Sorry for the long comment, but there's obviously a lot that can be said about Tokyopop.
TJTheEmperor fuck Princess Ai!!!! When the first volume got released, it marked the end of Tokyopop
GOD PRINCESS AI I never properly read it but after googling it to refresh my memory I did read a sporking (snarky recap, for all you young'uns) on LJ of like the first volume or so. iirc a looooot of people side-eyed that series for the parallels between the main heroine and the other co-creator, musician Courtney Love.
(It's still weird to me that a musician decided to co-write an OEL manga. Like, "DJ Milky" was already involved in the industry but how tf did Courtney Love get involved?)
All facts. I was in the American manga publishing business for a couple decades.
The unfortunate thing is that they still haven't learned from their mistakes. They uploaded an illegal fansub of Angel's Egg they haven't licensed onto their official RUclips channel, having to be reprimanded before taking it down and business tactics remain the same
@@divalea Haha, I remember when the best part of any TokyoPop press release was the savage takedown you'd have on LJ the next day.
GOD I'M OLD.
damn I am so old I remember discovering Tokyopop's warrior cat manga :,(
bruh thats mostly why im familiar with tokyopop
All I remember from Tokyopop is those original comics drawn in "manga" style. So basically precursor to RWBY style stuff in comic form.
Well yeah. Anime was HUGE and for many people it was an influential part of their childhood. So it makes sense that they would incoporate that style, but creating their own stories with it, while putting their own personal touches on the art style to make it their own
I remember riding/driving for an hour from my rural small town to the nearest Borders just to buy Tokyopop manga, and discussing the stories/drawing fanart with my friends. Those are fun memories and it's sad that both institutions are pretty well gone now.
Tokyopop is still prevalent in the german Manga Market
I love you
You make #5//WE KNOW.
I'll always be grateful to Tokyopop for publishing Love Hina in the States, because that was the series that got me into collecting manga some 15 or 16 years ago. Borders/Brentano's was also the best place to go because unlike B&N they sold mature titles, more specifically Berserk. My go-to Borders is now an H&M and whenever I'm there with my SO I like to tell her the former manga section is now the women's underwear section
Great video perusal, Bard. But this part bugs me a bit.
2:06 "Keep in mind it's 1997 at this point. Anime is currently experiencing an unprecedented boom in western popularity thanks to shows like *Pokemon* and Sailor Moon."
As someone who grew up in the 90s, and remembers each year of it quite vividly.
The Pokemon Anime would've had little barring on the western anime boom in 1997. Yes, the Anime first aired in Japan in 1997, but it wouldn't start airing in English until late 1998, and at that point it was only on very early in the morning, it was a pain to catch, and only the first handful of episodes. Local networks had little faith in it at this time. The Pokemon Phenomenon wouldn't hit it full stride until 1999. That's when the Anime, Movies, Games, Toys and Cards were everywhere. For those of us who remember it, 1999 was the year of Pokemon. Oh, and Y2K...
Yeah, anime as a whole didn't really start to take off in America until the early 2000s. Up until that point we only had a handful of anime shows (Pokemon, DBZ, Sailor Moon, Digimon, Cardcaptor Sakura) airing on a few networks. In 2000 though, Toonami, Fox Kids and Kids WB all started airing _a lot_ more anime, and even more the following year. That's when it started becoming really popular.
Ah, I remember begging my mom to take me to Barns and Noble to read manga in my middle school days. Saw Tokyopop everywhere.
Man, I feel old.
I wish I swiped up all the decent Tokyopop titles while I still have the chance. Now I'm left with going to the few cons that are nearby praying for a used manga booth and broken dreams of being able to have all the Kare Kano and GTO manga. By the way you HAVE to talk about the fall of ADV. It too had a HUGE manga and anime collection with quality titles but fell from grace.
So now I'm crying because that means I'll never be vol 3 of princess ai prism of the midnight dawn.
You should do a video about the fall of ADV. Also, how could you not mention Tokyopop's cringeworthy tv commercials?
I second this, ADV sure was something
Oh god, I forgot about the commercials! They weren't the worst, but they were something
I only saw those commercials a few times on TV as a teen. That was when I first heard the word manga was pronounced "mahn-gah" and not "man-gah." I was confused at first, but I eventually realized that I was mispronouncing the word during my early days of reading manga.
Well, the fall of ADV isn't as bad when you remember that Sentai Filmworks has basically gotten back up to the level of the ADV days. Still, the ADV/Sentai Filmworks story is a wild one!
The manga revolution though???
oof. 80% of the manga in the bookstore i work at is tokyopop
having finished the video, i now know why, haha. apparently their german branch still has all their licences
TokyoPop nows sells Disney and yuri and yaoi manga (and Aria). Oof.
I really enjoyed the footage of the manga! Very comforting!
I am SO glad that you brought up the issue about the OEL creators. I was there for that whole thing, and completely side with the creators. Tokyopop did SO wrong by them. One artist I had been following for SO long before her working with Tokyopop had been working on her story for a VERY long time. I was BEYOND pissed for her when she pretty much lost ALL rights to her story, her artwork, her characters.
Girl yes, another fascinating editorial
wow that brand really brings back memories i used to read some of their titles back in middle school damn..has it really been that long?
Star Trek TNG manga. We need to send these to Mike from RedLetterMedia
They have TOS ones too. I need them so much
Thank you for making this! I have wondered about this for years! As someone who was in highschool in the 2000s, Tokyo Pop was a huge part of my teenage years. Sad that they made so many bad decisions, but I am grateful that they brought manga into the mainstream the way they did.
I still question to this day where my Tokyopop World of Warcraft manga even came from.
I would be interested in you doing a video about Tokyopop's relationships with the OEL community.
Almost 20 minutes long. This day is truly blessed.
Thank you for making such amazing content!
3:25 wait holy shit that's the exact Borders I used to shop in as a kid! I remember being so antsy about going there so I asked my parents if we can go in that very mall. I still have my collection of Shonen Jump and Tokyopop titles to this day, and it feels so surreal seeing it again.
It's now a DSW shoe store..
another awesome and interesting vid kennedy awesome job as always this was an interesting dive GG to dan for getting the abandoned borders footage and was the fighterZ footage him as well? cuz i thinks thats his team right lol
Thank you for this video, I never knew TP had a partnership with Borders!
Gawd, Manga shelves used to be 2 aisle sections worth, maybe 2 1/2, B&N and Borders, and when the Great Recession hit, literally it became only one shelf side in size, or only 3/4. It’s recovered, but it’s more like only one full aisle.
I swear some comic shops that specialized in manga made their best during those years up to the recession. I really miss my local manga shop because I actually got recommendations from them!
I personally think TP got too big and got really sloppy and took their audience for granted.
Yay for a massive library, but the variety was becoming bland on the same theme on how they published; series that spanned 20+ books ensured them a revenue stream, but you had to also have a series that would be worth continuing justification to keep publishing. That massive library probably had series that have multiple volume numbers that could potentially pay off in bulk, but only if they were popular. It’s why I stay away from titles that are 20+ as a rule of thumb, because the publisher would rather worry about dwindling copies sold than finishing publishing the series. It’s why you may see some publishers putting out Tonkobon (spl?) volumes now in order to reduce printing costs of individual volumes over a bulk collection.
Long series, and spin off series I shy away from because it just over saturated the field with just one IP (AOT and it’s spin offs are an example)
Those OEL contests were a joke.
Yeah TP was a great way to jump in, but when you saw competition and how they publish smaller series that you enjoy and even larger formats (near every TP publication was trimmed to the same size, save for some at the end) those larger paper size publications suddenly look more attractive (personally) than the neat cookie cutter rows of cranked out like no tomorrow series that TP had a habit of flooding with.
Wow! Back then I was upset that I didn't win in the Rising Stars of Manga contests. From this video, not winning was a blessing in disguise.
I discovered your channel via your segment on Gaia and I'm totally hooked. Also, my personal favorite Next Gen character was Ryker.
Hey, talk about the controversies of their original manga series. You just mentioned the creators didn't have full custody of their intellectual property.
My elementary school had quite a few Tokyopop manga
Ember Fox Gaming mine too
4:08
"Two, four, six, eight, Homer's Crime was very great! Great meaning large or immense, we use it in the pejorative sense!"
I actually submitted a comic for their contest near the end of the compy. Never heard anything back, and I don't even know if the fully ran that contest that year, but in retrospect that was probably for the best. I still have that comic too.
What I loved about Tokyopop is that they didn't mirror the book to fit western audiences. They let it play out the way Japanese audiences read it.
Well sure, but the reason given was that less "Hey we do it for the fans" and more "This will save us money on having to mirror and correct anything that look stupid because of it"
It just so happened to also be a lot better for fans
Some of their early stuff actually was. The Mixx/Tokyopop translation of Sailor Moon was flipped.
@@midnightumbreon6664 Yep, people forget that. Tokyopop under the Mixx label was pretty awful, they improved dramatically once they started calling themselves Tokyopop and stopped printing manga flipped.
I just found your channel recently- love it! Fascinating! Hearts!
is nobody gonna talk about that TOUCH OF DEATH combo?
Most of the manga I bought back then were only Tokyopop titles. I was so disappointed when Amazon had to refund my money for preordered titles because they collapsed. :( I I still have my copies of Mixx/Tokyopop Sailor Moon manga. I remember when the change of publishing format happened.