News
Tokyopop Germany Discusses End of Its Kodansha Licenses
posted on by Egan Loo
Dr. Joachim Kaps, Managing Director of Tokyopop Germany, spoke with the ICv2 retail news source about the Japanese publisher Kodansha's decision to let its manga licenses with Tokyopop Germany expire. Kaps said that Kodansha had not given Tokyopop Germany an explanation and added that two other German manga publishers, Egmont and Del Rey sister company Heyne, had already cut down the number of Kodansha titles they published already. According to Kaps, "Heyne started a small manga program with titles from Kodansha a few years ago, but seems to be on the way back out of manga at the moment. They have stopped Samurai Deeper Kyo, Life, and some other projects during the last year." Kaps acknowledged that he did not know if Heyne's decisions were related to Kodansha's recent decision with Tokyopop Germany.
Kai-Steffen Schwarz, Editorial Director of Manga at the Germany manga publisher Carlsen Verlag GmbH, told Icarus Publishing head Simon Jones that Kodansha's decision on its Tokyopop Germany licenses "is not related to Kodansha titles published or announced by Carlsen Manga."
Marco Pavia, the Associate Publisher of Tokyopop in the United States, declined to comment on Kodansha's licenses with Tokyopop in North America. He told ICv2, "I just don't have any information." Only one of the Kodansha titles that Tokyopop Germany carried, Harold Sakuishi's Beck, was also published by Tokyopop in North America.
