Forum - View topicNEWS: Tokyopop to Cut Manga Output in United Kingdom
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minakichan
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I find this incredibly hard to believe-- 80% of all graphic novels in the UK, a category including European and American comics and anything that ran in, say, Shounen Jump-- dominated by Tokyopop, of all companies? Even a drop to 50% is incredible. Would this mean that the UK market is just made of major fail? |
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Dargonxtc
 Posts: 4463 Location: Nc5xd7+ スターダストの海洋 |
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I wonder how many of those 25 releases a month are OEL? |
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Highway Star
 Posts: 227 Location: Ireland |
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Obviously a large majority of comic buyers are those after joining in on this "Manga Revolution" crap. I'm damn near infuriated that they held 80% of sales in UK (though I'm Irish myself), Britian still has a massive amount of American/European comics readership (as evident in 2000AD)... Ah well, Tokyopop doesn't put out that much good stuff anyways. "And nothing of value was lost". |
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Matsumoto-san
Posts: 1 |
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I was wondering when Tokyopop UK was going to be mentioned...
I can see why it's hard to believe, but up until recently, I think 80% would sound about right for Tokyopop manga sales. For some reason many booksellers haven't imported American manga titles released by eg Viz, CMX, Dark Horse or Digital Manga. Either beacuse they aren't aware of them or because they "don't get manga". Tokyopop titles are easily available through Macmillan distribution and for a long time have been the only manga 'recognised' by many booksellers. I would have though graphic novel/comic book shops account for a smaller amount of sales than WH Smith and Waterstone's, both of whom Tokyopop UK have VERY close relations with, practicaly ensuring their titles are stocked predominantly. Usually, in these stores you find Tokyopop titles, then maybe a couple of Gollancz editions of Viz titles. Now with Simon and Schuster distributing Viz over here as well as the UK's Tanoshimi (Del Rey), TP has a lot more competition along with increasing bookseller awareness of other publishers, and the continued popularity of Amazon. OEL wise, in my experience have done quite well...Bizenghast, I Luv Halloween etc, were all quite popular (  ), maybe due to Neo magazine (UK's main anime/manga mag) always giving things like that a push.
Obviously, this is from my experience, and I know that there are a few booksellers who know THERE IS MORE TO MANGA THAN TOKYOPOP, hehe. |
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edzieba
Posts: 704 |
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UK reader here: I just had a quick look through my meanga shelf, and it turns out I don't own a single title published by Tokyopop. Mostly Viz and Dark horse, with one title each from Del Ray and Broccoli.
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Mohawk52
 Posts: 8202 Location: England, UK |
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I only have two titles I'm buying from TP. One is Fruba and the other is +Anima. Both are for my daughter, but daddy has to read them first, to make sure they are suitable for her you understand.
 Now that Dark Horse and Viz have signed with UK publishers to distribute here I can not doubt what TP-UK are saying, but we are so small a market here that it doesn't take much cutting for us to feel the pain. 
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The Xenos
 Posts: 1519 Location: Boston |
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Only? 50% of the market is still pretty damn good. Why should TokyoPop dominate? There are plenty of other good publishers out there. |
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Highway Star
Posts: 227 Location: Ireland |
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Heyhey, I read Neo! Well, occasionally, I don't like it as much as I used to when I started from issue 1... But yeah, Neo's definetely had an impact on the UK anime and manga industry regardless. |
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tasukidaisuki
Posts: 11 Location: London, UK |
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As a UK manga reader, I'm also finding Tokyo Pop's statistics slightly hard to believe. On the other hand, a lot of online manga retailers sell American imports, and when titles such as Fushigi Yuugi and Naruto from Viz came to the UK, they were back-released so it became convienet to import US copies - which were also cheaper!
I've never really noticed where my manga comes from, to be quite honest, as I've been buying from Amazon since Tokyo Pop was having an identity crisis oveer the Sailor Moon manga (Chix Comix, Pocket Mix, etc.) I've always assumed it to come from the US, and didn't realise there were UK publishers untill about 3 years ago. They've never been one of my favourite publishers - there are lots of inconsistencies between volumes - mainly external features such as changing volume height, spine cover and the whole cover all together in some cases. It really annoys me that volume 5 of my paraKiss is different from all the rest. Tokyo Pop have never really had a presence, like ADV UK or MVM used to have either. They'd have a stall at conventions, but they'd also have extremly high prices, and no vibrant characters in their team who could convincingly sell you stuff. |
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Shiroi Hane
Encyclopedia Editor
 Posts: 7584 Location: Wales |
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Ignoring imports, wasn't Tokyopop the first company to sell manga (in volume at least) in the UK? Since there are others (like Tanoshimi and Viz) putting their books in UK stores now it wouldn't be surprising that their market share would go down.
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Pandy Wandy
 Posts: 20 Location: Richmond, VA |
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I wonder when Tokyopop Germany will be mentioned in the news. I think they have the license for the Gentlemen's Alliance manga, among other titles.
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Ktimene's Lover
 Posts: 2242 Location: Glendale, AZ (Proudly living in the desert) |
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That much in sales drops is possibly due to illegal scanlations.
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ConanSan
Posts: 1818 |
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That, or people buying the US versions direct.
Oddly enough, eyes don't have region codes |
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Garedeas
 Posts: 8 |
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Woah, that's depressing. I'm a UK reader and general raving otaku lunatic and it's quite saddening to see the anime/manga market declining like it is. Any of you folks near Birmingham will know that the Forbidden Planet has been FAILING recently in terms of its anime figures and manga selection.
Personally, I don't like Tokyopop titles all that much. They don't exactly have much that's very special for them. Meh, I welcome their decline of dominance. I just hope this means MOAR manga from other publishers. |
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ConanSan
Posts: 1818 |
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The uk market all in all is a total mess of over pricing and punting stuff ages after the fact (Lookin' at you, FLCL).
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