Forum - View topicINTEREST: Tokyopop Seeks Temporary Junior Film Editor
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prime_pm
 Posts: 2378 Location: Your Mother's Bedroom |
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Meh, wouldn't mind sending over a few links of my AMVs. Good for a laugh, I guess.
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Anime World Order
 Posts: 390 Location: Florida |
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Whenever Tokyopop does something strange and we as fans ask "why are they doing this?" remember that the answer is always the same: because the entire company exists as CEO Stu Levy's vanity project.
The music in Initial D / Reign / Rave Master etc was changed to music composed by Stu Levy because he wants people to recognize "him" as an accomplished DJ. That's it. That is the reason. That is why these shows were pushed for television broadcast: so the version of the show with his music could be on TV and the (horribly authored with no discernable quality control) DVDs. Despite the Courtney Love/Ai Yazawa whatever stuff on the label, Princess Ai is actually written by Stu Levy (CEO) and has labels such as "featuring poetry by DJ Milky!" right on the cover because Stu wants to be a top-selling author/artist/poet. Now he can say that he is one with some degree of legitimacy. Van Von Hunter is absolute trash of a "movie" but it is a movie that was written by, directed by, produced by, and starring Stu Levy (CEO). Who just so we're clear, plays himself. I don't know anyone who can watch more than 5-10 minutes of it...but now he can say he's a movie star and director. Despite the fact that every single aspect of the original work is removed due to being too potentially controversial (what US distributor would market an action blockbuster where the premise is "guy literally sold his soul to the forces of evil, he's the hero...and he is NOT Nicolas Cage?"), Priest is being made into a Hollywood film so Stu can say he's a Hollywood film executive producer. This new reality series will star Stu Levy (CEO, I keep appending that because the whole frosted tips, jeans and T-shirt, "hobo version of Vic Mignogna" look he's got going is intentionally designed to portray a fake image of "I'm not a businessman, I'm a fan just like you"), and make no mistake: he didn't make it with the express hope of having it only be on Hulu just like Van Von Hunter. He wanted it to be on TV. That way Stu Levy could also be a television star. But nobody wanted it, the tour ran out of money, and it ended early before making all of its stops or whatever the heck happened at the end there. Whatever, that can all be edited out and they can just post "nuh uh, it went exactly as planned!" and everyone's happy. And so on and so on and so on. The scariest part is that even though every bizarre act Tokyopop pulls is done with the primary goal of making Stu Levy / DJ Milky a bigger "star," the guy is legitimately an absolute master of guerrilla marketing: selling fans their dreams back to them and denying he's just in it for the money. He's damned good at convincing people that by consuming Tokyopop's products, they are part of the hip, cool "underground" that other people just can't understand. The only person better than Stu at playing that game to US anime/manga fans is Danny Choo, and he's not in America. It doesn't matter if there's no quality control on Tokyopop's releases even to this day...because they're the ones who are releasing Hetalia. What are people going to do? NOT buy the Hetalia manga? Not a chance. Vertical Inc. just released the second volume of Kodansha's Peepo Choo manga, written by former "Rising Stars of 'Manga'" contestant Felipe Smith. In it there is a not-so-subtle insertion of a very Stu Levy-like character who operates a company with a very Tokyopop-like logo that--without spoiling anything--behaves in very much the same way as the real Tokyopop and Stu Levy. I get the feeling that he wrote that from personal experience. Like the rest of that comic. |
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alpha_beta_angel
Posts: 29 |
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^^^
Anime World Order said what I wanted to say but much more expertly. This is the reason I buy second-hand, pre-owned, well-loved Tokyopop titles. The company has become something I could rage all day about, a total joke how they can treat manga writers like garbage, their distribute contracts like garbage and their consumers like garbage and somehow think that turning around and pointing out "lookit! We made a show about you, for you!" would make them smell like roses and get them back to their former glory. I thought there might of been a lesson learned last time efforts were focused to force-feed bad ideas onto the public... |
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asimpson2006
 Posts: 3151 Location: USA |
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Well I most likely will not watch this, but I wish Tokyopop the best of luck. I do like their manga, but I can't stand reality shows at all.
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Shenl742
Posts: 1525 |
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Oh wow, thanks AWO, I never knew any of that. Damn, I never knew things behind the scenes were that hideous at TP. At least I sorta have a nice scapegoat to childishly blame now if the last volume of Saiyuki Reload never gets released...
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superdeformed
 Posts: 88 Location: New Orleans, LA |
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I see your GIRUGAMESH! guy and raise you the Princess Knight guy.
I used to wonder such things myself, but then I saw the show Weeds and it all makes perfect sense now. |
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Tamaria
 Posts: 1512 Location: De Achterhoek |
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I like to think it's financially dependent on Tokyopop Germany, since Tokyopop Germany seems to be run by nice, sensible people who aren't Stu Levy. |
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progSHELL
Posts: 10 |
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jenthehen
 Posts: 835 Location: Cincinnati, Ohio |
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Wow ... somehow I missed hearing about this "show" until now @__@ ... I will definitely watch it!
 Should be entertaining!
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Lenks
Posts: 139 |
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So my assumption about the guy was right. Yay intuition! |
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J-Head
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Deleted
Last edited by J-Head on Mon Aug 08, 2022 3:47 am; edited 1 time in total |
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Pandadice
 Posts: 182 |
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"Greatest Otaku" at libraries/bookstores? Do these people even know what they're looking for? "America's greatest Otaku" is probably gonna be someone who doesn't leave their house...
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Sunday Silence
 Posts: 2047 |
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No, you go and empty the bottle of Margarita Mix in one swipe. |
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GloriousMaximus
 Posts: 138 Location: North America |
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TP should take the money they were investing in this 'tv show' and put it towards licensing better manga!
Honestly, do any of you really want to find out who the greatest otaku is? Is this person supposed to be the real 'Otaking'? I have a feeling the greatest otaku is some really annoying nerd who knows to much about strange things. Either that or its going to be some person with a bluetooth headset sipping on their latte talking about how amazing and influential Belladonna of Sadness was to the anime industry. EDIT: Or Odin: Photon Space Sailer Starlight. |
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