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NEWS: Variety Interviews Tokyopop CEO, Covers Film Projects

Dramacon would be so much fun! (Probably not terribly popular outside of otakudom, but hey, we're paying movie-goers too, right?)

Stu needs to get fired, he messed with Initial D and should pay for his insolence.

"You have some people that are really serious about manga as literature; other people that are really into the look and style, the visual element of it; you have people that like something that's different; and then you have people who are appreciating the storytelling and the risk-taking aspects of manga as an entertainment form," says Levy

Dramacon would be so much fun! (Probably not terribly popular outside of otakudom, but hey, we're paying movie-goers too, right?) Can't say I've even so much as heard of the ones they're suggesting (and the one I have, I didn't like at all.)

ZeetherKID77 wrote:

Stu needs to get fired, he messed with Initial D and should pay for his insolence.

Wow. And I thought I was bitter about that. You know, enough to (quite jokingly) compare him to Osama Bin Laden. Though it does kinda illustrate the point that he's a figurehead in the manga following in the US which sometimes does reach religious proportions.

Now I can forgive that Initial D mistake.. almost. The thing is, the guy is still the same. He's got the same damn rock star attitude he did when he was trying to 'fix' Initial D with his own music.

Another offense, to me, is this mystical 'manga lifestyle' that he makes up and hypes. What the hell is he talking about? As conformist as Japan is, there is no one common manga style, in art or fashion or storytelling. Manga isn't a lifestyle, it's just part of life. It's a book you read. Over in Japan, it's got a strong market and sells well. That's what you should look at. I have no clue what this manga lifestyle he talks about is. I swear he or some other marketeers make it up as they go.

Quote:

"You have some people that are really serious about manga as literature; other people that are really into the look and style, the visual element of it; you have people that like something that's different; and then you have people who are appreciating the storytelling and the risk-taking aspects of manga as an entertainment form," says Levy

I guess this is the problem. I'm in the former. The people that are serious about manga as literature. To me, Stu takes more of the side of the latter and is only in it for the surface style and the glam and the trendiness. It comes across as very shallow to me. Half the stuff I swear he makes up or takes from broad generalizations. Again, to me, manga is just Japanese comics. While fascinating in their different evolution, they're still just comics from Japan. There's no need to call his American books by that name because the Japanese industry is very different from the US one or even the new take on the US one Stu is making with TokyoPop's US books. I still refuse to call them 'manga'. The actual manga industry in Japan is just too different.

Meanwhile, going into film should be interesting. Of course they own all the rights to the American books. So who knows how much money or what say the creators get in adaptations. I'd guess they really are like Marvel, but when it comes to creator rights, that's not too good. Meanwhile, I hear they might adapt Japanese books Lament of the Lamb and now.. ugh.. Ikkitousen from their Japanese licenses.

Keito.chan wrote:

Dramacon would be so much fun! (Probably not terribly popular outside of otakudom, but hey, we're paying movie-goers too, right?) Can't say I've even so much as heard of the ones they're suggesting (and the one I have, I didn't like at all.)

"I Luv Halloween" was... interesting but not too spectacular. It was okay. I guess it's more of a macabre and less political South Park if you want to compare it to something.

Princess Ai is the brain child of Levy, under a lame pen name, and Courtney Love. So I have avoided it like the plague myself.

As for "Van Von Hunter". Geez. Didn't we already get a bad comedy of a vampire hunter out of Van Hellsing? Okay, so it wasn't trying to be a comedy, but.. meh. I doubt it would be better than Dracula Dead and Loving It and that's not saying much. Not one of Mel Brook's better ones. Meanwhile there are tons of other web comics I'd rather see adapted.

As for DramaCon. Damn. That might work. Hell, I doubt you'd need that big of a budget. It'd be like the anime fan version of Mallrats. We all know Mallrats is one of the greatest romantic comedies ever. (Well, the best one centering around comics books and with a cameo by Stan Lee.) Anyway, I still need to read Dramacon. Then again, I've been to enough cons, so maybe I don't. I kid. Sounds pretty interesting. I wonder if that's under consideration. Isn't it their best selling US made book?

Now, DramaCon is definitely a title that appeals to otakudom specifically