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Forum - View topicNEWS: Report: Kodansha Lets Tokyopop Germany's Licenses Expire
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GeneralArrow
 Posts: 225 Location: United States |
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I could care less about the other but I sure hope they don't take beck away from the US.
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bleuster
 Posts: 455 Location: Orange County |
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That's too bad. Beck was ahead in volumes in Germany, and even had a couple bonuses the NA releases never got.
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Shuichi
Posts: 124 |
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It's also still unknown what will happen to older titles, if they will get reprinted again.
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mrcn
Posts: 4 |
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How could they!?
Why do they refuse to make money off series they own anyway by cancelling licenses? They don't even have to invest a lot to "reuse" their manga in another country. And Tokyopop has been quite a reliable partner in Germany. They also have high standards concerning translation and print quality. I just don't get it... Maybe another Publisher is getting exclusive rights to Kodansha series? Anyway - stuff like this irritates people and endangers the german manga market. Now people will think twice before they start collecting a series. They'll rather wait until it is completed, meaning publishers earnings will decline, resulting in a vicious circle (with a lot of series already being cancelled because of sales that don't meet the initial expectations...). |
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Hon'ya-chan
 Posts: 973 |
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DJ Milky strikes again.
Will someone please remove him from the board already? |
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tebalith
Posts: 134 |
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I don't know about the high quality of translation. I still remember the tons and tons of mistakes in Busou Renkin #1, as well as their dismissive and insulting attitude towards the fans who pointed them out to them.
TP Germany has been dead to me since then, and most importantly, I don't trust their word as far as I can throw them. So if they say it's not their fault, keep in mind they also said "Blue Dragon: Ral Grad" was THE up and coming most successful Jump manga ever. |
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mrsu
Posts: 13 |
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Doesn't sound too far fetched. There is a publisher, who only releases Kodansha titles. Maybe they extended to contract to an exclusive partnership. (btw. the publisher's name is Heyne) |
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mrcn
Posts: 4 |
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Well, okay - but overall they do a very good job concerning their releases.
Maybe you're right and Tokyopop Germany isn't as innocent as it claims to be, but would they really risk to put the blame on Kodansha if the fault had been on their own side? Kodansha could sue Tokyopop due to defamation and Tokyopop would lose even more customers if all that came to light. |
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PhoenixHeart
 Posts: 41 Location: Germany, Black-Forrest area |
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This sure was shocking news to me, I didn't think it could happen to Tokyopop - they seemed so stable and succesful (apart from the DVD sales, but that's a global problem) Still, it seems surreal that they point out Kodansha gave absolutly no reasons to Tokyopop (trusting their press releases) I mean, the least they should say is that the profit may not reach their expectations - In case of Beck it wouldn't surprise me, but Perfect Girl and School Rumble were fine selling manga in Germany, as much as I knew.
Well, that means more importing' for me then - I'm really satisfied with Del Ray's Nodame Cantabile, so my former thought "not worth the extra fees" has gone out the window ^^ |
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tebalith
Posts: 134 |
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mrcn, I know I said I don't necessarily trust their word (especially when it comes to admitting mistakes) but I don't think they outright lied in the newsletter. Maybe Kodansha really didn't give them an elaborate justification, for whatever reason. Maybe Tokyopop just honestly don't think the explanations they got were sufficient. Maybe Kodansha reached the decision after a number of individual issues, and one that was the final straw; they wouldn't be too keen on explaining everything that played a role.
How communicative are Japanese publishers anyway? People on Tokyopop Germany's official forums keep demanding a public explanation from Kodansha, but it'd surprise me if Kodansha would explain their business decisions to foreign, mostly teenaged laymen with entitlement issues. Jo Kaps has posted in the forum after angry users spoke about sending Kodansha angry e-mails or boycotting them, doing the diplomatic thing and calming them down. I don't think they meant to blame Kodansha and stir up aggression against them, but they definitely meant to defend themselves, to assure their readers that it's not their fault. But the fans want to blame someone, because having a bad guy helps deal with the situation, so any "It's not our fault, we don't know what we did wrong" is all too easily understood as "it's their fault, they're being unreasonable and mean". Unfortunate mistake in a tricky situation? |
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Teriyaki Terrier
 Posts: 5689 |
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Hopefully this doesn't mean Tokyo Pop will be forced to shut down like Geneon did almost two years ago. Tokyo Pop was hit very hard last year, I really hope this year revenue flow will even out.
This worries me only slightly, but I still remember what happened to Geneon and Broccoli books. Though Broccoli books closed down completly last year. |
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GeorgeC
Posts: 795 |
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I hate to say it,
but I don't think we've seen the end of the consolidation of the anime and manga market in the US, let alone the world! Even if the worldwide economic collapse didn't happen so dramatically in the 3rd quarter last year, this trend was bound to continue. There are still a few anime distributors/licensors on the ropes yet, and I've felt for years we overdue for a manga collapse, too. There were just too many darn books being published for the size of the market in the US and there was no way all of them were selling. The companies just overspeculated and are now paying the price for that just like the anime distributors have been for years since at least 2003. No, we won't see anime or manga disappear completely outside of Japan, but it will continue to be less prominent and shrink in popularity and marketshare until someone comes up with a more viable marketing and sales plan that what exists because the current M & S sure isn't working. |
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Shuichi
Posts: 124 |
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German Publisher EMA has the rights to School Rumble, Hell Girl and Perfect Girl.
Source: http://www.manganet.de/shop_content.php/coID/384/programm.html German Publisher Carlsen has the rights to Mission: Liebe (Ai Ga Nakuchane!) Source: http://www.comics-in-leipzig.de/Forum/thread.php?postid=4659941#post4659941 |
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