Tokyopop

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For the music movie, see Tokyo Pop.

Tokyopop, formerly known as Mixx, is a distributor of manga in English, German, and Japanese.The company is incorporated in Tokyo, Japan, with its largest office in Los Angeles, California and branches in the UK and Germany. Tokyopop also licenses and publishes manhwa, anime and translated Japanese novels, and produces "Cine-Manga" (also called "animanga" or Anime-books; a line of graphic novels using still shots taken from animated or live-action television shows and movies) and original manga-style comics in English and German. They sell their products through bookstores and comic stores throughout the USA, Canada, Ireland, the UK, Germany, Austria, and German-speaking Swiss markets.

In May 2004, in a rare move for an American comic book publisher, Tokyopop launched a television advertising campaign, targeting several cable television channels: Cartoon Network, Spike TV, MTV, TechTV and G4.

Tokyopop, when it was formerly known as Mixx, sold MixxZine, a manga magazine. Mixx also sold the shōjo manga anthology Smile. Mixxzine later became Tokyopop before it was discontinued. In 2005 Tokyopop began a new, free publication, called Manga (originally Takuhai), to feature their latest releases.

In March 2006, Tokyopop and HarperCollins Publishers announced a co-publishing agreement in which the sale and distribution rights of all Tokyopop manga and books are transferred to HarperCollins in mid-June 2006. The agreement also enables Tokyopop to produce manga adaptations of HarperCollins' books. Meg Cabot's books will be the first to be adapted into the manga format. The first line of Tokyopop-HarperCollins manga will be released in 2007 with the goal to publish up to 24 titles each year.^[1]

As of Spring 2006, Tokyopop is making efforts to reach out to their fans by means of the creation of a message board and, as of April 21, 2006 a MySpace account. ^[2]

[edit] Success and criticism

Many people in the publishing industry credit Tokyopop for transforming the American manga market to its current state of popularity. The company achieved this by first lowering the price of their manga per volume, to a consistent price point of about $10 (US), €10.50 (Ireland) and £7.50 (UK). They achieved this by not translating sound effects (which required much touching up of the original art), and not flipping the pages like was done in most English manga in the 1990s. This was advertised as trying to make English translated manga more "authentic" and indeed was appealing to many fans. The lower price point was also more appealing to bookstores, because lower prices meant better sales. Other manga companies, such as Viz Media have restructured and lowered their prices as a response to this move. The German versions of the Tokyopop manga cost €6.50; the quality of the paper is lower than the U.S. paper.

In addition to lowering prices of manga, the company licensed a wider variety of titles than other companies had previously. While most translators had concentrated on shōnen manga and titles thought to have "crossover" potential with the male-dominated American comics market, Tokyopop's lineup included many shōjo manga titles that appealed to teenage girls who were not well served by the domestic comics market. The company also eschewed the so-called "direct market" of comic book stores, many of which specialized primarily in superhero titles and had a reputation of being "boy's clubs" uninviting or hostile to casual readers, opting instead to concentrate on sales through bookstores. As a result, the manga section in most mainstream bookstores has increased dramatically. (Nevertheless, they do make their products available to the direct market through distributors such as Diamond Comic Distributors.)

The company has been criticized, most notably by Toren Smith of the competing company Studio Proteus, in a piece published as part of an analysis of the American manga translation industry in The Comics Journal.^[3] This critics' main charges are that Tokyopop's quality control is poor and frequently fails to catch typos and other rudimentary errors before books go to print, and that its approach to licensing titles from Japan stresses quantity over quality. Some feel that this would eventually lead to a bubble in the manga industry unless something was done to make the comics less disposable. Additionally, the practice of not flipping pages has been criticized; critics assert that, as the English language is typically read from left to right, printing manga in right-to-left format results in pages that do not flow well to English readers. However, almost every manga released in graphic novel format, including those of other labels such as Dark Horse Comics, Del Rey and Viz Media is translated unflipped at this time; advocates of non-flipping hold the view that this increases authenticity, as original sound effects in katakana and hiragana (if left untranslated, as by Tokyopop) become readable. Also, the number of characters in flipped manga that appeared to be left-handed was amazing.^[4] Furthermore, nonflipping preserves the artists' original creations and intentions, especially as to background or tertiary writing. (Signs, clothes, etc.)

Not translating the Japanese sound effects into English has been an issue with some fans. While most of the manga published by Tokyopop contains the average of 0-2 SFX per page, the other series (such as Love Hina and Initial D) have at least 3-7 SFX per page and these sound effects are usually used to describe the action that's happening in the story, and therefore considered to be important. And due to that, an American reader must be able to read Japanese, in order to completely understand the Japanese SFX. However, other fans believe it is better to have the original Japanese sound effects, and usually the situation is self explainatory for what the sound effects mean, such as explosions, sword fights, and someone falling down. However, there are certain instances in the manga, that Tokyopop occasionally, puts an English subtitle next to the Japanese sound effect. Several titles also have a sound-effects glossary in the back, such as in Tokyo Babylon.

Tokyopop has also been criticized by anime fans with regards to changes in music and the naming of characters in their published anime. Critics charge that these changes compromise the anime viewing experience, watering down and Americanizing it, making it less "authentic." This has spread to their manga series, with the renaming of Ikki Tousen as Battle Vixens, and Karin as Chibi Vampire, when Karin is nearly equal to the average height of women in Japan eliminating her from being chibi. In addition, the ultra-violent Battle Royale manga was rewritten to be a Reality TV show, when the original novel (published by competitor Viz Media) never made such a distinction.

Most notably, after several well-translated Anime releases, Tokyopop angered many fans of Initial D with an "Americanized" dub of the anime and translation of the manga. The Americanization included adding "street slang" and replacing the Eurobeat soundtrack for the sounds of their in-house DJ (DJ Milky) which at times would be classified as a fusion of hip-hop and Electronica music. Also, TOKYOPOP renamed characters in both the manga and anime to more English sounding alternatives (Takumi became Tak and Mogi became Natalie, for example). Rumors have speculated that Tokyopop was trying to cash in on the Fast and the Furious craze and the growing import scene at the time but a rumored TV deal fell through. Faced with doing a completely (and costly) new dub, Tokyopop released the Americanized dub. Their translation of Initial D in the subtitled version remained intact and free of any Americanization. Its inclusion on the DVDs managed to satisfy fans of Initial D who opt to watch only the subtitled version of the anime. ^[5]

In a completely different case, Tokyopop released Rave Master on DVD in a dub-only format à la 4Kids Entertainment with Americanization of the music and some of the script. This is probably why the second season of Rave Master had average to poor ratings compared to the first when shown on Cartoon Network's Toonami block and was quietly removed. However, the Rave Master manga usually sells well in the United States. It is usually on the top 100 best selling manga lists.

Tokyopop and HarperCollins have also been both hailed and criticized for their decision to classify as "manga" the comics they are to produce under their new publishing agreement. Critics feel that the word "manga," which means comic (or cartoon) in Japanese, is not the appropriate term for an American-produced, English-language comic. They suggest that the term is being used to exploit the current popularity of Japanese manga in the United States, at the expense of the term "comic."^[6] Yet others feel the move to call their original titles "manga" is a conscious step away from the spandex-clad superhero stereotype of the word "comics" and towards a more open, global view of the graphic novel and comics medium. In order to better disguish Japanese manga from their original English-language titles, they now use the term OEL manga. To classify all manga, they use the terms "global manga" or "world manga" which is also used by Seven Seas--one of the other few manga companies in the U.S. producing original, manga-influenced graphic novels.

In July, 2006, Tokyopop launched their new website, featuring the ability for fans to create blogs, post artwork, videos, and manga, and generally create a more user-focused website as an attempt to bridge the gap between publisher and consumer. Art theft has run rampant throughout the site since its launch but Tokyopop has put in measures to help limit this, such as the ability to 'flag' or mark an image at odds with their terms of service. The format of the new website is still in its beta version and continues to undergo changes.

[edit] Foreign markets

In summer 2004, Tokyopop founded its first foreign branch in Germany, headquartered in Hamburg. The first manga and manhwa by Tokyopop Germany were published in November 2004, and the first anime in fall 2005.

Also in 2004, Tokyopop set up a London, UK office that mainly imports books from the USA and distributes them into bookstores in the United Kingdom. Tokyopop will be releasing an anime collection in the United Kingdom market in late 2006, including titles such as Initial D and Great Teacher Onizuka. Vampire Princess Miyu was released on DVD by MVM Entertainment, and Kids TV channel Toonami aired the first half of Rave Master in early 2005.

Tokyopop also distributes some of their titles to Australia and New Zealand through Funtastic who recently acquired Madman Entertainment.

[edit] Books published in English by Tokyopop

[edit] Manga

Besides the abbreviated list below, many titles may be found within Category:Tokyopop.

At various times in its history, Tokyopop has published books under the Pocket Mixx, Mix Manga Premium Edition, Chix Comix, TOKYOPOP manga, and TOKYOPOP imprints.