Saturday, July 24, 2004
State of Tokyopop...
I have to say that the news lately from Tokyopop is interesting to me. This time around, there is a ton of Korean titles (shoujo soccer title sounds cool), and a few from Japan. There's also a german title called Prussian Blue which aparantly ran in a german manga magazine. Pretty interesting that that is coming out over here. Also, the previously mentioned Warcraft title with artwork from Kim Jae-hwan.
Someone in the thread made a comment, and I think it bears some consideration. The point made was that this con season, Tokyopop seems to have a lack of high-profile titles. There was those CLAMP magazines, but that's not manga in and of itself. Fruits Basket was a huge deal. Ai Yori Aoshi is popular and people also mentioned Mahoromatic, DNAngel, and Tokyo Babylon, but even those don't seem all that huge to me.
When you think about what other companies are releasing, you can't help but think that things like Tsubasa and xxxHolic would habe been Tokyopop titles a year or two ago.. Viz is doing really well with a ton of high-profile titles in the Shonen Jump line. ADV is plowing ahead and CMX is on the way. Various other companies are also tackling more BL and Yaoi stuff...
I guess it just seems like TP is focusing more on the "cine-manga" and their own home-grown titles, and licensing a bunch of lesser-known titles, while most of the big names go to other companies. Not that it is necessarily a bad thing (sometimes the lesser-known ones are great), but it is definitely a shift from the past. I'm thinking that the speculations on Tokyopop's TV commercials as a way to stay visible against the competition is not too far off.
Someone in the thread made a comment, and I think it bears some consideration. The point made was that this con season, Tokyopop seems to have a lack of high-profile titles. There was those CLAMP magazines, but that's not manga in and of itself. Fruits Basket was a huge deal. Ai Yori Aoshi is popular and people also mentioned Mahoromatic, DNAngel, and Tokyo Babylon, but even those don't seem all that huge to me.
When you think about what other companies are releasing, you can't help but think that things like Tsubasa and xxxHolic would habe been Tokyopop titles a year or two ago.. Viz is doing really well with a ton of high-profile titles in the Shonen Jump line. ADV is plowing ahead and CMX is on the way. Various other companies are also tackling more BL and Yaoi stuff...
I guess it just seems like TP is focusing more on the "cine-manga" and their own home-grown titles, and licensing a bunch of lesser-known titles, while most of the big names go to other companies. Not that it is necessarily a bad thing (sometimes the lesser-known ones are great), but it is definitely a shift from the past. I'm thinking that the speculations on Tokyopop's TV commercials as a way to stay visible against the competition is not too far off.
