Tokyopop is Coming Back!

I remember going into my second year of college when Tokyopop stopped publishing manga and closed their website. It was a very sad day for me and many other people. A lot of people gave up on Tokyopop and thought they'd never come back. I didn't give up, but I wasn't very hopeful either. Then I went to Anime Expo last week and found out Tokyopop was hosting a panel. I didn't know what to expect from this panel, what news they could possibly tell me, but to my surprise it was wonderful mews. They're coming back! They have a plan for getting themselves back into the industry and I think it's all a great idea.

Let me start from the beginning.

For those of you who don't know, Tokyopop was, and now is, a manga publishing company. You can only find their books online or at used book stores for now, but back when I first got into manga which was about 10-11 years ago their manga took up a lot of shelf space at book stores. I have some titles from them and still look for more online to collect. They licensed some of my favorite series such as Peach Girl, Girl Got Game, Vampire Game, and Wild Act. What happened to Tokyopop was that they got bankrupt. According to Stu, the CEO of Tokyopop, the bankruptcy happened because he moved too fast with the company. Stu started Tokyopop back in 1997. During that time manga was not as popular in the United States as it is today. Stu had a lot going on with publishing manga, mailing out magazines to loyal customers, managing a forum based website, and publishing original work that was not from Japan. With all that he did and the manga market not being that great at the time you can kind of see how they got into trouble with the business. So Stu had to close down. He sent out a mass letter to all the users of the website (I got the letter). To sum it up the letter said that the company was going bankrupt and that he was moving to Japan. A lot of people took this as him giving up on the company so he could go live in Japan or just him escaping to Japan. This made him very unpopular with people and he is well aware of this, as he as said this at the panel.

But that's all in the past. Now, they're looking to the future and they're going to take it slow this time. The first thing they're doing is creating a mobile app called Pop Comics. Stu got the idea from Japan. In Japan there's a trend going on with mobile publishing. It's a place for people to publish their stories on a phone app for people to read. It's very popular in Japan, and Stu is bringing this concept to America. Pop Comics is going to be in its beta testing phase soon. The people that can use this are people who make their own manga and people who want to read manga. For people interested in using this app it will be free to use for both Android and iPhones. For manga creators, you will have the rights to your work. Tokyopop will not own your work, you own your work. Be on the lookout for more details on Pop Comics if it seems like something you're interested in.

The other news I got from the Tokyopop panel is that they'll start publishing manga in 2016. The reason for it not being sooner is because they need time to obtain titles from Japanese companies. Think about it. When they stopped publishing years ago they couldn't pay the companies they were getting manga titles from. Now they have to build relationships back up with these companies. It's going to be hard because there are other manga publishing companies who have soared in the manga business such as Viz Media, Yen Press, and Kodansha Comics USA. Tokyopop has a lot of catching up to do. They know that too, but they are also aware that they need to take it slow. The manga they'll be publishing are Japanese licensed titles, Hollywood brands, and original stories. For the Japanese licensed titles they'll be obtaining the more obscure and undiscovered gems. If you have any manga suggestions that you know of in Japan that hasn't made in to America yet you can send your suggestions to info@tokyopop.com or communicate with them through their Facebook.

My favorite Tokyopop title.

The last bit of news is they want to go further with their YouTube page. It's not as active as they'd like right now, but they want to change that. One of the guys that works at Tokyopop manages the YouTube account and plans to start doing anime reviews. It's a good idea because reviews are becoming a popular thing in anime. He doesn't have any detailed plans for the review yet but he's taking suggestions for anime.

So look forward to Tokyopop's future. I'm super excited that they're coming back into the industry. I've been missing the manga they brought to the US and can't wait to see what kind of manga they'll be bringing to us. I'll be making suggestions once the time gets closer. I hope Tokyopop gets a lot of support and that they succeed as a business this time.

My AnimeExpo Experience

Going to Anime Expo for 2015 was my first Anime Expo ever. I've been to other anime conventions before such as my small hometown conventions of Mechacon and Louisianime and a big Texas convention called Akon. Akon is the biggest anime convention I've been to before going to Anime Expo. Anime Expo is held in the Los Angeles Convention Center in California, and is known to be the biggest anime convention in North America. It's highly appraised and is compared to San Diego Comic Con in the anime world.

So what was my opinion on Anime Expo? It was okay.

It was extremely crowded. I felt like I was cattle being herded. I had no choice but to go in the direction of the crowd. Not only that but the crowd effected my perception of where I had to be. There were people everywhere! Especially against the walls of the inside of the convention center. They had me thinking they were waiting for a panel since they were by panel rooms, but apparently they were just resting. Yep, if people weren't walking around they made a nice spot for themselves on the floor. Not just the anime convention, but the city itself. Los Angeles is just too crowded with too many cars and too many people. I felt suffocated. My husband was complaining about his bubble being invaded. We were definitely ready to go home by the second to last day of the convention.

I got to meet the industry. I'm really into anime and manga and I follow the company's news all the time to find out what series they're licensing. The big names that were at Anime Expo 2015 were Funimation, Viz, Aniplex, and even Tokyopop made an appearance. This was probably my favorite part of the convention. I got to hear the first of any news and got to see sneak peeks of clips before anyone else. And their booths! Oh those booths. They were more like presentation stands. They were showing clips from their popular anime and had their merchandise in glass cases for everyone to see. If you found something you liked you could buy it then and there. If you weren't interested in buying anything you could always obtain a free poster from them. I think I got more free stuff than actual bought items from the convention.

It had a rough start. On day 1 they didn't open the doors at the scheduled time, or at least that was being said in line. Once I got in the convention my husband and I knew what we wanted to do. We were there to see panels. We probably spent our first hour of the convention trying to find the stupid line for one panel. None of the convention center staff members knew what we were talking about and then the volunteers were always telling us to ask someone else. From crowd chatter we found out panel lines were outside the convention center due to code. The lines were color coded by tape but volunteers still didn't know about what line was for what. My husband and I figured out on our own that one side of the convention center were lines for main events while the other side was for live programming which is what we were looking for. As the next day rolled around the volunteer workers finally got the hang of the line situation but by that time we already figured it out ourselves.

So my overall experience was fine, nothing amazing. As you can tell my favorite part was the industry. I do recommend people go to Anime Expo if you've never went just to get that experience. I don't regret going. But personally I don't think I'll be going back to Anime Expo again. I rather stay at smaller conventions like Mechacon and Akon. I plan to go to more conventions in my life, so I'll be dipping my feet into new conventions all over the country.

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