Fraternity Manuals

TOKYOPOP

From Open Encyclopedia

Image:TOKYOPOP-logo.png

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"; 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, 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, Tech TV and G4.

TOKYOPOP, back when it was known as Mixx, sold MixxZine, a manga magazine. Mixx also sold the shōjo 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.

Contents

[edit]

Success and criticism

Many people in the 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 to a consistent price point of about 10$ (US) per volume. 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 a feature 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 mangas cost 6.50 Euros; 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 (boys') manga and titles thought to have "crossover" potential with the male-dominated American comics market, TOKYOPOP's lineup included many shōjo 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 exponentially.

The company has been criticized by most notably 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. The 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.

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 and making it less "authentic."

Most notably, after several well-translated Anime releases, TOKYOPOP dropped a major bomb and angered many fans of Initial D with a substandard "americanized" dub of the Anime. 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. 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 decided to bite the bullet and release the americanized dub. To TOKYOPOP's credit, their translation of Initial D in the subtitled version remained intact and free of any americanization. Its inclusion on the DVDs managed to satisfy at least some fans of Initial D who opt to watch only the subtitled version of the anime and completely ignore the dub.

In a completely different case, TOKYOPOP released Rave Master on DVD in a dub-only format á la 4Kids Entertainment with Americanzation of the music and some of the script. Despite this, Rave Master showed poor ratings when shown on Cartoon Network's Toonami block and was quietly removed from the program block.

[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 late summer 2005. They were the first German manga distributor to release Chinese comics (Manhua).

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. They currently do not have any plans to release anime in the UK; however, 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 Madman Entertainment.

[edit]

Books published in English by TOKYOPOP

[edit]

Manga

Full article: List of manga published in English by 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.

[edit]

Popular shōnen manga series

[edit]

Popular shōjo manga series

[edit]

Popular seinen manga series

[edit]

Popular josei manga series

[edit]

Manhwa

[edit]

Manhua

[edit]

Original English-language manga

[edit]

Original German-language manga

[edit]

Novels

[edit]

Cine-Manga

[edit]

Picture books

[edit]

Anime licensed in English by TOKYOPOP

[edit]

Books published in German by TOKYOPOP

[edit]

Manga

Image:Wiki letter w.pngThis section is a stub. You can help by [{{fullurl:|action=edit}} adding to it].
[edit]

Manhwa

Image:Wiki letter w.pngThis section is a stub. You can help by [{{fullurl:|action=edit}} adding to it].
[edit]

Manhua

[edit]

Original English-language manga

[edit]

Original German-language manga

[edit]

Books published in Japanese by TOKYOPOP

[edit]

Manga

[edit]

Cine-Manga

[edit]

External links

es:TokyoPop

Retrieved from "http://www.openencyclopedia.net/index.php/TOKYOPOP"
MediaWiki GNU Free Documentation License 1.2