We were promised in February that Tokyopop’s next issue of their Manga magazine was on the way. I got mine this week. Here’s a rundown. The cover unsurprisingly features Princess Ai. (I’m never surprised to see Tokyopop push this property since their CEO, Stu Levy, co-created and co-writes it under a pseudonym.) The first feature defines generic: it’s horoscopes decorated with manga property clip art, mostly from OEL titles. It starts out “Is your New Year calling for a change […]

With so much good modern manga out there (someday I will read Death Note!), I have to be a little convinced to go backwards in time. I mean, something can be historically important and great for its day but still a little clunky to modern eyes… which is what I thought flipping through a preview copy of To Terra… volume 1. Then it started getting really good reviews, like this one from Shaenon Garrity. I still don’t know, though. It […]

It’s terribly ungrateful to read all the news and previews coming out of the New York Con and focus on what WASN’T talked about, but I do share Chris Mautner’s question in noting CPM’s panel: “Does this mean we’ll finally see the release of Sweet Cream and Strawberries?” The josei manga was being promoted in May 2006 after originally being solicited a year ago, but a new release date has yet to be announced.

Tokyopop Revising Rating System: With “more than 40 content indicators divided among five age ranges”, perhaps a better verb is “complicating”. It’s due to debut this fall. [A] general set of content indicators in addition to the ratings icon will be printed on the cover of each new series. The new system will provide prospective buyers with far more information about a book’s content than the previous system (that Tokyopop pioneered), which simply provided the age rating alone. That’s a […]

Ian Brill wonders why used bookstores won’t buy manga (link no longer available). This is a question I’ve wondered about as well, although from the other side. I’d like to find used manga at cheap prices, but even the biggest used bookstores I’ve been to, the ones with decent graphic novel sections, don’t carry much. Is that because there’s too much to evaluate, and stores don’t want to be stuck with the titles no one wants? I can see a […]

Following up on yesterday’s reactions to Tokyopop’s online exclusives, here are two more and some further thoughts of mine. Dorian goes into more detail on why retailers make decisions to carry the manga they do and how this might start a declining spiral for the company: [Tokyopop has] always been a bit of a nuisance to deal with, from an ordering and budgeting angle. They put out too much at once, their section in Previews is a mess, and now […]

I was going to post a pointer to the ICV2 interview with Tokyopop about why they’re now selling certain series online only, but I left to get dinner and the blogverse sprung into action without me! Christopher Butcher (link no longer available) tosses off a quick burst of anger over Dragon Head being pulled from retail stores, promising more commentary to come. Dave Lartigue (link no longer available) expresses his displeasure to Tokyopop, pointing out Moving to web-exclusive removes this […]