The Tokyopop Rant

About a minute ago, I posted that Tokyopop has gotten really crappy lately. Because I don't know how long this rant will be I have decided to give it its own entry.

Tokyopop was one of the first manga publishers in the US, if not the first.

They released manga under its 'Mixx Manga' line before changing its name to Tokyopop. (Maybe they were purchased, I'm not sure).

They released such popular titles as Sailor Moon, Cardcaptor Sakura, Saint Tail, and many more. Most of those were released in both tankoubon form, the bound books, but they were also released in flimsy American comic book style magazines that featured one chapter at a time, just like it was published in the magazine in Japan.

My first manga came from Tokyopop. I remember going to the local comicbook store and buying tons of Saint Tail single-chapter books, thinking they were actually entire volumes. (Like, I bought the seventh chapter thinking it was volume seven, and being very disappointed.)


Eventually they acquired more series. My first teen manga, 13+, was Fruits Basket. I have a very distinct memory of being in band in the sixth grade and reading it while we had a sub.

The first volume came out five years ago. And they're still not done with the series.

At first they had a handful of series, no more than Viz or Del Rey has now. They would release volumes every other month.

Then, they started the OEL manga line. They were acquiring new series at a very fast rate while also releasing fanbooks and artbooks and original comics created by their own artists.

This was their downfall.

They have too many series, too many series that are unfinished or one or two volumes, or aren't popular at all. They have too many original series, too many series by people no one knows about or cares about, and too many series based off of books.

The quality has decreased so much. I can find at least one typo in any of the recent books they've released.

I love Viz. They have translation notes, they have interesting series that they know will be popular, their website isn't obnoxious...

To me, Tokyopop is the manga noob's publisher. The girl I babysit is obsessed with their series. Kamichama Karin, Cardcaptor Sakura, Instant Teen, Princess Ai, Vampire Kisses.... She doesn't care about the quality. She still calls them 'manga books' (pronouncing manga like you would 'mango'.)

Viz is the leader of the pack of high-quality stuff. They have the most manga to appeal to the widest range of people. I really like them. They have good prices, good series, and a steady and reasonable release schedule. And I love Shoujo Beat magazine. xD Of course, Shounen Jump is pretty noobish, because it has Naruto and BLEACH in it. They get more people buying the magazine who have no idea what manga is.

Del Rey is overlooked a lot. They actually do a great job. While they release things at a slower pace than Viz, I really like them. They have School Rumble and Tsubasa, after all.



Here is something I saw at Borders recently:


There is a series of books called the "Secrets of_________ Revealed!" or something like that. It takes popular series and then posts a series of spoilers from the Japanese release. Of course, it's not entirely accurate because they were written before the series ended, and in some cases the American releases have already caught up, but they have these books full of spoilers. They're written by people who don't really know the series that well either.

Anywho, I was going through the manga after I got back from Japan (I had about 11 stacked up. xD) when these two girls walked by. They were typical teenagers, wearing too much makeup, skinny jeans, low cut tops, and were texting on their phones.

Then, one noticed the Fruits Basket spoiler book.

She let out a cry and the two both grabbed a copy. They're reading it and going "OMG no wai!" and "That can't be true" and "Gawd, I never saw that coming. Tohr-you can't really like Ki-yoh, can she?"

It made me sick. =______=

It's bad enough idiots like those are crowding into the fandom, but they're also blatantly mispronouncing the names. Geez.