Tokyopop
Stuart J. Levy opened the doors to Mixx Entertainment in 1997 with a single goal: bring Japanese animation and comics to American teenagers. The company established its headquarters near Los Angeles International Airport, positioning itself at the heart of the entertainment industry. Before this moment, executives believed that girls did not watch cartoons, creating a massive blind spot in the market. Mixx Entertainment changed that narrative by publishing Sailor Moon as a graphic novel instead of keeping it serialized in magazines. This decision proved so successful that the title became the number one graphic novel or trade paperback in America by the 18th of June 1999. The company engineered prominent book distribution through retail stores and created basic industry-wide rating systems for the first time. They developed the very first retail manga displays and introduced the world of graphic novels to an audience of teenage girls who had been ignored before. Together with Diamond, Tokyopop offered retailers free spinner rack displays for their manga, thereby increasing the visibility of the medium in bookstores. In 1996, Mixx Entertainment acquired the rights to the anime biopic of Japanese poet Kenji Miyazawa. Stu Levy produced and directed the English version of the film entitled Spring and Chaos. Taste of Cinema ranked Spring and Chaos thirteenth in its list of Top 25 Weird Animated Movies That Are Worth Your Time.
The year 2002 marked a radical shift when Tokyopop launched its line of 100% Authentic Manga. This initiative printed books in the original Japanese right-to-left format and included the original Japanese printed sound effects. Before this change, common practice involved using computer-reversed or mirror images that allowed books to read from left to right. This process distorted the artwork and altered the artist's intended vision. Tokyopok's decision to use the original right-to-left format allowed the artwork to keep its original form. It also enabled the company to release most graphic novel series on a frequency three-to-six times faster than the industry standard at the time. Volumes hit the shelves monthly, bi-monthly, or quarterly versus the six months or longer typical of competitors. The company sold books for an industry-leading price point of $9.99 per book while most competitors charged between $12.99 and $16.99. Tokyopop was the first U.S. publisher to adopt such a sweeping policy unilaterally. An authentic manga how-to guide appeared in each graphic novel to keep readers from accidentally reading the final page first. Special packaging accompanied these authentic manga releases to distinguish them from traditional translations.
Tokyopop launched their Global Manga publishing program in 2003 via the introduction of its Rising Stars of Manga talent competition. The competition called for American manga artists to submit fifteen to twenty-five page English-language stories of any genre. More than five hundred American artists submitted their work when the contest ran from the 15th of August 2002, to the 16th of December 2002. The top ten entries received cash prizes ranging between $500 and $2500 and were published in an anthology of winning works. Grand prize winners gained the chance to pitch full-length manga projects to Tokyopok for a chance to become professional manga-ka. The fifth Rising Stars of Manga competition added the People's Choice award where the top twenty finalists had their entire entries judged by fans on the website. Tokyopop editor Rob Valois commented that they were pleased to open up the judging to fans who had been vocal on message boards. Several winners went on to publish full-length graphic novels with Tokyopop including Josh Elder with Mail Order Ninja and M. Alice LeGrow with Bizenghast. Mike Schwark and Ron Kaulfersch published Van Von Hunter while Lindsay Cibos and Jared Hodges released Peach Fuzz. Wes Abbot wrote Dogby Walks Alone and Felipe Smith created MBQ. Nathan Maurer produced Atomic King Daidogan.
June 2008 brought a major restructuring when Tokyopok announced it was being reorganized into a holding group called Tokyopop Group. The operations in the United States split into two subsidiaries: Tokyopok Inc. and Tokyopok Media. During this process, the company laid off thirty-nine positions equating to thirty-five percent to forty percent of its American workforce. Most of the cut positions involved direct publication of books which resulted in a scale back of publication output from Tokyopok Inc. The company reported cutting volumes released per year by approximately fifty percent to an average of twenty to twenty-two volumes per month. In December 2008, citing dramatically low sales in the publishing industry as a whole, Tokyopok Inc. laid off eight more employees including three editors. On the 1st of March 2011, Tokyopok continued to lay off workers removing many high-profile employees such as long-time manga editors Lilian Diaz-Przyhyl and Troy Lewter. Stuart Levy revealed that the layoffs were due to Borders filing bankruptcy in March 2011. Borders was Tokyopok's largest customer and stopped carrying stock while not paying debts owed to the company. On the 15th of April 2011, Tokyopok announced it would close its Los Angeles-based North American publishing operations on the 31st of May 2011.
Tokyopok began its new incarnation in October 2011 when its official Twitter account stated that its ultimate goal was to start publishing manga again. On the 10th of December 2012, the website relaunched with a letter from management stating the company was down to a few select employees starting fresh. Partnered with Right Stuf on Demand, they began offering ebooks of various titles for which they retained rights. A company blog article explained that conventional publishing had irrevocably changed and digital technology enabled them to re-emerge. In 2013, Tokyopok partnered with MondoMedia to release an animated short film based on the manga Riding Shotgun. The short film starred voices of Yuri Lowenthal and Jessy Schram and garnered over a million views in its first month. This success led to an IndieGoGo campaign to finance a full animated series. In January 2018, Tokyopok announced release dates for three new properties: Konohana Kitan, Futaribeya: A Room for Two, and Hanger. The company initiated International Woman of Manga to showcase non-Japanese female manga writers with five titles including Ocean of Secrets and Goldfisch.
Tokyopok's European entity is located in Hamburg Germany and publishes both print and digital titles across a range of content formats. In 2021, Tokyopok GmbH was one of Germany's Top 100 publishing companies. The first manga and manhwa by Tokyopok Germany were published in November 2004 while the first anime arrived in the fall of 2005. In 2006, the company entered a strategic partnership with Japanese publisher Shueisha allowing them to publish popular titles such as Death Note and Bleach. The company has also released original German-language manga including Gothic Sports which won a 2007 Sondermann award. According to GFK Entertainment, as of 2014 in the core segment of manga, Tokyopok GmbH is currently the second largest provider with a market share of twenty-seven percent. Additionally, in the last two years, Tokyopok GmbH had the fastest growth rate out of big three manga suppliers in the German market. This compares with Egmont Ehapa at six point five percent and Carlsen Verlag at one point eight percent. The company continues to operate as a publisher of German-language manga for the international market after closure of the US office.
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Common questions
When did Stuart J. Levy open Mixx Entertainment to bring Japanese animation and comics to American teenagers?
Stuart J. Levy opened the doors to Mixx Entertainment in 1997 with a single goal: bring Japanese animation and comics to American teenagers.
What date did Tokyopop make Sailor Moon the number one graphic novel or trade paperback in America?
The title became the number one graphic novel or trade paperback in America by the 18th of June 1999 after executives changed the narrative by publishing it as a graphic novel instead of keeping it serialized in magazines.
How much did Tokyopop charge for books compared to competitors when they launched their line of 100% Authentic Manga in 2002?
Tokyopop sold books for an industry-leading price point of $9.99 per book while most competitors charged between $12.99 and $16.99 before the company adopted such a sweeping policy unilaterally.
Which dates defined the Rising Stars of Manga talent competition that ran from August 2002 to December 2002?
More than five hundred American artists submitted their work when the contest ran from the 15th of August 2002, to the 16th of December 2002.
When did Tokyopok announce it would close its Los Angeles-based North American publishing operations on the 31st of May 2011?
On the 15th of April 2011, Tokyopok announced it would close its Los Angeles-based North American publishing operations on the 31st of May 2011 due to Borders filing bankruptcy in March 2011.
What market share percentage did Tokyopok GmbH hold as of 2014 in the core segment of manga according to GFK Entertainment?
According to GFK Entertainment, as of 2014 in the core segment of manga, Tokyopok GmbH is currently the second largest provider with a market share of twenty-seven percent.