Tokyopop, Manga distributors and other problems

This post is inspired by this, that, and the other thing.

Now rather than just me ranting about something, I’ve actually taken the trouble to use alternate sources (read, other bloggers) to gain an understanding of the issue at hand. What’s going down in the Manga industry and how will this affect people like me who don’t live in the United States?

The IGN.com article I’ve linked to calls for a return to the days when Manga and Anime was hard to find because you knew it was good. Though this is admirable in some respects, the reality is that Manga and Anime have been unleashed on the world, and though there are some very good Manga and Anime there is a lot of crappy stuff. As for OEL Manga, there is a fine line between what is just an exploitation of a foreign artform for commercial gain and some decent stuff which is a graphic novel marketed as Manga because that will make it more accessible to Manga fans. But there is also the distinction between what is a graphic novel and what is Manga. One of my favorite graphic novels, Sorcerers and Secretaries, is not Manga because the artist explicitly states that it is a graphic novel. But it is published by a Manga publisher, Tokyopop. And Tokyopop are in trouble right now for some bad business decisions concerning OEL. I’m not crazy about the way that Tokyopop treat their OEL Manga artists either.

But this shake up in the American Manga industry is bound to affect the Australian Manga consumption market because Manga is published overseas. With time I hope there will be more Australian distributors of Manga and Anime like Madman Entertainment is in Australia, but because of strong trade agreements with America, Australia isn’t really going to start up Manga publishing houses unless somebody starts them up. And all the same there’s no guarantee this will happen any time soon. Though companies like Madman Entertainment have been remarkably helpful in getting Anime to Australians, there hasn’t really been any similar companies that bring Manga to Australians. Mostly we just import it and read it as we can.

BUT! If the Manga distribution bubble in America bursts, it’s going to affect us too because we rely on it so much in trade agreements to bring Manga to Australia. If Tokyopop goes, who will fill the void of Manga publishing? There’s Del Rey and Viz, also Yen Press who publish the excellent Manga series With The Light which I urge you to read as soon as possible, because it’s a very different sort of story to traditional shojo Manga, it’s josei, or women’s Manga. I own a number of Viz volumes of Manga, like my Read or Die and One Piece and they provide a lot of the Manga I like reading. Del Rey also publishes the one volume Train Man Manga I love so much and have read several times.

But if you like stuff like D.N.Angel, like my Yukan Overlord Blissmo does, then you could be screwed, because that’s a good Manga that’s published by Tokyopop, and it could be canceled as of yet.

To tell you the truth I’m actually more concerned about ADV Manga’s silence, because they publish Azumanga Daioh and Yotsuba&!. I’d hate these to go out of print, as would anybody who enjoys these Azumasterpieces of Manga. But how would it feel if I had bought several volumes of a Manga series only for it to be discontinued, my investment worthless and incomplete?

What dark times we live in now. It’s all well and good to moan about how Manga and Anime aren’t doing well in America, but spare a thought for the Aussie Anime and Manga fans out there who line up at Sydney’s Books Kinokuniya every week to get their latest volumes.