It came to me as a complete shock today that Tokyopop is closing their North American publishing sector. This means? They will no longer be releasing manga in English.
ANN has confirmed with Tokyopop Senior Vice President Mike Kiley that the company will shutter its Los Angeles-based North American publishing operations on May 31. The company’s film and European operations will be unaffected by this closure, and its office in Hamburg, Germany will continue to handle global rights sales for the company.
A public relations representative working for Tokyopop CEO Stu Levy informed ANN that “Tokyopop will announce the future of specific titles and other releases in the coming weeks.”
Letter from the owner of Tokyopop: http://www.tokyopop.com/Stu/tp_article/3203033.html
Although I guess I saw it coming for a long time, this is a huge blow to the manga industry in North America. Sad day.
Releases I review affected by this:
Shinobi Life
Maid-sama
Karakuri Odette
No word yet on what’s going to happen to open ended series.