The Dirt on Tokyopop

On June 2, a week ago today, Tokyopop announced a sort of splitting of their company. Tokyopop is literally THE Manga company, and are responsible for most (if not all) the translated material we get here in North America. They have decided that they will spin off their comics-to-film and digital operations into a new company, called Tokyopop Media LLC.

Publishing, which will still remain with Tokyopop Inc., will be reduced by around 50%, reducing output to only 200-250 titles per year. Tokyopop had over 500 titles. This move has required the ‘reducing of their workforce’ by 39 employees, however the executive level will also see some changes.

ICv2 reports that “Group President and COO John Parker will take over as Publisher at Tokyopop, Inc. Marco Pavia, previously Director of Marketing, has been promoted to Associate Publisher. Mike Kiley, who has been serving as Publisher at Tokyopop Inc., will take over as the key senior executive in Tokyopop Media.

If you think about all this, however, it seems to make sense. Out of 500 titles per year, dropping it to 200-250 means only halting the translation of the ones who don’t nearly do as well anyways. Guaranteed the top 200 are the breadwinners with Tokyopop, where the last few are lucky to sell a few hundred copies. The market is simply diluted with far too much material out there to absorb! By separating resources into this new venture, Tokyopop will be able to fully focus on success in the two departments that mean something currently.

50% of the company can now focus solely on producing these excellent titles, while the other 50% can fully focus on their job of bringing these materials to the big or small screen, and onto the internet in unique ways. As we can all see, when Marvel made their big push into entertainment, it was pure gold for them. With Tokyopop now able to focus on comics-to-film, we can expect to see big things coming from them through different forms of media.

ICv2 has a new article up just today of a particularly insightful interview they had with Mike Kiley, the former Tokyopop Publisher who will be taking a ‘yet-to-be-named’ position at Tokyopop Media. I urge you to read it!

Death Note Live Action Movie

Not many people nowadays can say they have never heard of Death Note. The popular manga title has stirred up controversy almost all over the world, with incidences popping up once in a while about a child carrying a notebook with severe death threats and some even acting on them. The story itself, however, is fantastic. A cunning cat-and-mouse detective vs. misunderstood serial murdering (and self proclaimed) hero.

The catch?

How about writing a name inside a death god's notebook, including form of death, and the person who's namesake was written suffers the death along with it. To the 'T'. This manga title has reached ICv2's top 50 Manga Properties List, and also has an anime television show currently aired during Cartoon Network's Adult Swim block.

The live action version of this film will debut in over 300 theaters in America, with a two-night special event beginning on May 20th. A theater list is available over at the FathomEvents Website. Unfortunately the film is only available in the United States and not Canada, however I have faith that we will be able to view it soon enough.

I honestly can't wait to see how well it translates to the silver screen in live action.

Bookoff to Payoff

The Anime News Network has reported that popular used-bookstore chain, "Bookoff Corporation" has opted to pay numerous creators' associations 100 million yen (approximately 1 million dollars US) in order to address mounting complaints. The growing used-book industry has begun to take a certain toll in new book sales, to the discomfort of creators.

Bookoff currently has hundred of stores in Japan and numerous others overseas, and clocked roughly 460 million dollars this last fiscal year. Their primary specialization are manga, books, CDs, DVDs and video games.

This marks the first specific offer of payment to any of these organizations from bookstores.

If you wish to read the rest of this article, just follow this link!

Gonzo to take a cue from Radiohead

Fans of Radiohead's new album may recall the unique 'pay-what-you-think-it's-worth' strategy the band took back in October. For those who missed it, essentially it was an open-pricing model where a person was prompted to input whatever dollar amount (British pounds, actually) that they felt the album was worth.

The release prompted over 1.2 million downloads, and while Radiohead refused to release sales numbers, analysts estimated they earned approximately $5 per download.

Since this time, other artists including Nine Inch Nails' Trent Reznor and poetic rapper Saul Williams have used this method to some degree of success.

Gonzo Animation Studio's parent company GDH has announced today that they will be releasing two anime series using the same open-pricing method as the bands. The Tower of Druaga and Blassreiter will have episodes available to download in full on the Crunchyroll website on the same day as they air on Japanese TV. The price you pay will be up to you!

While GDH is just testing the waters at this time, the company should be applauded for it's foresight into the future of digital media. Many companies are beginning to realize that the old pricing methods are quickly becoming obsolete. Rather than fight it, many are striving to find new and creative ways to get the content to the fans while still maintaining a healthy profit.

While the open-pricing model may not be the final solution, it is certainly a step in the right direction and I'm glad to see companies willing to try it out.

Batman: Gotham Knight

From our friends over at ICV2:

Warner Bros. has announced a July 8th release for Batman: Gotham Knight, a new anime feature film that hopes to do for The Dark Knight what the Animatrix did for The Matrix Reloaded and The Matrix Revolutions. Batman: Gotham Knight explores events that happened between Batman Begins and The Dark Knight, which opens on July 18th. The creators of the new Batman film commissioned three anime studios, Production I.G., Studio 4C, and Madhouse and five noted anime directors (Shojiro Nishimi, Futoshi Higashide, Hiroshi Morioka, Yasuhiro Aoki and Toshiyuki Kubooka) to create a series of six interrelated Batman adventures based on stories by Josh Olson (A History of Violence), David Goyer (Batman Begins), Alan Burnett (Batman: The Animated Series), Greg Rucka (Whiteout), Jordan Goldberg (producer, The Dark Knight) and Brian Azzarello (100 Bullets)