The Variety Building, the former location of the Tokyopop headquarters

Tokyopop (styled TOKYOPOP; formerly known as Mixx Entertainment) is an American distributor, licensor and publisher of anime, manga, manhwa and Western manga-style works. The German publishing division produces German translations of licensed Japanese properties and original English-language manga, as well as original German-language manga. Tokyopop's US publishing division publishes works in English. Tokyopop has its US headquarters near Los Angeles International Airport in Los Angeles, California.[2]

Tokyopop was spun off as an independent company in December 2022 along with its German sister company, TOKYOPOP GmbH becoming a subsidiary of the new TOKYOPOP Inc.[3]

History

1997–2014: founding and early history

Tokyopop was founded in 1997 by Stuart J. Levy.[4] In the late 1990s, the company's headquarters were in Los Angeles.[5]

Tokyopop published a manga magazine called MixxZine which serialized exclusively four classic manga of Kodansha including Sailor Moon, Magic Knight Rayearth, Parasyte, and Ice Blade. Eventually, MixxZine became an Asian pop culture publication entitled Tokyopop Magazine. Additionally, the company published a manga and tech magazine entitled Smile Magazine.[6]


Cultural anthropologist Rachel Thorn praised Stu Levy for opening up an untapped market for animation with the publication of Sailor Moon and other. Before Sailor Moon, the belief among entertainment executives was that "girls don't watch cartoons."[7] Due to Sailor Moon's immense popularity, Tokyopop discontinued the serial from its magazines, and released it separately as its first manga graphic novel. They engineered prominent book distribution via retail stores, standardized book trim size, created a basic industry-wide rating system, and developed the first-ever retail manga displays and introduced the world of graphic novels to an audience of teenage girls. Also, together with Diamond, Tokyopop offered retailers free spinner rack displays for Tokyopop manga, thereby increasing the visibility of the medium in bookstores.[8]

Tokyopop also licensed and distributed Japanese anime. In 1996, Mixx Entertainment acquired the rights to the anime biopic of Japanese poet Kenji Miyazawa, and Stu Levy produced and directed the English version of the anime film, entitled Spring and Chaos. The film was directed and scripted by Shōji Kawamori, who created Super Dimension Fortress Macross and The Vision of Escaflowne.[9] Taste of Cinema ranked "Spring and Chaos" thirteenth in its list of Top "25 Weird Animated Movies That Are Worth Your Time."[10] From 2000 to 2004, Tokyopop released multiple film and television projects such as Street Fury, which Stu Levy created, GTO (English version for Showtime TV), Rave Master (English version for Cartoon Network's Toonami), and Reign: The Conqueror (English version for Cartoon Network's Adult Swim.) Tokyopop also released English version DVDs for: Initial D, Marmalade Boy, Saint Tail, Samurai Girl: Real Bout High School, Vampire Princess Miyu, Brigadoon, High School Ghostbusters.[11] They also released English version DVDs for Frontier Martial-Arts Wrestling (FMW) professional wrestling shows with English-language commentary from John Watanabe and Eric Geller.

100% Authentic Manga

In 2002, Tokyopop launched its line of "100% Authentic Manga", which was printed in the original Japanese right-to-left format and included the original Japanese printed sound effects.

In Japan, most published manga is written to read from right to left, but when an English translation was published in the U.S., however, the common practice was to use computer-reversed or mirror images that allowed the books to read from left to right. As a result, this distorted the artwork.[12] Tokyopop's decision to use the original right-to-left format allowed the artwork to keep its original form and also enabled Tokyopop to release most graphic novel series on a frequency three-to-six times faster than the industry standard at the time. Tokyopop volumes hit the shelves monthly, bi-monthly or quarterly versus the six months or longer typical of competitors. It also allowed Tokyopop to sell books for an industry-leading price point of $9.99 per book, at a time when most competitors charged $12.99 to $16.99 per book.[13]

Tokyopop was the first U.S. publisher to adopt such a sweeping policy. While some Japanese manga artists had required that the English versions of their manga be published from right to left, Tokyopop was the first American publisher to unilaterally announce that it would maintain the original format for all of its future manga titles.

An "authentic manga" how-to guide was included in each graphic novel to keep readers from accidentally reading the final page first, and the authentic manga also featured special packaging.

Global Manga

Tokyopop then launched their Global Manga publishing program in 2003 via the introduction of its "Rising Stars of Manga" talent competition.[14] The competition called for American manga artists to submit 15–25 page English-language stories of any genre. The top 10 entries, as judged by Tokyopop editors, received cash prizes (between $500 – $2500) and were published in an anthology of the winning works. The grand prize winners were also given the chance to pitch full-length manga projects to Tokyopop for a chance to become professional manga-ka.

2008–2011

In June 2008, Tokyopop announced that it was being restructured, with its name being changed to Tokyopop Group, a holding group for several new subsidiaries. The Tokyopop operations in the United States were split into two subsidiaries: Tokyopop, Inc., and Tokyopop Media. Tokyopop, Inc. consisted of the company's existing publications business, while Tokyopop Media focused on the company's digital and comics-to-film works.[15] Tokyopop Media managed the Tokyopop website, which continued to promote its publications.[16] According to representative Mike Kiley, the divisions would allow the company to "set things up in ways that would very clearly and definitively allow those businesses to focus on what they need to do to succeed. The goals in each company are different and the achievement of those goals is more realistic, more possible if everyone working in each of those companies is very clearly focused."[16][17]

Tokyopop's Japan division was also to be split, with one unit operating under Tokyopop Media and the other becoming a subsidiary under the overall Tokyopop Group.[18] In response to Tokyopop's restructuring, declining sales, and losing 20% of its manga market share, Tokyopop UK cut its publication release schedule from approximately 25 volumes a month to 20.[19][20][21][22][23][24]

2011–present: revival and expansion

In October 2011, Tokyopop's official Twitter account released a message stating that its "ultimate goal is to start publishing manga again."[25]

On December 10, 2012, Tokyopop's website relaunched with a letter from management stating that the company was down to a few select employees who were starting a 'new incarnation' of the company. Partnered with 'Right Stuf on Demand', they began offering ebooks of various titles for which they retained the rights.[26]

Their company blog article stated:

Luckily new technologies that have only very recently become practical are enabling us to re-emerge. Conventional publishing has irrevocably changed, and it is impractical for all but the largest and most established companies to pursue publishing as it has gone on for centuries. But by embracing ebook and print-on-demand technologies, we believe we can move forward and continue to produce some amazing manga as well as bring you Asian Pop Culture in many forms.[27]

A letter from Levy on January 6, 2013, stated:

Digital technology has transformed many industries including publishing. This hit TOKYOPOP very hard since we didn't have ebook rights to most of our series (except OEL). Unfortunately our Japanese licensors did not move fast enough to provide a legitimate alternative to piracy, and piracy shows no mercy. As a result, TOKYOPOP had to shut down its LA office and the licenses to Japanese titles expired, reverting to the Japanese licensors. What that means is TOKYOPOP is evolving as a company. I know many fans would prefer us to return to being a manga publisher like we were for most of our history. However, manga will never disappear – we will do what we can to deliver manga. I plan on experimenting with new ways to bring you Asian pop culture. Please keep an open mind – and give feedback (not just negative when you don't like something but also positive when you like something) so we can tweak our approach.[28]

Throughout the publishing closure, Tokyopop Media remained open for business, continuing its efforts to produce film and TV adaptations of Tokyopop's manga, as well as reinvigorating the Tokyopop YouTube channel, launching several original web series and adding trailers for Japanese film and TV. In 2013, Tokyopop partnered with MondoMedia to release an animated short film based on the Tokyopop manga Riding Shotgun,[29] which was directed by Michael Davis and starred the voices of Yuri Lowenthal and Jessy Schram. The short film garnered over a million views in its first month, and led to an IndieGoGo campaign to finance a full animated series.

Relaunch

In 2015, at Anime Expo and San Diego Comic-Con, Tokyopop announced that it would be relaunching its publishing operations in North America in 2016 and hinted that its first major licensor would be Disney.[30][31] TOKYOPOP resumed regular publishing activities beginning in 2016, marking a gradual rebuilding phase focused on licensed manga, original graphic novels, and light novels.

In January 2018, Tokyopop announced the release dates for three new properties: Konohana Kitan, Futaribeya: A Room for Two, and Hanger.[32] Additionally, TOKYOPOP initiated "International Woman of Manga" to showcase non-Japanese female manga writers with the publication of five titles: Ocean of Secrets, Goldfisch, Kamo, Undead Messiah, and Sword Princess Amaltea.[33] Tokyopop's "Nightmare Before Christmas: Zero's Journey" was nominated for two 2018 Diamond GEM awards in the categories "2018 Best All Ages Series" and "2018 Licensed TP or HC of the Year".[34][35]

Between 2020 and 2023, TOKYOPOP experienced sales growth amid renewed global interest in manga. In both 2022 and 2023, the company was named to Publishers Weekly’s list of fast-growing independent publishers.[36]

Licensing and partnerships

In 2021, Cracker Barrel Old Country Store restaurants agreed to sell specific Tokyopop Manga by offering Disney's The Nightmare Before Christmas adaptation by Jun Asuka in its North American in-store gift shops.[37][38]

In May 2024, TOKYOPOP announced a global distribution agreement with Penguin Random House Publisher Services that would go into effect on January 1, 2025.[39]

In 2025, TOKYOPOP announced publishing partnerships with Mattel to develop original manga-style graphic novels based on brands like Barbie and Hot Wheels.[40]

TOKYOPOP has also entered into licensing agreements with The Walt Disney Company for publishing projects, as well as announced a collaboration with Middle East Broadcasting Center (MBC) to produce anime content for regional audiences.[41] In Europe, TOKYOPOP Germany participated in licensed fan-facing events, including a Naruto-themed promotional gallery exhibition held in Berlin.[42]

In January 2026, TOKYOPOP announced the launch of its first audiobook program, featuring select titles from its LoveLove light novel imprint. The audiobooks are distributed by RBMedia through its Dreamscape Media audio division.[43]

Influence

Tokyopop became one of the biggest manga publishers outside Japan, and as such, was attributed with popularizing manga in the United States. By 2004, it boasted the largest market share of manga sales in the U.S., reaching as high as 50% of manga exports to the United States, according to Nissei Weekly.

Western reach

Tokyopop was also instrumental in the introduction of manhwa to western audiences. Brad Brooks and Tim Pilcher, authors of The Essential Guide to World Comics. London, said that Tokyopop "published many Korean artists' work, possibly without Western fans even realizing the strips don't come from Japan. Series like King of Hell by Kim Jae-hwan and Ra In-soo, and the Gothic vampire tale Model by Lee So-young are both Korean, but could easily be mistaken for manga."[44] In 2005, Tokyopop began a new, free publication called Manga (originally Takuhai) to feature their latest releases.

Tokyopop secured newspaper distribution in the form of Sunday comics, featuring its titles Princess Ai, Mail Order Ninja, Peach Fuzz, and Van Von Hunter.[45]

In March 2006, Tokyopop and HarperCollins Publishers announced a co-publishing agreement in which the sale and distribution rights of some Tokyopop manga and books, under this co-publishing license, would be transferred to HarperCollins in mid-June 2006. The agreement enabled Tokyopop to produce original English-language (OEL) manga adaptations of HarperCollins' books. Meg Cabot's books were the first to be adapted into the manga format, along with the Warriors series by Erin Hunter.[46] The first line of Tokyopop-HarperCollins OEL manga was released in 2007 with the goal of publishing up to 24 titles each year.[47]

Tokyopop entered a licensing arrangement with Kaplan, a leading provider of educational and training services in 2007,[48] to help students study vocabulary words in preparation for the SATs.[49]

Tokyopop has released several series based on American games, films, and characters, such as Warcraft,[50][51] the Kingdom Hearts video game series, and Jim Henson films.[52] They released the first volume of a series based on the Hellgate: London video game in April 2008.[53]

Rising Stars of Manga

Tokyopop launched its first "Rising Stars of Manga" contest on August 15, 2002, and ended it on December 16, 2002,[54] with more than five hundred American artists submitting their 15–25 page, English-language stories.[55]

The 5th Rising Stars of Manga competition added the People's Choice award, where the top-20 finalists had their entire entries judged by the fans on the Tokyopop website. "We are really pleased to open up the Rising Stars judging to the fans," commented Tokyopop editor Rob Valois. "Since so many people have been vocal on the message boards and at industry conventions, we're offering them all a chance to shape the future of manga. I'm personally excited to see how the fans' favorite will compare to our own."[56]

Tokyopop held eight Rising Stars of Manga competitions between 2002 and 2008, as well as one in the UK in 2005.[57]

Several Rising Stars of Manga winners went on to publish full-length graphic novels with Tokyopop, including Josh Elder with Mail Order Ninja, M. Alice LeGrow with Bizenghast, Mike Schwark and Ron Kaulfersch with Van Von Hunter, Lindsay Cibos and Jared Hodges with Peach Fuzz, Wes Abbot with Dogby Walks Alone, Felipe Smith with MBQ, and Nathan Maurer with Atomic King Daidogan.[citation needed]

As of July 2022, a new Rising Stars of Manga 25th Year Anniversary edition was announced.[58]

CineManga

TOKYOPOP pioneered the Cine-Manga format, which took popular animated and live-action series and films and turned them into colored print editions. Titles included popular Nickelodeon cartoon series like Avatar: The Last Airbender and SpongeBob SquarePants. As well as franchises such as Star Wars, Akira, Lizzie McGuire, Cardcaptor Sakura, Kim Possible, Family Guy, Hannah Montana, amongst many others like Power Rangers.[59][60]

Divisions and companies

Tokyopop GmbH

Tokyopop Germany's former headquarters in Hamburg

Tokyopop's European entity is located in Hamburg, Germany and publishes both print and digital titles across a range of content and formats. In 2021, Tokyopop GmbH was one of Germany's Top 100 publishing companies.[61] The first manga and manhwa by Tokyopop Germany were published in November 2004, and the first anime in the fall of 2005. In 2006, Tokyopop GmbH entered a "strategic partnership" with the Japanese publisher Shueisha, allowing them to publish popular titles such as Death Note and Bleach.[62] The company has also released a number of original German-language manga, including Gothic Sports, winner of a 2007 Sondermann award.[63] Tokyopop GmbH continues to operate as a publisher of German-language manga for the international market after the closure of the US publishing office.

In addition to publishing popular manga titles, Tokyopop GmbH also expanded the market by producing new and exciting cross-media content, including licensing popular video game franchises such as Assassin's Creed and Zelda and bestselling novels such as James Patterson and Warriors. In 2013, the company launched a prestige project called Manga Library, which adapted classic literary novels into manga.

According to GFK Entertainment, as of 2014 in the core segment of manga, Tokyopop GmbH is currently the second largest provider, with a market share of 27%. Additionally, in the last two years, Tokyopop GmbH had the fastest growth rate out of the big three manga suppliers in the German market, with a growth rate of 29% in 2014. This compares with Egmont Ehapa at 6.5% and Carlsen Verlag at 1.8%.[64]

Tokyopop Media

TOKYOPOP Media was created to extend the company's activities beyond publishing and into film, television, digital entertainment, and intellectual property development. The division worked with studios, production companies, agencies, and entertainment partners to adapt manga and graphic novel properties into other media formats.[65]

The company's media activities reflected founder Stuart J. Levy's long-term vision of TOKYOPOP as an entertainment company rather than solely a book publisher. Through TOKYOPOP Media, the company pursued film adaptations, television projects, documentary productions, reality programming, animation distribution, and licensing opportunities. These efforts helped position the company within the broader convergence of publishing and entertainment that emerged during the 2000s.[2]

POP Comics

POP Comics is TOKYOPOP's digital comics platform and mobile publishing initiative. Developed as part of the company's renewed focus on creator-driven publishing, the platform enables artists and writers to upload, publish, and promote original comics directly to a worldwide audience.[66]

The service was designed to lower barriers to entry for emerging creators while providing readers with access to independent comics from around the world. In many respects, POP Comics represented a continuation of TOKYOPOP's earlier Rising Stars of Manga initiative by seeking to discover and promote new talent outside traditional publishing channels. The platform also reflects the company's longstanding interest in digital distribution, having experimented with mobile manga technology years before smartphones became widespread.[67]

Innovations

Right-to-Left Manga

One of Tokyopop's most significant contributions to the manga industry was its role in popularizing the publication of manga in its original right-to-left format. Prior to the early 2000s, most translated manga were "flipped" so that they could be read left-to-right, a process that altered artwork and page composition.[68]

Tokyopop challenged this convention through its "100% Authentic Manga" initiative, arguing that preserving the original reading format respected the creators' artistic intentions while reducing production costs and publication delays. The decision was initially viewed as commercially risky, with some retailers mistakenly displaying books backwards and others returning copies believing they had been misprinted.[12]

Despite early skepticism, readers quickly adapted to the format, and the company's success helped establish right-to-left publication as the industry standard. The shift is widely regarded as one of the most important developments in the history of English-language manga publishing.[13]

Manga for Girls and Women

Tokyopop played a central role in expanding manga readership among female audiences in North America. During the late 1990s and early 2000s, much of the American comics industry remained heavily focused on male readers. TOKYOPOP, by contrast, invested heavily in shōjo manga aimed at girls and young women.[69]

The success of titles such as Sailor Moon and Fruits Basket helped demonstrate the existence of a large and previously underserved readership. Industry commentators have credited the company with attracting millions of young women into comics and graphic novel readership, fundamentally changing perceptions of the market.[70]

The company later experimented with josei manga, a category aimed at adult women, introducing English-language readers to creators such as Ai Yazawa and Moyoco Anno. Although josei publishing remained a relatively small segment of the market, TOKYOPOP's efforts broadened the range of stories available to female readers and helped diversify the manga landscape outside Japan.

CosmoGirl Partnership

As manga readership expanded among teenage girls, TOKYOPOP entered into a partnership with CosmoGirl magazine to develop manga content for mainstream teen media audiences. The collaboration resulted in The Adventures of CG!, an original manga series illustrated by Rising Stars of Manga winner Svetlana Chmakova.[71]

The partnership represented one of the earliest examples of manga being integrated into major American teen magazines and reflected the medium's growing cultural visibility. It also demonstrated TOKYOPOP's willingness to experiment with non-traditional distribution channels in order to reach new readers.[72]

Manga in Newspapers

TOKYOPOP also sought to expand the reach of manga through newspaper syndication and other mainstream media outlets. Several original titles, including Princess Ai[73], Mail Order Ninja[74], Peach Fuzz[75], and Van Von Hunter, were distributed through newspaper networks and related channels.

Although newspaper comics were traditionally associated with newspaper strips rather than graphic novels, these efforts reflected TOKYOPOP's broader strategy of introducing manga-inspired storytelling to audiences beyond specialty comic and bookstore markets.[6]

Business partnerships

Throughout its history, TOKYOPOP developed an extensive network of partnerships across publishing, entertainment, technology, and consumer media. The company worked with major Japanese licensors including Kodansha[76], Shueisha, Shogakukan, Kadokawa, Toei Animation, and Sunrise, securing rights to many of the manga and anime properties that helped define the North American manga boom.[77]

Outside Japan, the company collaborated with entertainment brands such as Disney, Nickelodeon, Lucasfilm, Warner Bros., Ubisoft, Blizzard Entertainment, and Sony. Among the most notable collaborations was TOKYOPOP's partnership with Blizzard Entertainment to publish Warcraft manga, which combined Japanese-inspired storytelling with one of the world's most successful video game franchises.[78]

The company also developed relationships with The Jim Henson Company, including projects connected to MirrorMask, the fantasy film created by Neil Gaiman and Dave McKean. [79]

Other overseas markets

In 2004, Tokyopop set up a division in the United Kingdom based in London that mainly imported books from its original American counterpart and distributed them to bookstores in both the United Kingdom and the Republic of Ireland. Tokyopop released an anime collection in both countries in late 2006, including titles such as Initial D and Great Teacher Onizuka. Vampire Princess Miyu was released on DVD by MVM Entertainment and the Toonami television channel aired the first half of Rave Master in early 2005. It was announced on the official Tokyopop Facebook page that because the British division mainly imported the North American branch's translated titles, it would become defunct with the only open branch being the German division.

Tokyopop distributed some of its titles to Australia and New Zealand via Madman Entertainment/Funtastic and in Greece, Tokyopop properties were licensed by Anubis Comics. Tokyopop partnered with IDW International in February 2018 to license its original intellectual property (IP) and manga in overseas markets.[80]

Awards and recognition

Over the course of its history, TOKYOPOP and its publications have received numerous awards, nominations, and industry recognitions. Titles published by the company have been nominated for Eisner Awards[81], included on the Young Adult Library Services Association's Great Graphic Novels for Teens lists, and recognized by booksellers, librarians, educators, and international comics organizations.[82]

Works such as Dramacon, Off*Beat, Sorcerers and Secretaries, East Coast Rising, Abandoned, Psy-Comm, and King of Thorn received particular attention for their contributions to original English-language manga and international graphic storytelling. Several TOKYOPOP creators later became prominent figures within the broader comics and graphic novel industry.[6]

Imprints

Logo for Blu Manga

Blu Manga

Blu Manga is an imprint under which Tokyopop published shōnen-ai and yaoi manga titles. The imprint was launched in 2005. Initially, the company denied that it owned Blu, stating that it was only distributing for another company. The company released no editor names, nor company contact info out of fear there would be backlash and hate mail from "moral crusaders".[83] In 2006, Tokyopop confirmed Blu was their own imprint.[83][84] Blu Manga considered that their "non-girly" branding had enabled the imprint, in a genre stereotypically created by women for women, to reach out to a male and gay audience.[85] Early titles published by BLU were Earthian, Love Mode, and Shinobu Kokoro.[86]

Love x Love

In 2020, Tokyopop introduced a new Inclusive Romance manga lineup, with a focus on providing BL/Yaoi manga, GL/Yuri manga, and male/female romance manga under the same imprint.[87]

Reception

The Daily Dot described the company as a major force in the early 2000s manga boom, noting that it helped introduce manga to a broad generation of English-speaking readers and became one of the most visible publishers of Japanese comics in North America.[88] [89] [90]

Publishers Weekly ranked Tokyopop #1 on its Fast-Growing Independent Publishers list, citing that 2022 sales doubled over 2021 and were up 580% from 2020.[91]

In a June 2023 article for Forbes, Rob Salkowitz presented a positive assessment of Tokyopop within the rapidly expanding manga and webtoon market in the United States.[92] Writing in “New Manga, Webtoon Imprints Flourish As Publishers Aim For Red Hot Market,” Salkowitz described Tokyopop as “one of the first publishers to turn manga into a mass market phenomenon in bookstores,” emphasizing its foundational role in popularizing manga through its pocket-sized paperback editions during the early 2000s.[88]

Manga in teen magazine CosmoGirl

In 2005, Tokyopop partnered with mainstream teen magazine CosmoGirl to serialize a manga entitled "The Adventures of CG!", drawn by Svetlana Chmakova.[93][94]

Children's books

The company published books for younger children including picture books based on Japanese character Stray Sheep.[95]

Disney manga

Tokyopop has licensed several Disney manga titles and series in the US, including The Nightmare Before Christmas, Descendants, Kilala Princess and Donald Duck Visits Japan.[96][97][98]

References

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source: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tokyopop