!! Holy shit! A victory for the American manga consumer! I mean, at this point we’re all used to the stupid mistakes so common in the American manga market, including DelRey’s editing of the cover of Air Gear 2, which you should do. It’s nothing that needs editing. So, after all the bullshit and losing and having to make concessions to get the things we want, TOKYOPOP has bowed to our collective refusal to go in for their Online Exclusive bullshit. That’s right folks, TOKYOPOP has announce that they will not being making King City, Heaven!!, and Dragon Head online exclusives and will release them into the convenient arms of retail outlets.
Now, before you get too happy, they’re not removing all the web exclusives and they’re doing it because retail outlets bitched, not to make things simpler for the consumer. They’re trying to cut themselves a slice of the middleman pie. Worse than that, they’re cocky shit heads about the whole thing. Check out this quote from TOKYOPOP’s Mike Kiley:
This program is a work-in-progress and we pride ourselves not only on innovation and being trendsetters … but also on our ability to listen and respond to feedback from our partners. The books above have been removed from the program based on suggestions from retailers whose opinions we value.
Trendsetters? And what have they innovated? I have to give them credit for not censoring a good deal of their manga, but the feedback you need to be responding to is easily available online via YOUR CUSTOMERS. We buy the shit, so you need to step up and say “Hey, manga community. What would you like to see?” And stop releasing OEL crap. There isn’t a single good OEL series in print… or out of print for that matter. We already have American comics, so stop letting greasy-haired assholes pump out two-bit clones of stories they saw in Escaflowne and World of Warcraft and just license some of the hundreds of good series that Japan already has to offer. KTHX.
Ah, at last some good news from TP, but well, I think most would have different opinion regarding their “oh my, we = trendsetters & leaders of innovation” but still, bit of good news. Not the best news but they really should follow their customers opinions, not just when their retailers make a ruckus about their doings :P
And yes for the love of it, they really should stop trying to keep the wrecked ship floating, their OEL titles are nothing more but half-assed replications of their wnb-authors who sooo much _can_ draw in “manga style”, they just give the characters bigger eyes and wacky hair, “weeee, we got a manga here”. Having checked few titles from their OEL line, I can say that it’s hitting even near neither original & crafty or even less that when talking about setting them on par with what Japan has to offer. Heck I think I’d be strangled to death by their OEL authors but I’m the consumer and for me manga is Japanese comics, nothing more, nothing less, just as manwha is comics Korean counterpart.
Next thing to wait from those over-blasted ego guys is their new novel line titles, we’ll see how much that’ll suck, and even if it’ll be success, in 3 years they would have their own novel authors trying to come up with something unique *cough*
Quick skim through TP site, “SuperStar Interview & User Blog / Create Your Own Manga”, hairy balls of the Gods, even worse than ½ year ago :& Manifestation Of The Weeaboo I’d say.
[...] So, I wrote yesterday about TOKYOPOP unexclusiving some of their web-only titles to cheers of "Who cares?" and "Fuck TOKYOPOP in the first place." but after having read a bit more about it, the situation looks a bit better for us, if not entirely fucking confusing. And by confusing, I mean to say they do plan to let web-only titles appear in stores, but they're doing it in a pretty stupid way. Here's the quote: [...]