Get Backers won't finish
Most people watching the US manga world kinda saw this coming, what with
Kodansha refusing to renew TOKYOPOP Germany's licenses amidst rumors of
Kodansha's own entry into the US manga market (which we still have no real word on). However,
TOKYOPOP has
officially announced that Kodansha is severing ties with them and refusing to renew a number of titles.
"TOKYOPOP will not be allowed to complete the publication of any series that is currently in progress; in addition, TOKYOPOP will not be allowed to reprint titles after the current inventory has been sold out, so once these series are sold out at retail, they will not be available for consumers to purchase. The reasons for Kodansha’s decision were not communicated to TOKYOPOP."
Dark Horse will publish Card Captor Sakura
Unfortunately that means that if you've been collecting a series from Tpop that they haven't finished publishing yet, you will not be able to get any further volumes from TOKYOPOP. Over at Precocious Curmudgeon, David Welsh has a list of all (he thinks) of the
titles affected by the announcement. A quick glance makes it look like most of the big names are complete, but there are plenty that aren't and won't be done in time-- Getbackers, for example, has 11 volumes left. Initial D only has a few volumes left before it's caught up with the Japanese version-- but it's still ongoing there, so there's no way TOKYOPOP can finish it.
Some of the titles have already been picked up elsewhere-- namely the
CLAMP titles that are being released in omnibus form by Dark Horse. Here's hoping for a quick pick-up for some...
And Fate/Stay Night is still safe, so I really don't care Tokyopop.
I gotta finish my Love Hina collection NOW!