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Kodansha Withholds TOKYOPOP Germany Licenses

TOKYOPOP's German arm fails to renew its Kodansha licenses.

School Rumble
School Rumble
Kodansha made big waves in 2008 when they announced that they would be publishing manga in the US directly-- fans in particular feared for Del Rey Manga, who have been publishing many of Kodansha's biggest titles (Tsubasa Chronicle, Nodame Cantabile, etc).


So far we haven't seen any actual fall out from the announcement, but Invaeon-- an English-language blogger about German manga –reports that TOKYOPOP Germany has cancelled all of their upcoming Kodansha releases (like Beck, School Rumble, etc) because Kodansha didn't let them renew their licenses. One of Germany's other big manga publishers, Carlsen, has not had the same problem.


We all know TOKYOPOP has had a bit of trouble in the US, with layoffs left and right (even immediately prior to the holiday season), but now maybe in Germany too? [Via MangaBlog]


EDIT: More details in the post and comments at Icarus (as of this writing the page is safe for work, but be warned that the top banner changes a lot). Carlsen hasn't been touched yet, and another competitor, Heyne-- a sibling company of Del Rey Manga, owned by Random House --publishes nothing BUT Kodansha titles and apparently hasn't had problems renewing any yet.

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