Tokyopop Forum

TOKYOPOP may not have had a booth or a panel of its own at Anime Expo (they did appear at the global manga keynote panel), but that doesn't mean they're down and out for the count.

I've been informed first off that they will have a booth at Comic-Con in San Diego later this month-- joining the legions of manga publishers who focus more on the comics world, presumably since they already have most of the otaku market, from VIZ to Del Rey to Yen Press and back again.

A few listings of new licenses have also appeared on Amazon, according to Kuri-Ousity, and some of the new titles are very strong. Here they are:

• Kokaku Detective Story (Koukaku Torimonochou), by Katagiri Yoshitsugu - An action series about a flashy rogue samurai.
• Deadman Wonderland, by Jinsei Kataoka and Kazuma Kondou - A boy is accused of killing his classmate and is sent to a theme-park prison. Not a prison theme-park, but a prison that OPERATES a theme park. Pictured above.
• .hack//CELL, by Ryo Sukukaze and Akira Mutsuki - The novel series, about a female Edge Punisher who lets other people beat her up for free.
• Happy Cafe, by Katagiri Yoshitsugu
• Hanako and the Teller, by Esuno Sakae

I've heard some really good things about Deadman Wonderland and also flipped through a chapter last time I picked up a copy of Shounen Ace-- it's drawn by the team behind the Eureka Seven. Definitely a lot of possibility there, I think. .hack//CELL also looks like a strong candidate;

Hopefully this bodes well for them, being back at SDCC. They weren't there last year, but they were the year before that.  maybe some of the fellow readers will remember the booth. They had all these stations around their booth were you could sign up for email updates. After you did that they gave you a bag of swag and a coupon to buy your choice of manga for a dollar. They had a nice display area where they had many copies of many of their titles.  Hopefully they'll be back in a similar style this year.

@Count_Zero: No women in refrigerators? Don't read the manga MPD Psycho. (Well, do, it's an amazing manga, and frankly there isn't necessarily any more beating or killing of women than of men, but yes, woman in a refrigerator.)

Have to agree with JohnnySake -- I sure hope that Tokyopop returns in similar fashion regarding the booth they had two years ago at SDCCI. It was a great opportunity for me to get my hands on some harder-to-find series and I sincerely hope I get to do the same this year. Also, I hope that there's a way for me to talk to someone in person about Suppli, which they've basically let go into limbo. It's a great josei series and I hope they see the light and release additional volumes someday.