Tokyopop loses all Kodansha licenses

Breaking news at MangaBlog: Kodansha has apparently severed any and all business association with Tokyopop, choosing not to renew any licenses to TP.  No official reason was given by Kodansha to Tokyopop, according to the release.  Precocious Curmudgeon has a list of ongoing Kodansha titles published by Tokyopop that may never see completion now.

Speaking as someone with an old East Asian background, a funny trait in many East Asian cultures is that oftentimes, uncomfortable things are left unsaid, because there is an expectation that the other party should know those things implicitly.  If he does not (or, heaven forbid, has the temerity to ask about it), then he is an uncultured rube, or an inconsiderate fool.  What may be viewed as arrogance in the West, actually passes for politeness in the East.  This isn’t really too odd.  Consider the major East Asian languages themselves, which often have no real tenses or strict subject-verb agreement; everything is understood by observing the context.

So, what is the context of this relationship collapse between Kodansha and Tokyopop?

While things seem to be picking up again for Tokyopop lately, the company  had been under the financial weather, amid ongoing turmoil in the book retail market and tightening competition between mid-list manga titles.  Kodansha’s own ambitions to expand their international reach is the least well-kept secret in the world at this point.  And however rocky the alliance between Kodansha and Random House may have gotten, that seems to be a thing of the past, with Del Rey still acquiring new Kodansha licenses, including series which were initially published by Tokyopop.  Dark horse, too, received new Kodansha licenses (perhaps as penance for GitS).  Does Kodansha really need to verbalize a reason for letting the TP licenses lapse?  No.   Surely, in their heart of hearts, TP already knows why.  (And, to give comfort to TP fans,  they’re probably quite prepared for it.)  Kodansha has chosen to place their chips elsewhere… although we may be missing some of the more private nuances, there is no great mystery.

But as for the decision itself, I’m not sure I can see much positives in it.  Personally, I don’t think license transfers in the middle of publication is a good idea in general, barring the most extreme circumstances such as massive fraud or bankruptcy.  The process will, more likely than not, lose readers vexed by the publication lapse, changes in trade dress and production quality, or the uncertainty of whether earlier volumes would be kept in print.  Of course, it’s only an assumption that these books would see publication again at all.  If we don’t learn the fates of those titles within, I’d say… 6 months, that would be a very bad sign for fans awaiting new volumes.