Wednesday, March 29, 2006

TokyoPop Makes Deal With HarperCollins

TokyoPop is a manga publisher that just made a last minute switch in its distributor to HarperCollins. I think HC made the classic mistake of buying into a company at their peak. (Their just lucky to be distributing rather than buying TokyoPop.) This publisher has been churning out titles at an obscene rate. Yeah, they've been successful but they've diluted the market so much with such a ton of product, that long-term I think they're hurting the business and themselves. How cool can a manga company be when they're turning out mangas based on books by Meg Cabot (the author of The Princess Diaries). And yes I know a lot of girls read mangas, but that's still just a tie-in, not a cool original. TokyoPop has peaked and this deal is the clearest sign yet.

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