Tokyopop Is Essentially Dead
News broke this afternoon that Tokyopop will stop work in North America on May 31. Honestly, I can’t say I’ll miss it too much. I’m pretty obviously biased towards Viz Media and their Shojo Beat line (and others like some of the bigger shonen properties that I don’t often talk about but do follow). I do miss that Tokyopop was once the head of the “manga revolution” as they called it. And I will most certainly miss the ending volumes of Alice in the County of Hearts, Happy Cafe, and Demon Sacred, which were currently the only Tokyopop titles still being published that I was following (other than Fruits Basket Ultimate, which I know I can just get the regular editions of now).
This probably sounds like I’m saying “good riddance,” which really is not the case at all. I really do appreciate that Tokyopop was one of the first publishers in the US to be able to hit a slightly more “mainstream” market (though I’m not sure I’d call manga completely mainstream, though certainly a lot of more people know what it is now). I really do have mixed feelings on the subject. I can’t find it easy to completely mourn a company that hasn’t produced much I’ve liked in recent years, simply because that gives me less attachment, but I really have to give them props for originally bringing Sailor Moon to the US, which was definitely the first manga I read and bought (though Viz’s Alice 19th was what really got me into manga).
I especially also mourn the loss of the Tokyopop light novel imprint. They hadn’t done much lately, with the exception of a few .hack// novels and the most recent Full Metal Panic! omnibus, but a good majority of the light novels I own are from Tokyopop and I definitely love them for that.
The one saving grace in the news is that Tokyopop has said that, “TOKYOPOP will announce the future of specific titles and other releases in the coming weeks.” Hopefully we’ll be able to get the last volume of Alice in the Country of Hearts in July and they’ll let their other licenses out for other publishers to pick up (though chances are certainly slim for many of them), and Tokyopop can rest in peace.
kelakagandy's ramblings 
Kinda knew this would happen eventually. All I’m really worried about is who the hell will finish Gosick now. And maybe if I should sell my D.N. Angel manga, too, since I doubt the author will ever get back to updating it. My god, she’s worse than the company and that’s saying something.
I kinda saw this happening, Tokyopop wasn’t really publishing as much anymore and they seemed to stop publishing some titles I’ve been waiting for. I’m glad we will see the last volumes of Alice in the Country of Hearts, but where is Loveless?????
I’m just disappointed since I am still collecting a lot of series with Tokyopop….like the Fruits Basket Ultimates, Alice in the Country of Hearts, Maid Sama, Pavane for a Dead Girl… :( But besides the series that are already out of print, it looks like for other manga series I want from Tokyopop will have to be eBay bought….which I don’t want to do. Although I’m hoping that some Tokyopop title release dates I saw on Amazon will still be released. (But even on Amazon, titles are running out of stock ;_;)