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Total prizes reach 1000 
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My mother owns a bookstore and she just sent me a newsletter she received about Tokyopop going down. Tokyopop is closing their LA based offices but are leaving a European branch open.
When DragonBall Evolution came out in 2009 I think, I said to a few friends that I really thought anime/manga was on a downhill slope in America. I said that by the end of 2011 it would go back to being the way it was in the 90s-- the fans who loved it were OBSESSED but casual viewers were going to start vanishing, and it was going to go back to being harder to purchase goods for.
The anime industry has suffered big-time from DVD distributors getting cocky and buying up every single license they could find, even if the title was pretty stupid. "If it's anime it will sell because fans buy anything." With the internet, fans were able to preview titles before they bought (believe it or not, there was a time when we fans relied on magazine articles and reviews to help us decide what to drop $30 on). Eventually fans just stopped buying DVDs because the popular series they had already seen fansubbed online.
I don't know if people reading manga online has had much of a hand in Tokyopop's closure, but the biggest reason Tokyopop is going down is apparently because Borders and other major bookstore chains have really taken the plunge. Borders filed for bankruptcy earlier this year (late last year?) after having a really rough couple of years.
I know people who have worked for Tokyopop in the past, and I'm a little worried about how all this will affect them. I'm worried about how this will affect manga in America. Are we going to start seeing major cons shutting down or moving to smaller venues?
I was never a fan of Tokyopop-- they were successful not for the quality of their work but for the sheer volume of series they put out. They were quick to put out new OEL titles and quick to cut them, there were major translation inconsistencies in the first ten years they published, the editor was in the beginning a bit of a jerk-off (he used to print hate mail MIXXine received just so he could bitch out the writers in print), and I thought some of their pages looked like scanlations (they used to use a font that looked like comic sans, there were typos aplenty, switched dialog in word balloons, and character names changed A LOT). However, they were a big force in bringing over titles and it's kind of a strange feeling to see them go. I haven't read one of their books in seven years, but they gave a few of my friends jobs and they introduced me to manga when up until then all I had read was Ranma 1/2. They kind of brought more variety to the market, and more importantly GIRLS COMICS.
As someone who is trying to draw comics full-time, I'm a little nervous about what lies ahead. Will there be an American audience at all in two more years? Or will I be writing for more a European crowd, where as I understand it anime and manga are much more popular.
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Uneasy 
I've noticed a downhill slide in manga displayed in bookstores in my town - in Waterstones they used to have about two bookcases full, then one, and now just one small display rack. WHSmith tried selling manga for a while and gave up, and Sussex Stationers haven't even tried (then again they just got taken over by WHSmith so they won't be doing it at all now). WIP Borders D: I liked that shop. My other favourite bookstore closed down too. They offered me a job, and then closed. xD People need to read more books! >8U
I was trying to sell off my old copies of Tokyo Mew Mew... wonder if I'll get any more money for them now? Probably not.
I never liked TokyoPop, but I'm sad to see them go simply because it is a sign of the times. Borders I'm kind of happy is gone because my family's income is going to triple this year because of it (and since I'm getting married next month, my family could use a little extra to help pay for things). But once again, it's just another sign that people aren't buying books anymore.
Tokyo Mew Mew XD I remember that manga.
I guess it's good for the independent shops, yeah.
And yeah, haha xD Me and my friends used to be obsessed with it when we were at school. I kind of just put it away for several years, then realised that I could make some money off it. XD
It won't effect me as much as some fans. I tend to import my manga so I don't have to deal with translations (even the best lose something, I'm a big raw supporter. XD) and when it comes to anime, I try to get ahold of those in Japanese as well. I can understand raws with some decency now, so...
Not to mention that Japanese manga tends to cost less. Not sure why, but I even know a place online that has sane shipping rates for IMPORTS. (Making it more than sane, but borderline miraculous). Now if only Japanese DVDs didn't cost an arm and a fricken leg... I might buy those more often rather than relying on internet uploads. :<
Kodansha is a major powerhouse publisher (not just with manga... I think they're the biggest publisher in Japan actually) but that doesn't necessarily mean their manga will get a proper treatment. I hope it does, but you never know. I haven't read an English translated manga in years so I'm like you in that it doesn't really affect me personally, but still.
Well, I'll be honest. The only series I'm really interested in buying is Yu-Gi-Oh! Duel Monsters. A lot of the earlier discs seem to be out of print and a pain in the ass to find, and god help you if you want a reasonable price (and that's compared to the JAPANESE MARKET) on them.
I'd probably buy the Digimon DVDs too if they weren't... $500 PER SEASON. I don't care -how- nice a boxed set is, or that the AMerican dollar is a bit lacking, that reaches really high levels of stupidity. Even $300 isn't really worth it! Man, that's a hug epet peeve of mine!
And agreed on the casual thing. I'd kind of like the super sexy Sailor Moon remastered sets too, but... damn, that price. I know season 1 runs about $300 cause its split into two costing roughly $150 each.
It -does- kind of suck for people publishing through them, though. there's a fair number of AMerican only manga series that are gonna just... stop thanks to this. I hope Del Rey and Kodansha pick up the slack...
(Btw, unfortunately your thing about stupid consumers buying anything cause its anime...? Not entirely a misconception on the studios' parts. There are people who think anime = good and western animation = bad. (I seem like that, but for me its more cause Anime has plot rather than episodic FAR MORE OFTEN than American, and most good plot based cartoons tend to get cancelled really quickly lately.)
I think the Revolutionary Girl Utena box set was ungodly expensive... it's one of my favorite shows from when I was a teen, but I think it's upwards of like $700 now.
Del Rey is gone, or is dying, whichever... it's all switching to Kodansha, and supposedly there are some issues about whether to continue non-Kodansha titles or not.
I remember people used to get angry if you called anime "cartoons", as if it was two different things. I wouldn't call Bugs Bunny anime, but Sailor Moon is a cartoon. People used to flip over that. I don't know if they still do or not. I still really like some older US cartoons, and Avatar was pretty good, but sometime from 2000 on a lot of cartoons got soooo stupid. I guess the comedy styling changed, but I cringed when watching Adult Swim's original cartoons, and Family Guy makes me want to kill people. There are still some American cartoons I think are good, but I would like to see a few more series like what was out in the 80s and early 90s. And continuity, like with Avatar, would be nice.
Really?! It's a really big novel publisher! Do you mean just for manga? Viz still seems to be quite afloat, last I checked...
I agree that a lot of cartoons got stupid, although I kinda like Family Guy... but not as a cartoon. As a sitcom. And I do like it for the fact it helps stubborn (not stupid mind you, just stubborn) people realize that "Hey, maybe animated doesn't mean "for kids"" which is some of the resistance anime faced at first and is still facing in some circles.
...On that note, I want to strangle people when I see shit like the Witchblade anime, Mai-Hime, and fricken -BIBLE BLACK- in the kids section. *headdesk*
Family Guy I can't stand because Peter is such an unlikeable character, and I hate knowing it was created specifically to go up against Simpsons. The original pitch was about a guy and a talking dog, and it was nothing like Family Guy. I do like Brian and the baby, but the other characters drive me nuts. And that show is a bit too random for me... I could go on and on, haha. A lot of anime that's popular actually IS intended for kids, though. Naruto, Bleach, and One Piece are intended for kids (Naruto is really meant for kids 8-12, I think Bleach is more like middle school and high school, and One Piece has a really broad appeal I think because so many characters are adults themselves). Like, I don't watch Pokemon, Digimon, or Pretty Cure shows because those are for even younger kids and I just don't care about what happens. Of course, even as kids shows they are still far and away more entertaining than a lot of the kids shows in America. I would rather watch an episode of Digimon than an episode of Cat Dog easily (clearly I have no idea what shows are on TV today, so my opinion might be dated). I think in the late nineties people started to realize animation wasn't just for kids with stuff like Simpsons and South Park, and Adult Swim-type cartoons were just starting to gain attention. But I understand why people say "cartoons are for kids" because the bulk of cartoons ARE for kids. Even in Japan, I'm a little embarrassed to say I like manga to people I've just met because that mindset is popular even here. Some titles are "acceptable" for adults (like Lupin III) and some are flat out Kids Only (Pretty Cure, Pokemon, etc). There are certainly titles for adults (not just porn titles) but I don't read those, so when I tell people my favorite manga I know they are going to form an opinion like "oh, this person is very childish" or something. They'd be right, but still.
BIBLE BLACK WAS IN THE KID'S SECTION!? AHAHAHAHAH that ain't right.