“ANN has confirmed with Tokyopop Senior Vice President Mike Kiley that the company will shutter its Los Angeles-based North American publishing operations on May 31. The company’s film and European operations will be unaffected by this closure, and its office in Hamburg, Germany will continue to handle global rights sales for the company.
“A PR representative working for Tokyopop CEO Stu Levy informed ANN that ‘TOKYOPOP will announce the future of specific titles and other releases in the coming weeks.’
“In a post on the website for Tokyopop’s America’s Greatest Otaku reality web series, Levy announced that he will spend the next year in the Japanese prefecture of Miyagi, making a documentary about the effects of the Great Eastern Japan Earthquake disaster (Higashi Nihon Daishinsai) of March 11. The proceeds of the documentary will go to support the victims. He also posted a farewell message on the official Tokyopop website.”
News: Tokyopop to Close North American Publishing Division, Anime News Network, April 15, 2011
In their heyday, Tokoyopop was very generous to J LHLS with review copies and swag. I hope their former and remaining employees find jobs worthy of them. Good luck.
J LHLS suggests you buy those Tokoyopop and BLU titles while you can, fanboys and girls.
Edit 04/16/2011: Why close it when they could have sold it? I wonder. Anyone know?