Exclusive:

TOKYOPOP

with: John Parker: President and COO of TOKYOPOP, Mike Kiley: President of Information services, and Kristien Brada Thompson: Marcom Manager

Interview by: Matthew Anderson

PAST     PRESENT     FUTURE

TOKYOPOP is fast becoming a force to reckon with in the anime community.  However, while their plans for the future include anime, that is not their primary focus.

In a phone interview, DVD Vision Japan talked with John Parker: President and COO of TOKYOPOP, Mike Kiley: President of Information services, and Kristien Brada Thompson: Marcom Manager about the past, present, and future of TOKYOPOP.

 

PAST:

DVJ: Why did you start an anime company?

JOHN PARKER: First of all, we really don’t see ourselves as an anime company.  Anime is a part of our business, but really we do character based entertainment products. So we are actually in five different businesses, with publishing, video, television, music and merchandising. 

Originally, the company was started in early 96 under the guise of localizing [bringing] comic books or manga from Japan and selling them as comic books within the comic book trade in the United States.  We were fortunate to get Sailor Moon, which [was] one of our premier properties at that time.

DVJ: Did you actually start, or were you key in helping getting TOKYOPOP established?

JP: I have been with the company for 3 years, so I can’t claim the credit for starting the business.  That was by Stu Levy, CEO and founder of the company.

Three and half years ago when I came here we were a pretty small company.  We only had 5 employees.  We were just starting to build the business.  Since then, we have gone from 5 to 55 employees.  [We’ve gone] from just doing comics to being a full fledged publishing, video, television, merchandising, music distribution and Entertainment Company.  We kind of think of ourselves as a mini studio.

DVJ: How did you come up with the name TOKYOPOP?  

JP: In 99, when I started with the company, we had just started a website called TOKYOPOP.com with the idea that we would sell imported products from Japan.  It was doing reasonably well, but at the time we were experimenting with other types of entertainment products from places other than just Japan. We had a lot of heated conversations on weather we should be TOKYOPOP or if it should be something else.  After about a year of deep analysis and thought, it just kind of evolved into becoming the real meaning behind the company and the values that name had kind of set were really indicative of what we were trying to do. So we essentially decided to retire the original name, which was Mixx entertainment, and focus only on TOKYOPOP as a brand name.  In the original genesis of the company as Mixx Entertainment, our focus was a mix of entertainment, a mix of product, and a mix of culture.  We still believe in that, but the TOKYOPOP brand name, we think, has a lot better connotation (for) the casual consumer of entertainment products.

DVJ: What was your first DVD Release and how well did it do?

JP: It wasn’t an anime.  It was a video property called FMW or the Frontier Martial Arts pro wrestling from Japan.

Our first anime release was “Spring and Chaos” a 60 minute feature on the life of [Kenji Miazawa].  Subsequent to that we did GTO and RBHS and Saint Tail.  I don’t know which one exactly was the next one because they all kind (came out) at the same time.  What we found was that GTO and RBHS have been big successes and they continue to this day.

DVJ: What was the one title that your company passed on that you wish you had actually acquired?

JP: Well there always is (one).  A lot of it is a function of how much cash you have [and] are you able to make the deal.  There are two ways to look at that question.  One would be “As a fan of the genre, which one would we have liked to put under our umbrella?” and the answer to that would be Noir.  We think that Noir is really cool, but the cost was prohibitive.  AD Vision eventually got it and we think they are going to do a great job with it.

The other way to look at it would be “Which one is out there that is a huge commercial success and we would have liked to get and we didn’t do it?”  I can tell you this is interesting.  It goes back even further, when Stu [Levy] was originally starting the company, he was consulting for one of the large entertainment companies here in America.  I am going leave them nameless because I don’t want to embarrass them.  He took them a property that ended up being successful called Pokemon.  They thought it was too cute.

DVJ: How are you able to recruit such talented people?

JP: In building any business, it has always been my experience that your success or failure is going to be completely predicated on your ability to surround yourself with good people.  It’s not really a process as much as it is the mindset.  I’m always looking for good people.

My staff always teases me about it.  I was at comicon last summer and I was walking around, and our CFO got all embarrassed because I tried to recruit this girl that was working in one of the booths.  The reason why I did it was because I liked the way she was handling the customers, and I thought she would be a great contributor to our team.  She happened to be an art person.  As we look for talent, we have some basic values for the company that people need to have as part of their own value system.  Being willing to work hard and work until the Job is finished.  Having a low cost mentality.  We don’t drive fancy cars, and take big salaries.  We look for people who are the best at their job, regardless of what their sex or language or ethnic background is.  All kind of the basic things that are kind of like the golden rules that so many companies don’t subscribe to.  Because we’re small, 55 people, we don’t have an HR department.  I am the head of HR, so I have a hand in everyone that we hire. We have been fortunate that we’ve really attracted talented and interesting people. The other thing that is really interesting in working with people is that they are who they are. We put more effort into the recruiting process than most because once they get in there, doing the job, their going to do it the way they are going to do it.  You can influence them, but management is really a misnomer.  You can’t really tell people what to do, they are going to do what they think is the right thing. So if you pick the right people and you support them, work with them, train them, and collaborate with them, you have a really great partnership orientated environment.  We don’t always do it right, but that is what our goal is.

 

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PRESENT:

DVJ: How do you decide what title to release in the US?

JP: Unfortunately, I have to admit, we do it by committee.  We really don’t like to admit that, but it’s true.  Whenever you have things by committee, it gets to be a little bit cloudy.

Think of it like a green light committee.  We get in a room; there are about 12 of us that really participate in that process.  We look at different stuff, we look at the character designs, the story, the potential for particular properties and that is what we choose.  It’s not very scientific, but we have up to a dozen people involved in this so there’s pretty good cross sections of age and demographics and fan knowledge.  We have been fortunate that out of the 600 products we have put out, we have only had three losers, so we kind of believe in that system.

DVJ: How important is it to keep the story and script translation as close to the original?

JP: A lot of people that live in America and are fans may not be able to speak Japanese.  Probably, the vast majority does not.  There is a big disparity between languages and meaning.  We really don’t call it translation; we refer to it as interpreting, because some words can’t be directly translated.  It’s very important to us that we keep the story and the message as the creator has written (it) and the dialogue consistent with that.  We endeavor to do the best we possibly can.  Once again, we don’t always get it perfect, but we don’t intentionally distort the facts and we interpret the message and the dialogue in a way that colloquializes it, that makes it consistent in the English language.

Kristien Brada-Thompson: I also wanted to add that several fans have told us, several retailers and others that TOKYOPOP is actually one of the companies that make the least amount of conscious changes to something.  Our 100% Authentic Manga line that we put out, putting the books in the original format has enabled us to keep it even closer to the original than many of our competitors.

JP: Initial D would have to be the exception.  We have a responsibility to all the constituencies that we serve.  The fans, the customers, our employees, our investors, and our vendors to do the best we can with properties we acquire.  In Initial D’s case, in evaluating the potential of that property, we decided to localize it in a way that was more broad, to open up the appeal of this property to a larger fan base.  We decided to shorten some of the names and to reposition the property for a broader audience.

There are some fans that take offense to that and we took their thoughts into consideration when we evaluated this opportunity.  In general, the only way we can continue as a viable company is to ensure that we make a profit.  That is why we have the titles we have.  We have to make those hard decisions and we have to live with the outcome of changing the strategy.

DVJ: What was the main reason to release Reign?

JP: Peter Chung, who did the character design is pretty well known here because of his work on Aeon Flux on MTV.  Going back to the Green Light committee, it is something we saw, we really liked, and it became somewhat prophetic with the interest from Cartoon Network.  That is one of many we hope to get on broadcast.

DVJ: Why did you decide to do CineManga’s?

JP: Well, they are extremely popular in Europe, Taiwan and Japan.  We see them as an opportunity for us to create a whole new format and line of books that we would not be able to do on a timely basis if we had to take each of these properties to Japan and have them hand drawn as a manga. As we do Lizzy Mcguire, Kim Possible and Spy Kids 2, and some others that we have (lets just say that in another room, we are on the phone with Nickelodeon right now) we believe in this format a great deal.  We think that it’s going to catch on in a big way because it is going to take essentially what is a Japanese orientated format and apply it to these great entertainment properties to allow us to introduce it to a broader audience.

DVJ: How did you get the licensing for Disney titles?

JP: The way we did it was by begging and pleading.  It’s interesting with Kim Possible. Internally, a couple of us have kids who are huge fans of the show.  So when we saw the opportunity to get it, that was one of that was a no-brainer.

DVJ: What are your feelings about fan sites and fan conventions?

JP: I kind of look at this like Beatelmania and Star Trek. Without the fans, we really don’t have a business.  So any way we can go to every fan convention out there and support them in some way is what we’re interested in doing.  We have a number of programs we use to support them even if we are not in a position to go out there and set up a booth or a tent.

KBT:Screeners, give always, sponsor events, bags

JP: As for fans sites, we recently had our “Rising Stars of Manga” campaign and we had hundreds and hundreds of submissions that we are now [deciding] on which ones we’re going to publish.  That contest would never have been as successful at it was without the support of the fan sites.  The only thing that we ask is in terms of fan translations and fan subs. When we get a property,  (we ask) that they respect our intellectual property rights. We’ve always found that if we bring that up that most fan sites will comply.

DVJ: Why did you change the name to Reign from Alexander?

KBT: There were a number of reasons that went into it.  It actually is Reign the Conqueror, and the reason for that is because of copyright.  We found out that the name Reign is copyrighted, so now its Reign the Conquer that will run on Cartoon Network’s Adult Swim and on the DVD as well.

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FUTURE:

DVJ: What future releases do you have planned?

KBT: Well we have the release of Brigadoon coming in May.  The release of Reign on DVD due out on the 25^th I believe.  It is uncut.  As with anything you get on television, they have to edit it so it meets with the standards and practices.  Fans will be able to buy it the way that it came.

DVJ: What is the release date of Initial D?

KBT: We are looking at a summer launch.  So think late summer.

DVJ: Like late August some time?

KBT: Exactly, and it will be a huge launch.  It will defiantly be a cool thing for everybody involved and multi platform. I can’t say exactly what right now, but news will be forthcoming in the next few months.  I know that it’s been a long time coming, but we just want to do it right.

DVJ: On Initial D, are you releasing the first stage or all the stages?

KBT: It’s all the stages, to my knowledge.  We do have [the movie] the [third stage]

DVJ: Where do you see TOKYOPOP in the next 5 years?

Mike Kiley: Ruling the world.  (Laughs).  That is an incredibly difficult question.  I think what we see and what we have seen in the past four years is unprecedented growth every year, not only in the number of [titles] that we carry but in the types of products we are bringing out.  Our core business will always be publishing, but I think you will see a lot more diversification within publication, with in book formats, different kinds of things we are playing around with.  In addition to publishing, on the anime side (which we are committed to for the long term) we will be doing lots of TV stuff, licensing, merchandising, and just kind of multi-media entertainment in a high growth, dynamic mode.

DVJ: Where do you see anime in 5 years?

MK: That [question] has all kinds of cultural, technical, and artistic implications.  I think there is no reason to suspect that on the technical side, the innovations won’t continue to influence the way the art form is presented.  We’ve certainly learned that over the past decade.  It seems to me, on a personal note, that there will always be a place in animation for painstakingly, lovingly drawn, hand cell art as well and we still see wonderful examples of that in animation from a number of countries.

Anime its self is subject to prevailing economic factors.  The Japanese economy will have a lot to do with the quality and quantity of the content that comes from Japan.

On this side of the Pacific, I think we can expect to see continued anime influences on non-Japanese animation.  That will continue to be a trend as the look and graphical feel are becoming more pervasive outside of Japan.

DVJ: Are you going to have any involvement in AD Vision’s Anime Network?

MK: I don’t think we know.  It’s a very new venture. It really is very exciting.  I think it is simply too early to tell at this point.

KBT: We do have an executive director of development, Steve Galloway, who is meeting with a lot of different programming executives now. 

DVJ: Does TOKYOPOP have any interest in producing it’s own anime programs?

MK: I think it’s a possibility. With-in the next six months, no.  We have a great deal of interest on the manga side in developing original content, the first (example) of that would be the Rising Stars of Manga contest.  We are going to be working actively as a result of that effort in identifying and developing domestic talent on the manga side.

I don’t really think there would be any reason to believe why we won’t take steps like that on the animation side, but there are no active plans at the moment.

DVJ: Thanks for your time.

All: Thank you.  

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