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News > Licensing

License Fortune Telling… But Not Really

Look at all the possible pretties to line our bookshelves!

Back in March of this year, Tokyopop sent out a lengthy remove list to scanlators and download sites through it’s German branch, Tokyopop Germany, (or atleast that’s where I picked up on it first). On that list were 230 manga titles, many of which had been licensed at the time, both by TP and other publishers, while a number of them had not. Well, I kept my hands on that list (due mostly to me being a computer packrat) and I periodically went and checked off titles that were licensed over the past year since then, just for kicks I guess. In these last seven months I’ve crossed off quite a few new titles, the majority of which were picked up by Tokyopop.

I went back this morning to add the newest slew of Tokyopop pick-ups as posted on Amazon over the month, and noticed that my remove list had dwindled down to a mere 23 yet-to-be-licensed titles. While the list in no way guarantees that these titles will be licensed, it’s sure been a good little fortuneteller in its own right thus far, showing a good array of titles Tokyopop, in particular, has had (or still has) on the bargaining table.

I know I’m keeping my fingers crossed for Amatsuki, Harlem Beat and Rose of Versailles (alongside my wishes for a big Sailor Moon manga revival thanks to the yet-to-make-any-announcements English branch of Kodansha. … please, Kodansha?).

Under the cut, I’ve provided the list for any other curious, with titles crossed off indicating they’ve been licensed (feel free to correct me on any mistakes!). What purpose does it serve? Maybe very little, but for those keeping their fingers crossed for some of the remaining titles, may it offer some light at the end of the hopeful tunnel :)

Tokyopop ‘To Remove’ List: (( TITLES CROSSED OUT HAVE BEEN LICENSED AS OF MARCH 2010! ))

+Anima

.hack//Alcor

.hack//Dusk

.hack//GU+

.hack//XXXX

07-Ghost

A.I. Love you

Acony

Ai Yori Aoshi

Akuma to Dolce

Alichino

ALIVE

Amatsuki

Angel Diary

Angelic Layer

Aqua

Arcana

Arcana Soul

Aria

Ashita no Yoichi!

Aspirin

Bakuretsu Tenshi

Baroque

Battle Club

Battle Royale

Battle Vixens (Ikkitousen)

Beautiful People

Beck

Beyond the Beyond

Bird Kiss

Blame!

Blood Sucker

Bloody Kiss

Boys Be

Brave Story

Broken Angels

Bus Gamer

Carat!

Cardcaptor Sakura

Cherry Juice

Chobits

Chronicles of the Cursed Sword

CLAMP School Detectives

Clover (CLAMP)

Confidential Confessions

Cowboy Bebop

Cyber 7

Dazzle

DearS

Demon Diary

Demon Sacred

Deus Vitae

Diabolo

DNAngel

Dolls

Dragon Head

Dragon Knights

Dragon Voice

Duklyon: CLAMP School Defenders

Eden no Hana

Eensy Weensy Monster

Eerie Queerie

Erementar Gerad

Et Cetera

Faeries Landing

FAKE

Far East

Fate Stay Night

Fever

FLCL

Fool’s Gold

Fruits Basket

Full Metal Panic

Futari Ecchi

Futari Ecchi for Ladies

Gacha Gacha

Gakuen Alice

Gakuen Heaven (yaoi)

Ga-rei

Genjuu no Seiza

Gerard & Jaques

Get Backers

Gravitation

Great Techer Onizuka (GTO)

Grenadier

Gundam SEED x Astray

Hana to Akuma

Hands Off!

Harlem Beat wa Toaki made

HaruHana

Heaven!

High School of the Dead

His and Her Circumstances

Hitsuji no Namida

Ichigo Mashimaro

Ikinari Full Metal Panic

Initial D

Innocent Bird

Innocent W

Judas

Junai Tokkou Taichou

Kaichou wa Maid Sama

Kamichama Karin

Kamikaze

Kamiyadori

Karakuri Odette

Kimi ga Koi ni Ochiru

Kimi wa Pet

KimiKiss

King of Hell

King of Thorns

Kingdom Hearts

Kingdom Hearts – Chain of Memories

Kingdom Hearts II

Kirara

Kiss and Never Cry

Kobato

Koi Cha no Osahou

Kono Minikuku mo Utsukushii Sekai

Koori no Mamono no Monogatari

Kyou Kara Maoh

Lagoon Engine

Lament of the Lamb

Love Hina

Love Mode

Love Pistols

Loveless

Lucky Star

Magic Knight Rayearth

Magical x Miracle

Mai Otome Arashi

Mai-HiME

Mai-Otome

Mai-Otome Zwei

Mamotte! Lollipop

Marmalade Boy

Mars

Meine Liebe

Menkui

Metal Heart

Metamo Kiss

Mirai Nikki

Missile Happy

Mobile Suit Crossbone Gundam

Mobile Suit Gundam Seed

Moon Phase

MPD Psycho

Mugen Spiral

Nabari no Ou

Neck and Neck

Never Give UP

New Petshop of Horrors

Nouryokusha Nanaki

Onii-chan to Issho

Peace Maker

Peach Girl

Petshop of Horrors

Pita-Ten

Pixie Pop

PlanetES

Priest

Princess Ai

Psychic Academy

Queen

Qwan

Ragnarok,

Rave Master

Rebirth

RG Veda

Rose Hip Rose

Rose Hip Zero

Sailor Moon

Sailor V

Saiunkoku Monogatari

Saiyuki

Saiyuki Gaiden

Saiyuki Reload

Sakura Taisen

Samurai Deeper Kyo

Sapuri

Seikai Trilogy

Seikon no Qwaser

Senki Senki Momotama

Shiawase Kissa San Choume

Shin Megamitensei

Shonan Jun’ai Gumi

Shrine of the Morning Mist

Shugo Chara

Silver Diamond

Slayers

Soul Rescue

Speed Grapher

Star Wars

Suki

Suppli

Tactics

Tarot Café

The Devil Ororon

The Embalmer

The Good Witch of the West

The Missing

The Rose of Versailles

Togainu no Chi

Togari

Tokko

Tokyo Babylon

Tokyo Mew Mew

Tokyo Mew Mew a la Mode

Tokyo Underground

Trinity Blood

Tsubasa wo Motsu Mono

Urukyu

Vampire Doll

Vampire Game

Vampire Kisses

Velvet Blue Rose

Venus Capriccio

Warcraft the Sunwell Trilogy

Welcome to the NHK

Wild Adapter

Wish

World Embryo

X

X-Day

Yamada Taro Monogatari Yasashii Ryuu no Koroshikata

Yorozuya Toukaido Honpo

Yubisaki Milk Tea

Zig x Zag

Zodiac P.I.

About the Author:

Lissa Pattillo is the owner and editor of Kuriousity.ca. Residing in Halifax, Nova Scotia she takes great joy in collecting all manners of manga genres, regretting that there's never enough time in the day to review or share them all. Along with reviews, Lissa is responsible for all the news postings to the website and works full time as a web and graphic designer.



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21 Responses

  1. Mamotte! Lollipop was licensed by Del Rey. Might want to cross that one off your list too.

    I'll second the vote for Amatsuki. I'd love to see that one come out. I'm rooting for Saiunkoku, Saiyuki Gaiden, as well as more Gundam (not that I'll get that).

    Love the theme, BTW. :)

  2. Dop says:

    Rose of Versailles?

    Rose of Versailles??!

    If that gets licensed, I think there will be explosions of joy across the internet!

  3. The Rose of Versailles was licensed and partially released as well. The license is still in place, though the company releasing it went bust i think

  4. Ephidel says:

    I'm pretty sure the only official releases of Rose of Versailles in english were the two 1983 volumes you can find reference to on Schodt's page (and the excerpt in Manga Manga! I guess). Those two books might have gotten a brief release in America, but they weren't released for America.

    I would very much doubt that the license is still in place though. At the least, I recall reading something years ago about the cost of obtaining a (new) english license for the series being too high (I can't find that claim anywhere online, but the comments in this discussion at least have people who've heard the same claim: http://slightlybiasedmanga.com/most-wanted-licens… )

  5. […] does the future hold? Lissa Pattillo posts a cease-and-desist list that Tokyopop sent to scanlators a while ago. Tokyopop subsequently licensed many of the titles on […]

  6. Connie says:

    I think Harlem Beat is an older Tokyopop license. Waaaay old, pre-flop, out around the same time as their version of Parasyte. On the other hand, everything I can think of that would be comparably old like their first couple Gundam titles and something called Blue Ice or Ice Blue aren't on the list, only the old high profile things like Sailor Moon and MKR.

    Also, I think the Rose of Versailles rumor comes from a Jason Thompson interview on ask.com, but I can't dig it up right now.

  7. Lissa says:

    @Connie: I believe you're thinking of a different Harlem Beat. Tokyopop does have a series called Harlem Beat that's about basketball (?), but I'm hoping for the shoujo/BL release by Kazusa Takashima. The translation of the full name escapes me so I usually just shorten 'Harlem Beat wa Toaki made' down to Harlem Beat ;p

    As for Rose of Versailles, a few different sources do have it listed as having an expired license, originally licensed quite a while ago I think (as Tiamat pointed out) but I haven't seen or heard of any releases myself.

  8. Nadja says:

    I just want to ask…Karakuri Odette is crossed from the list, but I didn't see any confirmation or amazon listing, so I wonder if it's really a license that is sure… ?

  9. Lissa says:

    @Nadja: I have it marked down as being licensed by Tokyopop but, as you said, I too can't find any confirmation of this. I'll remove the line through it until I can find confirmation of it being licensed (if it was at all).

  10. Andre says:

    Rose of Versailles was released in English in Japan in the 80's with a translation by Fred Schodt- I believe this was by it's Japanese publisher, and it was mostly done for english-teaching purposes. Jason Thompson has a review of it in his Manga Guide [which all should have- it's handy].

    There was also a segement included in Schodt's Manga Manga! though other segments in that book were subsequently licensed by others, such as Barefoot Gen [multiple publishers, now Last Gasp] and VIZ's edition of Phoenix.

    There was a 3 oversize volume french edition not too long ago [though I think it's OOP], so Ikeda is open to international licensing.

    Rose of Versailles would severely kick ass- I have the french canadian DVD's, and it's one of the more compelling shojo franchises out there.

  11. Andre says:

    PS- Checking WorldCat.org , some libraries do have it, though it'd be one heck of an interlibrary loan….. I imagine the license is quite available.

  12. Lissa says:

    Thanks for clearing that up, Andre! Appreciated ^^

  13. Sabrina says:

    I gotta say, I'm excited for Yamada Taro Monogatari. Old Ai Morinaga, anyone? XD

  14. Mugi says:

    So as a European (Belgian, so Germany is like a 1 hour drive for me), if I go to germany I can find all those mangas english translated there? Cause if it's in germans it won't help me much.

  15. Althalus says:

    @Mugi: All german manga releases are in German.

    BTW: I regularly make the opposite trip (Germany to Belgium) to buy French manga in Belgium. There are just so many good series licensed in French, but not in German.

  16. umaianime says:

    wow thats a large list to be removed :(

  17. Karen says:

    Isn't Suppli one of the titles Tokyopop cancelled? What's the big idea here, they won't release the rest of it in English and German themselves and they don't want anyone else to either?

  18. jinytte says:

    Yorozuya Toukaido Honpo = Yorozuya Tokaidou Honpo = Satisfaction Guaranteed!

    I don't know about the German version, but several volumes have been released in English by Tokyopop.

  19. I.B. says:

    "Harlem Beat wa Toaki made" is licensed in German by Carlsen manga.

  20. […] anyone remember my post back in October 2008, License Fortune Telling… But Not Really? Well as of today that list of crossed out licenses has gotten six titles shorter. Only a few left […]

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