Manga Rumors and News: TokyoPop, Kodansha and Del Rey

The manga blogosphere has been buzzing lately with reaction to TokyoPop's downsizing (or as former TokyoPop publisher Mike Kiley puts it, "rightsizing") and a rumor about Japanese publisher Kodansha breaking ties with Del Rey Manga to create their own American manga publishing company.

From the TokyoPop side, ICV2 has posted an interview with Kiley where he tries to explain how the down-, err... "rightsizing" will affect their fall publishing schedule:

“The easiest way to explain it is that we’re going to be at an average of 225-250 releases in the period of time that begins in September of this year,” he said. “Between September and December of this year, I believe there are 20-22 releases per month and an equivalent number [per month] scheduled for the calendar year 2009. I would guess the total releases for '08 will go down to the very low 400s - a diminution of about 80 titles.”

While Kiley is providing an estimate, he isn't yet answering the question that manga readers and TokyoPop's original manga creators are asking: Which titles are cancelled?

Meanwhile, the other update in manga not-quite-news was the rumor that Kodansha would be starting up their own U.S. manga publishing division. Japanator has dutifully summarized the whole hub-bub, and rather than just speculate, they followed up by getting a statement from Del Rey Manga (who is Kodansha's current American publishing partner):

I got a chance to corner Ali Kokmen of Del Rey Manga and ask him about the whole rumor of Kodansha coming into the U.S. manga market. After a bit of a laugh at it, Ali told me that it was totally false. He was at Book Expo America, and heard nothing of Kodansha's move, and when the rumor hit that Kodansha was coming in, Del Rey had someone in Japan setting up new Kodansha licenses for 2009 and 2010. So, that would seem to be a rumor that got busted.

A lot of bloggers are reacting with relief mixed with "well, we'll wait and see." This is likely not the last that we'll hear about this, but that's the word on the street, for now.