Tokyopop (styled as TOKYOPOP) is an American distribution company, licensor, and publisher of anime, manga, and other Japanese works. Founded in 1997 by Stuart J. Levy, the company is headquartered in Los Angeles, California, with a German branch based in Hamburg. Tokyopop was the first company in the United States to retain the original right-to-left reading format for all manga's through their "100% Authentic Manga" line.
Tokyopop was the original English publisher, distributor, and licensor of the Initial D series, acquiring the rights to translate and publish the manga in 2001.[1] The company began publishing the series in 2002 and published 33 volumes from 2002 to 2008. Tokyopop also released and dubbed the Initial D anime in North America, producing English dubs for First Stage, Second Stage, and Extra Stage. Their localization introduced many changes to both the anime and manga. In 2009, Tokyopop lost the license to the series after Kodansha chose to let their license with the company expire.[2]
Manga[]
Tokyopop released 33 volumes of the Initial D manga from 2002 to 2008. A 34th volume was planned to release in April 2009, but was delayed,[3] and later cancelled when Kodansha let their license with the company expire.[4][2] Kodansha USA would later reuse this translation of Volumes 1-33 in their own 2019 digital release.
Anime[]
Tokyopop created and released dubs of First, Second and Extra Stage. They created a subtitled version of Third Stage and screened it at the Big Apple Anime Fest in 2003.[5][6] Tokyopop had later considered giving the film a dub[7] and had alluded to to releasing the film at some point around 2006.[8] This release never happened, as the company could not justify the cost.[7]
Tokyopop had intended to get Initial D onto television,[9][10] with many of the changes they made to the series being done to appeal to television networks[11], as well as the car scene at the time.[7] TV rights were eventually sold to MTV, however the network decided not to air any of the show.[7] As MTV had already bought the rights, Tokyopop were unable to sell the show to any other networks, so the series released straight to DVD instead.[7] Tokyopop also had plans to release some Eurobeat on CD in America,[9] but this never came to fruition.
Despite Third Stage and Fourth Stage releasing before they lost the license to the series in 2009, Tokyopop never released a dub for either stage, leaving them without a western release until Funimation released dubs for both in 2010.
Cast[]
| Voice Actor | Character |
|---|---|
| Dave Wittenberg | Takumi Fujiwara |
| Crispin Freeman | Koichiro Iketani |
| Robbie Rist | Itsuki Takeuchi |
| Jason Spisak | Kenji |
| Bridget Hoffman | Mako Sato |
| Kat Cressida | Natsuki Mogi |
| Kate Higgins | Sayuki |
| Kerrigan Mahan | Bunta Fujiwara |
| Lex Lang | Ryosuke Takahashi Narrator |
| Michael McConnohie | Yuichi Tachibana |
| Steve Blum | Keisuke Takahashi Papa |
| Wally Wingert | Takeshi Nakazato |
| Quinton Flynn | Shingo Shoji |
| Colleen O'Shaughnessey | Saori Kazumi Akiyama (Second Stage 11-13) |
| David Rasner | Kenta Nakamura |
| Michael Lindsay | Miki Wataru Akiyama |
| Neil Kaplan | Keiichi Tsuchiya |
| Grant George | Seiji Iwaki |
| Richard Cansino | Kyoichi Sudo |
| Melissa Fahn | Kazumi Akiyama (Second Stage 7-10) |
| Kirk Thornton | Masashi Suzuki |
Mountain Vengeance[]
Tokyopop commissioned the company Canopy Games to develop an Initial D game for them. The resulting game was called Initial D Mountain Vengeance. The game was poorly received, and faced a lot of criticism from fans, a lot of which stems from its basis on the Tokyopop release of the series.
Trading Card Game[]
Tokyopop partnered with AEG to release a trading card game based on the series.[12][13] Alongside purchasable starter sets and booster packs, cards were also included in certain volumes of the manga and in the DVD release of the anime. Around 231 cards were released.
Localisation Differences[]
When bringing Initial D to the west Tokyopop made many changes to the series to widen its appeal, these include:
Name Changes[]
A majority of the characters were given nicknames that were used instead of their names, with a couple of characters having their names completely changed. Unless stated otherwise, these names were present in both the manga and anime. In the manga, characters stopped being renamed after the Emperor Arc, with Kyoichi Sudo being the last character receiving a nickname, however in the anime they continue until the end of Second Stage, with Wataru and Kazumi Akiyama being the final characters to receive nicknames.
Most of the names were used in the localised versions of the Arcade Stage games, with additional nicknames being given to those who had not received one.
| Original Japanese Name | Tokyopop Nickname |
|---|---|
| Takumi Fujiwara | Tak |
| Itsuki Takeuchi | Iggy |
| Koichiro Iketani | Cole |
| Yuichi Tachibana | Boss |
| Natsuki Mogi | Natalie |
| Keisuke Takahashi | K.T |
| Ryosuke Takahashi | Ry |
| Takeshi Nakazato | Zack |
| Mako Sato | Maya |
| Sayuki | Simone |
| Kenta Nakamura | Kent |
| Seiji Iwaki | Hawk |
| Kyoichi Sudo | Kyle |
| Kazumi Akiyama | Carrie (Second Stage only) |
| Wataru Akiyama | Aki (Second Stage only) |
| Atsuro Kawai | Junro Kawai (mistranslation) |
| Toru Suetsugu | Tohru Matsushi (mistranslation) |
Censoring[]
Since Tokyopop was trying to target Initial D to a younger audience than it was originally intended to be for, they had to censor several scenes, including all nudity present in the original.
Soundtrack[]
The eurobeat soundtrack present in the original Japanese version was removed, instead being replaced with a rap and hip hop soundtrack created or curated by Stu Levy, Tokyopop's CEO, under the name "DJ Milky". Their version of Third Stage was reportedly unchanged.
Translation[]
Tokyopop's translation of Initial D had street slang added to it to make it appeal to younger audiences. Their translation also featured many errors when it came to car terminology. Some examples of this are the extra chapters Wastegate and Wastegate 2 (Featured in volumes 30 and 33) which were both mistranslated as "West Gate", and the motorsport event Gymkhana being misspelled as "Jim Carner".
Visual Edits[]
Tokyopop made several edits to the anime, adding effects or cuts that were not present in the original version.
Merchandise[]
Tokyopop made a deal with Jada Toys to create a line of licensed diecast cars and action figures based on the Initial D property. Toys included in the line are 1/64 scale models of the vehicles from the series and 1:24 scale vehicles including the AE86 driven by Takumi. The models even came with figures of the characters.
Tokyopop also had a deal with RadioShack, allowing them to create several Initial D branded remote control cars as part of their ZipZaps line.
References[]
- ↑ Ever Cheung & Ridwan Khan (November 2001). "Anime Briefs: November 2001". Animefringe Online Magazine. Retrieved on March 4, 2025.
- ↑ 2.0 2.1 Egan Loo (August 31, 2009). "Tokyopop Confirms Its Kodansha Manga Licenses Have Ended (Update 3)". Anime News Network. Retrieved on March 4, 2025.
- ↑ https://comicsworthreading.com/2009/01/29/tokyopop-in-trouble-more-cancellations-including-aria/
- ↑ http://mangablog.mangabookshelf.com/2009/08/31/kodansha-ends-tokyopop-licenses/
- ↑ https://www.dropintomanga.com/post/748108742400278528/initial-d-first-stage-overall-magic-anime-manga
- ↑ https://web.archive.org/web/20030802063213/http://bigappleanimefest.com/2003press/Press03_17.cfm
- ↑ 7.0 7.1 7.2 7.3 7.4 https://adamlauture.com/2024/09/22/tricking-out-anime-an-interview-with-stu-levy/
- ↑ https://www.animenewsnetwork.com/news/2006-08-08/initial-d-marathon-in-la
- ↑ 9.0 9.1 https://www.animenewsnetwork.com/news/2002-07-29/otakon-2002-tokyopop
- ↑ https://www.animenewsnetwork.com/news/2002-10-07/anime-at-mipcom
- ↑ https://www.animenewsnetwork.com/news/2002-07-06/ax-2002-tokyopop-panel
- ↑ https://www.animenewsnetwork.com/news/2003-05-09/initial-d-ccg
- ↑ https://web.archive.org/web/20031124045808/http://www.initialdccg.com/