Given Kodansha’s rumored entrance into the American manga market, and its recent decision to terminate its agreement with Tokyopop’s German affiliate, the news that Kodansha formally dissolved their relationship with Tokyopop is not terribly surprising. Tokyopop released the following statement today explaining the situation:

The Japanese publisher Kodansha, from whom TOKYOPOP has licensed many terrific series over the years — Chobits, Love Hina, Samurai Deeper Kyo, Rave Master, Initial D, Kindaichi, Life, GetBackers, and Love Attack, to name a few — has decided to let all existing contracts with TOKYOPOP expire on all manga series that they have licensed to us. As a result, Kodansha will not renew any licenses with TOKYOPOP for any new manga volumes.

What does this mean? TOKYOPOP will not be allowed to complete the publication of any series that is currently in progress; in addition, TOKYOPOP will not be allowed to reprint titles after the current inventory has been sold out, so once these series are sold out at retail, they will not be available for consumers to purchase. The reasons for Kodansha’s decision were not communicated to TOKYOPOP.

We have received many emails and phone calls about titles related to this announcement, and given the nature of the negotiations, we could not definitely answer any of those questions until now. We love all of these series, and we are disappointed that we will not get to enjoy the outcome of some of our favorite manga. We hope to see these series completed some day…. However, if they are ever published again, they will not be published by TOKYOPOP.

I was surprised to see how many personal favorites were on the list, from Planetes and Tramps Like Us to Voices of a Distant Star. Perhaps another publisher will pick up some of the incomplete or out-of-print gems on the list; at the very least, it would be nice to see Dragon Head, Girl Got Game, and Harlem Beat/Rebound in spiffy new editions for all those folks who missed them the first time around.

For further information, visit About: Manga and MangaBlog, where Deb Aoki and Brigid Alverson have been actively following the story. For a list of affected titles, visit Precocious Curmudgeon, where David Welsh has been compiling a list of Tokyopop’s Kodansha licenses (with some assistant from the greater community).

UPDATE, 9/1/09: Deb Aoki has compiled a helpful list of incomplete and out-of-print Tokyopop/Kodansha titles, as well as a timeline of events leading up to yesterday’s announcement.