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Tokyopop, MENA Media Company MBC Group Launch 'MBC Anime' Initiative

Tokyopop and MBC Group, a large media company in the Middle East and North Africa (MENA) based in Saudi Arabia, announced on Wednesday that they are partnering to create MBC Anime, a new joint venture that will commission, produce, and invest in a series of anime titles. Tokyopop founder and CEO Stu Levy is leading MBC Anime.

MBC Anime aims to forge relationships with anime studios in Japan. The venture is part of MBC Group's aims to invest and expand further into the anime industry.

Tokyopop marketing associate Kae Winters confirmed in an interview with ICv2 earlier this month that founder and CEO Levy has stepped back from the company's operations in the United States.

Levy moved to Berlin in January 2020. ANN reached out to Levy regarding this interview, and Levy stated he "thinks the term 'step back' is a bit ambiguous," adding, "In our case, it doesn't mean that I have no involvement, but more that I need to focus on overall group strategy for TOKYOPOP instead of day to day operations." Levy also told ANN his position in Tokyopop's German operations is similar to the U.S., adding "I am chair but the day to day operations are handled by our super talented Managing Director, Susanne Hellweg."

Tokyopop appointed Marc Visnick as the company's COO and publisher in January. The company promoted Visnick internally from the post of vice president of publishing. Tokyopop stated at the time that in his role as COO and publisher, Visnick is managing all North American operations of the company including print, digital, editorial, marketing/PR, sales, and distribution.

Levy founded Tokyopop, originally called Mixx, in 1997 and published manga in serial form in its Mixxzine magazine. Tokyopop later pioneered the publication of "unflopped" manga (shown in its original right-to-left reading format) for all of its titles in 2002 and launched divisions in the United Kingdom and Germany, as well as an imprint devoted to boys-love manga called Blu, between 2003 and 2005.

Tokyopop shut down its North American publishing operations in May 2011 but collaborated with other companies to release manga and world manga after the closure. Tokyopop announced at its Anime Expo panel in 2015 that it was planning to begin publishing manga again in 2016, and announced its first new manga licenses in 2018.

Source: Press release