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TOKYOPOP’s accountant raises “substantial doubt” about the manga publisher’s ability to continue
TOKYOPOP wants investors to fund its transformation, but its financial disclosures reveal a company under strain after a $2m gamble turned into a $2m loss.
NewsbyChris Arrant, Editor-in-Chief
Published on Wed Sep 09 2026
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Tokyopop is in the midst of an experiment to raise capital via crowdfunding to finance what it sees as a company transformation from being a manga publisher into a brand manager for Asian-based creations across manga, anime, and more. As part of this ‘regulation crowdfunding’ (Reg CF, for short), Tokyopop has made a sizeable bit of its financial reports public, including an independent review of those financials by an outside CPA firm. And what the CPA firm found set off alarms that seem similar to Tokyopop’s previous downturn from 2008 to 2015 that led to it suspending manga publishing operations for years.
“As discussed in Note 11 to the financial statements, the Company has incurred losses from operations
and has experienced negative cash flows from operating activities,” reads a statement from the CPA firm SetApart Accountancy Corp., which was hired by Tokyopop to do an independent review of the company in advance of its Reg-CF plans. “These conditions raise substantial doubt about the Company’s ability to continue as a going concern.”
In SetApart’s review of Tokyopop’s books, it noted net losses of $997,646 and negative cash flow of $1,966,546 in that same period. For the fiscal year 2026, the CPA firm warns that the $1.5m cash (and cash equivalents) the company has available “may not be sufficient to fund operations for the next twelve months…” especially since that is around half what Tokyopop had available the year prior.
According to Tokyopop’s Reg-CF filings, the company has debts totalling $1.225m, with $650,000 of that being a 0% interest loan from its separate-but-connected Japanese affiliate, Tokyopop K.K.
The $2 million big bet in 2025 that “killed, crushed” Tokyopop in 2025, according to its owner
If there‘s a smoking gun to Tokyopop’s losses in 2025, it would be its venture into events by obtaining the license to be the exclusive Naruto exhibition promoter and producer in Europe, despite not having the rights for the manga or anime.
“In our case specifically, we did great in 2024. Then in 2025, we took a good amount of that capital, and we placed a big bet; we took a big swing at the experience business, which we wanted to be in,” Tokyopop founder/majority owner Stu Levy tells Milton Griepp of ICv2.
Levy, who says his primary residence is in Berlin, decided to launch the event in Germany where, he admits in retrospect, “material costs are super-expensive.”
“We had tens of thousands of people attend, but what we didn’t quite realize, because it was our first rodeo in that regard, was how expensive it was going to be,” says Levy. “We underestimated the cost of the buildout. Our [Key Performance Indicators] on the revenue side were on the low end, but they were within our range of goals. We got killed, crushed, on the cost side.”
If you were to strike the attributed “event-level expenses” that resulted in this loss, Tokyopop’s 2025 would change from reporting a $997,647 net loss in 2025 to net income just above $1 million. While that’s income, it would still be a 42% decline from its 2024 net income.
Levy says that he and the company now see the Naruto exhibition as a one-time situation, and he learned “you’re not really supposed to fund 100%” of it and instead get investors. In the short-term future, Tokyopop’s events business is focused on “pop-up-type” events in the United States (with Kinokuniya) and Germany (with Thalia).
TOKYOPOP’s crowdfunding campaign could provide a financial lifeline rather than fund expansion
While the outside CPA firm SetApart does acknowledge Tokyopop’s plans to generate more money in 2026 through increased business, this Reg-CF offering, potential venture capital funding, and taking on more debt, SetApart cautions that there’s “no assurance” shown in Tokyopop’s plans that it would be able to get enough financing to continue.
According to SetApart, Tokyopop management presented plans regarding those concerns, but “our conclusion is not modified with respect to this matter.”
These facts together don’t mean that the CPA firm is signaling that a bankruptcy is imminent, however. But it does serve as a formal warning for Tokyopop and those choosing to invest in the company that funds from this Reg-CF might end up going not towards growing the company, but providing stop-gap funding in a seriously trying financial time.
According to Tokyopop’s public statements, this Reg-CF funding is attempting to raise up to $1.235 million for the company by the end of 2026. But due to the public disclosures about the costs of doing this Reg-CF venture, if $1.235 million were achieved, the company would take in considerably less once fees and transaction costs are taken into account.
“It’s been healthy for our company to do it. It’s not cheap, just to be clear. It’s super-expensive,” Levy admitted. “In the end, the money that you raise actually costs you a lot. The cost of capital is very high, of course. In our case, we’ve done well with it. We have raised more money than we spent. Still, it’s expensive.”
Interested? Here’s where to find your closest local comic store, courtesy of Sweet, and here’s a guide to how (and where) to read comics online. If you’re looking for the best comics in recent memory, check out the Eisner Awards winners and the Harvey Awards nominees. And if you like free comics, here’s everything we know about Free Comic Book Day 2027.
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Chris Arrant: Chris Arrant is the Popverse’s Editor-in-Chief. He has written about pop culture for USA Today, Life, Entertainment Weekly, Publisher’s Weekly, Marvel, Newsarama, CBR, and more. He has acted as a judge for the Will Eisner Comic Industry Awards, the Harvey Awards, and the Stan Lee Awards. (He/him)
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