TOKYOPOP is in financial trouble, and its own accountants are saying so publicly.
As part of a Regulation Crowdfunding (Reg CF) campaign aimed at transforming the company from a manga publisher into a brand manager for Asian-based creations, TOKYOPOP has made its financial reports public—including an independent review by outside CPA firm SetApart Accountancy Corp. The findings are alarming.
“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,” SetApart wrote. “These conditions raise substantial doubt about the Company’s ability to continue as a going concern.”
The review noted net losses of $997,646 and negative cash flow of $1,966,546 for fiscal year 2025. The firm also warned that TOKYOPOP’s available cash of roughly $1.5 million “may not be sufficient to fund operations for the next twelve months”—about half of what the company had available the year prior.
According to the Reg CF filings, TOKYOPOP carries $1.225 million in debt, including a $650,000 interest-free loan from its Japanese affiliate, TOKYOPOP K.K.
The source of the losses traces back to a major bet on the events business. In 2025, TOKYOPOP obtained the license to be the exclusive Naruto exhibition promoter and producer in Europe—despite not holding rights to the manga or anime itself.
“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,” founder and majority owner Stu Levy told ICv2’s Milton Griepp.
Levy, who primarily resides in Berlin, launched the event in Germany where he admits “material costs are super-expensive.” While tens of thousands attended, the company underestimated the buildout costs. “We got killed, crushed, on the cost side,” Levy said.
Striking the event-level expenses from the books, TOKYOPOP’s 2025 would shift from a $997,647 net loss to net income just above $1 million—still a 42% decline from 2024’s net income.
Levy says the Naruto exhibition is a one-time situation and that he’s learned “you’re not really supposed to fund 100%” of such ventures. TOKYOPOP’s events business is now pivoting to pop-up events in the U.S. (with Kinokuniya) and Germany (with Thalia).
The Reg CF campaign aims to raise up to $1.235 million by the end of 2026, though fees and transaction costs will reduce the net amount. “It’s been healthy for our company to do it. It’s not cheap,” Levy admitted. “In the end, the money that you raise actually costs you a lot.”
SetApart’s warning doesn’t signal imminent bankruptcy, but it does serve as a formal caution: funds from this campaign may end up as stop-gap financing rather than growth capital. For a publisher that previously suspended manga operations from 2008 to 2015, the parallels are hard to ignore. Whether TOKYOPOP’s transformation succeeds or becomes another cautionary tale remains to be seen.
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