I feel like I’m on a deathwatch for Borders bookstores and the manga publisher TokyoPop. Inventory at the Borders that I frequent downtown and in Hyde Park continues to shrink. Bankruptcy rumors have been surrounding Borders Group for nearly a year, so I can only wonder if they are having trouble paying suppliers and have cut their orders to reflect that.
As a manga reader, I’ve also noticed that manga publisher TokyoPop’s releases have slowed to a trickle.  All I’ve seen after seemingly forever is Chibi Vampire Volume 12, Fate/Stay Night Volume 2, and Fruits Basket First Bite, a  repackaging of volume 1 with extras. There may be others, but either they aren’t shipping many copies, or the Borders I was in was not buying many copies. I bought the only copy of Chibi Vampire Volume 12, but didn’t find Fate/Stay Night until I went to Barnes & Noble which only had a few copies. There have already been layoffs and title cancellations or delays at TokyoPop which are probably responsible for what I’m seeing.
While I hope that Borders and TokyoPop will not fail and disappear, it’s beginning to look like buying manga at retail is getting more and more difficult. Variety and quantity of titles is dropping everywhere I shop. With that in mind, I can’t help but wonder if there may be room for niche bookstores to pick up the slack, assuming that everyone except Viz, publisher of Naruto, doesn’t go out of business!