Tokyopop Anime Company
A bit of info about Tokyopop.
Company Overview
Tokyopop was originally created as a Japanese pop-culture publisher, which over the years grew and morphed into one of the largest manga publishers outside Japan. In addition to translated Japanese manga, they also translate Korean "manhwa" and have a strong presence in original and independently-created manga series; they also translate and publish novels with an anime/manga tie-in. From big-name series spanning the gamut of age and gender targets--GTO, Fruits Basket, and Lupin III--to English-original series like the Labyrinth sequel, to webcomic-turned-pro books like Van Von Hunter, they've got some of everything. Their website, while somewhat sprawling, is also very community/fan-centric, with online manga viewers, free manga, auser rating system, and a lot of YouTube integration.
Tokyopop operates in the US, UK, and Germany, and also has an office in Japan. (They emphasize their worldwide focus, despite the now-mildly-ironic Tokyo in the name--apparently "Tokyo" refers to a lifestyle and philosophy more than a place). The company went through a restructuring in 2008 during which it split into more narrowly-focused divisions.
In the '00s Tokyopop expanded into anime, releasing the anime adaptations of some of their manga series, but after a restructuring in 2008 that end of the business appears to have been largely abandoned (though they have a presence on YouTube with sort-of-animated adaptations of bits of some of their manga titles).
Their Catalog
Tokyopop's anime catalog consists almost entirely of TV series; their biggest-name licenses were probably GTO, Initial D, and Reign: The Conqueror; more shoujo-style series included Marmalade Boy and the Vampire Princess Miyu TV series. They also had a few more off-beat series like the oddball Brigadoon. Most of their catalog is currently out of print, although a few titles have been picked up by other companies.
What Their Releases Are Like
Tokyopop's DVDs (they didn't get into video until well after the VHS era) are largely solid productions, including bilingual audio, acceptable dubs, and usually good translations, with at least a few cultural notes. They had a tendency to release individual volumes followed quickly by much cheaper box sets, but the prices were usually reasonable.
Interestingly, they recently started an experiment in what to my knowledge is a first for the anime industry, on-demand DVDs. Specifically, Rave Master (which had also shown on Cartoon Network) is available as a quite-cheap, 8-DVD-R box set of all 51 episodes through Amazon's CreateSpace publishing system, burned on demand to order. This seems like a logical solution to small-volume titles that nonetheless have a potential market, particularly to those who shun paying money for VOD, so with any luck it'll catch on (though Tokyopop has not, to date, publicized it much).