In recent years, the world of comics and manga has been revolutionized by the digital age and the rise of webtoons. Fans can now access new and exciting stories from their mobile devices, making things more easily accessible than ever before. Webtoons, with their vertical scrolling format, are made for fast consumption on phones and tablets — perfect for readers with busy lifestyles who may not have the time to pick up a physical copy of their favorite stories.

Webtoons have come a long way since their early days, and successful franchises like Tower of God continue to elevate the medium. As webtoons have grown steadily in popularity, the best manwha, like Tower of God, have received anime adaptations. With Japan opening itself up to adapting stories from other countries in its popular anime format, webtoons have gone on to impact the anime world in exciting ways, opening it up to tell diverse, new stories and changing the future of modern anime.

The Emergence of Webtoons in the Digital Age

Webtoons' Ease of Access has Appealed to Millions of Readers Worldwide

One of the signature traits of a webtoon is its long, running vertical strip, perfect for easily scrolling while on a phone rather than flipping a page as one would in a comic or manga. Webtoons are also often published in full color, making the stories and characters more engaging than the traditional black and white interior of manga that fans have come to know.

While Korean webtoons got their start in the early 2000s, it wasn't until around 2014 that they became more accessible to fans around the world. The arrival of smartphones and tablets allowed webtoons to reach new audiences, especially through the form of apps and mobile-optimized websites. These apps went on to become the central hub for webtoon readers, allowing them easy access to an ever-expanding library of the best webtoon stories. Naver Webtoon and Daum Webtoon continue to lead the industry, publishing many popular stories that fans around the world can access, with Naver's WEBTOON proudly proclaiming it has over 170 million monthly active users.

The Rise of Webtoons Allows for Fresh, New Stories

Webtoon Authors are Able to Take Risks Traditional Print Stories Cannot

As webtoons have become more popular over the years, there has been one major difference that sets webtoon stories apart from their counterparts. With webtoons being made for digital consumption, the medium more easily enables its creators to take risks and tell stories that might otherwise not see the light of day.

When it comes to traditional print publishing, manga and comics have heavy, upfront costs that make it difficult for publishers to give the green light to stories that are unlikely to appeal to a wide audience and make a profit. The cost of digital storage and server space is much cheaper, and considering how little space webtoons use, this makes it much less risky for niche stories to be shared on the platform.

As a result, webtoon authors are able to let their imaginations soar, and even less mainstream stories can resonate with highly devoted fans. In particular, Boys Love stories continue to be successful in the webtoon format, with more titles becoming easily available for the genre's devoted fanbase.

Tower of God Pioneered Webtoons' Crossover Into Anime

The Successful Anime Adaptation Has Opened Doors for Other Webtoons

Tower of God began its publication back in 2010 with Naver Webtoon, telling the story of a young boy named Bam and his quest to save his friend Rachel after he enters the mysterious Tower. It is still being actively published fourteen years later, with new chapters released weekly on the Webtoon website and app.

Over the years, Tower of God has become a classic manhwa story that has enjoyed massive popularity worldwide. The series was one of the first webtoons to receive official English translations, and the franchise has gone on to spawn mobile role-playing games, collectible card games, as well as other merchandise.

When Crunchyroll began promoting the anime adaptation in February 2020, it was revealed that the webtoon story had collected over 4.5 billion views to date. The first season of the anime premiered in April 2020 and ran for thirteen episodes. Tower of God's anime adaptation exposed the story to new fans around the world, and its success led to a second season being produced, set to premiere in July 2024.

Other Popular Webtoon Franchises are Now Crossing Over Into Anime

Noblesse, Solo Leveling and Others Indicate that Webtoons are Worthy of Anime Adaptations

Tower of God's monumental success helped establish webtoons as one of the best platforms for digital comics, rivaling traditional manga and Western comics. Other webtoon stories have received anime adaptations as well, showing that the wide range of webtoon stories are perfect candidates to be animated. From slice-of-life stories like Lookism, to romance and even supernatural worlds, webtoons and their anime counterparts have covered it all.

Another classic manhwa to receive an anime adaptation was Noblesse. Airing on Crunchyroll and adapting the second volume of the webtoon, the Noblesse anime tells the story of a centuries-old vampire enrolled into high school to avoid being hunted, and he struggles to keep his identity hidden from investigators. In addition to its 2020 anime adaptation, the popularity of the Noblesse webtoon spawned an aeni (South Korean animation) and a Japanese web anime titled Noblesse: Awakening.

One of the more recent webtoons to receive widespread notoriety is Solo Leveling, with its anime adaptation premiering in January 2024. The story is set in a world where humans with supernatural powers are Hunters, fighting deadly monsters to keep humanity safe. One of the lowest ranked Hunters, Sung Jinwoo, is given the ability to level up his powers, and he soon finds himself on an even more dangerous journey as he tries to get to the source of his newfound powers.

Solo Leveling's critical acclaim led to the series dominating the Spring 2024 anime lineup. A second season of the series was quickly announced, proving that the webtoon platform is more than capable of providing amazing stories that fans love to see brought to life with animation.

Webtoons' Impact on Anime is Just Beginning

Korean Manhwa Stories Struggle to Have the Same Widespread Impact as Japan's Manga

While Tower of God and Solo Leveling have enjoyed runaway success in both webtoon and anime formats, webtoons still aren't widely considered for anime adaptations in the same way that Japan's manga stories are. There are many factors standing in the way of webtoons being adapted into anime, with Japan's loyalty to their own manga authors likely being near the top of the list. At its heart, anime is a Japanese invention, so adapting stories from other countries can feel inauthentic to some viewers.

Fans may wonder why South Korea doesn't animate their webtoons into series themselves, making more popular aeni content in the process. One of the primary reasons that Japanese studios have been handling the animation of webtoons has to do with the fact that South Korea's animation resources are fewer than Japan's and already spread relatively thin. In addition to there being fewer Korean animation studios in the country, most of the animation workforce actually produces content for American animated shows, leaving the country's studios with limited resources available for their own webtoon adaptations.

While success stories like Solo Leveling and Tower of God prove that the demand for webtoon adaptations is there, there's still a long way to go before webtoon adaptations are more widespread. However, each new successful webtoon turned into anime paves the way for more stories to be adapted in the future.

The Future of Webtoons in Anime Looks Bright

The Diverse Stories in Webtoons Present Multiple Opportunities for Adaptations

Despite the challenges webtoons face in getting anime adaptations in the first place, as more series become successful, the likelihood of more stories being adapted increases. While Japanese studios have been the main source for anime adaptations, there are other ways that webtoon stories can come to live in animation. Netflix, Crunchyroll, and other western media sources have all seen the viability of webtoons, and they can continue to invest in them.

The true and long-lasting impact that series like Tower of God and Solo Leveling will have on the anime industry remains to be seen, but they have both undoubtedly opened the doors for more webtoons to be adapted in the future. Whether the trend of turning webtoons into animated series remains popular will ultimately be up to the fans consuming the media and the storytellers creating new webtoons.

Luckily, this is where webtoons often manage to hold their own with manga stories. The easy accessibility of webtoons continues to appeal to millions of readers, and the relatively low risk of publishing a webtoon has opened the platform up, allowing its authors to tell creative stories that other publishers may not want to take a chance on printing. Ultimately, it may be too early to know whether webtoons will one day revolutionize the world of anime, but their continued inclusion continues to open the anime industry up to imaginative and diverse stories that millions of fans have enjoyed reading for decades.