Forum - View topicFrom Vertical Scroll to Screen: Anime Adaptations of K-Comics
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Lord Geo
Posts: 2653 Location: North Brunswick, New Jersey |
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I always found it bizarre that it's taken so long for Korean manhwa to get direct anime adaptations, and that it's still required getting Japanese studios involved just to even happen. Also, since Black God was counted we can also include Shin Angyo Onshi/Blade of the Phantom Master, which ran simultaneously in Japan & South Korea and was adapted into an anime film in 2004.
I think the only actual example of a Korean manhwa getting adapted into anime over in its home country was Armageddon by Lee Hyun Se in 1996, and that movie required the manhwaga himself to act as director, writer, & even producer to even happen! Instead, Korean anime studios focused almost exclusively on producing nothing but original works to air in South Korea, which isn't inherently a bad thing but kind of seemed a bit myopic in hindsight. Meanwhile, Korea's entire history of serialized manhwa has now essentially become mostly forgotten with time, since webtoons have taken over as the primary form of manhwa serialization. While print magazines still exist there for "traditional" manhwa to be serialized in, it's nowhere near as prevalent as it was in the 90s & first half of he 00s. That's partially why the push in releasing manhwa back in the 00s by various publishers more or less died out with a whimper (outside of Ragnarok & Priest, which I think were the only two to really "break out" in any way), because none of them had anime adaptations, so most people here in America looked at most manhwa at the time as "wannabe manga", despite a good number of them being extremely good in their own rights. All the respect in the world for titles like Tower of God, God of High School, Solo Leveling getting made into anime, but I highly doubt that any of them succeeding is going to make companies interested in giving the same treatment for older iconic manhwa like NOW (this even got published in Japan to ride off of Black God's popularity, but stopped after only eight volumes), Chronicles of the Cursed Sword, Rebirth, Jade of Bango, Yongbi the Invincible, Witch Hunter/Buster, King of Hell, The Boss, The Breaker, or even Yeolhyeol Gangho (which is the longest-running manhwa of all time, and still running!). |
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dmanatunga
Posts: 67 |
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I feel the biggest problem with these adaptations (more so with the action ones) is the show budgets. While I know a lot of these works started off as novels, I would guess that most folks were introduced to them through their Manhwa adaptations. And some of the biggest factors for Manhwas getting popular is great art and good pacing. This can take what might be somewhat conventional stories, and elevate them to big things for the fans that read them. But if you only watch the animes, and hear all the hype from Manhwa/Webtoon readers on shows like Solo Leveling or Tower of God, only for adaptations end up looking like your typical Isekai, you wonder why these stories are so popular. I sometimes wonder if to truly do any of these adaptations justice is to have something on the level of Demon Slayer/Ufotable adaptation.
I think a big make or break will be the Omniscient Reader adaptation. While it does have some of the traditional RPG elements of most korean adventurer stories, it also probably has one of the more unique stories amongst them. And while I am happy that some of these adaptations are happening, I think they are also emblematic of an issue with the industry of very few original animes. This is just more branching out of adaptating established IPs in hoping they will be safer bets than doing an original story. |
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mdo7
 Posts: 6366 Location: Katy, Texas, USA |
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Beside anime, a lot of manhwa/webtoons get K-drama adaptation ( & sometime foreign adaptation like for example there was a Chinese TV drama based on a Korean webtoons, I forgot the name of the titles). But yes, it's not strange for a Korean webtoons to get a K-drama adaptation. We've already seen some webtoons not only getting a Japanese animation, but Korean animation too. I haven't seen a webtoon getting a western animation (although knowing Powerhouse Studio, the one behind the Netflix's Castlevania animated series, I wouldn't be surprised if they get involved). But it's kind of nice to see manhwa/webtoons are getting anime adaptation alongside their live-action K-drama and K-animation adaptation.
If you have questions about webtoons/manhwa, feel free to ask me on this forum thread or hit me up via private message. I'm probably one of the few ANN forumites that is knee deep in K-pop and Hallyu content/stuff (or anything Korean pop culture). |
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Ryo Hazuki
Posts: 370 Location: Finland |
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How else would you get anime made? Making anime without a Japanese studio would be like making a Hollywood movie without an American studio. |
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dmanatunga
Posts: 67 |
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This can possibly veer into the generally unanswerable and tedious conversation on what actually constitutes as anime, but there are non-Japanese studios that do animated adaptations. At the most basic, Studio Mir is a famous Korean studio, even though they mainly just do western works. Plus, China has been putting out a ton of animated content from their studios (Daily Life of Immortal King, Scissor Seven, Link Click, etc.). |
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Auriana
 Posts: 17 Location: South Plainfield, NJ |
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For the record, Solo Leveling and Raeliana are also available on Tapas.
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Lord Geo
Posts: 2653 Location: North Brunswick, New Jersey |
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Also, you know... there are actual Korean anime studios making Korean anime! DR Movie, Dong Woo Animation, G&G Entertainment, Heewon Entertainment, & the now defunct Seoul Movie have made anime made specifically for Korea, like Michel & BASToF Syndrome (both of which ADV did bring over), as well as titles like Restol: The Special Rescue Squad, Olympus Guardian, Ki Fighter Taerang that only ever stayed over in South Korea. These studios don't just assist Japanese anime studios, but have also produced their own anime for their home country, but every single time it's an original work instead even trying to adapt just one of South Korea's own popular manhwa. |
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