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LINE Manga to Produce 20 New Animated Adaptations This Year
posted on by Wonhee Cho
Speaking at a press conference held at LINE Digital Frontier's headquarters in Tokyo, Kim emphasized the company's strategy to transform webtoon content into multi-platform IPs, including dramas, films, and animation. He stated, "We are focusing on expanding our webtoons into various forms of media in Japan, building an independent and dominant value chain."
LINE Manga has been aggressively pursuing webtoon adaptations since last year. In 2024, it produced 12 adaptations, a significant increase from just one in 2022 and two in 2023. This July, the platform will release an animated adaptation of Clevatess -Majū no Ō to Akago to Shikabane no Yūsha-, a Japanese webtoon serialized on LINE Manga. Other upcoming projects include Dark Moon: The Blood Altar and Omniscient Reader’s Viewpoint.
Kim highlighted Japan's global influence in anime, noting that Japanese TV and theatrical anime often attract attention in the U.S. market. He explained that expanding into animation is a key strategy for long-term revenue growth and emphasized that LINE Manga is the only company operating a webtoon platform in Japan while simultaneously building a full-scale global IP value chain.
LINE Digital Frontier recently invested in Japanese webtoon production studio Number Nine to further strengthen its IP development capabilities. Kim stated, "The number of webtoon production studios in Japan is growing, and we plan to collaborate on co-productions while increasing our investments in this sector." He added, "We will continue investing more aggressively to create successful cases."
Source: Hankyung (Ji-eun Jung)
