Japanese Manga are being eclipsed by Korean webtoons
The industry’s business model has hardly changed since the 1960s
Lee hyun-seok grew up in South Korea addicted to Japanese manga series such as “Dragon Ball” and “Slam Dunk”. As soon as he could, he emigrated to Tokyo to build a successful career as a manga artist and editor. Then in the early 2000s came “webtoons”, a South Korean cartoon innovation optimised for smartphones. Mr Lee was at first unimpressed. Compared with manga’s inventive graphic styles and sophisticated plots, he found webtoons crude and superficial. “I thought: ‘Anybody can make this’.”
This article appeared in the Asia section of the print edition under the headline “Manga v webtoons”
Asia December 10th 2022
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- Japanese Manga are being eclipsed by Korean webtoons
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- China’s ban on gambling is a cash gift to the rest of Asia
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