Anime adaptations of manhwa, webtoons in particular, had new life breathed into them in 2020 with the simultaneous debuts of the titles Tower of God and The God of High School. Now that Tower of God has been confirmed to be returning for its second season, it brings into question the possibility of the return of The God of High School, and the establishment of the age of WEBTOONs in anime.
The aforementioned titles, while having their anime adaptations celebrated for finally bringing the most popular webtoon titles to the anime medium, only one of them has achieved the kind of success that was expected. Tower of God enthralled various fans, and now with author SIU confirming its planned return for a season 2, could this mean anime fans can expect more anime adaptations of mainstream titles from WEBTOON and similar platforms?
Curb the Ambiguity
First off, the use of the term "WEBTOON" in this article is particularly fluid and does not necessarily refer to online comics based on Naver's LINE's WEBTOON platform. While it generally does, and the previously mentioned titles are specifically on that platform, it is probably useful to specify that the capitalized form of the word is the platform in particular, while "webtoon" would refer to an instance of a comic "on the web". There is also the other aspect of the term being used to specifically refer to Korean comics, which have largely gained a following through their distribution on platforms like the aforementioned; however, platforms like Lehzin; Tapas; Saturday AM and PM; and even titles that form part of AfroTokyo's Kalabash anthology are also technically webtoons or webcomics.
It is also possible that this designation of a Korean origin to webtoons in general to differentiate them from manga, for instance, is why using a term like "webcomic" is not used as often despite it seemingly being a catch-all phrase. It is probably for the best to refer to Korean comics as "manhwa", but that is also confusing to the ear because of the lexically similar term for Chinese comics, "manhua". Regardless of what you call them, comics of non-Japanese origin being adapted into anime (a Japanese medium) is not something that started as recently as Tower of God, but the focus will be specifically those from Japan.
Noblesse Oblige
One of the earliest attempts at a WEBTOON adaptation into anime would be the completed dark fantasy series known as Noblesse. The original comic ran for over 500 chapters (or episodes, as the platform would put it) and it was one of the most popular WEBTOONs, taking up one place alongside Tower of God and The God of High School as one of the top three action titles on the platform in its time. This saw Noblesse come to be adapted into an anime not once, or twice, but a staggering three times.
The goal of the production of the anime in each instance was different, and the first; titled Noblesse: Beginning of Destruction, released in 2015, was the only one produced by a Korean studio: Studio Animal. It ran for 37 minutes. The following year saw Crunchyroll collaborate with Production I.G., creating the instance titled Noblesse: Awakening, which dropped on Crunchyroll and YouTube in February 2016. In 2019, following the completion of the Noblesse manhwa, an anime adaptation was announced at Comic Con Seoul, which saw release in 2020; the same year as Tower of God and The God of High School. This anime series took place after the events of Noblesse: Awakening, and was the adaptation of the second volume of the original manhwa.
Historicity's Sake
Let us not be misled – there have been several adaptations of manhwa into animated series, but those have been limited to some very obscure titles, or they happened a very long time ago. Either way, the growing popularity of manhwa over the course of the 2010s is somehow not resulting in the explosion of anime titles birthed from Korean IPs, and this is also true of Korean animation. As we are aware, Korean live-action is one of the biggest exports from the country when it comes to popular culture and entertainment media, and it makes sense that a nation known for its ability to create captivating television in the form of live-action, and boasts an incredible pool of talent in various aspects of performance, would derive its popular comic books into its most popular medium: live-action.
This of course, still does not account much for why there aren't as many animated adaptations of the aforementioned IPs, especially given that it is an established trajectory for Korean comic titles. It is also particularly concerning that the anime adaptations of WEBTOONs, whenever they do happen, tend to be changed in significant ways for a Japanese audience. This was the case of Tower of God, The God of High School and even Noblesse, which all featured a Japanese-speaking cast despite being originally Korean stories. We also cannot forget the incredibly exciting news of the anime adaptation of one of the biggest manhwa titles of the late 2010s: Solo Levelling, the magnum opus of the late DUBU of Redice Studio.
What's the Verdict?
At best, we can only hope for there to be anime adaptations of other incredible manhwa. Titles like Annarasumanara; Sweet Home (which got a Netflix live-action adaptation in 2020); Girls of the Wild's and many other that won't be named have fans pining for their anime adaptations; however, such adaptations seem to be a pipe-dream. The return of Tower of God is perhaps due to the overwhelming popularity of the title, and with the growing influence of Crunchyroll over anime as a global phenomenon, maybe it's just a matter of time before the next big successful adaptation. Until then; however, the existence of Tower of God season 2 will be the light in the darkness for mainstream manhwa titles.