“Can manhwa ever be as popular as manga?” -A Question from Quora
I couldn’t submit my answer for one reason or another, but I spent a lot of time writing it so I’m throwing it in the Tumblr Archives.
“Can manhwa ever be as popular as manga?”
But isn’t it?
I won’t look up and show statistics and such. This answer just comes straight from what I’ve observed in the country/state where I’m from.
And where I’m from, more people definitely read manhwa and webtoons than they do manga. And the reasons are pretty obvious.
(Shoutout to CurtRichy from “Get in the Robot”/”Beyond the Bot”, he has a very popular "Anime you can't watch in public" series on YouTube.)
If I was in public and was watching, let’s say, “Kill la Kill”, I would instantly be labeled, and honestly? Probably be reported depending on where I am and how many people can see it. No matter how good or cool I think the story and animation are, that’s just not the issue here.
A lot of Japanese media is heavily sexualized, and sometimes for absolutely no reason. The small number of female anime fans who find wardrobe malfunctions, unrealistic proportions, and jiggle physics “entertaining” is dwindling and fast.
I can’t remember the name of the anime, but for Valentine's Day, my university Anime Club had an event where singles and couples could all come to watch romantic animes together. They went all-in with decorations, games, candy, and more. Normally the club would carefully review the animes in advance before blasting them across those large lecture room projectors. But this time, someone screwed up. The anime we ended up viewing was about some yandere chick kidnapping a little boy for salacious intentions.
Oof...
We had an unusually high turnout that night of about 30 or so people, and it was a great way to socialize and introduce more people to the world of anime/manga. And we lost 90% of them 30 minutes into the event. It wasn't an "H-anime", but it was still pretty disturbing and walked a very thin line. Luckily, no administrators or deans were present and no one was reported...
I also have another funny story about a 10-year-old(?) kid trying to get his dad to let him buy manga and watch anime at an anime merch store. But TLDR, the dad’s first exposure to manga was Peter Grill. Tough break, kid… See ya in a few more years.
Manhwa, on the other hand, is very tame and appeals to larger demographics. The “free-to-read” and “read-online” formats only make it that much easier to access.
A large number of friends who I thought had no interest in comics or manga all have Webtoon downloaded on their phones. Last year I went to a birthday party with a dozen or so friends and strangers, and come around 8:30 p.m., half of our phones went off at the same time. We all looked at each other and realized it was the Webtoon app. It was a pretty good laugh and a long discussion about what we were reading.
Shockingly, at least to me, most of the guys (who didn’t seem like the type) were reading stuff like “Lore Olympus” and “Cursed Princess Club” while the girls were reading everything from that to “The Boxer” and “Sweet Home”. Some of them aren’t Korean manhwas, but still.
I’m constantly recommending manga to my anime/manga friends, I’m pretty much the “manga guy” in my friend groups. No matter how much I recommend “Terraformars” or “Killing Bites” to those who I KNOW would love it, those black and white pages for 14.99$ (or incomplete to read free online with “You won’t last 5 seconds playing this game” ads) would just be put aside for “later”. But if I bring up the colorful “Jungle Juice” that’s being updated on a reliable schedule and free-to-read right now on a popular mobile app?
It’s no contest.
I think a lot more people are opting out of all the shonen, large “plot”, and Isekai manga stories, and getting into the deeper/emotional and more varied stories manhwas have to offer.
It’s happening slowly but surely.












