Solo Leveling Is Paving the Way for a Webtoon Anime Avalanche

Though by no means the first webtoon to be turned into an anime, Solo Leveling, with its multi-season success and ever-growing viewership has indisputably proved to both producers and viewers that webtoons are simply an adaptation gold mine waiting to be discovered. In light of Solo Leveling’s success, the last year has seen multiple more webtoons announce anime adaptations including Tomb Raider King, Omniscient Reader, and The Beginning After the End, to name a few, and according to a major publisher, this is only the beginning of the webtoon mania as the coming year could see up to twenty more webtoons picked up for anime adaptations.

At a press conference held in Tokyo on February 13th, 2025, as confirmed by Hankyung, Kim Shin-bae, the CEO of Line Digital Frontier, revealed that Line Manga plans to launch 20 webtoon anime adaptations in 2025. From one adaptation in 2022 to two in 2023, Line Manga has gone all-in on webtoon adaptations in the last year, upping the number to twelve in 2024 and it plans to almost double this target in 2025 with CEO Kim stating that Line Manga plans to invest and collaborate even more with Japanese anime studios in the coming year.

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Line Manga Plans to Produce 20 Webtoon Anime Adaptations in 2025

After Piccoma, Line Manga is quickly becoming one of the leading webtoon platforms, especially in Japan, housing many popular and promising titles like Omniscient Reader, The Remarried Empress, Savior of Divine Blood, and many more. Line Manga even became the top-grossing app on the market back in May 2024, with multiple titles grossing over 100 million yen each per month, and according to CEO Kim Shin Bae at the recent conference, the platform now makes up more than 50% of the webtoon market share.

Besides Korean-made webtoons, Line Manga also houses Japanese webtoons, including underrated gems like Senpai is an Otokonoko, a series discovered through Line Manga’s amateur “Indie” section which recently found great success as an anime. As such, Line Manga is looking to create a strong webtoon adaptation pipeline, particularly in Japan, given the global popularity of Japanese-style animation.

Part of this plan has seemingly already been put into motion with Line Digital Frontier’s recent investment in Studio No. 9, which is likely only the first of Line’s collaborations with Japanese studios. According to CEO Kim, Line Manga is looking to build a “webtoon ecosystem” through not only anime but also live-action dramas and merchandise, which means webtoons could soon be head-to-head with Japanese manga in terms of franchising, if not on an even more global scale.

So Where Does Solo Leveling Come In?

Admittedly, the press conference does not mention Solo Leveling, which is actually a property published by Kakao. Solo Leveling also may not be the first webtoon to receive an anime, preceded by ReLife, The God of High School, Tower of God, Lookism, as well as shojo series like Doctor Elise, Why Raeliana Ended Up at the Duke’s Mansion. That said, until now no webtoon adaptation has accomplished the level of success and global popularity that Solo Leveling has. Episode after episode, Solo Leveling keeps beating its own viewership records, competing in popularity with even Japanese anime giants like Demon Slayer and One Piece and this may have very well given webtoon publishers the confidence to pursue adaptations of other popular titles as well.

Love it or hate it, Solo Leveling has very much set the bar for webtoon adaptations and while every series may not achieve the same level of success, there are certainly many underrated gems amidst the incoming avalanche that could finally get the global exposure they deserve through an anime adaptation. Whether Solo Leveling “paved the way” is up for debate, though there’s no doubt it won’t be the only webtoon anime adaptation to blow fans’ socks off, especially with Omniscient Reader on the way. Nonetheless, the upcoming year is shaping up to be quite an exciting one, particularly for avid webtoon readers as many beloved titles could soon be picked up for anime adaptations among Line Manga’s twenty planned projects, and any of those could be your favorite ride-or-die webtoon.

Source: Hankyung