The Role of Korean Manhwa in the US Graphic Novel Market

Sat, Feb 6, 2010

By Jeremy Ross

www.jeremyrossmedia.com

English translations of Koran manhwa and other Asian comics were largely unavailable
in the US until about a decade ago. Thanks to the pioneering efforts of TOKYOPOP
along with several other English-language publishers, there has been an explosive rise in
their popularity in the US. Korean manhwa properties have been successfully introduced
to a growing fan base. More and more Korean manhwa creators are discovering and
developing a global appeal that makes their work appropriate for a US audience.
TOKYOPOP alone has licensed over 75 Korean properties, and our competitors
combined have licensed over 45. Although Japanese manga has traditionally outsold
Korean and Global graphic novels, there is strong critical recognition of the best Korean
books.

My essay provides a brief history of the US manga and comic book market, including the
rise of Korean manhwa and Asian graphic novels along with the decline of Western
comic books. I will address fundamental differences between Korean and American
markets, discuss how TOKYOPOP chooses Korean titles to license, tell two Korean
success stories in the US, and provide suggestions for Korean manhwa business
development in the US.

THE POPULARITY OF MANHWA AND MANGA IN THE US:

There are a number of factors that make manhwa and manga tremendously popular
among US teens. First, they have fresh and engaging stories that tackle real-life issues
with insight and respect. They cover a broad array of genres: fantasy, comedy, romance,
action, sci-fi, mystery, martial arts and more. Practically any topic is fair game. The
serialized format encourages repeat business and fosters a collector mentality. But the
series do end, and these limited story arcs mean that consumers experience closure and
know when to stop collecting. The books are accessible because TOKYOPOP and others
have ensured that graphic novels are no longer just in US comic book specialty stores and
are now found in many other venues. Manhwa and manga appeal to a visual generation
defining its own forms of entertainment. They have made these books and Asian pop
culture their own, and see them as defining elements of their youthful rebellion. It’s all
part of Asia’s influence on global trends in many areas of entertainment and design.

Most consumers choose their favorite works by the quality of the art and the story. Some
are vocal fans of specific Korean creators. Others don’t focus on national origin so much
– they just pick the stories they like. Korean certainly has its supporters. Strong
relationship stories, great fantasy and fighting tales, a slightly more-realistic look to
characters –these are all found in the most popular Korean titles. I have had fans come up
and thank me for the efforts of TOKYOPOP, KOCCA and the Korean publishers to bring
the creators of Ragnarok, Arcana, Tarot Café and Warcraft and other Korean manhwa to
the US so they could meet them and get their signatures.

DIFFERENCES BETWEEN MANHWA/MANGA AND US SUPERHERO COMICS

The two are both comics, but they could not be more different in many significant ways.
US superhero comics feature extraordinary people in predictable situations: Villains fight
heroes, nobody dies and the ending is just what the reader expects. Manhwa and manga
generally feature ordinary people in extraordinary situations. The reader is surprised at
how things turn out. There’s always a twist. Sales of superhero comics have been in a
steep decline for years in the US. They are read by a limited audience of young boys and
older, male collectors. These readers are often viewed as social outcasts by their peers
and parents. Manhwa and manga are read by boys and girls alike and there are stories for
everyone from eight to 80. Cool kids, tastemakers, kids who are socially adept and can
get dates constitute the readership. US sales have grown dramatically in the last five
years.

A VERY BRIEF HISTORY OF US-MADE COMICS:

Comics in a wide variety of forms have been available in the US for many years. The
comic book format was invented in the 1930’s and the US was the leading country to
produce them, followed by the UK and Japan. Prior to the 1950’s, US comic books were
available for a wide range of male and female readers, spanning all genres. But due to
unfounded concern on the part of some moral watchdogs and politicians that comics were
undermining morality, the industry turned to strict self-censorship and imposed the
Comics Code in 1954 after widespread banning of many comic books.
The most popular comics from the mid-1950’s to the mid-1990s in the US were primarily
superhero tales, which were designed to meet the stringent requirements of the Comics
Code. The development of the so-called direct market, with non-returnable sales, led to
comic books disappearing from the newsstand and selling almost exclusively in specialty
comic book shops that only a niche group would frequent. The public saw comic books
as the entertainment medium of a small group of social outcasts. Comic books became
more and more expensive and appealed primarily to collectors.

The US comic book industry in the 1990’s fell into a serious decline. An attempt to create
a speculator market in collectible comics backfired and contributed to the demise of
hundreds of stores. Annual comic book sales growth plummeted in the 1990s and has
never recovered. The only consistent source of income in the US for comic book
companies was from licensing decades-old characters (Batman, Spider-Man, Superman,
X-Men) for theatrical films and video games.

This state of affairs explains why the success of Asian graphic novels in the US was
unexpected, unprecedented and revolutionary.

A BRIEF HISTORY OF TOKYOPOP AND MANGA IN THE US:

Founded in 1996 by Stu Levy in Japan, TOKYOPOP’s mission was to bring Asian pop
culture to America. Manga was the vehicle for achieving the mission. But despite the
prevalence of Japanese manga, it was a Korean manhwa that our founder, Stu Levy, was
first attracted to and that set him on his course to make Asian-style graphic novels of all
kinds popular in the West.

In the late 1990’s TOKYOPOP was part of the Annenberg Incubator Project at the
University of Southern California. It graduated in 2000. TOKYOPOP, Mixx and Smile
magazines were the company’s first published product. But it was not until TOKYOPOP
introduced the graphic novel to the US that the revolution really began. And it was the
female-friendly Sailor Moon that really took off, starting the trend of girls reading comics
in the US.

TOKYOPOP pioneered a standard price of $9.99 and a standard trim size of 5” x 7 7/16”
(this is closest to a Korean size and shape, not a Japanese size). TOKYOPOP also
introduced its own rating system from All Ages to Mature (derived from videogame and
movie ratings, and now adapted and used by other manga publishers). The ratings
increased acceptance by booksellers, parents, and librarians by helping them pick age-
appropriate material for tween, teen and older readers.

In the period from 2000 to 2006, graphic novels as a category (of which manga and
manhwa constitute 60%) grew over 900% in sales to become a $300 million industry in
2006. 70% of customers were teens from 13 to 17. TOKYOPOP has consistently held
one of the top manga market share positions.

TOKYOPOP’s distribution power and wide number of sales channels makes it stand out
from other competitors, especially US comic book companies that mainly distribute via
the direct market to specialty comic book shops. A major contribution of TOKYOPOP to
the industry was in leading the way to move a large majority of sales into chain
bookstores, causing them to expand shelf space to many times its original size.
TOKYOPOP even manufactures its own freestanding spinner racks and POP displays to
place in the store and give manga more shelf space.

The company was also the first to sell manga in mall stores and freestanding stores that
specialize in video, computers, videogames and consumer electronics. TOKYOPOP has
experimented with sales in every kind of retail outlet, from Army base PX stores to big-
box discount stores such as Target and Wal-Mart. Some manga titles sell exceptionally
well via the Scholastic Book Clubs and Book Fairs. The latter have more than 75,000
venues across the US. Each year, they bring a wide selection of books into schools and
with school and parent cooperation, can sell astonishing numbers. One recent
TOKYOPOP Cine-manga based on the animated TV show Avatar sold a record-breaking
half-million copies, largely the result of a big purchase by Scholastic.

One of the biggest breakthroughs in the US was that the relationship stories that
characterized popular manga became attractive to girls, who had stopped reading read US
comic books in the late1950’s. The influence of anime, which became popular a decade
before manga in the US, along with a trend towards taking sequential art more seriously
as an art form, supported the acceptance of Asian graphic novels in the West.
TOKYOPOP was initially known for localizing Japanese manga into English. And
Japanese manga titles were the only kind that many US fans knew in the early days. In
the early 1990s, many fans learned Japanese just to read their favorite series and some
posted English fan translations (scanlations). TOKYOPOP and a few others filled a
market vacuum by publishing “official” translations of the popular titles that fans were
begging for. TOKYOPOP served as a trusted tastemaker and fans would generally look at
anything the company published.

TOKYOPOP INTRODUCES MANHWA IN THE US:

Starting in 2002, TOKYOPOP was the first US company to successfully license and
localize a wide variety of Korean graphic novels, before early competitors such as CPM
and ADV and well before more recent competitors such as ICE Kunion, Infinity Studios,
DramaQueen and Dark Horse.

TOKYOPOP’s German sister company, launched in 2004, had its first #1 German-
language hit with the Korean series Demon Diary. The property’s success was followed
by a successful European author tour for Kara, the team who created Demon Diary. At
long last, Korean graphic novels, feature films and animation began to earn the critical
and fan acclaim they deserve—as well as helping to change the face of the comics
business around the world.

Much of the US fan awareness of Japanese manga properties was driven by prior
knowledge of fan-dubbed anime and fan-translated scanlations in English. Many hard-
core US fans, who called themselves “otaku,” felt that the only real manga came from
Japan. Unlike Japanese manga properties, Korean properties were not previously well
known by US fans before they were published in English-language editions. The initial
impetus for TOKYOPOP to localize manhwa from Korea was that we saw the art and
stories were strong and very much the equal of their Japanese counterparts. We believed
we had the market power to introduce them to readers who would hopefully judge the art
and stories on their own merits. It was obvious to everyone watching the industry that
Asian-style graphic novels had become a global phenomenon. It was important to bring
in material from the second most prolific country. We bet that despite the challenges,
Korean work would catch on with fans if they judged it on its own merit.

We were pleased to discover that a number of fans were willing to be open-minded and
liked certain Korean works as much as the Japanese ones they were familiar with.

TOKYOPOP AND THE RISE OF GLOBAL MANGA:

TOKYOPOP’s next step was to start the world’s largest program of publishing “global
manga” from creators all around the globe. The international popularity of Korean and
Japanese graphic novels means that young people everywhere are highly influenced by
Asian pop culture. TOKYOPOP is a virtual studio, with artists and writers from
everywhere. The books sometimes pair Asian artists with Western writers to create a
unique East-West fusion. See the Warcraft success story below for one example of how
this blend can create a manhwa product that can be published in major countries such as
the US, Korea, China, Europe, South America as well as small countries such as Bulgaria
and Israel—virtually all industrialized nations.

CHOOSING KOREAN TITLES FOR THE US:

TOKYOPOP has years of experience selecting Asian titles for a Western audience. We
bring this experience to bear when choosing manhwa titles to license.

First, home market success does not automatically translate into a hit in the West. We
look for work that appeals to our target audience. This includes both shojo (girl’s) and
shonen (boy’s) titles. Korea has some of the strongest and most stylish shojo titles on the
market today. However, some of their shonen work is also strong.

Korean work is often more accessible to a world audience than Japanese. The reasons
range from the practical to the conceptual. Korean graphic novels books are read from
left to right, making them more accessible to a mass audience in most Western countries.
The characters look more realistic and fashionable than Japanese characters created for
comparable age groups. This can be especially appealing to audiences that like European
comics. Many Korean creators have a strong global vision and an interest in history or
culture from around the world. Their work combines Eastern styles with Western ones.
Ragnarok is based on Norse mythology, for example.

The bottom line in the US graphic novel business today is that cool art sells. Appealing,
fashionable and modern artwork is a major deciding factor for consumers, and therefore it
is a major deciding factor for our acquisitions team. TOKYOPOP also likes to support
authors and artists, because manga is a creator-driven format. So whenever we have a
successful series by one writer, artist or team, we try to license other work by the same
creators.

People often ask me to name the most popular Korean graphic novel properties that
TOKYOPOP has published in English. In the period 2002-2004, some fan favorites were
Ragnarok, Island, Rebirth, Priest, I.N.V.U., King of Hell and Demon Diary. In 2005 and
2006, popular Korean titles include Kill Me, Kiss Me, Tarot Café, Arcana and Soul to
Seoul. I expect good performance from several future titles, such as Archlord (which will
be cross-promoted with a major 2006 MMORPG computer game launch in the US and
Europe)

CASE STUDY IN SUCCESS: Warcraft

TOKYOPOP teamed up with Blizzard to adapt the worldwide online gaming
phenomenon into a spectacular graphic novel series created by a Korean artist and an
American writer. TOKYOPOP faced a great challenge once the creator of the Warcraft
lore, Blizzard VP Chris Metzen, agreed to let his world be brought to life as a manga
story. Metzen expected only the best writing and artwork.

Writer Richard Knaak came on board as a key team member. He had written several
popular text fantasy novels for Blizzard, and he was the rewriter for TOKYOPOP’s
English edition of the popular Ragnarok manhwa.
Then Korean-born Kim Jae Hwan, the artist who draws King of Hell, came forward and
provided test artwork from his home studio in Thailand. Metzen saw it and sent a brief
but telling email: “This dude gets it. Send more art!” TOKYOPOP and Knaak were
thrilled.

The story was crafted by Knaak and Metzen, melding minds over the telephone. Kim Jae
Hwan received Knaak’s scripts, translated into Korean, and basically channeled the world
of Warcraft into his being. Blizzard is known as a very particular licensor, yet most of
Kim’s art was approved without a change.

The results were historic. The series charted at #1 in Germany and #5 in the US. Warcraft
is licensed in 16 territories with more to come. It continues to sell hundreds of copies per
week long after its initial release. This series is proof that East-West collaboration can
produce a winning global manga product.

CASE STUDY IN SUCCESS: Priest

Ever since TOKYOPOP licensed Hyung Min-Woo’s Priest graphic novel series from
award-winning licensing director Kim Nam Ho at Daiwon C.I. for U.S. publication, we
have all been huge fans of Min-Woo’s work. Priest is unique in many ways. The style is
not stereotypically “manga” or “manhwa,” but rather a fusion of influences ranging from
Asian, American and European comics to American genre films. Min-Woo is a prime
representative of the extraordinarily imaginative artwork that is coming out of the hotbed
of talent that is Korea today.

TOKYOPOP first published the US edition of Priest in July 2002. Priest is a dark and
rich story that has caught the attention of countless tastemakers in America, from
Hollywood execs and writers to designers and fine artists—not to mention a legion of
fans. It was not a runaway hit title initially, but its popularity grew over time. Priest has
now attracted worldwide recognition. It has its own entry in Wikipedia, the popular
multi-lingual online reference, listing the TOKYOPOP releases in English and detailing
the twists and turns of its intricate plot. The URL is:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Priest_(manhwa)

As Mike Carrey said in his introduction to TOKYOPOP’s edition of Priest, Volume 6:

“…it’s currently evolving into one of the most enthrallingly unpredictable stories in the
entire medium.”

I personally fell in love with the artist’s work and edited a three-language licensed
TOKYOPOP edition of his stunning art book, Justice N Mercy. The original Korean
version was edited by Eddie Yu for Sigongsa. Min-Woo is more than an incredibly
talented artist—he is also a cool guy and a good friend. My time spent in Seoul hanging
out with him, his family and friends has always been fun. And I can attest from first-hand
experience that what he says in the Justice N Mercy interview section is true: most of
Min-Woo’s friends are simply crazy…and I hope to always qualify as one of them.
One of the most exciting developments of the last few years—for TOKYOPOP, for Min-
Woo and for all Korean manhwa creators—is the plan to make a feature film from the
Priest manhwa series. TOKYOPOP acquired the film rights directly from the creator in
2003 because we saw special promise in the tale as subject matter for a Hollywood film.
That proved to be the case. As confirmed by authoritative sources such as Variety and
several online movie database sites, the Priest movie is currently in production with
SONY Pictures’ Screen Gems. Producers include Sam Raimi (Spider-Man 2), Joshua
Donen, Mitchell Peck and Michael De Luca. The current director of record is Andrew
Douglas, credited with the remake of The Amityville Horror in 2005. Leading man
Gerard Butler and supporting actor Steven Strait have been officially confirmed.
Principal photography is planned to begin in 2007 and the film is slated for release in
2008.

OPPORTUNITIES FOR THE KOREAN MANHWA BUSINESS IN THE US

I have been lucky enough to visit Korea many times and have come to have a great love
for the country. I have had many revealing conversations with business partners,
publishing colleagues, artists and writers. Here, in my humble opinion, are some
suggestions for future success of Korean creators and businesses in the US.

Develop Properties with Global Potential

Properties that appeal to a worldwide audience have the greatest potential to become
mega-hits. To truly implement a global product development vision, Korea should study
consumer desires and buyer requirements in the US and other Western countries.
Creators should function not only as fine artists with vision but also as commercial artists
who can make saleable products that resonate with an international audience.

Properties developed with Western needs in mind have a greater chance of finding
receptive retail buyers, consumers and cross-media development partners. Properties
developed in a vacuum for the Korean home market will generally be perceived as too
“foreign” or “artsy” to achieve more than niche market success. They may meet the
demands of the artist or “auteur” making the manhwa or film, but if they are not also
informed by understanding of international markets and consumer needs, they may be
unsuited for foreign markets.

Do Market Research and Evaluate Consumer Opinions

As a strategy to develop global properties, do market research—ranging from reading
online forums to conducting actual qualitative and quantitative tests with graphic novel
buyers. Take the criticism to heart. One common perception of Korean manhwa heard
from many US fans is that the art is almost always good, but the storytelling is not as
fluid, refined or original as they would like. Readers remark that they see the same story
formulas being rehashed over and over. US fans value originality as well as skill in
storytelling.

Find the Right Partner

Entering new markets is generally best accomplished with a strong local partner, and the
US is no exception. Differences in consumer taste and buying habits, differences in
marketing and distribution, all make it important to work with a US partner or partners
who can impart their experience about how things work in the US. It is particularly
challenging to do something radically new in the US market, but manga has truly been a
revolution in the West over the last decade so such dramatic change has a precedent and
can occur when conditions are right.

Take Advantage of the Korean Government’s Support

As Koreans, you have a unique advantage because of several strong programs uniting
government, education, business and individuals in support of the creation and
dissemination of cultural and content products. I have had the opportunity to work with
KOCCA and other Korean government groups for several years. While no government
agency in any country is universally perceived as perfect by the creative and business
communities, KOCCA and its peers try their best and frequently succeed. Above all they
keep showing up with their foreign tradeshow presence, support for seminars, funds for
creator book tours and many other programs. In the immortal words of American actor
Woody Allen, “Eighty percent of success is just showing up” Other countries should
benchmark their own programs against those of KOCCA and other Korean government
agencies.

Build on the Success of the Graphic Novel Business in Bookstores

Korean manhwa will continue to have a solid chance for success in the manga sections of
US bookstores. The market has become saturated and so property recognition and quality
are more important than ever. Average graphic novels sell less today than several years
ago, when the market was not flooded and many fans would try just about every story
that came out. But the best manga sell more than ever.

It is strategically important to develop a working relationship with the buyers in the

handful of bookstore chains that represent the vast majority of sales. They have incredible
power and influence. Industry watcher Web site www.icv2.com recently named Kurt
Hassler, the graphic novel buyer for the Borders Group bookstore chain, the most
powerful person in the US manga publishing industry—over any publishing company
CEO, publisher or manga creator.

http://www.icv2.com/articles/news/9478.html

Consider Other Book Sales Venues

Certain other sales venues may work well for some products, such as Scholastic Book
Fairs for graphic novels that appeal to young readers. Others may be more challenging
but still worth working with.

US comic book shops have begun to carry some manga, but they still specialize in
American superhero and independent comic books. All sales to them are non-returnable,
so they are very cautious about ordering. Store owners are frequently US comic book
fanboys, and they tend to buy comics that match their own taste. Some of them are
beginning to stock manga and manhwa.
US “big box” discount stores are very challenging because they do not stock a wide
variety of any kind of books and they rarely stock all the volumes in a manga series. They
tend to sell the top hits at any given time, and return books that do not sell at a very high
rate. Furthermore, graphic novel fans do not typically go to them when looking for their
favorite new releases.

Understand Consumer Differences

In Korea, as in Japan and other Asian countries, people of all ages read comics. There are
comics for every age group, from simple color graphic novels for your kids to serious
stories for people over 50.

Here is the US, there is still a strong bias against comics of any kind among people 25
years and older. The 13-24 demographic, split about evenly between males and females,
is the best consumer target for graphic novels. They buy them with their own money and
see reading them as rebellious and as a way to define their own generation’s form of
entertainment. Younger kids below the age of 11 do not read comics in the US, partially
because they tend to prefer TV and videogames and partially because their parents do not
see much value or appeal in comics.

It is very important to consider that, while the US has over 300 million population, the
average sales of a successful graphic novel are still in the low tens of thousands. This is
less that the peak sales a few years ago in a smaller country such as Korea, with a
population of under 50 million. It would be a mistake to think that the graphic novel
market would grow to be a huge percentage of publishing in the US in just a few short
years (such as in Japan, where manga is 40% of all print publishing). It may take several
decades before people of all ages in the US read graphic novels as they do in Asia. The
current teen generation needs to grow up, have families and communicate to their kids
that reading graphic novels is worthwhile as well as fun for people of all ages.

Understand Marketing and Distribution Differences

In Korea, bookstore sales are fairly straightforward. The publisher supplies the stores
with manhwa, which are displayed and sold. The publisher receives as much as 70% of
the retail price. However, Korean manhwa rental stores are a challenging market because
there are so many of them, they buy only a few copies that many people read, and they do
not pay a percentage of the rental fee to the publisher.

In the US, solid bookstore sales for graphic novels are much more challenging to achieve,
although success is possible with the right approach. Bookstores buyers follow the
American rule that “the buyer is king” and dictate many terms. As kings, they feel free to
refuse to carry books they do not want for any reason, and make very firm suggestions to
the publishers about what to publish. They may require payments, called co-op funds and
market development funds (MDF), in exchange for promoting books in their flyers,
placing them in desirable and visible locations such as on higher shelves, end caps or
tables, or accepting free-standing POP displays—all of which can yield significant results
in increased sales. At any time, bookstores can return as many books as they like. These
factors increase the marketing cost and the risk for US publishers.
In the US, the manga market grown explosively since 1999. Ironically, this growth
occurred at the same time that the Korean manhwa business faced severe challenges from
a sales decline due to the proliferation of manhwa rental stores, along with illegal scans
posted on the Internet. The US differs in that most graphic novel fans still like to own
their own collectible hard copy.

Finally, there are almost no graphic novel rental stores in the US. Only lending libraries
present a significant alternative to individual ownership, and arguably, the US librarian’s
acceptance of manga (previously, most of them disliked and even banned comic books)
helped the growth of the manga revolution in the West by exposing kids to manga stories
that they later purchased to collect. If rental stores were to become widespread in the US,
it is likely that consumers would still buy books because of the collector mentality here.

Develop New Markets with Cross-Media Products

Korean manhwa publishers may do well to focus on finding partners to bring to the US
sophisticated product lines of online manhwa, mobile manhwa and manhwa-based
games, for PC, console and mobile phone. These digital products are rapidly becoming
more popular in the US.

The US is lagging behind Korea in broadband penetration, but catching up fast. Young
Americans are moving seamlessly between real and virtual life much like their Korean
counterparts.

Cyworld, which has incredible market penetration in Korea, has just launched in the US.
It faces serious competition from dozens of other social networking sites.

The jury is still out on whether online microtransactions will work, or whether US
consumers mainly expect online content to be free with advertising support. The market
is so new that it is hard to predict what products—and business models—will succeed. So
it is risky, but promising.

Consider the Challenges of Introducing a Foreign Product in the US

For marketing reasons and to support the success of Asian graphic novels in the West,
TOKYOPOP has branded all of our graphic novels as “Manga,” and this had caused
some consternation among our Korean friends and colleagues. We used the Japanese
pronunciation and Romanization because it was better known and already in use.
Americans, for better or for worse, tend to accept only a few new foreign products or
concepts at a time, and we felt we would fail if we tried to introduce to a mass audience
multiple terms from different Asian countries: manga, manhwa and manhua (The
Japanese Korea and Chinese pronunciations of the same two Chinese characters, 漫画,
which literally mean “entertaining visual”). Many Americans still mispronounce the
name for these graphic novels as “Magna,” “Magma” or “Mangia” so our work is not
done!

The September 4, 2006 cover of the popular US magazine The New Yorker demonstrates
this point. It shown the cutaway of a teenager’s brain, and of the 12 hot items listed as the
best ways for marketers to reach that teenager (including MySpace and iPods) “manga” is
one. I believe this could not have happened if we romanized all the local pronunciations
and tried to segregate by nationality.

Ultimately, I believe that manga is a global phenomenon, and while all of us at

TOKYOPOP acknowledge the nationality of all our creators, we don’t believe it should
be advanced as a primary factor for categorization. Perhaps most important, most
booksellers and consumers do not make a huge distinction based on the nationality of
graphic novel artists.

As ShibbyNezumi posted on MangaNews:

“I think it’s the same with most of the American readers of graphic novels. Working at a
bookstore, I’ve heard the kids refer to all of it as manga. Which perhaps isn’t fair to the
manwha artists. But what can we do… The section of the store is called the manga
section and it’s unlikely that it will ever get broken up into manga and manwha. It’s hard
enough teaching them all how to say the names properly… much less telling them this
manga is manga, while this one is manhwa. I look forward though to more manwha, and
more manga. If China wants to join in with manhua, I’ll look forward to that too. If the
plot and art are appealing, I don’t care where it’s from.”

Echoing this sentiment eloquently, the creator of the best-selling Japanese manga in the
US, Fruits Basket, has this to say about the unity of global manga artists:

“I think that nationality has no relation to that which gives rise to manga,” the artist said.
“Even among the Japanese, manga creators are making their creations everyday reflecting
their own individuality, with none being the same. What is important aren’t the
differences between the creators but their love for manga.”
- Natsuki Takaya, author of Fruits Basket.