Crunchyroll has decided to team up with the localizer of Korean web content, WebToon, to produce animated cartoons based on the published properties on the website.
The announcement was made over on the official Crunchyroll website, where general manager Joanne Waage explained…
“We are extremely excited to be partnering with WEBTOON … WEBTOON has a tremendous catalogue of content and creators that resonate deeply with our audience and we can’t think of a better way to delight fans than by bringing these stories to life through animation.”
The WebToon website hosts a massive collection of localized web comics.
Some of the comics have garnered millions of followers, such as My Giant Nerd Boyfriend with more than 24 million likes; or Tower of God, which has surpassed the 15 million mark.
Majority of the works are made by those in South Korea, and span a wide range of genres, from thriller and romance, to slice of life and sci-fi.
Crunchyroll basically has a wide pool of intellectual properties to pull from now that they’ve partnered with WebToon.
No information was revealed as to which of the comics would receive the animation treatment, or when we can expect production to begin. For now they’re simply announcing that they will produce original animated content based on the properties from WebToon.
Given Crunchyroll’s history of politicized activism, it wouldn’t be shocking to see them select certain comics that tap into their own sociopolitical beliefs in order to further leverage their agenda. I would be thoroughly shocked if they actually selected the more popular comics from WebToon that resonated with a large audience.
For now we’ll just have to wait to see how this all turns out, and which comics Crunchyroll will attempt to adapt for animated cartoons. Hopefully the properties selected will be free of propaganda.
[Update:] Back in August Comic Book reported that Yonkou Productions would be working on adaptations of Tower of God and Noblesse. This was confirmed via a tweet from Yonkou Productions.
It’s being made by a Japanese anime studio too!!
— YonkouProductions (@YonkouProd) August 5, 2019
So we know that Crunchyroll will be getting Tower of God and Noblesse first out of Webtoon’s palette of intellectual properties.
(Thanks for the news tip Lucky Pal)