[HanCinema's News] Webtoons Emerge as Critical Intellectual Property in the Wake of Recent Drama Successes

On March 28th, the SBS romantic comedy "Business Proposal" had ratings of 11.6% in its ninth episode- a record high for the drama. And on Watcha, the Boys Love drama "Semantic Error" continues to dominate the most popular shows on the streaming service. These recent successes in the wake of relatively low expectations has helped to cement the usefulness of adapting shows from existing intellectual properties.

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However, the idea is nothing new. Back in 2018, tvN premiered "What's Wrong With Secretary Kim" that was adapted from the webnovel of the same title. The story was a similar kind of office romance to "Business Proposal" and has been popular with many of the same demographics. "Itaewon Class" was a similar success story in 2020 with a wildly differing premise of dealing with a restaurant startup in the Itaewon district of Seoul, this one based on the same-titled webtoon.

Much of the recent boom in television dramas can be attirbuted to COVID-19, which has made people reluctant to leave the comforts of home. But the same effect is likewise at play with webtoons and webnovels, which can also be consumed at home. This has created a multiplier effect in regards to awareness of existing properties, as fans of a webtoon can be expected to seek out the television drama version, as well as vice-versa.

"All of Us Are Dead" is another such dramatic success, with the Netflix high school zombie adaptation of the webtoon of the same title now one of the streaming services most popular shows of all time. But even more arcane subjects have shown great resilience in drama form. The feminist in-law centered family drama "No, Thank You" recently aired its second season on Kakao. The teen romance "Love Revolution" is also another niche for Kakao.

Other services have their own niches as well. TVING has its own clean brand with titles such as "Work Later, Drink Now" and "Yumi's Cells" which now have multiple seasons. At wavve, "Weak Hero Class 1" is hoping to create a similar distinction for that platform by focusing more on the action end of webtoons. All of these titles show that webtoons are at the forefront of innovation with scripted South Korean television, and aren't going away any time soon.

Written by William Schwartz