Over the past decade, anime hasn’t been the only medium to explode in popularity at home and with Western audiences. Korean comics, known as manhwa, and their digital versions, webtoons, offer equally engaging stories with striking visuals that are widely accessible online. As readers flocked to these digital comics, TV networks and producers took notice. Webtoons changed how comics are made and read in the smartphone era. Their vertical-scroll format has since fed a steady stream of screen adaptations, and many Korean dramas have done their source material justice by staying true to the page.

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