“I read Korean works until I fainted to challenge webtoons. I thought it was a prime opportunity to step into a market that no one had started in Japan.”
On the afternoon of the 12th, author Eito Shunji met with reporters at the office of Number Nine Co., Ltd., located in Shinagawa, Tokyo. Eito is responsible for the storyboards of "The Savior of New Blood" and "I Alone Am the Strongest Transcendent," which are serialized on Line Manga. Both works are produced by Studio Number Nine, which received equity investment from Line Digital Frontier. Line Digital Frontier operates the Japanese service of Naver Webtoon, known as Line Manga.
Founded in 2016, Number Nine Co., Ltd. began with electronic comic brokerage services and has recently expanded its business into a webtoon production studio. "The Savior of New Blood" and "I Alone Am the Strongest Transcendent" were both ranked in the top 10 of the Line Manga 2024 Ranking last year. Naver Webtoon invested in Number Nine Co., Ltd. to strengthen its influence in the Japanese content market by discovering local authors and intellectual property (IP). This is the first instance of securing equity in a local Japanese company.
Takuma Kobayashi, the representative of Number Nine Co., Ltd., noted, "When the digital distribution service was somewhat on track, I thought about how to drive the next phase. It's hard to be number one in the publishing industry in Japan. I believe we have no choice but to create original content, which led us to start webtoons.”
Representative Kobayashi conveyed that the outlook for the webtoon business in Japan is bright. He said, "I think the domestic webtoon market in Japan has been significantly 'boomed.' It is growing year by year. Line Manga and Piccoma have created healthy competition that has invigorated the industry. Ten years ago, the concept of viewing comics on a smartphone did not exist, but it seems that Line Manga has established this culture well."
Eito's work, "The Savior of New Blood," surpassed monthly sales of 100 million yen (9.4697 billion won) in January of last year. Eito began his career in publishing comics but challenged the possibilities of the webtoon market. He stated, "I worked hard to study popular Korean webtoon works and made efforts for Japanese readers to understand how Korean webtoons are received, so that we could feel this as readers ourselves."
Eito mentioned that he read "Solo Leveling" until the latest episode overnight. He emphasized, "I truly believe that a new paradigm of content has emerged."
Endo Hiroyuki, the editor in charge of "The Savior of New Blood" and "I Alone Am the Strongest Transcendent," also disclosed that he read more than 200 Korean works and watched Korean news every day. Endo remarked, "I thought that 'The Savior of New Blood' might end its serialization at a minimum of the 25th episode. However, thankfully, the revenue on the opening day exceeded expectations by several times, which led Representative Kobayashi to say I could immediately create episodes 50 and 100 now."
Representative Kobayashi stated that authors who are currently active in the publishing industry are likely to challenge webtoons as well. He said, "If popular webtoons create turning points through adaptations like animations, I believe the challenges of these authors in webtoons will accelerate. Within 3 to 5 years, I think prominent figures in publishing comics will also enter the webtoon realm. Webtoons are establishing themselves as a culture in Japan."