Naver Webtoon said on the 23rd that its serialized works won a slew of top prizes, including the grand prize and the jury chair's award, at the second World Webtoon Festival.
Marking its second year, the World Webtoon Festival is a global webtoon event hosted by the Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism and organized by the Korea Creative Content Agency (KOCCA). It was prepared to strengthen Korea's stature as the birthplace of webtoons and to raise global recognition of webtoons. This year's event was held from the 19th to the 22nd at Lotte World Mall and the Lotte World Ice Rink in Jamsil, Seoul.
At the World Webtoon Awards held during the festival, eight of the 10 top prizes went to Naver Webtoon series. "The Antique Shop of the Future" and "Omniscient Reader" won the grand prize and the jury chair's award, respectively. The webtoon "The Fourth Husband," serialized on Line Manga, Naver Webtoon's Japanese-language platform, became the first Japanese work to win a top prize.
During the festival, Naver Webtoon operated a "Maru Is a Puppy" pop-up store on the first floor of Lotte World Mall, spanning about 100 pyeong (330.58㎡). At the pop-up, which featured the webtoon character Maru as a baker with a bakery concept, more than 150 types of merchandise were showcased. In addition, "Maru & Coco" merchandise, created in collaboration with Naver Webtoon's "Timid Tiger Coco," and merchandise for the "Maru Is a Puppy" animation, set to be released on Laftel on Nov. 21, were unveiled for the first time.
Chae Yu-gi, executive vice president overseeing Korean webtoons at Naver Webtoon, said, "Through the many readers who visited the pop-up store and experience booths during the festival, we were able to reaffirm the interest in and affection for webtoons," adding, "Based on the experience of growing together with creators and readers over the past 20 years, we will continue to provide better content and services to become a beloved platform."