LINE Digital Frontier, the operator of Japan’s LINE Manga service, has outlined a technique targeted on increasing its Japanese-originating content material to a worldwide viewers.
This enlargement will leverage the prevailing international platform of its guardian firm, WEBTOON Leisure, which lately listed on the Nasdaq inventory alternate. Works serialized on LINE Manga in Japan are made obtainable internationally via the WEBTOON app.
In a latest interview with Oricon, LINE Digital Frontier CEO Masamine Takahashi mentioned the corporate now thought of the worldwide stage its predominant battleground. The transfer follows a interval of fast enlargement for Japan’s digital manga market, which grew right into a 500 billion yen (USD 3.2 billion) trade following the COVID-19 pandemic.
Takahashi famous within the interview that LINE Manga has reshaped Japan’s manga panorama since its 2013 debut by embracing “vertical scrolling” webtoons that had been as soon as met with skepticism however are actually broadly accepted.
“At first, there was criticism that vertical scrolling couldn’t deal with advanced storytelling or motion scenes,” he mentioned. “However with titles like Marry My Husband turning into main live-action hits, we’ve confirmed that webtoons can thrive creatively.”
Following WEBTOON Leisure’s itemizing in america, Takahashi mentioned the corporate had set its sight on the worldwide market. Reasonably than competing with different studios, LINE Manga is specializing in constructing an atmosphere the place high-quality works might be persistently produced and delivered worldwide.
Takahashi added that LINE Manga sees itself as a platform earlier than the rest, working cooperatively with exterior creators and firms as an alternative of treating them as rivals. Partnerships with Japanese webtoon studio Quantity 9 and different capital alliances are a part of a broader technique to spice up the general commonplace of Japanese-made webtoons.
“To develop your entire market and convey good works into the world, we actively present assist, together with funding,” Takahashi mentioned, including that the purpose is to make each new and basic titles obtainable in accessible and interesting codecs to readers worldwide.
The corporate’s efforts to domesticate new expertise have additionally paid off. Platforms like LINE Manga Indies permit beginner creators to publish their very own works, generally resulting in main success.
One such instance is Senpai wa Otokonoko, which began as an indie title and was later tailored into an animated movie. Takahashi described the mission’s look on a Instances Sq. display screen throughout WEBTOON Leisure’s Nasdaq debut as “an enormous accomplishment” that symbolized how far digital comics had come.
With digital distribution changing into the worldwide norm, LINE Manga can also be accelerating efforts to launch titles abroad with out delays. Takahashi famous that translation obstacles are shrinking, permitting simultaneous or near-simultaneous releases in a number of areas — one thing that was beforehand inconceivable within the print period.
He said that Japan held a “decisive benefit” on this international push: a mature readership and tradition the place individuals who learn manga once they had been younger continued to take action as adults. “That is commonplace in Japan, but it surely’s an unimaginable tradition,” Mr. Takahashi mentioned. “This mature readership and tradition is our biggest weapon.”
He recognized making this benefit a worldwide commonplace as the corporate’s subsequent problem.
To beat the problem of world enlargement, Mr. Takahashi mentioned the corporate had adopted a “creator-first” precept. He said that LINE Manga meant to behave as a platform which can assist the works of creators attain the world, which in accordance with him was “synonymous with constructing the infrastructure that allowed creator expertise to cross borders and be pretty evaluated.”
“The ingenuity and creativity in expression from creators is really wonderful,” Mr. Takahashi mentioned. “Our function is to create the community that enables the works they draw to succeed in the world.” He mentioned the corporate’s stance was to “imagine utterly in creators” and their means to supply a “masterpiece” that would leap “past the bounds of the format.”
A mission to distribute 100 Disney works in partnership with WEBTOON Leisure was cited as one “stepping stone.” Mr. Takahashi mentioned collaborating with international IPs would stimulate new creators and function an “entry level” for audiences who had by no means interacted with manga earlier than.
Supply: Oricon
