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▲This photo, provided by Naver Webtoon, shows the Webtoon "Extraordinary Attorney Woo." (PHOTO NOT FOR SALE) (Yonhap).
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▲This photo, provided by RIDI Corporation, shows the webtoon "Svaha" and the movie poster for "Svaha." (PHOTO NOT FOR SALE)(Yonhap).
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| ▲This photo, provided by Yonhap News TV, shows webtoon (CG). (PHOTO NOT FOR SALE) (Yonhap) |
SEOUL, August 24 (Yonhap) -- The importance of adapting a drama to Webtoon (online comics) has been getting attention, as many Webtoons followed by famous dramas are not gaining much popularity as much as the dramas did.
On July 27, a Webtoon based on the drama "Extraordinary Attorney Woo," which ended in popularity, was released. The Webtoon gained great attention as soon as it was released and was ranked first for views.
However, the readers were not happy about the webtoon.
Currently, the webtoon "Extraordinary Attorney Woo" is ranked 82 out of 83 webtoons released every Thursday, with a rating of 6.83.
Furthermore, the only Webtoons with a lower rating than "Extraordinary Attorney Woo" are "The Moons Cradle" and "Her Six Rules," the two Webtoons being accused of plagiarism.
To rephrase, the webtoon was released even before the drama, which was sensational, ended. Therefore, it had enough potential, but it is still receiving bad reviews.
Not only is "Extraordinary Attorney Woo," but also the webtoon "Discovery of Love," which was followed up by the drama of the same name, released in 2014, is not gaining much attention.
The Webtoon "Discovery of Love," has a rating of 9.87, but it is ranked 67 among 83 webtoons being released on Thursday, remaining in the lower middle of the ranking, meaning that they do not have many loyal readers.
Considering that the original drama has been chosen as a lifetime drama, that comes to mind every summer, and that there was a loyal fan base, it is a disappointing result.
It is notable that both Webtoons "Extraordinary Attorney Woo" and "Discovery of Love" followed most of the main events, lines, and developments of the original work.
In the case of readers who already know the original drama, they wouldn't be interested because they are re-viewing the content they already saw.
Moreover, in webtoons, it seems difficult for new readers to immerse themselves in the story line as they cannot feel the vivid charm of the characters created by actors such as Park Eun-bin and Jung Yu-mi through passionate acting.
However, some webtoons succeed in gaining popularity by making bold changes from the original drama.
The Webtoon of the same name, based on director Jang Jae-hyun's Korean-style occult film "Svaha," created a character that was not in the movie.
"Leader Park," the assistant of Pastor Park Woong-jae, the main character, was not in the original movie, and it is a new character that combines the two characters who had a small proportion.
"The nature of Webtoon is that readers feel tired if too many characters appear," an official working for RIDI Corporation, whose publishing "Svaha" said. "Instead of bringing all the non-important characters to the webtoon, we decided to combine the characters and adapt them as important characters."
The webtoon "Svaha," which began its serialization on July 13, is currently ranked first in the weekly horror and mystery category and second in the monthly category.
In the case of the Webtoon "A Hard Day," which was followed by a drama of the same name, the main character, "Go Geon-soo," was changed to a girl.
It is explained that it was boldly adapted with the judgment that the relationship between characters and the story line could be enriched through reversing the gender.
For such bold yet convincing storytelling for both existing and new readers, the ability of the writer who does the adaptation is important. Therefore, famous writers also do the adaptation as well.
The comic writer "Rangtto," started with "The Villian's Story," in 2009, and continued with "Ya! Oee," "Stories that Travel Between People," and "Nana's Magic Drawer," took charge of adapting the internet comic "A Sexy Magician."
Jangjin, who wrote the story of "A Love Contract With the Devil" and drew "Nam Fam Cartoon," is in charge of the adaptation of the online comic "Debut or Die."
One of the officials working in the Webtoon industry said, "Finding a writer to be in charge of adapting is the hardest," and explained that it is because they need to know the grammar of Webtoon and also need a high understanding of the original piece.
(This article was translated from Korean to English by Dowon Kim.)
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