'Teenage Mercenary’ leads Korean webtoon sensation in Japan

Poster image of "Teenage Mercenary" (Naver Webtoon)

Naver Webtoon’s action series “Teenage Mercenary” has achieved the highest transaction volume in the history of Naver Webtoon Japan.

According to the South Korean tech giant’s digital comics platform, the series generated monthly sales of 1.6 billion won ($1.18 million) in September, and garnered more than 300 million accumulated reads from Japanese fans.

Helmed by webtoon creators YC and Rakyeon, “Teenage Mercenary” revolves around Yu Ijin, who lost his parents in a plane crash and became a child mercenary to survive in a foreign land.

The series, which started to serialize in November 2020, was published in 10 languages -- including English, French, Japanese, Thai, Chinese, German and more.

Since its premiere on Naver Webtoon’s Japanese platform Line Manga in 2021, “Teenage Mercenary” became a top-rated webtoon among Japanese readers reaching No. 1 on Line Manga’s best webtoon chart in 2022.

With more than 1.1 billion accumulated reads as of October, “Teenage Mercenary” became one of the company’s most popular global IPs.

By Lee Si-jin(sj_lee@heraldcorp.com)