Since the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic in 2020, Japan’s digital comic market has experienced explosive growth, expanding into a massive industry now valued at over 500 billion yen. Leading this surge is LINE Manga, which celebrates its 12th anniversary this year since launching its service in 2013. Having introduced the culture of “vertical scrolling” known as webtoons to Japan, LINE Manga has become a driving force in the globalization of manga. Following the successful NASDAQ listing of its parent company, WEBTOON Entertainment, the company is setting its sights on full-scale expansion into North America. We spoke with Masamine Takahashi, CEO of LINE Digital Frontier, about LINE Manga’s 12-year journey and the key triggers that will propel it toward its next major leap forward.

A New Era of Talent Nurtured by Digital Platforms

LINE Manga’s 12-year history is also a chronicle of how Japan’s manga ecosystem has fundamentally evolved. Takahashi describes the rise of “born-digital” works (stories created and delivered natively in digital form) as one of the most revolutionary shifts in the industry.

“When LINE Manga first launched, the mainstream trend was to digitize printed volumes. The relationship was clear: print came first, digital came second. But print publication is costly and limited by the available space in magazines, meaning only a handful of creators could pass through that narrow gate. The emergence of born-digital content removed those restrictions entirely. Without limits on the number of titles, a fertile ground for diverse storytelling was created. Thanks to this freedom, concepts that might once have been confined to a single title—like the ‘villainess’ trope—expanded into full-fledged genres.”

The seed planted in this new creative soil was the webtoon. While vertical scrolling formats are now widely accepted, Takahashi recalls that the early days faced considerable skepticism.

“At the time, critics said things like, ‘You can’t express complex emotions through vertical panels,’ or ‘Action manga will never work in this format.’ Not every title was a hit right away. But eventually, we saw success stories like Marry My Husband, which became a massive hit as an Amazon Original drama on Prime Video. Several other webtoons are now being adapted into anime as well. I believe this was possible precisely because we kept an open mind and never imposed creative limits.”

LINE Manga INDIES: A Platform for New Creators

The platform also built an infrastructure to support emerging talent. LINE Manga INDIES, which allows anyone　(professional or amateur) to upload their work, has become a powerful incubator for new creators.

“Take Senpai Is an Otokonoko, for example—it started as an indie title and is now being made into an animated film. When our parent company went public last year, the work was even featured on a massive billboard in Times Square. To me, that’s an incredible milestone: a story that began with a grassroots indie submission went on to become a globally recognized multimedia project.”

The success of LINE Manga INDIES has rippled throughout the industry, inspiring a creative wave that now permeates the entire digital comic market. What began as a single platform’s movement has become a transformative force reshaping the manga landscape. LINE Manga’s vision to “create the future of manga” has already expanded beyond Japan. Following WEBTOON Entertainment’s listing in North America, the company is also investing heavily in quality improvement through strategic alliances—such as its partnership with webtoon production studio Number Nine.

Yet as the market matures and platform competition intensifies, the key question becomes how to keep winning in a global industry. Takahashi emphasizes that success hinges on one thing above all: a clear and unwavering mission shared across the organization.

“One core aspect is building a system that consistently generates new works. At LINE Manga WEBTOON STUDIO, we’ve implemented a division-of-labor model (separating writing, character design, and illustration) to maintain high quality while increasing output. Since our primary business is platform operation, we see other studios not as rivals but as partners. We’re committed to supporting excellent works, even through investment if needed, because our goal is to energize the entire market. Our mission is to make it easier for readers to access both new and classic titles alike.”

Source : ORICON NEWS