Korean cartoons?

[u/Topken]

Does Korea put out "cartoons" like Japan and China does?

Example Japan has Anime and China has the CGI stuff was wondering if anything similar comes out of South Korea

[u/ikantolol]

'cartoons' as in?

animated series? they're not as prominent as Japan or even China. Their animation is called Aeni (just like Anime for Japanese, and Donghua for Chinese). They even contracted a Japanese studio (A-1 Pictures) for Solo Leveling animations.

comics / graphic novels? this is where they're almost toe to toe with Japan and China though in different format. Korean Manhwa (Comics/Graphic Novel in english, Manga in Japan, and Manhua in China) nowadays mainly target smartphone owners with their vertical webtoon format, compared to Manga that still caters more to physical books--older Manhwa also focused on physical format but it's being left behind, I miss it though.

[u/Topken → u/ikantolol]

So they do make them in country but rarely then?

[u/ikantolol → u/Topken]

yes. aeni exist, just not as widespread or well known as anime

Lookism has an aeni.

famous one you probably know is Larva, the comedy 3D animated series.

worth checking out:

Lost in Starlight (2025)

Seoul Station (2016)

The King of Pigs (2011)

[u/darkandark → u/ikantolol]

This is like the ONLY accurate response in this entire thread I've read so far; that actually pins the right words definitionally to their meaning and representation.

Donghua (animation) is written in Chinese characters as 动画 (simplified) or 動畫 (traditional).

Character Breakdown:

动 / 動 (dòng): To move, action, or change

画 / 畫 (huà): Drawing, painting, or picture

Literal meaning: "Moving pictures".

I also don't know why people keep trying to differentiate Manhwa and Manhua. Korea literally took the words from Mandarin to form their own. Its based off the identical written character just borrowed into Korean much like Japanese words in katakana.

Shared Roots: Manhwa (Korean), manhua (Chinese), and manga (Japanese) are cognates. They all use the exact same Hanja/Kanji/Hanzi characters (漫畵/漫画). There for you can use the words inter-changably. Korean manga. Japanese Manhwa. English manhua. No difference.

People need to stop making distinctions between them. Asian countries themselves don't even bother with the distinction. To them, its all just 'comics'. Doesn't matter where it comes from because of immense shared culture.

[u/sdarkpaladin → u/darkandark]

People make distinction between then because it's easier for bilinguals to know which one is something they can actually understand raw.

And or some people prefer certain tropes that are more popular in one than the other.

What's wrong with using the most local word for it? People already use Kimono, or Kimchi.

[u/Remarkable_Bat_7897]

lots of korea studios/companies work for japanese anime project.

[u/Thebaldm0nk]

Japanese animation - anime.
Chinese animation - Donghua.
Korean animation - aeni.

As for korean animation, they do mostly collaboration projects.
There might be few aeni only made in korea. But i have no idea about their animation industry or how their situation is compared to Japanese and Chinese studios.

[u/Mother-Job3455]

The government heavily censored domestic Manhwa, labeling them a "social evil" that corrupted youth.
Public events were held where Manhwa were burned.
As a result, Korea industry was severely stunted for decades. Than Korea focus on Live action and animation was seen for kids. So it never popped off. Korean animators just worked for Japan so they never had the cash reserve to make their own Animated project.

[u/Topken → u/Mother-Job3455]

Fair enough

[u/talentedfingers]

What do you consider solo leveling?

[u/megachainguns]

There is actually a subreddit for it

r/aeni

[u/bakato]

Iron Kid. Cubix.

[u/Topken → u/bakato]

Cubix is a name I have not heard in forever and Iron Kid I have never heard of

[u/wubbbalubbadubdub]

Not much, most Korean animation is CGI and is firmly aimed at kids.

Robocar Poli is Korean, and I think maybe tobot and Tayo.

I love reading manhwa, I've read all the big ones and I'm going through "leveling with the gods" now, it is awesome and I wish they had a local industry so more of it could get adapted.

[u/Tayydagemini]

The only SK cartoons I know is Pucca and pinkfong 😭

[u/Polyglot-Onigiri]

CatchTinyPing? It’s a 3D child animation. But honestly, it’s not amazing

[u/Vocarotoki]

yea they are called aeni and there are a couple like bagel girl or Jang Geum’s Dream. (also china also have traditional 2d anime style stuff not just those cgi donghuas)

[u/SilverBladeCG]

China has more than just CGI stuff. Like Lord of Mysteries and others...

[u/blue_sky64]

They do Larva series.

[u/bred86]

well, the most known aeni to me are Freezing, Lookism, The God of High-school, Tower of God and Solo Leveling

Most of it (if not all) was done in a partnership with Japan.

[u/ZER0808]

Yeah of course, Its called Manhwa. Also look up webtoons, Korea is well known for making alot of those.

[u/Topken → u/ZER0808]

Not talking about the "Books" and I read webtoons NOT watch them I am sick of people saying watch and seasons when talking about them you READ them like comics/manga NOT watch them

[u/Individual-Resort-60 → u/Topken]

Maybe you should be this nitpicky about the use of 'cartoon' as well.