Manhwa

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Manhwa

Korean name
Hangul:	만화
Hanja:	漫畵
Revised Romanization:	Manhwa
McCune-Reischauer:	Manhwa

Manhwa (Hangul: 만화, Hanja: 漫畵) is the general Korean term for comics and cartoons (including animated cartoons). Outside of Korea, the term usually refers specifically to South Korean comics.

The term Manhwa is a cognate with Japanese manga and Chinese manhua. There are many common characteristics shared, however each has been taking different paths in theme, visual and narrative approach in accordance with their own cultural and historical contexts. Manhwa has been influenced by the dramatic modern history of Korea and resulted in diversity of forms and genre^[1], ranging from the more mainstream Manga-like ones^[2] to the editorial comic strips, artistically-oriented works and webcomics serials. Recently, long-running webcomics serialized via Internet portal sites (e.g. Media Daum) and personal homepages have become both the creative and popular basecamp among the younger generation in Korea.

Manhwa is read in the same direction as English books, horizontally and from left to right, because hangul is normally written and read horizontally, although it can also be written and read like Chinese and Japanese, that is, vertically from right to left. Both are from top to bottom, unlike some popular belief.

Unlike Japan, animations based on Korean comics are still relatively rare (though there have been several major hits in the late 80's and early 90's with titles such as Dooly the Little Dinosaur and Fly! Superboard). However, live-action drama series and movie adaptations of manhwa have occurred more frequently in recent years. Full House in 2004 and Goong ("Palace" or "Princess Hours") in 2006, are prominent examples as both have been accounted as the best dramas of their respective years.

Theoretically, the reading direction of manhwa should make it more accessible to Western audiences when compared to Japanese and Chinese comics, but so far the relative obscurity of Korean culture has cancelled out this apparent advantage, and the word remains relatively unknown in the English-speaking world. Instead, English translations of manhwa have achieved success by targeting the manga and animé community, to extent than manhwa are often marketed as "manga". However, there are four ways to tell the difference:

the style the character designs - manwha aimed at teenage girls (which make up the majority of English-translated series) have a distinctively angular style of abstraction which contrasts with the more 'cute' and rounded style of their Japanese, Chinese and western equivalents. This is the most obvious difference at a glance, but does not necessarily apply to manhwa aimed at boys or adults.
the left->to->right direction of the book (still quite obvious, but not very reliable, as some manga and manhua are 'flipped' around to the western way)
the Korean name of the author/artist - usually double-barrelled and with syllables that do not exist in Japanese (usually the most reliable method, the only exceptions being when a culturally-neutral pseudonym is used, or when the artist is of Korean ethnicity but but resides in another country such as the USA)
the untranslated sound effects (not always present) are in hangeul, not kana or hanzi.

Fortunately, there are now a number of publishers specialising in English translations of Korean comics, and by and large they are unafraid of calling them "manhwa".