NAVER WEBTOON's popular series 'The Remarried Empress' and 'The Boxer' are being adapted into anime. New information was also revealed for 'Teenage Mercenary,' which had previously been announced for an anime adaptation.
LINE Digital Frontier, the Japanese affiliate of NAVER WEBTOON, announced on the 9th that it has entered into a partnership with Japanese anime planning and production company HAYATE and global anime platform Crunchyroll to co-produce webtoon-based anime. Through this collaboration, the three companies plan to cooperate from the planning and development stages with the goal of adapting around 15 titles into anime.
HAYATE will lead anime production, while LINE Digital Frontier and Crunchyroll will participate together from the development stage. The finished anime will be streamed exclusively in select regions via Crunchyroll. HAYATE is an anime production company jointly established by Aniplex and Crunchyroll in 2025.
This partnership was announced during the Crunchyroll showcase at New York Comic Con in the United States. At the same time, anime-related details were disclosed for the Korean webtoons serialized on NAVER WEBTOON: 'The Remarried Empress,' 'Teenage Mercenary,' and 'The Boxer'.
'The Remarried Empress' is scheduled to air as a TV anime in 2027. Based on the web novel by Alphatart, 'The Remarried Empress' webtoon is a hit title that has surpassed 2.97 billion cumulative global views, adapted by HereLee and illustrated by Sumpul. Yoko Hikasa was announced as the voice actor for Navier, Ryohei Kimura for Heinrey, Tomoaki Maeno for Sovieshu, and Reina Ueda for Rashta. Tetsuya Yanagisawa will direct, with animation production handled by TROYCA.
'Teenage Mercenary' will also air as a TV anime in 2027. Written by YC and illustrated by Rakyeon, this action webtoon has exceeded 2.84 billion cumulative global views and previously ranked #1 overall for the year in 2023 and #1 in the serialized category in 2024 on Japan's LINE Manga. This announcement unveiled a new teaser visual, trailer, and main staff information. Manabu Ono is directing and handling series composition, Koji Haneda is designing characters, and Hiroyuki Sawano is composing the music. The animation studio is J.C.STAFF.
In addition, creator Jung Ji-hoon's webtoon 'The Boxer' is being produced as a TV anime. It is a popular work that has surpassed 1.06 billion cumulative global views. Kouki Uchiyama will voice the protagonist Yu, Kensho Ono will voice Ryu Baek-san, Tomokazu Seki will voice K, and Toshiyuki Toyonaga will voice J. Yudai Kubota and Kang Won-young will co-direct, with Japanese anime studio breccia and Korea's STUDIO JEMI co-producing the animation. Through this announcement, the main voice cast, production staff, and a teaser trailer were revealed, while a specific broadcast schedule has not yet been disclosed.
