Manhwa Basics
What's the difference between a manhwa and manga or manhua?
Manhwa = webtoon?
When starting out as a novice to Korean manhwa, you're bound to encounter these or similar questions. Get to know manhwa and learn more about them!
Let's start off with a small FAQ covering the most important basics.
To learn more about webtoons & manhwa, visit the Basics page, for advanced information, you should visit the webtoon.city "Knowledge Base"
While both are generally similar, and could both be counted as sub-variants of comics, there is a subtle but noteworthy difference between manga & manhwa. Most people already know manga, Japanese comics, often used as source material for anime, have been popular in the west for a while now. Manhwa on the other hand originate in Korea, and are mostly released as fully colored panels, in stark contrast to Japanese manga which are most often still black and white.
There are also further difference between the two, which will be covered in depth here.
Yes and no, while all webtoons are manhwa, not all manhwa are webtoons. The difference between the two can be summarized as: The term “Manhwa” encapsulates both print and digital forms of media, while webtoons exclusively refer to digitally published content.
As stated by Wikipedia, Nuna, also Noona or Nona – Korean: 누나 is a de-facto pronoun which men/boys can use to refer to an older woman/sister. Webtoons often play with the casual tone “Nuna” carries: Most frequently used by a main character in order to trigger an older woman of high importance by being disrespectful. If you want to learn more about common webtoon tropes, visit this post.