To nobody's surprise, the hit Webtoon action thriller Teenage Mercenary by YC and Rakyeon is being developed as an anime series. If anything, we're surprised it took so long. The Korean manhwa series launched in 2021 and has since become one of Webtoon's top action titles with over 1.8 billion global views. It is available in 10 languages and ranked as Line Manga's top title in 2023 and 2024. Webtoon Entertainment's Line Digital Frontier arm, which operates the company's Japan-based Line Manga and ebookjapan services, is working on the adaptation, which is at the development stage.
Graphic: Wattpad WEBTOON
Teenage Mercenary follows Ijin Yu, a child who survives a deadly plane crash and is forced to become a mercenary to survive. He returns to Korea a decade later and reunites with his family, only to find that life as a teenager presents its own battles. With just one year of high school left, Ijin must trade in his battlefield tactics for hallway diplomacy. Can he survive the emotional minefield of adolescence, or will the school be the one that needs saving?
"Teenage Mercenary is one of those rare series that hits every note — action, emotion, suspense, and style," said Sinbae Kim, Chief Growth Officer of Line Digital Frontier. "It's a global sensation that's dominated across regions, and now it's getting the anime adaptation fans have been asking for. We're excited to bring this incredible story to new fans all over the world."
"I still remember when I first started planning Teenage Mercenary, and how nervous I was about how readers would respond when the series launched," said YC. "This anime adaptation wouldn't have been possible without the incredible support from our fans. I'm truly grateful and excited to share this moment with them."
"When we first launched the series, I never imagined it would receive such immense love," added Rakyeon. "I'm deeply moved and thankful to meet global fans through this new form of storytelling as an anime."
Teenage Mercenary: A Great Action Thriller Comic Series That's Problematic
We've been reading Teenage Mercenary since its launch in 2021 and still consider it the best-plotted and best-paced action comic series in the world, better written and paced than any Marvel, DC, or US comic. The plot twists and action sequences are all meticulously paced and presented. We're not blind to its problematic elements, namely the way it turns child soldiers into badass action heroes. It's the last comic series that stands out from a trend that began in manga in Japan in the early 2000s, where child soldier characters were introduced when the plight of real-life child soldiers was reported in the news.
Like the manga and anime series that preceded it, Teenage Mercenary creates a fantasy of a hero child soldier who happens to be Korean. He and and fellow child soldiers are all Asian- or Western-presenting when real-life child soldiers are usually abducted local children in South American and African war zones. Child soldiers are trained through drugs, physical, sexual, and emotional abuse, and forced to kill each other and anyone to prove their skill and loyalty. Ijin and his comrades are completely free of the PTSD, drug addiction, and psychosis that afflicts real child soldiers, who are permanently damaged psychologically and emotionally. Instead, the manhwa series portrays Ijin and his comrades as James Bond-level badasses who can out-think, out-fight, and out-gun anybody. The creators of the series do that very well and make it a lot of fun to read.
Teenage Mercenary is serialised on WEBTOON. It's one of the best action comics out there, despite the issues we mentioned.
Adi Tantimedh is a filmmaker, screenwriter and novelist. He wrote radio plays for the BBC Radio, “JLA: Age of Wonder” for DC Comics, “Blackshirt” for Moonstone Books, and “La Muse” for Big Head Press. Most recently, he wrote “Her Nightly Embrace”, “Her Beautiful Monster” and “Her Fugitive Heart”, a trilogy of novels featuring a British-Indian private eye published by Atria Books, a division Simon & Schuster.
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