* This could be hidden soon to do better edit, without any notification.
* This article is based on interview of mirugi, Korean manhwa columnist.
Speaker : mirugi (Jeong-U Seon) - Homepage / Twitter
Editor : mrkwang (iSeeToon) - Twitter
Choice of picture & Caption : mrkwang (iSeeToon)
Outline of Manhwa <6> 3. Division of Korean Manhwa by Media type (4) Hak-Seub Manhwa(Manhwa for education) & Gyo-Yang Manhwa(for refinement)
(4) Hak-Seub Manhwa(Manhwa for education) & Gyo-Yang Manhwa(for refinement)
>>> mirugi's talk starts. <<<
'Hak-Seub Manhwa' & 'Gyo-Yang Manhwa' is made for education & delivery of knowledge. 'Hak-Seub Manhwa' is especially for children in Korea, main topic of this article.
'Why?' series from 'Ye-Rim-Dang' has been sold over 20 million copies,
as they claimed in 2009.
mrkwang never knew that manhwa series at all,
before searching for some image for this article!
'Hak-Seub Manhwa' is like that.
We even don't know they exist, but sold well.
Other countries might have similar genre, however these are major differences of Korean 'Hak-Seub Manhwa'. Book size is much bigger than usual manhwa books, made in 'Color'.
Sometimes yes, but not totally same all the time.
'Hak-Seub Manhwa' is targetted to children, so must have colorful pictures. Due to that, most of them include feeling of animation. Could be similar to 'Film Comics' in Japan, color book based on Animation cuts.
'Gyo-Yang Manhwa' might not be official title. It is made for education & delivery of knowledge, not only for children. The most well known is 'Meon-Na-Ra Ee-Woot-Na-Ra'(Far country, Neighbor country) by 'Won-Book Lee'.
one of most famous series that everybody knows.
Even some gamer made fan-made manhwa for WOW(World of Warcraft)
based on this series, as homage or parody.
'Hak-Seub Manhwa' & 'Gyo-Yang Manhwa' have big portion in Korean market, but mania & critic doesn't consider them serious. Most people misunderstand that Korean Manhwa market is small, because they see 'Jab-Ji'(magazine) only. In Korean Manhwa market, best seller 1st. - 10th. list is full of 'Hak-Seub Manhwa' & 'Gyo-Yang Manhwa'. Sometimes they even conquer Book bestseller list, not only for Manhwa list. 'Ma-Beob Chun-Ja-Moon'1 series has been sold over 12 million copies, 'No-Bin-Son' series has been sold over 5 millions.
Author 'Woo-Il Lee' started drawing for 'Dong-A daily' in 1990's,
after that I didn't know what he was doing.
He was drawing 'No-Bin-Son' series over 10 years, became busy man.
Rumors said if somebody want to hire him, need to pay hundreds of million Korean won in advance, to stop his scheduled work.
Korean animation for theater is not made very much, just around 2 works per year recently. This year 'Ma-Beob Cheon-Ja-Moon' animation for theater is released, which is interesting & well made. But because it's 'Hak-Seub Manhwa', underestimated.
It's hard to explain for that, however I could compare them to 'Pokemon' or 'Mushi King' in Japan. All are made for children, made in 'All Color', let users(readers) memory something.
Pokemon and Yu-Gi-Oh are interesting case that children do learn & memorize something by themselves for fun.
'Ma-Bub Cheon-Ja-Moon' could be similar, to learn & memorize Chinese Characters (Han-Ja), instead of cute monsters.
These are not considered as Manhwa itself among mania & critics. They had childhood in the past, their Manhwa was disregarded by grown ups, same thing happens. Reader of 'Ma-Beob Cheon-Ja-Moon' are not Manhwa readers? Of course, they are also readers. But if time has passed & these children became grown ups, they will remember these Manhwas as their childhood memory.
even made as Nintendo DS game, sold well.
>>> mirugi's talk ends. <<<
- Editor's Note : 'Ma-Beob Chun-Ja-Moon' is about learning Chinese Character(Han-Ja). [Back]
Posted by mrkwang
