Well, Here Comes the Flood of Hunter genre Webtoons Anime…
Article at a glance:
- The hunter genre is basically Korea’s isekai boom, one massive hit led to rapid saturation and copy-paste storytelling.
- Good entries exist, but they’re rare, most hunter webtoons are forgettable power fantasies with recycled ideas.
- Anime adaptations shouldn’t be handed out for popularity alone, they should be saved for stories that actually earn them.
Well, this is what happened in Korea, too; we’re just getting a repeat of the whole trend with Japan. Because of the insane success of Solo Leveling and a couple of other webtoons, the hunter genre quickly became a staple. Think of it as the Korean equivalent of isekai. You will find webtoons/manhwa from this genre a dime a dozen. And yeah, most of them are slop like most of the isekais we get these days are slop. We are greeted with an exceptionally good entry from time to time, but just like isekai, that’s an exception, not a rule.
So yeah, welcome back to another article, and today we are talking about the hunter genre in webtoons. And, I don’t want to sound too rant-y, but if we can avoid adapting webtoons that are even remotely popular into anime, that would be nice. You know, save the anime adaptation for webtoons that truly deserve them, like Solo Leveling. But yeah, let’s get into it.
The Hunter Genre in Webtoons is kind of a mixed bag…
The thing with the hunter genre is that it followed the exact same trajectory as isekai: rapid rise, instant saturation, and an almost industrial-level assembly line of copy-paste stories. Dungeons appear, hunters awaken, rankings exist, the protagonist is secretly broken, and everyone else exists to be amazed by him. Sound familiar? And like isekai, once the template was proven to work, originality became optional. The result is a genre where genuinely good ideas are buried under a mountain of aggressively mediocre execution.
Sure, there are standouts, just like in isekai. Solo Leveling didn’t just succeed because it was flashy; it had pacing, escalation, and a clear sense of identity. A few others at least try to experiment with tone, power systems, or character dynamics. But for every decent hunter story, there are ten that feel algorithmically generated. Flat protagonists, meaningless stakes, and progression systems that exist purely to inflate numbers.
What worries me is that we’re now entering the “adapt everything” phase. With news of series like Tomb Raider King getting an anime, it feels like we’re repeating Japan’s worst isekai-era mistakes beat for beat. Anime adaptations shouldn’t be a participation trophy for popularity alone.
That is all for now
Don’t miscountrue me, I am not saying that Manhwa/Webtoons shouldn’t get anime adaptations. They absolutely should. But anime adaptations are expensive and time-consuming. That’s why they should be saved for a few special stories that earn it, and not the random hunter webtoons you can find right now that trend for a few weeks and then just disappear. With that said, though, I will take my leave here. I am currently traveling. See ya!
