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Culture works triumph at the 2025 World Webtoon Awards

Published: 23 Oct. 2025, 14:32 Updated: 23 Oct. 2025, 16:55

YOON SO-YEON
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Webtoonists and Vice Culture Minister Kim Young-soo pose for photos after the 2025 World Webtoon Awards on Oct. 22 in southern Seoul. [MINISTRY OF CULTURE, SPORTS AND TOURISM]

K-pop and Korean tradition won big at the 2025 World Webtoon Awards, held Wednesday as the finale to the four-day webtoon and web novel festivity in southern Seoul.

Organized by the Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism and the Korea Creative Content Agency (Kocca), the webtoon awards celebrated its second edition this year following its inauguration last year in a bid to boost the domestic web content market.

The grand prize went to Naver Webtoon's "Mirae's Antique Shop" (2020-) by Gu A-jin recognized for its "solid narrative despite the long years of running and astonishing illustration style." The series is an occult fantasy action thriller that revolves around Mirae, a teenage shaman who must exorcise her way through dark forces in order to keep herself, her friends and the world safe. The fictional background of the series is based on Korean folklore, instead of Western fantasy.

The Readers' Choice Award went to Kakao Entertainment's "Debut or Die" (2022-) by Jang Jin and Soheun. "Debut or Die" received 12,709 votes from readers, or 48 percent of the total votes. The series takes the well-known K-pop audition debut theme, mashed up with the popular "reincarnated into someone else's body" idea to challenge the main character Moondae to debut or die. The series has garnered real-life fans who waited hours in line to get into a pop-up store in 2023.

The 2025 World Webtoon Festival poster [MINISTRY OF CULTURE, SPORTS AND TOURISM]

The Jury President's Award went to “Omniscient Reader” (2020-) by UMI and Sleepy-C. The series is considered one of the most successful web content and has been turned into a film that hit theaters in July.

"The World Webtoon Awards is a meaningful event that allows people working in the webtoon industry as well as webtoon fans around the world to look back at the year," said Vice Culture Minister Kim Young-soo.

"We will endeavor to make this awards the biggest event to represent the webtoon industry, like the Cannes International Film Festival of the film industry."

The pop-up store, which is located in the basement levels of the Lotte World Mall in southern Seoul, will stay open until Oct. 26.