Highlights
- KADOKAWA Corporation, LINE Digital Frontier, and REDICE STUDIO launch STUDIO WHITE to adapt KADOKAWA’s light novel IPs.
- Popular series like Sword Art Online, The Familiar of Zero, and Record of Lodoss War will receive original webcomic spin-offs.
- The STUDIO WHITE initiative aligns with Kadokawa’s global IP strategy, leveraging WEBTOON’s global reach.
WEBTOON Entertainment subsidiary LINE Digital Frontier has launched STUDIO WHITE, a new webcomic production company co-founded with Japanese publisher KADOKAWA and South Korea-based REDICE STUDIO. The initiative will exclusively bring titles including Sword Art Online and The Familiar of Zero as spin-off webcomics, for WEBTOON’s 160M monthly active users.
According to KADOKAWA Corporation’s Director and CO Naohisa Yamashita, the partnership aims to bring KADOKAWA’s IPs and stories to a global audience. “We are excited to announce an adaptation of Record of Lodoss War, an important story to KADOKAWA and in the history of light novels, into a WEBTOON webcomic,” he stated. Record of Lodoss War will be the first work produced by STUDIO WHITE under this partnership.
WEBTOON
STUDIO WHITE marks a structural escalation from WEBTOON's earlier content partnerships in the region, including LINE Digital Frontier's 2025 strategic investment in No. 9 Inc. The partnership is strategic; REDICE STUDIO brings its track record of producing hits such as Omniscient Reader's Viewpoint, Solo Leveling, 7FATES: CHAKHO, and Assassin's Creed: Forgotten Temple, while KADOKAWA brings decades of global publishing expertise and renowned IPs.
STUDIO WHITE’s Production Scope and Planned Titles
LINE Digital Frontier CBO and Representative Director Shin-Bae Kim emphasized the significance of the partnership in STUDIO WHITE’s formation and content roadmap. “STUDIO WHITE will give global audiences an entirely new way to experience these beloved titles on WEBTOON and LINE MANGA,” he stated.
As mentioned, Ryo Mizuno’s Record of Lodoss War-based new stories are STUDIO WHITE’s first publication. The initial release in Korean is scheduled on May 9, with partners aiming to expand distribution to six more languages, including English and Japanese.
Mizuno framed the debut as a content expansion rather than a retread. “This new story explores an untold chapter of the war, one that has never appeared in the novels,” he said, adding that he hoped longtime fans would find something new.
Along with Reki Kawahara’s Sword Art Online and Noboru Yamaguchi’s The Familiar of Zero, Hajime Kanzaka’s Slayers is also confirmed for a spin-off webcomic adaptation. Apart from the confirmed titles, other KADOKAWA IPs will eventually get webcomic adaptations, with each adaptation reported to be a new spin-off story, instead of being copies of the original narratives with a different format.
While STUDIO WHITE’s initiative is timed with webcomics’ global popularity, the model carries execution risks. Adapting text-heavy light novels into episodic webcomics would require significant work on pacing and visual storytelling, which risks diluting original narratives. The proposed webcomics would also pose competition with previous anime and manga adaptations.
Nonetheless, the initiative aligns with KADOKAWA's stated “Global Media Mix with Technology” strategy, which consolidates its publishing, anime, gaming, and merchandizing businesses around shared intellectual property. Bringing popular light novels into webcomic spin-offs is a strategic bet; the success of this initiative would depend on matching the readers' expectations while respecting the source’s originality.
