News

Topco Media Plans to Release AI-Animated Adaptations of its Adult Webtoons Globally After 1st Work Sees Strong Results in Taiwan

Topco Media, the Korean parent company for the webtoon platform Toptoon, reported on December 2 strong commercial performance for its first AI-produced adult animation series Office Romances Are Strictly Forbidden, demonstrating returns estimated at around five times the original webtoon production cost, following its initial release in Taiwan.

Based on one of the company's adult webtoons, the project uses AI to create newly designed characters and scene compositions rather than directly adapting the existing artwork. Topco Media claimed the approach provides a new model for expanding webtoon IP into animation.

The company has established an in-house AI studio and built a custom production pipeline combining tools such as Grok, NovelAI, and ComfyUI with expanded NVIDIA GPU infrastructure. Topco Media claimed this enables animation output at three to five times the speed of traditional production, while "targeting realistic visual quality."

Following the initial success in Taiwan, Topco Media plans to release additional AI-driven adult animated titles globally beginning in December. The official English version of the Office Romances Are Strictly Forbidden webtoon is available on Toptoon (series is not safe for work).

Topco Media aims to expand its business beyond webtoon distribution into adult animation and short-form video, targeting more than 60% of total revenue from international markets by 2026.

Topco Media had first announced the initiative in September. Toptoon has services in Korea, Japan, and Taiwan in addition to its English-language service. The company also runs the Novelpia platform.

Other webtoon companies have recently launched similar initiatives to adapt their properties into video format, with or without using AI. Kakao Entertainment launched "Helix Shorts," a new AI-powered service that automatically generates short-form video content based on webtoons, on April 22 for all Kakao Page users.

WEBTOON introduced Video Episodes — a new feature that adapts some of the platform's most popular series into short-form video with voice acting, sound, and motion — in August.

Source: edaily (Yoon-jung Lee)