Isekai Manhwa that can be difficult to adapt into an anime

Important takeaways

• Isekai manhwa's high-eye animations and special effects make them difficult to adapt to anime.
• Animated flashy manhwa likes
  Seoul Station Druid
  can be a nightmare even for experienced crews.
• To adapt manhwa as
  The skeleton soldier failed to defend the dungeon
  is challenging due to animating skeletons.

Isekai manhwa has certain characteristics that make it unique: they are flashy, their battle scenes are always focused in close-ups with high eye animations and quite loaded with special effects. All things considered, animating one of these pieces into an Isekai anime could result in a masterpiece (like Solo Leveling or A returner's magic should be special) or an absolute flop.

The risk is far too high, and the rewards are not as great as they seem. So with that in mind here is a list of Isekai Manhwa that could be hard to adapt to an anime. From a reverse Isekai story about a crazy and powerful Druid/Birdperson, to a story about a skeleton trapped in an endless death loop, which would be a killer series if not for the fact that animating skeletons is a nightmare and the cost would be too high .

Updated on November 9, 2024 by Lucas Simons: When The Beginning After The End was removed from this article due to it becoming an anime (against all odds), some adjustments were needed. First of many, a new contender joins the club of manhwa that would be difficult to adapt into an anime: Seoul Station Druid. On the other hand, we also have Seoul Station Necromancer, a similar series but with a different story and focus (They love Seoul Station for some reason). A series that recently ended and has been discussed to become an anime on its own terms, but due to the similarities to so many series (including Solo Leveling) it's hard to see it being animated anytime soon.

6 Seoul Station Druid

The art style and flashy story make it almost impossible to animate

• Genres: Action-Adventure, Fantasy, Sci-Fi
• Author: Jin Sol U
• Artist: Mun Sung-Ho, liveBear

Seoul Station Druid is about Park Seohoo, a normal human who was sent to a world full of wild beasts, where the survival of the fittest is taken to the extreme. In this beast world, he became the king of all beasts and gained Druid-like powers and control over the elements. When one fateful day he was pulled back to Earth for mysterious reasons, he discovered that he was just one of many “Awakeners” who returned in a similar fashion.

Now he has become one of the most powerful beings in the world, a dangerous beast-like king who answers to no one, and whose sole goal is to create a paradise for all beasts and humans to coexist on a changed planet Earth. There are many strange things about this manhwa; a mix of Wuxia, action and adventure with vampires, zombies and even elves who happen to be from a martial arts world. The art style, as well as the effects of Seohoo's spells, are extremely flashy, so animating this would be a nightmare even for an experienced crew. It's hard to see this manhwa being an anime in the near future.

5 Seoul Station Necromancer

Similarities to other scare producers

• Genres: Sword & Sorcery, Dystopian, Urban Fantasy
• Author: Jin Sol U
• Artist: Jin Sol U

With so many titles to choose from, manhwa writers seem obsessed with using the keywords from Seoul Station. However, that is not the main problem with this series, which recently ended (leaving fans with a bittersweet feeling), and has become one of the main topics of discussion among genre connoisseurs. Is it too similar? Solo Leveling? Or does it have its own identity? There is no easy answer to these questions, but the truth is that although Seoul Station Necromancer may be similar to other reverse-isekai/Awakener stories, it also has its own spice. It's a revenge story, unlike Solo Levelingwhich revolves around a struggle for power and survival.

Unlike Seoul Station Druid, this series has a more refined art style, and the story is more concise. The character development is also laid out in a more polished way. The problem lies in who would dare to produce a series that needs to compete with a megahit-like Solo Leveling? Even worse, there is a new spin-off series based on the world created by Chu-Gong, so if this man wants an anime, it has to compete with that series as well. It's hard to see this coming anywhere near an animated series anytime soon.

4 I reincarnated as an evolving space monster

Its gory scenes would certainly be toned down, plus the legal issues

• Genre: Sci-Fi, Action, Gore, Terror
• Author: FearTurtle (Gongpouigeobug-i)
• Status: Ongoing

The protagonist of this story is transported to a game reality where he is reincarnated as a space monster, quite similar Foreign xenomorph, and immediately feels overjoyed at the prospect of joining the race and beginning to evolve into a full-fledged space monster. The manhwa is honestly amazing, with near-perfect design, great atmospheric horror depictions, and yes, plenty of gruesome scenes.

And therein lies the main question of how to tackle a possible adaptation: Would the producers tone down the misery to avoid breaking the rules, or will they stay true to the original material? Most fans of this series probably understand that body horror and gore go hand in hand, so if they notice something like censorship in a possible animation of this series, they will not appreciate it. On the other hand, the similarities between Ridley Scott's Foreign and I reincarnated as an evolving space monster could be an obstacle to its production, although the story deviates greatly from the horror film, and the monster has many different abilities such as human voice mimicry, something that no xenophobia had manifested until now.

This one would break the special effects budget

• Genre: Action, Isekai, Sword and Sorcery, School Life, Shounen, Drama
• Author: Corita (Story), Girin Geurin (Art)
• Status: In progress

Reincarnated as the low-class villain from a game, Ed Rothtaylor, a Korean player begins to use his knowledge of the plot and episodes of the game to try to survive in a ruthless world of swords and sorcery. He openly decided that he would keep a low profile while barely intervening so as not to change the course of history and thus prevent bad endings from happening. But little does he know that even the smallest change can cause unpredictable effects.

Then, butterfly effect-style, his rampage begins to change the plot in catastrophic ways, making him take a preliminary role instead of a secondary one, and puts him at the center of a hurricane of problems. Despite knowing all the outcomes and possible bad endings of every act in the game he was transported to, he can't help but be the center of attention, knowing that this will absolutely change the outcomes in unpredictable ways and twist the patterns of most of it. dangerous situations. Customize many flashbacks, ins and outs of Extras Academy Survival Guide would of course be difficult to implement. Also, the main problem would be the sheer amount of summoning creatures, magical battles, and visual effects that would need to be replicated. Toning it down could be a solution, but the author of this manhwa would have to compromise heavily to eliminate several parts that could result in a budget issue. Investing in doing so would still result in a great isekai anime.

2 The Magic Academy's Genius Blinker

A good school life Isekai, but animation of MC can be a problem

• Genre: Action, Isekai, Fantasy, Sword & Sorcery, School Life, Shounen
• Author: Eunmilhi (Story) Seoyu (Art)
• Status: In progress

A player is transported to the game reality of a popular RPG with high fantasy content, and he is embodied by none other than Baek Yu-Seol, a character many consider trash for his unique play style: He is an expert in using the spell Blink , something difficult to control and theoretically weak compared to other magic. Being aware of all possible future developments, the MC will do whatever it takes to prevent the ultimate bad ending, as that is his primary mission and the reason he was brought to the game world.

While the story is fantastic, fun and easy to read, animating it can be a nightmare even for very experienced studios. More so if they factor in that the MC's ability is basically jumping everywhere at the speed of light and attacking with focused slashes. This story also shares a common point with Extras Academy Survival Guide: Its flashy scenes can be difficult to maintain within a balanced budget and would need to be toned down considerably before anything.

1 The skeleton soldier failed to defend the dungeon

Animating a skeleton is not as easy as it seems

• Genres: Dark Fantasy, Drama, Isekai, Action, Adventure
• Author: Sosori (Story), Ant Studio (Art)
• Status: In progress

For the audience experienced with Isekai and other Fantasy genres and tropes, seeing a skeleton is a common thing. More so when you watch shows where adventurers delve into dungeons and encounter such creatures at almost every corner. And yet, when we see the animations of said creatures, these look clumsy and extremely low-budget. And why is that so? Well, they're usually cannon fodder for the heroes, or as they like to call them: XP bags.

But production-wise, animating a whole skeleton can be nightmarish, trust this, so imagine having to animate a whole skeleton for hours and hours, and more so: show it in different planes (besides a short fight sequence or close-up ) fully armored , wear cloaks, fight like an expert warrior, and so on. If you pay even more attention, in battle scenes they hardly show that they are moving, they are practically static waiting for the heroes' attacks and sometimes they are shown walking in bulk, approaching in a medium long shot. No feet, no knees, no full body shots. So in the case of The skeleton soldier failed to defend the dungeon which is one of the top rated Isekai anime, and one with great storytelling and world building, it can be notoriously difficult and unlikely to make it into an animated series.