Korean animation

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The art of Korean animation, manhwa-yeonghwa (만화 영화) in Korean, has gone from small hand held flip books in early times, through to studios that produce most of the work for the major American, Japanese, and Australian animation companies. Notable examples of Korean animation include many episodes from the Simpsons and Justice League Unlimited television series, which were made and drawn in Seoul, South Korea.

Robotech: The Shadow Chronicles is a new feature film that was animated by DR Movie in Seoul, although the original series was previously produced in Japan. DR Movie also produced the animation for other well-known anime such as Macross Plus.

Major players describe the Korean animation industry as in a period of crisis or transition. During the 1990s, a period of explosive growth for the industry, Korean studios made the lion's share of their profits from "OEM animation," or animation production deals, mostly from the United States. Nelson Shin's AKOM studio struck the prototypical Korean OEM deal in 1989, when it animated the first season of The Simpsons television series. Although some studios, notably DR Movie, remain busy, Korean OEM deals have been on the decline in the past half decade, leaving Shin and other studio heads without work.

Many animators see the salvation of the industry in original projects. But efforts to make up the shortfall in orders with original works have been mixed. These include My Beautiful Girl, Mari, Wonderful Days and Empress Chung. Some Korean animators blame the booming Korean game industry for draining the animation industry's talent pool.^[1]

In contrast to Japan, Korea rarely adapts its manhwa into animated form. However, Korea has been responsible for countless animated series from around the world, most coming from Japan.