The differences at a glance
| Manga | Manhwa | Manhua | Webtoon | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Where from | Japan | South Korea | China, Hong Kong, Taiwan | A format, started in South Korea |
| Language on the page | Japanese | Korean | Chinese | Any |
| Reading direction | Right to left | Left to right | Left to right | Top to bottom |
| Color | Mostly black and white | Often full color today | Often full color today | Usually full color |
| Typical art style | Screentone shading, expressive eyes, speed lines | Digital painting, cleaner lines, cinematic panels | Painted or 3D-like color, ornate costumes in historical stories | Full-screen panels with space between them |
| Usual format | Pages in a magazine or a volume | Pages, or a vertical strip | Pages, or a vertical strip | One long strip per episode |
These are the common patterns, not rules. Plenty of series break them.
Where does donghua fit?
Donghua is Chinese animation, the way anime is Japanese animation. Many donghua are adapted from manhua or web novels, just as many anime come from manga. So: manhua is the Chinese comic, donghua is the Chinese cartoon.
How to tell them apart from one page
- Look at the script. Japanese mixes simple angular katakana and curvy hiragana with characters. Korean hangul is built from little circles and lines grouped into square blocks. Chinese is characters only.
- Look at the layout. Separate pages with panels arranged right to left point to manga. One tall scrolling strip with space between panels points to a webtoon.
- Look at the sound effects. They are written in the same script, so a big ドン is Japanese and a big 쾅 is Korean. Our sound effects guide has more than a hundred of them.
Reading one you can't read
Whichever it is, the hard part is the same: the words. Mangit takes a screenshot of the page, works out its language by itself, and sends it back with every bubble in your language and the art left as drawn. It handles manga, manhwa, manhua and webtoon screenshots alike, in 31 languages. It is a paid app with no free trial; the app shows the price for your country before you pay.
Questions
Is manhwa the same as manga?
No. Manhwa is the Korean word for comics and manga is the Japanese word. Manhwa is usually read left to right and is often in color; manga is read right to left and is mostly black and white.
Is a webtoon a manhwa?
Many are. A webtoon is a vertical scrolling format; most new Korean manhwa are published as webtoons, but webtoons are made in many countries.
What is manhua?
Manhua is the Chinese word for comics. Manhua come from mainland China, Hong Kong and Taiwan, and are usually read left to right.
Why is manga read right to left?
Japanese is traditionally written in vertical columns from right to left, so books, and the panels in them, run the same way.
What is the difference between manhua and donghua?
Manhua is Chinese comics; donghua is Chinese animation. Many donghua are adapted from manhua or web novels.
Can one app translate all of them?
Mangit translates screenshots of manga, manhwa, manhua and webtoons. It detects whether the page is Japanese, Korean or Chinese by itself.
