📚 Japan's biggest manga app LINE Manga celebrated its 13th anniversary with a "Favorite Manga Election," and One Piece dominated by placing in the top 3 of 5 different categories. But the real story might be that runners-up Demon Slayer (a national treasure) and Teenage Mercenary (a Korean webtoon) tied with 2 categories each — revealing how Japanese manga consumption is rapidly evolving with 2.89 million votes counted.

What 2.89 Million Votes Reveal

LINE Manga marked its 13th anniversary on April 9, 2026, by hosting a "Favorite Manga Election" between April 9 and April 22. Users voted across 13 themes — including "Manga With the Most Memorable Quotes," "Tear-Jerking Manga That Devastates You," and "Manga With the Best Foreshadowing Payoff." Total votes reached 2,889,609.

When the top 3 were revealed for each theme, the standout winner was Eiichiro Oda's One Piece (Monochrome Edition), taking spots in 5 categories: Most Memorable Quotes, Tear-Jerking Manga, Best Foreshadowing Payoff, Most Lovable Villains, and Worth-Buying-Every-Volume Manga.

Tied for second place with 2 category wins each were Koyoharu Gotouge's Demon Slayer (Most Memorable Quotes, Tear-Jerking Manga) and the Korean-origin webtoon Teenage Mercenary by writer YC and artist rakhyun (Lightning-Fast Pacing, Most Cathartic Manga).

Who Voted? LINE Manga's Reader Demographics

To make sense of these results, you need to understand who actually uses LINE Manga.

According to multiple market research reports, LINE Manga's user profile looks like this:

  • Skews female: Among users aged 20+, 54.3% are women — 16.9 percentage points higher than men (Video Research, 2023)
  • Largest segment is women aged 35–49, followed by women aged 20–34 (same source)
  • Heavy usage among teens: 67.2% of Japanese teens have used a comic app, with LINE Manga the most-used at 46.1% (MMD Labo, 2020)
  • Clear age divide between platforms: Ages 10s–30s favor LINE Manga, while ages 40s–60s favor Piccoma (MMD Labo, 2024)
  • High engagement: 37.7% of users open the app nearly every day, with 15+ days of monthly app launches on average (Video Research / Manamina)

So the 2.89 million votes were cast primarily by women in their teens through 30s, with the 20s–40s female cohort as the strongest core. This is the polar opposite of Shueisha's Shonen Jump+ app (60%+ male, 20s-centric).

This reader profile reframes the results. The categories where Korean webtoons swept all three top slots — "Most Charming Characters," "Most Precious Couples," and "Gripped You from Chapter 1" — reflect natural support from female readers. Meanwhile, in categories rewarding long-form storytelling consumption — "Lovable Villains," "Foreshadowing Payoff," "Worth Buying Every Volume" — multi-generational hits like One Piece, Dragon Ball, Attack on Titan, and Kingdom dominate.

The Top 3 of All 13 Categories — What Got Picked

Here's the full picture. Note that within each category, titles are listed alphabetically (Japanese syllabary order), not by vote count.

① Manga to Recommend to Your 13-Year-Old Self

  • Kimi ni Todoke (Karuho Shiina / Shueisha)
  • Ice Wall (Akagawa Kocha / Shueisha)
  • Haikyu!! (Haruichi Furudate / Shueisha)

② Manga With the Most Memorable Quotes

  • Demon Slayer (Koyoharu Gotouge / Shueisha)
  • Fullmetal Alchemist (Hiromu Arakawa / Square Enix)
  • One Piece Monochrome Edition (Eiichiro Oda / Shueisha)

③ Lightning-Fast Pacing Manga

  • Solo Leveling (Manga: DUBU / Original: Chugong / Adapted: h-goon / D&C MEDIA)
  • Jujutsu Kaisen (Gege Akutami / Shueisha)
  • Teenage Mercenary (Story: YC / Art: rakhyun / LINE Manga)

④ Manga With the Most Charming Characters

  • Tears for the Withered Flowers (Gae / LINE Manga)
  • Operation: Pure Heart (Story: kkokkalee / Art: Dledumb / LINE Manga)
  • The Romance of Toudou Tsukasa (Art/Adapted: 248 / Original: Anna Kim / LINE Manga)

⑤ Tear-Jerking Manga

  • Demon Slayer (Koyoharu Gotouge / Shueisha)
  • The Tyrant I Loved (Adapted/Art: LICO / Original: Cersei / LINE Manga)
  • One Piece Monochrome Edition (Eiichiro Oda / Shueisha)

⑥ Manga With the Most Precious Couples

  • Under the Oak Tree (Adapted: Seomal / Art: P / Original: Kim Suji / RIDI)
  • Doting on the Empire's Worst Empress (Aji / SORAJIMA)
  • For My Discarded Beloved (Original: Kim Seonyu / Story: Ryuho / Art: Gimyong / LINE Manga)

⑦ Manga With the Best Foreshadowing Payoff

  • Obsessed by My In-Laws (Manga: seungu / Original: Han Yoon-seol / LINE Manga)
  • Attack on Titan (Hajime Isayama / Kodansha)
  • One Piece Monochrome Edition (Eiichiro Oda / Shueisha)

⑧ Manga to Read When You Want to Laugh

  • Gintama Monochrome Edition (Hideaki Sorachi / Shueisha)
  • The Takanashi Family (Kozueko Morimoto / Shueisha)
  • The Way of the Househusband (Kousuke Oono / Shinchosha)

⑨ Manga With the Most Lovable Villains

  • Dragon Ball Monochrome Edition (Akira Toriyama / Shueisha)
  • My Hero Academia (Kohei Horikoshi / Shueisha)
  • One Piece Monochrome Edition (Eiichiro Oda / Shueisha)

⑩ Manga That Gripped You from Chapter 1

  • The Remarried Empress (Original: Alphatart / Art: SUMPUL / Adapted: HereLee / LINE Manga)
  • Cry, You May Beg (Manga: VAN JI / Original: Solche / LINE Manga)
  • The Problematic Prince (Original: Solche / Manga: CACTUS / LINE Manga)

⑪ Manga Worth Buying Every Volume

  • Akatsuki no Yona / Yona of the Dawn (Mizuho Kusanagi / Hakusensha)
  • Kingdom (Yasuhisa Hara / Shueisha)
  • One Piece Monochrome Edition (Eiichiro Oda / Shueisha)

⑫ Most Cathartic Manga

  • May I Make One Last Request? (Original: Nana Otori / Manga: Sora Honoki / Alphapolis)
  • Teenage Mercenary (Story: YC / Art: rakhyun / LINE Manga)
  • Marry My Husband (Story/Art: LICO / Original: sungsojak / LINE Manga)

⑬ Manga to Enjoy in Under 5 Volumes

  • Astra Lost in Space (Kenta Shinohara / Shueisha)
  • Karaoke Iko! (Yama Wayama / KADOKAWA)
  • Tacopi's Original Sin (Taizan 5 / Shueisha)

For positions 4 and below, LINE Manga publishes the top 30 titles for each category on its event page and inside the app.

Where Korean Webtoons and Japanese Manga Each Excel

A clear pattern emerges from the 13 categories.

Categories dominated by Korean webtoons:

  • ④ Most Charming Characters (all 3 are Korean webtoons)
  • ⑥ Most Precious Couples (all 3 are Korean-origin)
  • ⑩ Gripped from Chapter 1 (all 3 are Korean webtoons)
  • ③ Lightning-Fast Pacing (2 of 3 are Korean-origin)
  • ⑫ Most Cathartic (2 of 3 are Korean-origin)

Categories dominated by Japanese manga:

  • ① Recommend to Your 13-Year-Old Self (all 3 from Shueisha)
  • ②, ⑤, ⑦, ⑨, ⑪ (Memorable Quotes, Tear-Jerking, Foreshadowing, Lovable Villains, Buy-Every-Volume — all 3 of each are Japanese manga)
  • ⑧ Want to Laugh (Shueisha and Shinchosha)
  • ⑬ Under 5 Volumes (Shueisha and KADOKAWA)

In other words, Korean webtoons dominate "character love," "romance/couples," "opening hooks," and "pace" — while Japanese manga dominates "long-term accumulation," "iconic scenes," "complex foreshadowing," and "comedy." It's a clean division of territory, born naturally from the production-model differences (weekly vertical-scroll updates vs. weekly serialization with volume accumulation).

A Personal Rant from an Old-Timer

Time for an honest confession. We've been analyzing all this seriously, but looking at the top 3 of every category — 39 titles in total — anyone else react like this?

"Where's Phoenix? Where's Devilman? Where's AKIRA? Where's Fist of the North Star? Where's Kinnikuman? Where's JoJo's Bizarre Adventure? Where's Parasyte? Where's Blade of the Immortal? Where's Ushio and Tora? Where's Ping Pong Club?"

Not a single one. Across 13 themes × 3 titles = 39 slots, not one of the masterpieces from the manga golden age makes an appearance. No Raoh in "Lovable Villains." No Ushio and Tora in "Worth Buying Every Volume." No Ping Pong Club or Old Boy Crazy in "Want to Laugh." JoJo's Bizarre Adventure — a series that is basically nothing BUT quotable lines — doesn't even crack "Most Memorable Quotes."

If you reacted "huh?!" to that, congratulations — you're probably an old-timer like the writer of this article.

It makes sense if you think about it. The voter base is centered on women aged teens through 30s. Fist of the North Star ended its serialization in 1988. AKIRA wrapped in 1990. Devilman concluded in 1973. These are works from before some voters' parents were even born.

We use the same word "manga" — but "the masterpieces an old guy remembers" and "the masterpieces capturing today's young women's hearts" might already be different genres entirely. We live in an era where Kenshiro's "You are already dead" doesn't crack "Most Memorable Quotes." This isn't the result being wrong — the world simply moved on.

So, fellow old-timers reading this: shall we run our own "Old Guys' Manga Poll, Run by Old Guys, for Old Guys"? Call us boomers all you want, but there's a place needed to keep the names of those classics alive. If you feel the same, please yell about it in the comments.

Why One Piece Swept 5 Categories

One Piece has been serialized in Weekly Shonen Jump since 1997, and as of Volume 114 released in March 2026, the series has surpassed 600 million copies in circulation worldwide — uncharted territory for a single work by a single author.

The breakdown of its 5 wins reads like a textbook on long-form storytelling. "Most Memorable Quotes" reflects nearly three decades of accumulation. "Best Foreshadowing Payoff" captures the current Wano-to-Elbaph wave where decades-old setups are finally being resolved. "Most Lovable Villains" speaks to the rich gallery of antagonists from Crocodile to Doflamingo to Kaido. "Worth Buying Every Volume" is helped by the sheer fact that the series has 114 volumes. And "Tear-Jerking" hits because of moments like Hiluluk's cherry blossoms, Ace's death, and Coby's cries — scenes burned into Japanese readers' collective memory.

The story's entry into the Elbaph arc and a sense of approaching finale is providing further momentum. Volume 114 became the only manga volume in 2026 to surpass 1 million copies sold within Japan, with the Netflix live-action adaptation amplifying the heat globally.

What Demon Slayer's 2 Category Wins Mean

Demon Slayer placed in 2 categories — both shared with One Piece (Memorable Quotes and Tear-Jerking). This is symbolic of Japan's manga landscape in 2026.

The vote took place right after Demon Slayer: Infinity Castle Chapter 1 — Akaza Returns hit theaters in July 2025 and grossed over ¥117.9 billion (~$753M USD) worldwide, becoming the highest-grossing Japanese film in global box office history. Scenes like Rengoku's final stand, Shinobu's battle with Doma, and the Infinity Castle tragedies were freshly etched into voters' memories from recent theatrical experiences.

That said, Demon Slayer is a completed manga, while One Piece is still ongoing — meaning the "current heat" differs structurally. Demon Slayer scoring 2 category wins reflects both the trilogy of final films currently rolling out and the continued streaming presence of the Mugen Train, Entertainment District, Swordsmith Village, and Hashira Training arcs throughout 2026.

Teenage Mercenary — A Korean Webtoon Standing Among Japan's Giants

The most striking result is Teenage Mercenary placing in 2 categories: "Lightning-Fast Pacing" and "Most Cathartic Manga."

Teenage Mercenary is a Korean action webtoon written by YC and illustrated by rakhyun, serialized on Korea's NAVER platform since November 2020. In Japan, it has been distributed exclusively through LINE Manga since September 17, 2021, with significant localization — the setting was changed from Korea to Japan, and the protagonist's name was changed from Yoo Ijin to Tatewaki Soma.

The story follows a boy who lost his family in a plane crash at age 8, survived as a child mercenary in a foreign land for 10 years, and finally returned home to find his family — only to enroll in high school as a transfer student. Internationally, the series is published as Teenage Mercenary on WEBTOON.com in English, with translations also available in Chinese, Thai, Indonesian, French, German, Spanish (as "Mercenario adolescente"), and Portuguese.

An anime adaptation was announced on June 19, 2025, cementing the series' position as a global hit.

The fact that a Korean webtoon ranked alongside titles from Shueisha and Kodansha — Japan's most prestigious manga publishers — in a Japanese app's poll signals that for readers themselves, the "Japanese manga vs. Korean webtoon" distinction is rapidly dissolving.

LINE Manga: A Japan-Korea Hybrid Platform

Understanding what LINE Manga actually is matters here.

LINE Manga launched in 2013 as a digital manga app from LINE Corporation, originally distributing standard Japanese manga from Shueisha, Kodansha, and other publishers. In 2019, it absorbed XOY — a Naver Webtoon-affiliated Japanese webtoon app — and from that point onward became a hybrid platform offering both Japanese manga and Korean webtoons.

It's currently operated by LINE Digital Frontier Corporation and owned by Webtoon Entertainment (the holding company under Korea's Naver and the US-based LY Corporation). In other words, LINE Manga is the Japanese counterpart to Webtoon, sitting alongside the English WEBTOON site, Korean Naver Webtoon, and Chinese Dongman as Webtoon Entertainment's regional outposts.

This means Japanese users can read One Piece and Teenage Mercenary in the same app. International readers don't have this convenience — for Japanese manga, they need MANGA Plus by Shueisha; for Korean webtoons, they need WEBTOON.com. The services are split.

How International Readers Can Access Each Title

Here's where the three top finishers can be read outside Japan:

One Piece / Demon Slayer: Both are Shueisha titles, so they're available on MANGA Plus by SHUEISHA (free, with the latest 3 chapters and early chapters), Viz Media (paid English volumes), and partial coverage on Crunchyroll Manga. Japan has near-complete official coverage on multiple platforms; international editions tend to lag slightly behind the Japanese latest chapter.

Teenage Mercenary: Available globally on WEBTOON.com for free under the title "Teenage Mercenary" in English. Multilingual versions include "Mercenario adolescente" (Spanish), "High School Mercenary" (French), "High School Soldier" (Indonesian), and others. This is a textbook example of a globally accessible webtoon.

A note: the LINE Manga app itself is only accessible from Japanese IPs to protect copyright agreements, and Coins are not interchangeable between language platforms. This is a Webtoon Entertainment-wide policy based on regional licensing.

Global Webtoon Market in 2026

According to Korean content industry reports, K-webtoon's overseas readership is expanding rapidly in 2026.

The U.S. remains the number one overseas market for K-webtoons in 2026, with over 35 million monthly readers on Webtoon and Tapas combined. Japan's digital comic consumption has risen 42%. Indonesia surpassed 25 million active users, the Philippines holds over 20 million monthly readers, Thailand has nearly 18 million regular readers, and France saw a 55% increase compared to the previous year. Brazil records over 12 million active webtoon readers monthly.

2026 is also seeing webtoon-originated anime dominate the schedule. The 2026 anime slate features a record number of confirmed webtoon adaptations, including Dark Moon: The Blood Altar, Terror Man, Tomb Raider King, Your Letter, Eleceed, and A Returner's Magic Should Be Special Season 2. Teenage Mercenary's announced anime adaptation fits within this larger trend.

Why This Result Matters

The interesting thing about LINE Manga's 13th anniversary results isn't just which titles won. It's that a voter pool centered on women in their teens through 30s is putting a 30-year shonen institution like One Piece and a vertical-scroll newcomer like Teenage Mercenary on equal footing. That's a rapid shift in consumption behavior over just the past few years.

A platform where the pinnacle of Japanese manga (One Piece) and the flagship of global webtoons (Teenage Mercenary) sit side by side in the same poll — that's a scene that would have been unimaginable 10 years ago.

What about in your country?

How well known are One Piece, Demon Slayer, and Teenage Mercenary where you live? Do you read Japanese manga and Korean webtoons through the same app, or do you switch between services? Let us know in the comments.

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