Another day, another ‘is Overgeared getting an anime yet?!’ conundrum.
This question always plagued the manhwa fandom. Of course, who doesn’t want to see their favorite characters from a medium come to life? And there are so many stories that can benefit from it. One recent example is the anime adaptation of the beloved manga Spy X Family, which only has two episodes out so far but translated so well into anime, it’s already a hit amongst anime enthusiasts.
And thanks to the popularity in foreign media such as Korean Manhwa, Chinese Manhua, and Webtoons, many wondered if those could also be given the same treatment as Japanese Manga and get made into an anime. Nowadays it isn’t that unheard of to hear that a webtoon is getting a live-action adaptation or getting picked up for an anime adaptation. I mean, we’ve had Crunchyroll make an anime adaptation of Noblesse. Anime studios see potential in the webtoon industry.
Of course, it’s no surprise that a lot of these webtoon-to-anime adaptations usually happen to be Shonen or Isekai in nature. Examples as of recently include MAPPA (of Attack on Titan and Jujutsu Kaisen fame) putting out a God Of High School anime and Tower Of God being one of Crunchyroll’s most famous originals on their platform.
And then we have another manhwa legend people can’t stop talking about: Overgeared.
Overgeared: The Breakdown
Overgeared is an Isekai-Shounen manhwa created by Park Saenal, distributed by Line Webtoon. The story has been going on for ages, with over 1000 raw scans of the chapters available online.
It’s a basic story, as far as Isekai go. You have our protagonist, Shin Youngwoo, a hermit and recluse living a deplorable lifestyle and he happens to be obsessed with ‘Satisfy’ a popular VR game. However, one day his character, Grid, comes across a powerful item that leads him to earn the elusive title of ‘Pagma’s Successor’, which is considered a legend amongst classes. This title gives him the abilities of a brilliant weaponsmith who can forge rare weapons and can utilize the strongest gear available in the game.
Of course, at first, all Grid wants is to use this power to gain notoriety and fame but as the story goes on, he realizes that this entire ‘legend’ gig might be more than he bargained for.
Will Overgeared Be Anime-fied?
As popular as this manhwa is, even going as far as getting redrawn and having a WebToon release, the short answer is no. One of the main reasons that Overgeared would be a challenge to adapt into anime is the very obvious ‘nationalism’ which is ingrained in every plotline. Japan is far too conservative for something like that. It wouldn’t do well with their target demographic and would end up being a waste of funds. Anime is a business first, of course, there will be no investment where a profit can’t be made.
Couple that with there being 0 buzz regarding Overgeared in the anime stratosphere and no hints of upcoming projects by the author, it most likely will not be getting an animation anytime soon. Sorry Overgeared fans!
Ultimately, almost every good manga or manhwa will eventually get an anime. Therefore, hopes are high for a possible Overgeared anime reveal (Fingers Crossed).
Related:
Overgeared is korean, not japan.