The Greatest Estate Developer is the One Punch Man of the webtoon world. No, it doesn’t have an overpowered protagonist, but it does have an insane art style that gets better and better with every chapter. The comedy never ends, and every chapter is a peak with the tension only going up.
The webtoon was adapted from a Korean webnovel that is written by BK_Moon. Its manhwa adaptation is currently ongoing and is adapted by Lee Hyunmin and illustrator Kim Hyunsoo. The webnovel is completed, and the webtoon is already in its final arc, which puts it in the perfect position to receive an anime adaptation. But can it escape the TBATE curse?
TBATE‘s Curse Might Haunt The Greatest Estate Developer‘s Anime
With GED becoming more and more popular every passing day, the demand for its anime adaptation is only growing. But can it really receive a perfect anime that will uphold its insane comedy? Fans have already lived through the tragedy of The Beginning of the End and seen firsthand how the series was butchered by its anime studio. What if the same happens to GED?
TBATE is a popular webtoon that received plenty of hype when it was greenlit for an anime. But once it aired, it became clear that the worldview, characters, and development were skewed to no end. So many characters were changed, with some even getting cut out of the picture. From the low-effort backgrounds to the choppy slide-show-like animation, too many things went wrong. Now, fans are afraid that GED might receive the same treatment as an anime.
Related: Korea’s Massive $100,000,000 Animation Investment Plan Reignites Hope for a Better TBATE Adaptation
Solo Leveling definitely got the better end of the deal and turned out to be an exception. Yet, the same cannot be said about other webtoon-to-anime adaptations. Even the Tower of God did not receive a satisfactory adaptation. With GED‘s complex world, architectural knowledge, and an insane hero, the translation procedure might get even more difficult.
Why The Greatest Estate Developer‘s Anime is Likely to Fail
Firstly, the webnovel and the webtoon of The Greatest Estate Developer are already pretty different. In the novel, the protagonist, Lloyd, is a much tamer version than what is portrayed in the webtoon. In the novel, Lloyd has a cute face, but in the webtoon, he is renowned for being so ugly that he can repel any character with his face alone. Some parts of the novel are also changed to suit the demonic personality of Lloyd better in the webtoon.
Related: TBATE’s Most Emotional Scenes Just Got Wrecked by Its Blue Lock-Level Animation
The biggest issue will arise once the anime studio needs to find out which version to adapt. The novel has more knowledge and details, but is a tamer version, while the webtoon is wild and hilarious, and the art style carries it through. It is the demonic and chaotic personality of Lloyd that is the center of the series. Yet, if the studio tries to make him more gentle and easier to serve, then the entire attraction of the series will be ruined.
The timing of the jokes and Lloyd’s facial expressions will be the biggest issues in an anime adaptation. It’s not just another isekai with a do-gooder protagonist, but a hero who exploits everyone around him (though in a good way). If it does receive an anime, it will be compared to the webtoon for an eternity, whose art style is already on another level.
Thus, GED might be one of the best isekai action-comedies to exist, but its brilliance will be hard to translate into an anime. Finding a great anime studio will be the first step to making a watchable anime that will also be faithful to its source. After the disastrous adaptation of TBATE, there is very little hope that webtoons can receive proper anime adaptations.
The Greatest Estate Developer webnovel is available to read in English on Yonder, and the webtoon is officially translated by LINE Webtoon.
This post belongs to FandomWire and first appeared on FandomWire
