2025 has been a great year for anime and webtoon fans alike. It’s been an especially exciting time for manhwa and webtoon fans, with many popular titles like Omniscient Reader and Trauma Code receiving live-action adaptations. The coming year is also expected to bring anime adaptations of countless popular manhwa and webtoons, like Eleceed, and Dark Moon: The Blood Altar.
At the center of all this excitement is Webtoon, hosting a large majority of these exciting titles, but also countless new ones released in the last year alone. With new series debuting on the platform nearly every day, Webtoon has surely released too many titles to count in 2025 alone.
However, a few do stand out as promising even a handful of chapters in, and they’re worth keeping an eye on right now before they explode in popularity and potentially get an anime or live-action adaptation down the line.
10
The Frostbound Warrior
Written by toy & Seonhaenghaejusipsio and Illustrated by Choi Yong Jun
Instead of taking its protagonist to the past like a regression series typically would, The Frostbound Warrior inverts the regression trope, choosing instead to brings its protagonist to the future. The story revolves around Ryu-Geom Cheok, Goryeo’s top swordsman, who, after a lengthy battle to protect his lady falls into a river with his mortal enemy.
Somehow, Ryu-Geom then finds himself encased in ice for centuries before waking up in the present day. Just when he’s decided life holds no more meaning for him, he spots his mortal enemy who he eventually finds has also made it to the future.
With the lady he swore to protect long dead and gone, he swears vengeance instead, and up until this point, the series seems like your typical revenge story. That is, until he finds the descendant of his lady, a budding actress, and becomes her manager to protect her.
9
Ghost Dating Simulation
Written and Illustrated by DONG9
As crazy as its title sounds, the plot of Ghost Dating Simulation is even wilder than it looks. The story takes off when the streamer and gamer Doyeon Choi receives a link to a game from a missing friend. Except once he downloads it, he finds himself trapped in this dating sim come to life where he must now romance ghosts to survive.
Death awaits behind every wrong choice and the only way out is to raise his affection scores while maybe helping these lost souls find peace. While death simply brings him back to the last save point, he only has a fixed number of lives, and the game still hides many mysteries, as do the many love interests.
What’s really impressive about Ghost Dating Simulation is how quickly the series can flip the switch between genuinely terrifying, heartfelt, and hilarious. Even the series’ love interests can go from horrifying to straight-up romantic manhwa leads, and right back to horrifying, making this series a quirky yet must-read new addition to Webtoon.
8
My Bias Gets on the Last Train
Written and Illustrated by JIXKSEE
My Bias Gets on the Last Train starts out as a simple meet-cute, or at least so it seems to Yo-eun who runs into the same mysterious, beautiful woman at the train station almost every night. What draws him to her even more is the fact that she too seems to be a fan of Long Afternoon, an underrated, anonymous music group.
LIttle does Yo-eun know that this woman, Shin Hae-in, whom he’s been fanboying with, is none other than the lead vocalist of Long Afternoon. Between facing the demons of her own past, and furthering her music career, the relationship between Yo-eun and Hae-in also begins to blossom.
However, whether she can muster up the courage to reveal herself as Long Afternoon is yet to be seen. With its strong footing in idol fan culture and show-biz, My Bias Gets on the Last Train is surprisingly relatable and cute at the same time and might especially appeal to fans of anime like Oshi no Ko.
7
I Will Become the Villain’s Poison Taster
Written by Nemoraming & jagalchikon and Illustrated by PilYoo
Another excellent series that has found a place on Webtoon’s shelves this year is I Will Become the Villain’s Poison Taster. Like many of its contemporaries, the series starts out with its protagonist being sucked into a fictional story as the villainess. In this case, its a novel called Poison Apple
In the story, our protagonist finds herself in the body of Giselle Rozewin after a dark magic summoning ritual. Imprisoned, on death row, Giselle discovers she is not only invulnerable to poison but can also tell them apart by taste and smell. This is when she catches the eye of Reniel, an acquaintance of Wayne Aiore, the supposed final villain.
Reniel helps her escape from prison, employing her for her ability to detect poisons, and thus Giselle sets out to work for the villains of the story, with her ultimate goal being to become Wayne’s poison taster. However, her quirky personality catches Reniel’s eye, who may not want to let go of her just yet, or at all.
From its fresh intriguing premise to its quirk protagonist, I Will Become the Villain’s Poison Taster is surprisingly charming and now that it’s finally on Webtoon it’s easier to read than ever. More importantly, it could be just the fix that fans of The Apothecary Diaries are looking for while waiting for the next season.
6
Fae Trapped
Written and Illustrated by instantmiso
Fae Trapped is a whimsical fairy tale come to life and much like traditional fairy tales, this one’s also tinged with tragedy, betrayal, and of course, romance. The series, which recently debuted on Webtoon, follows Elowen, a fae banished from her home, the Mystlands, after being wrongfully branded as a traitor and a threat to the forest.
In trying to find her way home, Elowen crosses paths with the tortured sculptor, West, who seems to have a connection to the forest. Unfortunately, while thee spell to return home goes haywire when West steps into the fae circle, causing the two to switch bodies.
While the story is still in its early stages, Fae Trapped is already reeling in readers with its gorgeous art, whimsical little forest creatures, and its intriguing cast, and it’s worth keeping an eye on the series starting from right now.
5
Cuffing Cupid
Written and Illustrated by Jjolee
Amidst the sea of vampire-werewolf BL romances on Webtoon, Cuffing Cupid immediately stands with its unique pairing. Cuffing Cupid is centered around a private investigator named Yejun and Cupid, who is tasked with helping him find love. Except, in this world exists multiple cupids, and this one, who’s eventually named Wolf, has a personality and a past of his own.
While he remembers anything of who he was, the promise of getting answers and getting to go “home” are what motivate Wolf to complete his mission. Of course, with Yejun often being tasked with investigating cheating partners, he’s very cynical when it comes to love, making Wolf’s task a hefty one indeed.
If things weren’t interesting enough already, Cuffing Cupid also adds a murder mystery to the mix, perfectly rounding out this already promising series.
4
Tears on A Withered Flower
Written and Illustrated by GAE
Being with Kang Mincheol once felt like fireworks and springtime to Na Haesu, but after accruing a mountain of debt and working her life away trying to pay off said debt, the spark is long gone. Yet, despite being legally divorced, the couple finds themselves still living together surrounded by the ashes of their marriage.
Now in her thirties, Hase considers herself a withered old flower, and things only get worse when, thirteen years into marriage, Haesu catches her husband cheating on her with his younger colleague.
Luckily, Beom Taeha, a regular at the flower shop where Haesu works, is there to pick up the pieces, and he certainly sees her as more than the withered flower she thinks she is. This kicks off the captivating romance between the two as they quickly grow from just acquaintances to much more.
3
Miss Pendleton
Written by Yu Hyemin and Adapted by kkomak
Meet Miss Laura Pendleton, the matchmaker extraordinaire famous throughout the ton for her ability to help even a stick-in-the-mud secure a suitable match. However, despite her matchmaking skills, Laura is quite oblivious when the object of a young man’s affection is herself, which is about where Miss Pendleton takes off.
Tasked with finding the stoic and gloomy Mr. Ian Dalton a partner, Laura finds herself befriending this mysterious yet handsome man at the behest of a fellow member of the ton, though things take an unexpected turn when it seems like Ian’s falling for Laura instead.
Set in the Regency Era, Miss Pendleton is a refreshing historical romance with no fantastical elements for a change. From the narration to thee dialogue itself, the series feels like something straight out of Bridgerton and even a bit of Pride and Prejudice with its own Mr. Darcy in Ian.
2
Destined Killer
Written by GK and Illustrated by BaBam
Destined Killer follows Number, a serial killer whose victims seem randomly chosen to the naked eye. However, his big secret is that he can see how many lives any given person is going to take, allowing him to weed out future murderers, or as he likes to call them, destined killers.
His only solace is that the numbers never change. They might increase, but they never decrease. That is until Number meets Mo Jihyeon, the ostracized daughter of a serial killer with a power of her own. Much like Number, Jihyeon can see numbers hovering over people’s heads, except hers reveal how long they have to live.
The story takes off when the two cross paths and, for the first time ever, Jihyeon’s number changes, which in turn causes Number to question everything. Meanwhile, Destined Killer leaves readers questioning their own morals.
1
Dungeon Crawler Carl
Written by Matt Dinniman and Created by AETHON, Laurel Pursuit, Tevagh & Actus
Post-apocalyptic manhwa are a dime a dozen these days, with very few stories managing to stand out from the crowd, but Webtoon’s Dungeon Crawler Carl is definitely one of those stories. Based on the novel of the same name by Matt Dinniman, Dungeon Crawler Carl takes off much like Omniscient Reader with aliens taking over the planet.
At first it seems like their motive is the planet’s resources. However, the aliens turn the planet into a multi-level dungeon for their live game show called “Dungeon Crawler World.” Carl, who is one of the few survivors of the initial rapture, is left with no option but to enter the dungeons.
Carl’s only companion is his ex-girlfriend’s cat, Princess Donut, the Queen Anne Chonk, or Princess Donut for short.
Having bonded during the countless hours of lounging on the couch together while Carl got beaten in Call of Duty, the reluctant duo find themselves unable to go their separate ways now. Donut eventually gains the ability to speak and thus the party, now named the Royal Court of Princess Donut takes off on their dungeon survival adventure.
From the witty and sassy feline companion to the lovable protagonist, Dungeon Crawler Carl is incredibly entertaining. Even the system panels, which are usually glossed over, are a huge source of humor and it’s clear even this early in that Dungeon Crawler Carl is one of the most unique new series on Webtoon.
