The Boxer Anime Confirmed: Crunchyroll's New Webtoon Wave
The Boxer, a Korean boxing webtoon with a cult following, is officially becoming a TV anime. Crunchyroll revealed the adaptation on October 8, 2026 at New York Comic Con, alongside a full voice cast and a production studio pairing nobody had on their bingo card. The announcement was not a standalone event: it is one piece of a much larger webtoon-to-anime initiative that Crunchyroll just confirmed for the first time.
What Crunchyroll announced about The Boxer anime at NYCC 2026
At its NYCC 2026 showcase on October 8, Crunchyroll, the production company HAYATE, and LINE Digital Frontier Corporation (a subsidiary of WEBTOON Entertainment) announced a co-production partnership covering around 15 WEBTOON series. Under the deal, HAYATE leads development and production with Crunchyroll and LINE Digital Frontier, and Crunchyroll streams the results exclusively in select territories.
Three titles got concrete reveals at the same panel: The Boxer (brand-new anime announcement), The Remarried Empress (brand-new anime, slated for 2027), and Teenage Mercenary (new teaser trailer, also 2027). The same NYCC 2026 showcase window also produced Naruto's own anniversary reveal, making this one of the convention's biggest weeks for new anime announcements in years.
The Boxer: cast and staff confirmed so far
The Boxer is a Korean webtoon written and illustrated by Jung Ji-Hoon, known by the pen name JH. It ran on LINE Webtoon from May 27, 2020 to June 22, 2022, and follows Yu, a boy who absorbs punch after punch without anger or fear until a legendary trainer named K recognizes the monstrous talent underneath. Under K's guidance, Yu fights his way toward the top of the boxing world against champions who have spent their entire lives chasing the same place.
| Role | Confirmed name |
|---|---|
| Yu (protagonist) | Koki Uchiyama |
| Ryu (Yu's first opponent) | Kensho Ono |
| K (trainer) | Tomokazu Seki |
| J (retired legendary boxer) | Toshiyuki Toyonaga |
| Director | Yudai Kubota & KANG Wonyeong |
| Character design | Masahiro Suwa |
| Series composition | Toshiya Ono |
| Animation studios | breccia & STUDIO JEMI |
The studio pairing is the detail worth watching. breccia is a new studio founded by Muneki Ogasawara, a co-founder of Kinema Citrus, and it is working jointly with South Korea's STUDIO JEMI. A Japan-Korea co-production structure like this is still uncommon for a flagship webtoon adaptation, and it mirrors how seriously the three partner companies are treating the source material. No premiere date has been set yet; Crunchyroll will stream the series exclusively.
The webtoon's core conflict is what separates it from a generic sports story: Yu never shows anger, fear, or excitement, even while absorbing hits that would break most fighters, and the series spends as much time on the champions who built their skill through years of effort as it does on Yu himself. That tension between raw, unexplained talent and hard-won technique is why the source material built a dedicated following over its two-year run, and it gives the production staff a clear emotional hook to adapt rather than just a string of matches.
The rest of the slate: Remarried Empress and Teenage Mercenary
The Boxer was not the only reveal. The Remarried Empress, based on a webtoon adaptation of Alphatart's web novel, got its own brand-new anime announcement for a 2027 premiere from studio TROYCA, directed by Tetsuya Yanagisawa with a cast led by Yoko Hikasa, Ryōhei Kimura, Tomoaki Maeno, and Reina Ueda. Teenage Mercenary, already known to webtoon readers, got a new English-subtitled teaser trailer confirming a 2027 Crunchyroll premiere.
| Title | What was revealed | Premiere window | Studio |
|---|---|---|---|
| The Boxer | First full cast & staff reveal | Unannounced | breccia & STUDIO JEMI |
| The Remarried Empress | New anime announcement | 2027 | TROYCA |
| Teenage Mercenary | New teaser trailer | 2027 | Not yet detailed |
Why a 15-title webtoon slate matters for collectors
This partnership did not come out of nowhere. Solo Leveling, another Korean webtoon adaptation, debuted on Crunchyroll through A-1 Pictures in January 2024 and went on to win Crunchyroll's own Anime of the Year award, with its second season becoming the most talked-about release of the Winter 2025 season. That success is the reason three companies are now willing to commit to roughly 15 more titles instead of one.
- Webtoon adaptations are no longer a side experiment for Crunchyroll — they are a planned pipeline with a named partnership and a public title count.
- The Boxer is the first of this slate to get a full cast and staff reveal, which usually means production is further along than a title that only has a teaser trailer.
- Merchandise for a newly announced original anime almost never appears before a confirmed air date, so there is nothing to buy for The Boxer yet.
- When merchandise does follow a breakout webtoon anime, it typically arrives first as Japanese prize figures rather than premium statues.
What to do if you want to collect early
There is no Boxer merchandise to chase right now, and claiming otherwise would be guessing. If the series lands the way Solo Leveling did, the first wave of collectibles will likely take the shape of prize figures sold through Japanese claw-machine and lottery channels, the same format explained in our guides to FuRyu's SSS line and Banpresto's Grandista line. Akibato ships anime figures from Japan if you want to have an account ready before a new franchise's first wave actually drops.
FAQ
When does The Boxer anime come out?
No premiere date has been announced. Crunchyroll confirmed the adaptation and its cast on October 8, 2026, but gave only a studio pairing and voice cast, not a release window.
Where can I watch The Boxer anime?
Crunchyroll will stream The Boxer exclusively in select territories once it premieres.
Is The Boxer connected to Solo Leveling?
No. The two are unrelated stories from different creators and studios. The Boxer is part of the same new HAYATE, LINE Digital Frontier, and Crunchyroll partnership that was announced after Solo Leveling proved webtoon adaptations could be major hits.
What else was announced alongside The Boxer?
The Remarried Empress (new anime, 2027, TROYCA) and Teenage Mercenary (new teaser trailer, 2027) were revealed at the same Crunchyroll NYCC 2026 panel, as part of a roughly 15-title webtoon slate.
Key takeaways
- Crunchyroll, HAYATE, and LINE Digital Frontier announced a co-production deal covering around 15 webtoon titles at NYCC 2026 on October 8.
- The Boxer got the deal's first full cast and staff reveal: Koki Uchiyama, Kensho Ono, Tomokazu Seki, and Toshiyuki Toyonaga lead the cast, with breccia and STUDIO JEMI animating.
- The Remarried Empress and Teenage Mercenary were also revealed, both targeting 2027.
- No premiere date or merchandise exists yet for The Boxer; the partnership follows Solo Leveling's breakout success on Crunchyroll.
Akibato tracks new anime announcements like this one as they move from reveal to release, and stocks figures for franchises once their merchandise actually ships from Japan. Browse the current anime figures collection while you wait for The Boxer's first wave.
Sources
- Anime Atelier — The Boxer Webtoon Gets Anime
- Wikipedia — The Boxer (manhwa)
- ComicBook.com — Crunchyroll's New Webtoon Anime Slate
- Cartoon Brew — Crunchyroll and Webtoon Plan 15 Potential Anime Adaptations
- Epicflix — The Remarried Empress TV Anime Reveals Main Cast, 2027 Premiere
- The Outerhaven — NYCC 2026: WEBTOON Announces Series Set for Anime Adaptations
- Wikipedia — Solo Leveling
- CBR — Solo Leveling Anime Gets Exciting 2026 Update From Series Producer