Kakao's Piccoma platform will launch an AI-assisted short-form anime category in late May 2026, adapting six webtoon and web novel titles into episode-based animated content.
Kakao Piccoma has announced an all-new "ANIME" category on its digital manga and webtoon platform, set to go live in late May 2026. The category will debut with six short-form anime adaptations drawn from popular webtoons and web novels already published on Piccoma.
Unlike traditional 24-minute TV anime episodes, Piccoma's new offerings follow a short-form, episode-based format designed for mobile consumption. The service will be available exclusively through the Piccoma app, with video previews accessible on the platform's website. A pre-opening campaign began on April 27, allowing users to sample featured works for free by sharing titles on X.
The production pipeline incorporates AI technology at certain stages, though Kakao Piccoma has emphasized that human creativity and quality control oversee the final output. The company has not disclosed which specific production steps use AI or named any animation studios involved in the project.
Six titles make up the inaugural slate, all adapted from works originally serialized on Piccoma:
The Viridescent Tiara
The Reincarnated Assassin Is a Swordmaster
Post-Possession Damage Control
Jack Be Invincible
Why Yuria Hid Her Wealth
Destined to Be an Outcast
The lineup leans heavily into popular webtoon genres, including reincarnation fantasy and villainess-themed stories, reflecting the tastes of Piccoma's existing readership.
Piccoma will use an episode-based monetization system for the anime category. Users can purchase individual episodes as rentals or access content through the platform's signature "Wait Until Free" model, which unlocks one episode every 23 hours at no cost. This mirrors the system already in place for Piccoma's manga and webtoon catalog, keeping the user experience consistent across content types.
The promotional pre-opening window runs through May 24, giving early adopters a chance to watch the featured works without charge before the full rollout.
Piccoma's move signals a growing trend among webtoon platforms to bring their IP directly to animation without relying on traditional production committees or TV broadcast slots. By keeping distribution in-house and leveraging AI-assisted production, Kakao Piccoma is betting it can compress the timeline and cost of turning serialized digital comics into animated content.
The approach mirrors similar experiments from other major webtoon publishers. Kakao Entertainment, Piccoma's parent company, already operates one of the largest digital comics ecosystems in Asia, and the anime category represents a vertical expansion of that pipeline. If the initial six titles perform well, the company could rapidly scale the format across its extensive catalog of licensed webtoon and web novel properties.
Whether the AI-assisted approach delivers quality comparable to conventional anime production remains to be seen once the full category launches later this month. For now, the pre-opening campaign gives early users a window to judge the results for themselves before the paid rollout begins.
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