WEBTOON Entertainment Inc. made its Anime Expo debut this year with a series of exciting panels as well as meet-and-greets at their booth in the Entertainment Hall. Fans had the opportunity to meet some of their favorite creators and purchase exclusive merchandise. Among those creators were Brandon Chen and uru-chan. They spoke with us at Anime Expo about their process for story creation as well as how their series have changed over the years. Brandon Chen is the creator of “Just a Goblin,” “Samurai no Tora,” and “Overtime Elite.” uru-chan is known for her long-running superhero series, “unOrdinary.”

Brandon Chen and uru-chan Discuss the Inspiration Behind Their Respective WEBTOON Series

During the interview at Anime Expo, we asked both creators if they recall a specific moment in an anime that influenced them.

uru-chan starts by explaining that she has been on hiatus. She notes that classic series such as “Yu Yu Hakusho” sparked a lot of inspiration.

I’ve been catching up on a lot of, like, old anime and new anime. And I recently rewatched Yu Yu Hakusho. It was by the same creator as Hunter X Hunter, and…there’s this one arc that’s like the dark tournament arc where, literally, they just take all the main characters and make them fight a bunch of demons. And there are so many epic fights in there. So, that’s kind of like, I think that’s where my spark of like, ‘Okay, I want to do action,’ came in.

Additionally, uru-chan says “Solo Leveling” helps with fight scene study.

Recently, I watched Solo Leveling because I wanted to study, like, the fight scenes in Solo Leveling…I was just thinking, like, it’s really cool how far animation has come when it comes to action. But it’s all still equally epic, you know?

Brandon Chen says his series, “Just a Goblin,” is inspired by “Naruto.”

I think probably…Just a Goblin, the series specifically, like, I think a lot of it’s about this character trying to find a way to kind of solve this impossible problem, which is world peace. And a lot of that probably came from like Naruto, I think. When I was younger, I grew up on a lot of Toonami, a lot of Naruto, and a lot of this character who is constantly being beaten up. And everyone’s telling him one thing, but he’s fighting against what everyone believes is, like, the world philosophy. And so, I think I brought a lot of that into specifically the Just a Goblin series.

Staying Organized Looks Different for Each Creator

“unOrdinary” is a series that uru-chan has been releasing for almost ten years. Brandon Chen is currently working on multiple series at once. Both creators use complex power systems and vast world-building that draw their readers in. We ask about the ways they keep themselves organized.

Brandon explains that he has a document for each season of each series. Also, he mentions a “world Bible” as being helpful.

So, like, Just a Goblin has two seasons, but then it’s going into its third. So, I have a document that highlights what’s happening in those first two seasons. And then I also have, like…a world rule. I guess you could call [it] a world Bible, but like, really simple. No one’s reading that except for me. And that world Bible is really meant for me to just, like, refer back to things and try and keep things consistent.

He goes on to laugh about being too lazy sometimes to check his own writing. As things become more complex in any story, details become more difficult to keep track of. Brandon continues:

For Just a Goblin, there are all these different monster races and all this stuff, like characters that have different backstories. You know? I always think about web novelists who have to write two chapters a day. I’m like, ‘How do they remember everything?’ And yeah, a lot of it is tied back to having a world Bible, I think.

uru-chan admits that it is difficult for her to stay organized.

It’s like a weekly thing, so a lot of the time, I’m kind of just scrambling to get the thing done. I will say that, for me, my grounding point is my characters. I focus more on like, their growth and personalities. So, I focus less so on the abilities that they use and stuff like that. A lot of the time, I will have [a moment] like, ‘Oh yeah, this person’s at like a level four right now or a level five right now.’ And like, quantifying that makes things a little easier.

After being on hiatus for a while, uru-chan mentions the time she’s had for note-taking and elaborating on her series.

Now, I’m kind of able to, like, elaborate a little bit more on the structure of the world and what I want to do with all the characters in the government and the different tiers of the government. So, I kind of have something similar to Brandon, where it’s like a Bible or just like a set of notes that I follow.

Finding Balance While Working on Multiple Series or a Long-Running Series is Important

We ask both Brandon and uru-chan how they balance their creative processes, whether that’s between multiple stories or the balance of the process.

Brandon is working on between five and seven series simultaneously. He tells us:

Once upon a time, it was like every day was a different series in a way. I think it kind of still is like that because I kind of like, get into a certain zone. For example, Just a Goblin has a completely different tone from Angel Wings…I get myself into the zone for a certain series by reading a few chapters of some inspirations that I benchmark those series to in a way.

So like, Double Kill, which is a series that’s coming in August, is benchmarked. I read a lot of BLUE LOCK and Bleach and JUJUTSU KAISEN. And I’ll just read that right before and like, that gets me in a zone of a certain type of webtoon or series. And so then, after that, it just kind of pours out of me.

When working on a WEBTOON series, Brandon pitches the series early on and provides an outline of the entire season. This allows him to have an idea of where the story will go ahead of time. All of the planning is done ahead of time. He explains that, with the deeper scripting, he needs to be in a certain mindset or zone. “I would listen to certain soundtracks that get me into that mood. If I’m writing a fighting scene, I’m listening to, like, the most [wild] anime soundtracks.”

uru-chan doesn’t have multiple series, but she speaks to the different parts of the creation process and how those are balanced. She says, “For me, like, switching locations, switching devices helps me sort of switch gears.”

Read Brandon Chen’s and uru-chan’s Stories on WEBTOON

WEBTOON Entertainment Inc. is a leading global entertainment company and home to the world’s largest storytelling platform. As the worldwide leader and pioneer of the mobile webcomic format, WEBTOON Entertainment has transformed comics and visual storytelling for fans and creators.

uru-chan’s “unOrdinary” is the story of John, a typical teenager. In this world, the elite harness incredible power and abilities. Currently, 6.1 million readers are subscribed to this amazing story of friendship, superpowers, and harnessing one’s destiny. uru-chan’s hiatus ends this month.

Brandon Chen’s WEBTOON stories include “Just a Goblin,” “Blood System,” “Samurai no Tora, “Angel Wings,” and “Overtime Elite.”