Anime/manga are pretty strongly intertwined with (web) novels in Japan. Those same novels are fan translated into English (Chinese and Korean too). This has cre

Anime/manga are pretty strongly intertwined with (web) novels in Japan. Those same novels are fan translated into English (Chinese and Korean too). This has created a kind of fanbase for web novels/self-published novels. Japanese companies starting to send copyright claims against fan translations probably opened the door for Chinese, Korean, and English web novels like that.