Viral Hit (Korean:싸움독학;RR:Ssaumdokhak, Japanese: 喧嘩独学, romanized:Kenka Dokugaku, lit.'How to Fight') is a South Korean manhwa released as a free webtoon written by Taejun Pak and illustrated by Kim Junghyun. It has been serialized via Naver Corporation's webtoon platform Naver Webtoon since November 2019, with the individual chapters being collected and published into ten volumes as of June 2025.
The plot stars Yoo Ho-bin, a bullied high school student with a mother sick with cancer. One day, after a fight with one of his bullies, Woo Ji-hyuk, goes viral, Yoo Ho-bin decides to start a NewTube channel, and fight bullies to earn money. He learns how to fight with the assistance of a mysterious NewTuber with a rooster mask.
Created by Taejun Pak and illustrated by Kim Junghyun, the manhwa has been serialized as a webtoon in Naver's webtoon platform Naver Webtoon since November 15, 2019, and has been published in English by Line Webtoon since October 2022. It is also published in Japan by Line Manga since April 4, 2020.
An anime television series adaptation was announced on February 10, 2024. The series is produced by Okuruto Noboru and directed by Masakazu Hishida, with Toshiya Ono writing series scripts, Satomi Miyazaki designing the characters, Yutaka Yamada composing the music, and production handled by Slowcurve. It aired from April 11 to June 27, 2024, on Fuji TV's +Ultra programming block. The opening theme song is "Wild Boy", performed by MA55IVE THE RAMPAGE, while the ending theme song is "Viral Hack", performed by Crab Kani Club. Crunchyroll streamed the series.
A Japanese-language live-action television series adaptation of the manhwa was announced by Netflix, with Myriagon Studio and Raku Film as the producing studios. The series premiered on June 11, 2026 on Netflix for six episodes.
Reception
In 2022, the webtoon was selected as a jury-recommended work in the manga section of the 25th Japan Media Arts Festival.
In Japan, Viral Hit garnered 460 million views and 2 billion in global by February 2024.
The anime series' first episode received negative assessments in the Spring 2024 season previews from Anime News Network critics. Richard Eisenbeis understood its premise was aimed at a specific demographic but was put off by Hobin being an "unlikable idiot" and the central character they are supposed to connect with. Nicholas Dupree criticized the overall production for being a "never-ending assault on the senses" and the "embarrassing writing" using the broadest strokes to create a story where its cast is "a twisted caricature of a typical anime stereotype". Rebecca Silverman was confident in the premise moving towards a positive direction with future episodes but criticized the mean and distasteful scenario Hobin gets into and the "spectacularly ugly" production, concluding that: "All in all, I can't think of a premiere I enjoyed less this season."
Anime News Network had two editors review the first manhwa volume in 2025: Bolts was critical of Hobin's circumstances being "a little too heightened and convenient" and bordering into "unintentional comedy" at points, but praised the narrative for delivering "great commentary on the dark side of content creation and bullying" and the character artwork striking "a healthy balance of realism and exaggeration", calling it "one of the more relatable webtoons that I have read. If you're familiar with content creation, as a creator or a consumer, you would get something out of this." MrAJCosplay called it a "modern day underdog story" that shows the "most relatable aspects of [our] modern society" and may hit too close for readers with similar experiences.
Notes
12Fuji TV lists the series premiere on April 10, 2024 at 24:55, which is effectively April 11 at 12:55 a.m. JST.
