Adult comics come from three traditions with three vocabularies. Japanese manga brings hentai, ecchi, doujinshi and the mosaic. Korean webtoons bring manhwa, vertical scroll and the 19+ label. And the platforms themselves add a money vocabulary of coins, Ink, clovers, timers and monthly plans that decides what a series really costs.
These entries keep to what the term means and where it shows up. Where a definition comes from a dictionary or Anime News Network's lexicon, the entry quotes it; where a platform uses a word its own way (WEBTOON's "Mature" is not Tapas's "Mature"), the entry says so. Prices and rules are as the platforms published them when we checked.
| Term | In one line |
|---|---|
| Webtoon | Vertical, episodic digital comic; WEBTOON in capitals is a platform |
| Manhwa | Comics from Korea |
| Manga | Comics from Japan |
| Hentai | Explicit manga and anime in English; "perversion" in Japanese |
| Doujinshi | Self-published comics, fan works or originals |
| Ecchi | Sexual humor without explicit sex |
| Mosaic censorship | Why Japanese hentai is pixelated: Article 175 |
| BL and GL | Boys' love and girls' love labels |
| Mature content | What 18+, 19+ and Mature mean on each platform |
| Pay per chapter | Buying one episode at a time |
| Coin system | Platform currencies and the real price per episode |
| Wait for free | Locked episodes that turn free on a timer |
| Vertical scroll | One long strip read top to bottom |
| Creator subscription | A monthly plan paid to one artist |
| Scanlation | Unlicensed fan scan and translation |
If you came for a term and want the platforms behind it, the guides explain how to find and pay for each kind of comic, and the news section tracks the rule changes that keep redefining a few of these words.