That people from "The East" - just don't get - I mean, we know they love Anime & Manga (like their Weekly/Monthly 'Shonen Jump' magazines, I guess that somewhere(?) between us is a fine line where we differ - on some *subtle* cultural level?
You seem to be confusing Korea with Japan somewhat. Anime specifically refers to animation that comes from japan (and the kind of style they tend to have), and manga refers to comics from japan.
Also Japan has its share of hero culture with their Power rangers style hero squads, there was an anime recently called Tiger and Bunny about super heroes that did pretty well, and there were a few anime based on marvel comics. Not to mention, other anime often have very strong heroic themes, like One Piece.
.....NCsoft never tried launching City of Heroes in Japan.
Anyway, don't just lump all eastern countries together. There's some similar elements, but significant differences too.