BTS Inspired Webtoons You Must Read
K-pop superstars BTS had three webtoons published after them, but with the release of ‘7Fates: Chakho’, they have returned to the webtoon scene
Photo: Courtesy Of Webtoon
Hip-Hop Monster
In 2014, Big Hit Entertainment and CJ E&M co-created the Hip Hop Monster webtoon, which was released via NATE Comics in two parts. There are 42 episodes in the entire series, including the prologue and epilogue. The webtoon illustrates the daily lives of the K-pop group members in their Hip Hop Club (Hipmon). Members here are not humans, but animals, with RM as a duck, Jin as a wolf, Suga as a turtle, J-Hope as a horse, Jimin as a cat, V as a monkey, and Jungkook as a bunny.
We On: Be the Shield
We On, a webtoon published by NATE, chronicles the adventures of a young girl who transfers to a prestigious school where monsters begin to appear. To defeat them, she teams up with the BTS boys, a group of superpowered monster-slayers with ‘Dark Summoner’ (V), ‘Tanker’ (Jungkook), ‘Nature’s Summoner’ (Jimin), ‘Pilot’ (J-Hope), ‘Gladiator’ (Suga), ‘Archer’ (Jin), and ‘Scientist’ (RM). The conceptual and illustrated work for We On was created by Lee Soongi and Park Jongsung and published by Big Hit Entertainment and Jaedam Media in 2014. The webtoon marks the beginning of the mission to save the world as BTS (Be The Shield) members gradually become the protectors of the planet.
Save Me
Named after BTS’ 2016 song “Save Me”, this webtoon series follows the story of seven boys who’ve been best friends for years. Their fates interweave with each other in good and bad times. As they split up, they suffer severely. When everything seemingly goes wrong for the boys, one of them, ‘Seokjin’ is granted a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to travel back in time and help his friends correct the errors of the past. He’ll do anything to save them, but will he succeed? Or is it too late? Big Hit Entertainment and Naver Webtoon’s digital content company LICO collaborated to create Save Me consisting of 15 episodes coupled with a prologue.
7 Fates: Chakho
On January 14th, 2022, WEBTOON and HYBE released their highly-anticipated series, 7Fates: Chakho, featuring BTS. It’s an ongoing web comic series set in the future, the premise of which is the corrupt city of ‘Sin-si’. The story is inspired by the Korean folklore of Joseon Dynasty’s ‘Chakhogapsa’.
Seven young men team up to form ‘Chakho’, a ‘Beom’ or tiger hunting group. The members are ‘Dogeon’ (RM), a crime expert with exceptional abilities, ‘Hwan’ (Jin) who’s lost his family to a tiger attack. Suga is ‘Cein’ who once escaped from the tiger’s mouth. J-Hope is ‘Hosu’ who was kidnapped by a tiger but managed a narrow escape. Jimin is ‘Haru’, the wise, ancient rock turned human who guarded the gate to the beom’s world. V as ‘Jooan’ is kind, caring, and falls for a tiger. Jungkook as ‘Zeha’ is half-human and half tiger, a truth only he knows. The OST for 7Fates: Chakho titled “Stay Alive” is produced by Suga with vocals by Jungkook.
