BT21 Characters

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You might have seen these cute little characters in your free sticker options in messaging apps like LINE or Facebook, but didn’t know they were related to global K-pop icons BTS. Well, that’s exactly the intention – fall for the animated charms of BT21 and they’ll lead you to the world of BTS in a different way. The characters were born back in late September 2017, when BTS joined LINE Friends’ Creators initiative, a project where the brand work with global artists on characters and product ideas. The boys spent a day sketching character ideas at a LINE Friends store, and a team of designers then helped turn rough sketches into more defined characters.

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Tata, a huge heart-headed character, is an alien with transforming powers. His limbs can bend and stretch into weird lengths and shapes. He’s a character that V has been drawing for some time, and he wanted the character to be more unique than cute, as he personally loves unique characters.

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J-Hope’s character Mang is a dancing pony, but he keeps his face hidden by wearing a mask. His nose is heart-shaped, because J-Hope’s lips form a heart when he laughs. There are several meanings to ‘mang’ in Korean. It can translate as ‘a pony’, ‘to fail’, and it’s the latter part of the word ‘hope’ (huimang).

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Chimmy, the playful puppy in yellow represents the band’s overall image, according to Jimin. ‘The animal that goes best with BTS is a puppy,’ he said in the BT21 making of videos. ‘We love to hang out, and we’re active, which reminds people of puppies.’ He also thinks Chimmy’s chubby cheeks remind people of his face when BTS first debuted.

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Jin’s contribution RJ is an alpaca who often wears a parka, because he gets cold easily. Jin was drawing cute alpaca doodles for years before this collaboration, so he was excited to finally bring one to life. The other members also say he looks like an alpaca, especially when he eats.

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RM’s character Koya is a sleepy blue koala. He has removable ears, and a purple nose as V once made a comment that purple represents love. RM drew pages and pages of koalas in the initial sketching stage, as he thinks koalas are really cute.

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Cooky, created by Jungkook, is a rabbit with attitude. He works out a lot and imagines that he transforms into a huge muscle man when he gets angry. Jungkook is known for his endless gym workouts to maintain his six-pack, so in his initial sketches, he drew a rabbit with a six-pack. He also wanted Cooky to always have a chocolate chip cookie, which inspired the next character, Shooky.

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Suga’s drawing Shooky is a cookie with a badass attitude. He’s best friends with Cooky, and hates milk. During the initial sketching period, Suga drew his dog, Holly, but it looked too similar to other characters, so he drew lots of different expressions inspired by Holly instead. The LINE designers created Shooky’s character from these idea.