Popular boy band ENHYPEN (n-hyphen) recently released their own WebToon, or webcomic, called “DARK MOON: THE BLOOD ALTAR” alongside their labelmates BTS and Tomorrow X Together (TXT) on January 15, 2022. This WebToon is currently in development and it updates every Sunday.

The general plot of this WebToon is, a new student named Sooha (sue-ha) transfers into Deecelis Academy after a tragic incident in her home village, where she was accused of being a vampire and killing her friend. Shortly being introduced to the school, she meets Heli (hell-lee), a popular boy who is also a vampire, and develops a friendship with him. After meeting Heli, she ends up meeting the rest of his friend group except for Jakah (jah-kah) and Noa due to nightball practice. As she develops the relationship with her new friends, a girl mysteriously passes away which begins the confrontation between the group of vampires and werewolves. Unknown to Sooha, she has the ability to tame both species.

The main female lead character is named Sooha; her character is essentially a surrogate protagonist which is a protagonist that the audience can insert themselves into. As this is a WebToon based on ENHYPEN, the male leads correlate with each of the members. The first character the reader meets is Heli. Heli is the character based on the center of the group, Heeseung. As the webtoon progresses we meet the six characters which are Solon (so-lawn), Shion (she-on), Jakah, Noa, Jaan (jay-anh), and Jino (gee-noh). These characters correlate to ENHYPEN members Seunghoon, Sunoo, Jungwon, Ni-ki, Jay, and Jake respectively. The minor characters do contribute to the story by allowing each of the characters to develop, an example of this is the confrontation between Solon and the werewolves which revealed Solon was half-vampire, half-werewolf.

This story mainly takes place in the city of Riverfield, which houses two rival schools. These rival schools are Decelis Academy and an unnamed school that house the vampires and werewolves respectively. The setting allows the story to be told from a point of view that would guarantee not only coming-of-age struggles such as personal identity but also fantastical elements such as using special abilities.

Throughout the WebToon, die-hard fans were able to detect references to ENHYPEN’s music releases. The first reference I was able to find is in the premise alone because of their “Drunk-Dazed” music video, where all seven boys are worshiping a female figure similar to how Sooha can tame all seven boys. The other reference I was able to find was in episode three where Jakah and Noa are seen playing nightball. Nightball is the sport referenced in the “Tamed-Dashed” music video where their uniforms consisted of a long-sleeve white and black striped shirt and black shorts.

This webtoon, for me, receives a nine-star review out of ten because the story is very well written and illustrated, but the story is in heavy development by ENHYPEN’s company, HYBE. According to the official WebToon app, “DARK MOON: THE BLOOD ALTAR” has 9.9 stars out of ten. This is one of the top-rated fantasy WebToons as of right now along with “The Remarried Empress” and “Morgana and Oz”, although it is ranked twenty out of 30 because of its heart count.

DARK MOON: THE BLOOD ALTAR is a great beginning point for people who want to read a lighthearted fantasy vampiric WebToon. This webtoon is also a great way to expand your music taste into K-Pop and for those to continue by exploring what ENHYPEN has to offer. Check it out on the official WebToon app which is free on both the Google Play Store and the iOS App Store!