CHOI YONG MEONG (SOOBIN), HWANG CHOON (YEONJUN), BAMGEUT (BEOMGYU), DA-GO-NYANG (TAEHYUN), HHM NYA RING (HUENINGKAI)—five friends looking to be MOA’s best pals, anytime, anywhere! On August 1, TOMORROW X TOGETHER unveiled their official PPULBATU characters for the very first time. The group members got to work on everything from their visual design to their names, personalities, and interests, each creating their own unique, personal cartoon characters. We caught up with Kim Yeeun from BIGHIT MUSIC’s BX2 department and Lee Irene from the BX Lab, both involved in the character creation process, for the story behind how a series of creative workshops with the TOMORROW X TOGETHER members brought their sketches to life to become the PPULBATU characters we see today.
What was the main focus during the planning and creation of the PPULBATU characters?
Kim Yeeun: As TOMORROW X TOGETHER continues to grow, we wanted to expand on the points of contact they have with their fans, and launching an official character line was one of those ways. The idea behind creating the PPULBATU characters was to find a way to allow the fans to be with the artists as they go about their everyday lives. We aimed to make characters that were more than just visually attractive and cute by also reflecting the group members both in appearance and personality in a way that only fans would fully understand, and thus creating irresistible cartoon characters that immediately bring the artists themselves to mind.
Lee Irene: We put a lot of thought into how we could make the characters ones that MOA would love and have a lot of affection for. To that end, we felt it important to get the members directly involved in the development for everything from creating their characters’ backstories to naming them so that fans could feel their favorite artists’ personal touch. That’s also why all five characters are a different species. They’re human, animal, angel, or a mix of different animals because the group members had specific ideas in mind about how they wanted their characters to be from the start, and we all agreed not to enforce one uniform approach and to embrace their unique visions.
Could you tell us more about the PPULBATU backstory and how the group members are reflected in each of the five characters?
Lee Irene: The PPULBATU characters are friends who came from Magic Island and crash-landed in Ttukseom Park. They’re all full of personality and none of them look or act similarly, but they set out thinking that they might be having a collective dream. They were created to be like friends who dream of accompanying MOA in everyday life and situations.
Kim Yeeun: We took SOOBIN’s love of gaming and incorporated the heroic aspect of games into CHOI YONG MEONG, and developed YEONJUN’s character to have the same two-sided appeal as he does in real life—adorable on the outside, bad boy on the inside. HWANG CHOON also has a cute little tummy from eating a lot of ramyeon, which is a nod to how much YEONJUN loves it. BAMGEUT has long eyelashes, just like BEOMGYU, while TAEHYUN came up with DA-GO-NYANG by embracing his fans on both Team Cat (GO-YANG-i) and Team Squirrel (DA-ramjwi). HUENINGKAI’s known to brush his bangs over his eyes and stretch out the sleeves on his hoodie, so HHM NYA RING does the same thing.
The group members were involved in every step of the process, from designing the characters to writing their profiles. What was it like taking the group members’ rough sketches and turning them into fully fleshed-out characters?
Kim Yeeun: We did three workshops with them, which we filmed for a series of behind-the-scenes videos on YouTube. On top of that, anytime there was something we needed to discuss, we met with the artists directly. For example, BAMGEUT, BEOMGYU’s character, had a slightly different face in his rough sketch than in the final version. We talked things over with him more during the development process, and we decided to make the fluffy Maltese fur look a little bit cuter. What was really surprising was how the artists all had a really clear idea of how they wanted their characters to look right from when we first sat down with them. Before they came in, they had already planned out everything about their characters, from their unique traits to giving them detailed backstories. SOOBIN made his a human who wears a Samoyed mask and YEONJUN made his a fox that wears a hooded duck cape, and I’m sure they must’ve worked hard on such details in advance after giving careful thought to the image their fans have of them.
Lee Irene: They gave us all their ideas for everything before we could even present any of our own ideas for the characters. All we did was give them the tools to finish fleshing out their characters with things like ideas for their profiles and special abilities. Thanks to the total creative freedom, all five characters ended up with distinct personalities, which I think is the greatest thing about PPULBATU. We also worked hard to make sure we retained what makes the characters special when we translated them from how they appear in 2D on the screen into 3D merch like plushies and cushions. We wanted to properly capture the Samoyed feel of SOOBIN’s character, for instance, so we used fleece that’s a little longer and softer than normal.
If nothing else, what should fans know about the PPULBATU characters?
Lee Irene: Each character has a star in a unique place: CHOI YONG MEONG has one behind the ear, HWANG CHOON’s is in the ear, BAMGEUT has it on the shoulder, for DA-GO-NYANG it’s in the eye, and HHM NYA RING has one on a wing. We were trying to come up with some way to really draw MOA into the characters, and then we came up with the star after being inspired by the horn in their “Nap of a star” music video.
Kim Yeeun: Horns play an important part as a symbol in the narrative that ties together TOMORROW X TOGETHER’s albums. They both have a complex about them and embrace them as part of their identity, so we thought it would be great if fans could see how we worked the word “horn” (ppul) in when coming up with a name for PPULBATU and how it’s symbolically represented in their appearance. The idea of PPULBATU coming from Magic Island and crash-landing into the real world is also an homage to the music video for “Frost.” I think it makes it especially fun that fans can draw parallels between the real-world story of TOMORROW X TOGETHER with the PPULBATU backstory, and its members’ traits with those belonging to the five characters.
Lee Irene, Kim Yeeun: We’ve been incredibly grateful to feel all the love MOA’s put into their response and fan art since the characters were unveiled. They’re the results of a nearly year-long project run in tandem by the group members and the producers to figure out how to give MOA the gift of some particularly special cartoon characters. And I hope they keep showing their love and cherish these special little guys as we move forward with them.
