‘Red Moon’ in Lotte World…Vampire Seven boys shake girl fans’ hearts [Super IP Battle].

The webcomic ‘Dark Moon: Moon’s Altar,’ featuring K-pop group ENHYPEN, has been brought to life at Lotte World, attracting numerous fans in their teens and twenties.[Provided by HYBE]

[Herald Economy=Seung-hee Ko] “I’ve been waiting for you. From my previous, previous, previous life… My blood is boiling over my veins. My heart pointed you out.” (Excerpt from ENHYPEN’s “One in a Million”)

Every evening at 6:30, when the ‘Blood Moon’ rises over Lotte World, the vampire boys who hid their identities during the day awaken. Their pale smiles at the crossroads of the red Magic Castle (located in Lotte World Magic Island) enchant the hearts of their female fans.

When the boys, who have jumped out of the square world inside their cell phones, rise to the front of the red-stained Magic Castle and sing “One in a Million” (in a mapping show: a show projecting images onto a surface), visitors from all over the world take out their phones. For the little teenage couple wearing the uniform of Dresselis, the school the boys in the webcomic attend, this place was like a live-action version of the webcomic.

The webcomic ‘Dark Moon: Moon’s Altar,’ featuring the K-pop group ENHYPEN, has completely transformed Lotte World. HYBE and Lotte World have been running ‘ENHYPEN in Lotte World,’ a real-life implementation of the world in the webcomic ‘Dark Moon: Moon’s Altar,’ since last September.

The webcomic ‘Dark Moon: Moon’s Altar,’ featuring K-pop group ENHYPEN, has been brought to life at Lotte World, attracting numerous fans in their teens and twenties.[Provided by HYBE]

Sang-woo Hwangbo, the business representative of HYBE’s Story Business Division, said, “We wanted to show that the webcomic ‘Dark Moon: Moon’s Altar’ IP is alive and moving in various touchpoints of our lives by grafting it onto Lotte World,” and explained, “We focused on naturally blending our IP into the on-site content, rather than simply using it as a backdrop for a specific theme or placing it in an inappropriate space.”

You can find traces of ‘Dark Moon: Moon’s Altar’ all over Lotte World. When you get off the escalator leading to the amusement park, the full moon, a symbol of ‘Dark Moon,’ greets the visitors. The Lotte couple, the mascots who have been guarding Lotte World for decades, have changed their clothes for the first time in a long time. They are dressed in the uniform of ‘Dresselis Academy,’ the school in the webcomic. The newly dressed Lotte couple was the best photo zone.

The webcomic ‘Dark Moon: Moon’s Altar,’ featuring K-pop group ENHYPEN, has been brought to life at Lotte World, attracting numerous fans in their teens and twenties.[Provided by HYBE]

Lotte World, deeply immersed in the world of ENHYPEN and ‘Dark Moon,’ is a completely different world in itself. The Magic Castle decorated on the exterior and the Dark Moon boat floating on Seokchon Lake are interesting sights even for visitors who have not visited Lotte World.

Once you step outside and head towards the Magic Castle, you’ll truly immerse yourself in the atmosphere of ‘Dark Moon: Moon’s Altar.’ The bridge leading to Magic Island is adorned with the Dresselis Academy logo and banners of the seven vampires on each lamppost, making you feel as if you’re stepping into the webcomic. Magic Island also has a Dresselis Academy gift shop, a pop-up store for ‘Dark Moon’ official merchandise.

The webcomic ‘Dark Moon: Moon’s Altar,’ featuring K-pop group ENHYPEN, has been brought to life at Lotte World, attracting numerous fans in their teens and twenties.[Provided by HYBE]

In the party room, you can take pictures with the seven main characters and even watch short videos. In episode 16 of the webcomic, ‘After the Party,’ the seven boys held a birthday party here. You can also see the yet-to-be-released book version of ‘Dark Moon,’ making it a perfect place to take a break.

Yu-yeon Kim (18), who visited the place, said, “I started reading the webcomic because I’m a fan of ENHYPEN, but I think it’s a work that holds its own in terms of art style and story compared to other webcomics,” and added, “I really felt like I was inside the webcomic when the theme song played at Magic Castle.”

The webcomic ‘Dark Moon: Moon’s Altar,’ featuring K-pop group ENHYPEN, has been brought to life at Lotte World, attracting numerous fans in their teens and twenties.[Provided by HYBE]

Lotte World, deeply immersed in the world of ENHYPEN and ‘Dark Moon,’ is a completely different world in itself. The Magic Castle decorated on the exterior and the Dark Moon boat floating on Seokchon Lake are interesting sights even for visitors who have not visited Lotte World.

Kang-hoon Chae, a man in his late 40s living near Lotte World, said, “I always see the Magic Castle on my way to and from work, and I just thought they decorated it with a fun theme for the night operation,” and added, “I found out it was a special collaboration when my middle school daughter, who is a fan of ENHYPEN, said she was going to Lotte World with her friends to see the ENHYPEN webcomic. Despite having seen various mapping shows, this was the most spectacular event I’ve seen while living in Jamsil.”

The stage of ‘Dark Moon: Moon’s Altar’ by ENHYPEN in collaboration with Lotte World [Provided by HYBE]

‘ENHYPEN in Lotte World’ was a well-matched meeting. Especially since there is a trend of wearing school uniforms and enjoying the amusement park, renting school uniforms from the webcomic did not feel out of place in the existing culture of Lotte World.

The response was hot. The first season teaser post on Lotte World’s official Twitter account after the opening exceeded 600,000 views, and the cumulative viewers of the advertisement video surpassed 20 million. According to Lotte World, the number of foreign visitors to Lotte World in September increased more than threefold compared to the same period last year.

The collaboration with Lotte World was able to achieve more than expected results thanks to the popularity of the artist IP and the webcomic derived from it. ‘Dark Moon: Moon’s Altar’ is a representative success story among the five story IPs that HYBE has released so far. This work, which started serialization in January 2022 and ended last month, has surpassed 150 million cumulative views worldwide (as of August) on the Naver Webtoon platform. There were not a few cases of becoming fans through Naver Webtoon, even if they were not fans of ENHYPEN. This was followed by ‘Dark Moon: Gray City’ (December 2022), and currently, the sequels to the Dark Moon series, ‘Dark Moon: Children of Nightfield,’ ‘Dark Moon: Barg’s Blood,’ and ‘Dark Moon: Two Moons,’ are in production.

Lotte World has extended the event, which was originally planned to run until October 22, until November 19 due to the successful collaboration. ENHYPEN also visited here and took the stage as vampire boys. On September 28, ENHYPEN sang the webcomic OST (background music) ‘CRIMINAL LOVE,’ among others. The group, which recently made a comeback with a new album, will also visit Lotte World on the 18th for a fan event.