You must be kidding if you say that you have never heard of the popular K-pop group BTS. And if you know them then you must be part of their fans called BTS Army. But if you are a new fan then you must be wondering who these cute characters called BT21 are and how they are related to BTS. In this article, we will discuss the BT21 Characters and their names.

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Origin of BT21 Characters

The BT21 characters were born back in late September 2017, when the K-pop group, BTS collaborated with Line Friends to create new product lines and ideas.

The Boys spent a day sketching character ideas and a team of designers from Line Friends helped them turn their rough sketches into more defined characters. BT21 has a whole series of videos that takes you on the journey of origin of these BT21 characters.

Who are BT21 Characters - Names and Members

There are eight characters in BT21 Universe – RJ, Tata, Mang, Chimmy, Koya, Shooky, Cooky, and Van. Each character reflects the BTS Members. Here is the breakdown of the BT21 Characters with their names and characteristics.

RJ

Jin’s creation 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 that Jin looks like an alpaca when he eats.

TATA

Tata, a huge and smart character with a heart-shaped head, is an alien with special powers. His limbs can bend and stretch into strange lengths and shapes. He was the character V had drawn for a long time, and he loves unique characters, so he wanted a unique character rather than a cute one.

MANG

J-Hope’s character Mang is a dancing pony, but he wears a mask to hide his face. When J-Hope laughs, his lips become a heart, so Mang’s nose is heart-shaped. In Korean, “mang” has several meanings. It can be translated as “pony”, “failure”, and the last part of J-Hope’s name “hope” (huimang).

CHIMMY

According to Jimin, the yellow playful puppy, Chimmy, gives the whole picture of the band. “The best animal for BTS is a puppy,” he said in a BT21 making video. “We like to hang out and have active activities that remind us of puppies.” He also believes that Chimmy’s chubby cheeks reminded people of his face when BTS first debuted.

KOYA

RM’s character Koya is a sleepy blue koala. Purple represents love, as V once said, he has removable ears and a purple nose. RM thought the koala was really cute, so he drew it in the first sketching stage.

COOKY

Jungkook’s character Cooky is a rabbit with an 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 is the inspiration behind the next character, Shooky.

SHOOKY

Suga’s drawing Shooky is a cookie with a badass attitude. He’s best friends with Cooky as he is also the one with attitude, 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 Friends designers created Shooky’s character from these ideas.

VAN

The grey and white character Van was created by LINE Friends’ designers. He is a space robot that protects BT21, and he represents BTS ARMY i.e. their fans. It was inspired by interviews with BTS about what kind of characters they wanted to create with the LINE team.

Story Behind the Group Name BT21

The group name BT21 was inspired by Suga’s comments that the character represented both BTS and the 21st century and thought it was necessary to live the next 100 years.

The story behind BT21 is that they are a group of aspiring idols. Curious alien Tata left his home planet with Van and saw BTS while visiting Earth. Impressed by their popularity, he was motivated to organize his rival group. He recruited other members to form the perfect idol group.

The Bottom Line

So, this is the story behind the creation of the different characters of BT21. This is an important story for the BTS Army. After the launch of BT21 Merch, LINE Friends gained huge popularity worldwide. LINE Friends has launched a variety of products in the BT21 Line that every BTS Fan dreams of buying.