“Save Me” is a webtoon based on the fictional universe created around
the South Korea music group BTS, especially the parts of it that have been
cover by their music videos during their “The Most Beautiful Moment in Life” era
in 2015. Their company Big Hit Entertainment has provided the plots and then
the Korean Animation/Webtoon studio LICO adapted and
incorporated them into the webtoon.
The first episode of “Save Me” was released on January 17th,
2019. The webtoon consists of a prologue and fifteen episodes with a weekly episode
release on Naver Webtoon in Korea and Naver Corporation’s international webtoon
portal LINE WEBTOON. The last episode was released on April 11th,
2019.
Although the names of the seven main characters are the same as the real
names of the seven BTS members, their stories are not BTS’ stories. On the
contrary, their stories are part of the fictive BTS universe (usually called
Bangtan Universe or just BU), where each of the characters is seen having some
kind of trouble or problem that is relatable and relevant to young people. Some
of these issues are more serious than others.
In the webtoon, Seokjin is the main protagonist. He has returned to Seoul,
South Korea, after two years in America and upon his return, he learns about
the awful fates of his six high school friends Namjoon, Yoongi, Hoseok, Jimin,
Taehyung and Jungkook.
Namjoon is in jail for starting a fight with a customer at the gas
station where he works. Yoongi has committed suicide by setting fire to the
motel room where he lived. Hoseok, who is an orphan, has suffered from
narcolepsy since his mother left him, and this has caused him to break his
ankle, so he is no longer able to do what he does best, which is dance. Jimin
has been hospitalized for years due to weird seizures that he suffers from
since a traumatic childhood experience in an arboretum. Taehyung has killed his
abusive father and is facing his trial and finally Jungkook has killed himself
by jumping off a roof because he was neglected by his mother and her new family
after his father’s death.
It is now Soekjin’s quest to save each of his friends and to do so, he
must relive the same day, April 11th (!), over and over again until
he gets it right. Through his travels between points in time and space, he must
face himself and so must his friends in order to progress.
The webtoon as such is quite good although the characters look so much
alike that they are hard to tell apart, especially Seokjin and Jungkook. The
simple, douche color-tone used, where most things are black and white added a
few faded colors, is not at all helpful, but a bit depressing just like the tone
of the story.
“Save Me” is not quite as fulfilling to read as I had hoped, mainly
because this is probably just a first season so most of the questions that the
story raises are not answered. Personally, I am also a bit disappointed, that
some of the more controversial subjects in the music video BU have been
filtered out in the webtoon. Here I do of course think of subjects such as
homosexuality and drugs, which are no go subjects in South Korea.
In the uncensured music video to “I Need U” as well as the music video “Run”
and “The Most Beautiful Moment in Life” highlight reel
(usually referred to as the HYYH highlight reel), it is implied by their
closeness (and matching beach outfits!) that Yoongi and Hoseok are in a
relationship of sorts. Yoongi’s suicide seems to happen right after Hoseok has
left Yoongi’s bed in the motel room, leaving his shirt behind hanging on the
wall and Yoongi stoking the pillow next to him in the double bed, pining for the
one who has left. In the same way, Hoseok is seen taking an overdose, the red
light from the motel sign reflecting in the bathroom mirror, indicating the
connection between him and Yoongi. The overdose shows how it is almost impossible
to live with a non-hetero sexuality in South Korea, many young people seeing
suicide as the only solution.
BTS is known to support the LGBTQ+
community and this is a the most daring way they have ever showed it, but this
was back in 2015 when they weren’t particularly famous, yet, and as BTS grew in
popularity, the gay references disappeared, as being something other than
straight in Korea can ruin your reputation.
As “Save Me” is from 2019, the shirt
hanging on Yoongi’s wall is no longer Hoseok’s and Yoongi kills himself due to
a bad relationship to his father after his mother has passed away, just like
Hoseok no longer takes an overdose, but just passes out because of his narcolepsy.
Unfortunately, I don’t think that a
second season of the webtoon, if a such is going go surface, will be braver,
but still it is going to be interesting to see where the story will take our
main characters and if they’ll go directly to the “Love Yourself” part of the
universe or dare to dig into the dark, controversial “Wings” part first.
“Save Me” is the third BTS-related
webtoon, the previous being, “Hip Hop Monster” with BTS represented by seven
lovable “monsters” that were also merchandised as plush dolls, and “We On: Be
the Shield” which was a fantasy/action webtoon featuring BTS as high school
students with supernatural powers. Both were published in 2014-15.
“Save Me” is the best of the three
webtoons and I’ll give it four stars out of five: ****
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