YMMV / 7FATES: CHAKHO

• Angst? What Angst?: Jooan seems pretty calm about the fact that Beom killed his girlfriend. Even more so that she was Narae, who openly resisted attacking humans. Possibly justified given the months-long time skips there are since the arrival of the Beom to that point. Eventually subverted in Episode 26, where it's shown he still quietly grieves her.
• Awesome Art: Oh, YES. The art is a cool blend of western superhero comics and Korean webtoons to make a mysterious, dark feel with plenty of room for cool fighting moves and SFX. The main characters are stylized, but still recognizable. All of designs for costumes and Beom are absolutely on point. Notable Crowning Art of Awesome? The shot of Zeha's sword against his face as seen in Episode 8 , where in the sword's reflection, you can see the face of a Beom over where it covers Zeha's face, almost like a sort of filter or window. Awesome.
  • Another one worth noting is in the art shift scene at the beginning of Episode 1, the face of a Beom which is so raw and dynamic that it ended up on the cover of "Stay Alive".
• Awesome Music: The main theme of the comic, "Stay Alive" by Jung Kook and produced by SUGA, is sweeping slow-paced, and dramatic, with an eerie, but confident air created by a great blend of echoing synths and strings. It really does help set the tragic but persevering mood of the tale, especially where it debuts in Episode 4.
• Awesome Moments:
  • Dogeon's rampage of Unstoppable Rage at the end of Episode 4.
  • Zeha taking a serious level in badass in Episode 6.
  • Zeha getting the Sword of Death in Episode 7.
  • Dogeon shooting a gun out of Seongjin's hands and saving Zeha in Episode 9.
  • Zahu's adamant refusal to eat a human, even as he dies.
    • And him healing Hosu and giving him powers, too! Too bad it killed him, though
  • Cein surving three days in a Beom's stomach as seen in Episode 16.
    • How he gets out is even more awe-spiring. He simply gets mysterious energy powers and rips apart the monster from the inside!
  • The CHAKHO dressing as security guards, then overtaking a truck with kidnapped humans in it to infiltrate the prison. Teamwork makes the dreamwork, indeed!
  • Hwan shooting a Beom (that's holding a truck driver hostage) straight in the forehead.
  • The CHAKHO managing to actually do some damage to Bulti!
  • Hosu stabbing Bulti STRAIGHT THROUGH and copying his powers!
  • In Episode 21, the group is finally all together, causing a literal beam of energy to appear.
  • In Episode 43, The other species tells the Chahko that the weak have no place in this land. The Chakho's energy signature changes and becomes stronger and the alien species grows weaker in contact with the Shindansu, then Zeha tells them:
  Zeha: No one needs qualifications to live on this land. We simply need to take down those who disrupt the peace of Sin-Si. What was it you said? That's what Sin-Si desires? What you said about the weak having no place in this land...Do you feel now how absurd your words were? Go die and repent.
• Broken Base:
  • The announcement of this webtoon caused some split reactions in the BTS fandom, from excitement at an action story featuring the members (especially when people saw the art), to criticism towards HYBE's use (or perceived overuse) of BTS in official non-music-related IP.
  • Downplayed regarding the story itself. General reception has been somewhat mixed, with most criticism being on the awkward pacing and serious tone that pushes too much emphasis on fight scenes and stretches them to more panels than they really need to be, with character development and Worldbuilding stretched a little too thin. Didn't help that its status as an action story and a lack of obvious connection to BTS' music and themes (beyond "Stay Alive") invited unfavorable comparisons to the much more widely beloved BTS Universe. Later, the series grew the mane a little and picked up pacing, with some comic relief and stories from the villains' point of view.
• Ensemble Dark Horse: Hara had an instantly positive reaction from audiences after Episode 27, which showcased her status as a snarky Dark Action Girl (with several comments about her attractiveness regardless of the commenter's gender) and her competence and sense of honor in battle.
• Genius Bonus: The main plot has plenty of references to Korean culture and history, to the point that knowing about this subject can give hints for some key developments and backstory reveals.
  • As detailed under Meaningul Name in the main page (and stated by Haru himself), "Chakho" refers to the historical figures of the "chakhogapsa", a group of tiger hunters formed by King Sejong in 1421 to control the tiger population in the Joseon Kingdom.
  • "Beom" is Korean for "tiger". While the Korean tiger has gone extinct, it's a national symbol of Korea.
  • Sin-Si is clearly meant to be a fictional version of Korea. Both Sin-Si and its backstory are references to the origins of the country according to the Dangun myth:
    • While Korea was (according to the myth) founded by the Lord of Heaven Hwanin, his son yearned to live on Earth. This son was allowed to descend from heaven and found the City of God or Sinsi, giving himself the title of Heaven King. That Heaven King's name? Hwanung.
    • In the myth, a bear and a tiger (which represent the two tribes that sought the favor of the heavenly prince) prayed to Hwanung to let them become human. Hwanung ordered them to only eat the sacred garlic and mugwort he gave them and to remain out of the sunlight for 100 days. While the tiger gave up and left, the bear got their wish and was transformed into a woman, who later became Hwanung's wife and had their son Dangun. Dangun would go on to found Gojoseon, the first Korean kingdom. So about those Beom and Gom...
    • In CHAKHO, the city has a giant tree that may or may not be the same one that was there thousands of years ago (this one referred to as "Sindansu"). In the myth, Hwanung descended to Earth on top of (or under) a Sindansu or "divine altar tree".
• Growing the Beard: As said above, the story suffered from slow pacing at first, only barely setting up the characters, conflict and setting before going on hiatus, in a way that made it less interesting to BTS fans than other properties. After hiatus and especially with the prison raid arc (which takes place immediately after all main characters have been properly introduced), the story becomes much more intense and better-paced, with the introduction of non-villainous Beom characters like Zahu, the main characters finally interacting and working together as a team and becoming a bigger and more colorful main cast, interesting and shocking developments like Hosu killing and eating Zahu, and a truly engaging battle between the main group and Bulti.
• Heartwarming Moments:
  • Episode 24, where Hwan assures Zeha that the Beom war was not his fault, but the Beom's, that he shouldn't play the blame game, and reminding the boy of his heroic and selfless actions.
  • In Episode 26, Jooan and Dogeon have a sincere conversation about grief and if it's possible or even good to have a happy life without those you lost. Dogeon says that he tries to live a good life, because he's sure his friends would have wanted that, and he would have wanted that for them if their roles had been reversed.
• Shocking Moments: One of the last things you'd expect in an official BTS property would be one of the protagonists (one based on member j-hope no less) killing and eating a non-villainous Beom in a supernaturally-induced hunger rampage.
• Spiritual Successor: To We On: Be the Shield, a lesser known official webtoon from 2014. Both are webtoons with realistic art styles that feature fictional versions of BTS members using their different powers and combat abilities to fight a supernatural threat to humanity. Jin's character even uses a bow and arrow (with an in-universe background of archery practice) in both webtoons. Both of SUGA's counterparts wield bladed weapons as well (a sword in We On, daggers in CHAKHO), though while We On's character came from a warrior family, CHAKHO's starts out as a Non-Action Guy.
• The Woobie: This is a universe where human-eating creatures with a grudge regarding a past war try to kill every last human, so this is bound to happen:
  • Zeha lost his parents quite violently at a very young age, growing up with repressed memories of the incident and no one to tell him what happened, leading him to believe they abandoned him. He's then manipulated through his desire to find answers by the very person who murdered his parents to unleash the Beom into the human world. When Hosu blames him for letting the Beom escape, he doesn't even try to defend himself and starts tearfully apologizing.
  • Dogeon lost his friends (implied to he a Family of Choice, with Dogeon being an older brother to them) because they wanted to repay him through one last heist, despite his wishes for them to abandon a life of crime. Zeha suggests that the reason Dogeon sticks with the group despite acting distant is that he feels lonely. His inner dialogue during the battle against Bulti in the Yisal apartment store prison indicates he plans to "join" his fallen comrades when the war is over.
  • Hwan is desperate to find his little sister, who he hadn't been able to spend time with due to sports competitions and now has been kidnapped by the Beom. By the time he finds where she is, it's already too late. Having lost his parents to the Beom already (in front of his eyes, no less), he has no immediate family left.
  • Hosu is one of the humans captured and kept in cells by Bulti, and is tortured and starved until he's almost dead. Due to Beom blood triggering something, he ends up being dominated by hunger and killing and eating the one Beom who was kind to him. And as shown by the narration, Hosu's semi-aware throughout this rampage.
  • Zahu is a Beom who honestly believes Beom and humans can coexist peacefully, and refuses to eat humans. Bulti and the other Beom lock him in a cell with humans to force him to give into his hunger, but he still refuses. Unfortunately, his act of kindness through feeding Hosu his blood costs him his life, as he accidentally awakens something in Hosu that makes the human kill and eat him.