HYBE announced on Monday that it is expanding its original Dark Moon IP with a new entry, DARK MOON: The Witch of Yerasah. This marks the first time the franchise will focus exclusively on a werewolf‑centric story.
The rollout is a large‑scale, multimedia push in partnership with K‑pop group &TEAM, spanning four formats: a web novel, animated music videos, video content, and visual artwork. While earlier Dark Moon titles blended vampires and werewolves, The Witch of Yerasah puts werewolves front and center, delving into fate, identity, and love that’s chosen rather than predestined.
The centerpiece is a web novel that launched on May 20 on several platforms, including Naver Series in Korea and Japanese e‑book services such as Cmoa, ebookjapan, Mecha Comic, and Line Manga. Set in the fictional 2010s‑era kingdom of Aman, in the remote town of Yerasah, the story serves as a prequel to Dark Moon: The Blood Altar and a sequel to Dark Moon: The Grey City.
The narrative follows a pack of werewolves as they wrestle with destiny and romance beyond the limits of past lives, shifting the series toward more introspective character arcs and emotional growth. To complement the novel, &TEAM’s track “Bewitched” has been turned into an animated music video that visualizes the story’s mythic elements, while a weekly video series dives deeper into each character’s backstory and development.
Additional artwork titled “Blood Print” will be released alongside the video series, further expanding the universe across platforms. HYBE noted that AI tools were used only in limited parts of the animation process—mostly for motion implementation—while the core creative work, including story, direction, and artwork, remains entirely human‑driven.
Dark Moon began as a webtoon featuring members of South Korean group ENHYPEN. The webtoon was adapted into a TV anime that premiered in Japan on January 9, streamed worldwide by Crunchyroll.
Ize Press has licensed the Dark Moon: The Blood Altar webtoon for print, describing it as “a teen romance that mixes urban fantasy with a clash between vampires, werewolves, and a mysterious girl with a secret.” The English‑language webtoon launched in January 2022 and concluded with chapter 71 in October 2023. Ize Press also released HYBE’s original novel in English print on December 2.
Last November, HYBE launched the sequel webtoon DARK MOON: Two Moons globally, continuing the story after Dark Moon: The Blood Altar.
Source: HYBE press release
