Creator’s Note 

“Why woodpeckers, of all things?” 

That is the question I hear most often whenever I introduce DDAKDDAK FRIENDS.

In Korean, “ddak-ddak” mimics the tapping sound of a woodpecker pecking at a tree—the very sound that inspired the name DDAKDDAK FRIENDS.

During the pandemic, I ended up stepping away from work I had done for a long time. Feeling lost and uncertain about what to do next, I began heading out to local parks and mountains every single day, as if going to an office. After a while, the birds began to catch my eye.

The longer I watched them, the more I realized their lives were not all that different from ours. They forage for food, find partners, build homes, raise their young, and journey far away as the seasons turn—each living out their days in their own distinct way.

Among them, the woodpecker drew my heart the most.

A woodpecker pecks relentlessly at hard wood to carve out a home with its own beak. Watching this small creature steadily chisel away, I saw grit, endurance, and the quiet power to build one’s own life.

What struck me even more was that the nest does not remain just the woodpecker’s home. Once the woodpecker moves on, the hollow becomes a safe haven for other birds and small woodland creatures. In this role as the “architect of the forest,” I saw the woodpecker as a vital connector—a bridge weaving the living things of the ecosystem together.

That was where the story of DDAKDDAK FRIENDS began.

As I kept birdwatching, the birds’ ecological traits naturally turned into story material: the way they build nests, how they forage, the contrasts between resident birds and migratory visitors, seasonal travels, and the dynamics of competition and quiet coexistence. I began translating these real-life observations into character personalities, occupations, relationships, and everyday moments.

That is how Starlight Forest was born: a place shared by four young woodpeckers taking their first steps into adulthood to shape their own lives, surrounded by neighbors each living in their own unique way.

Becoming independent, growing, forging bonds, and living alongside one another.

The lives of the birds I watched in the woods grew into the world of DDAKDDAK FRIENDS and Starlight Forest.

— Jojo