Why the NewJeans x Powerpuff Girls collab isn't just cute
the truth behind "new hair, new tee / NewJeans, do you see?"
If you don’t know NewJeans, let me tell you this. You already like them.
Humans have evolved to simp over cuteness (or “sugar spice and everything nice”). Our brains release bursts of dopamine whenever something adorable falls under our radar. And that’s exactly what NewJeans is C.U.T.E.
But as is with all things cute—think Puss in boots—we should resist the urge to succumb to it entirely. We need to remove ourselves from it, procure a little bit of distance, and wonder what is behind all this cuteness?
Today’s post is going to a) walk you through the “New Jeans” music video—decode the messages behind the seemingly innocuous visual motifs—and b) probe the meaning behind the NewJeans x Powerpuff Girls collab.
Let’s dig in.
Bunnies wand duplicity
The Powerpuff-ication of NewJeans begins with a Bunnies wand standing upright on a shelf. The erect position of this lightstick, which I’ll refer to as a wand throughout this post, somewhat hints at the device’s inert transportive powers. However, the wand acquires an even more portentous air when it starts to glow.
In a flash, the girls are whisked off into a realm where they’re transposed into caricatured Powerpuff versions of themselves.
In this delightful 2D world, each member is capable of wielding a superpower that they previously wished for in reality. Minji manifests a chocolate Bunnies wand headpiece from air; Hani supersizes it; Haerin lifts the gigantic chocolate towards Danielle, who talks life into the inanimate chocolate atoms. Hyein’s desire to fly is also realized when all five girls hurl themselves through the ceiling after getting a call from a Tokki (bunny) in distress.
Up till here, the narrative is pretty easy to follow. What isn’t as overt is the meaning behind the interplay between NewJeans and the Bunnies wand. Let’s backtrack to the scene where the wand transports the girls into a new dimension. Those with even the slightest understanding of K-pop will know that the wand is a visual metonym for the NewJeans fandom: Bunnies. That this wand bestows superpowers onto the girls, enabling each member to transcend their mundane everyday self, insinuates the provenance of NewJeans’ stardom—their fans. Without Bunnies, the girls can’t reach new heights in iteration. The fandom is what empowers NewJeans, motivating them to reinvent themselves concept after concept. In short, the “New Jeans” music video is an homage to Bunnies. The existence of a fortress-liked fandom is paramount to the girls’ longevity as idols. Thus, eponymously titling a video that narrates the inextricability of NewJeans and Bunnies can be construed as a recognition of truth: idols emanate from and grow in parallel with their fans.
That this wand bestows superpowers onto the girls, enabling each member to transcend their mundane everyday self, insinuates the provenance of NewJeans’ stardom—their fans.
The transcendent qualities of the Bunnies wand is, however, not without its risks.
Oddly enough, the villain that the girls have to fight is the very same Tokki (토끼 is “bunny” in Korean) that reaches out to them for help.
In one of the scenes leading up to a short-lived battle, the girls are eclipsed by the shadow of a giant Bunnies wand that looms over them. The wand’s overbearing presence alludes to the power imbalance that exists, at times, between idols and fans. Idols are often placed upon a pedestal, elevated above others based on looks, vocal talent, dance skills, etc. While the phrase “placed upon a pedestal” implies access to privileges and power whose greatness mirrors the extent of elevation, such monopoly of social influence can actually be more debilitating than liberating. Those hoisted upon a pedestal are obligated to fulfill the expectations of the public. Failure to do so results in soul-crushing criticism and, in certain cases, dethronement. Put simply, the reality of the K-pop industry is that de facto power rests in the hands of fans. Such power disparity is spatially depicted in the standoff between NewJeans and the giant wand; the girls fight from the ground, whereas the wand shoots down at the girls through its laser eyes.
While the phrase “placed upon a pedestal” implies access to privileges and power whose greatness mirrors the extent of elevation, such monopoly of social influence can actually be more debilitating than liberating.
The fight is aborted only when Hani zaps the wand into a cuddly white bunny who stands shoulder to shoulder with the girls. The message here is simple: there is no room for hierarchy in a healthy, long-lasting friendship between Bunnies and NewJeans. Expectations can exist between the two, but no one side is in a position to be domineering to the point that it that subverts the equality underpinning the relationship. The Bunnies wand should be held aloft as a scepter of inspiration, not waved about as a stick of imposition.
Transportive friendship
The truth that courses through the K-pop industry like a regenerative saga is this: idolatry is built on a fictive world erected together by fans and idols. The collaborative process is a long journey that spans multiple albums, years of fan meetings, hours of endless MV streamings and private in-my-room karaoke sessions (not an exhaustive list btw). The line “new hair, new tee / NewJeans, you and me” encapsulates this golden truth perfectly. NewJeans can manifest themselves in new styles with each comeback, but this is only half of the equation. The other half depends on the fandom. It’s ultimately up to Bunnies to decide whether they choose to believe in the NewJeans-verse.
Each new release and its accompanying music video chisels a little more dimension into the NewJeans-verse, bringing it to life beyond the screen and inside one’s head. Fans and culture geeks (such as myself) spiral deeper into this world in pursuit of something like a Bunnies manifesto—what is NewJeans trying to relay to us this time? What does this all add up to? In some ways, the whole endeavor is reminiscent of Dante’s descent into Hell. A noble chase after truth. But for us, the progressive burrowing is actually an ascendence towards edification. A journey grounded in semantic sleuthing that culminates in enhanced fluency of the NewJeans syntax.
Multiple frame-in-frame scenes throughout the music video reference this transportive journey.
At the start of the musical part of the video, viewers are shown a montage of interview clips playing on a TV in a room that looks like it would be owned by someone with chill taste. Then the screen suddenly switches to show the girls staring in awe at their now-Powerpuffed selves in selfie mode. The next transition is so subtle that it’s almost sly. The camera zooms into the iPhone screen, conjoining the viewer’s world with that of Powerpuffed NewJeans. Bunnies are now part of NewJeans’ adventure in this colorful cartoonish world. We’ve been transported from our room and into a fictive realm in a matter of seconds.
The journey doesn’t end there though.
After the end of the first chorus, a pixelated Hanni brandishes a light-emitting Bunnies wand to summon viewers into a game that she and the other girls play. Mario-esque in concept—we see the girls absorbing white bunny icons as they move from left to right—the game is first presented to us in the third person. We are outside the frame. However, the perspective shifts to the first person in tandem with Hanni’s wand waving. We now trail behind the girls, staring into the back of their pixelated heads. Once again, the transition is smooth and viewers find themselves sucked into another frame and engrossed in another layer of the Powerpuffed NewJeans-verse.
The repeated employment of subtle frame-in-frame transitions mediates the transportive power the NewJeans-verse exerts onto viewers. And perhaps this is only fair, considering that Bunnies instill NewJeans with the will and the courage to transcend their former selves. All in all, the friendship that binds the two catapults both to new physical and imaginary landscapes.
Powerpuff parallelism
Now for the million dollar question: why is NewJeans Powerpuffed? Transforming into a 50cmish superhero with bauble-like eyes to save a Tokki from going bad is certainly kitsch. But is this it? Was this collaboration meant to conjure cuteness for the sake of cuteness?
I say not.
The Powerpuffication of NewJeans is meta. Beneath the cute makeover, there is a silent—even stoic—admittance of the commodification NewJeans is subject to. Much like the original Powerpuff Girls, NewJeans is destined for consumption. The narratives which elevate them—think “Ditto”, “OMG”, “Hypeboy”—all mediate just how covetable the girls are as idols, fashion icons, teen romance figures. Put simply, NewJeans has been meticulously manufactured by an entire crew of producers, designers, stylists, managers who tap into the public’s thirst for naturally pretty, doll-like girls.
Much like the original Powerpuff Girls, NewJeans is destined for consumption.
The words “manufactured” and “natural” shouldn’t co-exist in the same sentence. But reality is, they do. People have an undying appetite for “cute”—in the most average sense of the word (I’m not here to debate beauty standards)—girls. Girls who have perfect hair. Girls who make low rise jeans look cool. Girls who have equally cute friends. And most importantly, girls who seem just naturally like this. Nothing is forced. Everything contrived.
The OG Powerpuff Girls aren’t any different. They always have the same static hairdo, the same immaculate outfit, the same range of emotions. But none of this really comes across as jarring because the girls are supposed to be cute. We accept the artificial as natural. How else should they act? This conflation—or confusion—is overlooked by our brain because it’s busy shooting out bursts of dopamine. We crave this cuteness. This is why when we look at NewJeans, we risk glossing them over with this same distorted gaze.
Is there a way to correct this? At an individual level, hopefully. On a massive scale, no.
The self-referential scenes in which NewJeans re-enacts the choreography from “Attention” and “Hypeboy” in their Powerpuffed selves alludes to this “glossing” effect. When viewers see alternating scenes of NewJeans as humans and NewJeans as dancing Powerpuffed characters, they automatically equate the two. This is precisely when the glossing happens. NewJeans is further abstracted into an a fictive entity that is, in essence, a high concentration of superhuman cuteness. At this point, the girls truly transcend their human forms. They are distilled into 2D configurations that lay bare the core of NewJeans’ DNA: collectible cuteness.
This is precisely when the glossing happens. NewJeans is further abstracted into an a fictive entity that is, in essence, a high concentration of superhuman cuteness.
Humans are not collectible. Dolls are. “New hair, new tee / NewJeans, do you see?” Does this make more sense now? When people look at NewJeans, fawn over their latest hairdos, scrutinize their 90s inspired looks, they don’t see a girl. They see a cultural commodity. Sure there is a girl behind each glammed up face, but they don’t see her. They see the doll. And they have every reason to hunger after this multi-talented doll, which returns season after season with even stronger doses of enduring cuteness that make even the most stringent fan want to “collect em all”. People are already going wild over the anime printed T-shirts the girls wear in “Super Shy”—as you might have guessed, each girl wears a printed anime version of herself. How meta is that?
As is with most things though, everything dark has a brighter side to it. There is no need to subscribe to absolute cynicism. In this vein, neither NewJeans nor the Powerpuff Girls are doomed to passivity. Both derive power from those who consume them. Consumption can be a conduit for new narratives with seismic potential—who ever dreamed of a NewJeans x Powerpuff Girls collab? Greater popularity amounts to stronger cultural valence and the unlocking of opportunities. While it’s hard to say whether the girls can directly translate social influence into bargaining power within the industry, given their current status as fledglings, one thing is certain: NewJeans is spelling out profound truths in self-referential gestures that only the discerning eye can decipher beyond “cute”.
Everything NewJeans puts out -- merch, clothes, hairstyles, albums, lightsticks -- just make me want it all. NewJeans's style is everything I wanted as a kid growing up in the Y2K era. They make me want to live out that fantasy. But then I realize I'm living in a capitalist society. The group has completely succeeded in making me want what they have. But alas, things are just things at the end of the day.
I’m totally with you on this. I WANT what they have. But if you think carefully about why NewJeans is so covetable, you realize they rekindle memories of all the things you played with or desired as a kid. This is Min Hee Jin working her nostalgic magic on us haha.