King Gnu Drops First Fully Animated Music Video for So Bad

King Gnu has tried something new. The popular Japanese band has put out a music video for their latest song “So Bad,” made together with animation studio A-1 Pictures and directed by OSRIN. The band calls it their first fully animated video, and it stars animated versions of the members themselves.

Frontman Daiki Tsuneta shared how much the project meant to him, saying he has loved animation since the start of his career and has long wanted to work it into his music. Seeing the band brought to life in hand drawn form by OSRIN and A-1 Pictures was, in his words, a dream come true.

The song itself has a fun home. “So Bad” was written as the theme for Universal Studios Japan’s “Zombi de Dance” event during its Halloween Horror Nights, and the single arrived on September 5.

King Gnu has been around longer than some fans might realize. The group first formed in 2013 under a different name, settled on King Gnu in 2017, and broke through with their major label debut album Sympa in January 2019 after two independent releases.

Anime fans have almost certainly heard them already. The band has provided theme songs for Banana Fish, Ranking of Kings, both Jujutsu Kaisen 0 and the show’s second season, and a recent Detective Conan film, among others.

My take: King Gnu’s music already feels cinematic, so a fully animated video was bound to happen sooner or later. Pairing them with A-1 Pictures is a treat, and it is nice to hear how genuinely excited Tsuneta sounds about it.