What is the identity of the Labubu craze, the strange entity that keeps catching our eyes?

At first, I thought it was just a weird doll. Scary teeth, lumpy fur, and overly large, empty eyes.But once you look at it, you are strangely drawn to it. Now, Korea's MZ generation is crazy about this unidentified creature.

Labubu is a collectible plush character brand designed by Hong Kong-Belgian designer Kasing Lung. It is sold at Popmart and was released as a series called 'The Monsters'.

Labubu! This is the character with the strongest fandom among the blind box toy series of Pop Mart in China. At first, it was a brand known only to collectors centered on kidults, but now everyone from K-POP fandoms, Generation Z, and even office workers are looking for Labubu on SNS.

The core of the craze is ‘strangeness.’It doesn’t pretend to be cute. It’s not pretty, and it doesn’t have a classic aesthetic. But strangely enough, it’s endearing.

The reasons are complex.First, the sensibility of the times that sympathizes with ‘imperfection’. Modern people, exhausted from emotional labor, are drawn to comfort that seems a little damaged rather than refined beauty. Second, the nostalgic system called 'Blind Box'. The excitement of the lottery game in childhood has been revived as 
‘unplanned consumption’ now that we are adults.

Third, it is the spark of K-POP. When popular idols such as Seventeen and New Jeans mentioned Labubu on broadcasts,the intersection of fandom and figure emerged, and this led to an explosion of the market through fandom.

Labubu's popularity is not a simple fad. It is the result of the current emotional consumption trend in Korea and the essence of digital branding. In an era where one figure expresses one's taste, emotional state, and identity. And that expression is no longer explained in words. It is an era where one photo and one figure take the place of the other.

So Labubu is not a doll, but a fearful thing.