HYBE's New Japan-Korea Girl Group Is Part Real, Part Virtual

South Korean entertainment giant HYBE is partnering with Japanese music production firm INCS toenter to launch Girls Archives, a Japan-Korea girl group that pairs five real performers with virtual counterparts.

HYBE participates through its Next Entertainment Business (NEB) division, which handles concept design and storytelling, while Tokyo-based INCS toenter leads music and virtual artist production as the managing company of the Girls Archives Committee. The project lands as entertainment agencies increasingly use virtual idols and digital avatars to diversify intellectual property, anchor global fandoms and build revenue streams beyond conventional music distribution.

Girls Archives sets pre-debut with Netflix anime theme song

The members of Girls Archives are YUISA, ENA, SEOYEON, HINARI and SOJEONG. They make their pre-debut under Universal Music Japan on August 7, 2026 with a digital single titled Reborn. The track is the theme song for The Ribbon Hero, a Netflix anime film based on Osamu Tezuka's classic manga Princess Knight that begins streaming worldwide on August 8, a day after the single drops.

The song was co-produced by Japanese creator collective HoneyWorks and Korean singer-songwriter SHAUN, the composer behind the global viral hit Way Back Home. A tie-in music video inspired by The Ribbon Hero, titled Reborn (THE RIBBON HERO Inspired MV /Archive#00000000), was released on June 23 ahead of the single.

Inside HYBE's new transmedia storytelling project

The narrative framework of HYBE Girls Archives is built around the real members and their virtual counterparts. According to the project's official announcement, the virtual characters are born from the members' inner selves. As the story progresses, the digital counterparts develop their own identities and worldviews, eventually becoming independent entities.

At the center of the narrative is a "Diary," the birthplace of a girl's consciousness. It begins as a blank record but absorbs everything she writes, converting her thoughts, memories and experiences into a growing archive. Childhood birthdays, shared playlists, secret signs with friends and everyday moments accumulate until the Diary effectively becomes her whole world. The virtual characters emerge and evolve through this expanding archive, so the members' real-world experiences within the story continuously shape their parallel digital existence.

This is not HYBE's first transmedia venture. The company previously extended its artist storytelling through projects such as 7FATES: CHAKHO and DARK MOON: The Blood Altar, tied to BTS and ENHYPEN respectively. 7FATES: CHAKHO logged 15 million views in its first two days, the fastest any title has reached that mark in Webtoon's history, while DARK MOON has recorded over 200 million views worldwide.

HYBE and INCS toenter bet on the future of virtual entertainment

For INCS toenter, an established player in Japan's digital native and internet culture scenes whose roster includes supercell, Eve and HoneyWorks, the partnership ties local virtual production expertise to HYBE's global storytelling and marketing framework. Illustrator LAM, known for the official Hatsune Miku V6 visuals and takt op., was brought in to lead the character designs, a choice aimed at both mainstream pop listeners and subculture communities.

The staggered rollout, from the June music video to the August single and Netflix premiere, positions both the real and virtual K-pop girl groups for long-term expansion across the Asian and North American entertainment markets.