No One Was Ready for &TEAM's Animated 'Bewitched' MV

HYBE Japan's nine-member group &TEAM officially released the music video for their new single "Bewitched" on May 11, 2026, at midnight KST/JST — and the result is unlike anything the group has put out before. Unveiled through HYBE LABELS' official YouTube channel, the "Bewitched" MV arrives not as a conventional performance video but as a fully animated short film, set within a brand-new chapter of the Dark Moon narrative universe called "The Witch of Yerasah."

The launch was announced in advance through the DARK MOON LYCAN official accounts — the dedicated lore channel for this corner of HYBE's fictional universe — and a teaser MV had already gone live days before the midnight release, building fan anticipation to a fever pitch. When the full MV dropped, the global &TEAM fan community reacted immediately, with #andTEAM_WeonFire and related hashtags flooding X (formerly Twitter), Weibo, and Bilibili within minutes.

A New Chapter in the Dark Moon Universe

To understand why the "Bewitched" MV carries so much weight for fans, it helps to understand the world it inhabits. The Dark Moon universe is HYBE's flagship transmedia storytelling project — a fictional cosmos built across novels, webtoons, music, and animation, where multiple HYBE artists each occupy their own narrative arc within a shared world. For &TEAM, that arc has always been "Dark Moon: The Grey City," a spin-off storyline that has been explored through the group's music since their 2022 debut.

The franchise entered a landmark new phase in January 2026, when "Dark Moon: The Blood Altar" — the ENHYPEN-centered animated series — launched globally across more than 80 regions, including on Crunchyroll. Produced by Troyca, one of Japan's most respected animation studios, the series became what many observers described as the first true full-scale animated adaptation of a K-pop transmedia narrative. Its global rollout demonstrated significant audience appetite for this kind of storytelling, setting the stage for the wider Dark Moon universe to expand its animated footprint.

"The Witch of Yerasah" is that expansion. While specific details of the animated film's full scope have not yet been revealed, the "Bewitched" MV positions it as the next major chapter in &TEAM's branch of the Dark Moon mythology — a world that fans have been following through lyrics, imagery, and lore releases for years. The closing message of the official video description makes the point plainly: "More stories from 'The Witch of Yerasah' coming soon."

What the 'Bewitched' MV Delivers

The MV runs for just over three minutes and commits fully to its animated format. The visual aesthetic is grounded in the dark fantasy sensibility that has defined the Dark Moon universe across all its incarnations — deep, atmospheric color palettes, otherworldly character designs, and the kind of richly layered world-building that rewards close attention. For fans who have spent time tracking the lore of &TEAM's Grey City arc, the imagery will arrive loaded with implied meaning.

The song "Bewitched" itself fits neatly into the emotional register that &TEAM has developed throughout their career. The title speaks directly to the enchanted, mysterious premise of the Yerasah world, and the music carries the group's characteristic blend of intensity and texture. What distinguishes this release from their previous output is the degree to which the narrative and the music are fused into a single visual experience — the animation isn't just backdrop; it is the story.

Fan communities were quick to begin dissecting the MV's details for lore clues. Various fan accounts flagged what they interpreted as visual connections to earlier Dark Moon timeline references, including imagery that may tie into the ancient Kingdom of Vargr and the thousand-year fictional history that underpins the broader universe. Whether those interpretations prove accurate will depend on what future installments of "The Witch of Yerasah" reveal.

Who Is &TEAM?

&TEAM debuted on December 7, 2022, under HYBE LABELS Japan. The group's nine members — EJ, Fuma, K, Nicholas, Yuma, Jo, Harua, Taki, and Maki — represent a multinational lineup spanning Japan, South Korea, and Taiwan. From the very beginning, &TEAM was positioned not just as a musical act but as a storytelling vehicle: the Grey City lore and the group's music were introduced together, making the two inseparable in the minds of their fan base.

Their reach extends well beyond Japan. Active communities on Weverse, Bilibili, Douyin, and Weibo reflect a fanbase distributed across East and Southeast Asia, while their official Twitter and Instagram maintain a strong international English-language presence. The WeonFire campaign hashtag, tied to this current era of &TEAM activities, has become a rallying point for coordinated fan engagement globally.

What is distinctive about &TEAM's approach, and the Dark Moon project more broadly, is the implicit expectation that fans will engage with the fiction as a companion to the music. Songs are not standalone releases but episodes in a longer story. In this sense, the "Bewitched" animated MV is less a music video and more a narrative event — one that advances a story that fans have been following for years, and that points toward more chapters ahead.

HYBE's Growing Commitment to Animation

The "Bewitched" MV is part of a broader strategic move by HYBE to establish animation as a serious content format within the K-pop ecosystem. The success of "Dark Moon: The Blood Altar" on Crunchyroll demonstrated that global audiences are willing to engage with long-form animated storytelling built around K-pop artists — and HYBE moved quickly to develop the next phase. The expansion of the Dark Moon universe into the &TEAM storyline is a natural next step, one that leverages the existing infrastructure of the transmedia project while introducing new narrative territory.

For the K-pop industry more broadly, the Dark Moon animated universe represents an experiment in how entertainment companies can extend the value of an artist beyond music releases and live performances. If HYBE can build a genuinely compelling animated world around multiple groups — each occupying a different arc of the same shared universe — the potential for long-term audience engagement across formats is significant. The "Bewitched" MV is one piece of that larger puzzle, but it is a piece that clearly suggests the Witch of Yerasah chapter is only just getting started.