Late last year, the Korean animation troika SamBakZa released ‘There She Is,’ a very entertaining Flash short set to a song of the same name from the Korean band Witches. It became an instant internet hit, rocketing up to the top of the Newgrounds.com rankings while racking up nearly 1.7 million views. For lack of a better word, the short is cute, and the underlying theme supporting inter-racial romance is a thoughtful footnote.

And now SamBakZa has struck again. The second installment, titled ‘There she is!! step 2′ has been out for about a month now, and it’s decidedly better in nearly all aspects. The animation is more elaborate, the shot selection is dynamic and surprising, and there’s even an action/fight sequence to give it a little edge. The accompanying song, ‘Happy Birthday To Me,’ performed by the Korean band Bulldog Mansion, is reminiscent of an 80′s pop track you might hear in a John Hughes film, and the overall sensibility of this series surely draws from Pucca, the wildly successful Korean Flash series that follows a love-struck lady in pursuit. However, the Newgrounds audience, who I wouldn’t characterize as the ‘date movie crowd,’ has taken to this romantic installment with as much fervor as the original, and it now sits atop the heap.

The rabbit and cat are currently nameless, per the SamBakZa website, and I also read they spend between 3 and 10 months on these shorts. For those of you who can’t get enough of this inter-species tryst, Amalloc, one of the SamBakZa members, has revealed plans for a third episode, so just hang in there.

A few final thoughts – check out the easter egg in ‘Step 2,’ which can be reached during the street chase by clicking on the fish flying in front of the moon. I also noticed that the posters in the subway link directly to the Bulldog Mansion website.

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