BUSAN MAGICAL GIRL — THE AUDITION
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Busan
Magical Girls: The Audition
Busan in 2040, facing regional decline. A Korean dark fantasy survival story about a time when disasters have become entertainment and love and survival mean the same thing.
An idol on stage, a hero fighting monsters, and a contestant who can be eliminated any week.
Project overview
Busan, 2040. In a city facing decline, thirteen girls step onto an audition stage. The anxiety and competition young people live with, told through fantasy and the audition format.
Synopsis
A story about a time when disasters have become entertainment and love and survival mean the same thing
Once investment is closed, the target is a finished season one within six months.
Busan.
When a monster appears, the broadcast draws more viewers.
The girls fight, fall, and rise again.
Every battle becomes content,
and every pain is edited into a scene.
The survival audition ‘Magical Girls: The Audition’ has run for ten years.
Thirteen contestants step onto the stage, each for her own reason.
One wants to save everyone,
one wants everyone to love her,
one searches for a lost truth,
and one holds on simply to avoid being forgotten.
They are given three missions —
defeat the monsters, raise the ratings, and avoid being hated.
Andbe loved.
Baek Do-ha is always at the front, holding her team together as it falls apart.
“If no one else will do it... then I have to.”
Her sense of responsibility is not faith. It is endurance.
And only those who endure survive.
But as the show continues,
she realizes —
this stage is not a place where people fight monsters.
It broadcasts the process of humans becoming monsters.
‘Busan Magical Girls – The Audition’ is
set in a time when disasters have become entertainment,
and depicts a society where love and survival mean the same thing.
A Korean dark fantasy survival drama.
This city is live again today.
Complete story structure
3 seasons · 33 episodes × 24 minutes
Busan is live again today. When a monster appears, the stage lights up and the girls fight. Every contest becomes content, and every pain is edited. They must follow four rules—defeat the monsters, survive, avoid being hated, and… be loved.
“If no one else will do it… then I have to.” — Baek Do-ha
Season 1
The truth about the manipulationThe Truth of Manipulation
Selection, missions, elimination. The format seems fair, but the outcome follows someone else's intent. Edited heroics, manufactured conflict, calculated tears. The girls learn to face people's feelings before they face monsters. At last, the first crack appears in the ‘rules’ everyone believed in.
Season 2
The truth about the monstersThe Truth of Metamorphosis
The show goes on. But there is a gap after elimination. Erased records, unfamiliar echoes, traces that keep returning. As the assumptions that held up the stage are overturned, the girls ask again why they fight. Where the line between glory and salvation blurs, the choices become harsher.
Season 3
WarThe War
After the secret of the stage is revealed, the battlefield expands across the city. Those who want to protect it, those who want to destroy it, and those who just want to live—three voices collide. Where the boundaries between heroes, monsters, and citizens have disappeared, the remaining girl faces a single question: save it, or stop it.
“Disaster becomes content, and love becomes a rule.”
“Do not be hated. Be loved until the end.”
“Busan will not go dark—as long as someone keeps burning.”
Story & world
Busan in 2040 — at risk of regional decline
Busan in 2040 faces regional decline due to population loss and economic hardship. Young people struggle between the hope of becoming magical girls and saving the city and the reality of surviving fierce competition.
Magical Girls: The Audition is not simply a fantasy. It is a survival story that uses metaphor to depict the anxiety and competition faced by young people today.
CITY LIVE — Sanbok Road, sunset over Busan Port
Genre & audience
Genre
Dark fantasy / survival drama / social thriller
Core audience
Young adults aged 18-29 (university students to early-career workers)
Format
3 seasons (33 episodes x 24 minutes)
Main themes
Youth anxiety
Uncertainty about the future and survival in a competitive society
Regional identity
Busan’s regional character and the social issue of regional decline
Fantasy and reality
A blend of the magical girl genre and real-life concerns
Competition and solidarity
Camaraderie that grows within the competition of an audition
13 CONTESTANTS
Audition Contestants
CONTESTANT #01
Baek Do-ha
BAEK DOHA
“I feel like I should do something, at least.”
With her professor parents often away, she grew up as the de facto guardian of her brother, who is nine years younger. She seems calm and mature, but is driven by the belief that someone must take responsibility. When monster appearances become more frequent, her family moves to Seoul. Believing there is something only she can do in Busan, she stays behind alone and enters the audition.
Ability — She can stop or rewind time by up to 10 seconds. A holographic countdown appears on the face of her wristwatch-shaped amplifier. She can slow, briefly rewind, or stop time, but she cannot fully control it yet. Using it comes with a cooldown and mental strain.
Main characters
The people behind the audition
Aiera
AIERA
An experienced veteran magical girl who debuted through the agency and association rather than the audition. Now serving as director, she announces the rules, assigns missions, and manages the field. She has a small fan base but does not appear on broadcasts herself. To the contestants, she represents the rules of the stage itself.
Ability
Director / Field Supervisor
“Rules are rules.”
Oh Saet-byeol
OH SAETBYEOL
The winner of the first magical girl audition and the first star created by the show. She now stands onstage as the audition's MC. To the contestants, she is both the summit they must reach and the show itself. Her vision of salvation through "eternal reruns" directly clashes with Baek Do-ha's choice of finite freedom.
Ability
Multiple Abilities / Audition MC
“This show will go on forever.”
Production scenes
Busan, our stage
Set against real locations in Busan
Gwangalli
Gwangan Bridge / Midday
Haeundae
Haeundae Beach / Dawn
Gamcheon Culture Village
Gamcheon Village / Sunset
Cheongsapo
Cheongsapo / Day
Yeongdo·Busan Port
Busan Port / Twilight
Centum
Centum City / Night View
TRANSMEDIA
One world, many media
It starts as animation and continues into webtoon, novel, game, merchandise, OST, live performance and virtual activity. Because the canon is held in one place, characters and events stay consistent as media are added.
The four-week wait is not empty
The plan is one episode a month, which leaves four weeks until the next. Those four weeks carry other stories from the same span of time, told as webtoon, novel and short-form.
The world keeps moving while the main line pauses. Waiting becomes part of the story rather than a gap in it.
Not the same story sold twice
OSMU repeats one story across media. Transmedia breaks the world into pieces and gives each medium a different one.
Someone who arrives through the webtoon goes looking for the episodes; a character met in a short turns up again in the novel. Whichever door you come through, it leads to the whole world.
KEY VISUALS
Poster
