In the animated video, cartoon characters representing the group’s four members battle a young man in a post-apocalyptic landscape.

Some Japanese have pointed to an exploding nuclear reactor, which they say is a reference to the crippled Fukushima power plant, and a monster with a red spot on its forehead they claim is meant to represent the Japanese flag.

Nationalist segments in Japan have been quite vocal in their resentment of the “Korean Wave” that has swept over Japan in the past several years.

Last summer witnessed two large demonstrations in front of commercial broadcaster Fuji TV demanding the station stop airing Korean drama series.

Though the popularity of groups like 2NE1 in Japan seems unaffected by anti-Korean “bashing,” the Japanese media tends to play it up.

As a result, Korean netizens have expressed their own backlash resentments, especially with regard to a tiny island in the Japan Sea (or the East Sea, which is what Koreans calls it) that both countries claim.