“Street Woman Fighter 2” first aired on Mnet on Aug. 22, capturing the attention of global dance fans. Until now, dancers were largely excluded from the spotlight in the entertainment industry, so the show aimed to introduce different dance crews to the public. With the hit of the first season “Street Woman Fighter” in 2020, “Street Woman Fighter 2” is also expected to be extremely popular.

Eight crews participated in total—Bebe, Tsubakill, DeepNDap, 1Million, Wolf’lo, Jam Republic, Lady Bounce, and Mannequeen. Unlike the first season, which was entirely composed of Korean crews, this season featured Jam Republic, with dancers from New Zealand, and Tsubakill, with dancers from Japan. This mixing of dancers from different ethnic backgrounds led to the show’s growing popularity among international fans. 

The show’s first mission was “battles,” in which each dancer chose an opponent they wanted to go against, and each freestyled to a random song for 40 seconds. This mission was especially intense because many of the dancers had either previously been in the same team, had fallen out of their friendship, or had misunderstandings. 

These stories between individual dancers were highlighted, making viewers more emotionally engaged. For example, 1Million leader Lia Kim and DeepNDap leader Mina Myoung were the main dance instructors of 1Million Dance Academy, but Mina Myoung left in 2019 due to several misunderstandings. The two constantly showed their resentment toward each other in their interviews, shocking viewers.

“I personally really enjoyed the first episode because it was entertaining to watch dancers specializing in choreography engage in freestyle battles,” Kate Kim (12), fan of team Bebe, said. “The battle between Bebe’s Bada and 1Million’s Redy was my favorite. I think that the backstory between the two amplified their battle.”

The next mission was the rank mission, in which each crew divided themselves into different classes—leader, sub-leader, middle, and rookie. Dancers would devise a choreography for their own class, and they would come together to pick the best one. They would then compete for the main dancer position by performing the same choreography and filming a dance video accordingly. In previous seasons, this mission was almost the highlight of the show, garnering extreme popularity among Korean netizens. Dancer no:ze’s “Hey Mama” choreography became a national syndrome when “Street Woman Fighter” aired in 2020, and dancer Vata’s “New Thing” choreography also sparked much interest when “Street Man Fighter” aired last year. 

This season, dancer Bada’s choreography to “Smoke” by Dynamic Duo was once again an immense hit. Her choreography, which highlighted the strong beat of the song while also expressing the lyrics expertly, demonstrated why she was one of the most popular dancers in Korea today. Bada secured the main dancer position and produced an exceptional video, which received more than four million views. 

In addition, countless number of dancers, ordinary people, and celebrities participated in the “Smoke challenge,” dancing to Bada’s choreography. She has since skyrocketed in popularity, with her Instagram followers increasing from 500K before the show to 1.7M.

The third mission was the K-pop deathmatch mission—the videos filmed for this mission were actually pre-released in June to count the views and votes before filming the broadcast. Each crew choreographed short videos for one of four K-pop companies (YG, JYP, SM, or HYBE). 

“I do not really watch Street Woman Fighter, but I have still seen all of the K-pop missions on Youtube,” Jennie Koh (12), Stray Kids fan, said. “I loved the performance of the two teams Bebe and Tsubakill who danced to JYP songs, including Maniac by Stray Kids.”

Crew Bebe, with Bada as their leader, won first place with 980 points out of 1000. The lowest scoring two crews, Wolf’lo and Tsubakill, with 480 and 440 points respectively, engaged in an elimination battle.

The elimination battle was both emotional and remarkable, as the desperation of every dancer and the respect they showed for each other were reflected in their moves. After a full-round battle, Wolf’lo eventually won 3-2, and Tsubakill was eliminated. Many fans expressed their disappointment at Tsubakill’s elimination and anger at Mnet’s voting process. The voting took place before the public was familiar with the dance crews, making lesser-known crews such as Wolf’lo, Ladybounce, and Tsubakill at a disadvantage. 

On Sept. 13, the mega crew mission videos for each crew were uploaded. Each crew casted their own dancers to use in their videos, and many videos featured famous dancers and celebrities. 1Million’s video featured K-pop singer Sandara Park, Mannequeen’s video featured Winter of K-pop girl group Aespa and dancer LipJ, and DeepNDap’s video featured K-pop singer SinB and dancer Hyojin Choi. 

1Million had the most impressive performance out of the eight crews, dancing to Korean artist Lim Kim’s music to represent East Asian culture. 1Million was one of the crews with the most dancers in their video, and the variety of formations and unique ideas captured the essence of the mega crew mission.