SamBakZa

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SamBakZa (Korean: 삼박자) is the name of a group of Korean artists that run the website sambakza.net. SamBakZa is the Korean word for "three counts." The group was named so because it consists of three people, known as Amalloc (아말록), SongSongHwa (송송화), and Sogong (소공).

Amalloc is the webmaster and perhaps the most famous of the three, for he is the only one who speaks understandable English, and also speaks Japanese. He is also responsible for the most popular part of the site, the Flash animation section. SongSongHwa and Sogong are both female, and have posted numerous drawings and comic strips on the site. SongSongHwa is responsible for many comics, and has created a group of cartoons about a few of her plant-like characters. Sogong has more art that one would call serious, and also dabbles in Flash. Most visitors of their site appear to belong to English-speaking countries, but as one can see at the forums, there are also a number of Japanese, and of course, Korean, visitors.

The massive appeal to English, Korean, and Japanese speakers alike is probably owed to the same thing as Amalloc's fame. Amalloc's popular Flash cartoons have almost no words in them besides the background music, so the basic plot and chain of events can be understood by people from all around the world. But even so, it is said by Korean viewers that the animations are more enjoyable if you can understand the song lyrics.

SamBakZa's popularity with the Western world was most likely sparked by the creation of "There she is!!", a Flash animation by Amalloc made in 2004. It rose to high acclaim shortly after its publication for the quality of animation and the accompanying story. SamBakZa won both the Professional Award and the Cyber Jury Award at the Anima Mundi Web Festival in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil in 2004 for There She is!!.[1] It had a precursor, "Hot Fish" (currently withdrawn due to an issue with copyright); in turn, its sequel, "Cake Dance" was later published to equally high acclaim. A third animation, another sequel to the There she is!! series, was expected to come out in August of 2006, but was delayed.