KOKO Covers HUNTR/X's 'Golden' and Turns the KPop Demon Hunters Anthem Into Something Entirely Her Own

KOKO (幸祜), the virtual singer from KAMITSUBAKI STUDIO, has released a cover of Golden — the smash hit from HUNTR/X, the fictional girl group at the heart of Netflix’s KPop Demon Hunters. It’s entry No.107 in her ongoing cover series, and it might be one of the best-fit song choices she’s made yet.

Why KOKO’s ‘Golden’ Cover Works So Well

Golden is a deceptively brutal song to cover. The original is built on rapid switchbacks between belted hooks and breathy, upper-register passages, and it punishes any singer who tries to coast through it. KOKO doesn’t coast. Her take leans into the grit — you can hear the effort in the best possible way, and her own X post about it (“I hopped up onto the clouds after my throat got torn apart”) suggests she felt every note of it too. That raw, slightly worn-at-the-edges quality suits the song’s core theme of striving toward something just out of reach.

A Fresh Arrangement of the HUNTR/X Original

The instrumental comes from Ryosuke Iwase (岩瀬良介), who reshapes the original’s glossy K-pop production into something with a bit more edge and space. The mix by taecho keeps KOKO’s vocals right up front, which is exactly where they should be — this is a performance-first cover, not a production showcase. The whole thing lands with a honesty that a more polished approach would have flattened.

The Visuals: New Artwork for Cover No.107

The artwork comes from misejyuku (未成熟。), with video work by chaosgroove. The pair give the release a clean, striking frame that lets the performance breathe — a good call for a cover that’s clearly about the singing first and everything else second.

No.107 and Still Going: KOKO’s Cover Series Keeps Building

Reaching 107 entries in a cover series is a milestone in itself. KOKO has been steadily working through an enormous range of material, and choosing Golden — a song that dominated global charts through 2025 — shows she’s not afraid to take on the songs everyone already has opinions about. Early numbers back the choice up: around 16.8K views and nearly 1,700 likes in the first hours, a strong engagement rate for a cover release. And per her own sign-off: TO BE CONTINUED.