An Outlet: Part 5

6 February, 2019.

Statistics class today was as confusing as ever. I didn't get enough time to go through the PPTs but now that I have gotten permission to give the another test (to make for my the shitty previous surprise test), I will HAVE to remove time somehow.

I spent most of my lunch time with Paul and Richard. They're both in the Economic Committee and they're working on coming up with an exclusive college currency. I don't think our batch will be able to make good use of this model if it actually gets implemented but I'm excited to see the process.

Today my internship class was just all about making a new demat account. I would always get my laptop for these classes and we would never end up doing anything with it. The one day when I decide to cut myself some slack and not bring my heavy ass laptop.... you guessed it. I needed the laptop today. I wasn't able to make my account even after having all my documents.

After coming back home I figured out a bit of my Marketing Project. I did that for the most part of the remainder of the day after which I invested my time into the KPop world once again.

Or should I say JPop?

IZ*ONE officially debuted in Japan!!!! Their headlining single 'Suki To Iwasetai' is already out but today the entire album was released and we got to see their Japan Debut Showcase as well! It's safe to say that both of IZ*ONE's agencies (in Korea and Japan) have done a brilliant job at hyping up the girls' debuts! Though the Korean pre-debut promotions seemed better planned, they did quite a lot in Japan as well!

Maybe it's the Japan style of promotion, but they've clicked so many pictures of the members it's crazy! A popular Japanese magazine called 'No No' has featured them really well! I guess magazines are a big thing in Japan. Radio shows too.

They even had their own show to introduce the Korean members to the Japanese TV culture. Yesterday or today, they had something like an IZ*ONE cafe with everything just about IZ*ONE including the tables! Not sure if attending such cafes is my thing but good for those who attended. The decor was great tho.

Coming to the Japanese Showcase, it was amazing to see a rookie group of bearly 3-4 months already performing so many songs! Granted they had PD48 songs in the basket as well, but to learn and practice so many dances and learn songs in two different languages, all the while still promoting La Vie En Rose on music and award shows, the latter having praise-worthy variations in their original choreography.... it's commendable!

I love that they chose to perform the MAMA Korea version of La Vie En Rose with that killer dance break! Amazing choice! Just like Rumour and 1000% in the Korean Showcase, they had unit group performances this time as well. They performed 2 other PD48 concept evaluation tracks I Am and Let's Meet Again. It was nice to hear those songs one more time!

They also had other OT12 PD48 tracks like We Together, You're In Love, Right? and the Japanese version of While Dreaming.

Then we had the new Japanese songs! We've already seen the performance of Suki To Iwasetai and I never had a problem with their dance so yeah that performance was good! The other Japanese songs are unit songs.

I don't think I have a lot opinions about other songs but Wonyoung did a brilliant job as a centre for Gokigen Sayonara. She really does have a fresh face and is pleasant to watch. The others did a good job as well! The song and the dance itself is catchy so overall I liked this performance. I saw the music video as well and it was good.

I'm sorry but as good as the song is, I can't take Neko Ni Naritai's choreography seriously. I found it too cringy🙈 The song, as I said before, is really good tho. It's very soothing and the members sound great. Also, the music video for this song is too good! I never thought they'd have such a music video. In fact, I like the song more because of the MV.

I don't know how I feel about the Wonyoung X Sakura song, . It may or may not grow on me. If I had to be really honest, both of them are not that good at singing/ I'm not the biggest fan of both of their voices. But I think I would have enjoyed the song a little more if the choreography was better. It's a shame because these two have really good dancing/performing skills.

Their encore stage included Oh My! and ofcourse it had to end with the Produce 48 theme song Nekkoya but in Japanese! There were no subtitles on the video so I don't know what they spoke in the speaking segment of the showcase but their 2x, 3x and random dance challenge was hilarious! I've heard that Japanese audience is the most calm one out there so by the sounds of their cheers and loud fan chants, we can conclude that overall, it was a successful showcase!

Congratulations on your Japanese Debut, IZ*ONE!