As I said when I talked about GOT7 the first time: a new group from one of the big three is a big deal. And all of the kpop fandom is watching. SM houses two of my favorite girl groups, and two of my favorite boy groups, so it’s safe to say that I was anxiously awaiting this debut. But what did I think of it? Well…
I will be commenting on more or less the same things I normally I do in my reviews, but in a slightly different way. And that’s just because, I get bored. Now let’s move!
Firstly: The Girls
From left to right: Wendy, Seulgi, Irene and Joy
God damn these girls look alike! I’m not saying they look the same, because of course they don’t, but they have the same kind of face. Thank you, SM, for giving them those different distinct colors in their hair, because otherwise I’d be completely screwed.
So far what I’ve gotten about the different members is this: Joy’s the prettiest, Wendy’s the best singer, Irene’s the sexiest and Seulgi is… Something, I’m sure. So not a whole lot. The video didn’t do as well of a job of introducing the different members that I’d hoped. I haven’t followed any of the SM Rookies things, so these girls are complete strangers to me. I really hope their next video will show their individuality better.
Bias-wise I’m leaning towards Wendy. Irene caught my attention at first, but Wendy’s voice is very nice. We’ll see where I end up with that though. It might even be Seulgi in the end, who knows?
Secondly: The Dance
The girls are alright dancers, but they didn’t blow me away. And the dance is alright, but it didn’t blow me away either. They are a girl group, so I wasn’t really expecting any amazingly complex dancing, but they are from SM so I did expect a little more than I would from most girl groups. And I got more or less what I expected. They’re not perfectly synced, but not so badly synced that it bothered me. The dance has a lot of distinct and memorable arm movements, which I like. All in all, I’m pleased with this dance, but not amazingly so.
Thirdly: The Video
While not being a stereotypical box video, this is still very distinctly SM. And SM’s videos are really only fun if the dance is great (which this one isn’t) or if you’re very attached to the group (which I’m not). So, no, this video isn’t super interesting, for all it’s fancy colors. I would say that it’s better than many other SM videos, because it did have some nice scenes in there. I especially like this one:
I’m not sure what it is about this scene, but it just works so well for me. I like it a lot.
Besides some fun scenes, this video isn’t really much to talk about. There’s no plot, but there normally isn’t in SM videos. In this one they tried to make us not notice that by blinding us with bright colors though, so that’s new!
Lastly: The Song
When I first heard this song, I didn’t find it in any way special. I didn’t think it was bad, but it just felt extremely generic. But now that I’ve listened to it about a million times for this post, I’m liking it a lot more! I’m even going to download it and take it north with me! I don’t think it’s great, and I wish they had a better debut song, but they could have done a hell of a lot worse.
The song has sweet lyrics about letting go and pursuing happiness, and the line about telling your mother that you love her is especially nice. It’s not a crazy amazing song, but I can deal with it.
Final Thoughts
I’m not blown away. But I will probably end up stanning them anyway. I mean, I was never supposed to get all into EXO, and look at me now: one crazy member of EXO-L. So yeah, I’ll probably end up a fan regardless if I want to or not.
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What do you think about Red Velvet? Let me know in the comments. And also, let me know what you think about EXO’s fan club name!
Okay, quick announcement: I will be going up north to visit family on the day after tomorrow (thursday) and there’s no internet up there, since it’s, you know, the wilderness. So I won’t be able to blog. I’ll be gone for about a week, so I’ll be missing three posts. I might prewrite something for one of those days, but I’m not sure yet. If I do, see you then, and if I don’t, I’ll see you on Friday next week!
– Admin A
Top of the Kpops 
i think this is SM’s way of “starting a new”, even if that meant putting abrupt half on f(x)’s promotions (which i am still bugged btw). granted, not everyone is as fortunate as SHINee to have such a very good debut song (even Changmin wished Replay was a DBSK song) but “Happiness” isn’t so bad. SM probably hoped everyone would just forget all the dating/lawsuit drama and just be infected with happy-ness from the song.
as for the girls, i can only identify Joy (face wise notwithstanding hair colors) and i hope they stick with those hair colors for a time until i manage to identify who is who. they look so happy & energetic onstage even after the circumstances and controversies they debuted in which is kind of similar with f(x)’s debut (post JYJ & Han Geng lawsuit). i actually like them and hope they survive all this crap they are in now.
i want to know their personalities though so i hope they go into variety soon…or maybe their own show? like how EXO showtime solidified my love for Lay.
Yes, I believe so too. I think it was quite naive of them to think it’d be that simple though. It seems like people are just more bugged about the earlier controversies now that SM are trying to cover them up.
Yes, I’m finding Joy to be the easiest to identify as well. Her face is slightly different from the triplets. And I’m sure they’ll survive. It’s SM, they’ll make sure they do.
Yes, I hope so too! It would make my choosing a bias much simpler.
“Her face is slightly different from the triplets”
^ epic! hahahaha.
oh i can now identify Wendy too. her ears are doing a bit like Chanyeol’s. hehehe.
Haha well it’s true! All four could easily be sisters though.
They are? Great! That was one of the main points that helped me identify him.