The story of how I finally watched NoNoGirls and cried my eyes out
Hello.
I put a lot of effort into an outdoor run the day before yesterday, and
since I was standing and working outside all day yesterday for a shoot,
both of my calves are sore.
I massaged them in a carbonated bath.
Anyway, today
I'd finally like to talk about NoNoGirls, which I've been watching lately.
Honestly, I've been sleep-deprived every day because of this.
Before I knew it, I was watching until 3 a.m.
As I wrote in my previous note,
I had never watched the popular No No Girls,
and after seeing digests of No No Girls on variety shows and seeing HANA and others,
I thought it was an "audition show for girls who aren't cute but want to be artists."
It's a terribly rude thing to say, I know.
That said, after watching HANA's performances on TV,
I gradually started to think,
"Wait a minute...?
"Could this be an amazing group that transcends whether they are cute or not?"
I started to suspect that might be the case.
And so, I finally started watching NoNoGirls.
I couldn't watch the last three episodes without crying.
I finished watching them at 3 a.m. yesterday.
Having had a few drinks after work,
my emotions were running so high
that I cried through the final episode more than I can even explain.
I'm planning to watch it all over again,
but before I do, I wanted to write down my thoughts while they were still fresh, so I'm putting them together in this note.
The second round of auditions was already amazing.
The level of singing and dancing was completely different.
Honestly.
To be honest,
I think CHIKA-chan and NAOKO-chan are incredibly amazing,
but when I look at their visuals, I can't help but think they wouldn't pass the audition.
But, even more than that feeling,
their talent is incredible.
The third round of auditions, "Honnou."
I already liked Ringo Sheena, so I ended up crying.
After all,
from start to finish,
CHIKA-chan and NAOKO-chan are amazing.
They are just too overwhelming.
But personally,
as someone who likes cute girls,
JISOO is cute, and seeing her working hard all by herself from Korea is already enough to make me cry,
and I'm sure she had a lot on her mind,
but with the differences in culture, language, and age,
I'm sure there were so many words she couldn't say and just swallowed.
That's exactly why,
the final
"I'm Not OK" made me cry from the moment CHANMINA presented the song during the interview.
Aren't the lyrics just so perfectly JISOO?
I thought CHANMINA had written them specifically for JISOO.
That's how much everything was packed into it.
Anyway, JISOO is my favorite,
but that's a classic audition show trope.
I can't just pick one favorite, haha.
Well, there's no need to pick, and
I basically watch while rooting for everyone anyway.
In that sense,
the one I was rooting for especially hard in my heart was
FUMINO.
Honestly, I didn't really have much of an impression of her until maybe the 5th round of judging?
Well, this is also a classic audition show trope,
but since there are so many people at the start, you have no idea who is who.
I started watching without knowing much about HANA either, so
the only ones I knew were already debuted artists from the start were
CHIKA, NAOKO, and JISOO.
And even with JISOO, I only knew the info that there was one Korean girl,
so if there had been a few of them, I wouldn't have known.
So for the other girls,
I was watching with the same feeling as if it were almost real-time, wondering who would make it.
Among them,
the one who caught my heart was FUMINO.
At first, she was introduced as having over 40,000 SNS followers,
so I had a bit of a cynical view,
but as the episodes went on and I started to see FUMINO's personality,
I suddenly wanted to root for her.
And, as was mentioned in the show, her singing voice is great.
In the midst of that,
her final solo,
"In The Flames," was just...
Is there anyone who can watch this without crying?
Honestly, during the part where she was singing while dancing in the second half,
I did find myself wishing her voice was a little more stable,
but that's exactly why I thought she was better suited for a solo performance style rather than HANA,
and when I looked it up, it seems she debuted in January!!
So happy for her!
I really hope she does well!
Now, as you can tell from watching this far,
honestly, I still don't really understand the appeal of rap.
If it's just a rap part within a song,
there are times I like it, thinking the lyrics are good,
but for songs that are entirely rap-based, honestly,
the feeling of "It's too intense..." comes first, and I can't get into it.
However,
CHIKA's final solo,
"Bijin" (Beauty), is insane.
It's like, beyond the song being good or
the performance being good,
the
"impact"is just too overwhelming.
I really think there was no other choice but for her to debut.
No, everyone is amazing.
Even besides CHIKA,
I was surprised that there are so many girls in the world who can sing and dance like this
without any lip-syncing at all.
It feels like I'm watching the cream of the crop of talented girls before their debut.
It's strange, you know.
Honestly, when I started watching the show,
I was thinking, 'Hmm... I wonder if there are any cute girls...'
but by the time I finished watching it all,
It's not a metaphor,
but truly,
everyone had become cute.
Maybe it's partly due to a change in the viewer (the feeling of wanting to support them),
but I really felt that there are parts of people that get polished
by being exposed to the public.
And then,
yesterday, after I finished watching No No Girls,
I went straight to watching the thing I had been saving
to watch only after I finished the show.
I watched thisーーーーー
I realized I watched No No Girls
just so I could cry at this.
I cried so much that I felt completely refreshed.
It was so amazing, it was the best.
The part distribution was also perfect, oh my! Oh my!!!
And then, Koko-chan!!!!
Honestly, during No No Girls,
I didn't like KOKO-chan...
She was too strong-willed,
and honestly, I couldn't bring myself to support that intensity...
In terms of performance alone,
after seeing her final solo,
if I were to rank them personally,
I thought KOKO-chan was second.
That's how amazing she was.
But the feeling of 'I won't lose!' was so overwhelming
that I was a bit put off.
But seeing Koko-chan in this SAD SONG,
it was like a weight had been lifted from herーーーーーー
I cried so much.
I want Koko-chan to have a bright future too.
By the way,
I personally ended up watching it while overlapping it with ENHYPEN's I-LAND,
and I think K-kun and KOKO-chan are very similar.
They had overwhelming talent and
leadership, and were someone everyone acknowledged, but
even then, I just couldn't quite bring myself to root for them.
Just as K shines in &TEAM,
I hope KOKO will shine somewhere too.
By the way, if I were to arbitrarily
compare I-LAND and No No Girls,
・CHIKA→Heeseung
・NAOKO→Ni-ki
・MAHINA→Sunoo
・JISOO→Sunghoon
・MOMOKA→Jay
・KOHARU→Jungwon
・YURI→Jake
・KOKO→K
・FUMINO→Taki? Daniel?
・KOKONA→Hanbin
It feels like that, and honestly, my feelings got all mixed up~~~~
So,
I'm going to go watch it one more time.
Thank you for reading.
See you tomorrow.