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Monday, January 29, 2024

NCT Wish: The Aftermath of NCT New Team and NCT Universe: LASTART

Given all my NCT Universe: LASTART reviews on Wehaiyo!, I thought I would jump in to talk about the aftermath of NCT New Team, the newest and last official expansion of the NCT group. I would make sense that I write a follow up on how NCT New Team, which is now known as NCT Wish, is doing after their reality survival competition show ended. After all, they will officially debut on 28-FEB-2024 with their debut single, "Wish," in Korean and Japanese versions of the song. The wait is totally worth it.

If we already watched the journey to debut, we might as well watch the entire journey up until their official debut. When I saw their newest performance video today, I was too excited and wanted to write a blog post right away to celebrate this moment.

I will recap their journey after NCT Universe: LASTART.

NCT New Team: Hands Up

NCT New Team aka NCT Wish made their first official performance (sans Jungmin) in the "NCT Nation: To the World" concert in Osaka on the 9th and 10th of September, 2023 as a pre-show act. We could see in fancams how nervous the boys were as they could barely speak and greet the audience. I love all those long keychains that they were wearing on their pants.


I still think that SM Entertainment should have already come up with the official name and concept for NCT Wish in advance before they go on stage as NCT New Team. They lost some opportunities to brand this group from the beginning. I also suppose that perfection cannot be rushed. 

In the above video where there were numerous back-up dancers, who danced in the beginning, impressed me a lot. This was an ultimate opening for a rookie group. It was a nice idea to debut NCT New Team at a NCT concert. I wish I was there. For all members to suddenly appear behind the back-up dancers and then do their own moves to end the introduction music was epic. I made sure to watch it six times to see what moves each member performed to end the introduction. I like all the moves, but probably Yushi's move is the best because it looked to be the hardest to do. I think all those moves were part of the song choreography, which is cool.

All the members looked so clean and fresh with perfectly set hairstyles and looks. I think Riku is probably nervous, but he did not look nervous at all while performing the song. Sakuya also looked confident with a cute smile, but I think that is his special skill to not look nervous in front of people. Ryo is fitting his part so well with his vocals and dance moves. I was happy to see Ryo's voice blend in with Yushi and Daeyoung's voices as we did not particularly see this combination in the reality survival competition program. 

I love hearing some Korean words in the Japanese song because "Ola" or "올라" means to "go up." It sounds so natural to add some Korean words in there. I knew what "Ola" meant since I watched and listened to Woo Jinyoung's rap in in the song "No Name" in the reality survival competition show, "Produce 101 Season 2" where Woo Jinyoung pointed his finger up as he rapped "Ola ga". I asked my Korean husband what it meant and my husband said it meant to go up. That performance was iconic in many ways, but that will be for another topic.

I think nobody but Sion could do the body wave in the chorus part, so it is very appropriate that he gets the center position for it. Also, it would not be nice if a younger member did it as we have minors in the group. I will state is that Sion is very flexible.

Sakuya did a great job backing up Riku in rap parts, but Sakuya could also still stand out on his own with his own style during his verse two part.

I am super impressed with Yushi's ability to sing high notes. The "so let me see you fly" lyric was originally Jungmin's part, but went to Yushi to show his vocal skills. I do not particularly see Yushi as a powerful performer, but I think he has that ability should he choose to use it. The only thing I wanted to see is that he changes his facial expression when he tries to sing powerfully to not only let us hear it, but also to see it. Maybe he should scrunch his face to make a tight facial expression when he sings difficult parts.

I like this song because it has a lot of vocal parts and creative rap parts. Unfortunately, Daeyoung did not stand out. During the bridge part of the song, Daeyoung had to bend down during his solo part while singing, which is not that great because he lost his chance to shine in front of the audience. He did not get many highlighting parts. I think he was put in the back of the dance line because he still needed to improve his dance skill, though for me, he was not terrible because practicing dance will lead to a great performance, but he could use a confidence booster. 

I wonder how the Japanese members feel about performing in their home country. It must be thrilling and a source of pride. 

Sadly, before the pre-debut tour on 02-OCT-2023 and almost a month later after NCT New Team's first performance as a group, SM Entertainment announced on social media that Jungmin left NCT New Team due to health reasons and will revert back to being a SM Entertainment trainee. I lost a lot of sleep over this news because I saw how hard Jungmin worked in the NCT Universe: LASTART show. The whole reality of Jungmin's departure from the group came crashing down on me because all the NCT New Team fans were trying to hold on to the hope that he would return and now I have no idea how long I must wait before I see him in the K-pop entertainment realm again. Jungmin is my number one pick in the show.

From 08-OCT-2023 to 20-DEC-2023, NCT New Team embarked on their pre-debut tour all over Japan from Tokyo to Hokkaido with ten stops and multiple days, which is unheard of for a group that did not debut yet. However, this should be a special situation since they were part of a reality survival competition show so that meant that they were already known to the public. I have never seen a pre-debut tour with this many dates. NCT New Team wanted everybody in Japan to know who they are and that they are here to stay. Also, I believe SM Entertainment was testing the waters to see how well NCT New Team would be received by the public.

They will be in direct competition with &Team from Hybe Labels Japan, who debut in 22-DEC-2022 and is Hybe's answer to conquering the Japanese market. SM Entertainment will attempt to do the same with NCT New Team. The only thing I do not know is whether the pre-debut tour paid off and if NCT New Team significantly gained new fans. I did not see any significant statistics that showed NCT New Team's fandom growing significantly, although NCT as a whole is growing in popularity. I still see some hesitation on social media of fans not enjoying the fact that the new team will join the NCT group. For me, I am simply excited about all the possibilities. Even when SM artists collaborate with each other, I feel very giddy about it.

On the other hand, while I watched the reality survival competition show, "&Audition – The Howling" for &Team, I did not feel a deep connection with the members themselves except for member K, who I already knew from the "I-Land" season one reality survival competition show and K is someone who I know has a lot of talent. I am interested in learning more about the &Team, but I am super interested in NCT Wish as I am thoroughly invested in their career. SM Entertainment and their artists constantly grabbed my attention in talent. I won't bother mentioning looks because they can make a regular person into somebody that I want to get to know based on make-up, fashion, and video production methods and angles. SM Entertainment is the whole package.

For example, I think of Daeyoung from NCT Wish, who is now using the stage name Jaehee, as a bit of an awkward and slightly goofy guy, but after seeing his official photos, who would have known that he has this boy-next-door charm and seems like a whole new man with a fresh image. I really liked the name Daeyoung and I will no longer call him Daegu man. However, Jaehee seems to be a nice name for him too. He did not have to change his name, but I guess it is a personal preference. It seems we also have a lot of J names in SM Entertainment already, so not sure why the name Daeyoung was retired.

I have also seen in social media that some fans think fellow brother group from SM Entertainment, Riize, fits the image of NCT and also can be catered to the Japanese market. While this can be true that Riize can have success in Japan with one Japanese member and former NCT member Shotaro and also another former member of NCT, Sungchan in the group, they will not specifically be focusing on Japan as their main business. I believe Riize will focus more on the Korean market. I think SM Entertainment has a specific plan for them to secure the home base in Korea as a priority. However, I want to add that I like their "Love 119" song, which also has a Japanese version. Either way, the "little neos" as NCT Wish can be affectionately called, will pave the way for NCT glory in Japan.

On 19-OCT-2023, it was fitting that NCT New team released their pre-debut digital single, "Hands Up" as they should strike the iron while it's hot so to speak. All I could think about was finding the missing seventh member in the choreography and that is why I thought having Daeyoung (Jaehee) dance in the back looked a bit awkward. Since the song's release, I watched or listened to the music and video dozens of times as I can never get sick of this feel good, playful, and youthful track.

Another reason why I tried to watch this video dozens of times is because I needed to keep watching to understand the story line. I think the music video story line is a bit hard to understand as the sequence of events could jump back and forth. Basically, our little neos are fighting green blobs that are invading what looks to be Japan and their fictional school (though the video was shot in Korea). The scenes are very fast so it is easy to miss seeing what is happening in the story. NCT New Team are students at school and also part of the baseball team. 

We see a great playful friendship between Ryo and Sakuya and a more mature friendship between Sion and Riku. Daeyoung is looking more like a baseball teammate and competitor with Sion, which is the arc I am using to make the story interesting. Meanwhile, Yushi is also by himself dozing off on a train in a strange nightmare where everybody on the train is gone. Yushi is seen as the ace, the pitcher of the team, which is fitting as he is the person who has the most attention, the center. Sion's leadership qualities are still there as he appears to encourage Sakuya and Sion is the person with the most interactions with other members of the group. Sion is also the last person to enter the locker room as everybody rushes in for safety after seeing a big, green blob.

Somehow, everybody thinks wearing baseball gear and having bats and balls will destroy the blobs, although Sion did make a small blob explode upon contact with the blob by swinging his baseball bat at it in the locker room. This is the first time I see the green blob, which I assume represents NCT, as a bit of an evil presence.

It's interesting to see Sion nod to Riku before they leave the locker room to battle. They are the two most senior members of the group. Sion is seen as the ace of baseball bats with a specific shot of him swinging his bat on a green blob on the school rooftop. I actually don't know why they would pick going to the rooftop as there is no way to escape easily and they can be attacked by blobs from every direction as opposed to on ground where they can use obstacles to hide or block themselves. 

Oddly, the king of blobs explodes in the NCT New Team member's faces to sort of confuse them in the green whirlwind mist. For a second, I thought a little bit about the Ghostbusters story except there is no slime. NCT members appear to stand in the whirlwind in confusion. Maybe there is a bit of mind control involved to get them to be NCT zombies. Because our hero Yushi was already dozing off in dreamland, he might be too refreshed and confusion had no effect on him. He was able to psychically communicate with Sion with a nod and threw Sion a pitch for Sion to knock it out out of the whirlwind to hit one of the other green blobs. Somehow, hitting this green blob causes all the surrounding blobs to explode. I guess this is one powerful "NCT New Team" ball that maybe has some invisible ricochet powers.

Hilariously, in the next scene, NCT New Team are dancing among the green blobs in the baseball stadium. They are no longer afraid of these green blobs, and maybe they embrace them or they can control them in some way, though the previous baseball stadium dancing scene already showed them not being afraid of the green blobs. 

All the green blobs explode like bubbles and become twinkling dots of light above them. This must mean something as if  they have some neo powers. Too bad I didn't get to see the rest of the team fight the blobs except Sion and what looks to be Yushi, who would theoretically need to carry many baseballs on him if he is going to throw them at all the blobs. I wonder if only NCT New Team baseballs would work and not a standard baseball. The last scene is of Yushi, who is still on the train, dreaming, but his NCT New Team baseball has been infected by the green magic.

I would like to give my personal thoughts on the NCT New Team members and their roles, which I think alludes to their roles in real life.

Sion: Team Leader and Star Batter

It's great to see Sion dancing in the middle as he always gives over 100% in his performances. He mentioned that he was not good at baseball, but in the music video, he looked like a professional. He is the only one in the music video who seemingly has a good rapport with all the other members as there was little interaction among the members with each other.

Riku: Catcher and Sub-Leader

Riku appears to be a no nonsense man in the music video with mostly a serious look. He has a good rapport with Sion and Sion appear to be someone that Riku can trust. In the absence of Sion, I felt that Riku would be the next person to lead the team as Sion checked with Riku before leaving the locker room. Riku can be a all rounder as even though he looks to be a catcher, he is also holding a bat, which implies that he is also good with a bat so he can be a jack of all trades.

Yushi: Star Pitcher and Center of the team

As my husband, a baseball fan, always says, the pitcher is the most important player in baseball. Yushi might not be a great pitcher in real life, but his role in the music video was pure star material. His storyline is the most interesting as we cannot tell if he is or is not in a dream while sitting in the subway car. The entire story could have been his dream or it could have happened that the NCT glow affected his NCT New Team baseball first so that he gain neo powers. However, as he threw his ball away more than once, there needs to be logic there that the green glow affected all his NCT New Team baseballs for the magic to work. In addition, the NCT glow needed to also affect Sion's baseball bat as well and all the equipment that the NCT New Team uses in their battle. Yushi seems to be the origin of it all. Yushi also seems to be a loner as he has almost no interactions with the members except for that psychic communication with Sion, which implies that he is the most close to Sion and they have a deep friendship and understanding, a relationship without needing words. In a typical story, I can see that a baseball team would have internal relationship struggles before they reach success as a team. Because Yushi acts like a loner, he cannot be a team leader or sub-leader. In the beginning of the video, he was seen as the only one left behind in the hallway of blobs.

Ryo and Sakuya: Substitute or Other Positions on the Field

I will mention Ryo and Sakuya in the same group as they are good buddies in the music video and they spent the most time together. They act as the youngest of the group with a youthful energy and when it comes to suiting up to kill the blobs, they seem to be in place to become the next Riku and Yushi with Ryo putting on a catcher's helmet and Sakuya wearing a baseball glove, though that could also mean that Sakuya has experience on the field too and not necessarily a pitcher. However, I see a flaw later on when Ryo was carrying a bat during the hallway scene and is not wearing a helmet anymore. On the rooftop, Ryo only has a baseball glove and his bat. Ryo was simply trying to survive or he lost his helmet and along the way. When I rewatch the locker room scene, Ryo seemed to have decided not to wear the helmet in the locker room and I think probably because he did not want to impair his vision while fighting. Sakuya was also carrying a bat in the hallway and is also wearing a glove on the other hand on the rooftop scene. Ryo and Sakuya act like twins, each with a glove and bat, though it would be hard to fight with only one hand holding a bat and what would be the purpose of wearing a glove in the other hand? Swinging a bat with two hands would be the most powerful way to fight. Sakuya's scene while looking outside at the green blobs in the locker room indicates that he would be the worrywart of the group. There isn't much plot with the two of them so they become supporting characters.

Daeyoung: Rival Batter

I wanted to give Dayoung a more important role in the story because otherwise, he would not have much of a story line. Daeyoung could be striving to surpass Sion's skills as a batter and could have potential disputes with Riku to become MVP (Most Valuable Player). However, once the blobs appear, it seems that his confidence took a dip as he is also a bit like Sakuya, worrying about the unknown. While walking and fighting through the hallways, Daeyoung is at the back of the group, which can possibly indicate that he is afraid. During the NCT whirlwind mist scene, he seemed stunned. In the end, we all need a character that brings some adversity and shake things up, so Daeyoung's the perfect character to do it. In real life on the NCT Universe: LASTART show, he also brought a bit of a stun to the other contestants as he joined midway into the competition and he persevered into debuting with NCT New Team.

Anyway, the music video was very enjoyable and it's more enjoyable when I wrote down what I think is the plot line. We can make a movie about this story.



NCT New Team: We Go


Complementing NCT New Team's first single is the "We Go" secondary track song. 



There is a dance practice at least that we can view, which I appreciate. In the choreography, I see it begins with the three senior members, affectionally known as Onriyu, in the front and center. Now, I understand why their outfits have a lot of star shapes on them as they became NCT Wish now. It seems to be a story in continuation of the "Hands Up" story as all of them are wearing their corresponding uniform numbers in this dance practice video as well. Their pants are a little strange to me as they are considered long pants with some short style pants linked to it.

As usual, Sion and Riku gave really great facial expressions while performing the song. Sion dances beyond 100% effort. Yushi is not always looking at the camera during his part so he is sometimes in his own world. Once again, Ryo and Sakuya are paired up again for the choreography in the middle of the song. Daeyoung is mostly dancing in the back again, but it makes me wonder if Jungmin was supposed to be there too in the original choreography. 

As for the song, it is really upbeat and bright. I love Riku's "We go" parts. After some time, I start to hear "wiggle, wiggle, wiggle, wiggle" instead. I feel like NCT New Team's songs are meant to be like how NCT Dream started with upbeat and inspirational songs. The song has upbeat and high notes at the same time, which was recorded well. 


Updates regarding the NCT New team were far and in between, but fans were able to see a glimpse of their life as they were touring during the pre-debut days. 

NCT WISH : WISH for Our WISH


On 17-JAN-2024, NCT New Team's name was updated to NCT Wish in preparation for their actual debut. SM Entertainment almost waited until the last weeks to confirm the NCT Japanese unit's name. We are officially in blast off mode as NCT Wish is now gearing up to debut. NCT Wish is expected to promote their songs in both Japan and Korea.


In the introduction concept of NCT Wish's Youtube video on 17-JAN-2024, "Wish for Our Wish," NCT Wish sets out to fulfill our wishes and dreams through music. However, it sounds as though we need to fulfill their wishes to debut and have a thriving career.

At this time, I got the shock in social media that Daeyoung changed his stage name to Jaehee. At first, I thought, who is this person in the teaser? Did we get a new member all of a sudden? A side profile picture of Jaehee also throws me off.

It is interesting to see how in the story that the NCT Wish members were still in school, but have now graduated by throwing their graduation caps in the air. That is my assumption because why include a scene like that if it wasn't about them? This could be a little bit like a mellow aftermath to "Hands Up."  The boys walk out into the school yard with Yushi having his arm around Sion's shoulder. Riku is walking alongside Sion. Ryo runs past Sion, breaking the Yusion (Yushi and Sion) pair apart while Sakuya runs after Ryo. Honestly, I am not so sure if Sakuya would put that much energy into chasing Ryo because Sakuya seems to be a mellow boy in real life and mentally a bit chaotic and I mean that in a good way. It's still nice to see young boys enjoying their youth. 

Yushi hangs upside down on the side of a soccer net (Is that safe?) to observe Riku reading a book and Jaehee listening to music. Sakuya kicks a soccer ball up and down by himself while Sion and Ryo are in conversation. A drop a rain falls on Yushi's face. Rain comes pouring on the members so they run underneath a nearby tree for cover. Everyone starts to have fun and lighten up in the rain.

A clear umbrella swooshes by and Sakuya is the first to run to take it. The members then start stealing the umbrella away for fun. They then run to an overpass and then to a seemingly abandoned mini van. They first get rowdy in the van, but eventually calm down. Riku, Sion, and Sakuya look outside with pensiveness. Rainbows come out after the rain as the members are asleep in the van. Riku wakes up to see the rainbow and Sakuya is already outside, but standing on top of the van. Sakuya likes to be special. 

The NCT members are now walking past a lighthouse, but in different outfits so I guess some time has past. Riku's cap is blown off his head by the wind. He goes to chase his cap back. Somehow, all the NCT Wish members run and Riku can suddenly jump abnormally high. Each member starts jumping high as well. Then, rainbow bubbles fill the air. This now reminds me back in the "Hands Up" video why the green blobs look like bubbles because bubbles seem to represent wishes. Some animation is shown and the members are floating among the bubbles. They are now sitting or lying on the ground on the rooftop in their original school uniforms so maybe the last scenes were all a dream since it did not make logical sense that they start jumping high and floating among bubbles. 

Sion, who was leaning on Yushi, wakes up first and Yushi wakes up after Sion gets up to look at the rainbow. All the members stand around Sion to look at the rainbow and this is NCT Wish.

NCT : Dream Contact 'Our WISH'

On 22-JAN-2024, the SMTown Youtube channel released "NCT : Dream Contact 'Our WISH'".


The video is the video we needed to connect all NCT members together. It starts with Chapter zero where Taeyong, the unofficial leader of all of NCT is standing outside and looking at his phone. He is then in his studio composing music, but as he is composing and adjusting knobs and playing on his synthesizer, there is a connection to each NCT Wish member. Interestingly, Taeyong keeps hitting on the A key, which is the note that orchestras and bands use to tune their instrument so that every instrument can be in sync. 

Chapter one begins with Yushi taking a vision test with one eye covered with a metal spoon. He is able to name everything on the vision board except for the letter N where the boarders were glowing green. Later on, Yushi is sitting at the optometrist's desk, but is attracted to the green and white pills in a jar. Yushi puts down the jar upon the optometrist's return. The optometrist does not believe Yushi has any vision problems and that he is in good health, but the optometrist has never heard of not being able to see one letter only. Yushi gets distracted by the glowing N, but the optometrist taps his pen on the table to get Yushi's attention again. Yushi tests again on an autorefractor machine where he sees a little red house that blurs into two more red houses before it becomes one again.

In an oceanside scene, Sion is dressed in all white, sees footprints coming to him, but could not tell who it is since the figure is glowing all white. Sion wakes up in a bathtub of water with his white clothes on, which is strange because why would he do that? He dips his head back into the water to see the visions of the glowing person again. I think he probably immerses himself into water because he can see some type of vision. He thinks about himself dressed in white as he lays on the sandy beach and also in his bed. I think he senses that he has a calling to become leader of NCT Wish. 

In Chapter two, the A key for universal tuning is pressed by Jaehee. He lowers his ear next to the key to hear the A key, but that, to me, is an unnecessary action unless there was a lot of surrounding noise. Jaehee begins to play the upright piano in a large living room that has the insides of the piano exposed. Jaehee is probably the most musical of the bunch. I read that the song he played is possibly related to the NCT Wish song. He stops playing when he finds a key that is out of tune and proceeds to retune it.

A boy comes into the room and mentions to an older woman that the piano upstairs was acting weird. The older woman asks Jaehee to take a look at the piano upstairs. He seems to work in a piano school as I can hear music from other practice rooms on the second floor. It is in this room that we can see the word, 소망 (somang), which means a spiritual hope or a general hope for everyone and that is the name of the piano school. This is different than the word, wish or 소원 (sowon), which is a personal desire. My daughter is also named Sowon, and unofficially her name meant wish, but was officially updated to mean beautiful imperial garden with a different set of Chinse or Hanja (Chinese characters used in Korean writing) characters.

While Jaehee was testing the piano on the second floor, once again the "A" key is featured, but has a problem as no sound was coming out when pressed. Jaehee opens up the top of the piano and takes a look inside. There is a lot of green lights and a black cat's green eyes at the bottom. 

Riku is outside feeding a black cat. He names the cat, "Koo." He was holding flyers and he tapes up a flyer on a window before he walks away. Strangely, he holds another cat, which becomes a flyer when he attached it to a store gate. There are already 20 cat flyers around the flyer that he just posted. A fan theorized that each black cat represents an NCT member. Then, I was thinking what about the black cat named Koo? Was that Jungmin who was left behind? It looked like Riku just met Koo as he just gave Koo a name. The story gets strange and Riku found what looks to be Koo playing with a seashell in the overpass and behind Riku are 18 black cats behind and around him. A fan theorizes that there were once 18 members of NCT in their first group album in 2018. Riku looks at the seashell in curiosity.

In Chapter three, Ryo, with a lollipop in his mouth, is on his computer trying to find out if anybody knew the name of the strange star he saw in the sky. He looks to be at home with a big telescope in his room. Ryo logs into the astronomical community forum to ask if anybody knew the star that he saw. The comments flood in, but nobody has seen the star. Ryo goes back to his telescope to check again. While Ryo is checking for the star, another comment is sent by username "Sakupang" (I believe it is Sakuya in combination with his love for bread) who also saw the green star.

Sakuya is outside the train station, sketching the green star that he sees. The train station is named "夢駅" (Dream Station or Yume-eki). Sakuya takes a bite of his green bread. I had to laugh because this is overkill, but I like Sakuya's humor. It looks as if Sakuya is dreaming of him walking through the snow towards a castle and he can hear a chime. The chime continues two more times and Sakuya stops to turn around to see a big green star in the sky. Perhaps this was not a dream, but Sakuya recalling his memory of how he discovered the star. I also thought about the beginning in which Taeyong was using various sounds that is somehow connected to the NCT Wish members.

Sakuya is back in the present at the Dream station while Ryo calls his name. Sakuya shows Ryo his drawing and they continue to look at it on the train. As Sakuya and Ryo kept discussing the star, the people on the train begin to disappear. A fan theorized that this became a train to Kwangya, SM Entertainment's virtual world, but I still would like to think that they are in some type of dream.

In Chapter four, the train doors open and Ryo and Sakuya step directly on sand, but they are now dressed in white. The other four members were waving to them on the sandy beach. Once Ryo and Sakuya were close enough, the six of them run across the beach. Jaehee stops briefly to turn around and ask the other to catch up.

In what I think is a pivotal moment, Sion stops and turns around to see Yushi walking behind him. Now, Sion can see who the figure was in his vision. All members look into the ocean, but can see an inverted ocean also above the ocean and what appears to be a sunrise on both sides, although this sun has a green tint to it. This is where our NCT link story begins. I saw a comment that stated Taeyong's seventh sense was activated. The next NCT group album is going to be super fire.

I am impressed by the cinematography. All members did a great job and two bad it was so short. I would like to see more, but I am getting greedy.

Am I then thinking too deeply that NCT 127 is the home base, NCT Dream's dream power allowed the NCT Wish group to dream, and WayV's rainbow led the way to NCT?

NCT WISH 엔시티 위시 'NASA' Performance Video

I am finally at the main point of this post, which is to write about the "NASA" performance video. Just like Riize released their performance video, "Siren" before debut, NCT Wish also released a pre-debut performance video, "NASA." The video was released exactly on 28-JAN-2024, a month before NCT Wish's debut.

I found it odd that they released a song that is based on the USA's space agency if this group is focused on Japan, but I don't mind this dance track as it is more NCT-like music. When I showed this video to my nine-year-old daughter, she said, "That is not what NASA looks like!" She is funny.

This is another song about going up, so basically NCT Wish wants to "rise" up like Riize.


I am seeing a whole new side to NCT Wish.

I never knew Yushi had a alluring deep voice at the beginning of the song. I thought he was good at high notes, but his low voice is just as attractive. Also, I don't think I ever heard him speak English. If this is his voice, his English is very good. It is a good thing that we have the practice video because at some point, I lost where Yushi went after Riku went under his leg and Yushi magically appeared on the right side of the screen. 

Just like the "Siren" performance video, I saw the "NASA" video many, many times including the practice video to look at how well each member performed. 

When Sion is shown wearing Neo green pants, I immediately had all eyes on him. It is fate that my favorite color is green. This is probably my favorite Sion outfit. As usual, Sion is dancing at over 100% effort and I have to appreciate his dance style. I thought his silver hair also fits the theme of NASA.

In this scene where all members are wearing different outfits, I loved how it shows individualism, which is the SM Entertainment strength. This is how I envision the ultimate group to look where everybody is strong in their own way. This is exactly how I see all SM Entertainment artists. 

The move in which Riku slides under Yushi's leg with Jaehee's knee support is pretty awesome. We don't get to see many sliding movements in K-pop today. I hope that move doesn't hurt Riku's knees though.

The one leg squat from one side to the other side that all the members do looks super difficult. I think I would be in so much pain if I tried that move. Yes, I tried it and I can't get up. 

Yushi, Sion, and Riku definitely shined in the dance as they have the ability to lead the group well. Having Ryo and Sakuya dance together on the sides is also very complimentary. I can understand why the choreographer would want to put these strong combinations of dancers together this way. 

The NCT Wish members are not phased by a ball of light hitting a white star, turning it green. No, the dance goes on. It is also wild that fire sparks are going off everywhere and the group keeps on dancing. 

I love Ryo's blue and white wavy sweater and fire-colored pants. This video is over the top. 

I think it is unfortunate that Jaehee did not get a chance to shine in the dance performance. In the practice video, I can tell he worked really hard. However, he is not marketed to be a dancer. I hope he gets more chances to shine in their debut single.

The beginning and ending are so appropriate with Yushi standing in the middle of the rocket launch in the beginning while Sion is standing middle at the end with the members linked in a circle around them during those two times. The dance concept of a rocket ship launch is genius. I will be watching this over and over again.


This NASA performance goes to show that NCT Wish is capable of upbeat songs and also crazy fast dance songs. The NCT group is made to be flexible and innovative.

I am so excited to see the debut of NCT Wish and I "wish" them all the best. I am happy to see the results of how SM Entertainment created a new group and I will probably write another post about the official debut of NCT Wish. 
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Saturday, January 13, 2024

Game Review: NCT Zone

 Hello everybody and happy 2024! I am now going into new territory: a game app review.

As this is related to the Korean entertainment world, and I previously reviewed a BTS book, I might as well also venture into reviewing video games. This is not a professional review, but a casual player review. I am not paid to write this review so please support my efforts by visiting an AD on this website.

I consider myself a casual gamer who loves simulation and idle games because I simply have no time for games. Currently, I have 56 game applications on my iPhone so this is a hypocritical statement, but I do not play all 56 games regularly. I also want to give a shoutout to my brother who works as a Senior  Software Engineer for a game company, but I will not consult his expertise in game development for this review because this is a casual game review. I don't consider myself an excellent game player or the smartest player or the person who spends money on games as I am a F2P (free to play) player. I suppose playing games is meant to relax me and I have played war games in which my heart was pumping so I want to stay away from those thrilling games like PUBG or LoL (League of Legends). I liked RPG or MMORPG games when I was younger, but now I have no time for it.

Source: https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:NCT_in_2021_Universe.jpg

I spent some days playing NCT Zone. For fear of copyright, I will not be posting any direct pictures of the game in this post so this will be strictly based on the review.

 SM Ent. & TakeOne Company has launched a card battle and building application game on 27-DEC-2023 based on the members of NCT. Anyone who is a fan of NCT and/or any of the NCT subgroups should play this game. However, there are no NCT New Team members featured in this game, but I am not sure if they will be added to the game at a later time because that is a possibility. Business is business, so if they end up adding the NCT New Team members, I would be thrilled. I also think this game could be geared slightly towards females with gift-giving and intimacy levels with the members involved, but I think male players can also have fun in the game.

Source: https://picryl.com/media/bts-at-the-white-house-on-may-31-2022-02-f522f7

For those who are a BTS fan and have played "BTS World" before, which is also a card battle application game from the TakeOne game developement company, then they will see that it has similar gameplay. I started playing BTS World a long time ago, I think, in 2019 for a short while at a time when I didn't know who the members of BTS were and who is who. I knew their music, but I am not at the level of knowing each member's names. This game, in a way, helped me recognize each member of BTS. However unfortunately, life got in the way and I stopped playing the game. The game itself has shut down recently on 26-DEC-2023, one day before the NCT Zone game launched. Is this some type of conspiracy or has the TakeOne contract simply expired with BTS World? However, Netmarble is also involved with the BTS World as the game publisher, so maybe things simply didn't work out among the three companies along with Hybe Corporation, BTS' management company. I wish I played the BTS World game a little longer so that I can do more comparison for this review. If any readers played BTS World and NCT Zone, I would like to read up on the comparisons between the two games.

Seeing how BTS World shut down eventually, I am not having a good feeling that NCT Zone game will last forever, so I recommend trying this game as fast as possible to play it before NCT Zone possibly suffers the same fate or however their collaboration contract is written.

I am aware that SM Entertainment has a "SUPERSTAR SMTOWN" rhythm game to tappity tap, but I am not interested in rhythm games in general. Again, it makes my heart pump with stress so I just stay away from it. I love music, though as you can tell from my blog, but I don't think I can handle the rhythm game stress. My daughter loves rhythm games though. My thumbs would probably die and I was once a avid piano player.

Before I begin to write about my review, the "NCT Zone" game can be found at the following official link https://nctzofficial.com/ so those who are interested can obtain more information or play the game right away for free where purchases are optional.

The game is available in Apple store or Google Play.

However, for those who download the game on their phone, please note that they would need extra storage in their phones because while the game itself has a 315.5 MB file size, once they download the game, they need a lot more to download all the videos and more videos of the boys as they collect them. They can't download this game when their phone storage is about full so I recommend to free up a few hundred MBs of space to start the game.

It was a bit funny to think about now, because initially, before the game launch was revealed, NCT fans thought that "NCT Zone", when registered as a trademark, may be the name of the new NCT New Team, but come to find out, it was the name of the new NCT application game.


I like their OST song, "Do it (Let's Play)" for the game. I'm glad they released it for our audio pleasure. The above video seems to be the instrument only with background voice track. The below OST song seems to only have a few NCT members singing the actual song: Jungwoo, Jeno, Yangyang, Chenle, and Xiaojun.


Sypnosis:


There is a storyline in this game. The player has entered the dream world in which all the NCT members, who are agents, have nightmarish dreams. The player's job is to clear those nightmarish dreams with card battles in Kwangya so that the NCT members can have sweet dreams again. Nightmares causes the Neozone where the NCT members reside to collapse in toxic fog. Basically, the player is on a dream cleansing mission. However, in the NCT member's dream, the NCT member must not know that they are in a dream. If they realize that it is a dream, the dream will collapse. This logic gives me the "Inception" movie vibes.

At the same time, players can rebuild the Neozone, a place where all the NCT members gather to make items, collect items, and expand the neozone territory with sweet dreams.

Players need to collect each NCT player's CCOMAZ, like a communication device so the player can communicate directly with the NCT member. The CCOMAZ can be leveled up so that the NCT members can perform more tasks.

Once the NCT member's CCOMAZ is collected, players can gave the NCT member different outfits and also give the NCT member gifts to increase intimacy. As far as I know, increasing intimacy only gives me rewards, but no other game benefits.


Positive Points:


The storylines are fun to read and experience. I like how some of the Kwangya missions are tied to the members in real life such as the Haechan 37.5MHz radio mission and Nana's coffee lab mission. Haechan has his own radio show called "37.5MHz HAECHAN Radio" and Jaemin is known to be obsessed with coffee.

Watch one ad a day in the game to collect a reward. This is an optional task. This is better than watching multiple ads a day or throughout game play, which disrupts the game play.

If the player collects multiple NCT CCOMAZ and more than one NCT member is roaming in Neozone, players can move the NCT members onto each other and any nearby NCT members will also join in dancing to NCT songs in Neozone. This is so cute and never gets old (or tire out of it).

Players can choose their favorite NCT member to be displayed in the main Lobby menu, assuming that they have the NCT member's CCOMAZ device with the outfit and background that was selected in the "member room."

I love Haechan's voice whenever he announces "Combo!" during card battle. He is so enthusiastic and into character. I love using his cards and hearing his voice, especially his idiolect.

I love Taeyong's reactions to me giving him a gift with a slight surprise. He says, "Wah. Kamsahamnida." I am motivated to give him all my gifts. By the way, I selected Taeyong as my first CCOMAZ contact since he is THE leader of NCT. If one does not talk to the leader when there is trouble, who does one talk to?

Taeil's video is creative. When you give him a gift, he catches a gift box and exclaims, "Thank you" in English.

Depending on which menu the player goes to, there is different NCT song. This could be a positive or a negative aspect of the game because while it is nice to listen to different NCT songs, if I leave my phone open for a while, the same song is repeating over and over again and for those who are not super NCT fans, this could be exhausting to hear the same song.

When card battling, there is no time pressure, which I like, but who knows? The developer might decide to have PvP battles in the future where players can battle each other and I would think it would be real-time battles. As a normal battle tip, I recommend setting up all the elemental battle items by color before dragging the items to a card. If there is a color item where I do not have a card with the same color, I set them up in combinations of three as much as possible before I drag a different color item to its corresponding card to eliminate the unneeded elemental items.

I learned something about NCT along the way. I didn't know who the caracal flag represented so upon a Google search, it was meant to represent Johnny.


Negative Points:

There is a lag in the game in which clicking on a menu or item has a delay. This could be frustrating as playing a game should not have any lag. This is my biggest complaint about the game. I have a iPhone 14 Pro Max with 1 TB of storage space (though obviously some of that space is used), but still, there's lag.

Loading screens can also take some time.

Storage item inventory count takes a while to update. If my storage is full and I use some of the items, it takes a while before the system recognizes that the storage room is no longer full. I keep clicking on the storage room to update the inventory count.

I wish there was a way to control the quantity of items I want to use because it is a bit hard to control, such as when upgrading NCT cards with NCT memory chips. Either I click on the item once to add quantity or I have to click on a slider to indicate the quantity which is hard to control. When I am creating an item, I have to drag it to be made. I wish I can press a button to get it on the queue automatically to be made.

There is a friend feature, but I don't see too much benefit in making friends in the game. We can help each other create items, send gifts, but there is no real benefit to making friends as we do not directly play together. I saw some Korean user profiles state that they only want to be friends with Korean speakers only, but really, there is no conversation between friends in this game, so why would that make a difference?

If we go based on what happened to the "BTS World" game, then this game might be only available for a limited time. This is only my thought, but there may be a possibly that the game may shut down if it is not profitable in the future. Or this game may be so well received that NCT fans are going to keep it going for a long time.

Every gift received goes into the mailbox to claim. I would rather all the awards go directly to storage as this is an extra step to claim the awards.

As far as a FAQ or how to play, the game doesn't explain it too well. I don't see any game explanations on the website either. I didn't know how to make NCT dance together until I consulted videos on the internet. I had no idea how to complete the mission. I probably slept through some instructions.

As far as NCT cards are concerned, the Normal cards are useless. I have never used it once during gameplay, but probably great just for the collection of it. I am also beginning to wonder that it is probably not worth upgrading rare status cards either. I would only concentrate on SR (super rare), SSR (super super rare?), and I think there are higher cards than SSR, because I have seen it somewhere on social media.

Some NCT members are really into character in the videos and audio files, but others are not too enthusiastic into their character. In the voice files, I was disappointed in some of the members voices when I hit combos or mega combos with less than enthusiastic voices.

I am not a big fan of waiting for items to be created so I usually do the Neozone activities on the side when I am working or not actively playing because normally there is a wait time to create items. However, I like that there are different activities to do besides card collecting and battling.

As I mentioned earlier, I would like to have the NCT New Team added to the game in the future.


Conclusion:


The "NCT Zone" game is here to stay with plenty of things to do in the game. So far, I like the cute graphics and it has a lot of what I like such as card battling, card collecting, making a NCT Neozone town, NCT character dancing, NCT videos and audio. NCT fans would have fun. There is certainly room for improvement to make the game even better with more features, but that would also mean we need to download a bigger file to play the game.

I would like to also write a note of caution that this is only a game and players are not actually meeting NCT in real life so players should plan to not spend too much money on a game and have a budget in place. The situation can easily get out of control once real money is spent on the game to get all the benefits from the game. This advice can apply to any game with pay to play features. Card collecting in the real life world is already big business so just keep in mind these are digital items.

With that stated, I hope everyone enjoys the game and it could be pretty fun and time consuming. Maybe I'll see my readers in NCT Zone. I look forward to collecting all the members!

If this becomes a hit, maybe we'll see an Aespa game within Kwangya.

If you would like to know what I have so far, my player ID is BoChui, level 12, and I have Taeil, Taeyong, and Kun so far in Neozone. My dream lab is level 10 at the moment. Feel free to add me. Do it! Let's play!


References:

https://nctzofficial.com/

https://www.takeonecompany.com/

https://apps.apple.com/us/app/superstar-smtown/id890937532


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