Nizi Project aired on Hulu in 2020 and would eventually be one of the biggest shows in Japan that produced the popular girl group NiziU.
It wasn’t until Sukkiri did weekly Nizi segments that Nizi Project rose in the ranks and captured the heart of the house-wives (stay at home mothers) and celebrities.
Japanese celebrities would take to Twitter or their tiktok to show their support for Nizi Project.
This brought their fans to Nizi
And every morning house-wives would tune in with their little ones. The mother’s viewing the show expressed how different the survival show was, seeing the step by step process to get into the group, and the individual growth. They felt an emotional attachment to the girls and JYP being a good role model to them
Why, most of the mothers would call them ‘daughter’.
They didn’t capture just middle-aged mothers but NiziU is also extremely popular with girls! They didn’t go the typical route of having Otaku fans.
“LINE Co., Ltd. LINE Research Approximately 50% of all respondents answered that they knew “NiziU”, and in particular, female teens and 20s-40s accounted for approximately 80% of NiziU demographic.“
Young school children and teenagers also felt they had a girl group they could look up to (age-wise) especially seeing Nina, a biracial idol in the group.
A Japanese WITHU explaining their popularity