Is it just me or is Sakura significantly less popular now compared to her run in IZ*ONE

maybe it was because all of her fanbase are on Japan rather than South Korea?

And Chaewon are quite popular on both side?

Think it has to do with the group’s concept. In izone the concept naturally suits sakura well enough and she could pull it off naturally. In akb48’s kimi wa melody’s mv she was the centre and you can see it falls right along the line with izone’s flower girls image. In lesserafim she’s holding her weight well as a member but there are other members who naturally suit the concept more than her and so will stand out more. If lesserafim’s concept was more similar to izone’s i’ve no doubt she would’ve crushed it and cemented her position as one of the most eye-catching, while yunjin for example might’ve struggled more than her. Oh well, #itiswhatitis

I think she had more charms and was cuter imo back then and being part of akb48 was a novelty something that attracted a lot of people. I personally think she is much better performer now but that wasn't her main appeal at first.

Give her more killer parts in the M/Vs (and better styling) and she'll shine. Her popularity during IZ*One was a carry-over from Produce48/AKB48. Like you can tell how much her popularity got affected along with the rest of the J-Line + Hyewon since they all got barely any lines during IZ*One and were basically treated like back up dancers. Like Nako was one of the most popular trainees in P48 but it was all crickets after debut....

Quote from SooYoung

On their comeback show her fancam is the 2nd most view with kazuha and her being the only member to have their fancam surpass 1M

Are you sure? Chaewon’s antifragile fancam from their cb show has already reached 3m views while kazuha’s and sakura’s most watched fancams stand at like 1.5m iirc. But sakura obviously has the biggest individual dedicated fanbase in lesserafim no doubt. The other members have more casual fans but sakura has more hardcore fans. Both are legit imo

1. Different marketing strategies. Wonyoung is marketed as the face of IVE while Sakura isn't.

2. This might sound biased but I feel the rest of LSRF members are all very charismatic so they could take away some spotlights from Chaewon and Sakura. The 4 new IVE members aren't as charismatic as WY and YJ so they got overshadowed more.

Sakura is behind everyone in Korea but she still lead everywhere. Biggest fanbase in japan and China. She usually has the most viewed fancams. It’s just that the other members are growing up each cb while she doesn’t have to blow up.

Quote from SooYoung

Well yes i'm sure i verified chaewon is stuck at 708K

While kazuha fancam reached 1.6M

And sakura 1.4M

Screenshot_2022-12-24-16-41-47-887_com.google.android.youtube.jpg

I don't think fancams necessarily reflect popularity but a dedicated fanbase

Quote from SooYoung

Well yes i'm sure i verified chaewon is stuck at 708K

While kazuha fancam reached 1.6M

And sakura 1.4M

Screenshot_2022-12-24-16-41-47-887_com.google.android.youtube.jpg

that's her other fancam

this is the viral one that reached 3m+

The difference is, Ive's concept revolves around Wonyoung. We can see how well their concept suits her and Wy remains the main character in Ive, she pulling the concept the best in her group.

Meanwhile in Le sserafim, Yunjin and Chaewon is the embodiment of their concept, these two people are very suitable with the concept brought by Lesserafim so that they look very prominent compare to other members. Kazuha on the other hand is a dark horse who unexpectedly received a huge response from everyone including in Korea. So Sakura while improving her skills a lot, she didn't really stand out in a group full of people with strong charisma with this strong concept. I didn't say she didn't fit this concept but she fit the elegant and cute concept more.

Quote from SooYoung

Well yes i'm sure i verified chaewon is stuck at 708K

While kazuha fancam reached 1.6M

And sakura 1.4M

Screenshot_2022-12-24-16-41-47-887_com.google.android.youtube.jpg

hate to break it to you but you missed chaewon’s 3m views fancam lol they uploaded 2 batches of videos that’s why there’s a variation

It's not that she isn't growing, but her members just grow at astronomical rate. Everyone has outpaced her. The cause:

1. Group concept that doesn't really suit her.

2. Her current styling is horrible to stay the least.

3. No screen time. Her solo screentime is less than the freaking asteroid in antifragile MV. Her solo (gaming) parts also very out of place and forgettable.

4. No killing parts. In IZ*ONE, although her lines also almost non-existence, but at least she got some killing part, so she still noticeable.

As much as many people try to deny, lines, screen time and killing parts is very important factor for the idol's popularity.

the concept don't suit her or rather than not suiting her, it doesn't play to her strengths

Quote from nenen-kim

It's not that she isn't growing, but her members just grow at astronomical rate. Everyone has outpaced her. The cause:

1. Group concept that doesn't really suit her.

2. Her current styling is horrible to stay the least.

3. No screen time. Her solo screentime is less than the freaking asteroid in antifragile MV. Her solo (gaming) parts also very out of place and forgettable.

4. No killing parts. In IZ*ONE, although her lines also almost non-existence, but at least she got some killing part, so she still noticeable.

As much as many people try to deny, lines, screen time and killing parts is very important factor for the idol's popularity.

This is exactly what I've been saying. Like you can't get more fans unless people actually SEE you. And the M/Vs are the gateways for new fans. She doesn't even need more lines: she just need more killer parts/memorable scenes. Like tbh her solo scenes from the Antifragile M/V were pretty creatively meh. I didn't see anybody talking about them at all.

Also bring back her bangs dammit....

Quote from Tenken101

Also bring back her bangs dammit....

No!!!! Her forehead has not seen the world since 2011 when she debuted. I'm sure Sakura herself freaking tired of it.

Quote from SooYoung

Oh yeah

But well it just proved that chaewon is less consistent in term of popularity while sakura is very consistent

sakura definitely has the biggest hardcore fandom but if you want to base it on fancams only that’s a flawed measure lol you forget that those antifragile fancams are from their debut showcase only, but along the cb’s rollout chaewon really blew up this cb and she’s not as inconsistent as you think

Since lesserafim didn’t have more performances on mnet and there’s no more vid on m2 i pivoted to all of lesserafim’s fancams on inkigayo’s zoom which is the 2nd largest channel and the trend might surprise you

I don’t know.. what I do know that when Sakura was in Izone I didn’t find her interesting at all. I barely remember her face just know her name. I remember Wonyoung since Izone because she’s just too pretty and tall (I guess). But when Sakura is in LSRF, I got very interested in her and now I can see why so many people love her. She just shines more in Les serafim to me.

I don't really see it? She's definitely one of girls most biased in the group and people are interested in what she's doing, seeing views in youtube and overall engagement in socmed. Maybe she's not a "stan attractor" anymore like she was in Iz*one but that doesnt mean she's not popular overly.

it seems like le sserafim stands out more as a group rn than izone

Quote from Bpsosoro

Personally I don’t see much of a difference in her popularity… if anything she’s more popular than when she was in izone

The only difference is that most of the izone girls were lowly nugu while lsf members are growing in popularity

True only one of them was kinda talk of the town, chaeyeon

she's still a star but the problem is that everyone else has extreme star factor or something new to offer

Quote from elliejr

True only one of them was kinda talk of the town, chaeyeon

it’s interesting that chaeyeon was hyped up so much at izone’s debut but over the years i feel like the other members eclipsed her in popularity, to the point that now her solo debut album performed the worst commercially out of all izone members. Management definitely has a lot to blame but even by izone’s disbandment it seems to me chaeyeon wasn’t really quite “the talk of town” anymore. Don’t know how that could’ve changed but alas

Quote from Tenken101

This is exactly what I've been saying. Like you can't get more fans unless people actually SEE you. And the M/Vs are the gateways for new fans. She doesn't even need more lines: she just need more killer parts/memorable scenes. Like tbh her solo scenes from the Antifragile M/V were pretty creatively meh. I didn't see anybody talking about them at all.

Also bring back her bangs dammit....

I can see this. Sakura is the only member I can identify consistently in the group, and after I saw this thread, I went to watch the Antifragile MV with the specific intent of following Sakura around it, and I struggled to find her in a lot of scenes. She just didn't seem to get much screentime, and the screentime she did get, it wasn't super memorable.

When I think of that compared to times members have had noticeable popularity spikes, to your point, it's not necessarily that they dominated the song, but they got something very memorable. Like Sana's "shy shy shy," or Yuqi's "just me, I-DLE," or for a less popular group but one with a very dedicated fandom, Dreamcatcher Dami's "I'm a geek, the big paradox" (THE most watched scene of Boca). None of them have the most lines in their respective songs, but I can picture their scenes SO clearly.

Quote from Whi

it’s interesting that chaeyeon was hyped up so much at izone’s debut but over the years i feel like the other members eclipsed her in popularity, to the point that now her solo debut album performed the worst commercially out of all izone members. Management definitely has a lot to blame but even by izone’s disbandment it seems to me chaeyeon wasn’t really quite “the talk of town” anymore. Don’t know how that could’ve changed but alas

I get why tho. She was mostly hyped for being former JYP, her sister and her dancing.

Over time the dance style in Izone changed to match her members strengths, they all got better at dancing, people got bored of the related thing and lots of new groups debuted making Itzy less buzzworthy and its been years since she left JYP. All of her biggest buzz points just got out of date and she didn't get enough singing or solo dances in Izone points to make new ones.

SWF was supposed to be that but the comparison to pro dancers torpedoed her, then she fell off the earth when everyone wanted to talk to SWF members (missed the chance to hitch that ride to variety land), then instead of going full Chungha with her debut or playing to said dance strength they went kind of generic and chill (kinda like a b-side from OMG) but her vocals weren't so amazing as to blow everyone away and they didn't give her a amazing collab to boost her buzz.

I think
bad ass not suit for Sakura
it suit for her a feminine cute/sexy concept like
IZ ONE/IVE or like her Japanese GG AKB48

Quote from Tenken101

This is exactly what I've been saying. Like you can't get more fans unless people actually SEE you. And the M/Vs are the gateways for new fans. She doesn't even need more lines: she just need more killer parts/memorable scenes. Like tbh her solo scenes from the Antifragile M/V were pretty creatively meh. I didn't see anybody talking about them at all.

Also bring back her bangs dammit....

Quote from onwards

I get why tho. She was mostly hyped for being former JYP, her sister and her dancing.

Over time the dance style in Izone changed to match her members strengths, they all got better at dancing, people got bored of the related thing and lots of new groups debuted making Itzy less buzzworthy and its been years since she left JYP. All of her biggest buzz points just got out of date and she didn't get enough singing or solo dances in Izone points to make new ones.

SWF was supposed to be that but the comparison to pro dancers torpedoed her, then she fell off the earth when everyone wanted to talk to SWF members (missed the chance to hitch that ride to variety land), then instead of going full Chungha with her debut or playing to said dance strength they went kind of generic and chill (kinda like a b-side from OMG) but her vocals weren't so amazing as to blow everyone away and they didn't give her a amazing collab to boost her buzz.

Sad truth, but Chayeon only popular among casuals, she always ranked dead last in individual sales in IZ*ONE. GP/Casuals are fickle, bad or no release = you're done.

Chayeon need to be in a group in order for her to shine, and that group need to be popular or have popular members or her group would end up like post IOI group.

Quote from onwards

SWF was supposed to be that but the comparison to pro dancers torpedoed her, then she fell off the earth when everyone wanted to talk to SWF members (missed the chance to hitch that ride to variety land), then instead of going full Chungha with her debut or playing to said dance strength they went kind of generic and chill (kinda like a b-side from OMG) but her vocals weren't so amazing as to blow everyone away and they didn't give her a amazing collab to boost her buzz.

yeah this so much. Swf was definitely the wrong show for her to showcase her talents, and then the song and concept choice for her debut was also baffling. She’s a dancer, why is there no dancing in the mv like at all?? Even i can come up with sth better than that lol

Quote from nenen-kim

Sad truth, but Chayeon only popular among casuals, she always ranked dead last in individual sales in IZ*ONE. GP/Casuals are fickle, bad or no release = you're done.

Chayeon need to be in a group in order for her to shine, and that group need to be popular or have popular members or her group would end up like post IOI group.

Honestly, she could have been like momo in Twice, getting her dance highlights and kicking all kinds of butt with little vocal sections but no, they had to go solo for her.

Quote from Whi

yeah this so much. Swf was definitely the wrong show for her to showcase her talents, and then the song and concept choice for her debut was also baffling. She’s a dancer, why is there no dancing in the mv like at all?? Even i can come up with sth better than that lol

Agreed, I think they wanted her to be an all rounder but it just failed. TBH thats been happening all round for a while, companies failing to deliver on the dance front with famous main dancers leaving everyone disappointed, I mean seulgi, yooa, chungha (I mean sparkling??), yoojung (WTF was sunflower???), hyoyeon (forget deep I'm still holding out for punk right now 2.0 because damn that was an ERA) and lisa are testament to that. They all went tik tok and it was such a waste all round, esp because they all lipsynched anyways.

Everyone talking about her not fitting the concept, but I like her more in Le sserafim than Iz*one and Produce. Apparently this is an unpopular opinion.