An Analysis of Le Sserafim Individual Member Fancam Views (or: What Happened to Kazuha?)

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Ah, I don't watch that type of fandom content, so I'm unaware of any differences.

understandable. That's why I think fancam views can't be the sole factor in deciding their popularity.

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Now if we assume that Chaewon is the strongest performer, why were her skills highlighted the most during Antifragile? Is it just because the choreography from that era allowed her to show off more?

Chaewon always had been a good performer, even in izone (her move is very clean).
But, in Antifragile, her presence is the strongest. That and combined with her scene in MV that really highlighting her. I'd say that she is the An Yujin in le sserafim.

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Speaking of bangs, was it only Eunchae's hair that changed? It seems that she's been receiving much more praise for her visuals lately.

yep, I think so. And actually, back then after she got her bang, her selfies with chaewon kinda boomed up since eunchae looks like chaewon's twin.

She having a bang also makes her more "maknae". Maybe you could find something about this bang phenomenon too? Like An Yujin that are having bang, Nmixx Jiwoo that are having bang. I think it does create some buzz..
OH AND RECENTLY, Soyeon also got some bang for her hairstyle..

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So it appears that Yunjin is a bit of a mystery for both of us. I still think her being American has something to do with it; maybe her attitude is simply too brash and "Western" for some.

well, idk. maybe? maybe for K-fans?

But then, didn't she a fully korean? She just happens to live in America for some time right?

The more I think about it, actually all of their member had their own different charm. And yeah, I think in the industry of music, her being the only musician in the group but didn't have a many audiences feels a bit weird, knowing many people love to brag about their fav that can do actual music.

But maybe it just me that missing out the full info about her overall popularity

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But what was it about the Antifragile era that allowed Chaewon to be "fully in character"?

I think the MV play a huge part here.

The camera works in AF were so good.

Chaewon got the best part (the second would be Eunchae's finger flip)

Ntm AF is more upbeat compared to fearless.

(I also suspect that this is the reason why their boom boom song feels much better than their UF, since UF feels more or less the same with AF but Boom Boom is a different upbeat song)

What has happened to Kazuha reminds me a lot of Leeseo in IVE. She went viral during ELEVEN era but probably did not really gather much 'stans' so in later comebacks her views have been on the lower side.

Korean support is probably hard to obtain for a foreigner and Intl/JP fans are already kind of focused on Chaewon, Sakura and Yunjin. Personality wise I'm guessing people gravitate towards the other members like Sakura and Yunjin who are quite the comedians.

I'm sure both Kazuha and Leeseo will have their moment in the future. There's still plenty of public interest in both and both are still going viral every now and then for various reasons - it's just that they don't have many hardcore stans that would watch fancams. Fans need to be pretty damn invested to seek out fancams.

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What has happened to Kazuha reminds me a lot of Leeseo in IVE. She went viral during ELEVEN era but probably did not really gather much 'stans' so in later comebacks her views have been on the lower side.

Korean support is probably hard to obtain for a foreigner and Intl/JP fans are already kind of focused on Chaewon, Sakura and Yunjin. Personality wise I'm guessing people gravitate towards the other members like Sakura and Yunjin who are quite the comedians.

I'm sure both Kazuha and Leeseo will have their moment in the future. There's still plenty of public interest in both and both are still going viral every now and then for various reasons - it's just that they don't have many hardcore stans that would watch fancams. Fans need to be pretty damn invested to seek out fancams.

It is the same reason why Tzuyu and Sana haven't blown up in Korea. They are not Koreans. There is a chance for Kazuha in Japan as they get more and more popular. 100% Sana and Tzuyu would have been IT girls in Korea if they were Korean.

I think for Leeseo at debut she was a very cute young kid and got a lot of attention for this. As younger idols mature they can change a lot appearance-wise, and like it or not, the idol industry is based on visuals. Its interesting, NJ seem to get prettier as they mature. Maybe Hybe use photo-aging software in member selection. But back on topic, sometimes an idol is very lucky and sometimes not so lucky.

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There is a chance for Kazuha in Japan as they get more and more popular.

I wonder. It seems to me like for LSFM there's already Chaewon and Sakura who are insanely popular in Japan, ever since IZ*ONE days. Chaewon cannot be underestimated in Japan, her JP song cover got 15M views which is just absurd. "Cute" idols tend to do really well over there.

It's probably quite hard to become popular with those two as your group members. She's also done viral ballet dancer things enough times by now so people don't as interested in that anymore, it will be hard to utilize that in the future.

such an amount of work

impresive

Nooooo Yunjin, please rise!

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But what was it about the Antifragile era that allowed Chaewon to be "fully in character"?

To me the purpose of Fearless was to introduce us to LE SSERAFIM as a whole and their highly synchronized style. There was a simplicity and uniformity to what they wore - chic dresses, black suits etc... Chaewon had jet black hair and a chic fashionable vibe like the others. Not much differentiation.

For Antifragile, Chaewon bleached sections of her hair for a two tone look that was more rebellious. She also wore boots in the MV and her outfit looked fierce. So now she looks the part of a badass. Hitman Bang personally suggested working in the akanbe expression into the routine. This is genius as it balances out the fierceness with a playful mischievousness.

Check out Jossi's animation for AF. She's great at boiling artists down to essential key features and you can see how Chaewon made the job easy for her:

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On the other hand, what was it about the Unforgiven era that allowed Yunjin to be in "top form"?

To me, I think they picked or created parts for her that allowed her energy and personality to come through more in Unforgiven. The parts were also more memorable because they fit her.

In the MV, she's assigned the first verse to kick things off strong and set the tone coming out of a helicopter. She got the part to shoot the arrow and a long break in the music focused attention on it.

She was hamming it up in the Hummer like only she could. Part of her dress is stepped on and rips off - and like a carefree (or clumsy) American, she kept stepping forward and is ultimately unbothered.

In the choreo, she did a 90 degree back-bend that was pretty powerful (and painful to watch for some). And like she started it off strong coming out the helicopter in the MV, towards the end when the energy needed to be brought to a peak, they pick her to take center position doing a dance sequence involving a 360 turn to "jumping jacks".

If you were able to follow along and picture/recall most of what I described in words, she was in top form in Unforgiven. Generic parts/moves are less memorable and wouldn't show her being in top form.

Edit: I saw that Jossi also did one on Eve Psych. Check it out and compare it to AF, who in particular staod out for her this time?

The impression I have is that in SK, even if Kazuha's fancam views are lower now she is still the one who makes the most buzz among casuals and Sakura has the biggest dedicated fandom, so it's the same as back in the group debut

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• Like Eunchae, Yunjin also had a bad start. Did people not like her because she's from the US? Were her visuals too "Western"? She really didn't show much improvement until Unforgiven promotions, so again, is there a reason for this?

As far as I know she is pure Korean, even if she might not fit best SK's beauty standards, I don't think saying they don't like her because her visuals is too "Western" makes sense, I would think that possibly her americanized personality makes more sense as a reason

Quote from wsoet

For sure. In fact, in my data set, there are only three fancams with over 1 million views. Two are of Sakura (Fearless, Antifragile) and one is of Chaewon (Antifragile).

And in general, Le Sserafim's fancam views have been declining, I'm assuming because their novelty factor is wearing off. Median fancam views are 93,174 -> 52,384 -> 41,804 for the Fearless -> Antifragile -> Unforgiven eras.

In the Fearless -> Antifragile -> Unforgiven eras, Kazuha wore pants in 30.8% -> 63.3% -> 69.7% of her fancams.

The pants are the same style. I think it might have gotten boring after a while because they always dress in the same style Kazuha. There is probably no overall decline. The hype in the debut period is different, that hype has passed a bit.