Will Illit ever go higher than NewJeans did? I doubt it

I won't comment about NJ's ultimate fate in this piece.

However, it is true that NJ got the best trainees, which skewed the whole girl group plans of Hybe.

Because the best trainees were gone, LeSserafim had to do with two people from IZOne, who are now showing their age, and what was remaining and their best member was lost because of the bullying accusation.

Illit is even worse - again the only member who could speak English was lost because of an unknown cause, which has made Yunah completely superfluous. If Hybe had flexibility it would have cut Yunah, made Minju the leader, and would have added one of the people from R U Next to fill the gap. Why BeliefLab did not cut Yunah after Youngseo's departure is only known to its head, but that left Illit with only 2 members who are worth anything, Minju (YG Trainee) and Iroha (JYP trainee).

Yunah does not belong there, Moka can't sing to save her life, and Wonhee simply can do nothing. It doesn't help that the latter two are injury prone as well.

NJ has all of its members getting fame. Hyein was less known but the Senior Singer had given Hyein a chance to collaborate in a song of the former owner of Edam Entertainment so Hyein was recognized too.

Illit has no members who can speak English, one member who is completely incompatible with the group's concept and two members who subtract more from the group than add to it.

Although its second album is being delayed because of the MHJ circus and the injuries of the members, its execs will be thinking hard about what to do with it, since if its 2nd album does not do as well as Magnetic, it will probably see a future not too different from MissA, with only Minju surviving, and Iroha probably returning to Japan where because of her young age she will get one more shot.

The Hybe plan was probably like this - NJ conquers world, LeSserafim mostly concentrating in Japan and USA to some degree as it became popular in there, and after LsSserafim moves to USA, like Twice did, Illit takes over in Japan.

But because of MHJ NJ is now useless to Hybe, so Illit , who was never intended to advance outside of Japan, now has to fulfill the role intended fro NJ, which I do not think it is capable of.

It would have been cruel to Yunah, but I think she should have been replaced by an English speaking member if BeliefLab had plans to promote Illit beyond Japan. Business is business.

Not replacing Yunah will probably result Illit reaching a lower height than NJ did.

Quote from vzal

What did the Illit girls do to you

They have to take the mantle of this generation of KPop but they have enough shortcomings to prevent that

Quote from lia09

Yeah they can achieve if they get the same opportunities as newjeans.

But the quality of the members are quite different.

Quote from Tatiana1820

they should have debuted chanelle instead of yunah. they would have had another lead vocalist and an english speaking member who is also beautiful and would match the group. yunah really really doesn't fit in. like REALLY.

Indeed. I think they thought Channelle (and Jeemin) did not fit with Wonhee.

But Yunah is not a fit with the group. She does not hide that she doesn't want to do the cutesy stuff for the group.

Quote from foreveraespaaa

Tbh at the end of the day Illit is a Kpop group so it shouldn’t be the be all end all if they can speak English or not Also I’m sure they’ll learn along the job just like most idols learn to speak Japanese and improve their English with time.

Will they go higher than NJ probably not. They feel like a lesser version than NJ even during their debut years. Less popular, less hype, less discussions about them, less positivity overall. I don’t even know if they have any solid fans on AKP. I guess only time will tell

They already started with a huge disadvantage which is unlikely to improve because of the inherent weakness of the group members.

Quote from stxr

yunahs veneers scare me

She probably wanted a 'girl crush' concept

She would have been a good fit with other acts, not Illit.

Quote from Cold_Wave

Yunah fits in fine as long as the styling isn't super juvenile. She looks great in a more elegant style like here. Even if she's not a lot of people's favourite she's not useless at all. She's one of the more stable vocalists, her tone adds a nice dynamic to the songs, she's demonstrated good leadership skills during RUNext, she's actually entertaining and good at variety. Most of the other members are kinda quiet and introverted, it would be boring without her.

Yunah is great. Just stick to the history lessons

Yunah is like Sowon of GFriend, never really fitting into the group until the end of its life.

Yunah's vocals are average, but since the vocals of the other 3 are nothing to write home about, that does help her somewhat since otherwise it would be all Minju solo, like Oak Juhyun of Finkle who sang about 50% of every Finkl songs.

She does well in variety shows, yes, since she is the only one with a reaction, the Japanese barely understanding what is going on and Wonhee being someone out of water all the time.

Quote from stxr

i hope illits music can be versital

Not with Wonhee, who was selected precisely because of the Girl Next Door concept and does not look like someone who will do girl crush. They will probably try that near the end of the contract after new acts begin to take their positions.

Quote from 2PS1

No.

I think this easy listening y2k trend is starting to fizzle out. Hybe can still produce catchy songs like magnetic, lucky girl and touch, but I feel like they’ll need to pivot soon. These songs should have gone to NJ and they would have had a more successful comeback this year.

It’ll be hard to recreate nj’s rise, mhj aesthetics and vision combined with Hybes resources and fanbase made for an insane climb to the top.

Given the mess in Hybe it is unlikely that such songs will be given to NJ anytime soon. NJ will be operated like Enhypen, endless tours around the world with no great songs.

Yet it is true that Illit simply does not have the material to rise as high as NJ. The very quality of the members are, I will put it this way, quite different.

Quote from redcurtain

it's weird they put her in because didn't she not even do well in the voting? It's not like she was the people's pick.

The intention was she and Youngseo would form a wing in case the group had to transform into an 'adult' image.

However, for whatever reason, Youngseo left so that left Yunah stuck in a strange land.

Quote from Tatiana1820

yeah it makes no sense at all. she is pretty good but she just doesn't suit the concept and even the group. even jeungyeon or smth who was a public favorite would have been much better.

True. When Youngseo left Yunah should have been cut, period.

Quote from bttttoo

anything can happen, but it won't be easy.

Since the group goes around Wonhee, turnarounds will be unlikely

I am sure somewhere in the contract the company reserved the right to cut members as it saw fit, and since Youngseo left so the original contract was invalid, the company should have chosen someone else. Yunah could have sued Beliftlab, which would take quite a long time, while Illit, with better members would have grown leaps and bounds.

Why Beliftlab did not pull Yunah out is a mystery which will limit Illit's potentials.