Recently, IZ*ONE’s relaunch project, Parallel Universe Project, released a statement online in regards to the timeline and process of their efforts to relaunch the group. As many fans might have been disappointed in the outcome of the project, the team revealed the contact process for each agency to clearly show the conditions of each company.
The project team also emphasized that in the case of some agencies, what they say to the team, what they tell the media, and what they demand from CJ are all different, “It is also something where we cannot criticize a specific agency or CJ by judging that only one side of the stance is true.”
Below is a list of the contact process for each individual agency.
Agency A
It has been confirmed that agency A had been opposing the proposal since last year. However it is still unclear whether this agency opposed the extension of the promotion period because of other troubles with CJ, or whether the current trouble with CJ was caused by the opposition of the extension.
Even during the truck event back in March, another agency and delivery security guard protested directly to our truck driver, and we refused to accept the proof of complaint because the representative name was different in the registry, so we re-sent it. Afterwards, we tried to call and contact them several times, but was rejected.
According to another agency representative, they heard that they are already receiving songs for their debut album and that the debut members have already been confirmed, so they thought they there might be a debut announcement during the project. However, there have been no news about this so far and opposing the extension because of the next group’s debut seems a bit skeptical in the current situation.
This agency operates as a joint representative of the music and actor divisions. One of my personal connections is the representative of the company’s actor division, so I tried to get my point across through that person, but they revealed that it is difficult to interfere with each other because the divisions were different.
Everyone, including our representatives, were a bit reluctant to contact this representative, and we received the contact information of the representative who is in charge of external affairs (the representative’s wife), but we felt that we would we would contact them only during the final stages.
Agency A was very much against the extension, so we continued to contact them through their holding company, but it was difficult to get involved as the company was also currently going through mergers and acquisitions prior to the company going public.
Agency B
The representative of agency B contacted us directly as soon as we sent the proof of contents of the first complaint. To be honest, it would have been difficult to start this project if it wasn’t for the CEO of this agency. They told us we could call anytime we needed help and always actively participated in the project. They always positively agreed with the project and even when we made unreasonable requests a few times, they cooperated as much as possible. We want to take this time to thank you for your support.
Agency C
Agency C is the company that was the most focused on the negotiation aspect of the project. Even if other agencies were absent, we felt that it would be hard to continue the project if this company was left out. At first, there was no way to contact this agency so we tried all kinds of things. We ended up contacting through the agent mentioned above, and now we are able to directly contact the director of the agency.
This agency gave us a lot of specific information, although they were preparing for their company artists’ solo album, they waited as much as possible for CJ’s reply and refrained from making comments. They are also working on an advertisement collaboration with a member of agency B (they have not signed a contract yet, they have only held one meeting). This agency agreed to a relaunch, but we aren’t sure as to what specific conditions they are looking for. But for us, there is no doubt that this agency helped us a lot in carrying out this project. This agency has also worked with Wadiz, and also expressed a positive opinion in regards to funding and a relaunch.
Agency D
In the case of agency D, the website had been down even up until recently and it was difficult to find out where the company address was, so it was difficult to contact this agency. However, after researching, we found out that the CEO of this agency was my acquaintances high school classmate. So we were able to communicate with the CEO through this person about the recently released goods. The CEO of agency D also approved of the relaunch and was waiting for a reply from CJ.
Agency E
The CEO of agency E is a former DJ with a long-time experience in the industry. Not only are they close to our representatives, but they also started working in the entertainment industry through the Vice President of the association that is helping our project, so it’s a really close relationship. The company has an open atmosphere, and has been actively in favor of the relaunch during the Wadiz discussions and is also waiting for a reply from CJ. They have always received our proposals and was one of the agencies that we could contact at any time.
Agency F
To be honest, agency F was the company with the fewest contacts, aside from the Japanese agencies. The problem is that this company is relatively new and the company representative is not someone who has been a manager for a long time, so there was no connection at all. I tried to contact them through our representative, but it was difficult to contact the CEO directly. They told our representatives that although they are positive with the project and the reunion, they do not have high expectations, but plans to support us even if it fails. The working staff of the company contacted us and explained their position on the project, but we didn’t hear it directly from upper management, so we just took it as a reference. To be honest, among the current agencies, this is the company that we lack the most information in.
Agency G
Agency G is CJ. The CEO is also serving as the head of the music business department, and when we met in person, they were very surprised at our information and driving force. Although it’s a personal feeling, but agency B’s representative also revealed that this CEO cared a lot about IZ*ONE and would probably do his best to help.
Of course we understand that they were not in the position to reveal more than what was announced in the media in regards to the details of the agreement between each agency. However, unlike this person’s personal efforts, it is difficult to know how sincere CJ is with IZ*ONE’s reunion. As with general agencies, they avoided meetings with the fandom as much as possible, and only recently had a meeting through the vice chairman, but I would like to honestly point out the bad practice of this industry in dealing with consumers.
Agency H
Lastly, it is the Japanese agency, and to be honest, it was almost impossible to contact them. Like IZ*ONE’s agency, Off the Record, it was a paper company, and because of COVID-19, it was impossible to visit Japan and confirm in person. The Japanese entertainment companies that we were introduced to were not only very closed, but also had financial demands that were difficult to accept from our side.
There were a few people that delivered news related to Japan to us, but in most cases it didn’t match the truth. We had a difficult time trying to obtain contact information for one of the board of directors, but during the contact, news of Sakura’s graduation was published first through a magazine before the official announcement, causing a lot of trouble in Japan. Since then, the agency completely cut off all contact with the outside world. Since there was no way to contact them, we first made a proposal to Korean agencies in the direction of proceeding with individual contracts for each member once the actual project was carried out through another Korean agency.
We apologize to the Japanese member fans, but realistically, it was difficult to contact the agency, and it was hard to travel between Korea and Japan because of COVID-19. We felt that it was irresponsible to have the members decide about something that has not been set in stone yet. So we have decided to persuade Korean companies first and then focus on the Japanese company once everything starts to come together.
The Parallel Universe Project (PUP) is a project created by WIZ*ONEs to show how much they are willing to support the group and their future activities. Recently, CJ officially announced that there would be no reunion, but the team has revealed that they would be going forward with Plan B.
Source: https://www.reddit.com/r/kpop/…erse_project_reveals_the/
