Who will be the next it girl of KPop? Tsuki (Billie) or Kazuha (Lesserafim)?

Fukutomi Tsuki of Billie

Nakamura Kazuha of Lesserafim

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Every Japanese is familiar with the tale of Uesugi Kenshin and Takeda Shingen. (Their names are similar, because both names are Buddhist style names they took when they 'retired' (it was common for warlords to 'retire' when they were in early 30s so they could devote more time on fighting wars and not going thru day to day business. They would shave their heads and pretend to be monks while engaging on everything, although Kenshin did take his vow seriously and did not reproduce.)

Long story short, Kenshin controlled a mountain valley and to go anywhere from there he had to defeat Shingen. Although Kenshin was a great warrior, Shingen was at a par with Kenshin so neither could dominate each other.

While they fought for a mountain town which was important for both sides , for more than ten years, a warlord named Oda Nobunaga came to control all of the lowlands. by that time both warlords realized Nobunaga was the bigger threat, it was too late to stop Nobu and eventually the Takeda clan was conquered and destroyed by the Oda. Although the Uesugi clan survived, it never regained its importance.

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The ascendance of Fukutomi Tsuki of Billie, owned by Mystic which is ultimately owned by SM, just after the announcement of Nakamura Kazuha of Lesserafim is quite interesting.

For me, who have watched KPop for years, it is like the sudden ascendance of GFriend just before Twice burst into the Kpop scene with a huge fanfare.

SM, seeing Red Velvet won't be able to defeat Twice, used So Sungjin (who will be featured again in this story) , then-owner of Source Music and a former SM employee, and GFriend to block Twice's way.

GFriend delayed Twice long enough to prevent a complete domination of KPop by the JYP act, although ultimately someone else benefitted from it.

i see a similar scenario is being played now.

Kazuha was a ballet student studying in Holland. Apparently So Sungjin, who had sold Source to Big Hit earlier in 2020 and was now a manager of BH's upcoming girl group division (he is still nominally the head of the Source Music label but no longer has any power to make decisions), watched one of Kazuha's clips. He went to Holland to recruit Kazuha himself. (At that time GFriend still existed, so we can safely say that by that time he no longer had anything to do with GF. No GFriend member commented anything on Lesserafim's debut, and Lesserafim is NOT a 'hoobae' of Gfriend.)

One trainee was cut from Lesserafim to make room for Kazuha, meaning Kazuha was considered to be the 'key' for LSF's success.

Well, lo and behold, SM began a spoiling attack on LSF. What goes around comes around ; the game So Sungjin had played on JYP back in 2016 with the tacit help of SM (at that time GFriend was considered to be a quasi-SM act, being propped up by various shows produced by SM), will hurt the LSF member he had selected himself.

Tsuki's sudden promotion , and Tsuki's appearance at Knowing Bros with Miyawaki Sakura and Kim Chaewon reminds me the weekly idol episode where Twice, Lovelyz (an SM act at that time) and GFriend appeared together, giving the impression that GFriend was at the same level as the JYP act and the SM act.

Tsuki being shown with Miyawaki Sakura means Tsuki, not Kazuha, is at the same level with the ex-kami of AKB universe (although being a HKT member Sakura was considered as one of the 7 big members of the AKB universe).

So now Fukutomi Tsuki (born Sep 21, 2002) and Nakamura Kazuha (born Aug 09, 2003) are rivals. SM has succeeded, once again, preventing a rival from becoming the It Girl and created a rivalry out of nothing.

The ultimate winner of all of this ruckus, of course, would be the current it girl who was to be 30 but will be 29 2 weeks later thanks to president elect Yoon Seokyeol's decree that the Korean reckoning will be abandoned. She was the ultimate beneficiary of the Twice-GFriend(and others) rivalry, and at the age of 29(actual age 1,343), she will watch the fight of Tsuki and Kazuha with a smile.

Quote from kingkook

only you can write a tale over such a simple question

Because , to understand the Tsuki-Kazuha rivalry fully, it is necessary to go over the history of SM spoiling a potential rival from gaining supremacy

Quote from Disturbia

in korea neither due to being japanese

Sana got pretty close to it, and also Nako.

Quote from Sanatastic

A Japanese girl can't be an It girl, argument closed.

Sana might have a different opinion. IT was JYP's fault to push her harder but she was quite strong in the 2nd half of 2016.

Quote from vicll

Somebody was cut to make room for Kazuha? The only thing I heard from the news is that HYBE wanted another former IZ*ONE member Minju to form the group be she refused the offer, which would already leave an empty spot

It is said a trainee, Ryu Hanbi who was a child actress, was cut earlier this year to make room for someone. It might have been Minju but it was eventually Kazuha who filled the slot.

Quote from Noyzmuzik

Why would sm try to sabotage twice with gfriend when ioi was a much bigger rival to twice?

IOI did not exist when SM used GFriend to check Twice in late 2015 - early 2016

And IOI was going to be a temporary group so SM had no worries about it long term

But SM had to do something to prevent Twice becoming the next SNSD so it used GFriend to make sure the battle was not decided till others began their challenges.

Quote from emanresu

Poor 1343 years old IU.

Well she had the choice to not play a 1,340 years old back in 2019 but she did take the bait