Kpop boy group Kingdom is receiving harsh comments from netizens for their excessively “Japanese-styled” concept.
Recently, a post titled “Idols who seem to be making a comeback with a completely Japanese-style concept…jpg” spread on various online communities.
The released photos include photos from the teaser video, the comeback schedule image and Kingdom’s group photo.
In particular, photos from the teaser video drew attention by showing a member wearing a Japanese-style costume, alongside a cherry blossom tree and a Japanese house in the background.
The comeback schedule also utilized the “cherry blossom”, which is well-known as an iconic symbol of Japan.
Furthermore, in the group photo released by Kingdom on Instagram on March 7th, all the members wore Japanese-style costumes. In particular, one member also used the Japanese sword katana, rousing even harsher reactions.
Many netizens also pointed out that despite having only Koreans in the group, the stage name of one Kingdom member was derived from the name of Japan’s first emperor, “Emperor Jimmu”.
Earlier, Kingdom appeared on JTBC’s team survival program “Peak Time”, but got eliminated.
Ryan S. Jhun, who judged them at that time, pointed out, “You’re stuck in the trap of concept too much. I feel like you believe in only one concept and you haven’t developed your techniques yet.”
He also added, “I thought there would be something special, so I watched your performance with all my heart, but I didn’t know what to look at. Wouldn’t it be better to strengthen your skills rather than your concept?”
Netizens who read the post left comments such as, “It was already pointed out on an audition program that their concept is excessive…”, “They depend solely on concepts. It’s ridiculous”, “They don’t have any skills to play concepts. What’s the point of doing it that way?”, and so on.
Source: Wikitree
