Sakura info for non-fans (so you can become one) (1 Viewer)

[chiefchilly1]

I’ve heard from some people on here that Sakura is not an idol they can relate to. Completely understandable since she’s quiet and more reserved then a lot of popular idols out there. So I’m going to give you a very small, brief rundown of Sakura’s crazy 10+ year career in the industry and hope that maybe this will make you like her just bit more.

And by brief rundown I really just mean moments and info that I thought were interesting/charming. Trying to cover everything will take way too long.

Spoiler: Her HKT48 Days

As many people already know, Sakura is Japanese and was a J-pop idol long before entering the Korean scene. How long ago? Well an entire decade ago, which is crazy considering Sakura is only 24 years old. So yes she was very, very young when she was with the J-pop group HKT48. Here’s an official HKT48 MV dedicated to Sakura after she “graduated” a couple years back.




Here’s a crazy fight scene Sakura was a part of. Its a Japanese TV series that casted actual idols and had them do fight choreography.




Here’s Sakura’s iconic “Kiss Me” performance that Le Sserafim members love to bring up.

Spoiler: Produce48/IZ*ONE

Her Produce48/IZ*ONE days

Sakura was officially casted into IZ*ONE after placing 2nd in the Produce48 reality competition. But this is where her singing was brought into question. She was heavily criticized for being a weak singer, which she admitted feeling hurt when she noticed those comments in the World is my Oyster documentary (which I recommend watching). This has mostly haunted her for years even going as far as requesting LESS lines in songs since she had no confidence in her singing.

Here’s a short live singing vid and a fan compilation when she was still competing in Produce48 and notice why people called her a weak singer:




So yes a weak singer overall but she’s been steadily improving. She’s done a lot of smaller vocal roles while in IZ*ONE but never the main vocalist. She was only considered to be a sub vocalist which btw the order goes Main > Lead > Sub.
Even with that she still gained a lot of popularity because of Produce48 and being a part of IZ*ONE which was was one of the most well known girl groups at the time.

Spoiler: Other notable things

Now as a part of Le Sserafim, her reputation precedes her. Here’s Tsuki who’s Japanese fangirling over Sakura:



Sakura also launched her own YouTube gaming channel a while back. She’s actually a huge gamer:

https://youtube.com/@sakura_ch



Sakura now has her own variety channel called “Fearless Kkura” where she learns a new thing and challenges herself every episode, its been active ever since Le Sserafim’s antifragile promotions (recommend watching).

https://youtube.com/@fearless_kkura

Here’s Sakura on homosexuality after watching a movie:

“When it comes to falling in love, between who and who should it take place? Is the right answer male and female? For human emotions, there is no right or wrong answer. Love between men, love between women, it’s fine that they exist. And in my opinion, Japan needs to deepen its understanding of homosexuality.”

Which was taken from here:

 

[seoriverse]

i already loved her, but now i love her even more it warms my heart to see her vocal support for my community!

 

[chiefchilly1]

Her signature

Spoiler

 

[dummi]

Wow I literally know nothing about this woman I'm going to educate myself

 

[chiefchilly1]

Her GG biases (good taste btw)

 

[chiefchilly1]

Wow I literally know nothing about this woman I'm going to educate myself

This is a watered down version of a couple things she’s gone through if you really wanna learn everything you gotta thrust yourself into the J-pop world a decade back, and go through Produce48, good luck with that

 

[ichigohon]

I already liked her, but damn I have a new respect for her. I wasn't listening to K-Pop hardly at all when Produce 48 was going on, so I didn't know about how hard she struggled. What really hit home for me is her saying how she watched all the other Japanese trainees perform and get an F. That is so hard to watch as a Japanese idol because she's right unfortunately that Japanese idols aren't respected outside of Japan in the same way that Korean artists are respected outside of Korea. I can't imagine watching idols that you know personally and consider to be amongst the best in your entire country completely get demolished by judges on scoring. I'd feel like absolute shit and would expect to get an F in those circumstances too.

 

[chiefchilly1]

I already liked her, but damn I have a new respect for her. I wasn't listening to K-Pop hardly at all when Produce 48 was going on, so I didn't know about how hard she struggled. What really hit home for me is her saying how she watched all the other Japanese trainees perform and get an F. That is so hard to watch as a Japanese idol because she's right unfortunately that Japanese idols aren't respected outside of Japan in the same way that Korean artists are respected outside of Korea. I can't imagine watching idols that you know personally and consider to be amongst the best in your entire country completely get demolished by judges on scoring. I'd feel like absolute shit and would expect to get an F in those circumstances too.

Yeah that shit is tough kpop idols highly value singing and dancing and she was weak at both when she started. But here she is doing Le Sserafim’s choreography like its nothing.

 

[seoriverse]

Her signature

Spoiler

i love her sig it's so cute

 

[chiefchilly1]

i love her sig it's so cute

Lol yeah you can find a list of cute idol signatures somewhere online. Here’s Momo’s for example

 

[StirFriedPanda]

I was looking at her youtube channel and had a thought. She abandoned the kind of youtube channel people dream of having! I'd say that's pretty successful.

 

[Selfmate]

nice
she is my fav in LSFM

 

[Selfmate]

I was looking at her youtube channel and had a thought. She abandoned the kind of youtube channel people dream of having! I'd say that's pretty successful.

I think maybe it was because she had to work hard to debut with LSFM??? so you couldn't have as much time on her own yt channel
also I think if she wasn't doing fearless kkura that she would do more stuff on her on channel

I mean she got to play with DEFT!!! lol

 

[StirFriedPanda]

I had no idea she had a new channel either. Starship sure got lucky with her and Chaewon.

 

[chiefchilly1]

I had no idea she had a new channel either. Starship sure got lucky with her and Chaewon.

Yes surprisingly Sakura just got her own show which should’ve happened long ago

 

[ichigohon]

Yeah that shit is tough kpop idols highly value singing and dancing and she was weak at both when she started. But here she is doing Le Sserafim’s choreography like its nothing.

I think it's an issue as well of completely different expectations. In Japan, they have the second largest music industry worldwide despite being around 1/3rd of the US's population, so competition isn't as severe because there is always a way for Japanese idols to make money whereas in Korea they have a small population with an even bigger market overseas, so their skills have to be on a completely different level than the competition.