LIMELIGHT changes their name to MADEIN

[kimsguardian]

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[Gyujin]

Limelight was a way better name.

 

[Mina]

@tokki

 

[RussianRoulette]

Limelight is better, but I thought they were only getting 2 new members not 4?

 

[Mina]

Limelight is better, but I thought they were only getting 2 new members not 4?

originally it was only mashiro and yeseo but long story short the company signed two more girls from produce 101 japan who dm (the company ceo) said are the two new members

 

[Seriously]

Ewwwww, downgrade

 

[hatmixx]

 

[Bchip]

Sad. Limelight is such a cute name.

 

[UMJI MOODS]

Hopefully Limelight might stayas a subunit name. Overall I do not love the new name.

 

[RussianRoulette]

The new name i'm assuming is so they can enter to win rookie of the year again?

I feel like Kiss of Life or Babymonster would beat them though?

 

[tokki]

Hopefully Limelight might stayas a subunit name. Overall I do not love the new name.

yeah it seems to be that they're retconning things a bit and LIMELIGHT will now refer to the 3-person subunit that MiU/Suhye/Gaeun was active as, and MADEIN will be the full group with those 3 + new members

 

[heather]

I read this whole thing thinking of the wrong group.

I don't mind the name, but I do agree that Limelight was better. Though, it isn't as busy as a moniker.

 

[tokki]

LIMELIGHT's the prettier name for sure but it's also a major pain in the ass to search for anything related to the group in English. Even the usual trick of adding "kpop" at the end of the query still brings up a lot of unrelated stuff due to limelight being a synonym for "fame" or "spotlight" which is obviously talked about often with celebrities (especially on social media, making it incredibly difficult to connect with other fans). Even finding their merchandise on resale sites is a pain as the results are just filled with lime green clothes.

I'm guessing/hoping that LIMELIGHT will still refer to the lineup that is MiU/Suhye/Gaeun, and MADEIN will be used for referring to the full group - so both names get to exist for different uses as LIMELIGHT is a subunit of MADEIN. I do see the appeal of a name change in this way because to be fair, it would have also confused casual listeners of the group who knew them as the 3 girls and didn't know they were going to add members. They promoted themselves as a group who can add members at any time since the beginning, but that's also not something that many casual listeners who enjoyed a song or two are going to be aware of. They're expected to add at least 4 new members (Kep1er's Mashiro and Yeseo + Produce 101 Japan's Saito Serina and Abe Nagomi) - so seeing a jump from a trio to 7 girls is a major whiplash if you're not expecting it. It also allows all of the girls to have a fresh start together vs trying to navigate the awkwardness for fans of a LIMELIGHT BNW (before new members) and a LIMELIGHT ANW (after new members). I imagine that it also tidies things up a bit on the legal side of things later down the line (regarding contract renewals and whatnot) if you have all of your members on the same contract vs having 3 members who are 2 years ahead of the rest of the group.

 

[SirTim0thy]

Limelight was such a decent name. Shame...

 

[choively]

what the wheck??? the comp just ruin the girls image : (

 

[Your Biggest Fan]

Logo looks feels very OG Powerpuff Girls.

 

[BianTwo]

Limelight was a really nice name but I think it's too much linked to OT3

I can see why they rebranded even if I don't like it

 

[babyv004]

I listen both groups but didnt knew that kep1er was just a temporary group created on survivor show (i thought those shows was even dead in korea after Produce scandal)

But there is thing i dont understand: why some members left to LIMELIGHT / MADEIN but the rest continued on kep1er instead of the group disbanded all together?
Or i did got it wrong and kep1er is not a temporary group and what happened is that unlike the others, those girls had contract with another company and had to leave?

If that is the case that is so mess up. That is the reason i prefer Produce in japan bc the competitors aren't signed to any company

 

[tokki]

I listen both groups but didnt knew that kep1er was just a temporary group created on survivor show (i thought those shows was even dead in korea after Produce scandal)

But i dont understand. Why some members left to LIMELIGHT / MADEIN but the rest continued on kep1er instead of the group disbanded all together?
Or i did got it wrong and kep1er is not a temporary group and what happened is thatunlike the others, those girls had contract with another company and had to leave?

If that is the case that is so mess up. That is the reason i prefer Produce in japan bc the competitors aren't signed to any company

Kep1er's contract was indeed originally meant to be temporary and they were set to disband this month. Even Kep1ians fully expected and had started to accept this inevitability, but then we were hit with this sudden news that a renewal was actually on the table for real this time, and not just fans being delusional.

143 Entertainment had already begun laying the groundwork for a group to be formed around their Girls Planet 999 trainees (Mashiro and Yeseo) all the way back in 2021 - before Mashiro and Yeseo were confirmed to debut in Kep1er. MiU (LIMELIGHT/MADEIN member) was even scouted directly from the same survival show after Mashiro connected her to representatives from 143 as they had grown quite close while participating on the show together. After Mashiro and Yeseo were confirmed to debut in Kep1er, 143 chose to debut LIMELIGHT in late 2022 rather than wait for the Kep1er contracts to expire (remember, nobody knew a renewal would really happen back then) because with MiU and another LIMELIGHT member Suhye, they had both participated in survival shows so they had already built up individual fanbases of their own, and there was no guarantee that 1) those fans would wait for 2 years for their debut, or that 2) the girls themselves would be willing to wait those 2 years for a debut vs leaving and trying their luck elsewhere. Had they not made it into Kep1er, Mashiro and Yeseo would have likely just debuted with LIMELIGHT in the first place, but Kep1er's contracts with WakeOne were exclusive contracts - meaning they could only be in Kep1er.

So with the way things worked out here, 143 Entertainment is really just (mostly) following their original plan for their own group, and the other Kep1er members got incredibly lucky that WakeOne was both willing to offer a renewal to them and that they were willing to still renew without the full group, as it seems like none of their companies had any plans at all for them and they would have been stuck in career limbo for who knows how long while 143 was at least going to try to give Mashiro and Yeseo a stable future.

As to why 143 didn't just let them stay in Kep1er when the option became possible: my guess is mainly investor reasons but Mashiro and Yeseo also never got much to do in Kep1er, either. They're some of the least popular members in the group (although Mashiro is very popular in Japan) and they both received very few lines/screentime. I imagine that 143 probably wasn't the happiest with their treatment in the group. Kep1er's sales are also sinking like a rock in Korea with each album - their latest comeback was released over a month and a half ago and has sold around 114k on Hanteo chart. LIMELIGHT's last comeback sold around 40-45k on Hanteo chart, so when you consider all of the profit splitting that Kep1er goes through...I guess 143 is banking on the chance that enough of Mashiro and Yeseo's fans will follow them to this new group (and the other new girls will bring their own fans over), and they'll end up getting to keep more of that money at the end of the day.