By, Dragon of the West, POLARIS_TAE

MARCH 10 - MARCH 17

BY POLARIS_TAE


MONDAY:
#1- Starting the week on Monday's news, it was shared that the CEO of ATTRAKT had been officially cleared of all charges and damages related to the case levelled against him by the former FIFTY FIFTY members Sio, Aran & Saena. The company later shared that they will hold outside parties — who initially influenced the former FIFTY FIFTY members to file their lawsuit — responsible and will hold them to account "until the end."

#2- BLACKPINK's Jennie had some exciting news this week! It's been announced that she'll be appearing in an upcoming episode of Kim Taeho's new variety show, 'My Name is Gabriel'. Will you be checking out her appearance on the show?



TUESDAY:
#1- We had various comeback and debut announcements this week! We had four new music releases scheduled for March. Seori, Minseo, Fujii Kaze & aespa's Ning Ning all shared new music announcements! Seori will return on the 21st of March with a new EP titled, Fake Happy. Meanwhile, Minseo will make her first comeback in over two years at the end of March. Now moving onto currently released singles and aespa's Ning Ning shared a new OST this week for the Genie TV original, 'The Midnight Studio'. The song officially dropped on Tuesday. Then on Friday, Fujii Kaze shared his latest single, 'Michiteyuku' for the Takeru Satoh film 'April, She Will Come'. In addition to the single announcement, the soloist shared that he would be embarking on both a U.S. tour & a two-day concert at Yokohama's Nissan Stadium this August. Now moving on to April comebacks, we have three artists coming out with new music! NCT's Doyoung will be the next NCT-associated member to make his solo debut. The idol is in the final stages of preparing his solo album which is set to release in April. Then for comebacks, MONSTA X's I.M & former TREASURE member Bang Yedam will both release new solo music in April. Are you looking forward to any of these upcoming releases?

#2- MAMAMOO's Hwasa has officially announced her solo fandom name! It was shared — via her official Twitter account — that her fans would now go by the name 'Twits'. What are your thoughts on this fandom name?

#3- The 2024 Universal Superstar Awards shared that Kwon Eunbi & Lee Chanwon would join the awards show as the official MCs for their upcoming awards ceremony. While on the topic of Entertainment-related schedules, aespa & (G)I-DLE have been announced as performers for the upcoming MLB World Tour Seoul Series 2024. Are you looking forward to any of these upcoming events?

#4- RIIZE came under more controversy this week. The group came under fire again for various dating scandals surrounding Anton, Sohee & Eunseok. Early on in the week, there was a series of photos leaked of both Sohee & Anton. Anton, who was on break and visiting friends in New Jersey, suffered from a private photo leak after a series of private photos were discovered of Anton holding hands with someone that the account described as "a girl from New Jersey". The friend that was revealed in the photo later stepped out to clarify that they were childhood friends with Anton, and had never dated the idol. They further stated that the photo had been stolen from their private Instagram account and had been taken widely out of context. It — along with a series of other images — had been taken while their whole group of friends were meeting up together since they rarely had the opportunity to meet the idol as much anymore. Then, that same day, a private — out of context — photo of Sohee was leaked where he was captured kissing the other cheek of a boy during high school leading to potential speculations over the idols' sexuality.

Later on, convicted criminal and former trainee Han Sohee announced that a friend of hers and proven NCT sasaeng — reportedly named Kim Ye-in — was an ex-girlfriend of RIIZE's Eunseok. These claims were quickly shut down considering the former trainees' penchant for spreading false or distorted claims in the past. On a related note, SM Entertainment shared on Thursday that they would be taking legal action against malicious rumours surrounding the RIIZE members. What are your thoughts on these controversies and do you think idols should be allowed to have a personal life separate from the idol industry?



WEDNESDAY:
#1- On Wednesday it was shared that BLACKPINK's Jisoo had donated all of her YouTube earnings from her official YouTube channel to the UK-based charity, Save The Children. The donation will reportedly be used to create mangrove forests throughout Ca Mau in Vietnam. We thank the idol for her overwhelming generosity.

#2- V'LAST, the agency responsible for virtual idols PLAVE took to social media this week to announce that they would be pursuing legal action against those found to be leaving malicious comments about the group and its members. Also seeking legal action this week was JYP Entertainment. Who shared on Thursday that they would be pursuing those who were found to have spread libellous claims against their artists. Do you think that this will act as a deterrent to those spreading malicious posts about their artists?

#3- We also had a contract update on Wednesday. It was shared that LOONA member Yves had officially signed on with PAIX PER MIL company. We look forward to her future solo activities under the company!

#4- Veteran idol group, KARA has announced the premiere date of their new travel variety, 'It's Just Me KARA' set for the 27th of March. The variety was filmed during their 15th-anniversary celebrations and will premiere on the eve of the group's 17th anniversary. Will you be checking out their new travel variety?

#5- SECRET's Song Jieun had some exciting news to share with us this week! The idol personally announced that she would be getting married to her YouTuber boyfriend Park We of the YouTube channel 'Weracle'. We congratulate the happy couple on their upcoming nuptials!



THURSDAY:
#1- VICTON's Hansae came under fire this week after it was found that the idol had employed the use of AI in his teaser image for his upcoming comeback. The idol responded to this situation by removing the AI credit in the original description on Instagram, and asking his fans whether the issue of AI-generated art is worth such a heated debate. What are your thoughts on this issue?



FRIDAY:
#1- We had another slew of comeback announcements in the second half of the week as well! Five of which are set to drop in March. STAYC made their return on the 15th of March with a remake of the TWICE hit single, 'Fancy' as a part of the Spotify Singles series. Meanwhile, BoA, LABOUM's Soyeon & TAN will all be making their return in the same week. BoA is set to return with new music on the 26th of March, TAN will come back with a new mini album on the 28th of March, while LABOUM's Soyeon will make her solo debut on the 29th of March. Our final announcement for March is soloist Baek Z Young. The soloist will be collaborating with Muzie later this month on a ballad duet. Then in April, Bang Yedam & aespa's Winter will collaborate together on a new duet, while Loosemble will be making their first group comeback! The duet between Winter & the former TREASURE member is set to be released on the 2nd of April while Loosemble are yet to announce a date for their upcoming March comeback. Now let's move on to May and later in the year! &TEAM have shared that they will be releasing their first single album on the 8th of May, while BTOB's Yook Sungjae will drop a new solo album during the first half of 2024. Are you looking forward to any of these upcoming comebacks?



SATURDAY:
#1- Following the dating rumours — and subsequent confirmation — between Han Sohee and Ryu Junyeol, the former came under fire due to the suspicious timeline that her entering a relationship with the South Korean actor seemed to portray. Ryu Jun-yeol had been in a relationship with Girls Day member and actress, Hyeri for eight years only for the pair to allegedly call it quits around November of last year. Ryu is reported to have been sighted with Han So-hee as early as the 15th of November, a mere two days after the break-up news was publicly announced. This caused many people to assume that the actor had been two-timing his ex-girlfriend — which Hyeri's action of unfollowing the actor, as well as her Instagram activity only further cemented — and led to further controversy about their newly revealed relationship status.

As a result, Han Sohee released a blog post to confirm the relationship with Ryu Junyeol, while also stating that she "planned to apologise" to Hyeri for shading her on Instagram after the news initially broke. She also came out with a timeline recounting the events before she entered into a relationship with Ryu. She stated that Hyeri & Ryu had broken up in August, three months prior to when the break-up announcement was officially revealed and that she had met Ryu for the first time in late 2023. However, this too would come under scrutiny as she had actually met Ryu for the first time in 2021 during a Biotherm CF shoot together. She had also not obtained the dating time-line information from Ryu himself, but from a news article that had already been proven to be false. Ryu has yet to release a statement on this issue. What are your thoughts on this?



SUNDAY:
#1- There was no relevant news on Sunday.

BY DRAGON OF THE WEST


#1. Hayao Miyazaki's latest movie 'The Boy and the Heron' has won the Oscar for Best Animated Feature at the 96th Academy Awards becoming just the second anime film to win the award, doing so 21 years after Spirited Away, another film directed by the highly-acclaimed director.



#2. IVE's 1st mini album I'VE Mine has surpassed 2 million copies sold on the Circle Chart (Gaon), making it their first album to reach this milestone. It also takes their total sales on the chart to over 7 million.

Thanks for reading ~