The ‘5th generation rookie girl group showdown’ has come to fruition. The two rookie girl groups, Hearts2Hearts and KiiiKiii, have formed a clear ‘rival structure’ even before their official debut and are preparing for a fierce ‘gen war’.

The eight-member Hearts2Hearts and the five-member KiiiKiii will release their debut single ‘The Chase’ and debut track ‘I Do Me’, respectively, on the 24th. These are girl groups ambitiously launched by SM Entertainment (SM), the agency for aespa, and Starship Entertainment (Starship), the agency for Ive, respectively, and have garnered attention.

Some are even predicting that this may be a continuation of the friendly competition between aespa and Ive, the top 4th generation girl groups.

In particular, the two groups, which are comprised entirely of teenagers, are aggressively releasing content that stimulates the sympathy and interest of Generation Z (Gen-Z, born in the mid-1990s to early 2010s), quickly drawing an explosive response from the global K-pop fandom.

Hearts To Hearts prepared promotional content titled ‘The Chase’ using SNS, an essential element of Generation Z, as its main keyword. The members took ‘Selca’on a school bus and posted them as ‘Shorts’ on their official YouTube account, and also filmed a teaser video with the concept of having conversations using the call function on SNS.

The related videos are similar to the daily lives of teenage girls before a school trip, and are receiving favorable reviews from fans such as “They‘re like friends”””They’re friendly”.

Kiki went one step further and revealed their identity on SNS. On the 10th, they officially announced the group name and number of members by posting photos of five rings and the soles of shoes with the phrase ‘KiiKii’ on Kiki‘s official account. The account has continued to post collage-style photos of ribbons, cakes, etc. instead of the members’ faces or new album concepts, stimulating fans‘ imaginations.

They are also competitive in their ‘experimental moves’ that break out of the established mold. Hearts To Hearts had previously dramatically piqued fan curiosity by abruptly revealing their group name and members at SM’s 30th anniversary group concert ‘SM Town Live 2025’ in January, and immediately uploading a trailer video on their YouTube account.

Kiki also added to the excitement by abruptly releasing their debut song ‘I Do Me’ music video on their YouTube account on the 16th. It is unusual for an idol group to release a music video before revealing concept photos, etc. There are even expectations inside and outside the music industry that the two groups, which have put forth challenging images through such diverse routes and concepts, will reach the ‘peak of the 5th generation idols’.


Reporter Yoo Ji-hye yjh0304@donga.com

This article is automatically translated using Google AI. If you notice any inaccuracies, please let us know at allkstar@donga.com.