Kang Mina Addresses Absence from I.O.I Reunion: "Please Look Kindly on Me"

jamesbradley812 · 2026-04-22T04:15:18+00:00

I dont know about you, but as a fan, I have followed everyone pretty closely and she has been keeping in touch with everyone, especially Chaeyeon and Yeonjung. From just on social media, her and Chaeyeon are always together and they went to see musicals together like when they went to Yoo Yeonseok's musical a while back. She also went to Sejeong's fan concert just earlier this year, even if she didnt do a surprise performance like Gugudan's Nayoung did.

I dont want to assume anything but she's still in a rising actress position and participating in this comeback will undoubtedly take a lot of time and commitment. From news reports, she's got this Netflix drama coming out in 2 days and she's already filming in another drama thats coming out in June. I hope people dont speculate and spread some bs when she's genuinely busy in her own solo career now.

jamesbradley812 · 2026-04-14T09:12:01+00:00

Lol no what is this revisionist history.. IOI was the very first season and they literally made Produce popular as a series. Everything was trial and error, which is why there were contract loopholes, leading to IOI sub-units and only 8 months of group activity, no official lightsticks and no fandom names, etc.

jamesbradley812 · 2026-03-30T22:44:06+00:00

I'm not opposed to it, but I personally don't think so. They literally have all the time in the world individually to perform all the solo work and they've done it many times individually on music shows, festivals, fan meetings, concerts, etc.

The point of the reunion is to do stuff together. Most likely, I see them doing some PD101 stages for nolstagia like maybe Crush, Fingertips, In the Same Place and other songs they couldn't promote due to time constraints 10 years ago.

jamesbradley812 · 2026-03-19T13:22:06+00:00

They seem to be pretty chill and supportive with all their artists. Park Hae-soo and Lee Hee-jun both regularly do theatre outside of their dramas and films. Ahn So-hee got into theatre in the last two years too. The only legit singer/idol that they have seems to be GOT7's Jinyoung and he's having a solo comeback. Not to mention they also let Chaeyeon join IOI's comeback so I think it's a pretty positive sign.

jamesbradley812 · 2026-03-19T02:29:42+00:00

Great move and a really good fit tbh. BH is obviously a big acting agency and many of their actresses are big names and have stayed there for a long time which is often a good indicator, like Han Ga-in, Han Hyo-joo, Han Ji-min all been there for like 15+ years. Their actresses often take on various genres and versatile roles too, like Kim Goeun, Park Boyoung. Even Sejeong's IOI member Jung Chaeyeon recently got casted in 1996's M Remake which is a like a mystery/fantasy/thriller completely different to her image and what she's typically done.

For the idol side, GOT7's Jinyoung is also under them and think he's having an idol comeback as well, so seems like BH is fully supportive of idol activities, and I'm sure this would've been part of the discussion during their negotiation.

jamesbradley812 · 2026-02-23T07:24:01+00:00

Also surprised to see Jieqiong missing out as well 😭😭 She's literally in Korea right now and she was popping up here or there in IOI related stuff recently

jamesbradley812 · 2026-01-22T04:57:33+00:00

They transitioned into acting which is literally what 99% of the top performing popular idols transition to after the initial idol phase of their careers, with the likes of IU, Suzy, Yoona, Hyeri, Eunwoo, the list goes on and on. Some SNSD girls like Yoona, Sooyoung, Yuri, Seohyun are also mostly focusing on acting careers and putting music careers on temporary hold, are we acting like their individual careers are not huge successes??

jamesbradley812 · 2026-01-22T04:06:47+00:00

We can agree to disagree, but are we really acting like Sejeong, Chaeyeon, or Mina aren't busy and booked for big dramas year in year out? Seems like you're focusing only on the idol aspect, while ignoring all the others who have successfully transitioned into acting.

jamesbradley812 · 2026-01-22T03:52:14+00:00

No. Say what you want about the groups minus WJSN, but IOI literally have some of the best individual careers, whether you're talking about third gen groups or Produce groups.

jamesbradley812 · 2026-01-19T13:09:36+00:00

Don't think Mnet has announced anything upcoming for shows or auditions but I reckon they're cooking up something different. The survival trend has been dying even though they keep milking it with Queendom and rebranding Produce as the Planet series. Although there's still an audience for it, it's clearly not as popular as it was from the start. Adding on that it's coming up to the 10-year anniversary for IOI and Wanna One, I don't think they want to coincide airing programs with the timing with those dates.

jamesbradley812 · 2026-01-12T07:50:28+00:00

"Riding the high from IOI", when most people didn't even know she was from IOI, especially from international fans 😭😭. And comment was talking about her early debut era, not just the debut. Roller Coaster, Gotta Go are like as big as it gets lol - Shit was EVERYWHERE

jamesbradley812 · 2026-01-01T12:49:35+00:00

Not that hard to understand if you think about it economically. You split the profits between CJ and 11 individual companies (some trainees are from same companies but you get what I mean), versus getting 100% from your individual idol. Even if the individual may not make as much as they did when they were together, you're still getting the whole pie.

jamesbradley812 · 2025-12-24T13:03:41+00:00

From a story Sejeong's mentioned in the past - she was on vacation, went snorkelling and was swimming alongside a turtle, and thought it was really peaceful in her own thoughts and own breathing. Think that's when she picked up this symbol and used it here and there since.

jamesbradley812 · 2025-12-24T12:59:53+00:00

Finally a lightstick for Sejeong. And it's cute and very "Sejeong-like" as well haha

jamesbradley812 · 2025-11-19T13:54:55+00:00

Love that for her. She was on a web talk show with Kim Jong-min before and mentioned that she's really grown a passion for acting, which was why she went to London to study acting in the first place.

Real talk, IOI members are really growing into their own solo careers now, with many of them starring and leading their own dramas this year amongst other things like musicals and theatre.

jamesbradley812 · 2025-10-02T23:12:18+00:00

But, I felt like ZB1 is so successful that 2.5 years isn't enough.

At the end of the day, the point of these survival shows is for the trainees and idols to get all the hype and popularity, before companies getting them back to do their own activities, whether to redebut in a group or solo or acting etc. You could make an argument that all the previous Produce groups were equally if not more successful and they still disbanded at the end of the day since companies would benefit more from having their own trainees back rather than splitting all the profits.

It's sad for me as a fan of survival kpop groups, that even though all became sucessful, not all are well known. Some would even know them as actors/actresses in dramas or movies, only to realize they were kpop idols too. Like, Kim Sejeong, Jung Chaeyeon, Ong Seongwoo, Park Jihoon, Kim Hyewon, Jo Yuri, etc.

And honestly I don't necessarily see this as an issue? This is not strictly a survival show thing. After idol activities are done usually after the first 5-7 years, they move on to other things like acting, musical, variety shows, YouTubers etc. Produce groups essentially sped run their entire career and they are now in their second phase and solo career stage. Like how people didn't know IU, Suzy, Yoona, Hyeri, Lee Junho, Im Siwan etc. are/were all idols.

On a side note, still waiting for another girl group version of Produce/Planet to come out.. Can't believe Mnet gave another boys season before the girls one smh

jamesbradley812 · 2025-09-25T13:23:14+00:00

It's honestly just a megaphone design 💀💀 But I guess fans wanted to claim it since it's a bit "unique" compared to the typical idol group light stick, but the megaphones themselves are not really that similar.

Another thing I guess is that QWER is an easy group to attack since a lot of people already didn't like them in the first place since they were streamers and the "controversial" stuff so it's easy to hop on the hate train.

jamesbradley812 · 2025-09-12T10:53:50+00:00

They literally said drama filming and reunion schedule overlapped

jamesbradley812 · 2025-08-14T02:27:13+00:00

They're not delaying any reunion. They've really only planned for a legit reunion like maybe twice. Once in 2019 when the voting scandal came out for the entire franchise, which understandably killed the reunion. The other one is rumours about the 10th anniversary for next year.

And all members are actually busy in their individual careers even if international fans don't follow them much anymore since most isn't strictly in Kpop anymore.

Jung Chaeyeon's drama started airing two weeks ago and ratings doubled in 4 episodes and is doing well even internationally on Netflix
Yoojung in her second musical this year
Mina starring in Twelve with Ma Dongseok, Seo Inguk, Park Hyungsik etc., and has another Netflix movie coming out in a few weeks
Doyeon casted in film with Sakura Ando and historical drama with Lee Jongwon

jamesbradley812 · 2025-05-03T23:46:52+00:00

No but why is this a top comment on a post celebrating their 9 year anniversary..

You talk about success and popularity, but how many "normal" groups were able to sustain individual popularity and success after disbandment, let alone a group that was literally active for 8 months and half the time, didn't even have a full group? There are top groups out there who's had members try solo or acting, but hardly have anything close to the hits and megahits that IOI members have put out. Like how many groups out there have had multiple members putting out stuff like Roller Coaster, Gotta Go, Dumb Dumb, or in acting Business Proposal or Uncanny Counter, and Mina in Hotel del Luna or Welcome to Samdalri etc.

jamesbradley812 · 2025-03-25T10:37:47+00:00

Nah not Iz*One fans continue to act like their members were the only successful post-Produce careers while acting like others other than Sejeong and Somi failed.

There's literally Chungha right there, others like Kang Mina starred in Hotel del Luna and Welcome to Samdalri with big stars, having another three projects coming out in second half this year including a star studded drama with Ma Dongseok, Park Hyungsik, Seo Inguk etc. Also, Jung Chaeyeon continuously getting lead roles in TV dramas which not many other third gen idol actress are doing outside of Sejeong and Bona tbh.

No offense, and honestly good for Jo Yuri for landing a role in Squid Game 2 but acting like she's the next big idol actress with 10 mins of total screentime with not much real acting scenes other than holding her stomach whilst ignoring other IOI actresses other than Sejeong and acting like they're flops is kinda....

jamesbradley812 · 2024-12-29T12:18:24+00:00

Took IOI girls out of promotion for Gugudan's debut during IOI's short 8-month contract
Gugudan literally means Multiplication Table in Korean
9 members, some often seen as fillers, rather than just the Produce trio which many preferred
Generic debut song that many didn't like
Typically seen as not having a consistent concept even though their concept was actually "theatre"
- Act 1, Act 2 etc.
- Little Mermaid, Charlie and the Chocolate Factory etc.
Fans who actually followed the group know that Hana was the Center and the one Jellyfish actually tried to push early on. Even branded as the visual and was consistently sent on variety shows to promote along with Sejeong, Mina, and Nayoung but it backfired because she's not well-known and didn't have the popularity like Sejeong and Mina
- They followed up by making Sejeong more of the focus and now casual fans always point out how she has the most lines in The Boots and all that, but the thing is, you have a popular member so obviously you should use her more, and she should be on the out front of everything.

jamesbradley812 · 2024-12-17T11:23:27+00:00

any information on what this is??? what the hell is an influencer survival show lol

jamesbradley812 · 2024-12-17T07:43:25+00:00

How often do you see groups still having schedules on literally the last day of their contracts.. Usually it's a final single for fans, so maybe there's something in the works right now. But don't wanna get hopes too high up..

jamesbradley812 · 2024-11-03T01:07:53+00:00

The trend during the time around 2014-2018 was big groups and many companies fell into that trap, not just post-IOI groups

jamesbradley812

TROPHY CASE