@Touch The part where Ryujin goes into the "for a girl group" remarks, is what I think people being bad at phrasing things. Kinda like when someone is being bothered about "when you are getting a girlfriend or boyfriend?" It means well in the sense others are excited for them, but inadvertently can make that person feel like shit. Itzy does deserve recognition for not trying to fit a mold. It has taken girl groups longer to do that. It's beyond me how they're subjected to certain choreography in high heels.
Yuna without make up is night and day in depicting her age. If no one told me, I would've guessed she was 19 through very early 20's on stage.
As with any, I guess, child-bred professional, these people are fed so much information and principle to be brought up to speed and ahead. I do remark how professional they sound, but on the flipside, makes you wonder how much free-thought they were able to exercise, like if they were able to question what they were doing for a second vs. always being fixated on what would get them to succeed.
Case-in-point imo, Justin Beiber. Dude was like Usher and I guess Def Jam's puppet. In American culture that kid had so much shit thrown at him. Even the support he got probably misled him and I think he had mistrust come about in his family. Literal success was probably making life worse to a degree, and it just put him more in everyone's firing range. it's a lot of noise.
That's not to take scrutiny in Asia lightly, but I feel like American society would be more boundless in trying to tear apart a K-Pop artist. Haters here don't say things out of principal, or just by insecurity, but because they literally thrive on being the worst.
Yeah they do seem wise beyond their years. And about your comment on their choreo, makes me feel badder about Lia getting complaints on her dancing being "lazy" just because she's the main vocal focus in the group and not as experienced in dance as the other girls. I could see what you mean about the whole "for a girl group" thing. It's just gotta hit hard for them since they're so young and only a little more than a year into their career so those first impressions and comments must hit home a little more than a veteran group that knows to deal with it I think.
And yeah those outfits sure are...something lol. I really liked their intro outfits and the white bridge ones. And the choreo does seem multidirectional which is dope.