I’m pretty chronically online so I’m somewhat aware of all the drama with RIIZE and Seunghan but only engaged with it casually. What sparked my interest in the debut was when I heard he was debuting with 2 dedicated dancers, Kyohong and Jangyul. With Seunghan going by Xnghan and the dancers going by the name Xoul. This sounded kinda unique and it piqued my curiosity. I watched the Music Video of Waste No Time and loved it so I proceeded to deep dive into the debut.
A lot of folks on social media have compared it to the group Seo Taiji and Boys. Since the “boys” were mostly dancers/choreographers while Seo Taiji was the musician. And when Xnghan&Xoul debuted, they definitely felt like a unit/group. During the showcase all 3 were front and center, answering questions, doing dance challenges etc. They did instagram lives together as a group. There’s this cute behind the scenes where the 3 watch the MV together. They are also doing variety content together as a 3 person unit like here where they eat Filipino snacks/desserts. We even got Inkigayo fancams for Kyohong and Jangyul.
The response has been very positive. It seems like all of Seunghan fans really like both Kyohong and Jangyul and praise they’re chemistry together. Seunghan also seems to have nothing but good things to say about them and while I only know what’s shown on screen, they seem to get along well. Many fans will write posts saying things like “I hope Kyo/yul and Seunghan stay together for a long time.”
But here’s the thing. Xoul is not the dancers. Rather Xoul is a rotational unit where a different artist will do a collab with Seunghan each comeback. There have been a few articles and music show interviews where he has talked about the concept around Xoul as “bringing together a rotating crew of collaborators referred to as ‘Xoul,’ ” Source
There seems to be a lot of mix reactions to this news. Some fans who have gotten emotionally invested in the group of 3, don’t really like the idea of Kyohong and Jangyul not being there in the future. Others think this concept is really cool as it means there are a lot of possibilities on what Seunghan might do.
From what I can tell from this Hollywood Reporter article is that likely Xoul will be Kyohong and Jangyul for a while and that he is simply leaving the possibility open to do other things. He mentioned he wants to perform with a Band at some point. Of course all this chatter is a bit of putting the cart before the horse since who knows when/if he’ll get a comeback though I imagine he will with how well this debut is going.
From fan feedback, it seems having the dancers front and center alongside Seunghan has been the right call. They describe him as being fairly introverted/shy so having 2 other people around during interviews and variety content takes the pressure off him a bit, allowing for more comfortable interactions. But a lot of people are walking away from this thinking they are a set group again similar to Seo Taiji and Boys. I think there is a real possibility that if a future comeback doesn’t have the 2 dancers there will be a sizable backlash over it since a lot of people are not aware of Xoul being a rotational concept.
Anyways those are my thoughts. While we wait for the potential comeback, I highly recommend watching the Heavenly Blue dance practice it’s really good.
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