david22

I wonder if Nicole has a goal of being a singing and dancing sole star performer (with a large supporting cast and occasional guests) with a huge individual following, such as Jolin Tsai in Taiwan?

I'm glad that I am on the WATCHING end of ArtemisMaster's list, rather than the DOING end! That's all I would need--learning all this dancing and public relations while at the same time learning conversational Japanese. In fact, if I just had to learn Japanese and nothing else, I would never make it.

Every time that I see her dances in New York under training by Luam, I am impressed by all she has learned and mastered. She is a hard worker. I don't know what she will do next, but she will continue to be a star--and even more so. I miss her terribly in KARA, but I try to follow her career. She is one of my all-time favorites. Anyone interested can find her on Twitter, for a start. I was just looking tonight at one of her videos from May 15. She is really impressive. She was my favorite in KARA, if I had a favorite--I liked them all. After writing the above, I notice that this video has already been uploaded into Karaholic on May 30 by NoorAsz in [Nicori] Dance it off with Cole!

All the present and past Kara members are beautiful. And so much of their dance and music is so extraordinarily good. Arguing over who is the most beautiful is meaningless. It's just personal taste, and what you see in videos and photos may be different than what you would see and think if you knew them in "real life." All I can say, is that Young Ji is extraordinarily beautiful in a way that appeals so much to me. If I were her age, single, and based just on what I have seen in her videos and photos and how easy it would be to fall in love with someone like that, I would select Young Ji for sure. Also, I found it very touching and lovable and emotional to see just how emotional she was on being told she was the one selected for Kara in the final show. I felt so close to her in spirit. I don't even want to call her the "winner" if that means that the others were "losers". I thought they all were winners. What a great effort and performance they all gave! And how nice they all were! Most of us loved more than one of them. We have loved following along on this journey for about two months. DSP's project idea and their training and coaching and feedback, and the girl's fantastic effort, rewarded themselves with an experience they will all benefit from and never forget, and they rewarded us with a special experience that I will never forget. Young Ji was the one selected--and the one I wanted to be selected--but they ALL were winners. I will follow them all to the extent they stay in public life. I am really looking forward to Kara 4! I think we are going to see four beautiful young women shine together. And we are going to see some great performances. Sure, Young Ji will be getting a lot more experience and can't really catch up to the experience and past accomplishments of Kara 3. But I predict that as we watch even this year's performances, no one is going to be outclassed on the stage or in media relations.

The part of the press release about Gyuri participating more than anyone else is good: "The agency rep said, “As the team’s leader, Park Gyu Ri feels the responsibility to carry on the team as it embarks on a new challenge. So she had a lot of interest in this audition and watched it in detail more than anyone else.” But conversely, does this mean Hammie and Hara were more detached from the process? Why? The part of the press release about their accepting the selection sounds very lukewarm and unenthusiastic to me.: "The rep also said, 'The three Kara members calmly accepted the result of the final round.'" Maybe there are cultural or translation factors at play, but in America, a press agent would be using language (irrespective of the real facts) much more supportive of what DSP and Kara want to do--which is to continue Kara's success and popularity.

The argument about adding one makes sense to me. I still wonder, though, about the behind-the-scenes attitude and input from Kara 3. Did they really agree with the Baby Kara Project? What do they think of Young Ji? Did they have any say in whether to add one or two, or which one should win? There are insiders that know the answer to this. We are not likely ever to find out, no matter what the press releases or Twitter posts say. The feeling that I have (based only on comments in news releases and my own supposition) is that Kara 3 was less than enthusiastic about this process, but accepted it and understood that adding a girl has advantages. I just hope that Gyuri, Hammie and Hara are genuinely friendly and welcoming to Young Ji and very supportive of helping her meet her big challenge. Since they have become established professionals with lots of experience, I am confident that they will at a minimum be business-like and cooperative, working on the same team to meet a team goal. I am hoping for more than that. It is going to be a lot easier for Young Ji if she feels accepted enthusiastically. After Young Ji becomes successfully integrated into a Kara 4, the door is still open to add someone that DSP and Kara like later.

For me the biggest questions relate to what Hammie, Gyuri and Hara think of the Baby Kara process and of Young Ji as the new Kara member. Their absence from view even in the final live show or at its very end to welcome the winner was ominous. Also, if DSP doesn't want Koreans to see Kara as primarily a Japanese-export group (which may reduce future K-pop awards to Kara), then the question is what DSP could have done to have been seen as treating Korean fans at least on par with Japanese fans. It is unfortunate that the global popularity vote seems to be primarily a Japanese vote and seems to have swung the final results away from the winner as adjudged by the experts. Nevertheless, I am a fan of both Young Ji and So Min. My preference was to admit both to Kara, IF the members of Kara would have been happy with that.

I love Young Ji and So Min. Want both.

Young Ji will be a great addition to Kara. I got up at 4 a.m. local time to vote for her, and I am happy! I would love to see So Min admitted to Kara also. I will follow both Young Ji and So Min in the same or in different groups.

Welcome, Young Ji! You can do it! You've proved your talent! So many people love you! We are excited to see the new Kara!

Whether you call it cute or sexy (I would say, sexy), I like their look in Step the best. Fantastically sexy and colorful, with a great beat and dance step. Very addictive to watch many times! But I also love the early, cute songs, and Mister, and everything they do. My vote, though, was for sexy.

Gyuri is a classic beauty. It's hard to imagine how anyone could look better. She also looks so mature, that it is going to be hard for Kara ever to go back to the "cute young girl" songs of earlier years--and that is going to be a challenge to blend in younger girls from the Baby Kara Project.

I voted for Hara because she seems to always look specially beautiful from all angles and in all kinds of expressions. I've seen individual pictures of each of the four others in which they looked incredibly beautiful--the best. But on a consistent, day-in day-out basis in trying to predict who is the one that will look spectacular in the most total number of photos, it's got to be Hara. And I'm not even sure she's my favorite. They are all exceptionally attractive in every way.

It could have been YouTube, but I think I was following one of the Kara member's Twitter accounts (where some of the posts were in English) and came across a link to Karaholic.

I voted for Nicole, but I would be REALLY HAPPY with any of them!

I am still not sure if two were eliminated after Episode 5 and if we will see five remaining Baby Karas on Tuesday, of which two will be selected while they are still on stage. And since Kara gets to vote, together with the experts, counting 50% for this final performance, I assume that they will be in attendance and will vote for the girl or girls they think will best fit in with them. I'm still not sure just how this is going to work. I will be really sad for the girls that don't make it, and I do hope they form their own group. If the three finalists are So Min, So Jin, and Young Ji, it will be really sad if two are selected but one of these is let go.

I like to watch KARA performances on Blu-ray, or DVD, or simply on YouTube. This means I am either on a big screen TV or on a computer screen. If I have privacy in the house then I just use the TV speakers or external Bose sound system speakers. If I want privacy, then my preference is Bose Acoustic Noise Cancelling headphones. I don't listen to them too much on an iPhone (with usually small earphones or via Bluetooth in my car). For purely audio, my favorite is to listen to S.H.E (Selina, Hebe, Ella), as I think they have the best voices and rhythm of all the currently active Asian groups that I can think of, and they have lots of great songs. But as far as what I like to watch best--it's KARA all the way!

I still haven't found episode 5 and am eagerly awaiting it. I hope that if two are picked, the other five form their own group. I will watch then both old and new Kara.

I first found out about Kara and watched Step It Up on a cable TV channel in Houston, Texas. I've since bought Kara performance audio and video both here in the U.S. and online from Asia. The Kara group has become my favorite. Not only are the music, dance, costumes, and performances great--they are all so beautiful! I would happily marry any one of them! By the way, I am not Asian.

I love Kara. My favorite performance so far is Step, but I watch all of them. I am ready to marry any of the five girls!