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SM Entertainment introduced three new members of the pre-debut team, SM Rookies (or SMROOKIES) on July 1 via a photoshoot with WWD Korea. They released additional videos on July 4, giving fans a proper look at the trio.
Seungchan, Eunseok and Shohei immediately caught fans’ attention. While not much is known about them, there have allegedly been hate comments regarding Shohei for his age. Shohei was born in 1996, which makes him 26 this year.
With an increasing number of idols as young as 15 debuting, it seems that the SM Rookies member’s age became a point of debate online. However, it did not take much time for netizens to rise and defend the trainee too.
Netizens attempted to hold a mirror to the K-pop industry’s notorious ways of working by calling out the mental pressures and hardships agencies were making teenagers go through by debuting them early.
Netizens defend the newest SM Rookies member, Shohei, against alleged hate comments
Shohei, the newest joinee of the SM Rookies trio, has allegedly been subjected to hate comments online. After he was introduced with a splendid photoshoot with WWD Korea, netizens dug up information about him.
It is difficult to leave no digital footprint in this day and age. So when Shohei was revealed to be one of the SM Rookies alongside Seungchan and Eunseok, a few netizens took it upon themselves to find out more information about the members.
Shohei allegedly received hate comments for two major things - his age (being 26) and his past (failing auditions and working part-time at McDonald’s).
Seeing a potential trainee debut at 26 years of age is a rare sight in K-pop, especially in the fourth-generation. The K-pop industry is increasingly launching troops of young idols. The oldest members of some of the recently debuted groups are either 20 or younger than that.
Earlier, BTS’ Jin had comforted a 03 liner ARMY on Weverse who was disheartened as K-pop agencies told her that she was “late.” Even more recently, BTS leader RM talked about the “traditional expiry date” of an idol in an industry that wishes to churn out new and young faces into the public continuously.
On the other hand, Shohei was also allegedly attacked for failing 10 auditions and working at McDonald’s. People shared a list of successful idols who had also failed multiple auditions and defended the trainee, saying that it only shows his determination to pursue his dreams.
Meanwhile, Shohei is of Japanese nationality and is skilled in rapping and DJing. Seungchan, born in 2003, has great dance and vocal talent. Eunseok, born in 2001, is a visual member and aspires to be an actor.
Take a look at their introductory videos below:
SM Rookies is a pre-debut team formed by SM Entertainment. Numerous NCT and Red Velvet members were first introduced as SM Rookies before debuting as idols.
