NIZIU Explores the Power of Friendship in ‘Paradise’

JYP’s J-Pop girl group NIZIU released their fifth single, “Paradise,” on March 2. It is produced in conjunction with the “Doraemon: Nobita’s Sky Utopia” anime movie as its ending theme song. The group consists of Mako, Rio, Maya, Riku, Ayaka, Mayuka, Rima, Miihi and Nina.

“Paradise” is about idealism and friends who support each other. Lines like “We believe in each other, we feel each other” indicate that the friends share a bond where they share each other’s hopes and help them reach their goals. As the group sings, “Even if you search all around the world / There’s no one like you,” they remind us that everyone is unique. This is a particularly idealistic point to make since many people can share the same interests and personalities, but it  shows how valuable a friend can be because of their unique differences as they can help their friends in their own way that others cannot.

The song’s melody is slow and dreamlike, using acoustic instruments such as guitar and piano. This gives the song an ethereal and natural feel that evokes feelings of calm and happiness. Occasionally, the two instruments will combine into one melody. Given the song’s meaning, this is a particularly appropriate aspect.        

The group’s idealistic and unity-oriented concepts work because their name is a pun on “rainbow” — “Niji” in Japanese — and the phrase “Need You,” which means reliance. While friends are supposed to rely on each other to help them through their troubles, a rainbow combines many unique colors into one cohesive whole that symbolizes unity. NIZIU displayed both of these puns in photos and their reality show title.   

Their previous songs, such as “Make You Happy” and “Popin’ Shakin’” have included similar themes of happiness and friendship. 

Since “Paradise” centers around friendship and uniqueness, it works well with the anime movie’s title. The words “utopia” and “paradise” are often associated with each other, as both show  a perfect society — implying that the girl group is describing their friend to be uniquely perfect.

A music video accompanied the song’s release. It starts with Rima holding a crystal in which multiple instances of Riku are dancing, followed by transitions to several different rooms with the other members, such as Makya in a room with flowery wallpaper and Maya in an empty room with animated illustrations on the walls. These transitions were a nice touch, as it looked natural and helped to avoid jump cuts, which would have been jarring in such a calm song. 

The song continues with more shots of the dancing Rikus and a group shot where the members stand in a grassy area above water where they are surrounded by tall, curved white structures. The camera zooms in and out as the members dance before transitioning to the next scene that features Rio near a water fountain, Akaya in a room with flowers and the group dancing in a room filled with lights, before transitioning to another crystal Riku sequence. This time, multiple versions of herself dance with one another — and the scene then pans to another group sequence. Initially, the group sequence takes place in a pink, otherworldly environment that eventually darkens into a shade of purple. The environment turns out to be inside an orb, which is revealed before another transition makes it a yellow grid paper environment that darkens to black.

NIZIU also released several promotional videos in conjunction with the song. These included short-form videos where they dance with Doraemon characters and a dance practice video where they dance in a studio. The latter video was impressive as the members appeared incredibly coordinated  — revealing  their strength as a group. 

But perhaps the most significant promotional video was a series chronicling the song’s recording. The first video began with the members entering the recording studio and expressing their excitement for recording the song. The members also expressed excitement that their labelmates Stray Kids, specifically, the sub-unit 3RACHA, consisting of Bang Chan, Han and Changbin, would be writing the song for them. The video chronicled the song’s recording, with each member singing their parts and commenting before and after the process. 

During the commentating segments, the members praised the songwriters, each other and the song’s association with Doraemon —showing the bond that the members have between each other and the company. Part 2 was more of the same, with additional members recording their parts and commentating. At the end of that video, the members reinforced the song’s message: believing in oneself.         

The group has also released English tracks — like “Poppin’ Shakin’,” “Asobo” and “Take A Picture,” all of which are translations of their Japanese work.

NIZIU’s “Paradise” is an idealistic song about the power of friendship — reminding us that sometimes all we need is a friend to help us get through our toughest times.

Bailey Kanthatham is an Entertainment Contributing Writer. He can be reached at bkanthat@uci.edu.

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