You can skip this first paragraph if you like, it’s just about why I’ve chosen to execute this article in the format that I have.
I’ve thought about this article for a bit, trying to decide the best way to do it, I currently am avoiding using pictures in my articles, which makes it interesting, since this is an extremely visual thing, the photobooks, photocards, and other goodies that come with an album, but I ultimately decided to try it first in that same pictureless format. I came to this conclusion with two reasons in mind, the first being that there are a number of kpop Youtubers that already do great box openings, and I’m not equipped for that format currently and my whole goal with ManelyKpop is to do something different for this community, so if you want to see the albums, that option is available, and I’m okay with the fact that I may lose readers to those creators, because I sometimes watch them myself. The second reason is that some people, like myself don’t want spoilers, but do like to have a feel for the quality of something before buying in, which is the main reason why I do watch album opening videos sparingly myself, with that let’s get to the article.
Before you take me as a professional, I am just a fan providing honest feedback, I am biased, and I am not an expert in the field of music, album design, marketing, or photography, so, mostly, I’m just like you, although you may know much more than me. I am not making this article as somebody with no knowledge of album packaging at all however, my wife and I love buying physicals, and have a solid collection, I’m actually working on finishing my WJSN collection, I just have a few versions of 3 or 4 of their albums to go.
The Photobooks
So, I started collecting WJSN albums long before I was a huge fan of them, because the photobook quality is so insanely high, I initially bought one version of WJ Stay? and from there I just kept buying until they ended up becoming my bias group. Neverland, leaves nothing to be desired, all three photobooks are fantastic, and unique enough to where each has a distinct feeling. Chapter 1, the green version, is suitably nature themed, with gentle flowing dresses in a fantastical flower and plant filled setting. Chapter 2, the pink version, has a more mature feeling, with white dresses that aren’t so flowing, and a darker setting, where the pictures play with shadows more, it gives a somber almost mournful feeling. Lastly chapter 3, the blue version, has more casual clothing, and gives a more grounded and individual look at the members. All three have a fantastic contrast, and photo quality is top tier, if you only want one version, go green if you like beautiful soft pictures, pink if you like more mature artsy pictures, and blue if you like more casual and everyday looking pictures. Personally, I like the green version the best, but the other two are also great, although I don’t like some of the shadow usage in the pink version on certain members, which is a slight ding, although it works for others.
Rating: 9.75/10
The Goodies
Photocards, one of my personal favorite parts of any album purchase is flipping the photocards to see which members I get, sometimes hoping for a specific member, sometimes happy to receive anybody, as I am here. My wife and I actually love photocards so much we have two binders filled with them, alphabetized by group, then ordered by comeback, then organized in each comeback by member name alphabetically again, it’s a serious business for us.
Across my copies of Neverland I ended up with the one thing I wasn’t necessarily hoping for, which was a few member duplicates, I like to have as many different members as I can get. You get two single member cards, and one two member card per album with each copy of this album.I got 2 Dayoungs, 1 Exy, 2 Seola, and 1 Yeoreum for my solo cards, the card stock is par for the course for photocards, but the pictures are among the better ones that I’ve seen each album has cards that come from that respective photoshoot, and they are selfie-styled, and the pictures are really good, I love all 6 that I got. For my duo cards I got Dawon-Exy, Dawon-Luda, and Eunseo-Yeonjung, again, selfie-styled and high quality, it looks like the members goofed off a little more with these which makes them fun, although I do prefer solo cards, these are pretty good for cards with more than one member.
Additionally, each album comes with a special, slightly bigger, photocard that looks like a ticket which has the pictured member’s drawing of a butterfly, signature, and message on the back, printed, not hand done of course. For these I got Soobin, Bona, and Soobin again. The major disappointment here is that the two Soobin cards are exactly the same despite coming from different versions, but the pictures for all are well done portrait style pictures from the green album’s photoshoot, which as stated above, is my favorite of the three.
Before I get to the last goodie, a quick interlude for the CDs themself, which is something I mostly ignore, but my wife likes to look at. The CDs are not version specific, all three are pink and have the same kind of floral patterning that the cover has, a little disappointing if you like each CD to be unique, but not a huge deal overall.
The last goodie is a larger cloud shaped photocard, it’s the same shape as the wood that the flowers are growing on on the cover, but rounded. For these I got Yeoreum, Yeonjung, and Dawon. These are again, all from that first photoshoot in the green album, and unlike the ticket shaped cards, these have a bit more flavor than the front-on portrait, which is welcome. My one critique here, and with the tickets, is that they are too big for normal card sleeves, and thus harder to display effectively. I will note, the ticket almost fits, it’s a little tall for me though, and unprotected looking enough that I would be worried about it getting bent or curled.
Rating- 9.5/10
Overall these goodies are just as good as the photobooks, this is one of the most beautiful albums ever and the quality is there across the board in my opinion. The second photobook only gets a slight knock for me due to some pictures that I think the photographer meant to be artistic but didn’t quite work, and the goodies only get knocks due to the two bigger ones, and the CDs all being the same across versions.
Overall, if you’re a WJSN fan, I recommend a buy of these without a doubt, and all their other physicals honestly. If you aren’t a huge WJSN fan, I still recommend these, they are beautiful and look lovely displayed, any non-kpop fan that saw it would probably look at it and feel compelled to look at it due to the beautiful cover alone, it’d be a solid conversation starter. I actually managed to get a Yeonjung-signed Chapter 3 as well, so maybe I’m biased towards it but I think the following overall rating is 100% accurate and fair, even if I am a Ujung through and through. This is the best or second best from WJSN though, and I rate them overall highly, so that’s a strong statement, even for me.
Final Rating- 9.75/10
So is this rating fair, am I too biased, will you be picking this up after reading this? Let me know on Instagram, I’d love to hear your thoughts on this article’s corresponding Instagram post, or in the comment section, and while you’re there give me a follow to stay up to date on every new article, list, review, and other content that I have coming, new posts every weekend, and sometimes bonuses like this on the weekdays..