Welcome to the last part of my series on biases, at least for now. Today we look at my individual biases, I’m going to write blurbs on the top 25 people on my bias list and then at the end of those blurbs I’m just going to list the rest of my top 50, as this article would be absurdly long if I wrote a bit on all of them. I will note, I like most every idol that hasn’t done anything objective bad, as I respect the effort that goes into just being a part of the industry, it’s a life that I honestly wouldn’t want to lead, so they all deserve applause for their tenacity, even if I don’t care to individually follow them, and even if I don’t really care for their music.
Bona (WJSN)
Bona is an awesome idol, she’s talented in singing, dancing, and acting, doing all three to a solid level her entire career. She’s kind, and seems to be that way even off camera, although we can never truly know these idols' true character, I trust Bona’s pretty solidly to be what it appears to be. On top of that she is beautiful in every style and concept across the board, which is pretty tough to do. Bona is top tier any way you slice it, and is easily my top bias.
2. Eunbi (Iz*one)
Eunbi is an amazing dancer, and then she has great leadership skills and can sing on top of it all. She also has a healthier looking body than most idols which makes me happy, since the industry basically encourages female idols to be underweight, she’s still skinny, but looks much healthier. The gap between my top two members of Iz*one and the rest is pretty big, which shows how much I love them, since I rank the group so high in my group biases off of mostly the two members.
3. Luda (WJSN)
Luda always gets put in the small cutie camp in every piece of variety that the group puts on, but I actually think she has a really beautiful mature look, and just happens to be tiny and cute too. She’s super sweet and has moments of strength that just make you happy considering the members regularly mention she has a weak constitution and is prone to sickness, she’s still tough and works hard, and I really appreciate that.
4. Sowon (Gfriend)
Sowon is my favorite leader in kpop, she has a great relationship with the members, relaxed and fun, and they give her a lot of trouble, which is entertaining. In spite of the trouble though, you can see that the members really respect and rely on Sowon, and she is happy to take control and work as hard as she can for the group. She’s known for her visuals, she’s tall and model-like, but she still puts in the time and effort to keep up in dance and singing, even though she isn’t the strongest at either thing, because that’s what a leader does.
5. BM (Kard)
BM is one of the biggest and loudest personalities in kpop, but his energy is good and positive, it’s productive and kind. He sets an example of a healthy, hard working, high-fitness lifestyle, and has a lot of really positive and encouraging interactions with his fans on social media, taking the time to share love and support to these strangers from his celebrity position, which isn’t always common, it shows how grateful he is. He is also positive about helping others, and his recent Big Tiddie Gang apparel, an in-joke about jacked idols with big pecs, has most of its proceeds going to breast cancer research, which is amazing.
6. Yeoreum (WJSN)
As I got into WJSN, Yeoreum was one of the members who I paid the least attention to, and then something clicked with her and now she’s way up here. The first thing that clicked with me is in their first variety show she talks about being Christian while playing a village shaman in a tourist village recreation, she jokes that she’s been Christian her whole life and has no idea what she’s actually doing in the shaman role. This connected for two reasons, the first is that I am Christian, so instantly felt connected that way, but also that she was playing the role and being open minded to it, which is a good example to everybody that just because you believe one thing, you can still be willing to experience and respect other people’s beliefs and cultures. The next thing that clicked was the Butterfly comeback, Yeoreum has just owned the stages for me, and her variety series with Exy and Yuqi was super cute too. She has skyrocketed for me, and I could see more climbing potentially happening.
7. Yena (Iz*one)
Yena is just a super fun and smart kid that happens to be packed to the brim with talent. She can sing and dance well, and with no rapper in Iz*one, she filled that role and is fantastic in it. She has a knack for variety, great sense of humor and comedic timing, and she’s always willing to go for any joke, even if it comes at her own expense. On top of that she shines outside of music due to her intelligence, part of her knack for variety is being clever, not just for humor, but in games and competitions, she’s clever enough to come close to winning most of the time, and even when she can’t win, she keeps is entertaining, the best variety idol in this new generation, and one of the best all-rounders with Eunbi.
8. Gowon (Loona)
Speaking of variety, Gowon shines in it, she’s just super goofy and loose, fairly fearless in terms of looking and acting silly, and has great synergy with all her members, but especially with Olivia Hye. She also has a way of talking often described by fans as “crunchy” which is a weird description for speech, but oddly accurate. Her cute nature and strong visuals with her fun personality make for a top tier idol for out of music content.
9. Yiren (Everglow)
Yiren hadn’t caught my eye until I had seen Everglow live with my wife, where she absolutely grabbed my attention despite Mia’s insanely high charisma almost dominating the whole stage, seriously, Mia has some of the highest charisma in kpop. So Yiren caught my eye as a visual, but that doesn’t really make somebody top tier for me, I care about personality a lot, and talent as well a bit. Yiren has a really unique character, a bit of an aggressive attitude, but instead of abrasively aggressive, it’s playfully aggressive, and she seems to have great rapport with not only her members, but the staff too, which makes me think she’s pretty nice even without the cameras on.
10. Sejeong (Gugudan)
Sejeong is a beautiful singer, Plant is such a lovely song, it makes me feel emotional even though I can only understand the English, it’s so incredible. On top of that, if you go and watch Busted on Netflix you’ll see that she seems to be very kind, and extremely clever, when most idols tend to play dumb, Sejeong goes out and solves puzzles. I praised Yena for being clever, but I think Sejeong might be able to outwit her too. I really respect the combination of what seems to be a kind soul, with a good head on her shoulders and a great singing voice.
11. IU (soloist)
If you don’t know much about IU, you’re missing out. I suspect many idols are quite sweet behind the scenes, but with IU we are more or less sure that she is one of the sweetest people in the whole Korean music industry, she goes out of the way to give gifts to friends and fans, she sings at weddings for them when asked, including her staff members, who seem to adore her too, and she donates money regularly to good causes. I haven’t even mentioned her talent for singing and songwriting, which is immense. Even though I have some other idols higher than her, if I was told to recommend one idol for somebody to be a fan of, IU would be it, followed by BM.
12. Yunkyoung (Rocket Punch)
I really love all of the Rocket Punch members, in a way that is fairly hard to separate, and I’m excited for the prospect of Eunbi joining them after Iz*one disbands, assuming she does so. Yunkyoung just catches my eye, she’s fairly quiet compared to most of the other members, but is usually entertaining when she does speak up. She also loves Coke, which is my favorite drink, so respect for that.
13. Kim Lip (Loona)
My first bias in Loona, she’s a great all-rounder. She sings well, dances to the same level, exhibits leadership skills, and is super entertaining in variety formats when she chooses to take the lead. One of my favorite running jokes in the early days of LoonaTV was Lip trying to rap on a regular basis despite being no good at it in any capacity, it just was fun to watch her keep going for it anyways.
14. Dayoung (WJSN)
Dayoung is the life of the party, she’ll put herself into position to be the center of attention, and then spread her energy to everybody else. I also love her motherly role in the group, helping to cook and keep things running in an organized way despite being one of the youngest members. She’s got some pretty good singing and dancing skills as well, which she puts all of her high energy into, which you can see in the Butterfly dance, makes for some pretty awesome hair flips.
15. Jiu (Dreamcatcher)
Jiu is interesting, I never followed Dreamcatcher too closely, but my wife told me that I had apparently always liked her every time I looked at teasers or watched music videos. This is funny because at their concert I asked her who the blue haired one was, stating that she might be the prettiest idol I’ve seen in person, I literally didn’t even know her name at the time. Jiu is a fun person, she has that unique Dreamcatcher style of humor and personality that all the members seem to have developed by being around each other, and despite always picking her out on her looks alone, she is a great leader, singer, and dancer as well.
16. Doi (Fanatics)
Fanatics is a group that I’m constantly preparing myself to see a disbandment announcement for, it feels like a tragic inevitably for a group that I quite like. Doi is possibly the most beautiful woman in kpop to me, there’s nothing I can truly put my finger on to explain why I feel this way, but I do. That isn’t to say I don’t also think she’s talented and has a good personality, if I didn’t she wouldn’t rank this high, maybe not even close, but she is definitely the highest idol as a visual to me.
17. Heejin (Loona)
Heejin’s voice is my favorite in the industry, she’s got this extremely pleasant deeper tone, and when she sings comfortably in her range, or just talks, it is so soothing. I could listen to her all day. She also sings quite well which helps, and dances even better, she is a great center, and plays the guitar too. Recently, she’s also shown her pretty incredible fitness, doing a 7 minute plank in a video, and going on to do a full ab workout after, which is something I respect a lot.
18. Sua (Dreamcatcher)
So many groups try to be “girl crush,” Sua lives girl crush, the woman is confidence incarnate, and brings an unusual amount of sensuality to her performances that you don’t typically see in kpop, but she rocks it. She choreographs a lot of Dreamcatcher’s special clip videos, and a song in every concert as well, and she’s good at it, which is a fairly rare skill in kpop, more rare than writing music, the two idols off the top of my head besides Sua that do this are Seventeen’s Hoshi and Purplebeck’s Yeowool, although I’m sure there are others who are also great at it that I just don’t know about. Despite this super cool and sexy demeanor, Sua seems to be a really kind idol behind the scenes, often helping the staff put things away, and they playfully “ooooooh” at her kindness whenever she does, which shows a good behind the scenes relationship.
19. Juri (Rocket Punch)
Juri is such a fun idol, she learned Korean extremely fast, basically starting her learning experience a few months before debut, and although she needs help finding her words sometimes, her progress is impressive. She is fantastic as variety, bringing a lighthearted but focused effort in everything she does, and she refers to herself by name instead of saying “me” she says “Juri,” which is just a fun little thing to hear, since it mixes things up a bit from the norm.
20. Haru (Nature)
Twice’s Sana is extremely popular for being a cute and fun Japanese idol with great Korean skills who is a pretty good dancer and an amazing variety performer. Haru reminds me a lot of Sana, not the clumsy style, but she has a cute image and is pretty good in variety situations, despite doing everything in a second language, much like Juri above. She is also the strongest dancer in her group and has a great dance memory as well, which is a super fun skill to see an idol put into practice.
21. Haseul (Loona)
I’m almost sad to write this one, because I’m not convinced Haseul is still an idol, as she’s been gone from Loona for over a year now almost. Haseul is an idol who I really respect for leadership skills, she leads from the front for Loona, and does so through kindness and a supportive style. She’s also grown into a good idol singer from a general singer with opera training, which is a different skillset, and is a good dancer, one of my favorites to watch in the group, despite some other members being better.
22. Yeonhee (Rocket Punch)
Speaking of leaders, here is Rocket Punch’s leader, Yeonhee. If Eunbi joins the group I imagine she’ll take the leadership role, but even if she does Yeonhee has shined in it, and really displayed this through her efforts in helping tutor Juri in Korean many mornings. The members seem to respect and look up to her a lot, which speaks volumes to me on her character. She is a good singer and dancer too, as most people in my list are, as evidenced by how many times I’ve used the phrase..
23. Yujin (Iz*one)
Yujin is an idol that I see immense growth potential in, she’s just a kid but has already proven to be adept in variety, singing, and dancing. I’m excited to see the group that Starship puts her in, because I think that given time she has potential to be a top all-rounder as an idol. This is maybe the only rating on the list that I’ve based purely on skills and potential talent, but I stand by it, keep yours eyes out for Yujin whenever she debuts in a full group.
24. Xuan Yi (WJSN)
Sadly, we may not ever see Xuan Yi in WJSN again, although I hold back hope that the China line will come back to the group at some point, if only for a comeback or two. Xuan Yi is hilarious, she has one of the best senses of humor in the whole industry, and she does it in a second language. She has no shame in variety, actively being silly and absurd for a quick gag. On top of that, she and Meiqi have a ton of respect from me for learning Korean so well that Chinese people actually thought that they were Korean. If you can immerse yourself so deeply in another language and culture like that, you are actually brilliant, because that is extremely difficult.
25. Eunha (Gfriend)
Eunha has been an awesome idol to watch grow. She’s quiet and never really drew my attention in Gfriend’s early years, but she has grown a lot, especially as a singer, now taking high notes and leading vocal roles in songs despite having Yuju, a top vocal talent, as a group member. Her look has also really evolved over the years, and I feel it just suits her more as a person now than it used to, although that is entirely a subjective observation.
26. Dawon (WJSN)
27. Saebom (Nature)
28. Mijoo (Lovelyz)
29. SinB (Gfriend)
30. Mimi (Oh My Girl)
31. Arin (Oh My Girl)
32. Choerry (Loona)
33. Sihyeon (Everglow)
34. Mingi (Ateez)
35. Sana (Twice)
36. Wendy (Red Velvet)
37. Lia (Itzy)
38. Yuqi ((G)I-dle)
39. Sunmi (solo, ex-Wonder Girls)
40. Yein (Lovelyz)
41. Gahyeon (Dreamcatcher)
42. Jisoo (Lovelyz)
43. Ryujin (Itzy)
44. Anne (GWSN)
45. Hyojung (Oh My Girl)
46. Hongjoon (Ateez)
47. Mina (Twice)
48. Lu (Nature)
49. Exy (WJSN)
50. Somin (Kard)
