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NCT 2021 ‘Universe’: Shotaro goes viral after first comeback since a year of debut

Japanese idol Shotaro debuted in NCT last year with NCT 2020 Resonance

Looks like fans, as well as the general public, missed Shotaro with the way he has gone viral for the NCT 2021 Universe comeback. The Japanese idol debuted with NCT in 2020 with the album ‘Resonance’. Previously known as a TikToker for his amazing dance videos, he already had a huge following before his debut. And it just seems to have grown. After wowing fans last year with the title track ‘Make A Wish’ he sort of disappeared.

SM Entertainment continues to introduce new and unique concepts for their groups so that they can stand out. While Super Junior’s rotational concept failed, SM introduced NCT with the infinite members’ concept. This means that new members are constantly added to the group. While NCT debuted with six members in 2016, they now have 23 members. This is a genius tactic as it allows rookie members to quickly reach out to the already huge fanbase of the established group. But this also means that since there are so many members, it is difficult for all of them to have equal screentime and lines as seen in Shotaro and Sungchan’s case.

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Fans missed Shotaro in NCT

SM added Shotaro and Sungchan, the newest members of NCT to the group in 2020. And while fans loved them, we didn’t get to see much of them. SM has further divided the group into fixed sub-units like NCT 127, NCT Dream and WayV. All of the members get together only once a year during the full group comeback like NCT 2021 Universe. But Sungchan and Shotaro are yet to get their own fixed sub-unit, which means they did not get to have any comeback till the full group comeback since 2020 when they debuted. And while we have MC Sungchan hosting a music show, Shotaro has been even more inactive.

Fans hoped that SM would introduce a new fixed sub-unit or add Sungchan and Shotaro to one of the already existing sub-units so that they too get to release new music and have comebacks. And while fans pray for that, they loved that we finally got Shotaro back on our screens after a year. NCT 2021 Universe is his first comeback since his debut in October 2020. To make it up, SM made him the center and the lead for the dance break in NCT’s title track ‘Universe (Let’s Play Ball)’ that was released on December 10.

Shotaro's viral fancam

Shotaro’s fancam for ‘Universe (Let’s Play Ball)’ on his first comeback stage on ‘Inkigayo’ was trending on Korean social media. It reached 400k YouTube views in half a day. It is also the most viewed among all of the NCT members performing this song. The fancam was also re-uploaded on the Chinese app Weibo where it gained 300k views and 143k views on Twitter. Fans find it extra special since ‘Inkigayo’ is hosted by his fellow member Sungchan.

‘Shotaro giving his all’

Happy fans trended Shotaro as they made tweets like, “Shotaro dancing and smiling like no tomorrow,” “Let me remind y'all that today is shotaro's first comeback stage in a music show after a year and they will perform on inkigayo where sungchan is the mc, my sungtaro,” and “Nah shotaro’s just different.” Another fan commented, “It's my honor to tell you that shotaro fancam on Weibo has gained 15k likes and 300k views.” One NCTzen pointed out, “Saw someone saying shotaro probably looks so happy on stage because hes dancing with his favorite kpop group.” Another posted, “Just shotaro giving his all of his best for the chorus part HE ATE IT!!!” One fan said, “Shotaro is still trending and yes he's been trending since yesterday, shotaro you absolutely deserve all the recognitiom in this world.”