Trivia for NiziU and its members
- Appetite Equals Health: An unfortunate real-life example. During the second season of Nizi Project, Miihi – one of the youngest but also highest-ranked girls – began to noticeably lose weight. During the final episode as he inducted her into the group, JYP was caught on a hot mic telling her to eat more. She didn't, and by Fall 2020 she appeared dangerously underweight. Miihi's health soon deteriorated to the point JYPE put her on hiatus which led to her missing NiziU's official debut performances. Luckily for everyone she regained weight and her health. Fans need only note the wild differences in her appearance between her audition, the "Step and a Step" music video* , and anything from after she recovered in 2021.
- Fan Community Nicknames: Officially the fandom's name is WithU
- In the Blood: Rima, who shares rap duties with Mayuka, is herself the daughter of Japanese hip-hop pioneer ZEEBRA (real name Hideyuki Yokoi [横井 英之]) and model Miwa Nakabayashi (中林 美和). Thus it's not too surprising she auditioned for JYP (twice).
- Meaningful Rename: When trying out for Nizi Project, Rima used Yokoi, her father's last name. However, in between the group's "soft" debut and "official" debut, her parents divorced and her mother gained custody. Since then Rima has used her mother's family name Nakabayashi.
- Promoted Fangirl: Miihi is a HUGE fan of TWICE. That's the reason she auditioned for JYPE in the first place – she's one of the members who was already a trainee at the company before Nizi Project. At least two of the songs she performed for JYP during Nizi Project evaluations were from TWICE's Japanese catalogue, and video of her meeting Momo and Sana for the first time in an early episode show her eyes almost literally sparkling. When quizzed by Lee Mujin on his webseries
about who she admired, listened to, etc., she answered "TWICE" on almost every single question. Finally, when asked which JYPE senior she was most shocked to meet in person, she answered Tzuyu (her longtime TWICE bias). - She Also Did: Nina was a child actress in Seattle before being scouted by Japanese company Amuse (the agency that manages Perfume, Babymetal and, at the time, One OK Rock). She then took up acting and singing in Japan before jumping ship to JYPE.
- What Could Have Been: The group could have turned out very differently but for a couple of changes…
- As Nizi Project began production, Nina was living in Nagoya and missed out on two of the original open auditions. Determined not to miss out again, she travelled to the Sendai audition, about 400 miles away. Had she missed that one, NiziU would certainly look and feel a lot different. Nina herself, as noted above, already had a career so she likely would have kept acting.
- The second half of Nizi Project was meant to feature 14 girls, not 13. Competitor Suzu Ozaki (尾崎 すず) from Sapporo, who during the first half had outscored several girls that made the final lineup, withdrew from the show for reasons still unknown. Had Suzu gone to Korea, it is likely one of the winning girls – possibly Ayaka, who barely made the cut to begin with (she ranked 14th) – would have been eliminated instead.
