Nizi Project is a Japanese reality program with the goal of creating a new Idol Singer group, which is projected to debut at the end of 2020 under Korean music label JYP Entertainment. Part One features 26 trainees, chosen from auditions in eight cities in Japan and the United States, who compete for a spot in the group while under a vigorous training regimen where they receive feedback from Park Jinyoung, the CEO of the agency. The trainees who show the most potential are chosen to receive six months of training in South Korea before appearing on Part Two of the show, which ultimately decides who will debut in the final group lineup.
This show provides examples of:
- The Ace: Mako is widely considered this, though Miihi, Rima, and even Nina qualify as well.
- Ascended Fangirl: Most of the contestants qualify as this, having little to no professional training, but being inspired by other idols enough to want to become one. Many of the girls claim to be very big fans of TWICE and GOT7, two very successful groups under JYP Entertainment.
- Bilingual Dialogue: For the multilingual contestants, this is very common when speaking with JYP. For those who only know Japanese, it only seems like this because interaction with the translators is cut out.
- Brutal Honesty: Downplayed. JYP doesn't hold back with his criticism, but he doesn't hold back with his praise or constructive advice, either.
- But Not Too Foreign: Nina and Mei are both half-American, and Yuna is half-Korean.
- Call-Back: Most of the performances and audition songs are from senior JYP artists, or even from JYP himself. Justified given that his company owns the rights to these songs and doesn't have to worry about any royalty fees.
- Color-Coded for Your Convenience: Each section of the Nizi Cube pendant, representing the components of a successful idol according to JYP, receives its own color. Gold is for dance, green is for vocals, red is for star quality, and blue is for personality.
- Confession Cam: Both the trainees and JYP himself get time in these.
- Crippling Overspecialization: Rio, who was a dancer prior to the show. JYP comments that her dancer background proves to be a disadvantage for the pop idol-specific performances. Eventually averted as she takes his advice as well as the advice of the other contestants to become an outstanding idol dancer. She even blows JYP away with her drastic improvement in vocal ability.
- Dramatic Pause: Unsurprisingly for this type of show, this is used quite a bit. Especially effective since JYP's facial expressions can be deceiving.
- Establishing Character Moment:
- When the Power Trio of Mako, Miihi and Rima are introduced, Mako is established as the Cool Big Sis.
- Many of the auditions served as this, most notably Rima's, Suzu's, Riku's, Erina's and Rio's.
- Akari's evaluation, when it was revealed that she was hospitalized shortly after the initial audition, and had only recently recovered. She had been advised not to continue with the training due to her illness, but she refused to give up this chance over it.
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Executive Meddling: Many contestants are given more or less screen time to skew the audience in favor of certain contestants. The four JYP trainees (Mako, Miihi, Rima and Yuna) along with Nina are consistently given very large amounts of screentime, while even skilled trainees like Suzu, who was skilled enough to receive 5th place in both vocal and dance evaluations notably received very little screentime in comparison. - Expository Hairstyle Change: Since the auditions took place anywhere from 1-3 months before the training in Part One began, some hairstyles and colors have changed, most notably Mako's. After the six month training between Part One's finale and Part Two's pilot, there are plenty of notable changes of this variety as well.
- Fun with Subtitles: Most shows of this variety include subtitles, but this proves especially useful given how JYP switches back and forth between his limited Japanese, fluent English and native Korean.
- Idol Singer: The contestants are competing in hopes of becoming this.
- Inelegant Blubbering: Expect this after a low ranking or upon receiving devastating criticism.
- Power Trio: Rima, Mako and Miihi, who trained together prior to the program, and are regarded as some of the most skilled contestants.
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Spiritual Successor: Undoubtedly of Sixteen (Korean Reality), although much more evident in Part Two. They're both survival reality programs creating JYP girl groups, so it was inevitable. - Team Dad: JYP.
- Teen Idol: The oldest trainee on the show was born in 2001, making them all under the age of 19 during filming.
