Yet Another BOSS RIIZE update – Total Uproar

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(Written October 16, 2024)

I can’t believe I have to keep taking my BOSS RIIZE binder off the shelf to put in an update.  Usually I take down finished binders every once in a while to review them and make edits.  But this RIIZE story isn’t ending.

RIIZE has always been marketed as an international band.  And the international fans are FURIOUS about what is happening to Seunghan.  American and European YouTubers I follow, who I didn’t even know were into K-pop, have been posting angry videos about the way Seunghan is being treated, and how toxic fans get to bully major labels into doing whatever they want them to do.  And RIIZE is caught in the middle of all this.

A quick breakdown of what I’ve learned over the past 24 hours:

When SM Entertainment announced that Seunghan would return to RIIZE, the rest of the group was performing at the KBS Music Bank Tour in Madrid.  From the fan postings I’ve been reading on Reddit, the Madrid crowd was excited at the news and chanting about how RIIZE was finally seven again.  Meanwhile, Seunghan was back in Seoul by himself, facing the huge fan backlash with no support system around him.  Cell phone footage is posted online of him walking to the SM Building, having to walk past all those funeral wreaths.  Later, fans got pictures of him leaving the SM Building in tears.  Alone. 

Two days after the announcement that Seunghan was returning, SM posted his letter saying that he was leaving permanently.  Everyone pretty much knows SM made him write that letter.  And the bullies celebrated, but the rest of the K-pop world was PISSED.

The K-netizen bullies may be celebrating, but the rest of the fans are boycotting.  They have cancelled all their orders of products by SM artists.  They have unsubscribed to SM social media accounts.  And starting yesterday, companies all over the world that sell K-pop music and merch have put a hold on selling anything by RIIZE to protest the way SM is treating their artists.  (SM has a loooong history of horrible band management decisions that I won’t get into right now.)

Caught in the middle of all this madness is RIIZE.  The six active members who were so excited about their friend returning to the group watched as their so-called fans bullied their friend until SM backed down.  SM did not take them off the tour.  Fans captured photos of them in airports on the tour with their faces covered in COVID masks and hats pulled down, but So Hee had clearly been crying in one of the pictures. 

They can’t be with their friend to comfort him.  Shops worldwide have stopped selling their merch, and even though it’s in support of Seunghan, it’s still costing them in sales.  And they have to continue on their tour, singing and dancing in front of audiences, many of whom participated in the bullying and are responsible for all this.  They are in the middle of an international uproar due to the mismanagement and cowardice of SM Entertainment.

Seunghan is one of many, many K-pop idols whose lives and careers have been destroyed by the toxic K-netizens who have been allowed to run rampant in the industry.  A few idols have ended their lives over such bullying.  I don’t know why Seunghan is the straw that broke the camel’s back, but it seems the world has had enough.  Maybe the reason Seunghan is the catalyst is because RIIZE has such a huge international fan base.  When you market your K-pop group to the entire world, the entire world pays attention when one of the group members gets mistreated. 

These horrible toxic fans have to be stopped.  K-pop idols need to be better protected.  And SM Entertainment needs to be burned to the ground.  Right now, the intensity is still building, and this story isn’t close to being over. 

Depending on what happens, I may be taking a break from these recaps once I’m finished with I-Land.  Knowing what I know about how idols are treated, it’s hard to get enthusiastic about survival reality shows that groom the next batch of kids to get thrown right into that hellscape of an industry. 

I’m going to leave my BOSS RIIZE binder here on my desk for a while.  There will be more to this story.  I’m just hoping that RIIZE, all seven of them, come out of this okay. 

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