Official Orange Caramel Thread

[johnpg]

Hi everyone,

 

I've read a lot of this thread, but not all 55 pages, so forgive me if this has already been discussed. However I noticed recently that Pledis updated their website quite significantly, and they still list After School and Orange Caramel prominently. In addition they show Raina and Nana as individual artists, but sadly no mention of Lizzy. 

 

This leads me to speculate that they must not have abandoned all plans for an OC or AS comeback. What's more I've now read two interviews with Nana where she mentions wanting to continue as a singer. So maybe all hope is not lost after all?

 

John

[johnpg]

Welcome!

 

I really want it to happen it's been so long!  This was talked about a lot in the After School thread let keep our hands crossed. 

 

Yes. It seems more realistic now than at any time in the last couple of years.

 

John

[johnpg]

Welcome! Lizzy is currently studying to be a make-up artist I believe. She hinted at it a few times and recently on her instagram she has been posting about her make-up kit and learning about it. She even tagged something called Soobin Academy in one of the posts Maybe she is only doing photoshoots and CF's at the moment and her makeup stuff.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Hi,

 

Thank you for your post!

 

I read about that on Koreaboo and then later I read the actual interview elsewhere. I think she's doing a TV contest show as a celebrity makeup artist competing against other celebrities. After reading about her going to make up school I read the actual interview and I don't think she was being entirely serious. Of course all of these things are translated and lacking context, so you can never know for sure. But her recent makeup posts are almost certainly related to that show. I'm sure someone here must know more, anyone?

 

I admit I'm a bit of an optimist, but I'm certain that if Pledis wanted an OC or AS comeback that Lizzy wouldn't turn it down. Plus Nana has said multiple times recently that she wants to go back on stage and do more music, and Raina is still in the mix as a singer. So it's possible, even if not likely. So I'm going to remain optimistic for now at least. 

 

John

[johnpg]

Ah I did not know about the tv show thing, but she should totally consider doing it more if she wins!

 

We've been waiting for an OC comeback for years but nothing ever comes of it. I doubt there will be a comeback anytime in the future with Pledis focusing on Seventeen, Nuest and Pristin and Nana is busy with her acting. There's not much to do but sit back and wait really. I've been spending the time collecting After School and Orange Caramel Japanese albums and singles I'm missing.

 

Yes, I agree, and it's been a LONG time so it's reasonable to think it's not going to happen. The reason I have some optimism is based on Pledis recently redesigning their website and still prominently featuring AS and OC as current artists. There of course could be any number of reasons for that, but it is a good sign. 

 

John

[johnpg]

Another Pledis website update. Lizzy is now featured next to Raina on the Artists section. Her page is only in Korean, and I do not speak it, but I did run it through Google Translate. I am sure we have some Korean speakers here who might be able to do a better job though. But the gist is, they are pushing her as a singer, variety star and actress. So that's nice to see. And both AS and OC are still listed on the page as current artists.

 

http://www.pledis.co.kr/html/artist/lizzy/KOR/profile

 

John

[johnpg]

They've since updated with translations in multiple languages. Here's what they say about Lizzy in English. 

 

LIZZY caught the attention of the public with sexiness, cuteness and bubbly charm through AFTER SCHOOL and ORANGE CARAMEL activities. She debuted as a solo trot singer last January 2015, and she continuously extends her spectrum as a singer capable of covering all genres. With her straightforward and witty character, she didn’t only take over the Korean entertainment program, but also got well-known as an actress with her outstanding creativeness and confidence. Without missing any field, she is definitely an outstanding all-around entertainer. Being active in various fields and being loved by the public, she is highly expected to grow infinitely.

[johnpg]

If only Pledis would give Lizzy another trot song, she's so perfect for it!!!

 

Maybe they will. Not An Easy Girl was fantastic and seemed to do pretty well. For instance it has over a million views on Youtube, which is twice what Raina's last song has. Yet Lizzy seemed to suggest the song was a flop. I think she has great potential as both a member of AS/OC and solo. Of course I don't have a lot of faith in Pledis. But I do think we're going to hear something one way or the other this year.

 

John

[johnpg]

Yesterday I was watching Youtube and came across the following two videos I hadn't seen before.

 

The first is a complete concert from Japan featuring Orange Caramel opening with three songs and then a full After School performance. I haven't watched it all, but the video is 90 minutes long. 

 

https://youtu.be/FXoheHRZb44

 

The next is also from Japan and is Orange Caramel performing Japanese versing of three songs.

 

 

Anyhow, I thought I'd seen every OC video ever made and then these popped up, so I thought I'd share. My apologies if this is old news, but they were new to me and quite a lot of fun to watch.

 

Cheers,

John

[johnpg]

My daughter made this Orange Caramel Catellena inspired Christmas gift for me. :-)

 

 

 

And I got these too.

 

Edited December 25, 2017 by johnpg

[johnpg]

Hi all,

 

I noticed something very interesting today regarding those new videos from Nana and Lizzy. Pledis intentionally put those into the Orange Caramel playlist, but not in the After School one. See the screen shot.

 

 

 

I also noticed that the new years cards from After School did not include Nana and Lizzy, but they did include Raina and the other members. So I wonder if the plan is for Nana and Lizzy to graduate from AS but remain in OC?

 

This is all silly guessing of course, since they haven't done a darn thing in years. But these ARE the first new videos posted to the OC playlist on Youtube in three years. That's got to mean something. Or is it just wishful thinking?

 

John

[johnpg]

180126 Raina's Instagram live

 

 

Are there any Korean speakers here? Did she say anything interesting? Any AS or OC or even solo music comments?

 

John

[johnpg]

I'm both terribly sad and relieved to  hear about Lizzy. The relief being at least now we finally know that OC is no more. We needed the closure. Pledis keeping us hanging all of this time was really a crappy thing to do.

 

 

[johnpg]

Hi all,

 

I came across this video the other day and I did not recognize the song. This is clearly OC singing, but I do not recall hearing this song before. Can any of you identify it? Was this released somewhere and I'm just having a brain fart? 

 

 

 

Thanks!

[johnpg]

I think it's some Multicultural Song that children learn about in Korea and the girls performed it for a special stage. The video was blocked in Australia (watched it through a proxy instead), so it might be a copyrighted song from a tv series/company.

 

Thanks for the info. I'd love to learn more about this. I suspect the recording was never made available outside of this video. 

[johnpg]

 

They weren't commercially successful in 2014. In spite of the fact that Catallena sounded almost from each electric device, sales haven't met expectations. And then My Copycat was the actual failure, concerning expectations and the cost of promotion. And later there was a failure with the solo Lizzy project. Solo projects of Raina were more successful, but success it was modest. 

 

All these factors promoted that Pledis is banal has grown cold to OC. Actually they are in a trap now: if to do cameback for OC, then it is necessary to make more investments and efforts, than in Catallena and My Copycat. At the same time there are no guarantees that it will be possible to pay back these means. If to do modest cameback, then it just will be parasitizing on the dying-away image of OC which anyway won't bring big return. All most concerns also AS.

 

 

That is a good explanation for why there hasn't been a comeback, but it doesn't explain why they are keeping the group (and therefore the fans) in limbo.

 

Pledis continues (to this day, even after Lizzy has left the agency) to insist that OC is a current group that could come back in the future. that is what has people upset. They continue to dangle the possibility for the fans, but NEVER deliver. What the fans want is either for them to put up or shut up, in other words do something with the group, or officially disband them.

 

It was literally THIS MONTH that Pledis announced that OC is still a thing and might release a record in the future. I for one would like to believe that is sincere, that they really do want to do it and are working on it. But their track record is SO bad that I have a hard time getting my hopes up. 

 

John

Edited May 30, 2018 by johnpg

[johnpg]

 

It can just be explained too: the OC and AS brands still have some value as an asset which can be used in the presence of excess financing. If to declare disbandment of these groups, the asset will lose any value at once. Besides a part of structure of OC remains in Pledis and prolonged the contracts. If the "ex-OC" or "ex-AS" prefix is applied to Nana and Raina, for girls it will have negative reflection of their image for media. For the same reason officially nobody designates YoungJi as the former participant of Kara: YoungJi remains in DSP and formally now is the only participant of group. Though it is considered that Kara is disbanded, but in reality of DSP never officially spoke about it :-)

 

Of course it isn't pleasant to fans, but it is reality and it is necessary to reconcile to it: so far is though some possibility of monetization of a brand, the companies won't refuse it. Nothing personal, it's just business.

 

 

Thanks Eugene,

 

Your explanation does seem to match what we've seen from Pledis and makes sense. To no one's surprise, Pledis has some issues with integrity and honesty as a company. 

 

John

[johnpg]

181028 = preview SBS Special Idol's life after the end of the stage (11:05PM) with Lizzy

 

Click here to view the Tweet

 

Click here to view the Tweet

 

Interesting. I hope this show is subtitled. I'm curious what she has to say. 

[johnpg]

Here's Raina on Twitch performing Catallena. 

 

https://clips.twitch.tv/ObedientJazzyKuduSmoocherZ?tt_medium=clips&tt_content=recommendation

[johnpg]

 

 

Here she tells about Catallena. About legendary "Haa!" at the beginning :-)

 

There are still no English subtitles. Has anyone translated this yet?

[johnpg]

She ceased to order the translation for the videos. 

There machine translation is available. In general it is possible to understand sense.

Did she or someone in the know say that they've stopped translating, or are you just speculating because some of these videos haven't been translated? So far all of the regular Youtube videos have been translated, it's only the live streams (most from Twitch) and clips from the live streams that haven't been. I hope that they continue to translate the regular videos at least.

 

John

[johnpg]

https://www.instagram.com/p/BtBnYieF_Br/?utm_source=ig_web_button_share_sheet

 

Can any of you translate what Lizzy said?