ATEEZ: Kings of the Japanese Release

As mentioned in previous articles for Japanese Corner, it’s not uncommon for K-Pop groups to release music in Japanese as well. In fact, it’s actually quite common! Fourth generation boy group ATEEZ has been regularly releasing Japanese albums since a year after their debut, and with every release that passes, the songs get better and better.

TREASURE EP. EXTRA: Shift The Map

ATEEZ’s first foray into Japanese releases came with the December 2019 album, TREASURE EP. EXTRA: Shift The Map. The album features 11 tracks, however only two are in Japanese, and they’re Japanese versions of previously released Korean songs: “UTOPIA” and “Aurora.” The remaining nine tracks are all remixes of their Korean songs, which ATEEZ continues to do to this day on some of their Korean and Japanese releases.

In all honesty, I love that “UTOPIA” was chosen as the title track for ATEEZ’s first Japanese release. As much as I love “Wave,” “Illusion,” and “Aurora,” I’ve always believed that “UTOPIA” would’ve been a great counterpart to “Illusion” — first you have the utopia, which is followed by illusion, you know?

TREASURE EP. Map To Answer

TREASURE EP. Map To Answer followed just two months later, with “Answer” as the Japanese title track. The music video for “Answer” is the same as the Korean version, though obviously with the members singing in Japanese. But one of my favorite things about the Japanese version is that it still opens with San’s iconic, “Geonbaehaja like a thunder,” rather than translating the opening word to Japanese.

The remaining five tracks on the album include intro “Declaration,” Japanese original track “Better,” and then three new remixes: “WONDERLAND - SEAN OH’S Skrt Mix,” “Sunrise - Atmospheric Mix by SPACECOWBOY,” and “Star 1117 - BUDDY’S Melodic Mix.” Before TREASURE EP. Map To Answer was released, San and Wooyoung danced to “Declaration” at the beginning of ATEEZ’s 2020 Golden Disc Awards performance of “Answer” and “WONDERLAND.” “Better” would later go on to appear in Korean on the ATEEZ album ZERO : FEVER EPILOGUE.

Into the A to Z

ATEEZ’s first original Japanese album, Into the A to Z features 10 songs. Eight of the songs are Japanese versions of Korean songs: “Pirate King,” “Say My Name,” “UTOPIA,” “AURORA,” “WONDERLAND,” “Answer,” “THANXX,” and “INCEPTION.” The remaining two songs are “Better,” which was included on their previous Japanese release, and “Still Here.”

While none of the songs on the album really got the title track treatment, a video was released for “Still Here” that has the song playing over fanart drawn by ATINY. It’s a super sweet video that shows the love between ATEEZ and their fans.

Dreamers

Dreamers was released in July 2021, with title track “Dreamers” being used as the fifth ending theme for Digimon Adventure, the reboot of the original 1999 anime of the same name. The other three tracks on the single album include “Blue Summer,” an acoustic version of “Still Here,” and an instrumental version of “Dreamers.”

While the anime didn’t do so well, “Dreamers” has become a fan favorite ATEEZ track due to the music video highlighting ATEEZ’s friendship. While Mingi isn’t in the music video, there’s always a space left open for him, and it’s entirely possible that the small cubes that each of the members stare at lovingly throughout the music video are them looking back at the rapper. The softest moment in the music video is Hongjoong watching over his friends as they goof off in the ocean and Yunho leaves a massive wet handprint on Seonghwa’s shirt, leading to confusion from the oldest member and the younger members laughing at him.

BEYOND : ZERO

ATEEZ’s next Japanese release would come almost a year later in May 2022. BEYOND : ZERO features seven tracks including an intro, Japanese original track “The King,” and then Japanese versions of “Deja Vu,” “ROCKY,” “Turbulence,” “Take Me Home,” and “Fireworks (I’m The One).” Rather than one of their previous Korean title tracks being the Japanese title track, ATEEZ went with “ROCKY” as the title track for BEYOND : ZERO and dubbed it “ROCKY (Boxers Ver.).”

The music video for “ROCKY (Boxers Ver.)” features ATEEZ as boxers, with Hongjoong, San, and Wooyoung each sporting bruises and injuries on their faces. As a former professional wrestling stan who still sports an admiration for the sport, a highlight in the music video is Mingi walking around with a replica WWE championship belt, albeit it’s the WWE RAW Women’s Championship Title Belt. The inclusion of a wrestling belt makes sense, however, as professional wrestling is a massive market in Japan. And who knows? Maybe the use of the women’s championship belt was done to shed light on how poorly female wrestlers in WWE are treated in comparison to their male counterparts. Feminist icon Song Mingi.

THE WORLD EP.PARADIGM

THE WORLD EP.PARADIGM was released just a month before ATEEZ’s Korean release SPIN OFF : FROM THE WITNESS. The mini-album features an intro and an outro, original Japanese track “Paradigm,” Japanese versions of “Cyberpunk” and “New World,” and “Guerrilla - Flag Version.” While “ROCKY (Boxers Ver.)” was in Japanese, “Guerrilla - Flag Version” is a new version of “Guerrilla” and still sung in Korean, but with an emphasis on rock elements. “New World - Japanese Version” also has some slight differences from the original Korean track, but for the most part is the same song, just in Japanese.

The music video for “Paradigm” is choreography-centric, featuring ATEEZ in slick outfits. Some shots are in black and white, others are in an industrial-esque setting, and others are in red lighting. In the red lighting sequences, there’s some flashes of color, almost like the distorted television graphics when a channel goes off the air. If you’re looking for a video where you can just stare at your bias the entire time, this is the one.

Limitless

Limitless is ATEEZ’s most recent Japanese release, consisting of tracks “Limitless” and “DIAMOND” as well as instrumental versions of both. As mentioned in the March Comeback Roundup, “Limitless” gives off heavy anime vibes, and the track is the perfect blend of EDM elements. The build-up into the chorus still gives me goosebumps three months later, but that’s also just an ATEEZ standard at this point (“MIST” still openly makes me sob, so).

The music video for “Limitless” features ATEEZ at the gym, working on strengthening up because, as Yeosang sings, “We gonna be a winner / That’s right, we are fighters / We gonna be a winner / This possibility is limitless.”* The group then splits off into some competitive sports, with Hongjoong versus Yeosang and Jongho versus Yunho in archery while Seonghwa faces Mingi and Wooyoung faces San in archery. Next time you’re at the gym, make sure “Limitless” is on your workout playlist.

*Lyric translations from music video subtitles

Edited by Omani