BABYMONSTER Ruka’s Recent Activities Showcases The Group’s Popularity — Netizens Raise Concerns About YG’s Alleged Debuting Plans

BABYMONSTER seems to be showing their unrivaled popularity without even a date set for their debut.

Over the past few months, netizens have been introduced to the members and their unreal talent. Senior YG Entertainment artists have also shared their thoughts on the members, including artists from BLACKPINK and WINNER.

In particular, one idol that has recently gained attention is Ruka.

The Japanese trainee already has experience in the industry after being part of an idol group project in Japan. In her introduction videos, Ruka’s rapping skills were on show and impressed a lot of fans.

 

Recently, Ruka’s recent activities shocked fans after the BABYMONSTER Instagram account shared photos of the idol.

March 20 was Ruka’s birthday. To celebrate, YG released photos of the star in front of birthday banners that were purchased by Chinese fans.

While it isn’t unusual for idols to get birthday advertisements and banners bought from global fans, it isn’t usually commonly seen for trainees and those who don’t even have a debut set.

In the caption, Ruka thanked the fans for the birthday photos in both Korean and English.

Yet, it isn’t just Ruka who has shocked fans with the huge number of fans before debuting. Back in February, one fan collated all the data from the members’ fan accounts on Weibo, which was huge. This was just after the members were announced, and the numbers will undoubtedly be much higher now!

Chinese Bar of #BABYMONSTER Members on WEIBO.

BABYMONSTER Bar – 11.6k ffs
Ahyeon Bar – 11.9k ffs & 11.4k ffs
Ruka Bar – 7.2k ffs & 1.7k ffs
Asa Bar – 6.1k ffs & 2.3k ffs
Rora Bar – 5.2k ffs
Chiquita Bar – 4.1k ffs & 1.2k ffs
Pharita Bar – 1.9k ffs
Haram Bar – 1.2k ffs pic.twitter.com/mXutEO3qLf

— chanel (@ahyeontales) February 16, 2023

Another reason Ruka’s birthday has gained attention is because of the “Survival show” concept YG has promoted. In a teaser, the company teased that not all of the seven members were going to be debuting.

When the photos of Ruka’s birthday bar were released, a Reddit forum discussed that they wouldn’t be promoting this much about the members and allowing fans to purchase advertisements if they didn’t intend all of them to debut.

At this point everyone should treat the episodes as a documentary of how BabyMonster were formed and a display of their skills rather than an actual survival show with massive stakes on the line.

— OP

Even YGE stopped pretending that BabyMonster "survival show" was real. from kpopthoughts

In the comments, while netizens were shocked at the popularity of the members already, others also agreed with OP, adding that it seemed unlikely that they would remove any of the members. In particular, it would seem harsh after all of the members have already secured a strong fan base.

While many have explained that YG has a history of hyping up their trainees to gain popularity, others also pointed out that the investment fans have in all the members would make it even worse if all the members didn’t debut.

You can read about the shocking announcement from YG Entertainment below.

YG Entertainment Shocks Fans After Announcing A Change To BABYMONSTER’s Final Line-Up