Why the timelesz Project Is So Compelling: Japanese-Korean Audition History and a New Strategy

After Sexy Zone changed its name to timelesz, the current members took the judges' seats in a public audition to recruit new members. It drew 18,922 applications, and the narrowing-down of candidates became the heart of the show. Since the question was whom to welcome into a group that was already active, viewers watched not just for singing and dancing but for the kind of relationship each person would build with the members.

Traditional idols mostly draw fans in once the finished image is ready, and the uncertainty of the selection stage tended to be hidden. A structure where you can cheer for someone while they are still nobody brings out fans' urge to nurture. But fans are not responsible for a candidate's development. Time spent watching over someone breeds attachment, yet that is not the same as viewers owning a candidate's future, and the two should be kept apart.

Rather than picking a candidate from one standout scene, viewers can work out why they want to back someone by following how that person tackles a task, speaks to peers and changes after criticism. Balance the fun of predicting the result with respect for one person's growth, and support is not reduced to winning and losing.

Producers need to give viewers profiles that help them remember the candidates, editing that shows what has changed since the last round, and explanations of what the judges valued. Push votes and buzz without enough information, and support tilts toward quick impressions and existing name recognition. If selection is going to be content, providing just as much material for reading the process is a precondition for co-creation.

Korean public audition shows popularized a format that displays trainees' rankings, lessons and evaluations and lets viewers choose who debuts. In Japan, too, PRODUCE 101 JAPAN gave rise to JO1 and INI, and following the selection became a fandom in itself. Because viewers share not only the finished group's activities but also the doubts and role changes during training, they remember the time before debut as part of the group's history.

The timelesz project did not simply import that format. It added a story of existing members facing the candidates and deciding how to carry on the group's history, and translated a competition show into a show about relationships. A search for new talent alone would end in comparing ability; showing the existing members' judgments and conflicts also brings out what the current group wants to protect and what it wants to change.

Looking at formats that succeeded overseas or on other shows, it is tempting to adopt only the ranking announcements and viewer votes. But fans take part not because the mechanism is novel but because they understand whose future a choice affects and how. Existing fans carry a history they have built up, and new viewers need an introduction. Editing that leaves neither group behind when they watch the same scene is what lets a format take root in a culture.

What organizers should learn from is not dramatic swings in the rankings but a way of turning candidates' efforts into comparable information. Show people taking on the same task, the evaluation criteria and the process of improvement in a consistent way, and fans find it easier to accept the gap between their own taste and the judges' result. When the criteria fade from view from one episode to the next, support tilts toward distrust and attacks. The more participatory the project, the more carefully the line between story and judging must be explained.

The "Fuma Kikuchi-style" phrasing, a copyable speech pattern named after Fuma Kikuchi that came out of the trailer, set off parodies and fan theories on social media before the show even aired. Short phrases that reached people who had not watched became a way in to the candidates and the project. They are easy to join in with, but they also risk people deciding what someone is like without seeing the original scene. Only when there is a path back to the main program after sharing the fun does that way in turn into understanding.

Official trading cards of the 12 candidates, released in January 2025 at ¥600, sold out the same day, and a second sale was announced. The demand shows fans already treating candidates still mid-selection as people to back. Buying is a way to keep your support in hand, but the number of cards you managed to buy should not become a measure of how strongly you support someone. Watching the stream, writing your impressions and refusing to join posts that hurt candidates also support people during selection.

Still, care is needed so that candidates' lives are not simply consumed. Not fixing impressions too firmly through editing, protecting candidates from abuse and preparing options for after elimination are all responsibilities of a public format.

When organizers bring social media reactions into the show, they need to treat words that created excitement separately from attacks aimed at an individual. If the official account presents information on each candidate on equal terms, points to the original scene behind a clip and spells out prohibited acts, fans can judge for themselves where impressions end and abuse begins. Responding quickly with the necessary explanation, rather than leaving a topic alone, is also part of protecting performers.

In a public audition, attention gathers on those who pass, while many candidates move on to other paths. If elimination is not treated as "the end," and fans have somewhere to follow a candidate's own posts or a new group, the relationship continues. Still, no one should be expected to keep working after the show ends; resting, moving into another field or not posting are choices to respect. Fans' wish for a sequel and the candidates' right to decide their own path must both be honored.

Some candidates post their own videos and win support on social media. A selection result does not determine a talent's worth. Producers and fans both need this view. Not fitting the role or timing one group was looking for is different from having no value as a performer. Care is also needed so that nicknames or rankings from the show do not follow people into their later activities.

The experience of backing a candidate stays with fans even after the successful ones debut. Looking back not only at who was chosen but at what relationships were born raises the quality of the next project. Organizers can avoid making the results announcement the final episode, and can explain the move to the new lineup and share each candidate's plans as far as they wish. That lets fans sort out their feelings about the result and decide for themselves where to direct their support next.

A public project's success cannot be measured by the size of the buzz alone. Participants being able to look back on it with peace of mind, and eliminated candidates being able to move on to their next path, are important results too. How long footage and reactions from the selection stay public, and whether candidates can ask for corrections or removal, are production decisions that matter later. A project that has benefited from being public keeps a responsibility to protect people after the broadcast.

What makes the timelesz project interesting is not only that it chose new members. It turned the stretch when nobody knew who would be chosen into content that fans could watch over together.

The more you make public, the more the organizers' responsibility for explanation and protection grows. Turning fans' passion into success takes a design that cares for people as much as it takes big numbers. So that candidates need not carry into the future only the one side they showed on the show, organizers should be upfront about the limits of editing, and fans should separate rankings from judgments of character. Being able to walk on with peace of mind after the result shows the quality of the co-creation.

For fans, the standard of judgment is not only whether the candidate they like survives. Ask whether the reasons for judging make sense, whether anyone is being cast as the villain and whether the freedom not to support is also protected, and you can decide whether to join in with peace of mind. The stronger your emotions, the more it helps to go back to the full program rather than a short clip, so that you see the candidates fairly.

Companies and production teams should not bundle viewing, social media and products into one frenzy; each deserves its own depth of participation. Sharing a story without making a person's life the property of a project is what turns a public audition from a fleeting competition into co-creation that leads to the future.