Kep1er - "Shooting Star" MV Review

Kep1er ( 케플러) is a girl group from WakeOne formed by the winners of MNET's survival show Girls Planet 999, which debuted on January 3, 2022. They currently have 9 members: Yujin, Xiaoting, Mashiro, Chaehyun, Dayeon, Hikaru, Bahiyyih, Youngeun and Yeseo. Recently, 7 members (except for Mashiro and Yeseo) decided to accept a contract extension and renew their contracts (I guess this is their last comeback as a full group [for now]).

"Shooting Star" is the lead single from their first full album, Kep1going On.

"Shooting Star"

I haven't heard any of Kep1er's songs since their debut with "Wa Da Da" (which I heard when I was watching WJSN and Viviz on Queendom 2 and ended up liking it) and "Up" their first comeback (where I lost interest). So I was quite surprised when I accidentally heard "Shooting Star" and liked it a lot more than "Wa Da Da"

The song sounds dreamy and magical girl-esque. I can imagine it being used as the OP of an Anime. 

I love the instrumental, especially the gradually increasing drum beat during the bridge. 

The vocals sound lovely and I didn't find the rap verse to be super out of place (like in some other songs).

To be sincere, the MV is nice but is not very interesting, although I did like the scenes where Xiaoting and Yeseo are illuminated in the dark (0:45) and the ones during the rap verse and Youngeun part (starting from 1:18). 

The CGI shooting star girls (? look a little bit weird when they start singing at 2:24, but the part where one of them becomes a constellation is really cool (2:38).

Style-wise, all the outfits look very consistent, although some of them look low budget (and by some I mean the white ones), My favorites were the earth-toned ones that appear at the beginning of the video (and in other parts too), they are the ones that look the most interesting of the three different looks that appear during the music video, especially Daeyeon and Xiaoting's. However, I would have loved to see the outfits that are in the photo at the top of the page in the music video; they are the prettiest in my opinion (except for whatever Youngeun is wearing, which looks extremely odd in comparison to the other outfits, the tights throw the whole look off).

As a side note, I really like Chaehyun's hair colour; it looks very pretty on her.

This is off-topic, but I just wanted to mention how pretty (although simple) the album cover is; it goes so well with the magical girl feeling the song has.

Rating

Song – 10/10

MV – 7/10

Choreography – 10/10

Style – 8/10

Overall Rating – 8.5/10

Song Credits

Release Date: June 3, 2024.

Length: 3 min 03 sec.

Lyrics by: Kevin_D (D_answer), Im Su-Ran, Lee Seu-Ran, and Dayeon.

Music by: Kevin_D (D_answer), Ddank (D_answer), Zamun (D_answer), and Livy.

Arranged by: Kevin_D (D_answer), Ddank (D_answer), and Zamun (D_answer).

MV Directed by: Jo Wo-Jun and Song Ji-Yeop (Studio Wacko).

Photo source: WakeOne.

*Song credits taken from Kpop Fandom Wiki*