2. Why Not? - LOONA
3. FIESTA - IZ*ONE
4. Black Mamba - aespa
5. Girls - Nature
Yet another win for the Buddies
GFRIEND snatch another crown with their excellent glittery, pastelly, dreamy, and retro-y music video. From what I've gathered, MAGO serves as the conclusion to their three-piece journey of becoming a "witch" - in this universe, a modern and matured woman. So the music video is all about self-love and self-acceptance, developing a new confidence & celebrating with other "witches" who have been on the same transformation. When we compare this to Crossroads which was the beginning of this story, it depicts the girls separating and having conflict with each other, where MAGO ends with the girls having everything resolved and being united together once again. Wig!
But yeah, I don't think anyone really voted MAGO for that tidbit; I don't know what the fuck that is, okay?, that's just somethin sweet for the fuckin kids, okay?
But yeah the MV is a serve. The sets are gorgeous, everything is dipped in oranges, lilacs, and pinks, it's sparkly & glittery, the outfits are cute, it matches the song sonically, fun group choreo, speaking of choreo: Sowon doing a high kick and slamming it down in the final chorus, AND it has Yuju pole dancing and swinging on a giant mirrorball while wearing very hunty stripper heels. What more could you want?
In second place is another deserving winner, Why Not? by LOONA. This MV is excellent, unnies. It's very exciting to watch in general, actually. It's got multiple incredible sets, it's very dynamic pretty much in every scene, it's colourful, they have a BUDGET!!! for special effects, and ultimately it really feels like a culmination of the LOONAVERSE™ so far, with the video referencing or subtly nodding to pretty much all of their past videos? This is something the MCU could never pull off.
My faaaavourite part of the video is Gowon hovering over Earth while there's a hurricane brewing in the atmosphere... her Storm from X-Men lil serveeee it's so fucking iconique.
And also for a bit of a kii:
Those actually were real fireworks while Heejin was dancing. That's some true Queen shit.
In third place is IZ*ONE's FIESTA, which is another serve. Really, really colourful and pretty sets, a lot of fun and artsy camerawork & quick editing, and it's super polished, obviously. And their black & white group choreo outfits are so gorgeous fff. My only complaint is I wish we saw more of the ribbon choreo nn I just KNOW they had more of that lying around on the cutting room floor somewhere.
In fourth place for a bit of a kii is aespa's Black Mamba, which actually won Most Overrated Video. I don't mind the video too much, I've said earlier that I really liked that one set of the overgrown lavender and other plants in the subway carriage, and yeah the girls look great - pretty outfits and nails! But yeah, I just didn't get my K/DA fantasy from their æ concept.
and in last place is Girls by NATURE. This was very good as well, with them dipping into their Dreamcatcher fantasy purse and giving us a very pretty horror-themed music video. It's kind of like a more vicious version of CLC's Devil, where it's the Nature girls killing each other in their lil haunted grand hotel set. As a horror movie gay I really love this MV fff, it has a couple cool set pieces too: the grotty bloody bathtubs, and the shredded white curtain room with all of the scissors dangling down nn. It has some very flash editing and all that stuff too. Serve!!
