Maki ShinJo

PERSONALITY — 
"The next time we meet: you'll be asking me for an autograph old man." - Shinjo to his step-father before they parted a year ago.

"This 'Japanese trash' thinks you should mind your own business, you miserable cow," - Shinjo in Korean to an old woman who cursed at him when he was speaking Japanese to his sister.

"Chill out, jeez. Don't take everything so personally, dummy," - Shinjo to a fellow groupmate after inadvertently insulting them.

Shinjo is best known as that loud kid in the back. If there is someone laughing loudly about something rather immature or otherwise silly, nine times out of ten you can bet it's Shinjo being amused by something. "Kid" seems like a good term for him as it doesn't take much to keep Shinjo entertained. Boredom is the bane of Shinjo's existence. Unable to stay still for very long, Shinjo will make his own amusement when there is none at hand. And he is more than happy to drag anyone willing along with him to find entertainment and joy, even if he has to do it with them kicking and screaming. Boundaries? Nahhh. Those are just silly social constructs. And yes, it makes Shinjo a little much to handle for those who may not be ready for it. Don't worry: he won't hold it against you. You'll figure out how awesome it is to be around him eventually. He's a patient guy. *disclaimer: his words, not the author's.

 

Utterly and completely shameless, there is little that embarasses Shinjo. No topic is too taboo for him, and candid conversations are his forte. His sense of humor can sometimes come off as irreverent: he doesn't really care for the societal norms and conventions. And he's not afraid to call it out, usually in the form of a snappy comeback or quip. While his inability to sometimes filter himself gets him into trouble, you can't accuse him of dishonesty. Candid with his feelings and those around him, Shinjo says it like it is. And sometimes its just a little too unfiltered. He doesn't mean to insult you by saying you're being dumb, but c'mon, you really are. Take it with a grain of salt and move on my man. *disclaimer: his words, not the author's.

 

And Shinjo will fight. There is no flight response for Shinjo: it's all fight. Never one to back down from a challenge, Shinjo's ability to tackle most issues head on serves him well when it comes to handling the stress and harshness of life. But what it also does is make him just a little too much to handle at times. Compromise is a tough thing for Shinjo: he has to buy into it fully, or he will fight it kicking and shouting. But this is not all about fighting others for his benefit. Shinjo genuinely looks out for the underdog, and is a capable defender. Essentially the person you want backing you up whether you like it or not. Social injustices anger him the most. And he will bark as hard as he bites. A flurry of Shinjo insults often is a mix of observations and commentary, all unfiltered, and biting. Happy and reckless he may be: but a pushover he certainly is not.

Ambition drives Shinjo. He works harder if he thinks he's not gotten it right. He'll work doubly hard if he thinks he messed up the others, and that triples if he is ever put in charge of any of them. Shinjo practically raised his little brothers, so he can out on a layer of responsibility when needed. He still acts like a big kid while doing it, make no doubt, but he is also ushering things along to get the best outcome. Despite his boyish exterior, those that know him know he can be trusted and be responsible for his actions. He wants to succeed, so he pushes towards that, and if that means being the adult once in a while, well okay then. He's going to be great one day, wait and see. And the naysayers will have to eat their words. He can't just be second best. He has to win somehow, and Shinjo hates to lose.

But deep down, Shinjo has a lot of envy for those around him. Deprived of a biological father, his mother gone, judged for his ethnicity, language, and even name, Shinjo at times feels ready to just cut all ties with everything and wants to hide in a dark space all alone to wallow. But then he sees what others have, what they excel in, and he wants that so much more than just fading away. "He's a better dancer", "he's a better singer", "he's much more handsome", "everyone just likes him more..." are all common thoughts for Shinjo. He compensates with boisterous, loud energy that completely obliterates any inkling he might have self doubts on himself. But it's not a lie that Shinjo can never completely quiet that small voice in his head telling him he needs to be better, do better, be better, do better... He just wants to be as beloved as the next person. Why can't he have that? Why doesn't he have what they have? And then he has to stop himself because truly this is a dark spiral. And he knows it. And yet, that voice just won't leave him be.

Friendly and outgoing, glossing over deep seated desires to be the best, and hiding behind a loud personality covers Shinjo in a nutshell.
 

 

TL;DR — 
(+) Candid, Capable, Tolerant, Defender, Boisterous
(–) Irreverent, Competetive, Irrascible, Obnoxious, Envious
(...) Shameless, Ambitious, ENTP, Chaotic Good with some neutral tendencies.
 

BIOGRAPHY — Born in Fukuoka, Shinjo's parents married young. However, when Shinjo was no older than a year, his biological father (he thinks his name is Tatsumi...he'd be lying if he told you he was certain), passed away very suddenly of an aneurism, leaving his wife Sayaka raising her two children alone. But a year later, she was swept off her feet by a dancer she met named Sangmin who was studying in Japan. His family severely disapproved of this match: she was not Korean and had 2 children already. Heedless of them, Sangmin married Sayaka and they lived together in Japan up until Shinjo was 6. After then, presented with an oppotunity to open his own studio in Korea with a colleague, the family moved to Seoul. 

And then life just got more complicated. Shunned by their Korean relations, far away from their Japanese relations, foreign Shinjo endured a lot of prejudices. Maybe it wouldn't have been so bad if they lived elsewhere, even if a different apartment, but he remembers their two neighbors: an old man and woman. Everyday, calling them names and insulting them. His mother walked with her head down low, and he was encouraged to only speak Korean. They were oddities, and Shinjo found he was the object of ridicule by classmates who didn't understand. They met many wonderful people too, but those few who made them feel like outsiders were the ones who left the longest impressions.

For his early years, Shinjo was a quiet, obedient boy. Perfectly filial and content to do as his parents asked. Early on, he remembers joining his step-father for dance classes, and loved it. Entertained by this, his step-father took the time to actually teach him, and there was a time that Shinjo would even lead the children's classes for his step-father. This was a solace for him really. No one cared who or what he was when he was dancing. Despite feeling like an outsider even though by now Shinjo felt most comfortable speaking Korean, he was okay with life to an extent. While not perfect, it wasn't something so horrible.

And then it got more complicated. It all happened so suddenly. Shingyu has just been born, and all to quickly his mother was gone due to complications. Everything moved so quickly, and he was officially an orphan. And he didn't even have the ability to process it when they got home because lo and behold that old couple made snide remarks again. This was a lot for a 7 year old to handle. He lost his whole world, and now this pair of biased asshats were making these comments? From that moment, something broke in Shinjo, and the floodgates opened. No more did he just stay quiet and "good". Oh no. Shinjo fought back.

They continued to live with Sangmin as he truly loved the children as much as his own. And he did the best he could for them. But work was long and hard, so Shinjo and Hanae were the ones at home taking care of things. They raised their siblings and basically stood together against anyone who might not understand. Steadily Shinjo was acting out more and more, taking no crap from anyone be it against him or his family. If his parental figures couldn;t be around to defend them, he would. But he always found solace in dancing at the studio, and up until he was 18 he fully intended on either taking over the studio one day or being a professional dancer. But Sangmin deterred him: he wanted him to take up a more secure, practical profession. To please his step-father, Shinjo dedicated his time to both studying and dance, hoping to have the best of both worlds. 

He is now 20, and enter the BBC rep. Having come to the studio to supposedly watch a few of the students, instead she notices Shinjo. And extends him an offer to audition and be a trainee at Block Berry Creative without even seeing him dance, ignoring the other students there. Sangmin humors Shinjo at first, and outwardly supports him. But then Shinjo passes and becomes a trainee. Then he decides to put university on hold. Then he is thinking of moving away to train properly for a little while...and Sangmin snaps. He tries to forbid Shinjo, and the two end up on a horrible verbal altercation. This culminates in Sangmin slapping Shinjo, and Shinjo uttering the words "the next time you see me, you'll be asking for an autograph old man," before he left the home to pursue being an idol.
 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

STAGE NAME — Cano (taken from the second brightest star in the sky Canopus)
COLOUR — Lime Green
ANIMAL — Dragonfly
NAME OF DEBUT SONG — Dino (SVT) - The Real Thing

THE MUSIC VIDEO — 

— The video begins with Cano standing on the edge of a building looking across it to another one across the way. The sky above him is blue but quickly fading into twilight. Wind is blowing up, making his white jacket billow and his hair sway. He looks down, the street below busy with cars. He takes a few steps back and runs towards the edge, leaping off. The jump is slowed and the scene shifts, showing different angles of the jump, before switching to Cano standing alone on the roof again, beginning his rap, the sky above him dark with stars.

The scene shifts to him walking down the dark street, still rapping as he walks along. The visible sky is dark, dusklit. Neon signs of various colors in arrows of differing styles seem to point him into a direction. He ignores most of them, instead pausing to follow one bright green one. He turns to look and to his surprise there's a figure at the end of a dark alley wearing a green jacket and hood. There's a brief closeup of a smirk, a bit of the bottom of the face, and he turns away, revelaing a gold embroidered dragonfly on the back of the jacket.

Scene shifts to Cano on the roof again, rapping directly to the camera and the audience, and the sky above him is blue. His jump is shown briefly again before it changes back.

Cano takes off after the figure who is now running from him. Down the alley and right through a dark green door. He emerges in a stairwell, and Cano looks up, seeing the figure in green above him peering at him before disappearing. Cano runs up the stairs, his ascent mingled with scenes of him being on the room, staring at a far roof, and more close up cuts of his leap from the previous scenes. While the stairs are dark, there are windows showing the outside world. The sky is seen as growing darker. At last, he makes it to the top of the stair and bursts through another green door.

He stumbles in to a white room. He is clearly perplexed with a close up on his face.  All around are vendors and their stands, but instead of being manned by people, it's people with animal mascot heads. One has musical instruments, another lots of food, another with books, and farther along are all sorts of others though they aren't focused on. There is one selling TVs, all showing images of a castle with a pink sky that hold his interest for a moment. Instead, the book vendor grabs him and forces him to sit in a chair, shoving a book into his hand. Another then grabs him, the music vendor, trying to put a recorder and clarinet in his hands. The food vendor then grabs him and shoves a bunch of candy on a plate at him. He looks almost overwhelmed, but has reached out for the candy when he notices the guy in green walking away from the crowd of mascots.

He's back on the roof, the sky over him has changed to a pink dusklight, and he smirks before uttering his rap line. (Here)

As soon as he finishes, Cano throws the plate of candy aside, and makes a run for it. He tears down the stalls as he goes by, attempting to slow down the mascots that are now coming after him. Useless baubles abound on the ground in his wake, among them noticeably: a facemask with a silly mouth, a paper chain, there's even a little porcelain doll with a broken leg.
Through another green door, back into a dark stairwell. Running up the stairs again. The camera angle changes, making it appear as if he's walking sideways, upside down, backwards, forwards. Within this network of stairs, he begins following neon arrows of varying colors, pointing him the right direction. More scenes of his slow motion leap from the roof intermingle here, along with him on the roof dancing and rapping. 

He finally emerges into a dark hall where at the end is a red door alight. Suddenly lights come on of different colors over more people with mascot heads. They all reach out a hand to him, motioning to the red door. Two more figures emerge, one with an ox head and another a horse head. They beckon him and motion to the door, bowing their heads. The door begins to open but Cano stops when he sees another green door off to the side, also alight.

Back on the roof again, and Cano is running to leap across to the other building again. A close up of his legs shows the right one has one of the pant legs pulled up, brief images of a dragonfly wing like pattern glowing on it as he runs. The scene is back to the room, and he is running for the green door instead, stumbling as smaller, stuffed versions of the horse and ox grab onto his right leg. Cut shots of him rapping on the roof with the stars behind him, the sky lighting up to dawnlight, him leaping across the space between the buildings, his hand reaching to touch the green door all intermingle. The final image is a hand reaching out, grabbing his wrist, and the sleeve of the hand is green.

The scene changes suddenly, and Cano is standing from a kneeling position. He stands, the audience now realizing he is wearing a green jacket with a gold embroidered dragonfly on it's back. As he stands, he looks up to the sky, a pink/peach hue like one sees at dawn. We hear a door opening, and he turns to look over his shoulder at the camera, a smile beginning to form on his face. The MV ends.

 

 

SYMBOLISM — 
— The idea of standing on the precipice is implicit here, staring out at a world just beyond your own. But he is not content to wait on his side and chooses to leap across to another. A literal leap of faith to something better. 

Dragonflies are viewed as negative, harbingers of death or the devil, in some European lore, but much of the rest of the world holds dragonflies in esteem, as agents of change, self realization, and clarity. The can be viewed as living in two worlds: half under water and the other flying through the air. They are a sign of good luck. Throughout the video Cano is chasing the dragonfly, the one embroidered on the person in the green jacket. Depending on your interpretation, he is either chasing his self realization or perhaps his demise.

Notably, there is the use of green. While it might be a lucky color like a green clover or jade, green is often the color of envy. The last door he confronts is also green, and it is arguably his envy blocking his way. So while in many ways there is luck here, it intermingles with his own craving to be like others. Colors continue to play a part here as Stellae will realize that the colors seen in the dark stairs belong to other members of Nox. He relies on those colors to help him navigate the stiars in a way. Even the neon signs in the beginning of the video are recognized as colors of the other Nox members, pointing in all differing directions, whereas the arrows while in the stairwell seems to point in a unified direction.

Really observant Stellae point out that the stairs resemble an M.C. Escher lithograph called Relativity. And within that lithograph are three points of gravity. Aether, Mundus, and the Veil? A limbo he is using as he travels between the worlds? Or maybe it is indicating his navigating amidst his groupmates as the lithograph typically has more characters in it. 

Starkly contrast are the mascot heads in the MV. And again, Stellae might recognize some the heads of animals belonging to other Nox members. Essentially, these are people. But you never see their faces. Moreso, these are faceless people, hiding behind false faces, trying to essentially tell Cano how to spend his time. The mascots reappear as a means of trying to get him to essentially take their hands again one last time before he escapes. You could view this as others trying to impose their values and beliefs on Cano. Some might even even equate this to the harsh reality of idol life being manufactured by people you may not ever meet, be it your CEO or fans even. 

The horse and ox mascots allude to two guardian types of the gates to the underworld in Chinese mythology. There is an allure to this red door, and red being a color of seduction/temptation in a way may indicate the opportunity he has wanted or wants. But these are guardians of the underworld: could this lead him to somewhere dark and with no return? Possibly the Veil? And yet, Cano turns away, and chooses a different door - the one that leads him to the outside.

The right leg imagery is clear here. The broken doll leg, the wing pattern, the hinderance of his movement by the stuffed animals. Many Stellae believe this alludes to something inhibiting his ability to move. But he is still able to run, and even make the jump despite these allusions.

Stellae may be tempted to think Cano is in the Veil a good portion: the stairs are dark, its like a maze, etc. But perceptive Stellae will realize the windows all show a Mundus sky. The sky is important in the video despite it being a background. Stars, dawnlight, dusklight, these are all transitional times, but they belong to real life existing sky. But Cano appears to always be in flux or transition, so some speculate that this reflects on him being in a state of limbo or flux either in his professional, personal life, or possibly both. More so, the pinks and peaches allude to Aether. Observant Stellae agree: Cano is running through the darkest parts of Mundus towards Aether, though some still argue if he is in Aether at the end or if he's just seeing the dawn of Mundus. 

At the end, he is revealed to be the person in green. He seems a little in awe, staring at the world some Stellae believe is Aether based on the sky. What Stellae like to speculate the most on is who opened the door clearly behind him per the way he responded at the end. He seems pleased by whoever it is. And some Stellae actually think, even though the MV might have you believe otherwise, that the person in green early on wasn't Cano: it might have been another member of Nox not entirely seen. Also: who grabbed his hand near the end??