Kara "Idols are not rivals, but companions who share the same dream."

# Our own 'black'

When you think of Kara, you think of cuteness and liveliness. But little by little they've matured and this time, they changed into a whole new dark concept with 'Lupin'.

Leader Park Gyuri said "I was really worried about this change, but I'm relieved that it was well accepted. When I hear people saying that we got more mature, I feel that we already accomplished half of what we wanted".

To match the concept, there was also a big change of style. Han Seungyeon cut her hair to above shoulder level for the first time since her debut. Nicole as well, changed to a short haircut with a chic smokey make-up and because of that, she is hearing the word "handsome" quite often lately. While giving her typical cute smile, the youngest member Kang Jiyoung said that: "This time, I won't laugh when performing" is what she tries to keep in mind for this concept.

Kara and Girls Generation, who are receiving a huge amount of support from male fans especially, attracted a lot of interest for using 'black' as a main point of their concept. Girls Generation are currently promoting their 'Black Soshi' concept. When asked to explain the difference between Girls Generation and Kara's 'black', Kara answered: "Girls Generation have black as the foundation of their new song's concept, while we have black for having 'Lupin' as the foundation". They continued: "If neither our choreography, song and album jacket was related to the concept 'Lupin', it would be just a common dark concept, so we thought a lot about that".

# Looking broadly

We are in an era where girl groups are at their height, because of that, there are times that we wonder which groups might be rivals to each other. When asked the question "Who do you think is your strongest competitor?", Han Seungyeon gave a clear answer.

Han Seungyeon said: "You can think of a school. Just like students inside a classroom study hard together, I think it's the same thing with singers. When idols within a similar age-range gather together, the goal is not really surpassing each other. Since each one of them has a different color, it's more about doing their best to show their own color".

To this, Park Gyuri added: "Probably everyone, including us, thinks about showing how much they grew and showing a better performance than before. They say you have to pass over the difficult wall, but if you really do pass over the wall, I think it's true that your growth can slow down and eventually, there will be nowhere left to go but down. So we don't want to think that way, we want to run while looking broadly".

Even when her lack of sleep was apparent on her tired face, Park Gyuri said: "There is something I've been saying since the beginning, that we want to show ourselves growing. I'm happy because that seems to be coming true and feels like we are advancing stages, step by step", she said with sparkling eyes.

Nicole said: "There are times that our schedule is so packed that we can't even eat, but that's just proof that we are doing well, so knowing that gives me strength". Kang Jiyoung said: "Having to study for school at the same time (as my singer activities) worries me, but I want to do well in both", showing her strong will.

Everything is really tiring but it's by looking at the fans that they get energy. Han Seungyeon said: "When I see the fans support, it gives me a lot of strength. On our debut day, one fan came to see us and little by little it raised to 100 people, 200 people, and the number of fans kept increasing like that. This time on our comeback performance, quite a lot of fans came to support us so I'm really grateful for that".

Kara recently had a showcase in Japan and they acquired confidence about their activities in Japan as well. So this year, they won't have only 'Lupin' activities, but also, lively overseas activities. With that, we hope they can keep showing Kara's growth, which is their goal. When asked whether they had confidence in themselves, they just gave a bright smile. So let's all look forward to see what color their tomorrow will be

Source: Osen

Trans Credits: Harue@KARAHolic.com

(Please do not remove any credits when taking out news from theksource.)
http://theksource.blogspot.com/