Infinite Magazine Haul!

Throughout my stay in Seoul, I was able to purchase some magazines with Infinite on the cover, both recent and past! Here are the ones I was able to find~

@Star1, July 2014
I had arrived in Seoul and had some free time to go exploring at the end of June. I stumbled into a small bookstore in Sinchon, and they still had a few copies of this magazine! It cost only 2,800₩. Also, the four big magazines are about 10.375 inches by 15.1875 inches and are of slightly better than newspaper quality and stapled at the spine, so different from other countries' magazines!

This spread is only 12 pages long, so I decided to just post all the photos here.

Besides the cover photo, there are two other group photos, and then individual photos, with a total of three outfits. There is also an interview with behind the scenes photos, mostly of Myungsoo and none of Hoya.

The Star, July 2014

I was trying to look for this magazine at several stores during the same time I was looking for @Star1, but every store said that this magazine had sold out. So my friend and I decided to order online instead for 3,000₩ plus shipping. And a week later, oddly enough I see a huge stack of this magazine, alongside @Star1, at a large bookstore in Myungdong.

The cover is really charming, with Infinite grouped together like a marching band!

This spread is 16 pages long, includes two group photos, individual member photos, and subgroup photos, again with three outfits.

All of the photos show Infinite's fun and quirky side, playing around with band instruments and tossing their hats. It's definitely one of my most favorite magazine spreads! The last two pages has an interview and behind the scenes photos.

High Cut, December 5-December 18, 2013

I made another trip to a Kpop shop in Myungdong Station, and this time they managed to have a whole stack of months old magazines, including last year's High Cut and The Star with Infinite on the cover! High Cut had originally cost 700₩ but the store charged 3,000₩, while The Star was now 4,000₩ (I couldn't read the original printed price) which is still fairly reasonable.

Besides the spread, there are also photos of Infinite along the way. The contents page includes some behind the scenes photos from Infinite's photoshoot. In the Celebrity News section, there is a wound-inflicting reminder of Myungsoo's dating rumor.

This spread is 16 pages long and has a gloomy and drowsy concept. The photos show Infinite in dark and heavy clothing, and looking quite chic, but tired.

To contrast, there's one photo of Infinite celebrating the upcoming new year by opening up a champagne bottle. And lastly, there's the interview with some more behind the scenes photos. High Cut also has a Japanese version that includes a shortened version of this Infinite spread, but that also includes a few different photos (there was another photo of Myungsoo holding a sleeping mask).

The Star, June 2013

This magazine shows off Infinite dressed for an adventure on a remote island...or at least that's what I got out of it. Besides the cover, there is one other group photo to start off the 18 page spread. It finishes with an interview and behind the scenes photos.

In between are two pages dedicated to each member, one (almost) full body shot and another closeup, with Infinite in cute headbands.

This photoshoot was a bit...unique, with the grapes on Sunggyu's head and Sungjong's random puffy shorts, but overall it was very cute and summery! I absolutely love the closeup shots of the members; they all look so pure and handsome. I love how they added freckles on Sungyeol's cheeks as well! And that last image is just a closeup of the interview as filler.

ASTA TV, August 2014

I had a few hours to kill at Incheon Airport before I had to say goodbye to Korea, and what better way to do so than to buy something Infinite related. While I usually don't buy celebrity entertainment magazines that just have paparazzi photos rather than interviews and exclusive photoshoots, this issue of ASTA TV magazine was particularly meaningful to me. This issue has photos from Myungsoo's departure on June 21st from Incheon Airport to Taiwan (I had just arrived in Seoul a few days prior and saved all the photos of Myungsoo as his airport fashion was so spot on!), the Korean Speed Festival/Brilliant Motor Festival (my first time seeing Infinite in Korea), the M! Countdown 10th Anniversary (which I regret I missed) and more. This magazine is basically my two month Inspirit life study abroad in a nut shell.

This magazine has a 50 page spread on Infinite! It starts off with an advertisement of High School: Love on! And then, as summarized above (why am I just repeating myself...), there are photos of Myungsoo's airport fashion to Taiwan, then a few of Sungjong from Infinite's mini fan meeting, then stills, behind the scenes and photos from the press conference of High School: Love On, then photos from the Korean Speed Festival along with Infinite on the red carpet of the M! Countdown 10th Anniversary concert and lastly, a few airport photos. This cost 11,800₩, definitely much more expensive than those other magazines, but I'm so happy with the magazine.

Infinite IDEA Photobook Review

This is Infinite's first photobook, released in December 2013, and it's also the first project officially released since the SM merger, meaning SM's name is now printed on the product. I was pretty hesitant about this photobook for several reasons:

1.  That underlying fact that SM is associated with this product really discouraged me from buying it for so long.
2.  This is purely a photobook, and Infinite is a music group, so I felt shallow for buying something obviously not related to music, but rather for the members' appearance.
3. The acronym IDEA is really stupid and seems like they were just throwing up random English words to try and sound cool; sorry, I have a low tolerance for bad English.

I blamed SM for the latter two reasons, but now I'm being much more accepting of the merger and I'm trying to be not as irrational with my feelings toward SM. And so I gave in and got the photobook^^

The photobook is A4 sized, just over 8.5 inches by 12 inches. It's very sturdy and has that little flap on the bottom, and on the backside contains information about the DVD that's included. The title is "Infinite IDEA," where IDEA stands for "Inspirits Dreamers Experience Amazing"...okay...

This container opens up just like the She's Back album and Second Invasion concert DVD, where there's a magnetic flap holding it together. It's really high quality and well put together. There is also a ribbon running through the middle to easily access all the contents inside.

At the very top is the random mini poster, which is actually a translucent A4 piece of paper. You can see the transparency as I held it up to the window. There are seven poster designs, one for each member. As you can see, I got Sungjong! It seems like I always get Jjongie...

Next is the photobook, and then at the bottom are the DVD and a set of postcards embedded in a thick layer of black foam just like in The Origin and Be Back albums (but without that smell).

There are a total of eight postcards that come in an envelope with the sides cut off, so the postcards just easily slip out from the sides. The postcards are 5.875 inches by 4.125 inches and came in order from left to right, top to bottom. There is one group photo and then one of each member, with every photo showcasing the unique photoshoot locations. The random posters and set of postcards all seem like photos directly from the photobook, or at least some of the images anyways.

The backs of the postcards are blank, with the Infinite IDEA label in the corner.

As printed on the back, this DVD is 19 minutes long (it's actually 18 minutes and 37 seconds long) and has Korean and English subtitles. The English subs could be better; even the ending of the DVD wrote "Behind the secene"...also onne part wrote Hoya in both Korean and English, but I think they were talking about Dongwoo as it was Dongwoo on the screen (this is during the skateboarding scene if you want to check it out). It's also listed as Region 4, but online lists it as Regions 1 and 3. It's also nice that the footage on this DVD doesn't overlap with the Destiny in America Production DVD. It begins with a slideshow of photos, then shows the behind the scenes, Infinite talking to the camera and the filming of the photoshoots at various locations in California and Nevada. These locations include the mansion, the streets of Hollywood, the graffiti infested back streets (where the members were trying to learn how to skateboard!), Universal Studios (for the Destiny photoshoot!), the Vegas sign and lastly the Vegas Strip at night. It was really funny how Woohyun bragged that his shoes had no insoles! And Myungsoo was taking photos of Sungjong again, and also fixing his hair for the camera. And they're in America, so of course the members were trying to speak some English too! The funniest part was during the end of the shooting at Universal Studios, Woohyun pretended that he was going back home into a sewer at Universal; I still can't get over this part!

And now, onto the huge photobook! The front cover is of Infinite looking cool on the streets of L.A. and the back cover is of the Hollywood Walk of Fame, with Infinite on an empty square...like showing they'll have their own star in the future here^^

This photobook has 228 pages and it's just as big as the mini poster and the photos and pages are very high quality.

The book is divided into chapters, by photoshoot location. The Destiny In America Production DVD showed the behind the scenes to the "Home Sweet Home," "Dreams Come True" and "Spectacular Las Vegas" photoshoots, while "Desert Dry Country" was never revealed, so it was a pleasant surprise to see this photoshoot for the first time in this photobook. The chapter title and page number are listed at the bottom of most pages as well.

"Home Sweet Home" was taken in a beautiful mansion in LA, creating a natural, casual setting. This chapter dedicates several pages for each member around the mansion and yard, with a nonchalant, lazy Sunday kind of ambiance, as seen in the top two photos. Then there are a few fun group shots of Infinite playing in the backyard and on the driveway.

"Dreams Come True" has Infinite with a tougher and cooler image. The first few pages are group photos walking the bustling and famous streets of L.A., then majority of this chapter moves to these graffiti back streets showing Infinite in both group and individual shots. The members look tough and gangster-like here with skateboards, and Sungjong even adds his own graffiti.

"Desert Dry Country" contains all black and white photos of which are mostly individual shots of Infinite wandering around and car camping at a desolate desert. Oddly enough, Sunggyu and Dongwoo aren't in this entire photoshoot, but for the remaining members, they each had their own little vignette displayed. Also in this photoshoot is that infamous series of Myungsoo's back photos, and some cute group photos in the snug camper.

"Spectacular Las Vegas" uses the same outfits as "Dreams Come True" on the busy streets of L.A. These are mostly individual shots, along with several group photos with the Vegas sign in the background. This section also includes those really cute and fun photos of Infinite playing around at the fountain on the Strip! And there are also more individual photos of Infinite looking serious and tough and a little lonely.

The last chapter has two pages dedicated to each member that includes a photo from Infinite filming for the "Destiny" music video at Universal Studios, a letter to Inspirits, an interview and something else, all in Korean. There are also four pages of photo collages, then a "Special Thanks To," and lastly a credits page.

Overall, I'm glad I finally gave in and bought this photobook in Korea. But I have to say, I don't think it's worth it with the high shipping fee. I do love the quality of the entire packaging (it seems more sturdy than the She's Back limited edition album) and the photos are absolutely gorgeous. I'm glad I got over my grudge against SM to get myself to buy this. As an American, though, this photobook does have more meaning to me as this is the first time Infinite as a whole is in my country!

Infinite: Last Romeo ~Kimi Ga Ireba Ii~ Single (Type B) Review

In July of this year, Infinite released their latest Japanese single, "Last Romeo," with a normal version and two limited edition versions, all with different photoshoots. I reviewed Type A and gave an overview on all three albums here and I'll review Type B in this post.

Type B contains the CD and a large photobook. Based on the front and back covers, you can tell this album contains mostly photos of the unfortunately Myungsoo Cow Outfit. Despite this, all the other outfits look great and I do absolutely love the composition of the album cover, as Woollim once again has tried to create the Infinite symbol with their stances, like in one of the New Challenge posters. Though these photos do look practically identical to the ones from Infinite's Korean version, Season 2, I do know that at least the front cover of this Japanese album is slightly different (Sungyeol changed his pose). The front cover also has information about the August hi touch event in Japan. The back cover has the tracklist: the Japanese versions of "Last Romeo," "A Person Like Me" and "Nothing's Over."

While websites list this as having an A4 sized album cover, it's actually smaller, at 10.875 inches by 7.5 inches. Also this album is just as thin as Type A and the Inspirit album and is made of the same papery material.

The album is cheaply designed, as the album is just a piece of cardboard folded over and the photobook just comes out. I wish the packaging could have been better; websites say this is an A4 album, so I expected something like the She's Back limited edition album, but this album is far from that quality. The left side has a photo of each member and the tracklist, and the right side has the CD wedged into the center.

Inside the photobook is also a slip of paper detailing the hi touch event.

The photobook has 50 pages containing photos of the Cow Outfit, as well as the white lace outfits to my relief. There are three group photos spread throughout the album that look very similar to those from Season 2. Most photos in this photobook look very similar, but I did cross reference them with my Season 2 photobook, and the poses are just ever so slightly different from the photos in this album.

The first set of photos dedicates two pages per member, with either one or two images of that member and in either or both of the two outfits.

Then there are a slough of random individual photos, some of which are obviously different from Season 2, like the above Sungjong photos, and some too similar, like Woohyun's photo. I didn't really like this photobook, as the layout of the photos seemed sloppy, as if they just threw random photos onto the page.

The last four pages contain the lyrics and staff credits.

Overall, I'm really happy that all three versions of the Last Romeo Japanese single contain completely different photoshoots or I'm really sad because Woollim makes me broke so easily but I wish the quality of this album were better designed and please rethink the dreadful Cow Outfit. It's so infamous that I now had to capitalize that attire. Also, because this album is special for its huge photobook, I wish the photoshoots from the Japanese Last Romeo single were used, instead of the Season 2 outfits.