TAEMIN 태민 'Guilty' MV Trailer [x]

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https://twitter.com/SHINee/status/1716741341810692146?t=WaZHhJDEkPfWu6ehFzE0PA&s=19

DID YOU SEE IT 😭 there's a lot to unpack here

Of course I did! Are you kidding me? I saw this almost immediately after the release. I've been keeping an eye on the teaser photos in the last couple of weeks, but that didn't prepare me for the mv trailer. Talk of a plot twist. This is one thing I love about the marketing strategy of some kpop companies and I've noticed this with other SHINee members' projects and Sunmi as well. They put a lot of work into the promotional materials and personally, a cinematic mv teaser is right up my alley. But now it's also a bit frustrating because I want to see a feature of this. A two hour film, not just a less than 2 minute clip.

And you're right, there is a lot to unpack here. The school boys in a closed environment that chips away at their sanity is something that always intrigued me. But I'm still not sure what is going on and that's the point. My initial thought was that they were all sent to some correction center, reprogrammed for society but not to be upstanding citizens, but to inflict more harm in a controlled, systematic way. They're taught how to kill. There is a shot in which there's blood on Taemin's legs and some bodies on the ground 👀. Anyway, it obviously works with themes of oppression, control, individual vs system, and perhaps the guilt comes with having to do things to people because of forced circumstances.

The release is less than a week away and I can't wait. For me, it's Taemin's first comeback that I take an active interest in and so far I'm just really pleased to see how complex the concept is and it feeds my brain and my interests.

TAEMIN 태민 'Guilty' MV Trailer

[ meet the prisoners! (t2 edition) ] prisoner 005: sanada kei

oh well. oh well it's his turn now isn't it.

(Warnings for descrptions of physical violence, toxic relationship dynamics andddd I don't even know how to describe this one, but uh. Just know that Kei is doing really bad mentally. Also that one bit about him making Yurika angry with his creepy behavior is mentioned again.)

General info.

T1 Verdict: Kei was voted guilty and was punished for his crime (even though Eiji and Miki still don't know why he's even here). His punishment was physical, just like Akio's, and now it's very hard for him to walk and he needs other prisoners' help, his arms are too weak and they're in constant pain, so he also needs other people to hold things for him sometimes. He's also got an eye injury and this is why he's wearing an eyepatch now. It's hard to say how serious that injury is, since Kei still can see some things, but he feels like he won't be able to see with that eye anymore if he doesn't get any help. He's also wearing a mask now to cover the lower half of his face and some prisoners find it weird that he would go that far to hide a few cuts on his face, however, he actually would love to wear a mask to hide his whole face and not just his mouth and nose and that's because his punishment had not only a physical effect on him, but a mental one too. Kei now finds himself embarrassing because of how weak and "pathetic" he looks and he doesn't want people to see him in that state. Sure, making people feel bad for him sounds fun in theory, but now that he's in actual danger, he's terrified and doesn't want people to think that it's his real self. He's too used to being the one in control and now that he's the one who's suffering (and because of his younger brother too!), he doesn't know what to do. And also, Kei is aware that he's not a good person. He knows it. And he always thought that his appearance was his only good quality. As long as he's at least somewhat good-looking, people will like him, right?.. But now that there's a chance of Eiji even taking that away from him, he's scared. Eiji also broke his sunglasses man, can't you let him have at least something?, but Kei still wears them because they're that important to him. His hair is also longer and more messy now and he wishes he could take care of it, but he doesn't have the energy to do that and it's hard to do anything when your body hurts so much.

T2 Personality: Kei still tries to act like his past self even though he's in so much pain right now. He still tries to make jokes, to act cool, to be the most fun and outgoing prisoner here, but it's hard. Even just smiling is too painful for him now. He also has to accept the fact that there's a chance that he won't be able to see with one of his eyes anymore. Because of all of that, his mood swings are much worse now and he's actually showing a different, more weak and vulnerable side of him, but not in the way that you'd probably expect. When something like that happens, he starts begging Eiji for help and asks him to protect him and even refers to Eiji as an older brother. He also starts saying things like "I want to go home" or "I want to see Mom again". He actually needs someone to help him calm down, because his tantrums are sometimes so bad, some prisoners think he will end up hurting someone one day. What's even more scary is that after he's done, Kei acts like nothing happened and still tries to act like his T1 self, though it's obvious he's not as energetic as he was before. 

T2 Relationship dynamics:

Kei really wishes Shun would just leave him alone, but at the same time, he really needs someone to talk to. Sure, thankfully, he has Reina now, but he also needs someone who.. well, will be more than just a friend to him? So yes, he still talks to Shun because he wants attention from him and he wants to feel like he still deserves to be loved and he's still attractive even though his hair is a mess, his sunglasses are broken, he has an eye injury and he can't even leave his cell without anyone's help. And Shun is more than happy to use Kei's insecurities and make him feel like Shun is the only person in this prison who gets him and who will accept him no matter what happens to him. Shun is also more than happy to remind Kei that Shun has more power in this prison now because of his verdict, so if Kei makes even a small mistake, he will regret it. Kei really tries to avoid him, but at the same time he still ends up coming back to him.

Eiko is a bit better than Shun, but still treats Kei badly and she obviously enjoys seeing him in this state. She's more gentle with him, but if anything bad happened to him, she wouldn't even try to help him. And also, Kei knows exactly why she's treating him like this. Eiko never meant anything important to him and he never wanted to have an actual deep relationship with her, so why does she have to act nice now and treat him with kindness? She knows that if something like that happened to her, Kei would treat her even worse and he would find it exciting, so maybe people should stop hoping that she will be nicer to him? It doesn't help that she knows everything about his insecurities, so if he says anything wrong, she just reminds him that if he ever gets out of this prison, he won't hear anyone saying that he's pretty or hot anytime soon. What's really sad is that she actually thinks Kei still looks cute, she just wants him to think otherwise and keep asking her to give him more attention. There's also another reason why their relationship is like that now and Kei knows about it too.. But he can't do much to change it.

Kei is still alive and that fact makes Yurika so sad. Yes, Kei actually did make weird comments about her, so she had an understandable reason to attack him. Kei is still scared of her, but now that other people can also see that Yurika is not as innocent literally as she wanted them to see her, it does make him a bit happy. He can't deny that he's still attracted to her though, considering that he was brave enough to say something that made her so mad that if she got a chance to kill him, she would. 

Kei and Reina's relationship is surprisingly wholesome and Kei actually sees her only as a friend and honestly, she's probably the first real friend he ever had. They get along well because they have a lot of similarities, the main one being them trying to hide their real personalities. Both of them know they don't have to pretend when they're in each other's company, so Kei knows a lot about Reina now and Reina knows a lot about Kei (including their crimes). And yes, Reina knows about his relationship with Eiji too, but she still wants to be friends with him. Maybe she sees it as another similarity. She actually tries to protect him from Shun and Eiko and she uses her innocent verdict to request all kinds of things so that she can take care of him. 

Kei and Eiji's relationship is even more complicated now, even though Eiji finally got what he wanted (or at least a part of it) and punished Kei. Obviously, Kei is angry at him, but he also understands Eiji's feelings and now he has another reason to say that Eiji is just like him no matter how much he tries to be better. And also, Kei still wants Eiji to protect him, just like he used to when they were younger and if he's feeling anxious or panicking, he asks Eiji for help. Eiji tries his best to ignore him, but in a very sad and dark kind of way, he still cares about the guy who abused him both physically and emotionally, so if no one is looking, he will try to calm Kei down and make sure he's okay. He says he's just doing it so that Kei doesn't die before his execution, but it's an obvious lie.

Music info.

Milgram cover: He actually gets Tear Drop this time! But I don't think it would be that fun to listen to and I actually imagine his version to sound like he's having a really bad breakdown, the chorus in particular would sound like he's crying. The instrumental would also sound more slow and distorted.

DECO*27 cover: Watch this man try to distract you from his actual murder again and cover Psychogram so that you can focus on his relationship with a person he had kidnapped instead. I think the instrumental would be closer to Mahiru's cover! (Or maybe it would be a fun night club-like remix?? :'D) (Also yes, I know Rabbit Hole was right there. I know. And with YOUR help, he can get it as his T3 "Innocent" cover! <3 I'm just kidding, again, the choice is yours.)

Different Vocaloid producer cover: This one might be a bit sudden, but he gets Paparazzi Murder Party by Vane Lily! Come on, like, even from the title you can see that this song is perfect for him, haha. It's okay, he can handle a song that literally starts with "Hey, bestie". And fun fact: Kei is actually one of the prisoners who are completely fluent in English (and in his case I think he's actually slightly better at English than Japanese)! (Also I imagine the "Freak, you're such a freak" line being said by one of his victims) Can't believe he killed Hatsune Miku herself 😔 /j

His T2 Trailer Voicelines:

"Why, hello there. You know that it's too painful for me to even talk, right? Hey, Eiji.. How can you say that you're better than me after all of this? Don't even think of judging me for "hurting others for my own enjoyment". I refuse to believe that you did this to me just because "you wanted to punish me for my sins"." *laughs* "What, my cute little brother doesn't want to admit that he's a sinner as well?"

"Ah, these.. Haha, yeah, they're pretty scary, right? Oh well, it's not like they're real." *laughs* ".. Hey, why are you all looking at me like that?.. I-I'll be back in a minute."

His T2 Song Trailer Voiceline:

"Oh, what's this? Are you crying?"

Trivia:

Reina actually wanted to ask for something that could help Kei walk easier, similar to Yuno getting a wheelchair for Mahiru, but Kei refused and said that he's fine. Reina thinks he just doesn't want to admit that he really is struggling and needs help.

Kei's second image color was actually supposed to be a bright shade of purple at first, but I changed it to blue because of his MV's color symbolism and themes. Also, his T1 album cover would most likely have a gradient similar to bi flag which is a plus, haha. (And his T2 MV also has lots of pink, purple and blue too.)

Kei actually tries not to leave his cell that often and because of that, he doesn't always get to eat with the other prisoners, which is obviously not good. Reina is usually the one who brings him food in that case, but sometimes it's Eiji, though he does it only when it's late and (mostly) everyone is asleep.

He doesn't know if it's okay for him to hope that he will be forgiven this time. Actually, he's not sure if he even wants to be forgiven, because, uh.. If Eiji and Miki find out more about his crime and end up forgiving him, that will mean they saw him as someone who's weak and who can't protect himself. That's also the reason why he still refuses to talk about his murder.

I just think it's ironic how his T1 cover was After Pain and it was like him trying to make people feel sorry for him and vote him innocent, but now that he's actually in pain, he's not sure if he wants to be seen as weak and be forgiven because of that.

His mask is actually a reference to "Vampire" Miku's mask (and he also had that song as his T1 cover)! Same goes for the bandaids on his neck. 

Some of the accessories he wore before T2 are missing now (like his necklace or that thing with hearts on his belt) because they either got lost or broken after his punishment.

TAEMIN 태민 'Guilty' MV Trailer

TAEMIN — 'GUILTY' TRAILER & MV BEHIND

TAEMIN 'Guilty' MV Trailer

Guilty MV Trailer

TAEMIN | 'Guilty' Trailer & MV Behind Ep. 3 [x]

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TAEMIN 'Guilty' MV Trailer Bonus Clip #2

'Guilty' Trailer & MV Behind

EP 03. You got me GUILTY | 'Guilty' Trailer & MV Behind | TAEMIN 태민

Since someone else recommended umineko, I'm going to make a 'if you like danganronpa you might like this' recommendation in the opposite direction!

I recommend a youtube webseries called MILGRAM!

Just like Danganronpa its really character driven except the writer is a psychologist interested in writing characters with depth

(And the songs are written by DECO*27 if you know anything about vocaloid)

Introductory trailer/series explanation Here

There are 10 prisoners and we get to try and figure out who they are and what they did based on a voice drama interrogation and a music video of their memories So there's a lot of speculation and theorycrafting Then we vote on if we Forgive them or Not Forgive them (this got translated as Innocent or Guilty, but we know they all did something, its about how we feel about what we think they did) And the results affect the story

There's 3 Trials (seasons) and we're almost at the end of the second!

(Also I promise its not like Kagerou Daze just watch all the MVs and voice dramas in Trial 1, then all the MVs and voice dramas in Trial 2 but I did make a post of links for convenience here)

Also milgram's monokuma-esque mascot is a rabbit

you had me at deco*27 tbh, he's one of my fave vocaloid producers 🥺👍 I had one of the MILGRAM's mvs in my watch later for a few months exactly because of him, but I didn't know it was such a massive project!!! I'm definitely gonna check it out when I have time!

also, adding the link to the masterpost you sent in the other ask for anyone else who might be interested <3 tysm!!!