Ateez 'BIRTHDAY' + 'NOT OKAY' + 'BOXER' (Japanese Song)

You missed my fav Japanese song Paradigm 😭 Please do Paradigm, Utopia, Limitless and Dreamers for your next Japanese deep dive 🙏🏽

Bar-brah B

I'm so exited

hahahihi

yesss i'm here for more ateez! hope you could check out their upcoming new song, 'Lemon Drop' which will be released this friday!

Iris Lee

Thank you! We need a part2 with « Paradigm » and « Limitless » 🙏🏻

Yasmine

Finally! Thank you for the reaction!

쥬쥬

yesss love Hush-Hush

nikki .ᐟ

Thank you for the explanation! U explained it so beautifully! I hope Ben reads this cause he’s still learning lore! 🫡

Eleka Chung

This is me humbly begging you to check out paradigm, one of my fave Japanese releases

♡ Bludreamgirl ♡

There is ateez chat, just opened

hahahihi

(Sorry for so much text) Normally, Ateez's Japanese songs are separate releases, but NOT OKAY has a lot to do with the lore of everything we see on Korean albums. The story is divided into two worlds that collide and converge, but before that, they have their own plot. World A is about a group of normal teenagers who have many problems and TRAUMAS and manage to find refuge and a new family in each other. All of this is told in the FEVER saga, with songs like Inception (whose video also tells part of the boys' story). So yes, NOT OKAY is about trauma, about accepting that we're not always okay and saying it, not hiding it, it's part of the healing process. But they portray it in the video with the traumas of their characters, which makes watching the MV like the second part of a movie that began with Inception. I love this song; it's impressive. If you're interested, here's a summary: Hongjoong was abandoned by his family. Seonghwa lives lost, unable to find a purpose, only a future of meaningless work and expectations, with no hope of achieving anything meaningful. Yunho lost his brother in a car accident, who dreamed of becoming a musician. Yeosang is controlled by his parents, who decide what he will become and everything he does. San's father lives from job to job, and moving drags the whole family to new places, without being able to put down roots, and it makes it difficult for San to make friends and find his place. Wooyoung wants to dance but suffers from stage fright. Mingi has anger issues due to a difficult life situation, which causes him to have no friends and turn to music (he always has headphones on when he escapes). Jongho dreamed of dedicating himself to sports, but suffered an injury and lost his dream and the motivation to find a new one. When they all meet, they heal those traumas by finding a new dream in music, all together. That's the origin. Obviously, the story continues beyond that and merges with the Z world, which leads to another story, but what I've told you is essentially what you see in NOT OKAY.

Lore

Carmella

Ateeeeeez!!!!!!!!!!!! God I love them!! I think Not Okay is a bit of a mixture of messages of what you've interpreted it at. Rocky will hold a special place in my heart ❤️

Jaime Hicks

Not Okay has a couple of different meanings. Surface and lore. On the surface, they are acting out different kinds of traumas. It shows them being force fed media and not being able to get away from it, bound by technology, living an unfeeling life, running hard as you can but not getting anywhere, etc. also, there are hidden words in video like WAKE UP. But also it is hooked directly into the Inception MV and the Fever Diary Film that came out at the same time. It is showing the resulting trauma from each of their own story lines like Wooyoung’s stage fright, Mingi’s escaping into music, Seonghwa’s perfectionism and racing against the clock, Yeosang living in caged freedom, etc. You can watch the Diary Film for more detail. Anyways, it is one of my favorite Ateez songs and the lyrics are deep. It is one of my most played songs. Rocky is amazingly good on stage. It hits hard and is a fan favorite. They did it in Korean also, so they came perform it outside of Japan. Birthday just kind of came and went, but I love the styling of that MV, especially Seonghwa and Wooyoung ♥️

DigitalGlitter

More Japanese songs by ATEEZ that you should check out are 'Limitless', 'Royal' ft. BE:FIRST and 'Hush-Hush' ft. BEFIRST

Eva Minster

Their japanese discography is so good!! Personally really love Limitless if you choose to check out that as well! 🙏🏻 Both message and the Mv 😅 Also paradigm! Is really good! Not okey is probably my favorite off all their Japanese releases though!! It’s such a breath of fresh air!! Love the beat, the choreo and their vocals!! 😍 Thank you again Ben for another fun video! 🥰

MiniMi