But not quite as epic as I'd hoped it might be.
           Arario is the best track off the mini album, without a doubt. The mix of tradition and trendy is flawless and the slides between the Gayageum beat-melody and the guitar's version of it is absolutely spectacular. The track-mix in the MV is a little strange, the bowed instrument is turned up much higher than it was in the album version of the track and in parts I think that decision was wise, but in the first moments of transition to rock-song . . . it made the style split a bit shaky and the transition suffered for it. The smootheness of the original was just incredible. Other than that the track is still spectacular, far superior to Open the Door in just about every way. 
           And yet, Arario's MV is still not up to the par set by their incredible debut. The colors are jarring, it's difficult to delineate the members, and the choreography is rather bland from what this MV shows of it. The fans are a very cool touch, but they're under-utilized and fit in awkwardly when they're not being flicked about to perfection. The white clothes on white backdrop wasn't a good choice, especially considering how easy a mistake it should have been to spot. They did the black outfits on the black background much better, giving the viewer some white fabrics mixed in with the black to latch onto so that the members' outlines didn't all just blend together. Had they done the same for the white-clothes-white-backdrop section, mixing in a bit more black, it would have turned out much better.
           I'm still waiting for these mystical subgroups to appear, they've been hinted at and teased to the point of ridiculousness. Sub-group promos should be very high on the do-to list of any group this large, particularly as their styling is no longer being kept distinct enough to make each and every member into a clearly unique individual. Sure, by now Topp Klass can tell them apart without any coddling, but the rest of the world (potential fans that haven't yet been taken in by these incredibly talented sweethearts) need very clear visual markers to keep the members straight in groups with less than half the number of members that Topp Dogg boasts.
           Still, I love these boys and this track, so I count the MV as a lovely treat.
           And honestly, as a member of Top Klass, I have to say that the part about these guys that I LOVE most of all is that in this MV I can’t tell them apart. Not a whit. I’ve got no clue who’s who … at least not by looking at them (well Atom's pretty distinctive, and his styling's been consistent, but other than that, I've got nothing). And yet, the  second they open their mouths … BOOM. I've got them all pegged. Their styles and voices are all so beautifully distinctive it’s really quite remarkable.

        Topp Dogg is a dark-horse, joining the rookie-race late in the game and at a huge disadvantage, and even so, they're making one hell of a run at at winning my vote for rookies of the year. Sweet Shisus, it's been a while since I've gotten so worked up over a debut. I meant to review this forever ago, but I've wanted to sit down with it and really explain why it's fantastic, but finals have been brutal (not to self, don't take 21 classes again. It's really just a bad idea). I was leery of them at first, "hiphop SuJu" did not sound like the sort of moniker filled with promise. (Also, yes their name is stupid. BUT, out of all the spellings for it they could have picked, the extra p and d aren't the worst choices ever: in terms of search indexing, it's easy for people to remember and a rather rare tag typo, if you're searching 'topp dogg' the odds are pretty dang high that you'll get this band as opposed to some Bro who got points in something stupid #brofest #top dog).
        Thirteen is a LOT of names to learn, a lot of personalities to discover, a lot of quirks to get used to... Some members will undoubtedly be left out of the major spolight moments, and I was not surprised to find that issue cropping up here. However, considering that there's only 4min of footage here to get to know these kids in, I managed to do it pretty well. They've thrown in some of the most spectacular choreography of the year and it spins everyone to the front at least once and at least long enough to find a feature to help ID them. Within a week of first seeing this, I knew eleven of their names perfectly. With SuJu, it took me months to learn them. I don't have any idea what people are talking about when they say that Stardom doesn't know how to film thirteen members as well as SM does. SM's film-caps of SuJu are just plain awful, wide shots that manage to include all of the members in a single shot aren't worth anything if the members are so tiny and uniform they can only be picked out by experts. Stardom captured these boy perfectly: in smaller bursts that allow for feature recognition and with some group shots that were packed tight enough to allow that feature recognition to operate.
        And even more so, the pre-fabricated sub-groups was a brilliant card to play. Grouping them into Dragon, Lion, Knight, and Wizard, and then giving each group a batch of linked distinctive features helped categorize the members to make for easier learning. If you could ID three lions, but not the fourth, it would be much easier to look him up than if you couldn't ID the last three suit-clad SuJu members. It's a really well-played card and I applaud Stardom's use of it. Installing the idea of subgroups before making them active promotional units makes the idea of learning all of them significantly less intimidating (assurance that it'll get easier can work miracles).
        I will admit that the shaky-cam thing bothered me a bit, but it's honestly not that bad. The real rub that bothered me was the odd filter most of it had layered in (especially all of the cuts inside the warehouse). That made it blurry and that is why the shaky-cam bothered me: there wasn't enough fine detail to latch onto while the camera shook.

        More about the distinct roles: It wasn't just the choreography. All the members that had a verse to sing or their own rap to spit had a fantastically unique style of doing so. Kidoh's voice is nice and smoothe, Atom's and Jenissi's are unique and easily recognizable, and Yano is one hell of an impressive rapper . . . all of which I picked up on the very first listen-through. A lot of people have been complaining about the autotune. I'll admit there's a lot of it, but I don't really have a problem with it. Sure, it's ironic that the song is about standing above the others in the Kpop game and they're using exactly the same tricks as everyone else, but I like to think of it more as ironic than unfortunate. It could be seen as a statement, that to win they game you have to start by playing by the rules . . . that's probably not the intention of it, but hey, I'd like to think it could be.
        Other than that, the MV didn't have a self-contained story with an active plot, so it is barred from getting a full 10 points, but it was still an utterly epic debut and I'm looking forward to what else these boys have to show. Supposedly they're getting ready for another album (mostly self-composed and produced, so that doesn't sound like it's referring to their upcoming repackaged album...). With their follow-up coming out in just a few more days, sub-groups on the table to be utilized at some point here, and the year quickly running out, it'll be interesting to see what they have to show us. I for one am super excited and, depending on what happens before New Year's, Topp Dogg might just make my 2013 Baby Band list.