New Year, Same Hard-Working Dreamcatcher To Comeback In Early 2021

K-Pop — Dreamcatcher Recall

K-Pop’s Dreamcatcher hits the ground running with comeback news to top off a holiday of content.

Note: A quick reminder that Dreamcatcher is currently in the running for an award in the annual Seoul Music Awards! You can vote by following this guide on using the SMA app to vote for Dreamcatcher.

While many of us no doubt took time during the holidays to take a breather, try as best as we could in the current circumstances to celebrate with family and friends, and otherwise gear up for 2021, Dreamcatcher was certainly still putting in work. Most K-Pop acts are in the same boat with their end-of-year obligations, but Dreamcatcher’s smaller fandom and heady 2021 prospects mean they had plenty of motivation to keep the content flowing even through the holiday and past the New Year.

And what better way to kick off 2021 and Dreamcatcher’s 4th year than a Mystery Code to tease an upcoming comeback? For newer fans who aren’t as familiar, Mystery Codes, filled with hints about dates, title tracks, and themes, are part and parcel of the Dreamcatcher experience, and the presence of new Mystery Codes can only mean a comeback is imminent. Veteran Dreamcatcher fans likely saw some of this coming when Behind the Scenes pictures, typically the last part of a prior comeback, appeared on the group’s Instagram. But the fact that the Mystery Code appeared within a week (as opposed to a month) definitely caught much of the fandom off-guard, though I’d expect very few of us complained.

Within minutes, speculation exploded about the first Mystery Code, with the theory gaining the most traction that the stacked digital-style characters for a date form “0126”, which could mean 01/26/21 for the release of a new album and a new comeback. The last comeback for “BOCA” also featured a first Mystery Code that ended up being the release date, so this definitely seems sound.

But Dreamcatcher wasn’t done there. Eschewing their normal policy of not posting on the weekend, the company released a second Mystery Code, this time a short video that showed eyes opening to a heterochromatic gaze after a brief glitchy sound. Again, theories abounded as to what this meant, although one that gained a bit of traction was the connection to the three wise monkeys, depicting in picture format the maxim “see no evil, hear no evil, speak no evil”.

Connecting this to the overall Dystopia story seems to make sense, as “Scream” involved the ears and “BOCA” involved the mouth, and this trilogy is a message against online hatred and therefore, evil. Could this involve the eyes, then? And whose eyes are these in the picture? Prevailing theories point to Siyeon, especially since she had plenty of fun being an “odd-eyed” character in Dreamcatcher’s R.o.S.E Blue MV, but others have reported they see someone else’s eyes, or two different members’ eyes.

Either way you slice it, Mystery Code speculations and theories have always been one of the best and most traditional parts of a Dreamcatcher comeback, so the hype for one coming soon is on the rise, and I’m sure I’ll have more to write about it for next week’s recap.

But comeback news was just the cap to content Dreamcatcher had been putting out since Christmas, starting with a Special Clip spoiled in part during their Christmas vlive broadcast. People asking for a JiU and Yoohyeon duo-vLive has kind of become a bit of a meme at this point, considering the last one was almost 3 years ago. But frankly, most Dreamcatcher fans will likely not complain about a nice cover instead. The two matched up really well covering this McKay song, and it was a welcome holiday content gift.

[embed]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LIf69bLLZdQ[/embed]

Not to be outdone, SuA also put up a Vlog to answer questions from the fans that she’d gathered via Weverse. SuA answered plenty of them, including what she’d like to try doing in 2021 (acting), whether she preferred movies at home or at the theatre (at home), which place would be an ideal date spot (an aquarium), and much more. Getting to know idols is a standard part of being into K-Pop, but between gathering questions herself and the casual setting of the Vlog, SuA made it feel personable like she was talking to a friend she wanted to help get to know her better. These tidbits are nice for idol/fan interaction and I’m sure Insomnias appreciated the time she took.

And of course, what New Year wouldn’t be complete without some New Year’s greeting messages. Dreamcatcher sent a bunch of these out in a variety of different languages, but the sentiment was the same — thankfulness for getting to the new year, a hope to not just get fans’ support but perhaps to actually see them (we’ll see how vaccination efforts go there), and overall, excitement for more to do in 2021. Looking strictly at the numbers, 2020 was huge for Dreamcatcher, and if the trend continues, 2021 looks to be no different. It’s going to be an exciting year for K-Pop’s best rock/pop girl group.

Some other miscellaneous bits from the past couple weeks (credit in part to the /r/dreamcatcher subreddit) include:

• BOCA MV reaches 30 million views — This happened right at the New Year and was a great way to start it off. BOCA’s comeback was the most successful of Dreamcatcher’s yet, and the music video’s exposure to many other content creators on YouTube meant its views skyrocketed on release and continued to shatter records. A good sign moving forward!
• Dreamcatcher wishes KStyle a happy 9th anniversary — This has become a yearly thing, but Dreamcatcher’s prior work with KStyle has been nice to read about, so it’s no surprise Dreamcatcher took the time to wish them a good anniversary, just short of a decade.
• Dreamcatcher ranks 23rd on January 2021’s Brand Reputation Index for Girl Groups — The monthly brand reputation indexes take data on groups into account, and while it’s a bit of an imperfect science, it was nice to see that Dreamcatcher has sustained position in the top 25, if not just so. We’ll hopefully look to see this rise next month with the upcoming comeback and activities, for sure.

It’s looking like Dreamcatcher is going to be quite busy moving forward, especially with their debut anniversary (the 13th) coming up fast. I’ll be here next week to talk more about what will no doubt be more comeback news, how Dreamcatcher and its fans are celebrating their anniversary, and much more. See you then!