NiziU Drop Their First Korean Mini Album in 18 Months With a Sharp New Edge

NiziU dropped Sour Grapes, their debut Korean mini album, on September 28 at 6 p.m. KST, roughly 18 months after LOVE LINE, the Japan-based JYP girl group's last Korean release in March of last year. The wait, by the members' own account, has been put to serious use.

The record opens with the title track, which takes the Aesop's fable of the fox and the sour grapes and turns it inside out. Where the original story is about rationalizing what you cannot reach, NiziU's version flips it into a declaration of boldness: the kind of attitude that runs toward the choices everyone else hesitates over. It sets the tone for an album that threads everyday feelings through a deliberately fairy-tale lens, rounding out its five tracks with Petal's Song, emoji, Into The Dawn, and Lullaby.

A harder sound, a harder workout

The stylistic shift is not just thematic. Member Ayaka said in a statement released through JYP that the choreography was unlike anything the group had attempted before, enough so that she was dealing with muscle soreness in the early stages of rehearsals. Rima added that the emphasis throughout was on making every movement large and forceful. The signature moment in the routine centers on the chorus, where hand gestures evoke picking and tasting grapes, intuitive and visual, the kind of move that tends to become the fan-cam highlight.

Visually, the rollout leans into the change. The music video was shot on location in Taipei, and the jacket imagery puts the focus on sharp, direct eye contact, a noticeable distance from the softer, more playful aesthetic the group has leaned on historically.

Leader Mako spoke warmly about the return to Korean promotions. "I'm so grateful to the fans who've waited a long time," she said. "I want to treasure every moment and show everyone a lot of new sides of us." Members Maya and Riku echoed that, noting they prepared hard to bring more varied energy to this chapter.

Challenge as the year's through-line

NiziU went into this comeback with considerable momentum from Japan. Over the past year, the group landed two releases at the top of the Oricon charts, their second EP and their first best album, earned Gold Disc certification, and completed both a dome tour called The Cinema, for which the members personally curated the setlist, and a separate arena tour. That's a credible run by any measure, and it makes the Korean comeback feel less like a reset and more like an expansion.

The members collectively named "challenge" as the word that best captures their 2026, and Sour Grapes fits that framing. A fairy-tale record that gave someone muscle pain in practice is a reasonable way to describe where NiziU is aiming right now. Their fan community, WithU, can expect the group to back it up on stage, the members promised as much, saying they want to repay the wait "with great songs and performances" and create memories together that no one forgets.