DigiPedi's artistic decisions lead to this a lot, as there's often a climactic hook in the last part of the video that sells the music video that just makes watching it feel rewarding.
The painting effects taking over the home in "ViViD" perfectly replicate Surrealistic art, only for her to open her eyes and realize it was all in her head.
Kim Lip's lighting and outfit choices in "Eclipse" show that even a costume change can glue your eyes to the screen, as she seems to literally change into a different person with each scene change.
JinSoul blasting the bars of her cage outward in her solo and summoning a huge rainstorm. It's a perfect example of delayed gratification, since you don't realize you've been missing a rain scene the whole time until it's finally on you.
The final shot of Egoist, the last member's solo, hits a lot differently if you were present for a large chunk of LOONA's predebut project. Watching the first member meet the last to signal the end of one era and the start of another leaves you feeling a very raw energy.
The group has earned much praise for how synchronized their choreography is, with "Butterfly" being noted as having one of the best choreographies in any Kpop group.
Their dance covers have also been praised by many; particularly their boy group choreos which they released on their official YouTube channel.
The choreo for Olivia's solo "Egoist" contains a moment where she does a backwards somersault on the floor!
Some of the members have actually contributed to their own choreography. Choerry in particular came up with the choreography for her unit's song "Uncover" along with Kim Lip and JinSoul, their rendition of "Rosy" during one of the group's concerts, contributed to "Butterfly", and along with HeeJin, Yves, and Olivia, contributed ideas for "So What".
When Yves was revealed to be a new co-host for Fact In Star, she debuted her co-hosting duties by not only dancing a portion of "So What", but also by doing a cover of "Drip Drop" by Taemin.
During a So What-era dance challenge, LOONA were tasked with dancing, not part-switched, but blindfolded. Predictably, chaos ensued, but Kim Lip and HyunJin alone actually managed to do so near-flawlessly. (JinSoul and ViVi also did so, but they admitted to cheating and lifting the blindfolds).
The entire "#" era is made of this. The "So What" choreography is some of their finest and most awe-inspiring yet. (For reference, the members have described performing the routine once as like performing the "Butterfly" choreography four times.) Special mention also goes to the fact that the freaking founder of SM Entertainment (the company behind gold-standard Girl Groups and Boy Bands like Girls' Generation, Red Velvet, Super Junior, and so on), Lee Soo-man, decided to invest in the "#" EP due to LOONA's viral dance cover of NCT-127's "Cherry Bomb." Turns out it was good enough to leave an impression not just on the public, but on a top K-Pop mogul too.
This performance video of "365" and "So What," particularly the latter segment, which features the following: an Epic Instrumental Opener, the satisfying STOMP of the members' boots as they dance, and the cinematic, action movie-worthy camera work. Female Avengers of K-Pop indeed.
After LOONA returned with a vengeance via the visually stunning "So What," LOONA's artistic directors DigiPedi and Soulbriz manage to outdo themselves in "Why Not." The video is absolutely packed with an overwhelming amount of beautifully rendered symbolism and Wham Shots.
Behind the scenes of "Why Not," the members are pretty badass too. Kim Lip admitted to being terrified to go on a harness, to the point that she was crying, but pulled it off and gave the video one of its most glorious shots (Kim Lip soaring in the air like her animal, the owl). HeeJin also danced in front of fireworks like it was nothing and resident tough girl Olivia Hye bragged about not being afraid at all of doing the car stunts.
A minor one: The teaser for "New Moon", which heavily implied the return of HaSeul after a year's hiatus, sits at 850,000 views, the second-most for any teaser, in a matter of only two months. By comparison, the #1 most-watched teaser is X1X, which only achieved 900,000 views after two years. It will likely be the most-watched teaser within a year and the first one to hit 1,000,000—that's how much orbits love and miss her!
"Not Friends", a collaboration made with a well-known producer Ryan Jhun, and featured Heejin, Kim Lip, Jinsoul, and Yves as the starring roles of an action movie music video, showing the girls wielding guns and performing their own stunt choreography, and featured references to the lore that not everyone was expecting to see! Not to mention, the song itself was very catchy.
LOONA had to miss the recordings for the first round in Queendom 2 due to contracting COVID-19, but were later offered the chance to record their performance once their quarantine was over, even though they would get no points for it and would still be ranked as the losers of that round. Nevertheless, they happily accepted the offer and, even though they were still feeling sick, managed to deliver a spectacular performance.
Later in the same episode, Hyolyn (who won the first round) got the right to choose which other competitor's songs she would like to cover in the second round - and then she surprised everyone in the room (including the hosts) by choosing LOONA (who were sadly absent, as the scene was recorded before their quarantine was over). Yes, Hyolyn, one of the most respected k-pop idols in the industry, chooses to cover material from LOONA's discography, out of all acts competing.
And then the show reveals that all the other competitors wanted to choose LOONA as well!
Come next episode, we get some heartfelt interactions between the LOONA girls and Hyolyn, and a stellar performance of the group's cover of SISTAR's "Shake It". The other competitors were equally in awe and intimidated by them.
Within the Loonaverse
In-universe, ViVi's android status allows her to perform spectacular feats. She runs a 400-meter track in less than 50 seconds, beating out the entire women's records list for that run. The girl is fast.
ODD EYE CIRCLE are literally the superheroes of the universe. The description for "Butterfly" describes the power trio as such:
With the story of three moons gathering to form a full circle, Kim Lip, JinSoul, and Choerry decide to stand at the frontlines to save the world, under their slogan "Girl Front."
The climax of "Why Not." The clock strikes midnight, and the members dance hard as the song swells to a chaotic and frenetic high point, paired with awesome sped-up shots. The energy is nothing short of epic.
Olivia sets the moon on fire. That is not an inference or a representative matter — she literally causes the whole moon, as in the one that orbits the Earth we live on, to go up in flames.
Given everything that occurred after the members left Blockberry, it was up in the air how and if the lore would continue even with the group split among various companies. However, so far, both ARTMS and LOOSSEMBLE have not only directly referenced imagery and symbols that were prominent in the group's filmography, but have added new developments to continue the storyline that also makes sense regarding the certain state of the group.
One of the shots we get towards the end of Odd Eye Circle's "Air Force One" is a blink-and-you'll-miss-it cameo of Heejin, now bearing a faintly glowing pale-pink Odd Eye similar to how the others looked in PTT.
LOOSSEMBLE's "Sensitive" ends with a major mood whiplash as Hyunjin wakes up in a cryopod on a spaceship, sees eleven other pods with three occupied (totaling twelve with them implying the three other unit members are still in cryosleep), and ViVi piloting the ship towards America, referencing their upcoming debut tour!
by Taemin.