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(Top right clockwise) Seunghyun, Minhwan, Jonghun, Hongki, Jaejin.

A South Korean idol rock band, FT Island, short for Five Treasure Island, was the first group to debut under FNC Entertainment (FNC Music at the time) in 2007. The original lineup comprised Jonghun, Hongki, Jaejin, Wonbin and Minhwan; Seunghyun was added in after Wonbin left at the beginning of 2009 for "musical differences".

They became the Power Rookies of 2007, winning a lot of awards for their song "Lovesick" including their first music show win after a mere 53 days. They also made their indie debut in Japan in 2008 before making their major debut in 2010. There, too, they have also found good success, with their singles charting high constantly and getting sold out Japanese concerts and tours.

They have also branched out into other areas such as musicals and acting, with Hongki in particular being an active idol actor. Additionally, the subunit FT Triple — comprising Jaejin, Minhwan and Jonghun — formed in 2008 and officially promoted in 2009 with "Love Letter". Seunghyun is also in a subunit called Two Song Place with labelmate and comedian Song Eunyi, and they made their debut in 2014 with "Age Height". Hongki also made his solo debut in both Korean and Japan in 2015.

Despite their ups and downs throughout the years, they remain as one of the most acclaimed idol bands in Korea. They are working on being acknowledged as real artists as they write more of their own songs and pursue their desired sound.

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     Members 
  • Lee Hongki: main vocalist, oldest and the face.
  • Lee Jaejin, the bassist, subvocalist and sub-rapper. Also the vocalist and guitarist in FT Triple.
  • Song Seunghyun: main rapper, subvocalist and rhythmic guitarist. The second maknae.note  He replaced former member Oh Wonbin in early 2009. Also the rapper-half of FNC subunit Two Song Place.
  • Choi Minhwan: drummer and maknaenote . Also the drummer in FT Triple.

     Former member 
  • Oh Wonbin: former main rapper, subvocalist and rhythmic guitarist, and also played the harmonica. He left FT Island at the start of 2009 for "musical differences". Later became a soloist under FNC and briefly promoted in Korea and Japan before eventually leaving to join another company to focus on acting.
  • Choi Jonghun: leader, lead guitarist and keyboardist. Also the keyboardist and guitarist in FT Triple.

     Discography 
Korean Discography:
  • Cheerful Sensibility (2007)
    • The Refreshment (2007) (repackaged album)
  • Colorful Sensibility (2008)
    • Colorful Sensibility Part 2 EP (2008)
  • Jump upnote  (2009) (EP)
  • Cross and Change (2009)
    • Double Datenote  (2009) (repackaged album)
  • Beautiful Journey (2010) (EP)
  • Return (2011) (EP)
  • Memory in FTISLAND (2011) (cover album) (EP)
  • Grown Up (2012) (EP)
  • Five Treasure Box (2012)
  • Thanks To (2013) (EP)
  • The Mood (2013) (EP)
  • Japan Best - All About (2014) note 
  • I WILL (2015)

Japanese Discography (singles listed under respective albums):

  • Prologue to FT Island (2008)
  • So Long, Au Revoir (2009)
    • The Onenote  (2008), I Believe Myself (2009), Rainingnote  (2009)
  • Five Treasure Island (2011) (first major album)
    • Flower Rock (2010), Brand New Days (2010), So Today (2010), Satisfaction (2011)
  • 20 [twenty] (2012)
    • Let it go! (2011), Distance (2011), Neverland (2012)
  • RATED-FT (2013)
    • Top Secret (2012), Polar Star (2012), You Are My Life (2013)
  • New Page (2014)
    • Theory of Happiness (2013), Beautiful (2014), Mitaiken Future (2014)
  • 5.....GO (2015)
    • To The Light (2014)
  • Untitled (????)
    • Puppy (2015)

Hongki's solo discography:

  • FM302 (2015) (Korea)
  • AM302 (2015) (Japan)

... And that's not counting OSTs, special songs etc.


This band provides examples of:

    A-M 
  • Aerith and Bob:
    • Seunghyun's guitars are called Akugii, Guitar 1, Guitar 2 etc., Jonghun calls his guitars Girlfriend 1, Girlfriend 2 etc., Minhwan's calls his drums his rival, Hongki calls his microphone his girlfriend. Amongst all these odd choices of instrument petnames is one of Jaejin's basses whom he calls... Chris.
    • In their alternate ego group SF Heroes (the dance group anyways) there's the usual Hongki, Minhwan, Jonghun and Seunghyun... and then there's their sole Chinese member Zaizhen (aka Jaejin's alias).
  • Affectionate Nickname: Members are sometimes or used to be referred to by certain affectionate nicknames from other members.
    • Hongstar and Cute Rebellion for Hongki.
    • MBC (Margarine Butter Cheese)note , Hoonie/Funi and Funi-sama for Jonghun.
    • Jaejinnie, Jinnie, Black Goat and Goat (see Animal Motifs) for Jaejin.
    • Minari and Minani for Minhwan.
    • Songsari and 16-Dimensions for Seunghyun.
  • Album Intro Track: I WILL has a short unnamed opening track which is predominantly piano.
  • All Drummers Are Animals: Minhwan can sure drum like one, but he's otherwise the quieter, youngest and saner member.
  • Animal Motifs: Jaejin is frequently associated with goats by members, himself and fans because he eats like one.
  • Anime Theme Song: "Satisfaction" for the Toriko ED, "Neverland" for the Ozuma OP, and "Theory of Happiness" for the Toriko movie ED.
  • Ascended Extra:
    • Jaejin singing-wise; he didn't sing in their songs at all until some brief verses in "The Cool vs The Pretty" to occasionally back up the other vocalists. 2009 onwards he became the subvocalist and sings the most after Hongki.
    • The members' fake identities/alter egos from the "Flower Rock" MV went on to become SF Heroes and appeared in two Japanese tours,except with different names and music each time.note 
    • Hongki was a mildly known child actor prior to FTI.
  • Audience Participation Song: Many of their songs become this at one point with the group often incorporating talks and other small activities during songs and encouraging fans to sing along at certain points. In particular there's:
    • "I Hope" — it's common for them to stop playing after Jonghun's guitar solo, so Hongki can talk to the audience and make them sing the chorus acapella with him before everyone continues playing.
    • "Flower Rock" — expect Hongki to make the audience sit down/stand up after the bridge. Several times.
  • Big Little Brother: Seunghyun's the second youngest (and not by much) yet also the tallest at over 180cmnote 
  • Break-Up Song: A good deal of their ballads mourn about heartbreak, from hit debut song "Lovesick" to the later "Madly".
  • Boy Band: They don't like this label due to the connotations and limitations it holds, but it's true. However, unlike most others who are a dance group, they specialise in instruments.
  • The Cameo:
    • The rest of the group (when Wonbin was a member) appear in one episode as Jaejin's character's obnoxious camp friends (aka "FT4") in Unstoppable Marriage.
    • Hongki and Jonghun, as well as the rest of their Chocoball group, make brief appearances in Super Junior's Heechul and Trax's Jungmo's MV for their subunit song "Close Ur Mouth".
    • Hongki cameo'd in the last episode of My Girlfriend Is a Nine-Tailed Fox as his You Are Beautiful character Jeremy.
    • All members have a very brief cameo, speaking one line each, in the Toriko movie within the first 5 minutes when they are about to perform at a concert.
  • The Cast Show Off: "I'm Happy" features a good deal of Wonbin playing the harmonica, which he otherwise never got to play in his time with FTI even though he used it in his audition for FNC.
  • Chick Magnet: Invoked with Jonghun in particular at debut where he was stereotyped as the ladies man in their first round of reality shows.
  • Cloudcuckoolander: Seunghyun, nicknamed "16-Dimensions" for him operating on a completely different plane of existence, really appears as once in his Good Morning Bob webvideo series - they range from him talking to inanimate objects to him enacting a love story between an Angry Bird and a teddy bear.
  • Cover Album: Memory In FT Island comprises their renditions of old Korean hits.
  • Crosscast Role: Purposely invoked as Rule of Funny in their parodies and variety show "acting" gigs when a girl is needed.
    • In their first concert in Thailand, Hongki rapped with a girl singer for his solo. Halfway through the performance footage on the DVD it's shown that the girl turned out to be Jonghun lipsyncing and in drag.
    • Hongki along with others from the You Are Beautiful cast did a parody of Girls' Generation's "Genie" which meant crossdressing the guys. Hongki was very likely parodying Jessica.
    • Jaejin and Seunghyun are the ones subject to this the most, such as their Hangul Live episodes where either of them will be the girl if there has to be one. Lampshaded by Jaejin in their Boys Before Flowers parody where he walks into F4's room and wonders which guy he is... then he realizes he's in a girls uniform and cries (in English), "Geum Jandi? Tell me why!"
  • Cute Bruiser: Minhwan, the youngest, smallest and cutest member... once won an arm-wrestling competition with all the 2PM members, aka the "Beast Idols".
  • Daddy's Girl: A few variants stated by Hongki himself with a few of his pets:
    • Hongki used to call his old pet husky, Elysia, his daughter.
    • For the Five Treasure Album jacket shooting, members were supposed to have their solo photos taken with their "treasures". Hongki promptly took his solo with three of his dogs, two of who appear to be his female ones Pri and Madonna.
  • Darker and Edgier: Their concepts are prone to taking a darker turn, such as promoting a ballad after a happier/poppier song (which often by default means a depressing or edgy MV following a more pleasant MV). In particular there's:
    • The relatively dark (and confusing) MV for "Hello Hello" which followed the happier "I Hope" and melancholy "Love Love Love" MVs. Hongki's implied to be a ghost and dead from since the very start, and he tries to save his fellow members who are stuck in a burning building, which is surrounded by news reporters and the fire brigade.
    • The PV for Japanese album promotion track Free, which was considered their "edgiest" MV at the time. There's dark make-up, smoking, drinking, and Hongki throwing a punch at... himself. All typical characteristics of a rebellious gang, an aspect never really shown with the band up until then. The song itself also carries much more edge than just about all their previous songs due to the heavy and wild instrumentation.
    • The "Pray" song and MV. The song has harsher vocals than usual as well as very intense and ark instrumentation. The MV is near devoid of colour and has the members performing and trapped in boxes and cages while men with creepy face paint watch and mock them. The members look evidently frustrated and their screaming and powerful music eventually breaks their barrier and sends the face-paint men flying.
  • A Day In The Lime Light:
    • FT Triple focuses on instrumentalists Jaejin, Jonghun and Minhwan. They first performed as this subunit in early concerts, and they official promoted in 2009 while Hongki and Seunghyun were busy with individual activities. It especially brought more attention to Jaejin as a vocalist since he only just started to get more lines at their time of debut and of course was typically overshadowed by Hongki.
    • Jonghun sings about 50% or more of "You and I" despite not even being an official subvocalist. He also has a solo song called "Somang" for the compilation album "Simboorum", composed by their CEO Hang Sungho.
    • Part 2 of the "Heaven" MV solely focuses on Jaejin and his love interest - the first member to have one all to himself and a vast contrast to previous drama MVs which would have at least two members acting in them with Hongki usually acting as the "main" guy.
    • Jaejin, besides his Step Up to the Microphone moments, has his own OST for Hongki's drama Bride of the Century.
    • Minhwan launched his own 10-minute video series in March 2015 on their official channel called "Minari Fact TV" - videos vary from him acting as a newsreporter going over the band's latest activities to him cooking.
    • A special teaser for "Pray" was of just Minhwan and it showed off his powerful drumming skills.
  • Distaff Counterpart:
    • To their younger labelmate AOA's band half of the group, AOA Black, who are FNC's first female band and hence got immediately coined as the female FT Island (or CN Blue).
      • In particular, AOA's Choa has been emphasised as this to Hongki by FNC, due to both being power vocalists with similar voices. She has her own version of Hongki's Bride of the Century OST "Words I Couldn't Say", and FNC had the two sing the song together in their 2014 FNC Kingdom duet stage as well as another song.
    • Labelmate Juniel is called the female Hongki within their company because she is also outspoken and not afraid to challenge their CEO like he is.
  • A Dog Named "Dog": Seunghyun simply calls his electric guitars Guitar 1, Guitar 2, Guitar 3...
  • Dress Rehearsal Video: Naturally, most music videos include footage of them playing their instruments and performing as a band in a stage-setting.
  • Elegant Classical Musician: They were at least advertised as such at debut as flower boys who are good (and look good) at playing their instruments and performing rock ballads. They are still promoted as such but their songs have become edgier ever since which makes some performances more energetic/wild than elegant.
  • Embarrassing First Name: Discussed Trope by Wonbin who had his name changed predebut because everyone kept teasing him for sharing it with famous actor Wonbin.
  • Face on the Cover: So many albums covers with their faces/bodies that it's quicker to list aversions - The Refreshmentnote ; Colorful Sensibility; Double Date; So Long, Au Revoir; Five Treasure Box; and The Mood.
  • Family Business:
    • Jaejin's older sister and actress Chaewon was initially with FNC, and was the one who introduced him to them.
    • Seunghyun has a younger brother at FNC, Sehyun, who seems to be focusing on acting. He's had minor acting roles including the bassist of The Stupid in Heartstrings.
  • Fanboy:
    • Minhwan was a big fan of Nicole, formerly from KARA. He has since moved on to expressing his fanboy love for A Pink's Bomi and for Red Velvet along with other members.
    • Jaejin had his Suzy (from Miss A) phase. Other members have also expressed interest in her, often calling her one of the prettiest girl group members or their ideal type.
    • Jonghun for labelmate AOA. He's been overly supportive of them since debut and especially likes Mina, who was once also Jaejin's phone wallpaper.
    • Girls aside, there's Jaejin for Red Hot Chili Peppers, Jonghun for Muse and Hongki for Thirty Seconds to Mars — Hongki in particular has been seen constantly leaving English fanboying comments on their instagram and begging them to come to Korea.
  • Fan Nickname: invoked Discussed Trope with Seunghyun the same year he first joined. He said on a variety show that fans would call out to the other members by their given nicknames... and then call him by his full name because they hadn't given him a nickname at the time.
  • Fanservice: More blatant in their early years as typical of any Boy Band, but they still provide when they feel like it. Especially when Jonghun's shirt is off either in concerts, photoshoots or selcas.
  • The Fashionista: Hongki enjoys showing off his nail polish/decorations on Twitter. He has won a Fashionista Award, and even got an award for his nail art too. He has also started his first fashion brand Skullhong.
  • Flanderization: Often in scripted reality shows they partake in: invoked
    • The members have a slight rebellious image in their music and stage demeanour. In the FNC reality show Cheongdamdong 111, however, they were made the attention-seeking troublemakers "villains" who always gave the CEO grief.
    • One of their reality shows at debut upped their personalities/images. Hongki was the funny rebellious cool guy, Jaejin was the nerdy guy, Wonbin was the tough manly guy, Jonghun was the sophisticated ladies man and Minhwan was the sensitive cute guy.
  • Food Songs Are Funny: Averted with "Morning Coffee" and "Black Chocolate" which are more tearjerkers than anything else and are mostly about their bitterness over love.
  • Friend to All Children:
    • Hongki often works with children when acting and so gets along quite well with them due to his friendly and funny personality.
    • Seunghyun, who often posts photos of him with his little cousins or other children. There's also an adorable fancam of him at a fan-signing event where he's messing around with a boy, which shows how easy-going he is even to children.
    • All the members with well-known mixed child stars Aleyna and Lincoln at Juniel's "Pretty Boy" party event, judging from their chummy photos together and fanaccounts of Lincoln messing around with some members (including going along with their pranks on each other).
    • Minhwan is a proud father of three.
  • Friend to All Living Things: All the members are prone to showing off their pets in social media or otherwise. Each member has/had at least one pet of their own, typically a dog or cat, and always dote on them in their social media. In particular, Seunghyun's named his dog Kongal as one of the keywords he's "focusing on", and worst offender Hongki (who owns at least one cat and several dogs) even took an album photoshoot with a few of his dogs. They've also been seen being affectionate with other animals, such as the dogs in the "Treasure" MV behind-the-scenes footage.
  • Funny Background Event: They mess around in the background a lot, especially to each other.
    • In a Japanese interview, Minhwan was having a relatively serious talk... while the others pretended to fall asleep behind him.
    • They (and CN Blue and Juniel) even did this during their CEO's acceptance speech when they all came out to accept the Best Composer/Producer award. The CEO's face was serious, everyone else's funny hand movements behind him not so much.
    • In the "Puppy" MV, Hongki hands Jaejin a box of puppy treats. As Hongki continues singing, Jaejin can be seen trying a treat and making a disgusted face afterward.
  • Fun with Acronyms: Five Treasure Island, which is also often abbreviated to FTI.
  • Fun with Foreign Languages: While their songs do contain snippets of English, they also show instances of this outside of their music:
    • Seunghyun's "Good Morning Bob" videos are infamous for abusing English and much of the entertainment is from his extreme misuse.
      Seunghyun: My name Angry Bird. My face angry.
    • They appeared on a Japanese show where they attempted to learn English phrases. Much of the entertainment from that show was due to the hilarity that ensued.
      Jonghun: Hey come here! You lookin' sexy d-dtghrd..dress! DRESS!!
    • This random exchange between Hongki and Jaejin during a Japanese interview:
      Hongki: My Brother.
      Jaejin: Yes, my brother. Do you like pizza?
      Hongki: Ya, do you like pizza?
      Jaejin: I like pizza.
      Hongki: I like pizza too.
    • Jaejin's (old) twitter was notorious for random nonsensical English tweets he wrote for fun.
  • Gainax Ending: For most of the "Puppy" MV, Hongki looks for his missing dog and asks the members around at their house. At the end, Hongki looks in one direction and asks, "Are you my puppy?" What does the camera pan to? Jaejin dressed in a dog suit for no reason lying on Hongki's bed while eating the dog treats. He barks, and the video ends there.
  • Genki Girl: Gender-inverted with the members — their hyperactiveness won them a "Fun and Fearless" award at one of the Golden Disc Awards.
  • Gratuitous English: They only promote in the Korean and Japanese market yet are prone to inserting unneeded Engrish in their music or otherwise:
    • Hongki's a frequent abuser of badly worded and spoken Engrish:
    Hongki: (picks up and opens an English book) She... would be berry... (puts the book back down)
    • "It's U" is a Korean song but has random English spoken parts courtesy of Seunghyun, which are impossible to understand both in the studio version and live.
  • Harsh Vocals: Growling is used in the bridge in "Tornado".
  • Heavy Sleeper: Seunghyun once slept for 27 hours straight.
  • Height Angst:
    • Hongki, who is estimated to be less than 170cm tall despite what his profile says, joked about this when he called out on his CEO in a talk show for only paying attention to the tall people in FNC aka not him.
    • Minhwan, who is the shortest and also said to be less than 170cm tall, has state his nervousness with working alongside tall girls and once his ideal girl was short, "preferably 163cm or less".
  • Hired for Their Looks: The person who scouted Jonghun followed and persuaded him because of his good looks and ulzzang fame. He also joked that the reason he was chosen as the band's leader is because of his pretty face.
  • Hollywood Tone-Deaf: Hongki does this in their cameo of Unstoppable Marriage, where FT4 are "playing" as a band... only for Jaejin's character to turn off the CD player and reveal Hongki's bad singing (and everyone else's handsync) which was basically him sliding his notes up and down randomly and singing in an extra cutesy manner.
  • Idol Singer: Started off as this (well the main and sub-vocalists anyways) — they're fighting against this image, however, wanting to be known not as idols but as real musicians.
  • Ignore the Fanservice: In the "Puppy" MV, an attractive girl in a tight/revealing uniform delivers pizza to the band's house and struts around them seductively. All the members ignore her because they're either more concerned about jamming, Hongki's missing puppy, or the pizza itself
  • Incredibly Long Note: Their Power Ballads in particular are full of belted long notes.
    • As their main vocalist, Hongki gets many of these, whether it be in ballads like "Lovesick" and "Distance" or much rockier songs like "Let It Go!" and "Hello Hello". He generally pulls them off wellnote  and is why he's praised a lot for his vocals and proclaimed one of kpop's greatest singers.
    • Jaejin has acquired a lot of these following his continuous vocal improvement, for example in "Paper Plane" and "Morning Coffee".
    • Seunghyun gets to sing them in his musicals. His encore appearances in Jack the Ripper was basically him belting "NAEGA JAAAAAAAAAAACK".note  He also has a few in "Morning Coffee".
    • Though none in studio recordings, Minhwan who's not even the sub-vocalist gets many opportunities to sing some at concerts, musicals and other lives. It has become tradition to have him sing Hongki's long note in "I Confess".
  • Jack of All Trades: All the members can play instruments other than their own, as seen when they once swapped roles as SF Heroes. They also write lyrics, compose songs, have at least minor acting experience and are fluent in Japanese. In particular:
    • Jonghun is the most prominent composer in the band, is skilled in both piano and guitar, and decent enough in bass to play in SF Heroes. He is also known for pursuing several hobbies such as art - and several of his paint works were actually put on display for the FNC Kingdom exhbition in Japan, several which aren't too shabby.
    • Seunghyun started playing piano first from a young age, yet it doesn't mean his skills in guitar pale in comparison at all. He is also a notable singer in the group, evident in his involvement in musicals.
    • Besides singing, Hongki writes songs, plays guitar and also knows how to drum thanks to his role as Anjell drummer Jeremy in You Are Beautiful, and he showed this again in SF Heroes and his movie. This is all while also running his own fashion brand and doing his acting works.
  • Korean Drama:
    • Hongki was a child actor and started actively acting again a few years after the group's debut. He was in the popular You Are Beautiful, and was the lead in other productions such as The Bride of the Century and Modern Farmer.
    • Minhwan and Jaejin both acted in drama sitcoms in their early years, The Road Home and Unstoppable Marriage respectively. Former member Wonbin also acted in Heartstrings and sitcom You're Here, You're Here, You're Really Here after his departure.
  • Law of Disproportionate Response: Minhwan and labelmate CN Blue's Minhyuk once had a drumming contest during their trainee days, where they had to power-drum as much damage as possible to their drum-sets. Determined to win, Minhwan poured acid on his set.
  • The Leader:
    • Officially Jonghun, and a good one at that. He's the "Levelheaded" and "Mastermind" type, as he's the more mature member who takes care of the members and uses his composition skills to help out with a good chunk of the group's music and their musical direction.
    • Hongki is an unofficial one. He's the "Headstrong" and "Charismatic" type, as he's the most hot-blooded and vocal member whose hard work has helped the group get some exposure and his friendly and persuasive personality helps keep the group together.
  • Lead Bassist: Jaejin, Type B, as he sings the most after Hongki thus is at least known for his vocals.
  • Lighter and Softer:
    • The cheerful and bittwersweet "I Hope", compared to all the previous angsty rock ballads.
    • The optimistic "Like The Birds" and poppy "I Wish" likewise followed previous angsty/melancholy title tracks "Hello Hello" and "Severely".
  • A Lizard Named "Liz": Seunghyun's acoustic guitar is called Akugii, which is short for "acoustic guitar" in Korean.
  • Lyrics/Video Mismatch: Their music videos and lyrics don't often match up all that well.
    • "I Hope". Song: Upbeat song with bittersweet lyrics of the singer missing his old love, saying "even if I see you again, you're my love" and "if I am born again, all I want is you". Video: The band goes back in time and becomes famous by constantly winning on this music competition show. Although, it could apply to Hongki and his girlfriend whom he leaves before returning to his own time. In the current timeline at the end, a girl can be seen sitting in dark while touching the FT Island pick that Hongki gave to his girlfriend, implying that she's the same girl and hasn't forgotten him.
    • "Hello Hello". Song: Typical break-up song where the singer can't forget his beloved. Video: Hongki goes in a burning building to save his band members.
    • "Love Love Love". Song: The singer's anguish as his lover leaves him. Video: The band performing while these two marionettes struggle to be together because their strings stop them from getting too close. And then they set said strings on fire and burn to their death while they finally get to hug each other.
    • "Stay". Song: another typical post-break up love song. Video: The members writing, discussing and performing their song(s) in their studio.
  • Meaningful Name:
    • Many of their album names.
      • 20 [twenty] - the members' average age at the time was 20 years old.
      • Thanks To - the mini was mostly made as a thank you and gift to Primadonnas.
      • New Page - to indicate a new page in their life and music.
      • 5... GO - 5th Japanese album, 5th year into their major Japanese debut at the time, 5 members, go = 5 in Japanese and also short for "going forward".
    • Their band name itself, where each member brings a treasure of talent to their fans.
  • Motor Mouth: Some of Seunghyun's raps are particular fast and a loadful. Special mention to his rap in "I Want", where he raps a lot, very fast and very softly, making it practically unintelligible. Except for the "I want you in my body" line.
  • Mr. Fanservice: Jonghun provides most of the fanservice, especially when showing off his abs and toned body in general. Several photoshoots are not shy about this and have him topless.
  • Mundane Made Awesome: "Do you know FT Island?" A quote that may seem strange to outsiders yet is one sure way for the band to hype up the fans for concerts. And then there's the response, "Do you know Primadonna?"
  • The Musical:

    N-Z 
  • The Napoleon: Hongki's the 2nd shortest and most hot-headed one in the group.
  • New Sound Album: Cross and Change, where the band known for their rock ballads went nearly-full pop rock.
  • Non-Appearing Title: They often stick to the Title Drop trope but sometimes do this too. Title track/promoted song examples that avoid blatantly saying the title include "Love Sick, "After Love" and "Distance".
  • Not a Morning Person: Reality shows show that Minhwan, Jaejin and Seunghyun can be woken up pretty easily. Jonghun takes a bit more effort. To get Hongki up, it takes three members playing the xylophone, clapping and yelling. This one time, Hongki was too stubborn to move let alone get out of bed that Minhwan concluded he was dead and mourned for him.
  • Official Couple:
    • Temporary and not serious of course, but invoked for Hongki with Japanese actress in Fuji Mina for Global We Got Married where they experienced spending time together as a "married couple".
    • Minhwan is married to former Laboum member Yulhee.
  • Older Than They Look: "Middle child" Jaejin's been mistaken to be younger than Seunghyun before, and even as young as Minhwan at least once.
  • Parents Walk In at the Worst Time: Happened once to Minhwan and his wife.
  • Power Ballad: They're most famous for their rock ballads. Amongst their many ones, "Lovesick" was a big hit and other ones such as "Severely" and "Distance" have also done well.
  • Real Men Wear Pink:
    • Despite being the most outspoken member that swears and drinks, Hongki has his heavy interest and active involvement in nail-art and fashion, going as far as to release a nail-art photobook and his own fashion brand Skullhong.
    • Minhwan, who plays the most masculine instrument (the drums), has openly admitted to liking pink, calling it one of his favourite colours.
  • Retraux: The retro concept of Cross and Change/"I Hope" promotions, especially since they traveled back in time in the MV. It was nicknamed the "Grease" concept.
  • Rockers Smash Guitars: Sorta, with CGI guitars on a special Weekly Idol episode. In the "Random Play Dance" segment, Jaejin, Jonghun and Seunghyun had to mime their instruments to their songs. They didn't bother aiming for accuracy and opted to go absolutely nuts which including playing the guitar with their teeth and smashing and throwing their guitars.
  • Running Gag:
    • Seunghyun's Harisu imitation and his caveman impersonations.
    • In every Weekly Idol they've appeared in the MCs would comment on how sickly and fragile Jaejin looked. Even when they finally appeared again after over 2 years, they still took a moment to comment on how much healthier Jaejin looked.
    • Jaejin the hairy man, courtesy of Hongki. Who is notorious for hairy legs himself.
    • Minhwan's "Hing Minari!" aegyo expression. The gag before was how cute yet cringeworthy it was — after growing up, the gag is how it's become cringeworthy and uncute.
    • Minhwan's love for chicken is mentioned non-stop, especially fried chicken.
    • Seunghyun's passionate godawful dancing, especially to Ring Ding Dong, and Jonghun and Jaejin's equally bad dancing to Rain.
    • Seunghyun being called the one with Baseless/Groundless Confidence on Makbanshi, because he was always too confident in things he always wasn't good at.
    • Hongki asking fans to come to their concerts in bikinis.
    • Seunghyun's poorness being mentioned in one way or another.
    • Jaejin's breakups being brought up for no reason other than to mock him.
  • Jonghun deleting his social media post, often almost immediately.
  • Self-Titled Album: Five Treasure Island, their first (major) Japanese album.
  • Serenade Your Lover:
    • Hongki sang several times to his onscreen wife Mina during their run on We Got Married. He also was serenaded by her when she played "Severely" on the piano for him.
    • This was a mission on Idol Maknae Rebellion, and Seunghyun sang "Falling Slowly" while playing the guitar to said woman. All was looking (and sounding) good, until he paused which everyone assumed meant he was finished... and then kept going. This lost him some brownie points.
  • Ship Tease:
    • Invoked for Seunghyun and labelmate Song Eunyi for subunit Two Song Place who showed some mild skinship in their "Age-Height" MV (including him holding her) and performances (including him holding her shoulders). Mostly Played for Laughs (and also the point of the song, which questions males' skewered and specific preferences for height, age and looks in women).
    • Invoked for Jaejin and Juniel when they did a wedding shoot together on Fashion Killer(near-kissing was involved) and sang Aladdin's "A Whole New World" together at an FNC Kingdom concert as the "new" Romantic J, a subunit originally comprising Juniel and CNB's Jonghyun which had a rather romantic concept (judging by the promoted love song and love-story MV).
  • Shout-Out:
    • In the bonus track on So Long Au Revoir which was a special commentary, at the end when saying their goodbyes Hongki randomly shouts Naruto's famous line "Kagebushin no Jutsu!"
    • Two Song Place's MV "Age-Height" parodies many kpop MVs. The ones Seunghyun were involved in were:
      • Troublemaker's "Now", with Seunghyun and Eunyi sitting at their car and the former holding the latter much like B2STs Hyunseung and HyunA. There is also him parodying Hyungseung dressed as The Joker.
      • The dance/school-uniform scene of Exo's "Growl" and the "tree of life" scene of "Wolf".
    • The band nicknamed Hongki's screaming in "Pray" as the "Dragon Ball scream".
  • Sibling Rivalry: They have a friendly rivalry with their labelmate CN Blue. Hongki has stated that their company uses FT Island as guinea pigs for CN Blue, but both bands otherwise respect each other and get along.
  • Signature Move: Hongki's hand/body movements:
    • "Love Love Love" has the hand-wave done at the "sarang sarang sarang" and "goodbye goodbye goodbye" lines.
    • "Hello Hello" has the angsty hand-wave when "hello hello"/"goodbye goodbye" is sung.
    • "Severely" has the "mic stand move", where at the chorus Hongki holds and moves the mic stand around and staring intensely like it's his lover.
    • "I Wish" has Hongki's "shoulder" dance, where he waves them at the "lonely lonely"/"love me love me" parts. Several people including other members often mimic this whenever singing/lipsyncing/dancing to it.
  • Similar Squad: With labelmate CN Blue. Both are idol-rock bands and inspiring-songwriters from FNC, and member counterparts follow as vocalists Hongki/Yonghwa, guitarists Jonghun/Jonghyun/sometimes Seunghyun, drummers Minhwan/Minhyuk and bassists Jaejin/Jungshin. FNC toys with this a few times such as taking photos of each pair together.
  • Singer Namedrop: In the song "Troublemaker" their name is spelt out in the background towards the end.
  • Singer-Songwriter: All members are capable of singing and writing their own music, but it especially applies to Hongki, Jaejin and Seunghyun aka the three vocalists whom often compose.
  • The Smart Guy: Invoked with Jaejin at debut with his nerd image, often made to dress up bookworm clothing (eg. glasses, sweaters on shirts) and treated as the smarter member in reality shows.
  • Spelling Song: Self-titled song "FT Island" which constantly spells out their name.
  • Step Up to the Microphone: Besides being FT Triple's main vocalist, Jaejin also sings solo in two of their Japanese songs, "Rock'n'Roll" and "Yume".
  • Team Dad: Flip-flops between Hongki and Jonghun, who are the oldest. Both display leadership skills and will be stern to younger members when necessary.
  • Team Mom: Also flip-flops between Hongki and Jonghun. Team Dad tendencies aside, they also take good care of the other members and fuss over their wellbeing.
  • Team Power Walk:
    • Done in their "So Today" MV towards the end to the sunset after spending a good deal standing around while angsting.
    • Used in the "After Love" MV after they stand together looking on mournfully about their break-ups.
  • Teen Idol: Debuted as idols quite young, with Minhwan debuting at age 14 and Seunghyun being 16 when he joined later on. Ever since hitting their late teens or leaving their teens, they've been working hard to break the idol image.
  • Tempting Fate: When the order of the performances was being drawn on an Immortal Song 2 episode, one of the members commented that they hope they won't be picked as first. Guess who performed first.
  • Title Drop: Saying the song title is common in their songs. Title track/promoted song examples include "Bad Woman", "Flower Rock" and "Madly" (obviously many songs like the 1st and 3rd songs are said in Korean or Japanese and not with its English translation).
  • Trademark Favorite Food: Members mentioning Minhwan and his love for chicken is a Running Gag. He especially likes fried chicken.
  • Translated Cover Version:
    • Korean and/or English versions of some Japanese songs have been released as bonus tracks, such as "Theory of Happiness" and "Flower Rock". A fair amount of their Japanese songs from 20 [twenty] were also translated into Korean for their album Five Treasure Box, and All About is specifically a Korean album full of Korean versions of selected Japanese songs.
    • Subverted in Japan: while it's the norm for Korean idols to do this for their Korean songs, FT Island's major Japanese songs have been all original - and even in their indie days, only one B-side was a remake of a Korean song ("Always Be Mine", English version of "First Kiss").
  • Truck Driver's Gear Change: It's common in their songs to change keys in the last chorus for impact.
    • Mostly common in their Power Ballads, eg. "Severely", "Madly", "Bad Woman".
    • Not uncommon in their pop or rockier music either, eg. "I Hope", "Hello Hello", "Like A Bird".
  • Updated Re-release:
    • Bonus tracks of Best Recommendation For JAPAN included "FT Island" and "Primadonna" with Seunghyun singing Wonbin's parts.
    • "FT Island" and "Primadonna" instrumentals were slightly rearranged and rerecorded for Japanese indie album Prologue of FT Island.
  • The Un-Favourite: Members sometimes compare the CEO's treatment of them as this, saying he favours their other "sibling" labelmates more. Invoked in their FNC reality show where the CEO considered the group more of his troublemaking children than anything else.
  • Unperson: In one of their DVD documentaries released at the end of 2009, a variety show appearance from 2008 was included but Wonbin's scenes were promptly edited out since he was no longer a member.
  • Vitriolic Best Buds:
    • Jaejin and Hongki always take jabs at each other in interviews, all the while being chummy.
    • Invoked in one Weekly Idol episode where the MCs jokingly held a counselling-like session for the otherwise friendly Hongki and Seunghyun to sort out their problems. They hint at this in interviews too; Seunghyun once said he wants to make his own company and have Hongki work for him, while Hongki's response to what he'd do if he could be Seunghyun for a day was, "I don't want to be him."
    • Minhwan and Wonbin's friendship flip-flopped between vitriolitic and affectionate on earlier reality shows. Wonbin would often bully (Played for Laughs) Minhwan especially if aegyo was involved - nevertheless they showed a strong brother-like relationship, such as Wonbin comforting a crying Minhwan.
  • Vocal Tag Team: Hongki/Jaejin/Seunghyun, especially the first two - more apparent in their Japanese singles though. While Hongki is the main vocalist, the subvocalists' lines are often quite generous and on par with Hongki's.
  • What Song Was This Again?: "Always Be Mine" lyrics are notably different from its original Korean counterpart "First Kiss", as is the case for their other translated songs. "First Kiss" is about one's first kiss, while "Always Be Mine" is a typical sweet love song.
  • Wholesome Crossdresser: Besides Crosscast Role, all members have at least once been crossdressed on shows simply to show off what great Attractive Bent Genders they are.
  • Younger Than They Look: The group themselves have admitted Jonghun looks older than he really is, though mostly in their early days. Other members even mistook him for their stylist when they first met him.

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