Pre-debut Activities
As trainees under Woollim Entertainment, Rocket Punch members’ activities before making their debut as a girl group was practicing every day. They would attend vocal classes, dance classes, and other activitites. On the other hand, some trainees participated in survival television programs, such as Produce 48. Sohee and Suyun were trainee representatives of Woollim Entertainment who participated in the program Produce 48. Meanwhile, Juri also participated in the same program before joining Woollim Entertainment. The rest of the members were busy with practice and introducing themselves on social media, like Twitter.
Therefore, on July 22nd, on midnight, Woollim Entertainment uploaded a video of logo motion for their upcoming new girl group, Rocket Punch.
They also uploaded some of their trainees’ profiles on their rookie Twitter account. After the video pop-up, many fans began to wonder who will be the members of the new group by Woollim Entertainment.
Juri, Sohee, and Suyun in Produce 48
Produce 101 is the most phenomenal South Korean survival program, which has created an amazing girl group and a boy group from their graduated trainees, such as IOI from season 1 and Wanna One from season 2. Then, the program continued by releasing a third season titled Produce 48 in 2018. This season is special because, in the competition, there were not only South Korean trainees from various entertainment agencies competing, but Japanese ones as well. In season 3, their graduated (winning) members got to be part of the famous girl group IZ*ONE.
In Produce 48, three members of Rocket Punch graduated from that program. They are Sohee and Suyun from South Korea, and Juri from Japan.
Sohee
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kQFJX_SE8QQ
Suyun
Juri
Juri in AKB48
Takahashi Juri started her carrier as a singer after she passed the audition for AKB48’s 12th Generation on February 20th, 2011, and then she became an official member of AKB48 in April 2011. After that, her career started rapidly growing up and she was very busy with activities with AKB48. During the eight years of being an AKB48 member, Juri showcased her best skills and potential obvious by the upgraded ranking from year to year in her AKB48 history.
On March 13th, 2012, she was promoted to Oba Team4 and chosen for her senbatsu for AKB48’s 26th single Manatsu no Sound Good. Her continuously increasing ranking reached to the highest level where Takahashi moved to Team A after her performance at the Tokyo Dome Team Shuffle. She was active with Team A starting from November 1st, 2012, and became a shonichi member for Team A’s waiting Stage.
She kept moving to other levels to Kuramochi Team B during AKB48’s Group Daisokaku Matsuri on February 24th, 2014. On April 28th, she became a shonichi member for the revival of Team B’s Pajama Drive stage and at the 6th Senbatsu Election, placed for the first time at #28 and thus made Under girls right away on June 7th, 2014. On October 8th, 2015, she appeared in AKB Horror Night Adrenaline no Yoru. Meanwhile, on December 3rd, Juri became a shonichi member of Team 4 (after she became the captain of Team 4) Yume wo Shinaseru Wake ni Ikanai stage.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iecKUKuYTmo
At the 8th Senbatsu Election, she was placed 15th and made senbatsu for the first time on June 18th, 2016. In 2017, on May 12th, Juri was a shonichi member for AKB48’s Thumbnail stage and on December 8th, during the AKB48’s 12th Anniversary Shuffle, she moved to Team B again and made captain (Takahashi Team B).
Then, her first solo photobook Aimaina was released on July 24th, 2018. In the same year, she was flown to South Korea to participate in the South Korea survival program Produce 48. On March 4th, during the Theater no Megami stage and also her birthday stage, Juri announced that she would graduate from AKB48. The following day, she confirmed that she has signed a contract with one of South Korea’s agencies, Woollim Entertainment, and officially became a Woollim agency trainee on March 5th, 2019.
