As everything develops, mal-to-medium agencies can now also debut many promising visuals,
especially for their girl groups.
The most typical examples are Starship Entertainment and ADOR, aka the management of IVE and NewJeans
and the home to the two most viral visuals of Kpop right now: Jang Wonyoung and Kim Minji.
However, many still believe when it comes to the overall industry beauty and the visual
average score of all girl groups ever debuted in the industry, no companies could transcend
SM and JYP Entertainment.
On Pann, there was even a long post dedicated only to comparing the signature visual of
these two companies and seemingly, no one could tell which was the one having the most
legendary visuals of all time.
Representing the beauty standard of four girl groups that SM Entertainment had debuted,
Yoona, Krystal, Irene and Karina were singled out as according to the OP, they are the ones
that give out such a strong SM Entertainment aura: a standardized beauty of South Korea,
surreal dainty doll-like features and a chic, sometimes rather cold vibe.
For the second-generation girl groups SNSD and f(x), the OP believes SM Entertainment
has deliberately chosen two different types of beauty but still share a bit of a dainty,
doll-like vibe: one belongs to the icy-cold extreme (Krystal) and the other belongs to
the warm and elegant end of the spectrum (Yoona) to set up their own unique beauty standard.
Specifically, to represent the elegant visual, Yoona was chosen by SM Entertainment and because
she was everything the South Korean public asked for in a visual, she quickly became
the most iconic beauty of the industry and even of the country.
With an extremely small face complimented by big round eyes as well as petite lips and
nose, Yoona has still been the timeless model figure of what the South Korean public expects
at a traditional beauty.
Because Yoona’s personality is also inherently gentle and soft, which is the most expected
trait at a dainty visual, people gradually look up to both her and SM Entertainment,
praising the company for being able to scout such impressive faces representing the public
preference.
In contrast, to present the posh and icy-cold visual, SM Entertainment singled out Krystal
and did their best to help her shine as the “icy queen” of Kpop.
With the defined, sharp features, icy gaze and especially the extremely preserved personality,
Krystal quickly became the symbol of cold and luxurious beauty.
However, things weren’t so easy for her at first because also for such an RBF, Krystal
used to be mistakenly accused of a severe celebrity disease.
It wasn’t until the female idol went on more reality programs and showed more of her
soft, gentle side did netizens stop bashing her like before.
The harmonious visual mixture of the cold, soft and chic aura has been kept up consistently
by SM Entertainment since then.
With their gen3 girl group, Red Velvet, Irene was specifically chosen to represent the beauty
of the company and literally throughout the gen3 era of Kpop, she has been voted to be
the top visual of all female idols.
Her visual is so favored by Knetz that when Red Velvet disappeared for over a year due
to multiple bad incidents, and Irene’s incident was actually the most detrimental to the act’s
reputation, all that people cared about when Red Velvet had their first stage after controversies
was the breathtaking visual of Irene.
Even the South Korean government is obsessed with Irene’s luxurious and classy visual
as most recently, the Virtual Human Ambassador of the Korea Tourism Organization has generated
a sensation for looking exactly like Irene.
Basically, when looking at Irene, the OP believed she is the perfect combination between Yoona
and Krystal’s visuals for checking all the boxes of a standard visual in South Korea
like Yoona and also has an icy, hard-to-reach vibe like Krystal.
For the fourth generation, many believed there was a huge shift in the beauty standard of
SM Entertainment yet overall, the same posh and icy aura from gen3 was preserved.
By that, it means compared to other names like Yoona, Krystal and Irene, Karina had
a surrealist CGI beauty and because of the uniquely sharp features, her visual created
a polarized range of reactions which either loved or hated her look instead of receiving
a general love and being considered the beauty standard of South Korea.
However, for the most part, Karina is still voted to be among the top visuals of gen4
female idols.
Whenever she performs, even when just on a weekly music show, it’s almost like a golden
rule that her visual would soon trend all over the Internet.
During the GIRLS era, there wasn’t a single stage that netizens could stop admiring Karina’s
beauty and the more they look at her, the more they feel like she isn’t a real human
but rather a game character created out of all the most perfect visual fantasies of humans.
When wearing wigs, Karina looks even more like a robot and for this, some joked that
those who didn’t know who Karina was certainly would think they were looking at another robot
invention of the most cutting-edge technologies.
However, that was also such a polarized visual that on Pann, many believed Karina shouldn’t
have ever been put on the same par with legendary visuals like Yoona, Krystal, and Irene, let
alone on the list of visuals represent the unique beauty standard set and preserved by
SM Entertainment for the past twenty years.
Not only that, all the comments praising Karina’s visual also received an overwhelming number
of downvotes as according to them, Karina possessed a plastic face so she doesn't deserve
to be among SM's legendary visuals.
Also for this reason, many have chosen JYP Entertainment to be the home to the most legendary
visuals of all time in Kpop and until now, the agency still has more votes than SM Entertainment
regarding the discussion of which one has the best visuals.
According to the OP, four faces representing JYP Entertainment’s beauty standard in each
era are Suzy, Tzuyu, Sana and Yuna.
Most also agreed with the opinion and said looking at them, they could feel how JYP Entertainment
was all about the natural, sweet, soft and tuneful mixture between the Japanese and South
Korean classic beauty.
Not only the number of upvotes but the comment section also showed an overwhelming victory
of JYP Entertainment over SM Entertainment as the most liked opinion was about how Suzy
alone could single-handedly outshone all the other names.
Especially in the fourth generation of Kpop, many said the attraction of visuals coming
from JYP Entertainment was way more considerable as compared to aespa, ITZY and NMIXX had way
more names that could fit perfectly to the strict beauty standard of South Korea.
Some also mentioned it wasn’t just a joke that the agency was called “The Best Girl
Group Producer” of Kpop because eventhough their idols weren’t exceptionally good vocal-and-dancing-wise,
they could still amount to great success thanks to the widely favorable visuals.
Most agreed that Suzy and TWICE were two solid examples of how JYP Entertainment could still
garner great attention though their idols didn’t usually outshine the skills of those
coming from SM Entertainment.
As for Suzy, with her naturally harmonious and youthful beauty, she has still been among
the most famous names in South Korea though many idols of her generation have either retired
or simply got forgotten.
From the day she debuted with MissA till the day she departed and went for a solo career,
Suzy has always been voted to be among the top visuals of Kpop.
While TWICE, specifically Tzuyu and Sana, have a different type of beauty to Suzy, netizens
agreed they could still represent the beauty standard set by their seniors thanks to the
adorable and sweet features.
Specifically, their slightly round, small face was both perfectly complemented by big,
double-lidded eyes and a heart-melting smile.
Most importantly, the 2 also have the same friendly and warming aura as Suzy, aka the
biggest trait that differentiates JYP Entertainment’s visuals from those of SM Entertainment.
For example, while Krystal, Irene and Karina often give off a feeling that they are extremely
shining and distant from the figure of a normal person, visuals of JYP Entertainment created
almost the opposite vibe, always emanating a girlfriend-material vibe.
Also different from SM Entertainment, JYP Entertainment seemingly sticks better to their
signature visuals preferences as even up to the fourth generation, the candy, bubbly and
friendly vibe is still vividly seen in Yuna, aka the fourth name that the OP singled out
to represent the beauty standard of JYP Entertainment.
With an extremely small face complemented by big doll eyes and heart-shaped lips, Yuna
easily checks all the boxes of JYP's criteria.
Because she is also the mood maker of ITZY and literally the brightest person on Earth,
she is always smiley and that makes people feel like she is a relatable friend rather
than a superior idol coming from another dimension.
After pointing out the unique visual standard of each company and also the representative
faces of such criteria, most people in the comment section still couldn’t decide who
is the legit winner.
While the number of votes of JYP Entertainment has always been more than SM Entertainment’s,
some said it still doesn’t prove anything as the difference in vote numbers is too little.
Plus, people in the comment themselves also showed mixed reactions so it’s obviously
impossible to tell which company was better than the other.
However, in your opinion, is it SM Entertainment or JYP Entertainment that should be granted
the title “Beauty-standard setter” of Kpop?