Nizi Project season 1

Nizi Project is a 2020 Japanese reality competition show. The series is a joint project between JYP Entertainment and Sony Music Entertainment Japan with the intention of creating a Japanese girl group aimed at a global audience. Nizi Project is centered on JYP Entertainment founder Park Jin-young selecting members for the girl group out of 26 girls, who eventually debuted as NiziU.
Part 1 focused on the boot camp in 2019 with 26 contestants and was broadcast exclusively on Hulu Japan from January 31, 2020 to March 27, 2020. Part 2, which focused on the finals in 2020 between the top 14 contestants, was broadcast from May 22, 2020 to June 26, 2020. Beginning with Part 2, the series was also broadcast on YouTube.
A version of the show hosted by Daimaou Kosaka was broadcast on NTV from April 17, 2020 to June 26, 2020 under the title Nizi no Kake Hashi and featured interviews with Park and the contestants of Nizi Project. An abridged version was serialized on the variety show with live commentary from the show's panelists.
In July 2021, Park announced that Nizi Project will have a second season to create a 9-member Japanese boy band. The project was later delayed, but it resumed in July 2023.

Background

In February 2019, JYP Entertainment and Sony Music Entertainment Japan announced that they were creating an audition program titled Nizi Project to create a Japanese girl group aimed at a global audience, with plans for the group to debut in November 2020. Auditions for Japanese girls aged 15–22 years old opened on May 1, 2019 and were evaluated by a panel of judges. Approximately 10,231 people auditioned for the show. The second round of auditions took place from July to August 2019 in eight locations in Japan as well as Hawaii and Los Angeles, with 26 contestants selected by JYP Entertainment founder Park Jin-young. The 26 contestants attended a boot camp in Tokyo in September 2019 for four nights and five days. The top 14 contestants were sent to train in South Korea for six months in December 2019.
Each contestant selected by Park would be given a cube pendant based on the Nizi Project logo. Throughout the show, Park would evaluate each contestant in four different categories, with a triangular cube awarded to a contestant to fill her pendant if he felt she satisfied the category. A second set of cubes was introduced in Part 2, with four additional tests.
Part 1 was broadcast from January 31, 2020 to March 27, 2020 on Hulu Japan. Part 2 was broadcast from May 22, 2020 to June 26, 2020. In addition to Hulu Japan, the series was also uploaded to YouTube and an abridged version of the show was serialized through NTV's variety show , with live commentaries from the show's panelists. A version of the show, presented in the "perspective of the and as the producers", was broadcast as a series of documentaries under the title Nizi no Kake Hashi; the show was hosted by Daimaou Kosaka, with interviews from Park and the Nizi Project contestants, and was broadcast from April 17, 2020 to June 26, 2020. Prior to the finale of Part 2, Sukkiri ran a 25-minute feature of all the episodes from June 15 to June 26, 2020 on weekdays. A special feature of Nizi no Kake Hashi was broadcast on June 26, 2020, with announcer Keisuke Mori co-hosting the segment with Kosaka.

Contestants

Region	Contestant	Age	Background
Nagoya	Erina Hanada
Nagoya	Rio Hanabashi	17-18	Former EXPG trainee with Bunnies and Kizzy
Nagoya	Miu Sakurai	17
Sendai	Nina Makino	14-15	Child actress and television personality under the name Nina Makino
Sendai			Former member of GEM and One Chance
Osaka	Ayane Marutani	15
Osaka	Ririka Kishida	17
Osaka	Riku Oe	17
Osaka	Mayuka Ogou	15-16
Tokyo	Akari Inoue	14-15
Tokyo	Miihi Suzuno	14-15	JYP Entertainment trainee; trained for 7 months
Tokyo	Rima Yokoi	15-16	JYP Entertainment trainee; trained for 7 months
Tokyo	Mako Yamaguchi	18-19	JYP Entertainment trainee; trained for 2 years and 7 months
Tokyo	Hina Tanigawa		Former member of TPD Dash!
Tokyo	Maya Katsumura	17-18	Former YG Japan trainee
Tokyo	Yuna	15-16	JYP Entertainment trainee; trained for 2 years and 8 months
Tokyo	Ayaka Arai	16
Tokyo	Kyoka Taniya
Tokyo	Funa Takaya
Tokyo	Rei Ito
Sapporo	Suzu Ozaki	18
Fukuoka	Riria Ikematsu	16-17	Former member of
Fukuoka	Momoka Hirai	15
Okinawa	Moeno Yamashiro
Los Angeles	Mei Plunkett
Los Angeles	Ana Sato

Rankings

Summary

The top 9 finalists debuted as NiziU.
;Color key

	Cube was awarded
	Cube was awarded as a runner-up
	Ranked last; at risk of elimination
	Eliminated or withdrawn

''Part 1''

Nizi Project Part 1 focused on the auditions in July and August 2019 and the Tokyo boot camp in September 2019. Auditions opened on May 1, 2019 for girls aged 15–22 years old, with a total of 10,231 entries. The second round of auditions took place from July to August 2019 in Sapporo, Sendai, Tokyo, Nagoya, Osaka, Hiroshima, Fukuoka, and Okinawa, as well as Hawaii and Los Angeles in the United States. During the second auditions, Park and a panel of judges selected 26 contestants, which they awarded with Nizi pendants, and they would attend a boot camp in Tokyo that lasted four nights and five days.
During the boot camp, the contestants were evaluated under four categories: dance, vocals, star quality, and personality. If Park felt a contestant satisfied one of the categories, he would award her a triangular cube to fill her Nizi pendant.

Auditions

Broadcast order	Region	Contestant	Dance	Vocal
1	Nagoya	Erina Hanada	"Candy Pop"
2	Nagoya	Rio Hanabashi	"Hoshikuzu Venus"
19	Nagoya	Miu Sakurai		"Good-bye Baby"
3	Sendai	Nina Hillman	"What Is Love? "	"Brand New Day"
	Sendai	Kako Oguri
4	Osaka	Ririka Kishida	"Who's Your Mama?"
5	Osaka	Ayane Marutani	"Who's Your Mama?"
20	Osaka	Riku Oe	"Candy Pop"	"Hoshikuzu Venus"
	Osaka	Mayuka Ogou	"Candy Pop"
6	Tokyo	Akari Inoue	"BDZ"	"Brand New Day"
9	Tokyo	Miihi Suzuno		"Precious"
10	Tokyo	Rima Yokoi	"Bad Girl Good Girl"	"Irony"
12	Tokyo	Mako Yamaguchi	"You're the One"	"Freesia"
8	Tokyo	Hina Tanigawa	"Bad Girl Good Girl"
15	Tokyo	Maya Katsumura	"24 Hours"
16	Tokyo	Yuna	"Irony"
17	Tokyo	Ayaka Arai	"Bad Girl Good Girl"
21	Tokyo	Kyoka Taniya	"What Is Love? "
	Tokyo	Funa Takaya
	Tokyo	Rei Ito
7	Sapporo	Suzu Ozaki	"24 Hours"	"BDZ"
7	Fukuoka	Riria Ikematsu	"Candy Pop"	"Yasashisa de Afureru You ni"
18	Fukuoka	Momoka Hirai	"Good-bye Baby"	"Be My Baby "
11	Okinawa	Moeno Yamashiro	"Who's Your Mama?"	"Yasashisa de Afureru You ni"
13	Los Angeles	Mei Plunkett	"Bad Girl Good Girl"
14	Los Angeles	Ana Sato	"What Is Love?"

Cube 1: Dance

For the dance evaluation, yellow cubes were awarded to the top 3 contestants, with additional cubes awarded to the rest of the top 16 contestants.

Broadcast order	Contestant	Song	Rank	Result
1	Maya Katsumura	"Dalla Dalla"	12
2	Miihi Suzuno	"Cheer Up "	2	Won
3	Yuna	"Likey"	8
4	Ayaka Arai	"Dalla Dalla"	16
5	Riria Ikematsu	"Dalla Dalla"	3	Won
6	Rio Hanabashi	"Summertime"	9
7	Akari Inoue	"Dalla Dalla"	10
9	Mako Yamaguchi	"I'll Be Back "	1	Won
10	Ririka Kishida	"Cheer Up "	4
11	Nina Hillman	"Dalla Dalla"	24
12	Rima Yokoi	"Fancy "	7
13	Riku Oe	"Fancy "	6
14	Moeno Yamashiro	"Yuki no Hana"	13
15	Momoka Hirai	"Fancy "	15
16	Funa Takaya	"Fancy "	19
17	Mayuka Ogou	"Dalla Dalla"	21
	Suzu Ozaki		5
	Rei Ito		11
	Mei Plunkett		14
	Miu Sakurai		17
	Kyoka Taniya		18
	Kako Oguri		20
	Hina Tanigawa		22
	Ayane Marutani		23
	Erina Hanada		25
	Ana Sato		26