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After eight years in the shadows, ICARIS returns for one last flight. A farewell album. A worldwide tour. A legacy finally given its proper send-off.

Their story is told in an eight-part docuseries, Sunbound: ICARIS’ Final Flight—mixing present-day footage with archival clips, livestreams, concert films, and video logs. Raw, intimate, and at times uncomfortable, it’s a look into the group that once soared together, burned to ashes together, and now rises together one last time.

Customize your Sparky. Design the group’s “face”: choose appearance, gender, sexuality, and even performance style. Will you be a playful and adorable puppy-like person or a mysterious and surly cat-like person? Were you close with your fans or were you standoffish? Were you clean or did you basically live in the tabloids?

Shape your journey. Experience the rise of ICARIS, the events that shaped their history — some moments are inevitable; there is no saving what’s already lost. In the present timeline, however, you can navigate regrets and grief, reconnect with old friends, and influence how the reunion unfolds.

Romance across timelines. Pursue any of the five romantic options. Rekindle old flames or explore new connections.

Content warnings: realities of the industry, abusive workplaces and schedules, substance abuse, mentions/allusions to suicidal thoughts, mental illnesses, disordered eating. Possibly more.

Hoshino Mitsuki is always the member most difficult to write—talk—about. They weren’t hard to pin down like Sparky was, nor did they have multiple controversies like Devan did, but everything that unfolded about them was so terribly tragic to think about. There is too much and too little to be said about the ball of sunshine, source of hope, brighter-than-the-sun that was Hoshino Mitsuki, and even their members refuse to speak about them at length. But for the sake of this feature article, and because we all believe that Mitsuki deserves to be remembered as the beautiful human being they were, I shall try.

Hoshino Mitsuki was the youngest of all the trainees under Elysium Entertainment, having entered the system at just 12 and a half years old. They got in through an audition held in Japan, and their now famous audition video is a controversial one even to this day. They barely had the skills, and it showed to an almost embarrassing degree—forgot their lines and confidently sang the incorrect notes, stumbled all over their feet and messed up the blockings—but anyone watching would agree that the beaming smile they had on as they performed was hypnotizing. It was like they were having the time of their life despite all the mistakes they were making. “It was impossible to ignore,” reasoned one of the people who’d agreed to accept Mitsuki into the program, “they simply belonged on stage.” When they were flown to California from Japan, Mitsuki barely knew any English aside from “thank you,” “sorry,” and “when is lunchtime?”—a little tidbit they liked to laugh about until their last days. They had to rely on Jiwon, who was fluent in both English and Japanese, to translate for them and to teach them English until they were confident enough to handle conversations on their own—this is quite obvious in the way they’d taken all of Jiwon’s English-speaking quirks at first before their way of speaking became a blend of all the other members’ quirks and accents.

Mitsuki was the perfect mix of all the other members—they had Jiwon’s strong sense of professionalism and Saint’s cheerleader-like qualities; they possessed Sparky’s raw charisma and Devan’s risky boldness; and they learned eloquence during interviews from Angel and tenderness and calmness during stressful times from Cloud. This is perhaps because they had to rely on the other members for ten whole years—their performative years at that—and because it wouldn’t be an exaggeration to say that the members, though not much older, essentially raised Mitsuki. They turned Mitsuki from someone who could barely carry a note and could only flap their arms to someone who could cover the more skilled members’ lines when they were sick and someone who had plenty of center positions during dance breaks. Plenty of behind-the-scenes footage supports the idea that the members raised Mitsuki, as they were often shown to be doting on the youngest—reminding them to eat, spending hours in the arcade just to get the toy they wanted from a claw machine, and taking them on family trips on days off. But it wasn’t a one-sided relationship; all the members have at least once voiced out that Mitsuki was a driving force for the group to keep continuing even when times were hard. They’d mentioned Mitsuki as their cheerleader during their dispute with the company, eagerly looking forward to standing on stage again with “hearts of rookies” even though things seemed dire for the other members.

Mitsuki was also a big fan of “capturing the moment.” They were often seen with video and film cameras, trailing after the other members to make sure their memories were stored forever. They were the brain behind most of the group’s extra content—vlogs, variety content, and even the trilogy documentaries that first came from a scrapped documentary featuring their pre-debut days. Half the reason why people fell for ICARIS was their authenticity, their personalities, and their vastly different relationship dynamics—we wouldn’t have seen so much of these without Mitsuki’s genius. Part of this is also because Mitsuki truly treasured fan interactions, posting almost daily and replying endlessly to fans whenever they had time. When the pandemic hit and we were all forced to stay indoors, Mitsuki went live almost every single day just to keep fans company, chatting and singing with Solaces as though they were talking with friends and not strangers. Mitsuki, at this time, was the Solaces’ solace. The one constant source of happiness when the world had turned so dreary.

Perhaps this is why their death hurt so much. It would’ve hurt even if they weren’t as big with interactions as they were, but Mitsuki being such a big source of joy and strength during those trying times, being so present, made their sudden absence so jarring. Their death shook the entire world—I’d say it’s almost impossible for people to not know about the incident. We’d seen the blurry videos of the members in different states of distress waiting for news from the firefighters, taken from a helicopter view of Mitsuki’s mansion. We all read the speculation, the rumors, the insults hurled at each member before Jiwon, on their personal account, had gone online and left a long and firm message about respecting the grieving members and the deceased by stopping all the absurd speculations. We saw how the group slowly drifted apart—updates together quickly going down in numbers—and we all know that the disbandment announcement just two months later was inevitable.

A house fire, something so easily avoidable cutting someone’s precious life short. No foul play, no self-harm, just a cigarette butt not snuffed out completely and sleeping pills to combat Mitsuki’s lifelong problems with insomnia. Mitsuki, who had spent half their life in the pressure cooker they call the idol industry, gone so quickly. It was unfair; it was difficult to accept. Until now, with the announcement of a full group—as full as they can be, at least—album drop and a tour, Mitsuki’s ghost haunts everything. They’re the most mentioned name—the highest trending name when the news first came out—and some people are understandably upset and uneasy about the reunion. ICARIS had never been anything but seven. Even with sick members or those who had to be absent for a while due to other responsibilities, the rest of the members never failed to talk about them until it felt like their absence wasn’t too big. With Mitsuki truly gone, it’s difficult to imagine how this album drop and tour will go in regards to Mitsuki’s absence.

prologue at the moment is a feature article with a few interviews of the group, so it isn’t just a very quick prologue. i have this mostly done but i haven’t touched this “mostly done” draft since like weeks ago so once i get to revising that it might take on a pretty different look, especially with the character introductions already done. it’s always unpredictable how fast or how slow writing can be, but i’m sure i can finish it before 7-7 and post it then.

Cloud Rattakorn was always supposed to set foot on the Olympic stage as a figure skater. At just 3 years old, they were spending most of their time in a skating rink near their hometown house, and by 5, they were getting professional training in figure skating. Cloud spent a vast majority of their childhood training—ballroom dancing and contemporary dancing as part of their figure skating training—and these all paid off when they managed to snag silver and gold awards at the two Junior Grand Prix events they’d joined and even won silver at the 2010 Junior Grand Prix Final. For the longest time, they were aiming for the Winter Olympics but Cloud shook the figure skating world when it was announced that they were retiring. No one knew what had happened until ICARIS blew up and a familiar face was among the group.

“I auditioned on a whim; I’d always been a fan of KPOP and JPOP,” Cloud explained when people asked about their promising figure skating career, “and when they called me back, I can’t explain it, but my heart was begging for me to join the training.” Their parents had been very supportive of this sudden career shift, never missing a single major performance of the group and treating the rest of the members like their own children. “When they wanted to be a figure skater when they were five, we wholeheartedly allowed it. When they changed their mind, we had no complaints. We only want them to follow their dreams,” Cloud’s mother said during an interview with her for Sunborn, the group’s first documentary. It’s easy to see why Cloud is the way they are, with a family so supportive and ready to accept them no matter which path they took. This is perhaps also why the members often say Cloud is the most understanding member, the one who’d listen to everyone and tell each one to “follow your heart” when facing a difficult decision. But make no mistake, the members also say that Cloud is often the one to keep everyone in check when tensions rise. “Too many big personalities in one group,” Devan had once joked, “but Cloud is always there to bring us all back to Earth.”

Cloud’s background in ballroom dancing and contemporary dancing made them the main dancer of the group, and the main choreographer. Though they admitted to struggling with shifting dance styles at first, Cloud had meticulously sought out training for other dance styles just so they could incorporate them into the group’s choreography—which is why we can see a shift from more contemporary dancing in their first trilogy to more hiphop and modern styles in their second trilogy. Cloud, along with Devan, also trained the members who were lacking in dancing early on, the discipline and resilience that they learned through years of training for figure skating bleeding into their years as a member of ICARIS. Though they were always said to be the gentlest of them behind the scenes—Mitsuki had even once said they liked just lying in silence with Cloud whenever they were feeling down, allowing the day to pass by in silence—Cloud was famously relentless and unforgiveable when it came to dancing. They were strict with the members, with keen eyes catching even the slightest of mistakes, and their disappointment was something even the leader, Jiwon, tried to avoid at all costs.

Angel Matisse is an angel in every sense of the word: ethereal, aloof, terrifying. They entered the showbiz industry at barely five years old; some might remember their incredible performances in some well-known children’s movies and some bigger blockbusters. Their mother stood as their manager for their acting career, accompanying them to shoots and making connections for them until they were scouted by an Elysium Entertainment worker just three months before the final lineup of ICARIS was decided.

Angel has the shortest training period out of the entire group, which was quite evident when they first debuted—they visibly lacked in singing and dancing for the first two years of their career as an idol. However, one thing about ICARIS is that the members always strive to be better. Angel showed extraordinary growth in both singing and dancing in their years as an ICARIS member, so much so that the gap between them and the more skilled members lessened considerably and they were seen as not just the visual of the group, but something more integral to the dance formations and songs. As the visual of the group, however, they were the first face people often noticed—full lips, long lashes, tall cheekbones. Angel was, well, an angel on Earth. It is also possibly this beauty of theirs that has people so intimidated by them, along with their default blank expression and dry humor. The members often raved about how cute and goofy Angel was behind the scenes, and fans did get to have a little peek into this Angel through their variety content and documentaries. Another fact that most people might not know about Angel Matisse is that they were behind most of the group’s creative direction. With prior conversations and agreements with the members made beforehand, they worked closely with the professional creative team to give the group a more personalized and authentic image. They also co-directed and did the storyboard for all of the group’s music videos, using their prior background in filmmaking to help them. Though most people would simply call them the visual of the group, Angel held a special and irreplaceable spot in the group.

After the group’s untimely disbandment, Angel left the limelight for two years before showing up again as an actor. Since then, they had a long and tumultuous journey to the top—their public dispute with their mother over marrying their same-sex childhood friend was the internet’s favorite story for quite some time—but they ultimately came out victorious with a few awards now under their belt. With now two children, Angel is gradually shifting to directing instead of acting.

I know Sparky isn’t a shallow character but that’s kind of the vibe I get off of their intro surrounded/compared to everyone else’s.

sparky’s intro is vague because i want readers to fill in the blanks for their own sparkys. but also, sparky is not the best in either singing or dancing in the group, and not the best producer, composer, choreographer, etc. sparky is designed to be good (above average), but not the absolute best. they’re behind saint in terms of being an all-rounder (who is actually behind devan there but devan is heavily underestimated/underappreciated due to their controversies). sparky’s entire thing is that they’re not the best, yet their charisma is what brings icaris to the mainstream. so if there’s something sparky excels at, much better than anyone else in the group, it’s star power. they draw people in.

i won’t get into too much detail, but this actually brings up some tension points in the group’s relationships with each other and the solo-fans’/antis’ most common phrases when hating on sparky. saint (and to a lesser degree devan) feel like they’re in the shadow of sparky, who is not as skilled as them but much, much more popular. angel, whose position in the group (visual) is designed to bring people in, feels like they’re inadequate at their job. the higher ups severely underestimate sparky during their first years—less lines, no center positions in dance formations—but their virality gives them newfound attention from the people in charge and it strays too close to favoritism territory (there is favoritism, but the members being in charge of most of their content made it so it wasn’t so obvious). antis and solo fans dislike sparky for being the most popular too, they think they don’t deserve it and the more skilled members should be more popular.

Anyone who knew Devan Tiwari from a young age would know that Devan had always had a streak of rebelliousness in them. Rarely malicious, sometimes out of place, but Devan Tiwari knew their path in life since they were a child and stubbornly intended to follow it through to adulthood. So when their parents gave them a choice to make—a stable family home or to pursue an unpredictable singing career—Devan packed up and left at just 15 years old. For months, Devan took on odd jobs and lived in friends’ houses, moving whenever they felt they’d overstayed their welcome. It wasn’t until a few friends mentioned going to LA and asking Devan to go with them that Devan found their ticket into the industry.

“It wasn’t immediately easy,” Devan had said during the group’s first documentary, Sunborn, “but I had support.” Support for Devan had been in the form of older friends who’d bring them around everywhere, and an elderly lady who had lived alone and paid Devan to do her daily chores. When Devan auditioned for and got into the group—“I was promised trainee allowance,” Devan explained with a laugh, “and I was hoping for a solo career, not one in a group”—they’d moved out of this kind lady’s basement but didn’t fully cut off ties with her. She had spent the next few years supporting ICARIS’ career, being one of the twenty first audience members, and Devan paid everything back by supporting her financially. This elderly lady—unnamed to this day but abuela to Devan and the other members—was one of ICARIS’ biggest fans until her last days.

Devan is a vital and irreplaceable part of ICARIS—the main vocal who was also among the top dancers and Cloud Rattanakorn’s assistant choreographer. They had a strong, emotional voice that carried most of the group’s most demanding melodies and adlibs, and their background in street dancing had helped them guide the other members’ dancing. Perhaps this is why the company never let them go, despite many petitions to remove them for “ruining the group’s image.” Devan is one of—if not the—most controversial members of the group, known for late-night lives where they’d fight back against the haters who wouldn’t leave the group alone. They were always on the cover of tabloids, drowning in rumors of dating, drug-related activities, and sometimes physical fights.

But most of all, Devan is known for being the catalyst to ICARIS’ breaking away from their abusive company. They had gone on live at 3 AM one day, sporting a black eye and a split lip, and announced to the world that the members were being mistreated, abused, and exploited. The rest of the story of ICARIS VS Elysium Entertainment was a mixture of uncomfortably public moments and steady private conversations—a story where they ended up winning and taking control of the company. Devan is, and will always be, known for being the one brave enough to save the rest of the group, and perhaps this is why the public could never fully truly hate them anymore.

Saint Gatti has always been promising. They were born into a large family that’d taught them plenty of valuable skills growing up—cooking, singing, dancing, even engineering. Saint loved bringing up how it was their grandfather who first taught them how to create tunes out of humming, and it was their grandmother who had taught them how to dance. Before ICARIS, before Elysium Entertainment, before flying to the US, Saint Gatti’s first audience—first fans and first critics—have always been their family.

Saint didn’t always want to be an idol. They first moved to the US to study aerospace engineering, having been granted a full scholarship to one of the best engineering schools in the world. “I liked flying and fixing things,” they’d said when asked about the unusual major. “My dad bought me all these little toy planes when I was younger and I was obsessed with learning how they worked.” Saint had seen flyers promoting the auditions for Elysium Entertainment on campus one day and was goaded by friends to try out. They weren’t expecting to be accepted—much less pursued by the company—and, intrigued by the training system and the promise to learn more about producing, Saint joined the system despite knowing how much of a strain it’d put on their already grueling schedule. Saint is anything but a quitter—stubborn to the bone, always seeing things through—and they proved that by painstakingly doing everything “by the book” to still earn their degree despite being a full-time idol, even if they graduated a few years later than their peers.

As for being a member of the group, Saint is the bones that built the flawless discography that is ICARIS’—they are the main producer for about 90% of their songs and secondary producer for the rest. As the oldest, Saint was one of the two pillars of the group—funny, always able to use their wits and, on rare times, slapstick comedy to make their members and the audience laugh. Introspective and deep, the one person the younger members go to for comfort, the one to go on late-night live streams to assure worried fans. Saint was not only a blazing ball of talent and magnetism on stage—the ace, the all-rounder—they were also a warm orb of sun off it. “We survived a lot thanks to them,” Devan had once said. “They really helped us not break apart.”