TV LIFE Japan — April 2026 Issue | Kpoppie Magazine Digital Cover Story
Feature Article: Kpoppie Magazine — April 2026 Digital Cover Story Photo Credits: TV LIFE Japan (April 2026 Issue Pictorial), P Nation Entertainment Editorial Content: © 2026 Velocity Entertainment Inc Japan / New Zealand — All Rights Reserved Magazine Brand: Kpoppie Magazine | A Velocity Entertainment Inc Production
THE OPENING SCENE
Picture this: a sun-drenched Barcelona alleyway, five young men moving like electricity given human form.
The camera doesn’t rush. It doesn’t need to. TNX — Taehun, Hyunsoo, Junhyeok, Hwi, and Sungjun — have learned how to command any frame they step into.
This is the visual world of Call Me Back, their January 2026 digital single, and the moment you see it, something clicks into place.
This is a group that has always understood the assignment. But in 2026? They’re rewriting it entirely.
“They didn’t just survive the noise — they became it.”
FROM THE STAGE OF LOUD TO THE WORLD’S STAGE
It begins, as so many K-pop origin stories do, with a stage and a spotlight and everything on the line. TNX — then known as The New Six — were born out of LOUD, the 2021 SBS survival show orchestrated by two of the most influential forces in Korean pop: PSY of P NATION and J.Y. Park of JYP Entertainment. The mission was audacious — forge not one but two global boy groups from 75 contestants spanning borders and dreams.
The six who made it through under P NATION’s banner carried the weight of that promise. They debuted on May 17, 2022, with their first mini album Way Up, arriving into a K-pop landscape hungry for something with an edge. And edge they had — from day one, TNX wasn’t playing soft.
Early on, the group staked their creative territory in a sound both punchy and melodic: pop-punk energy wrapped in sleek idol presentation. Their debut was a statement. Their fandom name — THX, standing for Together witH tnX — told you everything about the mutual loyalty being built from the very first note.
Their debut was a statement. Their fandom name — THX, standing for Together witH tnX — told you everything about the mutual loyalty being built from the very first note.
THE ERA OF REINVENTION
No great artist story moves in a straight line. TNX has known that truth more deeply than most.
In early 2023, member Junhyeok stepped away to prioritize his mental health — a moment the group, their agency P NATION, and their fandom THX navigated with an honesty that felt rare and necessary. The K-pop industry doesn’t always make room for vulnerability. TNX chose to lead with it.
When Junhyeok returned in early 2024, something had shifted — not just for him, but for the whole energy of the group. Their single Fuego (March 2024) arrived like a signal flare: we’re back, and we’re burning brighter.
By mid-2024, TNX were competing on Road to Kingdom: Ace of Ace, Mnet’s high-stakes stage battle that put them in the company of some of Gen 4’s finest acts. They finished seventh. But to watch their performances during that run was to understand that competition rankings are only one measure of a group’s worth.
Then came October 2024: member Kyungjun departed to complete his mandatory military service, choosing not to renew with the group. A difficult chapter, handled with mutual respect. TNX regrouped — now five, always forward.
FOR REAL? AND THE TASTE OF SOMETHING NEW
Their fourth mini album, For Real? (March 2025), marked a genuine maturation. It was punchy, confident, self-aware — a title that almost doubled as a message to any doubters.
The record moved through rock-leaning pop with the ease of a group who no longer needed to prove anything, only to express everything.
It looped endlessly in playlists that spring, landing in fan compilations and editorial roundups alike.
That phrase — ahead of their time — is one that follows TNX like a quiet badge of honor. When rock-inflected K-pop became the dominant wave of Gen 5 groups, TNX had already been surfing it for years.
They continue to pursue a punky pop sound, which has only grown more popular as fifth generation groups widely adopt a rock aesthetic. In a way, TNX were ahead of their time. — The Bias List
BARCELONA, BABY: CALL ME BACK AND THE NEW CHAPTER
January 2026. The streets of Barcelona shimmer in the music video for Call Me Back. It’s an unexpected setting — and that’s precisely the point. TNX didn’t just step outside Seoul; they stepped outside expectation. The track opens with kinetic purpose. Pop-punk pulses. Vocals cut through clean. The chorus — “So trust me / Don’t try me / Just call me” — lands like something you immediately want to shout from a rooftop.
Member Hwi, who has been growing his songwriting and producing credits steadily across recent releases, led the creative process here — writing, composing, and producing the single album. It’s a flex delivered without fanfare, which makes it all the more powerful.
The B-side, Love Letter (그러니까 내 말은), is TNX’s first-ever ballad — and it lands. Stripped back, honest, full of the quiet space where unsaid feelings live.
A totally different register for a group built on high-energy performance, and proof that their range is expanding just as their confidence deepens.
“Rather than pushing the emotion on you, TNX lets their sincerity shine through in the pauses and the quiet space of the music.” — Pop Tokki
FASHION AS A LANGUAGE
To understand TNX is to read what they wear. The styling across their career has always been in dialogue with their sound — and that conversation has grown increasingly sophisticated.
Early eras leaned into youthful street energy: oversized silhouettes, graphic tees, layers that moved when they did. The Boyhood era brought a more textured visual grammar — distressed denim, leather, the visual shorthand of classic rock aesthetics transplanted into a Korean idol context. It was visual storytelling that told you exactly who they were before a single note played.
By For Real?, the styling sharpened into something more angular and editorial — tight coordination that never crossed into matching-set uniformity. Five individuals who looked undeniably like a unit. The Japan promotional tour for Call Me Back in March 2026 brought an even more refined palette: monochromatic moments, architectural outerwear, the kind of styling that reads as effortlessly cool on stage and completely intentional on a magazine spread.
This is fashion as identity architecture. Every styling decision is a sentence in the ongoing story of who TNX are becoming.
HX: A FANDOM THAT HOLDS
You cannot write about TNX without writing about THX. The fandom — Together witH tnX — has been present through every phase of this group’s journey: the debut euphoria, the difficult hiatuses, the competitive stages, the departures, the comebacks. That continuity matters.
THX have proven themselves not just as fans but as active architects of the group’s global footprint. Streaming campaigns, voting mobilization, fan-curated content across TikTok and Weverse — this is a community that shows up with intention. When the Japan promotional tour for Call Me Back was announced across six dates spanning Yokohama, Tokyo, and beyond, THX filled those rooms with the kind of energy that turns a promotional event into a genuine homecoming.
There’s something deeply Gen Z about the TNX–THX dynamic: parasocial but also genuinely communal.
Taehun going live on Weverse in January 2026 to personally confirm the comeback before the official announcement — that’s not a management strategy. That’s a relationship.
CREATIVE DIRECTION: THE UNIFIED VISION
What distinguishes TNX in an era of increasingly sophisticated K-pop aesthetics is how tightly their music, visuals, and performances align. There is no gap between the sound and the look. The Barcelona setting of the Call Me Back MV wasn’t incidental — it communicated freedom, internationalism, the confidence of a group that belongs everywhere.
Hwi’s growing role as a songwriter-producer isn’t just a career milestone; it’s evidence of TNX becoming increasingly self-authored. P NATION, the label founded by PSY, has always valued that kind of artistic ownership — it’s in the company’s DNA. And it shows in how TNX carry themselves now: not just as performers executing a creative vision, but as artists co-creating one.
The choreography, too, has evolved. Call Me Back performance footage from their Japan tour shows a group whose stage presence has calcified into something undeniable — urgent, precise, never robotic. Every count lands. Every transition breathes. The intensity they bring to performance is the same sincerity they bring to their music, and audiences across Tokyo and Yokohama felt every second of it.
WHERE THEY ARE NOW — AND WHERE THEY’RE GOING
Standing here in April 2026, TNX are operating from a position of earned confidence. Four years into their career. Five members who’ve been through the fire and come out more themselves. A fandom that travels internationally to see them. A sound that helped shape where K-pop’s rock wave was heading before many others caught on.
The industry is watching. Japan — historically one of the most discerning and devoted K-pop markets — has clearly taken notice. A six-city promotional tour is not a coincidence. It’s a footprint being deliberately expanded.
2026 still has chapters to be written. If the trajectory of Call Me Back tells us anything, it’s that TNX are accelerating, not coasting. They are a group defined by what comes next — and right now, what comes next looks very, very bright.
“TNX is not a group you discover once and move on from. They’re the kind of act that keeps revealing new layers — in the music, in the performance, in the people themselves.”
Artist Credits: TNX (티엔엑스) — Taehun, Hyunsoo, Junhyeok, Hwi, Sungjun Management: P NATION (피네이션) Digital Single: Call Me Back — Released January 22, 2026 (P NATION / Kakao Entertainment)
Disclaimer: All artist biographical information, discography details, and career events referenced in this article are drawn from publicly available sources and official artist communications. This article is an editorial feature intended for entertainment and promotional purposes. All artist images and visual assets are the property of P NATION and respective rights holders