#BPR recaps P48

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The Great Produce 48 Rewatch: Ep 3-4, Peekaboo Challenge

When we left off, the trainees had just finished their performance of Love Whisper. And now it's time for the Great Peekaboo Fuckup of 2018. Are you psyched? You should be -- we'll be seeing AleXa, Yiren from Everglow, Lee Gaeun, Jang Gyuri, Yujeong from Lightsum, and a bunch of other great trainees. Plus, place your bets now on how many times you will hear a slightly vocally challenged "fine". I'll give you a hint: a lot.

We start off toward the end of episode 3, at 1:58:30.

Lee Seungki comes out to introduce the next song, and as you have already deduced from the above paragraph, it’s Peekaboo.

The two teams come out and introduce themselves.

LTR: AleXa, Jurina, Yiren, Gyuri, Gaeun, and Eunyeong. Sorry that my screen shots are so low rez -- I’m doing my best, fam. 

Team 1 Introduces themselves as “Peeka-chu.” (In Korean, “chu” is a slang word for a kiss, hence the A*pink song Mr Chu and the f(x) song Chu.) 

LTR: Kim Yubin, Kato Yuuka, Kim Dahye, Hong Yeji, Shitao Miu, Lee Yujeong

Team 2 introduces themselves as “Kiss Blowers.” 

I don’t know what’s up with all the kisses -- it’s not a direct reference to a lyric or anything, so I guess they’re just flirting for votes, and I say, get it, girls. 

Seungki talks to Jang Gyuri, and at mention of her name, there are loud male bellows from the audience. Those loud male bellows always make me like 10% uncomfortable. Seungki asks, Does she have any smack talk for the other team? Gyuri smiles and says, “Please yield this match to us.” Hong Yeji, who is somehow only 14 despite being possibly the tallest person on stage at the moment, replies, “We’re younger than you. We’ll show how energetic we can be.”

And then…. It’s showtime! By which Seungki means it is most definitely not showtime! It’s time for a flashback package! Woot!

Let’s see how rehearsal went for Team 1.

The members:

Jang Gyuri, Fromis9 member, who landed in F and was most recently ranked 14th, is the main vocal.

Bae Eunyeong, who landed in B and was most recently ranked 30th, is subvocal 3.

Lee Gaeun, our Pledis queen, who was always an A+ girl and was most recently ranked 1st place, is subvocal 2. 

Wang Yiren, future Everglow visual, who landed in C and was most recently ranked 7th, is subvocal 5.

Matsui Jurina, queen Jurina, who stayed in B and was most recently ranked 12th, is subvocal 4.

AleXa, who landed in C and was most recently ranked 86th place (ouch!), is subvocal 1.

We left off with the lingering question of, is Wang Yiren the right choice for center over Jang Gyuri? 

We pick up with Mary J Lee helping the girls decide who should be their center. There’s a whole weird flashback-with-a-flashback, but the gist of it is that Mary J Lee says that Wang Yiren needs to sparkle more and asks if anyone wants to challenge her for center. Gyuri challenges, and they both audition. We find out that Gaeun thinks Gyuri should potentially take over, while Eunyeong continues to prefer Yiren. Ouch, Eunyoung! No loyalty to your label mate, huh? In the end, Mary J Lee says they both do well but thinks Yiren should stay the center.

We head over to vocal lessons, where we find out that Gyuri became the main vocal since there isn’t anyone much better in her group. What we’re hearing of her voice in rehearsal sounds really great, actually. Singing without accompaniment, she goes slightly off key, but it’s hard to sing without accompaniment, and Soyou gives her a lot of praise.  She says she’s going to rehearse a lot. Don’t rehearse too much, Gyuri. Drink some throat coat tea and take care of yourself.  

We see them at dress rehearsal, and now Gyuri’s voice sounds shaky. She says she’s losing her voice, and it’s her fault for not taking better care of her throat. ARGH. The fact that this happens every season on these shows drives me nuts. She says there’s nothing she can do now, but I hope that at least she’s putting herself on complete, 100% vocal rest. No whispering. Friends, if you ever lose your voice, don’t whisper!! Don’t even clear your throat harshly. Hot liquids only, and drink lots of slippery elm tea. Trust your unnie -- I talk for a living, and used to lose my voice all the time until I figured out what to do.

Ok, the show starts. Here is PD48 Editing’s blessed edit of the performance. Definitely check it out, because the MNET editing on this one is particularly atrocious.

My thoughts: 

Alexa, Jurina, Yiren, Gyuri, Eunyoung, Gaeun

Vocally, this was almost flawless. You’d hardly know that Gyuri was having trouble with her voice, except for a slight scrape on one of the high notes, and on one of the last “Yeah yeahs.” Honestly, it’s barely noticeable. It’s not really any worse than the slight scrape Wendy herself has on the same note in this performance. Gyuri has a really nice vocal color and hits those ad libs with confidence. In fact, I was so surprised by how nice her voice was that I have raised my estimation of her significantly. I had gotten the impression that she was one of those idols who was only popular because of her looks, and this performance showed me she really has talent.

AleXa sounds fantastic, too -- I’m so glad that we get to keep AleXa in the land of Kpop, no matter what happened on P48. As good as she sounds, though, she looks kind of... off. Like she's trying too hard with her facial expressions or something? I've heard that she was working around a leg injury, so that may explain it.

The others do their jobs properly, even on the cheesy sing-talk-rap thing in the middle. I've listened to this song a million times and the Korean rap sounded pretty right to me -- I couldn't swear to it, but my ears sort of nodded. Yes, my ears nodded. That's what I meant to say.

Dancewise, I think they do really well, though as usual the camera work seems designed to prevent you from being able to see the dancing. The choreo isn’t unusually difficult, Boombayah style, but it requires precision, especially in the bridge, where they do the arm trick. (Did you ever notice the arm trick in this choreo? I’m a big fan of this song and I still somehow missed the arm trick the first few times I watched this choreo. The viewer has to be lined up just right for it to work, but when it works it’s cool.) I’m not a dance expert, as you know, but they looked good to me.

Stage presence wise, I think they’re all did just about equally well, especially if you watch their fancams. It’s a tough song to pull off and they did the thing. I even was won over to Jurina -- this is the first time I’ve seen her look natural in a performance. She fit here, somehow. 

However, when you watch the full performance, some of the girls sort of fade away in the group. I feel like AleXa’s overall presentation kind of suffers from her being a few inches shorter than the rest of the girls -- if there was more variation in height it wouldn’t matter as much, but having just one girl be several inches shorter than all the rest was kind of noticeable. Not fair, I know. I’m really short myself, and I don’t hold it against her, but it does affect the optics in a way that I think Koreans in particular would notice. I looked it up and AleXa is 149 cm/ 4'11, which is quite short. Maybe that’s why she works best as a soloist.

It is also a little odd how little of an impact that Gaeun had if you watch the full performance. She’s apparently Subvocal 2, but you don’t hear or see much of her in either version of the edit. I think it’s a combination of the choreo shoving her to the back -- sometimes quite literally -- and the camera man preferring to show Gyuri whenever possible. I watched Gaeun’s fancam and she did great, so I don’t know why we didn’t see more of her. It’s almost as if the show couldn’t hide the fact that she almost was center and was really popular? But also didn’t want her to win…? Hmm.

Ok. Deep breath and let’s talk about the MNET edit, starting at 2:05:20 .

I had a feeling that the tiny scrape in Gyuri’s vocals would take over the whole performance, and it does. We approach the vocal run -- fine, fine, fine, fine-fine fine-FINE -- literally five times. 

The first time is at 2:06:06 and it takes almost a full MINUTE before we actually hear the final “FINE” with the scrape in it. In the meantime it’s all flashbacks about how Gyuri’s worried about her voice. Then we hear it, and we hear it SIX times. Then the episode ENDS! It ends on Gyuri’s horrible, horrible, unforgivable, slight vocal scrape, x6. 

MNET WHY ARE YOU LIKE THIS. 

Well no, it doesn’t END there -- there are several minutes of preview of some of the other teams, including a few seconds of Wonyoung wiggling around at the beginning of Very Very Very, and some pixelated members of the other team. and then they give the current standings of the trainees. I’m not going to concern myself with their new ranking since we’re going to have a big vote off in episode 5, and we’ll worry about it then. There’s also a preview of Sakura getting yelled at while tears run down her cheeks. 

Anyway! Let’s go on to episode 4! We’re doing great. Here’s the link.

After a brief recap, the episode dives back in to the challenge mission, reminding us, of course, about Jang Gyuri’s vocal scrape. We go right the fuck back to the whole damn “fine fine fine….” vocal run, and hear the problematic “fine” FOUR more times. That's a total of ten. We jump ahead to the gym bathroom Results Zone and see all the girls crying at the results, and then jump back 20 minutes to see why they’re all crying. Thanks, MNET! Thmnet. 

If you are watching along, you can skip to 2:17. This time we get to watch the whole performance. I’m struck again by how pretty Gyuri’s voice is, and Alexa’s as well. We have to hear two more instant replays of “fine” -- so that's 12 times now, THANKS-- but at least this time they show the whole performance. The show is presenting the tiny problems as if they're the end of the goddamn world and it’s driving me nuts because if you just watch the unedited video, it’s so minor. 

The judges say they’re proud of her for not giving up. Backstage, Gaeun kindly tells Gyuri that she did a good job -- WHICH SHE DID -- but she shakes her head and says she was terrible. She interviews that she��s mad at herself.

She didn’t know that if she sang a high note all day it would strain her voice. Hey, vocal trainers, who failed this girl? I’m remembering all those trainers who said to “practice hard” and “do it 100 times.” Did anyone tell her to take care of her voice by not overusing it? I’m guessing not. 

Anyway, that's behind us now, and it’s time for the second group!

GROUP 2

As the girls take the stage, we hear AFUCKINGGAINHOLYSHITWTF Gyuri’s tiny vocal scrape on "fine". That’s 13 times now we’ve heard it, and I assume we'll hear it again in the future. Anyway the girls in team 2 think that maybe they can win since team 1 made a mistake -- but maybe not, since team 1 is full of popular pretty girls.

Let's see how their rehearsal went! 

Here’s team 2: 

Hong Yeji, 16, one of the CNC girls, the one who fell down in her video evaluation and then fell from B to F, is ranked 76th.

Kim Yubin, 16, one of the CNC girls, fell from B to D and is currently ranked a very low 93rd. OUCH.

Lee Yu Jeong, 14, future Lightsum member and C-class mainstay, is ranked 48th.

Kim Da Hye, who auditioned with I Don't Like Your Girlfriend and fell from A to C, is ranked 89th.

Shitao Miu, 17, who wore the hat on her waistband in her Mister audition, stayed in D and is ranked 45th.

Kato Yuuka, 20, who auditioned with Funny People and rose from C to B, is ranked 73rd.

When we left off, we met the team (which was chosen by Yubin) and learned that Dahye is actually fluent in both Korean and Japanese. That’s about all we know about this team.

When we catch up with them, we find out that things aren’t going well. Dance teacher Mary J Lee has told group 2 that they made a lot of mistakes and that they’re likely to lose to team 1. And poor Shitao Miu is having a lot of trouble with the choreo.

She’s obviously starting to cry a little, but she does keep trying, and I appreciate that about her. The mental exhaustion of being away from home and not being able to consistently speak your first language just makes everything more difficult. 

Mary J Lee asks her what’s wrong -- not unkindly -- and Miu gives a really mature answer, I think. 

“I’m upset. I’m mad at myself for being unable to catch up. It makes me cry. I’m causing other members trouble.” 

Later on, leader Yubin kindly tells Miu, “We didn’t get a compliment, but I don’t want you to blame yourself.” The other girls stroke her hair and make consoling noises, and Miu says that the other members’ bright energy cheered her up. Aww! 

Over at the vocal lesson with Soyou, who I am currently a bit annoyed at, we find out that Yeji is the main vocal.  She is, to my ears, a bit pitchy. Yeji asks Soyou if it’s ok to sing it in falsetto, rather than with full voice (the translation calls it “original voice”), and Soyou says she can, but it will probably make them look a bit bad. 

We see that Yeji is practicing over and over even in the dorm -- great plan, definitely sing it over and over and over and over until your throat is raw. Her teammates tell her that rival Gyuri sings the notes in full voice, so Yeji has to, too. 

Dress rehearsal doesn’t go well. The judges make faces. 

Jeremy's doing a "red" concept.

Dance Bae tells Yeji, “don’t worry, just sing.” Jeremy tells Yeji, “you need more confidence.” Then the Wizard of Oz tells Yeji she’s had the power within her all along! 

It’s time for the actual performance. For whatever reason, that blessed angel PD48 Edits didn’t make an edited version of the performance, which is fair, it must have been a lot of work and they did most of them. 

Here’s the full version, MNET edit and all. 

This is Hong Yeji’s fan cam, which is a lot less irritating to watch than the MNET edit. Obviously it’s not a full cam but since she’s center, you can see a lot. 

Yuuka, Dahye, Yubin, Yeji, Miu. Hidden: Yujeong

Yubin, Yuuka, Dahye, Yujeong, Yeji, Miu

Yujeong, Yuuka, Yubin, Dahye, Yeji, Miu

Well, first off, Stylist Unnie needs a thorough talking to. Who said that translucent thigh highs were a good look for Yeji and Yujeong? Especially considering that Yujeong is 14…?!? For one thing, they're a bit too sexy for a 14 year old. For another, they dig in to your inner thigh, which isn’t a great look, and they’re just sort of… I don’t know, inelegant and discordant.  They look unfinished. Red Velvet didn’t wear translucent thigh highs. They wore high boots sometimes, which were definitely opaque! I understand that boots might be outside the budget, but why not just completely opaque tights? ARGH! 

Anyway, to the performance itself. It’s so hard to even have thoughts without being able to watch the whole, uninterrupted performance. The MNET edit chops it up so much it's hard to take it in. But overall, compared to Team 1's performance, this felt like the store-brand version of the performance to me.

Dance is so hard to evaluate because the camera doesn’t show their legs 80% of the time. I think they mostly did fine fine fine fine-fine fine FINE. Dahye would sort of forget to dance when it was her time to sing, and sort of overdanced certain steps. There may have been other issues, but it's hard to know.

Vocals-wise: Yeji does her best, but her vocals are overall kind of shrill and pitchy, even if she can hit that high note. I’d rather listen to the Gyuri version, scrapes and all, than the Yeji version. There’s more to life than high notes. Dahye does a good job on Subvocal1, and really no one in the team embarrasses themselves or anything. It just felt less tuneful that the first group. Also, the rappers’ tone was a little… I don’t know, off? Just not as pleasant to listen to. 

Stage presence-wise, I thought they were inferior to the first group overall. Yeji looked confident, but almost like she was just looking into the mirror in her practice room rather than at an audience. Poor Dahye seemed to be fighting with her hair for a lot of the performance. One bright note, though, was Miu. After all the trouble she had rehearsing, I was curious how she'd do and checked out her fancam, and you know what, I think she actually had the best stage presence of all of them! I’ll be durned. 

Shitao Miu understood the assignment.

Since Yujeong has since gone on to maybe the biggest success of this group, I went back to watch her fancam too. She does a totally fine job, but I think she just looks too young to take seriously here in this kind of mature song. She commits fully, though, I’ll give her that, and does a much better job than you'd expect a 14 year old to do. 

I think the worst performer (stage presence-wise) in this group is Yuuka. I feel bad saying that, but she just has this totally bland smile the whole time. Like most of the Japanese trainees, she’s great at looking directly into the camera the entire time, but she looks like she’s just marking the steps in a rehearsal, rather than performing on stage. 

The MNET edit is pretty kind. The judges are especially complimentary toward Yeji, saying she's born to be on stage.

AFTERWARDS

When the performance is over, both teams come up on stage. Lee Seungki asks Jurina which team did better, and she says "ENHH?" which everyone loves. Then, through a sweetly smelling cloud of sugar, she says, "I think maybe team one?"

Then Seungki asks Miu, "how do you feel?"

She pulls a piece of paper from out of her jacket and begins reading in what sounds like phonetically transcribed Korean.

"I won't look back. I'll run looking forwards."

It's cute, and everyone applauds. Seungki says the ever creepy phrase "Vote for your girl!" and the audience votes.

The judges talk amongst themselves. Group 1 went out of key, but they did have a better "aura," so both teams have pros and cons.

top row: Alexa behind the onscreen caption, Jurina, Yiren, Gyuri, Gaeun, Eunyoung bottom row: Yubin, Yuuka, Dahye, Yeji, Miu

Kim Yubin, leader of group 2, acknowledges the popularity gap, but still is hopeful.

The editors reveal the votes starting with sub 5 and work up.

Main vocal: Jang Gyuri 78 Hong Yeji 92 Sub 1: AleXa 4 Kim Dahye 26 Sub 2: Lee Gaeun 74 Lee Yujeong 98 Sub 3: Bae Eunyoung 28 Shitao Miu 116 Sub 4: Matsui Jurina 110 Kato Yuuka 102 Sub 5: Wang Yiren 54 Kim Yubin 40

Yuuka voiceovers, "If we were in Japan, Jurina would win by a win by a lot, but since this is Korea, I wanted to win." That made me glad she came pretty close, even though Jurina still won the battle.

Eunyoung is pretty sad at how low her votes are. Presumably AleXa is too, but we don't even get to see her react to her getting the least votes of the entire night. Don't worry, AleXa.

The underdog will strike back!

Everyone is astonished when little Lee Yujeong beats the extremely popular Lee Gaeun, and when Hong Yeji beats the extremely popular Jang Gyuri.

For those of you who don't want to do the math -- group 2 wins!

The group 1 girls cry.

Jang Gyuri is in that stage of misery that is beyond crying, and she comforts the others as best she can.

We're not allowed to see Alexa, you guys. She is kept carefully off screen.

I don't know why team 1 lost here. I'm not saying that they should have won, exactly, but it's just that I thought they would. Maybe they were sort of held back by AleXa's visuals not living up to Korean standards. Maybe Gaeun was literally hidden too often in the choreo. Maybe there were a lot of AKB48 fans in the audience. Maybe the other team really did that much better. I don't know!

But I do know that this is the end of this post! Thanks as always for reading. In the next one, we'll cover team Short Hair by AOA. Come back soon! Love ya!

[boysplanetrecaps]

Produce 48 Recaps: Auditions Begin (episode 1)

When we left off in my probably-unnecessary-but-still-necessary Rewatch Recap of Produce 48, the 96 girls had made their entrance into the huge studio, and the judges were just about to reveal themselves. Let's get to it!

The judges come out!

First, it’s Lee Hong Ki, a powerful vocalist, here to teach them to sing. He’s from FT Island, and amazingly, was in the *second* K-drama I ever watched, You’re Beautiful, which was fun at the time, but which I cannot actually recommend. I will say that Hong-ki is the best part of it despite his, let’s say, broad acting choices. 

The character he played on You’re Beautiful was named Jeremy, and I can’t help but think of him as Jeremy. So just understand that I will be calling him Jeremy for the duration of these recaps. Thank you. 

Here he is as Jeremy. He’s ACTING! 

Next, it’s Soyou, from Sistar. She was overshadowed by Hyolyn but is an excellent vocalist in her own right. She’s here to be the other vocal trainer. 

It wouldn’t be an MNET show without this asshole:

I don’t want to learn his name but he’s that choreographer/dance teacher/ sociopath who always makes sure that all of the trainees’ mental health is hanging on by the merest of threads. I’m going to call him Psychopath. Seriously, fuck this guy. I’ll note that he comes across as sweet and loveable in this episode but I can’t forgive him for the shit he pulled during Boys Planet. Nope. Never. He has earned my undying hatred. To be clear, I do not support sending him hate messages or harming him in any way. I will just quietly, and personally, hate him on my Tumblr which gets maybe 5 or 10 readers. 

And then there’s her:

Bae Yoon Jung! She’s also pretty intense, and I know she’s mean to them on the first day, but she has the capacity for normal human empathy, as I recall. I’m going to call her Dance Bae. That doesn’t mean that I co-sign on her casual cruelty. It’s just that it’s literally her name and it’s easy to remember.

I don’t remember this lady:

Her name is May J Lee and she’s also a dance trainer. She’s cute. Here’s to hoping she understands that the trainees are human beings!

It’s Cheetah, here to be the rap trainer! God, I love her song Villain so damn much. The video is great, too, but trigger warning for violence. “I could fix you, but I won’t.” HECK yeah. 

And special one-day trainer, Kahi, who was the dance trainer for PD101 Season 2.

Kahi was in After School, then “graduated” in June 2012, right around the same time that Gaeun joined. They undoubtedly have spent time together, so it’ll be interesting to see if they interact much in this episode. (Maybe Gaeun being on the show this season meant that Kahi couldn’t really be the judge for the whole time?) 

The judges glare holes into the trainees while explaining that they’ll be sorting them into groups -- A, B, C, D, and F -- based on skill level, with the ultimate goal of bringing them all up to A-grade. And now it’s time for these would-be performers to perform, and of course, they don’t want to actually perform. 

41:50 The Auditions Begin

The girls are nervous. Yoon Hae Sol (윤해솔), 20, former member of Aqua, lets out a gusty breath. And this girl is nervous too, whoever the heck she is. 

Kim Chaewon, it says on her nametag. Well, she’s cute. Meanwhile I’m fascinated by the shoe behind her. WHOSE SHOE IS THAT? WHAT IS THIS SHOE? 

The AKB-48 girls are even more nervous. Oda Erina, 21, in a stylish bob and a blue, yellow and white jacket is intimidated by the Korean girls. Mogi Shinobu, also 21, a living meme with blue furry sleeves, is so nervous she looks like she might cry. We love you, Shinobu.

Time for the first audition! Or at least, the audition that the editors have moved to the beginning of the episode, even though it was probably not the first one to happen in real time! Because they wanted to front-load excellent Korean auditions to emphasize the skill gap between the Korean and Japanese contestants! 

Audition 1: Yuehua

Kim Si Hyeon (김시현), age 18, in the long sleeved shirt, now a member of Everglow. 

Choi Ye Na (최예나), age 18, with her hair in a ponytail.

Wang Yi Ren (왕이런), age 17, pink shirt with black edges. She’s Chinese and is now a member of Everglow. 

We see a clip of the Yuehua girls back stage, where Choi Yena accidentally draws on the camera with red marker and then apologizes profusely. AND SHE NEVER WORKED IN KPOP AGAIN!!

Then we get a flashback of Gross Guy personally watching the auditions of all 96 girls prior to the filming of the first episode. He’s so gross. Ugh. He makes JYP seem like a sweet, safe guy. Anyway we find out that after Choi Yena performed her song, she asked to do an extra performance. She begins speaking in what sounds like decent Japanese and does a little miming routine with sound effects. She’s pretty charming, actually. 

Cut back to audition day. The Woolim girls are backstage waiting for their turn when they recognize Sihyeon from her time on PD101, Season 1. Sihyeon interviews that she’s embarrassed when she looks back at herself on PD101 and that she’s gotten a lot better since then. In fact, as we find out later, she got an F in that season. 

Link to full audition on Youtube

Song: Move by Little Mix 

My Thoughts: They do great, in my opinion. Siyheon has a great clear, strong voice and her English pronunciation is mostly pretty good. Yena and Yiren don’t sing as clearly, but their dancing is great and they have a lot of presence. God, Yiren sparkles so much! I feel like she’s getting bad advice from whoever is around her now, because in more recent Everglow performances she always seems so muted. Seeing this, I can see she’s capable of great stage presence -- I hope she finds her way back to this. I dig Everglow and just want them to keep living up to their potential. I would have given Siyheon an A and the other two Bs, I think, though it’s hard without seeing the other trainees to compare. 

The MNET Edit: The editing emphasizes Yiren and Yena more, but overall the editing is kind to all three. We see some of the Japanese girls saying “why is everyone so good”, almost as if this ISN’T the first team to go up. (Also, we see that other girls are already wearing their grade name tag, though they’re blurred out.) The judges give Yena an A and the other two get Bs, which I guess reminds us that as long as you *kind* of sing while you also dance a lot and are very charming, then…. you get an A. Anyway, A and B are fine.

The editors really want us to know that the Japanese girls are very worried about their auditions. It is true that they generally don’t have the training the Korean girls have -- I’m not commenting on their inherent worthiness, just their preparation. But the show really, really focuses on that. I’m sure at least some of the Korean girls were nervous too, but we don’t seem to be seeing clips of that on the show.

Auditions 2 and 3: Woolim and WM Entertainment

Next, the MNET editors decided to further confuse anyone who has previously confused WM Entertainment with Woolim Entertainment by overlapping these two agency’s auditions, same as they did when the girls entered the auditorium. Thanks, MNET editors! Thmeditors. We learn that Woolim manages Lovelyz, while WM manages Oh My Girl (their rivals), though now in 2023 I think we all know that Oh My Girl kind of won that particular fight. Apparently the girls view each other as rivals? ...? But do they, though?

Woolim is up first. They take a moment finding their places, and we learn that Eunbi is their leader/mom who brought them medicine and Japanese phrase books. What a good unnie! 

Left to right: Suyun, Eunbi, Sohee, Chaewon

Kim Chae Won (김채원), age 17   now: Le Sserafim   wearing a short sleeved white top, tie Kim So Hee (김소희), age 14  now: Rocket Punch  wearing pigtails Kim Su Yun (김수윤), age 17  now: Rocket Punch   wearing short sleeved black top Kwon Eun Bi (권은비), age 22   now: soloist wearing a tie, cardigan

Link to full audition on Youtube

Song: Ah-Choo by Lovelyz / Bad by Infinite

My thoughts: It’s always awkward when you have one member who’s 14 (and looks 12) and one who is 22 (and looks 25) -- they’re always going to sort of make one another look bad. But overall, this is actually a really good audition.  I watched it multiple times and didn’t pick up on any mistakes or bad moments. All four of them had kpop acceptable vocals that didn’t stand out as fantastic or terrible. Chaewon’s a tiny bit shaky on the high notes, but they are really high notes. Little Sohee’s dancing was less powerful than the others’, even during Ah-Choo, but that’s fine considering she’s so much younger. I did think they looked a tiny bit silly doing that super powerful choreography to Bad while still dressed to perform Ah-Choo, but the goal was to display different skills and they did that. Knowing how deep the hole can go, I think I would have given all these girls As or Bs, maybe a C for little Sohee. It’s hard to know for sure since it’s not always clear what is live singing and what’s the backup track. 

The MNET Edit is fair. The rest of the trainees appreciate their performance. 

Backstage, Lee Chaeyeon says Eun Bi caught her eye the most. I actually noticed Suyun a lot too, but her time will come later. 

The judges compliment their synchronization and ask to see them perform something else. They launch into a second performance, which seems equally well rehearsed. I don’t recognize the song off hand (if any of you do, feel free to let me know!) but they do a great job with it. Dance Bae says, in an almost irritated way, “why haven’t you debuted yet? You seem ready to me.” I think she’s speaking mainly to Eunbi, who smiles wide at the compliment. We won’t hear their grades until later, but I’ll tell you their grades now, because I just love subverting the MNET editing monkeys. Kwon Eun Bi gets an A, ChaeWon gets a B, and the other two get Cs. Maybe I’m just biased toward Suyun from knowing her now? It’s hard to say. But I still think a B would have been fairer for her. 

Next, WM Entertainment. The girls come out on stage and the judges immediately tell Chaeyeon she looks familiar. She acknowledges having been on Sixteen with Somi (2015) and on Kpop Star 3 (2013). She says that this time she really wants to show us what she’s got. The other girls are excited to see her dance.

Trainees: 

Lee Seung Hyeon (이승현), 17 now known as Riina in H1-Key, in the black shirt Lee Chae Yeon (이채연), 18, currently a soloist, in the pink shirt  Cho Yeong In (조영인), 16, in the white Link to full audition on Youtube

Song: Shower, originally by Becky G

My thoughts: All three of them do well dancing wise. It’s not surprise that Chaeyeon would dance well, and she certainly outshines the other two, but Seunghyeon holds her own and Yeongin doesn’t look bad. I think vocally, Seunghyeon does the best job, but Chae’s belted note sounded good. Yeongin’s vocals were noticeably shaky compared to the other two’s. I think I would have given Yeongin a B or C, Chae would get an A, and Seunghyeon an A or a B depending on what the dance teachers said. Overall though it was a good audition. 

The MNET edit is again pretty kind. Everyone focuses on Chaeyeon, of course. When they’re done, the judges ask her to freestyle to Instruction by Jax Jones featuring Demi Lovato, and she dances in a style that’s really appropriate to the song. Everyone’s impressed. The judges announces the grades. Chaeyeon gets an A, which seems completely correct. The other two get Bs, which is ok. 

The editing is setting Kwon Eun Bi and Lee Chaeyeon up to be rivals. Surely, they must hate each other, if they’re both good dancers and their agencies are on the same street in Seoul! 

In the audience, Kojima Mako says to her friend, “It’s so amazing that I’m not even nervous anymore. Our friend Juri says to Shinozaki Ayana,  “I feel like I’m just watching a TV show.” Me too, Juri! We stan a relatable queen. But yeah, it’s more of the whole “the terrible, silly, weak Japanese girls are in awe of the mighty, powerful Korean girls” narrative that MNET’s editing monkeys keep pushing. 

Auditions 4 and 5: The Very Pretty Girls

Next, we have the introduction of two Very Pretty Girls:  Kim Min Ju (김민주), age 17 from Urban Works, in her colorful striped shirt, and Kang Hye Won (강혜원), age 18,  from 8D Creative in a blue mini dress with a big pink and white collar. The other trainees think that these two girls look like actresses, so maybe it’s no surprise that now (2023), they are in fact both actresses. I renew my complaint from earlier that I don’t understand why certain girls are considered prettier than the others, and remind you that this isn’t an insult to them, as they are certainly very pretty, but more of a compliment to the others, who I view as equally pretty. Isn’t Kwon Eun Bi just as pretty? Is she not? I don’t understand. I will be saying that a lot in these recaps so I guess I’ll just call it my Particularly Pretty Problem (PPP) and leave it at that. 

Agency:  8D Creative

Trainee: Kang Hye Won

In a pre-show interview, they ask her such questions as “were you always pretty?” and she says that yes, she is. This is the part of kpop I like least. She says that the position she wants is 청정 or purity. I guess I understand that -- there is usually a sexy member of a given group (see: Kai in Exo, Hyunjin in SKZ, Joy in Red Velvet, Soojin in G-Idle) and there’s usually a funny or approachable one (see: Chanyeol, Changbin, Wendy, Yuqi), so I could see there being a sort of pure or extra cute one. It’s not as crazy as it might sound.

Link to full audition on Youtube

Song: You and I by IU (2011)

My Thoughts: Well, that was pretty terrible. There’s room at the bottom, but she barely dances and she only kind of sings. The singing is breathy, faint, and pitchy. The dancing is half hearted and my grandma could have done this choreo even after her stroke. She has negative stage presence. Also, to me, she always looks confused. There’s something about either her facial features or her expression that make her look bewildered. I’m sorry if she’s your favorite. She may have charming personality traits that I don’t know about yet. She’s just not particularly skilled in either singing or dancing. She should get an F. 

If you can’t handle me saying that about this audition, then I really suggest that you just not read any more of my recaps because I’m going to say stuff like this about bad auditions. I don’t care if she’s “pretty”. I don’t care if she has gone on to be successful. Other people -- Eun Bi, for example -- are pretty and they can also sing and dance. I believe that if you make your living as a singer and/or dancer, you should be able to sing and/or dance. 

The MNET edit:They don’t do her any favors, zooming in on her non-dancing and focusing on the judges’ reactions to her shaky high notes and nearly stationary body. When she’s done, she stands there with this look on her face, which is the way I always remember this girl looking and how I recognize her in her more recent endeavors. 

Dance Bae says, “Purity is all you have. F.”  Done and done. 

Agency:  Urban Works

Trainee:  Kim Min Ju 

Link to full audition on Youtube

Song:  No Matter What by BoA

My Thoughts: This was so much better than Hyewon’s audition. For one thing, she actually danced. She showed a variety of different actual dance steps, including legs, body, arms, head, face. She danced! The singing was extremely faint and I think a lot of it was the backing track, but this was leagues ahead. Without being able to clearly discern her singing, it’s so hard to tell, but I think I’d put her in C territory. 

The MNET edit:They show the judges adjusting their ear buds and looking bored or put off, and focused on a part where she dropped into a squat and looked a little awkward. But that was just the dance move! This was originally done as a partner dance and it was adapted for a single person (I think? Unless it was just made new, whole cloth?), so maybe they should have just cut that squatting part out -- it’s not her fault. They also show a girl in the audience looking bored (maybe cut in from a totally different performance). It’s not kind. Minju, you deserved better. 

They give her a D. I don’t know. Seems like they’re punishing her for being pretty. But maybe the singing was worse than I thought. 

I’m not going to comment on it every single time it happens, but just assume that after every performance there will be a reaction/voice over from a Japanese girl saying, “If that didn’t get an A, I’m going to get an F for sure” or “the Korean girls are so much better than me” or something like that. It’s constant. 

Auditions 6 and 7: The Punching Bags

These next two auditions are shown mainly to mock these trainees. Neither of them do a stellar job, but both deserved a little better than what they got.

We see a scrap of  the audition from Shin Su Hyun (신수현), a 22 year old represented by FAVE Entertainment. 

She’s performing Playing with Fire by Blackpink. I watched her full audition, but we only see a little bit of it in the actual show. She started off with rapping, which the edit doesn’t show; I think she’s going for a rap position, not a singing one, which helps excuse why her singing was weak. The dancing wasn’t great -- she was a beat or two ahead of the choreography (something I only noticed because I know the song so well). But I thought she at least had charisma. I think a C wouldn’t have been out of line, but I don’t know the rubric. The edit replays a part where she sort of does a chicken-dance wiggle during the chorus when that’s not quite what the choreo is like, but I had to go back and rewatch the original to see that the original choreo is different. The PWF choreography is kind of weird -- I’ve always thought so. What’s with the dogpaddling in the chorus, or that weird “drawing a line with your finger” at the end? Anyway, my point is that the edit makes her look even worse than she actually did. 

They intersperse her audition with the audition of Cube’s Han Cho Won -- she’s only 15 here, but you may now know her as one of the most popular members of Cube’s youngest girl group,  Lightsum. The edit here make her look like a complete idiot. If you watch her full audition, you’ll see that, yeah, it’s not great, but there are some extenuating circumstances.

The biggest problem is that the song was a poor choice. Red by Hyuna is a HYUNA song. Like a third of the lyrics are “red is Hyuna”, and there’s a whole 10 second segment where Hyuna just sits on the ground and flirts with the camera. It’s all about being sexy and having a nice body, specifically a nice butt, and the choreography is very core/waist/butt centered. It seems that Chowon just can’t quite move her body that way, and at 15, maybe just isn’t up the task of embodying the universal sex symbol that is a full-grown Hyuna. I don’t know who is! 

Anyway, I think Chowon should have done Pepe by CLC, assuming she was going to stick to a song by a Cube artist. The song has a fun retro feel and it would have been more appropriate for a 15 year old who doesn’t know how to twerk yet. Or maybe Pretty Pretty by Pentagon -- I bet Hui would have helped her remix something for the show if the agency had asked him to -- he's a good sunbae -- and the song has quirky, funny choreography that might have made the judges smile. Sigh. 

Poor Chowon -- it wasn’t a great audition, but I blame whoever either told her to do this song, or allowed her to do it if it was her choice. The whole point of having management is to get smart people to help you make decisions like this, especially when you’re fifteen. But that’s asking too much from Cube, I guess. Kahi even says that she had been at Cube briefly and that they don’t teach you anything, which checks out. Cube is just the WORST. 

Both Chowon and Suhyun get a lecture on needing to learn (or review) the basics and both get a D. It’s not totally unfair -- it’s just that I know that there is so much worse to come. 

More discussion about how the Japanese girls aren’t really given any training and just learn to perform by watching their sempai/sunbae/seniors. Dance Bae says it’ll be fun to watch them grow. 

And now it’s time to see the AKB48 girls perform. We see that they’ve changed out of their entrance outfits -- those plaid monstrosities -- into different outfits, most of which are also monstrosities. 

Audition 8: Get You!

See, it's a play on words because the song is called Get You and also MNET wants to get them

Agency:  AKB48

Trainees: Oda Erina 21, and Nakano Ikumi 17

Erina, left, with the shorter hair and Ikumi, right, in the blue shorts.

The judges comment that Erina is known for her singing and Ikumi for her dancing. 

Link to full audition on Youtube

Song: Get You! by Morning Musume (a different J-pop idol group)

My Thoughts: Well, this wasn’t terrible. They do sort of take turns either singing or dancing, and rarely do both at the same time. The choreography they do is mostly extremely simple and not super well synced, but they do throw themselves into it. They have a lot of energy, which I know is important in J-pop. If you asked me, “which of these is the singer and which of these is the dancer?” I wouldn’t be able to tell you. But neither of them assaulted my ears. Judged by J-pop standards, this was great. By K-pop standards, not great. I’d give them a C and see how they do learning the choreography for the signal song.

The MNET edit: The edit makes it seem much worse than it really was. Honestly, it wasn’t that horrific. They were more fun to watch than Kang Hye Won for sure. 

The judges ask Ikumi to freestyle dance, which she agrees to with an English “Yes!” They play “Look What You Made Me Do” by Taylor Swift. She tries to do a sort of interpretive dance thing, and I appreciate that she at least tried. She has lovely body lines and seems to understand rhythm and tone, anyway. They keep showing her trip a little on her platform sneakers. God, those things look hard to dance in. After a bit she seems to give up, pulling her hair over her face, and the judges call it. Her AKB-mates are impressed, but the judges aren’t. 

Dance Bae compliments her on her energy, but says she seems to not know what to do with it. “I’m not sure that the fact that you danced to the beat warrants you having won first place in a large competition,” Dance Bae scolds. “If you keep continuing like this, you won’t ever be able to perform on stage.” 

Ikumi gets a D, and Erina gets a C. We don’t actually see that, though -- I had to look it up. It’s not part of the narrative to see that neither of them got an F, I guess.

Next, we have a mini montage of various girls, especially Japanese girls, saying that Dance Bae is the scariest judge, known for her terrifying line: “You really want to be a singer?!?” Which I think is a fair question! So many people get into the Idol Biz because they want to be actors or tv hosts -- I wish there was a pipeline to celebrity for people like that that didn’t involve them humiliating themselves on a show like this. 

Auditions 9 and 10: What’s Your Name and Knock Knock

We cut to another audition, in progress, with a caption that seems to imply that this is just a preview (“Coming up…”) but no, this is the actual audition, as much of it as we’re going to see.

AKB: What’s Your Name?

Here’s the original song being performed by 4Minute. Things were different in 2013 -- this was before Catch Me If You Can by SNSD came out so nobody yet knew that women were actually able to do intense choreo, I guess. But even for 2013 standards, What’s Your Name has easy choreo. I mean, it barely has choreo aside from just sort of bending over and displaying your butt. Also, the lyrics are three quarters “what’s your name/ ireumi mwoyeyo?” So it’s a really good choice for a rookie group!

Here’s their audition.

Left to right: Manami, Ayana, Chiyori, Miho, Shinobu

Ichikawa Manami, 18, in the blue top, red skirt Shinozaki Ayana, 22, in the light blue skirt Nakanishi Chiyori, 23, in the pink fluffy skirt Miyazaki Miho, 24, in the sparkly top, navy skirt Mogi Shinobu, 21, in the turquoise skirt, fluffy blue sleeves

We just met Shinobu earlier, when she was talking about how scary Dance Bae is, got her name wrong, an apologized profusely. She's our living meme and we love her. We also almost met Miho; she was the one who knows how to write in Korean.

My thoughts: Oh no. There’s something so incongruous about someone in a sparkly cupcake skirt and Mary Jane shoes doing a pelvic thrust. These outfits look like… Ok maybe this is a deep cut but do you know those fashion plate toys? I had my cousin’s old one and I was obsessed. It was like stencils, but you had a head and a top part and a bottom part, and you’d choose one of each and then stencil over it to make a picture you could color.

That’s what these outfits look like. Like someone went nuts with a fashion plate and glitter glue and then just brought it to life.

Left to right: Shinobu, Chiyori, Ayana, Manami, Miho

It’s so hard to pay attention to their performance in those outfits. And the shoes! Those shoes I noticed behind Chaewon earlier are Shonbu's! And I’m obsessed with Ayana’s red-shoe-and-patterned-socks combo.

Also Miho’s and Shinobu’s… furry… peplums? And the quilted skirts? And how none of the tops seem to go with any of the bottoms, even though they appear to be dresses? Question Mark? It’s so bizarre to me. What. Is. Happening. Each dress is awful alone, they’re worse together, they're even worse with the shoes, and they’re the worst in the context of this particular song, which is meant to be sort of swaggy hiphop. 

When I try to focus on the actual singing and dancing, there isn’t much there to judge. The song itself is kind of a nothing-burger tune wise and there’s hardly any choreo to speak of. They have energy, I’ll give them that. No one strikes an obviously horrendously bad note or falls over. They manage to do what they’re doing in some reasonably high heeled shoes, and they’re singing a song that is at least mostly in Korean. It’s clearly not up to the standard expected from debuted Kpop artists. I feel like I’d have to see them in normal clothes to be able to really judge. None of them stands out as better or worse than the rest. I give them an E for effort and I’d probably give them all Ds. They were still better than Hyewon. 

Dance Bae gives Chiyori and Miho both Ds, and the rest get Fs. (We hear Dance Bae saying that they all get Ds, but the on screen caption says otherwise, and my internet sleuthing agrees with the on screen caption.) I think, watching it back, that Chiyori and Miho got Ds for just taking on a big role in the performance and trying that little bit harder. Miho seemed to be the main vocal, sort of, and Chiyori was the center. 

Ok, let’s take a peek at some of the youngest -48 girls, singing the Japanese version of Knock Knock by Twice.

Asai Yuka is 14 and from SKE48.  We met her earlier when she walked in with Jurina. Umeyama Cocona is also 14 and is from NMB48. 

Left to right: Cocona with the big bow, Yuka with the blue ribbon

My thoughts: Aww, they just little babies! They probably practiced by themselves in a hallway or something for a few hours with no help. There’s not much to judge here. They’re obviously underskilled for this show and would have to be given Fs but it’s not their fault. I’m not going to make fun of a couple of 14 year olds who signed up for an adventure, not knowing how hard it would be. I sense tears in the future. 

I wrote that, and then watched Dance Bae give them both Fs and say, at a pre-show meeting, “I think these girls will cry a lot while they’re here.” Perhaps she’d be pleased to know that poor Cocona withdrew from the show before the second evaluation even took place! There's also some potential back story here. Per reddit:

From what I’ve heard (and I’m not sure how credible it is), Jurina and Yuuka planned to perform together for the first evaluation, but the producers wanted Jurina to do a solo, so Cocona got pulled from the NMB group [that performs Funny People] and her and Yuuka did this. That may explain why they did…particularly bad, to the point where it looks like they don’t even know the song.

That does sound like something MNET would do, and it also would explain how these two girls ended up in a performance together despite being in different groups (SKE48 and NMB48), giving it the ring of truth. So I'm going to be even more sparing of my criticism of the girls. They do come across as unprepared, but I think that's just because.... well, they were, through no fault of their own.

In any case, Cocona is one of the Japanese trainees who withdraws early in the process. It's probably for the reasons we'd imagine -- flying back and forth from Japan is taxing, and she's young enough to need to go to school still. She probably just wanted to go through so much stress just to get insulted and yelled at. Can't blame her!

Since we’re not going to see much of Cocona again, let’s find out what happened to her after she withdrew from the show. She went back to NMB48 and continued performing with them for a few more years, graduating at a special concert on March 26, 2022. She did some modeling for magazines in 2020, so she might still be pursuing that. Here’s her instagram -- she has 95,000 followers and seems to post influencer-esque content with lots of hashtags.

 Ganbatte, Cocona! Happy trails and much success to you!

10 auditions down, about 30 to go! Thanks for reading so far -- feel free to do all the things: like, reblog, comment, share, blah blah blah. Tune in next time when we continue the auditions, and stay warm, my friends!

[boysplanetrecaps]

Produce 48 Recaps: Entrances (episode 1)

Hello there, National Producer! (That’s you. You’re a National Producer.)

Do you miss giant scale Korean reality shows? Are you fainting away, wishing there was one to watch? Or are you, perhaps, a fan of AleXa, Alice/Elris, Bugaboo, Cherry Bullet, El7zup, Everglow, H1-Key, IVE, IZ*one, k-dramas, Kep1er, Le Sserafim, Lightsum, Purple Kiss, Queenz Eye, Rocket Punch, Secret Number, or any of the 48 franchises - AKB48, HKT48, or NMB48? Did you watch Sixteen or Produce 101 and want to know what happened later? Did you watch GirlsPlanet999 or Queendom Puzzle and want to know what happened before? Are you bored and enjoy snarky recaps of tv shows from five and a half years ago? If you answered yes to at least one of those questions, then stick around! And if you didn’t, stick around anyway because this is going to be great. But if you’re not a fan of (a) honest assessment of skills and performance (b) curse words ( c ) sarcasm (d) long, chatty, rabbit-hole digging, silly recaps that take longer to read than it would take to watch the show, maybe not. 

You might be wondering, well, who are you, anyway? I’m an adult female human being living somewhere in North America. You can call me BPR-Unnie (or BPR-Noona, if that’s better for you. This link may help you decide!)  I know a smattering of Korean and a bit about Korean culture, but I’m not Korean. I know a smattering of Japanese as well but I’m also not Japanese. My favorite kpop group is EXO and from that you would be correct to conclude I tend to have a bias toward excellent singing. But if I sneak in the fact that I have watched more than my fair share of Kai fancams, you’ll learn that I am not immune to stage presence and dancing. I like girl groups and boy groups equally and am basically just the multi-est of multi-stans, though “stanning” for me doesn’t tend to include watching variety content or buying things. For the most part, I just listen to music and watch performances.

If you’re wondering, what the heck is Produce 48? As Wikipedia says, it was “the third season of the South Korean reality competition series Produce 101. It was a large-scale project in which the public ‘produces’ a girl group by voting for members out of a pool of 96 contestants from South Korea and Japan…. The show was a collaboration between the MNET series Produce 101 and the J-pop idol group AKB48.” The winning 12 girls were announced as new project group IZ*One on August 31, 2018. (Other side note: IZ*one is pronounced “is-one” not “eye-zone”, per the Korean phonetics.)

It’s fun to go back and rewatch this show because around a third of these girls went on to do other things in the world of Kpop, and it’s fun to see them when they were so much younger. Also, shows like this are fun and weird just in general. 

This recap will spoil some things, but not every single thing. I’m going to, as we go along, mention where various people end up -- I’m assuming that if you’re here, you either already know or don’t mind being spoilered on that kind thing. I will point out future members of Alice/Elris, Bugaboo, Cherry Bullet, Everglow, H1-Key, IVE, Le Sserafim, Kep1er, Lightsum, Purple Kiss, Queenz Eye, Rocket Punch and Secret Number.  I’ll also point out future Queendom Puzzle visitors. But I’m not going to go out of my way to tell you exactly who makes the final lineup of IZ*one, exactly when people will be eliminated, and where every single person is going to end up (I’ll tell you after they get eliminated). That seems like the best compromise based on the poll. Plenty of people become famous after a show like this without making the final line up of the debut group -- like G-Idle’s Soyeon on Produce 101. So if you don’t know the name of every member of IZ*one, you can watch the show along with me and enjoy it, while still knowing who everyone is. And if you do want to be spoilered on who makes it into IZ*one, you can just look up the names of the members and keep that handy as you read. I hope that all makes sense! 

I actually watched Produce 48 many years ago -- maybe 2019? It was after IZ*one had already debuted, so I was watching to get caught up. It was the first such show I ever watched and I wasn’t in the habit yet of taking notes to keep track of everyone, so for the most part I had no idea who anyone was the whole time. I mean, with 96 girls, many of whom meet certain beauty standards and thus can look quite similar to one another, and all of whom are in the habit of changing their hair/eye color/style constantly, it’s hard. So I have almost no memory of the show except for two things: (1) loving Huh Yunjin and (2) feeling sorry for the girl who the show made fun of for having intense eyes. I thought Yunjin was obviously the best on the whole damn show and was irritated that she was ever ranked anything other than first fucking place, and that other girl, I just wanted to give her all the hugs. We’ll meet her soon enough!

Finally, you may wonder, where am I watching the show? I watch it here: https://kshow123.tv/show/produce-48/episode-1.html I have to note that sites like this are really spammy and you’ll need a good adblocker and, to be on the safe side, working anti-virus software before you to click that link. Once you’re on the page, when you first click “play” on the video, it always opens a pop up ad that you have to close and then try again, when it will actually play. The pop-ups I’ve seen haven’t been offensive or gross in any way, and this site is less spammy than the one called kisstvshow, which bombards you with actual photos of actual peens like, immediately. Just close-up peens, glistening at you. No thank you. You can also find clips of the show on Youtube, but they’re kind of disorganized. There are some bits and pieces of episode 1 in this playlist. I’ll also provide links to individual auditions as we go.

Ok, let’s go!

We start off with some typical MNET self-congratulatory stuff -- all the buzz about this show before it even debuted! -- complete with a picture of THE SAKURA™, future visual queen of Le Sserafim. Then as a gentle piano rendition of our soon-to-be-favorite song Neko-ya plays, a voice over talks about what the 96 girls (and women) on this show think about their training journey, and we see the lovely profile of Huh Yunjin. Yay! My favorite!

We hear that it’s hard for them to be trainees and that sometimes they almost want to give up. But they keep pushing forward to try. 96 seeds working hard to sprout, and the national producers will shine on them like sunshine! Awww. Produce48 starts now!

An alarm rings, shocking us awake from our gentle piano daydream. We’re confronted with… this. Whatever this is. 

It’s Lee Seung Gi, the host this time! His bed is vertical! It makes too much sense! 

Ok, folks, for me personally, Lee Seung Gi being host is super important, because he’s sort of the reason I’m even here. He was one of the stars of the ridiculous, the sublime, the problematic, the perfect, My Girlfriend is a Gumiho. 

This drama aired on a local Korean-language cable channel back in the day (I lived in a major city that showed foreign programming on cable), and I stumbled on it while changing channels and stood there staring at it wondering what in the actual fuck I was watching. Who needs subtitles or any knowledge of Korean when you have… this? 

It’s the first piece of Korean culture I ever consumed, other than kimchi. This was even before Gangnam Style! It led to me watching more k-dramas, including, eventually, It's Okay, That's Love, starring Do Kyungsoo, also known as EXO’s D.O. I was curious about what he’d be like as a musical performer, and the rest is history. So, what I’m saying is, Lee Seung Gi set off a chain reaction that led to me eventually recapping his own performance as host of this show. The circle is complete. 

Lee Seung-gi (born 1987) has been a singer, specifically a solo artist, as well as an actor, since 2004. He’s like Rain, but not as irritating. He hasn’t made much money from it because of his agency stealing from him. In fact, in April of 2023, a law was passed called “the Lee Seung-gi Incident Prevention Act” which requires entertainment companies to disclose their earnings settlement details to their celebrities at least once a year. Seems like a good thing to do. He’s still in demand, I’m sure, and quite loved, so he’ll land on his feet no matter what. Seung-gi, fighting!! 

Ok, back to the show! Seung-gi explains how to vote, which we can skip -- the only info of note is that only Koreans could vote back then, quite different from the modern era -- and go to about 5:30 for an extremely bombastic set reveal.

5:49 The girls start to walk in

Note: All ages given are the (international) ages of the girls at the start of the series.  

The first three to walk in are the Yuehua trainees.

Left to right: Yiren, Sihyeon, Yena 

Kim Si Hyeon (김시현), age 18, in the pinky/purpley long sleeved shirt 

She was also on Produce 101 (first season) as a “kaein” (individual/no-agency) trainee, where she did pretty well (made it to episode 8), but didn’t necessarily stand out. After this show, she debuted as part of Everglow, where she performs under her real name and is currently the leader, as well as a visual and “face of the group.”

Choi Ye Na (최예나), age 18, with her hair in a ponytail. We’ll be seeing a lot of her this episode!

Wang Yi Ren (왕이런), age 17, pink shirt with black edges, statement belt

She is actually Chinese, though she speaks Korean pretty fluently. You probably know her now as a member of Everglow, where she is lead dancer as well as a visual and also the “face of the group.” How many faces can a group have? Also, isn’t Mia the face of the group, as well as the body and the voice and the feet and the hands? Sigh. I really like Everglow. We just… all know the drill with line distribution and center time. 

They come in and exclaim how pretty and shiny the set is and say “daebak” a lot. They sit down in a row along the top, and faintly, in the distance, Bon Bon Chocolate begins to form in a songwriter’s head. 

Next in is Kim Min Ju (김민주) from Urban Works. She’s 17. She was a child actress before the show. The others are impressed that she’s here by herself and that she’s very pretty. 

I love how in Korea having a small face is a compliment. 

She goes to sit in the first place seat, then changes her mind and chooses 5th place instead so she doesn’t have to sit up so high. 

Up next is YG Kplus, a modeling agency not to be confused with regular YG, the agency that is home to Blackpink and Treasure. The trainees are Ahn Ye Won (안예원), age 17, and Choi Yeon Soo (최연수), age 19. Yeon Soo has a celebrity chef for a father but doesn’t want to just be another nepo baby. She has the black skirt, while her label-mate Ye Won is in all red. They walk in to the strains of Blurred Lines (🤢) and the other girls exclaim jealously about how tall they are. Yewon is 172 cm and Yeonsoo is 170 cm, making them both about 5’6. 

Next in is a group from CNC School, featuring some familiar faces!

Left to right: Kim Yubin, Kim Da Yeon, Lee YuJeong, Yoon Eun Bin, Hong Ye Ji

Kim Yu Bin (김유빈) is 16. 

Kim Da Yeon (김다연) is 15 and you may know her (now) from GirlsPlanet999 and Kep1er. Aww, this is before she got her teeth done! She’s adorable. I am a Dayeon apologist and will hear no words against her. 

Lee Yu Jeong (이유정) is 14 and you may know her (now) from Lightsum.

Yoon Eun Bin (윤은빈) is 14. 

Hong Ye Ji (홍예지) is 16.

Yena thinks that the CNC girls look like babies. I think she looks like a baby! And this old lady I tutored today told me that *I* look like a baby. So I guess everyone is a baby. 

Next is MMO, home to the sexy Kang Daniel, everyone’s fave from Produce101 Season 2 (often called “Broduce101”). The mere mention of his name sends Yena into a tizzy. I mean, low key same (though I’m more of an Ong Seungwoo fan [though not enough to watch his Pepsi commercial omg what was that?!?]). Anyway, out comes MMO’s Won Seo Yeon (원서연), age 18, a cute girl with a nice low voice and a pretty blue outfit. She seems worried about living up to her sunbae’s success. 

Next comes pretty, big eyed Ko Yu Jin (고유진), age 17. She’s from Blockberry Creative, and the Orbits out there are now resisting the urge to smash their device screen at the mere mention of that agency! [Side note: Sensitive is a great song even if Loosemble is a terrible group name. Check out the song, forgive the name.] She’s in a cute striped shirt and interviews that her role models are Taeyon and HyunA, and you know, same. 

The girls in the retro polka dot dresses are from How Entertainment. 

Yu Min Young (유민영) is 18, in the mint green.  Kim Min Seo (김민서) is 15, in the yellow and is a Jeon Somi fan, as are we all.  Wang Ke (왕크어) is 17, Chinese, and in the red. 

The next group, in white tops and black booty shorts, is from MND17 Agency. 

Left to right, they are:

Park Chan Ju (박찬주), unknown age. She has the tightest shirt. 

Park Min Ji (박민지), age 19, was also on Produce 101 and now (2023) is in Secret Number. She has the floofiest shirt and says she likes ChungHa, which, I mean, don’t we all, but also it’s kind of funny since she was on Produce101 with her so they probably kind of know each other. 

Lee Chae Jeong  (이채정), age 18, who now (2023) is in a group called Alice (formerly known as Elris). 

Another girl comes out in a big yellow shirt with purple… shorts? A skirt? Unclear. She is from an agency called A -team and is named Kim Cho Yeon (김초연), age 16. After this show she was in Bugaboo, a group that has since disbanded but certainly has its adherents. She also likes Chung-Ha, so much so that she also wants to be in fourth place just like her. Also, MNET hates her. HATES HER SOOOOO MUCH. 

Next out is someone from MNH Entertainment, the horrible agency that utterly mismanaged poor beautiful Chung-Ha for years. (Sihyeon, who must be practicing for later, says in Japanese that she loves Chung-Ha.)

The MNH trainee is little Lee Ha Eun (이하은), who, at 13, is the youngest on the show. She’s adorable, the way a little kid is adorable, and in a meeting with Chung-Ha herself, we see that little Haeun obviously almost worships Chung-Ha. Chug-Ha tells her to be herself and people will love her. Will this prove accurate? You’ll have to keep watching to find out! As Haeun seats herself amongst all her pretty unnies, she interviews, “This place is very pressuring.” I can’t imagine being in 8th grade and on a show like this. I don’t know how I made it to and from school every day when I was in 8th grade. I don’t know how I continued to like, breathe oxygen and use it in a redox reaction in my body without screwing that up and exploding. 

Side note to my loves in middle school who may be reading this: First of all, how dare you, this is for grownups, and secondly, go ahead and read anyway. Matt Groening, creator of the Simpsons, famously said “Middle school is the deepest pit in hell” and yeah, it is. So, please know that I love you. You can do this. It’s going to be rough, can’t lie, but it does keep getting a bit better. Please don’t let these years matter all that much to you. Don’t let it scar you. You’ll get through this by just trying to have as much fun as you can and not caring about crushes and whether or not they have a crush on you, or whether other kids are being nice or mean or whatever dumb middle school shit they’re pulling on you. It doesn’t matter. Just enjoy life and be as happy as possible. Once you get older, you get to decide on the kind of adult you want to be, and if you want to surround yourself with Squishmallows and watch kpop videos with all your free time, you can. Or whatever makes you happy. Hold on. You got this. Now, back to the recap.

Yena chats a lot with her friend Sihyeon, and the editors keep showing them. Yena’s charismatic and it’s fun to get her perspective. They’re sitting in those big chairs that are kind of far apart, so she has to lean way over to do it. They are talking about how they’re excited to collaborate with the Japanese girls, and that they’re excited. Yiren grins widely as she says she want to make friends with the Japanese girls. I’ve already seen more charm and cuteness out of Yiren than I have in any given Everglow video. She’s really engaging in real life -- wish we got to see a bit more of that during her performances.

Kim Dayeon is sharing what she knows about Japanese language with her teammates, but her pronunciation is a little sus. 

Stone Music is up next. The four girls come out nervously, and the other girls in the audience think they look familiar. 

Left to right, they are:

Jang Gyu Ri (장규리),  age 20, in pink.

Jo Yu Ri (조유리), age 16, in yellow.

Lee Si An (이시안), age 19, in purple.

Bae Eun Yeong (배은영), age 21, in mint green.

All four had already appeared on a different MNET reality competition show called Idol School, which had aired the year before this show aired. What’s interesting is that Gyuri actually *won* that show and debuted as a member of its winning group, fromis_9. A lot of famous folk were on Idol School, including a personal favorite of mine, Natty (who has since debuted in the absolutely phenomenal group Kiss of Life). I’m starting to think I should go back and watch Idol School! Anyway, that’s for another day. 

Next out is Cube -- everyone is very excited since Cube is a larger agency. Han Cho Won (한초원), a tall mature looking 15-year-old in a hoodie and red pants, comes out to the strains of (then) Cube artist HyunA’s “Lip and Hip.” She squints at the audience, trying to decide where to sit, and while she does that, I’ll tell you that now (2023), Chowon is in a group called Lightsum. The other girls think she’s cool and swaggy, but to me she just looks a little confused. Maybe she has bad distance vision. 

Next out is FNC, home of N.Flying and AOA. (If you watched Queendom Puzzle, you might remember Chanmi/DoHwa, who used to be in AOA.) We meet Cho Ah Yeong (조아영), age 16, wearing black, and Park Hae Yoon (박해윤), age 22, wearing white. HaeYoon has since debuted as a member of Cherry Bullet. Everyone seems to be very intimidated that they’re from FNC, but me, an intellectual in the year 2023, is thinking, yeah, but no. As far as I’m concerned, FNC stands for “FuckiNg over Cherry bullet” and if you’re like, but BPR-Unnie, that doesn’t really work as an acronym, I respond, EXACTLY. Nothing about FNC works. 

People are excited to meet the Starship trainees, and MNET definitely wants all of us to be excited too. And I mean. Yeah. Here they come: 

Left to right: Yujin, Kahyeon, Wonyoung

An Yu Jin (안유진), age 14, in the sleeveless shirt. She had previously been in music videos and commercials. 

Jang Won Young (장원영), age 13, the tallest one, in the pants 

Cho Ka Hyeon (조가현), age 14, in the collared shirt and skirt 

Nothing against Kahyeon, who is a lovely and talented girl, but it’s hard not to focus on the one-two punch of Yujin and Wonyoung, future stars of IVE. It’s entirely possible you’re reading this recap just because you’re fans of one or other of them. I’ll say that I’m more of a Yujin girl than a Wonyoung girl, but I like them both. True to form, they’re boisterous, showing off their smattering of Japanese knowledge, and flirting with the camera. They take turns sitting in the number one seat briefly, and then choose other seats. 

The trainees are talking about how pretty everyone is, much prettier than in Season 1, and I disagree with that part, but yeah of course they’re all pretty. Yoon Eun Bin laments that she’s “the only ugly one.” Aww, baby! And of course, we keep checking in with Yena, our unofficial narrator of this episode, as she jokes non-stop with her friend Sihyeon. It kind of reminds me of how in Broduce 101 we hung out with Kang Daniel and Yoon Ji-sung for most of episode 1. 

Out next is Pledis: 

Who could these tall, beautiful girls be? 

Huh Yun Jin (허윤진), 16, with her hair up in a ponytail, is about 5’8. Her family name 허 is sometimes transliterated “Huh” and sometimes “Heo”. Korean vowels are hard, ya’ll. 

Lee Ga Eun (이가은), 23, with her shorter hair down to just her shoulders, is about 5’7. Her name is also sometimes transliterated as Kaeun.  

The others girls recognize Gaeun as a former member of After School, an idol group known for their sexy concepts. (In the performance I linked to, Gaeun is the one with her hair in two braided pigtails -- she starts off on the pole on the far left. We actually see a brief clip of that performance on this episode at about 20:58.) The girls are abuzz to see Gaeun back in the idol sphere after a few years’ hiatus. That hiatus was just due to Pledis’s mismanagement. Shock! Horror! Who would have thought that PLEDIS of all companies would screw over a talented idol group? Surely, neither of THESE girls will get screwed over on this very show? 

Anyway, back to 2018. You’re going to have to accept that fact that I love both of these girls a lot, but I doubt that will be a problem, because I think you’re going to love them too. Most people do -- more about that much later! Yunjin is one of the reasons that I’m rewatching this show -- I loved her the whole time I watched it the first time, as I said earlier, and I was so incredibly happy when she debuted in Le Sserafim. 

The two Pledis girls sit down and we have a brief “coming up!” montage. When we come back, we can see that more girls have come in unobserved by us, the viewers, which is fine. Finally, strains of Heavy Rotation by AKB48 begin playing (“I want youuuuuuu… I need youuuuuuu…”), and the Korean girls are excited to meet the AKB girls! 

First, we learn a little bit about the franchise -- it’s like, what if a female NCT, or a TripleS, but with literally 600 members, and they’re all wearing outfits that make them look like they are members of the Piñata Marine Corps. Also, most of them can’t really sing and their choreography is mostly step-touch wiggle-wiggle. 

Bless their hearts.

There is, obviously, talent amongst them, as we will see. It’s just that talent is not really a *requirement* for being in the group. Girls in the AKB48 franchise are expected to be cute and cheery on stage, to approximate some form of “singing” like noises, and to learn and do choreography so easy even I could probably do it, and I’m about as coordinated as a newborn deer. Plenty of them are capable of more, and I take my hat off to those who pushed themselves to come on this show and face this challenge. They’re in for a lot, and I respect them. 

I also want to say that the biggest issue I have with the AKB48 franchise is that their fanbase is almost exclusively men in their 40s who think that 19 or 20 is over the hill. It’s like, soft-core kitty-corn and I know you know what I mean. I guess a similar allegation could be made about Produce101 in general. I don’t want to linger on this for too long because these girls just want to be entertainers and to bring some fun and excitement into their lives, and it’s not their fault that middle-aged men ruin everything. But I have to acknowledge it. I could post some really disturbing pictures here of AKB48 girls in outfits that read *really, really young* but also are obviously meant to be sexy, but I really don’t want to, in part because it might make the FBI knock on my door. Similarly, I don’t want to link to it here but I’m amazed there wasn’t a public outcry about the video for Heavy Rotation. They’re all in lingerie and rolling around together and kissing each other and bathing in a bathtub together while feeding each other cherries and whipped cream. Like, it’s not subtle. Meanwhile the song itself sounds like something from a Kidz Bop album. The juxtaposition between the cutesy childish tone and the obviously sexy, almost pornographic images is really… disturbing, there’s just no other word for it. Add in the fact that Japan might be the only developed country that’s worse than the USA in terms of how it treats and cares for women, and you’ve got a pressure cooker of ick. Poor girls. I hope they’re all safe and well -- in 2018, in 2023, and beyond. 

And here they come, all 19 of the AKB48 girls, in red and black plaid outfits. This specific group is from Tokyo. (Each of the -48 groups is based in a different city.) We’ll meet these girls a bit later when they perform in smaller groups.

We see that one of them, 24-year-old Miyazaki Miho, can even write in Korean a little! Good for her. Takahashi Juri -- 20-year-old future member of Rocket Punch and visitor to Queendom Puzzle -- interviews in Japanese, “I think that the popular idol singers in Korea are really the best artists in the world.” Goto Moe, 17, says that Kpop idols are true musicians. Muto Tomu, a 23 year old palindrome, says she wants to learn from the Korean idols. She and Juri want to be the best in the world. Yes! I love the ambition. 

But where will they sit? 

Juri, in an outfit that would make Nina Garcia weep if she had tear ducts, is tempted by the number one seat. As she should be. We love Juri in this household. But the girls’ competitiveness gives way to their friendliness, and soon all the girls, Korean and Japanese alike, are giggling and waving and making heart signs to each other. AND THAT IS WHAT I’M HERE TO WATCH, by the way. I love this shit. Friendship is the best ship. 

Juri introduces herself to MND17’s ChaeJeong in careful Korean, and ChaeJeong responds in equally careful Japanese. Everyone is using the few words they know, combined with sign language and body language, to try to bridge the communication gap. They exchange hellos and names and try to figure out who’s older. The Japanese girls think the Korean system of adding a year to your age is kind of odd, but that’s how culture do. 

Next out are the girls from NMB48 - the Osaka team -- in blue outfits. Then the two SKE48 girls, from Nagoya come out, in different blue outfits. One of these two is Matsui Jurina, who is only 21 but somehow looks a bit older to me. 

Asai Yuka on the left, Jurina on the right. 

A lot of the girls recognize Jurina; per Wikipedia, “She is recognized as SKE48's absolute "ace", having placed in the top 10 in many of AKB48's annual general elections and winning the 2018 election.” Apparently she was in AKB48 for a while, and then chose to go back to SKE48, either for altruistic reasons (to support the smaller subunit’s success) or for her own reasons (to go back to her home city, perhaps). 

You’ll be hearing more about “elections”, so let me talk about that. In the -48 system, fans who have bought a copy of a 48 album are given the right to vote for the member they like best -- the general election. In other words, it’s a popularity contest, and only fans willing to spend money are allowed to vote. (There’s a story about a fan who spent $300,000 on CDs to vote for his favorite girl!) If Jurina has won so many elections, she is/was undoubtedly quite loved by her fan base. I approve of the fact that this woman, who looks like a woman and not a little kid, is/was so loved. 

Side note here, and it’s a real, real, real side note, so I'm putting it in a different color so you can skip past it if you want, but the story of the man who spent $300,000 to vote for his favorite member of AKB48 reminds me a bit of the story of Grant Amato. Let me explain. Grant Amato was in his late 20s when his life hit the skids for various reasons and he began spending a ton of time in a cam girl chat room. He began “tipping” her absurd amounts of money, convinced that this was creating a genuine bond between himself and her. He began stealing from anyone who left their credit cards in his vicinity, especially his parents, from whom he stole $200,000 or more. The family tried to put him in rehab, and told him he couldn’t talk to his “girlfriend” any more -- so he killed them, in part to remove the obstacle, and in part to get their money. Looking into this story more, I learned more about the psychology of tipping cam girls, and it seems really similar to the parasocial relationship between -48 girls and their fans. No other men in the girls’ lives; the illusion of sexy, available youth; the man feeling like a protector or guardian of the girl he's never met and never will meet…. This extremely NSFW guide to cam-girling has a lot of nuggets of wisdom, especially this: “A man wants to feel attention from an attractive women on him, and this is made even more satisfying when it’s to the exclusion of those around him. He is showing off his power by buying your happiness.” I know that Grant Amato is an extreme example when it comes to him literally murdering three family members, but other people -- nearly always men -- spend that much money on cam girls and on AKB girls and on other stand-ins for real love. I don’t have some big point to make here. Just that it doesn’t seem particularly healthy to me.

Pigtailed Sato Minami, age 14 and a member of Tokyo based AKB48, interviews that everyone in Japan knows Jurina. 17-year old Nakano Ikumi says she joined AKB48 because she idolizes her, and 14-year old Asai Yuka, the other SKE48 member in Produce48, says that they all admire her. 

They aren’t sure where to sit, as now only lower-ranked chairs are available, which is so silly since it doesn’t actually matter at all what chair you sit on today, but that’s the show for you. Jurina, befuddled, says “ehhhh?” which is sort of like “what” and sort of like “otoke?” It’s so characteristically Japanese that some of the Korean girls think it’s cute. Plus, they’re all eager to make friends. 

Jurina smiles with cute, puppy eyes, and then for a moment, a bit of avarice flashes over her face, and the xenophobic MNET editors make sure to zoom in on her, while letting one of the other girls give her a defining caption:

Bombastic opera music plays -- will she take the seat? She has been ranked number one enough times in her other life that it seems kind of fitting. But no. She ends up sitting down in a normal chair, interviewing that she didn’t have the courage. I don’t remember who sat in the number one seat and am starting to think it might just be whoever walks in last at this point. 

I feel like I could write a whole sociological paper about the difference between girl seasons of this show and boy seasons of this show and their approach to the Number One Chair. Girls eye it but don’t like to sit on it because it marks them as greedy and makes them unpopular. Boys fight over it, either physically with arm wrestling or via skill displays, like rutting caribou. It’s really interesting. 

Interlude! They’re all hungry. Juri shows off more of her Korean skills. The other girls at least know how to say the names of food and are building friendship off of a shared love of eating. Hey, that’s how you make friends with a cat or dog so it works for me. Food!

Here’s the RBW girls, who you might recognize: 

Na Go Eun (나고은), in the “Respect” shirt, age 18. She is now a main vocalist of PurpleKiss. 

Park Ji Eun (박지은), in the red striped shirt, age 20. She debuted in PurpleKiss but left due to an anxiety condition. Aww! Poor sweetie.  Hope she’s doing ok these days. 

The girls are excited for Banana Culture, partly because they’re hungry and want to eat bananas, and partly because it’s home to EXID, a group I’ve always liked too. 

Out come the two Banana Culture girls, who sit down immediately:

Kim Da Hye (김다혜), on the left with black accents, who I think is 16 (but reports vary). 

Kim Na Young(김나영), 15, on the right with red accents, who you may now recognize as a member of Lightsum. 

Next is Woolim, and the other trainees are impressed. They should be! Check out these four:

I know this screen shot is terrible, but I’m doing my best, folks. 

Left to right, that’s:

Kim So Hee (김소희), 14, who is now in Rocket Punch.

Kim Chae Won (김채원), 17, who is now in Le Sserafim.

Kwon Eun Bi (권은비), 22, who is now a soloist.

Kim Su Yun (김수윤),17, who is now also in Rocket Punch, and who you may also recognize from going on Queendom puzzle. She’s 5’7, if you’re wondering. 

I’m so excited to see Sohee and Suyun meet Juri! And for Chaewon and THE SAKURA™ and Yunjin to all meet each other! This is going to be so cute. 

And here’s WM Entertainment: 

Left to right, that’s: 

Cho Yeong In (조영인), age 16.

Lee Chae Yeon (이채연), age 18. Before this she was on Sixteen, the show that created Twice, and after this she will, among other things, make a brief appearance on Queendom Puzzle. She’s also the older sister of Itzy’s Chaeryeong, and they have a strong family resemblance. Everyone is pretty impressed by her, and I’m sure she’s glad about that.  

Lee Seung Hyeon (이승현), age 17. Ok, if you watched Queendom Puzzle, I dare you to try to recognize Seung Hyeon. Do you know who she is? Picture her with chin length hair. Hold your finger up to the screen and really try. Ok, give up? 

That’s Riina from H1-Key! I would have never guessed. I wonder if Chaeyeon recognized her on Queendom Puzzle? I wonder if she voted her up or down? Chaeyeon does seem to sort of do her own thing. Love how the show never mentioned that they knew each other.

It’s time for the Fukuoka-based HKT48 girls to enter, and their black logo prompts Million Market’s Son Eun Chae (손은채), 18, future member of Bugaboo, to comment to her label mate Cho Sa Rang (조사랑), 14, that black is her favorite color. Sarang replies, “Our faces must look black by now,” cracking Eunchae up. Aw, I like them. 

The other Japanese girls are excited, because they know that soon they will be seeing…. THE SAKURA™. Her name means cherry blossom, and she wants cherry blossoms to blossom in your cherry. I mean heart. Whatever. 

It’s always so odd to me the way that certain girls are picked out as stunningly beautiful, when to me they’re all pretty. It feels so random. Why is THE SAKURA™specifically the most beautiful? It’s like in Red Velvet. I think Seulgi and Wendy are every bit as pretty as Irene, maybe prettier. But what do I know? Also, I probably ranted about this exact same thing in one of my BP recaps. Anyway, Jo Yuri tells her labelmate Sian, “I made eye contact with Sakura and I almost fainted.” Ok, Jo Yuri is growing on me. 

Everyone thinks everyone else is pretty, and cool, and cute, and intimidating. We check in again with Sarang and Eunchae, who seem to be having a fun time. 

Who will be last to walk in? YG’s logo pops up on screen, shocking everyone, including our polka dotted friends from HOW Entertainment, one of whom is in the process of administering eye drops to another one when the logo pops up. YG? WUT? But no -- these are *former* YG trainees. Now, they’re here as “kaein yeonshipsaeng” -- individual trainees. Trainer-less trainees. Just… -ees. They walk out to strains of “I am the Best” by 2NE1, a song whose video I still watch whenever I need a pick-me-up. 

Park Jinny (박진희), 20, with dark hair, now a member of Secret Number.

Park Seo Young (박서영), 19, with light hair.

We cut back to an interview that must have taken place some time before taping began, when Seoyeong had brown hair. We find out that Seoyeoung was in the famous “Future 2NE1” video and both of them traineed with Blackpink. They’re here to make you wonder why YG let them go. 

There are only two chairs left -- the #1 seat and the #96 seat. The now-blonde Seoyeong plunks down on the number one seat and everyone applauds. When I watched it the first time, I thought even at the time that there wasn’t much chance of her making it after that. You just can’t sit in that seat and make it in to the final lineup. I’m with Yunjin, who says, “If that was the only seat left, I’d sit on the floor.” Yep.

35:10 Somi and Daniel

Two figures emerge and the girls go nuts as they recognize everyone’s favorites, Jeon Somi (ranked #1 on PD101 Season 1) and Kang Daniel (ranked #1 on PD101 Season 2). I’m happy to see them, though I’ll note that they’re both capable of looking a lot better than they do here. I’ll blame their hair -- they were both born to be honey blondes, even if it wasn’t in their DNA.

Must be kind of weird for Chaeyeong to see Somi again after they both competed on Sixteen together. But there are always all those ties amongst idols and trainees. 

Somi and Daniel talk about how only viewer votes will matter here. They don’t know that this is a lie, of course. Vote rigging was absolutely a thing on all four seasons of PD101. But we’ll talk about that later. 

The reality sets in for the trainees -- they’re really on PD101!  Or PD48, whatever you want to call it. S&D talk about how only the top producers will work with them, how they’ll debut in Korea and Japan at the same time -- this will be big. They talk about the specific producers, who have worked with some top groups, but the names of the producers don’t ring bells for me and likely won’t for you, either: Han Sung Soo, who writes kpop hits, and Akimoto Yasushi, the creepy old dude who created AKB48 and writes their most misogynistic lyrics. Great. I am just going to call him “Gross Guy” from now on. 

The girls find out that 12 of them will debut in the final lineup, which is great news, because now it’s a 1 in 8 chance of getting in. (Well, it’s a 100% chance for those whose agencies paid enough money!) Why couldn’t Kep1er and ZB1 have had 12 members? Then Park Hanbin would have been in ZB1 and I’m not sure who else would have been in Kep1er but I know it would have been great. Maybe Fu Yaning, who I will always love and hear no words against. 

Anyway. 

Say goodbye to Somi and Daniel because we don't see them again after this. It's time for the judges to come out! And that's what we'll pick up with next time, when we recap the first ten auditions!

[boysplanetrecaps]

The Great Produce 48 Rewatch

Hello, lovies! This post marks the start of my Produce 48 Recaps. For those of you who don't know, this show was the first time we met various trainees who went on to join a bunch of other groups, including Alice/Elris, Bugaboo, Cherry Bullet, Everglow, H1-Key, IVE, Kep1er, Le Sserafim, Lightsum, Purple Kiss, Queenz Eye, Rocket Punch, Secret Number, and of course IZ*one. Some of them also appeared on Girls Planet 999 and/or Queendom Puzzle.

Since the show is so iconic, and so messy, I'm going to back to 2018 to recap it in my own chatty, opinionated way. This post will be the anchor post and I'll add links to other episodes as we go along. Welcome to the ride!

I've decided to split the difference with respect to spoilers. No one wanted me to write it as if it's still 2018, but some people did want me to avoid spoiling who makes the final lineup, and I'm going to go with that. I'm going to tell you who goes on to be in every other group EXCEPT for who makes it into IZ*one, because that spoils this specific show and will make it less fun to watch along if that's what you want to do. I'm also not going to spoil things like when people go home and what their final ranks will be. However, after each elimination round, I'll tell you where people are now.

In case you want to either find or filter out all these recaps, I'm tagging them all with "BPR recaps P48."

If you want to start watching the show, this link is the least crappy one I've found. https://kshow123.tv/show/produce-48/episode-1.html

Intro: Episode 1: Entrances

The audition round: Episode 1: Auditions 1-10, Auditions 11-24 Episode 2: Auditions 25-36 , the unaired auditions (and audition wrap up)

Signal song mission: Episode 2: Dorm Move in and Practicing for Nekkoya Part 1 Episode 2: Practicing for Nekkoya Part 2 and final prep Episode 2: Grade Reassignment, Part 1 Episode 2: Phone Calls Home and Judges Table (Grade Reassignment Part 2) Episode 3: Grade Reassignments, Concluded Interlude: A bit of Grade Analysis Episode 3: Signal Song Performance + Start of Challenge Mission 1

Challenge Mission 1: Episode 3: The teams start practicing and we visit each one Episode 3: Love Whisper Episode 3-4: Peekaboo Episode 4: Short Hair Episode 4: Mamma Mia Episode 4: High Tension Episode 4: Boombayah (featuring Hell-bayah) (part 1) )(part 2) Episode 4: Like Ooh Ah Episode 4: Very Very Very (featuring half of Iz*one) Episode 4: Ep 4 Wrap Up and BRAPPY Awards

[boysplanetrecaps]

Ep 4 Wrap Up

Hello, lovies! Welcome back to the Great Produce48 Recap Rewatch-a-ma-whoozit! In the previous post, we covered the Very Very teams. In this post, I’ll be wrapping up episode 4 and giving you some general thoughts about the challenge mission in the form of my first annual BRAPPY Awards! Let’s do it!

Seungki gathers the girls together now that the audience has left, in order to give them the results of the on-site vote. Seungki quizzes a few girls is the audience at quasi-random to re-establish the rules -- that 58th is the cut off point, and that if you don’t make it within that range, “you can’t practice here anymore.” I think that’s a comparatively kind way to put it.

This is basically a pointless exercise that they’re going through right now, though. They rank the girls solely by their voting for tonight, including the 1000 point benefit. There is literally no point to it, since this ranking has no impact on the rest of their life, except their pride. We find out that poor AleXa came in dead last, with flat-tummied Hwang Soyeon just above her. 

AleXa takes it pretty well -- she knew how low she scored, so she was ready for this.

Poor Soyeon. She’s so good, and I think she’s pretty. I don’t get it. 

Lee Chaeyeon voice overs, “The Japanese members are celebrities, and Koreans are trainees. So there was a gap.” 

Was there? Let me get out my spreadsheet. *cracks knuckles* 

Hmm. The Japanese members had an average of 85.3 votes per trainee. The members signed to Korean agencies had an average of 59.0 votes per trainee. The overall average was 69, because there are more Korean members. So yes, there was a huge gap.

The show goes on revealing the "final ranking" from the night, but it's so annoying, since all the votes were based on their immediate competition among those 10-12 girls, so it’s especially meaningless.

Anyway, here’s the top 12 -- just looking at it reminds you that this is dumb, since we know these aren’t the 12 most popular girls on the show.

Trainee /// Song she did /// votes she got

12. Kojima Mako    ///       Short Hair 1       ///       120 11. Murase Sae      ///       Mamma Mia 1    ///       138 11. Kim Hyunah      ///     Mamma Mia 1 /// 138 9. Asai Nanami   ///           Boombayah 2 /// 144 8. Lee Sian           ///         Short Hair 2     ///       148 7. Jo Yuri      ///                 Short Hair 1     ///       152 6. Cho Ahyeong        ///     High Tension 2 /// 160 5. Miyawaki Sakura   ///     Very Very 2          ///   164 4. Goto Moe      ///         Like Ooh Ahh 1 /// 172 3. Huh Yunjin      ///       High Tension 2 /// 188 2. Ko Yujin        ///     Boombayah 1        ///     198 1. Yabuki Nako /// Love Whisper 2 /// 330

Fun fact: Only three of these girls make it into IZ*one, and, extra fun (or not fun at all?), one of these 12 girls gets eliminated in the very next episode! 

This is so dumb.

Seungki interviews Nako about her overwhelming victory, and she says she still can’t believe it. (You can see that she has a small earpiece in her ear for translation purposes.)

It’s almost as if she was really good and also was in a matchup with mostly weaker members….? Hilariously, she says “I’ll try my best to be in a higher rank next time.” Nako? Sweetie? You were in first place. I think it’s ok to not strive to do even better than that. Cutely, she adds a Korean “thank you!” at the end. 

Then the show does a dumb thing where it adds the 1000 vote benefit into the votes to see how things change in the ranking, and it’s pointless AF. Seungki reminds them that the first ranking announcement will be next week, and that's when they'll "release" about a third of the girls.

Ok, so that’s the end of episode 4. 

Time for my general thoughts on the challenge mission!

My main thought is: None of the performances were actually horrifically bad. Even Hellbayah was watchable in its own way. Vocally, nearly everyone sounded notably better than they even had before, making me wonder if there was some processing being done to the vocals for everyone. Dance-wise, the camera hid a lot of the choreo, so it's impossible to know. In the end, I had to base a lot of my differential off of stage presence, which is tough since it's so subjective.

I think that so much of it was decided the moment that certain teams were formed and certain teams got certain songs. Having Nako sing Love Whisper? Match made in heaven. Putting Chiba Erii in Boombayah? Match made in hell.

I wish I had the energy to go through and look at each group and think, which song should this group of 5-6 girls have done? But alas, I do not. I welcome your thoughts, if you have them!

The First Annual BRAPPIES 

And now, for the first Brappies, the award that BPR-Unnie gives out starting now, after each challenge mission. Be aware that as I type this, I’ve had a headache for about two weeks and it’s making me just a tiny bit cranky. Ok, here goes!

Group who the stylist unnies hated the most:

I give this to Peekaboo 2. 

Ugh, those translucent control top thigh highs!

Group who it just looks like they forgot to put on pants:

Obviously, Short Hair (both teams)

I'm unlikely to use this category again, but it had to be said.

Group that cried the most:

I’m tempted to say it’s a 15-way tie between most of them, but I have to give it to Love Whisper 1, whose leader, Eunchae, actually cried during the ending fairy.

Group that seemed to have the most fun:

Very Very, Red team.

Most deserved win:

Love Whisper 2.

I’m giving it to them since, other than the Boombayah teams, there was no other match up where the winner felt quite so obvious to me.  

Least deserved win:

Hellbayah. Obviously.

It’s infuriating that this performance won. 

Best leader:

From what we could see, that goes to Haeyoon (Cherry Bullet) from Like Ooh Ah, who not only mothered her own team, but also had time to mother the other team, who had the worst leader (Park Seoyoung). She also is apparently fluent in Japanese. 

Honorable mention: Miyu from High Tension, who was smart enough to know that they should have Huh Yunjin as their center, and did a great job as main vocal, to boot.

Worst leader:

I have to give this to Park Seoyoung. She didn't seem to take the time constraints seriously enough, so didn't push her team appropriately. She also didn't seem that great at teaching the dancing, which is one of the things a leader should either be able to do, or be able to delegate well. She should have made little Haeun the dance captain and gone from there, to avoid a feeling of a power struggle. She seems like a really sweet girl, actually, and as I've said before, AleXa is friends with her to this day and that says a lot. But she just isn't really cut out to be leader.

Most put-upon leader:

Han Chowon from Hellbayah. She obviously did an extraordinary job considering her situation. 

Biggest discovery: 

Yoon Haesol, main vocal of High Tension 1. I’d been completely unaware of her up until this point. Her audition, Question Mark, wasn’t aired -- all we saw of her was starting her audition in the wrong key and needing to start over.  All I had said about her audition was that she did pretty well, but this performance really impressed me. So, good for you, Haesol. 

Trainee who “won” the night

Huh Yunjin.

I say she won the night because before this episode, she wasn’t really seen as a front runner, and afterward, she really was. There are events to come that will drag her down a bit, but I think she earned her spot on Le Sserafim with this performance. She definitely won my heart the first time I was watching. So, congrats, Jennifer! You killed it. But you know that, right? 

Trainee who “lost” the night:

In some ways, this award should go to just about anyone who the edit ignored completely despite them doing good stuff, like fantastic singer and leader Miyu from the winning High Tension group, or any of the innumerable other trainees with no stage time. But I have to give this award to Jang Gyuri.

She had her tiny tiny vocal mistake built up to over the course of two episodes and then replayed thirteen fucking times. Meanwhile if you watch her fancam, you might actually gain some respect for her lovely vocal color. 

So, that’s a wrap for right now.  I’m going to check out Build Up for a bit and we’ll see how that goes, and I’ll finish these recaps when the time is right. See you soon! 

[boysplanetrecaps]

The Great Produce 48 Rewatch: Ep 4, Very Very Very (IOI) Challenge

Welcome back to the thing I’m doing for some reason: The Great Produce48 Rewatch Recap-ma-jig! When we left off, we saw the penultimate teams perform Twice’s Like Ooh Ah. In this post, we’ll focus on the two performances of Very Very Very, featuring many future members of Iz*one, IVE,  Purplekiss, and Le Sserafim. Let’s do it!

Lee Seungki announces the next song as being “meaningful” -- and it is. Very Very Very was the song that made I.O.I. into what they were, and paved the way for IZ*one. He calls the two teams up on stage as the Avengers theme plays, I assume in the theater itself. Jeremy is like, “Wow, Sakura is in one of those teams.” Hey, Jeremy? Sakura is ranked 5th, which is respectable, but Yujin is ranked SECOND and Kwon Eunbi is ranked THIRD and I don’t see you mention either of them. And when Gaeun went up for Peekaboo, you didn’t mention her at all, even though she’s ranked FIRST. I know, I know, the filming was a little ahead of the voting, so they didn’t know what people would be ranked, and Sakura was the center, but she was the center, not like, actually Iron Man. 

It’s so weird the way these shows pick a person to be the whole show. I got it when it was Sung Hanbin from Boys Planet, as he is not just perfect looking but also an excellent dancer and a great singer and someone whose tears crystalize into diamonds that could refract light itself into champagne. But Sakura, despite being a sweet, cute, hardworking girl, isn't unusually talented or charming as far as I can tell. 

Anyway! To get us back up to speed, here are two teams. 

Yujin’s team, which was formed second overall introduces themselves as “Mixed Fruits”.

Left to right:

Honda Hitomi, 16, the super cutey who worked her way up from C to A and is currently ranked 47th.

An Yujin, 14, future member of  IVE who rose from B to A and is currently ranked 2nd overall. Wow! And she’s 14, you guys. I always forget how young she is here. 

Jang Wonyoung, future Wonyoung, known for being Wonyoung but currently with her original face, who has stayed in B and is ranked 4th.

Choi Yena, 18, friendly Yena from Yuehua who kept us company for a lot of episode 1, fell from A to B, and is currently ranked 6th. 

Shiroma Miru, 20, future visitor to Queendom Puzzle, who fell from B to D but is ranked 22nd. 

Na Goeun, 18, future Purplekiss, A class girl, and ranked 20th. 

Sakura’s team, which was formed first overall, introduces themselves a “Very Raspberry” (in English). It’s weird how many pairs of teams ended up with thematically similar names. 

Left to right:

Kwon Eunbi, 22, the future soloist, fell from A to C, is currently ranked 3rd

Motomura Aoi,  21, sweet faced Aoi from Never Ending Ferris Wheel, who rose from D to B and is ranked 42nd. 

Kim Minju, 17, a Very Pretty Girl, rose from D to C, ranked 17 

Kim Choyeon, 16, fire-eyes girl and future Bugaboo, fell from A to C, ranked 75 

Miyawaki Sakura, 20, THE SAKURA, future member of Le Sserafim who stayed in A and is ranked 5th. 

Lee Chaeyeon, 18, future soloist, who stayed in A and is ranked 10th.

Clearly, both teams are pretty stacked. But Yunjin’s team is just maybe that little bit more stacked, despite being formed second. I actually don’t remember who wins, but my 2024 knowledge implies it might have something to do with Wonyoung. 

Red Team’s Miru says, in Japanese, that their cute members will blend to make the sweetest juice, so bring it on! Blue team’s Sakura says that their team is the closest and that will make their performance best, and throws in a “fighting!” at the end. 

We jump back to Red team’s dance practice with Dance Bae, but this will be more about Blue team. Give it a moment.

Original face Wonyoung’s cute wiggling and winking earns a smile from Dance Bae, and it looks like everyone is doing a good and cute job. Dance Bae mentions the center, then after a pause says that they chose the right girl for it. 

We see Kim Choyeon, who is the center of the other team, reacting with concern to how good Wonyoung is. Poor Choyeon. Imagine having to go up against Wonyoung? In ANYTHING? It just wouldn’t go well. And the fact that Choyeon doesn’t quite meet Korean beauty standards -- despite being, in my opinion, a striking looking girl -- doesn’t help. 

Choyeon interviews, “Wonyoung’s facial expressions are all so natural. She’s so pretty and she does a good job standing at the center. I’m a bit anxious.”

It’s group 2’s turn, and Dance Bae tells them that she’s happy to see all of them since this is a team with a lot of skilled members. She expresses a bit of surprise that Choyeon is the center.

Center: Choyeon  Left of Choyeon: Aoi Right of Choyeon: Lee Chaeyon Behind Choyeon: Kim Minju Kneeling, left to right: Eunbi, Sakura

The editors present us with a weird-face-off between Choyeon and Dance Bae. (I mean a weird-face off, not a weird face-off, if you feel me.) 

When they’re done, Dance Bae says, “Choyeon, I’m sorry, but you were overacting. You made me feel so uncomfortable, I had to look at someone else.” Choyeon nods. I think she kinda knew. 

The editors keep doing that “swallowing” noise thing and I hate it nomu nomu nomu nomu much. 

Bae goes on, and she really, really lets them have it. She says, “What’s ironic is, you guys dance better than the other group. You have more famous members, too. But I sense that there’s a different vibe. You guys aren’t so fresh compared to Group One. I think it could be a problem of the center member. For the team, I think it’s better to select a new center member. Girls, you have to be careful choosing a center member. Why don’t you all think rationally? Don’t be swayed by what other people think.”

Afterwards, there is a lot of crying. Motherly Eunbi holds Choyeon while she sobs. Everyone else hovers nearby, patting her vaguely. 

Cut to dress rehearsal and we see that now, Sakura is in the center. Ahn Yujin voice overs that it makes sense to her that Sakura would be in the center, and really, it makes sense to all of us.

Soyou asks about it, and almost sounds angry, but that might just be her shouting to be heard from the distance. Kwon Eunbi explains that they decided to change to Sakura recently. 

Side note: Doesn’t Choyeon look pretty with her hair like this? 

Her face is one of those interesting faces that can go either way, and I think that’s cool. A lot of runway models are like that. She just needs, I don’t know, the right hair and the right styling and the right attitude to be like yeah, my eyes are lasers, get into it!

Cut back to the group meeting -- one of those Criss-cross-Applesauce-Crescent-Moons of Doom. It’s a CACMOD, if you will. 

Eunbi asks the group who should be the center, and Aoi sweetly says, “Choyeon,” which makes Choyeon smile for a second before immediately starting to cry. Even in her interview she is overcome with sobs. She tries to smile, though. She wants to do what’s best for the group.

The group smartly decides to record themselves six times, each time with a different person in the center, and then watch the recordings. Afterward, Lee Chaeyon says she thinks that Sakura should be the center. And at that moment, a thousand ‘ships were launched! Everyone nods, and Choyeon herself speaks up to agree that yes, Sakura should be the center. Pretty Eunbi agrees, and the decision is made.

They applaud, but Sakura is full of mixed emotions about taking over her friend’s part. 

She also has to learn the rap. We see that she has the rap written in katakana, the Japanese writing system designed for foreign words. 

She’s learning it phonetically, basically, and it’s not going to be easy, but she sits with the others and practices the pronunciation and dance as hard as she can. 

We cut back to dress rehearsal and Sakura is making a lot of mistakes with the words. When they’re done, Cheetah lets her have it, which I just think is mean.

 “That wasn’t good. I can’t hear anything. I can’t make out what you’re saying. Why did you have to change positions and make the rap part horrible?” 

Like, she doesn’t speak Korean, lady. It’s obvious she’s having trouble. I’d just say, “Well, it’s obvious you need a lot more work on the words. What is your plan to learn the lyrics by performance day?” And then, AND THEN, Soyou of all fucking people says, “Because of Sakura, everything was ruined. Her pronunciation was bad, and her dance was offbeat.” She goes on and on and on, and Sakura begins literally flinching as the words hit her in the face. 

Ugh. I think a lot of this is production interference. They know that they want to show a lot of both of these teams, so they need as much drama as they can get, and they want a lot of it to center on Sakura so they can put Sakura’s face in the middle of people’s TV screens. 

It must be so hard for Sakura. She seems to genuinely want to learn, and then she gets alternately praised and lambasted for roughly equivalently good performances. Audition offkey and with extremely simple choreo? Into A class! Not learn a 20 second rap in a foreign language in 2 days? MAKE HER FEEL LIKE SCUM YOU FOUND ON YOUR SHOE. 

Thanks, judges. Thudges. 

Kindly Jeremy asks, in Japanese, do you think you can do ok tomorrow? She answers, “I think Choyeon should be in the center.” 

Commercial break! In the Spanish video you can see this inexplicable advertisement featuring AI idols dancing to Nekoya. (23:30 or so)

In an interview, she cries as she says that she feels bad that Choyeon missed out on her chance to be center, but I’d argue that this isn’t entirely Sakura’s fault. Choyeon couldn’t figure out how to smile naturally, Sakura. I mean, harsh, but like… true.  

Now, in this interview, she’s wearing her actual performance outfit, not the outfit she was wearing in dress rehearsal, which had a blue collar. I can’t help but wonder if this interview, in which she says that Choyeon would have had more time to rehearse as center if it weren’t for her -- I wonder if this interview was recorded AFTER their performance. Because it would make sense if it were. It would put a different cast on it when she says that she thinks everything is her fault. 

Side note: I wonder why Eunbi was never really floated as a center for the performance? She looks a little like Irene from Red Velvet, in my opinion, and she can sing and dance. She would have been a great center. Maybe it’s because she’s not quite as twig-thin as the other girls….? IDK. 

Anyway, they decide to switch back to Choyeon, and Sakura voice overs that she feels much better about it. Eunbi voice overs that the team has gotten really close and they work well together. Minju voiceovers that she wants to make the performance perfect, and I’m like, “oh, is that what your voice sounds like, Minju? I had forgotten.”

And then it’s time for the performance. 

Here’s PD48 Editing’s blessed edit.

Standing: Aoi, Sakura, Lee Chaeyon Kneeling: Minju, Choyeon, Eunbi

My thoughts: 

Overall, they did great. Some of the vocals weren’t perfect, and not every facial expression exactly worked, but overall, great. 

Choyeon must have practiced a lot in the mirror because she was definitely much better than she’d been in that first rehearsal, expression wise. It still was a little awkward, alas. She is a great dancer and a decent singer (though I don’t love her vocal color), but she just isn’t a gifted smiler. It’s a bummer for her because I know she really wants this. 

Eunbi was flawless. No notes. She should have been the center. I don’t get it.

Lee Chaeyon was main vocal, ya’ll. Let that sink in -- the girl known for her excellent dancing was the main vocal on the team. Facial expressions, mini dance break, ad libs, all on point. Who is she, Kang Seulgi over here? I think she should have worn her hair down or curled or something maybe, and had a brighter closer to her face, but that’s the stylist unnie screwing her over. She’s just a queen when it comes to performance. 

Aoi was frickin’ adorable, of course. 

Smiles, pouts, finger wiggles… she gives Nako a run for her money. Dancing looked fine, and her one or two lines of vocals were fine. And the little part at the end when she blows the glitter at everyone -- seamless. She’s good at this, ya’ll. And it seems, for the record, that the audience appreciates her too, even if MNET gives her zero time or attention.

Minju just looked kind of scared a lot of the time. 

Use your finger to cover up her mouth in this picture and just look at her eyes and I think you’ll see what I mean. Her rapping vocal color is kind of offputting, too. She was on beat and I think she did it correctly but it didn’t work for me. Someone had to rap I guess. But she did the thing and was pretty, and that’s what she was there for. 

Sakura was super cute and had great facial expressions. She vocals were on key, though her vocal color remains unpleasant to me. Still, she did her Sakura thing and it was fine. I just don’t quite get why she’s the one that everyone is obsessed with compared to some of the others on the team. Nothing against her. I mean, it’s not just the MNET edit that makes her seem important -- when she sings her first few notes, you can hear a reaction in the live audience.

The MNET edit is about what you’d expect. There’s a cute moment when Jeremy says, “Chaeyeon is stable at everything,” which, yes, she is. The judges also praise Minju, which is their prerogative. I guess. No kind words for Eunbi or Aoi though, because MNET hates them I guess. 

Afterward, it’s all smiles and applause from everyone, and we see some signs in the audience for Choyeon, so that’s great! The judges are relieved that they changed the center back.

We cut almost immediately to Team 1, and all the way back to day 1, when they’re distributing parts. 

So you don’t have to scroll up, this team is made up of (left to right around the circle)

An Yujin, 14, future member of  IVE who rose from B to A and is currently ranked 2nd overall. 

Honda Hitomi, 16, the super cutey who worked her way up from C to A and is currently ranked 47th.

Shiroma Miru, 20, future visitor to Queendom Puzzle, who fell from B to D but is ranked 22nd. 

Na Goeun, 18, future Purplekiss, A class girl, and ranked 20th. 

Choi Yena, 18, friendly Yena from Yuehua who kept us company for a lot of episode 1, fell from A to B, and is currently ranked 6th. 

Jang Wonyoung, 14, future Wonyoung, known for being Wonyoung but currently with her original face, who has stayed in B and is ranked 4th.

They are having trouble figuring out who could do the rap, and Na Goeun wonders aloud if the rap should be done in Japanese (at least according to the on-screen captions in Korean). Maybe if a Japanese member did the rap, she’d be allowed to do it in Japanese…..? Not sure. Regardless, the Japanese members don’t want to do the rap. 

An Yujin volunteers to try, and then she does a pretty perfect job on her first try. Wonyoung teases her, “I thought she went to the back to practice first.” She ends up with the part, and is laughing about it in her interview before she adds, with mock seriousness, “I’m good at everything.”

It’s obviously a joke, and I really, really, really hope she didn’t get shit for that. But people are the way they are I guess. Also, she’s not wrong. 

We join them at an early vocal/rap rehearsal, with long-hair Cheetah. Yujin gets a little in her head for the rap and messes it up a bit, but Cheetah cuts her slack for trying to do it without looking at the lyrics. 

We go to dance rehearsal, where Dance Bae praises their performance and says they suit the song. They’re all happy to hear the praise. 

It looks like their rehearsal is fairly relaxed and they have time to joke around. 

A few of the girls interview that they think they can win. 

And it’s time for the performance! 

PD48 Editing’s blessed edit 

My thoughts:

Well, obviously this was basically perfect. 

From Wonyoung’s very first wiggle and “Sorichira!” (scream!), it was clear that this girl was born to be a Kpop girl group center. What would she have done in cave man days? Unclear. But in 2018 and 2024, she can wink at us and wiggle around cutely and voila! A star is born. Do I love her vocal color? Not really. Is she that great at dancing? The editing makes it impossible to tell. But she’s Wonyoung, and is somehow super engrossing. 

Na Goeun held down the fort as sub vocal 1. A lot of the time sub-1 sings more lines than the main vocal does and kind of sets the tone for the song. Think Nayeon as opposed to Jihyo in Twice, for example. Goeun kept the overall vocals good, and also pulls off all the aegyo with aplomb. 

I’m kind of surprised that Yena ended up the main vocal, with Goeun on the team, but she does a great job. I do think that her makeup doesn’t do her any favors, and I think this hair style is wrong for the shape of her face. She’s normally a super pretty girl, and I blame the stylist unnies for that. Perhaps because she was styled wrong, or maybe for some other reason, her facial expressions don’t quite work as well as those of her teammates, which is weird because she’s naturally super cute in normal life. She doesn’t do a bad job or anything, don't get me wrong, and her vocals are sweet and on key, but there was just something a little off about this.

But I live for this ending fairy. 

Yujin is wasted in this concept, but she can do anything she sets her mind to, and she does this, too. I don’t think the pigtails suit her though. 

Miru and Hitomi both fade into the back a little, with small parts, but they’re both cute in a super natural and straightforward way, and as far as I could tell, did the choreo well. Miru in particular has never had my favorite vocal color but they were both on key and seemed happy to be there. They both contributed in their way by bringing energy and cuteness, which is what this performance called for.

I actually don’t have any serious criticism for any of them. I’d like to have a word with stylist unnie, but that’s the main thing.

The MNET edit is in love with them. I mean, they were even left for last, even though they obviously performed before the other team. We see the audience and the other girls cheering for them. When they’re done, the judges sigh and say it’s really close because both teams did so well. 

Then Dance Bae says something really foolish: “One of these groups will not receive extra votes and not make it through.” As if those 1000 votes MATTER when you’re Sakura or Wonyoung? Come on. These benefit votes only ever matter for the people on the bubble -- people within say two spots of the cut off point, plus or minus.

The girls head to the results restroom to learn whether they will literally live or literally die!

Naturally, super cute Yena beats the not preferred Lee Chaeyeon. That’s how people do.

Surprisingly, Na Goeun beats Kwon Eunbi, which just is a factor of there being so many awesome girls on both teams and people only getting one vote. Maybe Eunbi looked a little too old for the concept…? She looks like a woman in a group of girls. Not that Goeun did badly at all. In fact, I’d have wanted both of them to get more votes, but that’s how life is. Poor Eunbi is like, “I failed,” and no. No, you were great, girl. 

Miru is up against Sakura, and they both do amazing. I don’t know why you’re looking unhappy, Miru-chan! You got 112 votes! That’s a lot higher than the average, which, by the way, is 69. (Wooooooooooooo!) 

Hitomi wins over Aoi and Yoojin wins over Minju. So far, except for Sakura beating Miru, red has beaten blue in every match up. 

At that moment, before they can reveal the results of the center battle -- Kim Choyeon versus Jang Wonyoung -- Choyeon over on blue team says, “Congratulations.” Red’s Yujin shakes her head to disagree, but Choyeon says, “Group one won. I’m not confident.” This makes everyone on red team look over sadly, shaking their heads… 

…. but Choyeon just looks down at her hands. 

She voice overs that this could be her last stage, as sad piano music plays. 

And then bam! Bam! They quickly reveal the final points -- Choyeon got a respectable 54 votes, second highest on her team and quite a lot considering her immediate competition amongst these 12 talented and popular trainees. But Wonyoung got 90, and red team won, 440 to 356.

Red Team: Choi Yena 64 Na Goeun 42 Shiroma Miru 112 Honda Hitomi 70 An Yujin 62 Jang Wonyoung  90

Blue Team: Lee Chaeyeon 34 Kwon Eunbi 24 Miyawaki Sakura  164 Motomura Aoi 46 Kim Minju 34 Kim Choyeon 54

That’s Wonyoung hugging Choyeon.

The girls all hug and applaud each other, and Wonyoung voiceovers, “I felt bad because we all worked hard together.” They do all rehearse together in the same training room, even though they’re two different teams, and probably all get to be at least sort of friends. So in a way, this was a proto-IZ*one challenge. 

Most of the blue team is crying now, including Minju. But Choyeon voiceovers that she doesn’t have regrets because she knows they all did their best. 

Ok, friends! That’s about it for this post. In my next one, I’m going to finish out episode 4 and do a bit of analysis of the challenge overall, including my personal rankings and some math. After that, I think I’m going to pause the P48 recaps for a bit while I watch Build Up, but I guess we’ll see about that either way. 

Also, as a side note: Here’s Kep1er doing Very Very! They do a great job, I think.

Thanks, chingus and dongsaengs, for reading! I’ll see you soon. 

Xoxo BPR Unnie

[boysplanetrecaps]

The Great Produce 48 Rewatch: Ep 3, The Girls Practice for the Challenge Mission

My dear friends who anxiously await my Produce 48 Recap Things! I forgot to post this -- sorry! This is the post that is supposed to go after this post but before this post. Sigh. I'll fix it sooner or later. So yeah, this post describes most of the second half of episode 3, where the girls begin practicing for their challenge mission.

So, this is the part of the episode where we see each group as it begins to assign parts and stuff like that.

Because MNET is *the worst* the girls clearly don’t have any translators working with them, so they can barely talk to each other if they don’t have a bilingual girl on their team. Great. Thanks, MNET Producers. Thmrucers.

PEEKABOO TEAMS 

The song:

Peekaboo came out in November of 2017, so it was the most recently released song among the eight at the time of filming. It peeked at #2 in the Kpop Hot 100 and was a critical darling. It’s also, in my opinion, just a great fucking song. I still remember being at Cafe Bene in K-town having some coffee when I first heard this song. I had to shazam it to find out what it was, and was surprised that it was Red Velvet. I had heard of Red Velvet, but as a fan of f(x), I had felt weird about getting into them. Seems dumb now! Anyway, this song was too good to deny and after that I was full on Reve-luv. The song is little bit trop house, a little bit pop, and 100% melodic, and the lyrics -- which compare love to a game played by children -- are fun and intriguing. The concept, too, was a lot of fun -- kind of mysterious, almost horror, but playful at the same time. Not totally sexy, but a little sexy; not totally cute, but a little cute; not girl crush, but the kind of girls you get a crush on. And catchy as all get out. It’s a great song to choose in the sense that it’s a great song, but it would be tricky to perform well, because the concept is so nebulous and mature. I mean, who else but Irene can make the word “Peekaboo” sound so elegant and cryptic? 

Team 2:

At 57:07, we have a super quick visit with Peekaboo 2.

Left to right: Yujeong, Yeji, Yubin, Yuuka, Miu, and Dahye

Hong Yeji, 16, one of the CNC girls, the one who fell down in her video evaluation and then fell from B to F, is ranked 76thth.

Kato Yuuka, 20, who auditioned with Funny People and rose from C to B, is ranked 73rd.

Kim Da Hye, who auditioned with I Don't Like Your Girlfriend and fell from A to C, is ranked 89th.

Kim Yu Bin, 16, one of the CNC girls, fell from B to D and is currently ranked a very low 93rd. OUCH.

Lee Yu Jeong, 14, future Lightsum member and C-class mainstay, is ranked 48th.

Shitao Miu, 17, who wore the hat on her waistband in her Mister audition, stayed in D and is ranked 45

Kim Yubin was the chooser, so it makes sense she would have chosen Yeji, her labelmate. Yubin has somehow been made both leader and center, and the team seems focused on what their team name should be. You guys, I never remember the names that they come up with for these teams. I don’t remember the names of most performance teams I’ve actually been on! I’m not sure they matter. They begin to rehearse, and we find out that Kim Da Hye is actually half Korean and half Japanese and speaks both languages fluently. What a VIP! The whole team is grateful to her. 

It’s weird, but this is all we see of this team! Slightly less than a minute. I’m sure the fact that this group has the lowest average ranking of all 16 groups (70.6, when the other groups range from 16.8 to 63.6) has no connection to their lack of screen time, right? It’s just a coincidence. 

Left to right: Jurina, Gyuri, AleXa, Gaeun, Yiren, Eunyeong

Peekaboo 1 (58:00):

Then we hop over to  Peekaboo 1. Jurina was the captain/chooser for the group, and they got their choice of song. The group was formed fifth, which means that Jurina had a decent talent pool to choose from. 

The members:

Bae Eunyeong, the mint Chewing Gum girl, who landed in B and was most recently ranked 30th

Jang Gyuri, the pink Chewing Gum girl and Fromis9 member, who landed in F and was most recently ranked 14th

Lee Gaeun, our Pledis queen, who was always an A+ girl and was most recently ranked 1st place

Matsui Jurina, queen Jurina, who stayed in B and was most recently ranked 12th

Wang Yiren, future Everglow visual, who landed in C and was most recently ranked 7th 

AleXa, who landed in C and was most recently ranked 86th place (ouch!)

Fun side note: Peekaboo was written by Swedish DJ/songwriter Cazzi Opeia, who later on wrote a bunch of songs for AleXa, including Back in Vogue! 

The group dynamic:

This group has a bit more language challenge than some, because AleXa is American, Yiren is Chinese, Jurina is Japanese, and the other three are Korean. Yiren speaks some Korean, and a few girls speak Japanese, but there are certainly layers of difficulty. 

It’s kind of interesting that Jurina chose AleXa -- they probably met when they were both in group B -- and also kind of interesting that she didn’t choose any Japanese trainees. I’m not sure what to make of that. Jurina also would have met Jang Gyuri and Wang Yiren in B group, so maybe she just mostly picked friends. Well, some Very Pretty friends! 

Eunyeong and Gyuri are labelmates and went through Idol School together before they came on this show. But there is definitely some tension between them, which might have something to do with the fact that Gyuri won Idol School and still came on this show.

The storyline:

First, Eunyeong volunteers to be leader since she already knows the choreo to Peekaboo. It doesn’t hurt that she also speaks Japanese. Then they start talking about who should be center -- The Inevitable Center Discussion, henceforth known as the ICD --  and Gaeun says that although all of the girls are suitable, she thinks that the center should be either Yiren or Gyuri. To me that seems like a good idea, as they are both “the prettiest ones” (per Korean standards). After a quick conversation, the group is starting to settle on the very highly ranked and popular Gyuri, but Eunyeoung interrupts and says that they should have both Yiren and Gyuri “audition” to be center. 

LTR: Jurina, Gyuri, AleXa, Gaeun, Yiren, Eunyeoung

They both do well, but Gyuri giggles a little at the end and I think that loses it. After seeing each of them try the ending pose, the team votes for Yiren. Yiren is overjoyed, and Gyuri does her best to accept it, but man, that had to hurt, having a labelmate do that. You really have to wonder what is going on between Gyuri and Eunyoung. Was there actual animosity, or were they such good friends that Eunyoung went overboard in being “fair”? 

Look, if I ran things, I’d have put Gauen in the center, because I think she might be the only one on the team who can do the Irene-esque mysterious gravitas. But failing that, I'd choose Gyuri, because (a) the popularity issue and (b) Yiren doesn’t sparkle in more girl-crush concepts. I know that’s what she does now in Everglow, and um, yeah. I said what I said. 

Lingering question: Did the team make the right choice putting Yiren in the center instead of Gyuri? Will getting 4x the screen time give these girls an advantage in the at-home vote, rendering the issue of the performance win kind of moot either way?

LIKE OOH AHH

The song:

Ok, I can’t help but love this song. It’s among my favorite Twice songs, actually. The lyrics should bother me -- bragging about how pretty they are and all that -- but am I bovvered? I also love the choreo -- it’s not particularly difficult, but it’s cute and varied, with fun little details like the air flute and the little choo-choo-train.  No surprise this song is great -- it was written and produced by Black Eyed Pilseung, a production duo that is also behind a ton of huge Kpop hits, including Twice songs "TT", "Likey", and  "Fancy"; Apink's "I'm So Sick" and "Eung Eung (%)"; Got7’s “If You Do,” ; Chung-ha’s “Roller Coaster” and “Gotta Go,”; StayC’s “ASAP” “Run 2 U” and “Beautiful Monster,” and Itzy’s “Cake,” which I really like so fight me I guess. Also “Beep Beep” by Ruann, which if you don’t know, you should check out. 

Like Ooh Ah was Twice’s debut, and it had a bit of a slow burn, entering the charts at 22 and hanging out for a while before eventually hitting 10th place. It has since, of course, grown into an enduring and well loved hit, with almost 500 million views on Youtube. 

This group will be performing the song in Japanese, but I still think that this was a smart choice for a song. The choreo is cute but not outrageously difficult. The tune isn’t too hard either. It would be completely familiar to the audience, and given Twice’s popularity, it’s hard to imagine many viewers who actually dislike it. And since the concept of the song was that the individual members were all dressed a little bit differently from one another, group coherence would be a lot less important here than it would be in other songs. 

Like Ooh Ahh 1 (1:02:00)

LTR: Moe, Soyeon, Doah, Chaewon, Riina, and Haeyoon

The next group we visit is Like Ooh Ah 1. The captain was Soyeon, and my best guess based on the evidence is that, as improbable as it sounds, this group was formed 9th or 10th. It’s a pretty stacked team, though. They got their choice of song -- in fact, from what we could see in the editing, this was their first choice. 

The members:

Goto Moe, the laryngitis girl, who moved from F to C and was most recently ranked 8th.

Hwang Soyeon, the flat tummied “little Sunmi” who stayed in A and was ranked 46th. 

Kim Chaewon, future Le Sserafim, who stayed in B class and was ranked 21st.

Kim Doah, future member of Fanatics and visitor to GP999, who moved from A to C and was ranked 25th. 

Lee Seunghyeon, aka H1-Key’s Riina, who moved from B to C and was ranked 60th.

Park Haeyoon, my new Cherry Bullet bias, who moved from A down to D and was ranked 35th. 

The group dynamic:

Soyeon was the captain and group chooser, and she chose two former A-group members, whose skills she would have been familiar with.  It’s possible that she’d been talking to her labelmate Damin, who was in group B, and would have met Chaewon and Riina and known what they were capable of. And Moe has a compelling story that would make her stand out among the Japanese trainees. So really, I think Soyeon did a great job choosing this team. 

Looks like they have chosen Haeyoon, the oldest in the group and a Japanese speaker, to be the leader. 

The storyline:

Of course, they dive immediately into the ICD. Riina and Moe are the only two who raise their hands as wanting to be in the center, and they each audition. Riina’s energy wins her the part. 

They dive into choreo, and Moe hits a bit of a wall with the classic “ooh-ah, ooh-ah” butt wiggle. Haeyoon kindly talks Moe through it. It's a cute scene -- I just don't have much to say about it.

Lingering questions: Is Riina the correct center? Will Moe be able to wiggle her butt? 

Like Ooh Ahh 2 (1:05:03)

LTR: Park Seo Young, Naiki Kokoro, Park Jinny, Cho Kahyeon, Choi Yeon Soo

Next, we visit Like Ooh Ahh 2. The captain and chooser was Naiki Kokoro, and was probably formed 10th, 11th, or 12th, something in there. 

The members: 

Park Seo Young, age 19, the blonde who sat in Chair 1, fell from C to D and was ranked 26th at this point.

Naiki Kokoro, age 20, auditioned with Funny People, rose from D to C, and was ranked 82nd.

Park Jinny, age 20,  is the other “individual trainee” who auditioned with Seoyoung. She fell from C to F and was ranked 49th.

Cho Kahyeon, age 14,  is the Starship girl who isn’t Wonyoung or Yujin. She held steady in B and was ranked 36th. 

Lee Ha Eun, age 13,  is the “mini Chung-ha” girl who held steady in A, and was ranked 58th.

Choi Yeonsoo, age 19,  is one of the YGK+ models, the one who fell from D to F, and was ranked 52nd.

The group dynamic:

There’s only one Japanese speaker here, the captain Kokoro. Looks like she picked Park Jinny first, then Cho Kahyeon, then Haeun, then Yeonsoo, and Seoyoung last. I really can’t figure out her plan. She may have gotten friendly with Yeonsoo when they were in D together, but her reasons for picking the others aren’t obvious to me. 

The storyline:

Turns out that this group thought that Seoyoung should be both leader and center, so they sidestepped the ICD. They’re trying to start to learn the choreography, but they’re in a huge room with a ton of other other people, no dedicated soundsystem, and no mirror, so it’s hard. It’s just the first few minutes of their rehearsal -- you can see that in the background, the other Like Ooh Ah team is still distributing the parts -- so it really doesn’t matter if they can’t get it on the first try. But even so, the scary background music lets us know that THEY ARE HAVING A PROBLEM. 

Model Choi Yeon Soo interviews, “Haeun was in Class A.  And nobody else in the group is in A. She was put in that group because she’s talented. So it almost felt like Haeun was the real leader…. Both of them were subconsciously competing. They gave different commands. Meanwhile, I just stood off from the side. It’s stressing me out, to be honest.” 

It’s awkward because Haeun is the youngest and the tiniest, but she’s also obviously the best. And Seoyoung seems to be losing more and more confidence by the minute. It’s not usually a great thing when someone is topping from the bottom. I get it, though. I am one of those people who can’t take it when the person who is supposed to be leading just isn’t doing it right. I try so hard to bite my tongue and hang back but… sooner or later, if the shit has to get done, then… I do it. 

Lingering question: Will they ever be able to have a smooth practice without stressing out Yeonsoo?

BOOMBAYAH

The song: I’m going to go ahead and assume you know this song, so I don’t need to tell you that it was one of Blackpink’s two debut songs and all that. It’s not my favorite Blackpink song of all time -- that’s Whistle, if you’re wondering-- but of course I like this one too. It’s hard to imagine a world where I had never heard of Blackpink at this point, but that time once existed. I remember hearing Boombayah playing in another room (I had left a playlist of new songs playing) and hearing it and wondering, who is that? Weird, right? Anyway, despite this song not really being about anything, it’s a pretty great song, with really hard choreo and a lot of fast rapping, and it’s going to be difficult for whatever team tries to do it. It’s got super low notes in the chorus (it’s hard to sing lower notes when you’re dancing), it requires a ton of swag, a lot of it is intentionally not synchronized, I mean, this is hard. 

Hell, it’s too hard for Blackpink these days. Yep, I said what I said. 

Boombayah 1 (1:06:51)

Left to right: Won Soyeon, Ko Yujin, Lee Chaejeong, Park Changju, Kim Sohee

We visit first with Boombayah team 1. Lee Chaejeong was the chooser, and the group was formed 9th or later. 

Won Seoyeon, age 18, who auditioned to Heroine by Sunmi, fell from C to F and was ranked 77th at this point. 

Ko Yujin, age 17, the “Hyuna lookalike” who auditioned with Lip and Hip and rose from C to A. She was ranked 34th.

Lee Chaejeong, age 18, future member of Alice, stayed in C and was ranked 94th at this point. Ouch!!

Park Chanju, age 19, label mate of Chaejeong’s, fell from C to D and was ranked 69th. Ooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo

Kim Sohee, age 14, future member of Rocket Punch, rose from C to B and was ranked 44th.

The group dynamic: Chaejeong probably picked Chanju because they’re label mates, and also, all five of them were together in C class initially, and they probably became friendly then. I think it’s smart to pick people who all get along with each other, since often the team that gets along better is the one that ends up winning. 

You may have noticed that there were only five of them, not six -- that’s due to the Japanese girls who dropped out. I scoured the footage and couldn’t find any shots in which there were six of them at any point. I can’t figure out why a team would volunteer to have only five members, but I can’t find any info to shed any light on this, so we’ll have to just sort of accept that something happened behind the scenes here. 

The storyline: 

To the strains of the Knight Rider theme song (possibly the best tv theme song of all time), we find out that Chaejeong picked the group with Boombayah in mind. Guess it’s a good thing that they got it! She thought Yujin would suit the song, that Chanju would learn it quickly, and that she needed Soyeon to sing. She added Sohee on purpose to provide cuteness. Naturally, given that she had a whole plan in mind, the team elects her leader immediately. 

Lingering question: 

Everything’s going so perfectly... Is it maybe too perfect? 

Boombayah 2 (1:08:47)

LTR: Asai Nanami, Asai Yuka ?, Kang Hyewon, Han Chowon, Sato Manami, and Chiba Erii

Then we visit with the miserable leftovers team, forced to do Boombayah as well. Weirdly enough, despite being the leftovers team, they have a higher average ranking than Boombayah 1 -- 57.3 compared to 63.6. They’re also more popular than Love Whisper 2 or Mamma Mia 2. And everyone is more popular than Peekaboo 2. So yeah, while the leftovers team might lack skills, they don't lack popularity, exactly.

The members:

Asai Nanami, age 18, aka Sailor Venus, who rose from F to D and was ranked 41st.

Asai Yuuka, age 14, who auditioned with Knock Knock, rose from F to D and was ranked 80th. 

Kang Hyewon, age 18, Miss Purity herself, consistent F class girl ranked 40th. 

Han Chowon, age 15, future Lightsum member who rose from D to B, ranked 79th. 

Chiba Erii, age 14, aka Sailor Mercury, consistent F class girl ranked 38th.

Sato Minami, age 14, aka Sailor Mars, fell from D to F and was ranked 66th.

The group dynamic:

Poor leftovers group. It’s interesting that all three members of the Blow Him a Kiss group ended up here -- all three sailor scouts. It seems clear how most of these girls ended up in the leftovers team; they were all F or D class, and most of them were on the younger side. I can only guess that Chowon was left behind primarily because she doesn’t fit Korean beauty standards, with her darker skin, stronger features, and larger body. She’s beautiful, of course, but the standards are so narrow and so specific… sigh. Lookism is such a thing in Kpop but it's still gross and I hate it. 

The storyline:

The girls are mostly pretty hopeless. This was the song that they had most wanted to avoid. Yuuka interviews, “I knew that there was no use in crying, but the tears just wouldn’t stop.”

But luckily for them, and for all posterity, they had Chowon. 

This 15 year old girl steps up to be both leader and center (and ultimately, main vocal) of this group, this group comprising one (1) perpetually bewildered Korean girl and four (4) terrified Japanese girls who she has trouble communicating with. The girls are scared to even sing for each other, and when Chowon brings up rapping, they say, “we’re even worse at rapping.” WHY ARE YOU ON THIS SHOW, THEN? Hyewon mumbles in a voice over, “I, um, was, um, gra..ateful or something? But, also um, sorry also? Too?”  After all, she wants to embody purity and innocence, which clashes with this song.

Chowon is like, “SOMEONE HAS TO RAP, YOU GUYS, BECAUSE THIS SONG CONTAINS RAP PARTS, HOW MUCH MORE SIMPLE CAN I MAKE THIS, THERE IS NO ONE ELSE WHO WILL STEP UP, SO IT HAS TO BE ONE OF US, HOLY SHIT” and Hyewon, bless her heart, volunteers to be main rapper. I’ll hand it to the girl -- at least she isn’t just sort of “avoid the teacher’s gaze”-ing her way through all this. She's doing the damn thing. Good for you, Hyewon.

She interviews that her parents had teased her that she might end up having to rap, adding, “that’s why you shouldn’t make jokes like that -- they might come true.” 

Lingering question: What will become of Boombayah team 2? Truly, what will become of us all? 

MAMMA MIA

The song:

I don’t remember a lot about my first watch through of Produce 48, as I’ve said, but I do remember that I discovered the song Mamma Mia through it, and I’ve liked it ever since. It’s just one of those classic kpop songs where it sounds sort of retro but from no specific time, so it could kind of be from any time. If you don’t really know it, definitely give it a shot. It’s catchy AF. Hit the lights let’s GO! 

The song was produced by Duble Sidekick, who also produced Mr. Chu by A*pink, Pepe by CLC (underrated bop), You’re the Best by Mamamoo, Give It To Me by Sistar, and Thumbs Up by Momoland. Kara had debuted in 2007, so they were a well known senior group by 2014, when Mamma Mia was released. At the time of filming, the song would have been almost four years old, making it the oldest of the eight songs selected, but it was a pretty huge hit in 2014 and would probably have still been familiar to most of the audience at the time. 

Mamma Mia isn’t known for it’s extremely difficult choreography -- it’s more about being confident and sexy. But the vocals might be a bit challenging, with a lot of high notes. Also, I should mention that for Produce48, they’ll be performing the song in Japanese. 

Mamma Mia Group 1 (1:12:04)

LTR: Park Minji, Kim Hyunah, Chiyori, Park Ji Eun, Murase Sae 

We first visit with Mamma Mia, group 1. This one was formed 9th or later. 

The members:

Kim Hyunah, age 23, who I call husky voiced Hyunah, from B class, ranked a sad 72. 😣

Murase Sae, 21, who auditioned with Funny People, rose from D to C and is currently ranked 43. 

Nakanishi Chiyori, 23,  who auditioned with What's Your Name?, rose from D to C, and is ranked 37. 

Park Jieun, 20,  future ex-Purple Kiss, who fell from C to F and was ranked 70th. 

Park Minji, age 19, PD101 trainee and future Secret Number member, from B class, ranked 56. 

The storyline:

We learn that Chiyori is apparently a master of hilarious facial expressions and that at the auditions she even did quick impressions of several of the judges.  It’s nice to get a peek into her funny personality. From now on I’ll call her “wacky Chiyori.” That’s about all we get, but it’s actually a fun segment. We also learn that Hyunah is chosen as center.

Lingering questions: Will Kim Hyunah make a good center?

Mamma Mia 2 (1:14:23)

LTR: Ayana, Miho, Bibian, Suhyun, Soeun, Sarang 

Then we visit with the other Mamma Mia team.

The members:

Cho Sarang, 14, who sang Tomorrow at the audition, fell from B to F (ouch!) and is currently ranked 90th (ouch again!). She has an eyepatch on, and I did some digging but didn’t find out why. 

Choi Soeun, 16, who did Question Mark at the audition, fell from B to C and is currently ranked 92 (oh no!)

Miyazaki Miho, 24, our multilingual queen, who has stayed in D and is currently ranked 16th place

Murakawa Bibian, 18 but looks like a baby doll, firmly stationed in F class and ranked 31st

Shin Suhyun, 22, the show’s favorite punching bag, who fell from D to F and is ranked 57th 

Shinozaki Ayana, 22, one of the What's Your Name? group, with the beauty mark under her lip, firmly stationed in F class and ranked 87th

The group dynamic:

Bibian was the chooser for this group, and it was formed 9th or later. My best guess is that she picked people she knew or was friendly with, which at some point is just as good a reason to pick someone as any. 

The storyline:

We find out that Mamma Mia was on their “black list” -- a song they didn’t want to do since they didn’t know it. Sarang especially doesn’t know it -- well, sure, she would have been 9 or 10 when it came out. So they weren’t thrilled to get chosen to face off against Chiyori’s team and do this song. 

At the song chosing ceremony, as Miho's team walks over to stand next to Chiyori's team, Chiyori apologizes to her senpai/sunbae Miho, and host Lee Seungki asks, “Any words of warning to her as her sunbae?” 

And Miho replies, with (mock?) seriousness: “All I have is confidence! I definitely don’t want to lose against them!” 

Miho and Chiyori are both on AKB48, and they are 24 and 23 years old respectively, so they have probably known each other for a really long time. It makes sense that they would have a friendly rivalry. 

The team makes Miho the leader -- she’s the oldest in the group and apparently bilingual, so she’s ideal. I don’t know, gang, I just really like Miho! She just seems cool as shit.

We don’t see the choosing or any of the ICD, but Choi Soeun has been made center. 

We hear Sarang singing a little bit of the song, and she sounds great. She’s an obvious choice for main vocal. 

We glance back over at Mamma Mia team 1, where Park Minji is listening to Sarang’s singing a bit nervously. “Sarang-chingu is their main vocal,” Minji interviews, “and she hits the high notes well. I’m a bit conscious of her. In season 1, I got sent home when I was the main vocalist.” 

We get a flashback to PD101 Season 1, when Minji performed a different song by Kara -- Break It, another bop -- and fucking smashed it. Here’s a link -- she’s the one in the gray shirt that says “Babe”. Like, no question, she was amazing. Proof that these shows are dumb. Sigh. 

Lingering question: Which main vocalist will reign supreme?

LOVE WHISPER

The song:

This is one of those songs that if I’m not actually listening to it, I can’t remember how it goes. And when I am actually listening to it, I don’t know which Gfriend song it is in specific -- I just know it’s one of their earlier songs that all blend together. Is this Rough? Glass Bead? Me Gustas Tu? I don’t know. I don’t hate cute songs -- I love Secret Garden by OMG, for example -- but most classic Gfriend songs do nothing for me. (Exception: Navillera, which is a Never-skip for me. What can I say? It’s a bop.)

Even if it's not my personal favorite, Love Whisper was a big hit, and came out in August of 2017, making it pretty recent at time of filming. Like all Gfriend songs, the actual vocals required are quite challenging, and the dancing is tough too. Gfriend songs are no joke, no matter how cutesy they are. It’s not a bad choice for a team that can do it, but not everyone can.

LTR: Nako, Nayoung, Damin, Sae, Misaki, and Eunbin.

At 1:16:07, we visit with both Love Whispers, starting with Team 2, a team chosen by Nako. 

The members:

Aramaki Misaki, 17, who auditioned with the blighted Never Ending Ferris Wheel group, has been stationed in F class, and is ranked 61st.

Kang Damin, 14, the cute future member of Queenzeye, went from B to A, and is ranked 74th.

Kim Nayoung, 15, future member of Lightsum who auditioned with I Don’t Like Your Girlfriend, went from C to A, and is now in 63rd place. 

Kurihara Sae, 21, who had the great bangs in Never Ending Ferris Wheel, who went from D to F and is now ranked 84th.

Yabuki Nako, 16, who moved up from F to A, is currently ranked 27th.

Yoon Eunbin, 14, one of the CNC girls, stayed in B, and is ranked 68th.

The group dynamic:

They were actually the third team formed, and Nako had a plan -- to choose kawaii girls. MNET brings out the good ol’ “cutey pie” music to celebrate -- you know, the “la la la” music they play. Nako must have known Sae and Misaki from being in HKT48 together. I don’t think she would have known the other girls, but Damin and Eunbin were in class B together, and they’re about the same age, so they probably got friendly with each other. Not sure if anyone knew Nayoung specifically, but they all live together in big dorms and probably meet each other around.  Regardless of exactly how Nako picked them, I must say,  if there’s a group that can knock Love Whisper out of the park, it’s this one. 

Almost immediately after we meet the Kawaii Avengers, we go over to visit with Love Whisper Team 1, so let’s get the roster up:

Left to right: Motu Tomu, Serika, Manami, Wang Ke, Noe, and Eun Chae

Ichikawa Manami, 18, with the shorter hair, from What's Your Name?, rose from F to C, currently ranked 83

Muto Tomu, 23, who we are about to get to know better, a D class mainstay and ranked 28th. 

Nagano Serika, 17, who auditioned with Mister by Kara, has lived in F class and is ranked 81st.

Son Eun Chae, 18, future member of Bugaboo, who moved up from C to B and is ranked 85th.

Wang Ke, 17, a Chinese girl who had the red polka dots in Celeb Five, moved down from B to D and is ranked 33rd.

Yamada Noe, 18, with her gravelly voice, moved from C down to F and is ranked quite high in 9th place. 

We learn that our friend the palindrome, Muto Tomu, was the chooser for this team. This is kind of an interesting team in that it’s the only team with only 1 Korean trainee, and it’s one of two teams with four Japanese members. (All the other teams have 3 Japanese trainees or fewer.) Three of the Japanese members -- Manami, Tomu, and Serika -- are from AKB48, so Tomu may have chosen friends, but most of them haven’t really worked together much on the show. Tomu also chose a team without a decent vocalist. 

Having formed such a team, they decided that the only song that they absolutely could not do was Love Whisper. However, Tomu wasn’t the fastest runner, and by the time she got to the far wall during the race, the only song left was Love Whisper. She tried to just not win by not putting the sign in the sign holder, but somehow she was forced to “win” the race anyway. (Maybe both girls who grabbed Love Whisper refused to put the sign in the holder, so production had to intervene? It’s not clear.) Then because she came in second to last in the race, she had second to last choice of groups to face up against, and had a choice between the Cute Avengers or Sakura’s team, and chose the Cute Avengers. It was just not a good day for Tomu.

The storyline:

Tomu’s team all try to sing, but many of them cannot make sounds come out of their mouth. Of the group, it seems that Manami is actually the best singer -- she physically can hit the high notes. She doesn’t really want to be stuck with main vocal, but she’s the best option the team has. 

Meanwhile, over in the Cute Avengers, they’re choosing their main vocal, but they’re having the opposite problem -- they have a a few too many decent vocalists and have to choose the best one. Nayoung can sing -- well, she has “stable” vocals -- but so can Nako, who manages to sing while holding her mouth in a full, unmoving smile. 

This girl is currently singing.  

She’s not making an “eee” sound, more like an “uhh” sound. It’s wild. It’s like some kind of ventriloquist trick the way she can sing while keeping her mouth firmly in a smile. She ends up winning main vocal. I’d give it to her, too. What other spells can she cast if she can do this kind of witchcraft? 

Lingering question: Is Nako the right choice of main vocal? Will Tomu’s team be able to pull it off? 

HIGH TENSION

The song: 

Ok, I have to admit it -- this song is charming AF. It’s not super complex, and I think it would get old pretty fast, but it’s so cute and peppy that I can fully imagine playing it at my cousin’s wedding next May and having everyone get up and start dancing even though they’ve never heard it before. 

For the record, the title is an example of what my Japanese prof in college would have called “Japanese English” -- when they use an English phrase in a way that English speakers don’t use. You’re already familiar with this idea if you know the way that Koreans say “fighting!” In "Japanese English," “Tension” is supposed to mean something more like “excitement”, not stress.

[My favorite example of “Japanese English” is the word “viking” (pronounced more like “biking”)  which is the Japanese word for “all you can eat buffet.” Isn’t that great? I think we should just all start calling all you can eat buffets “Viking buffets” instead.] 

Team 1 (1:19:55)

Top row, team 1, LTR:  Nakano Ikumi, Mogi Shinobu, Iwate Saho, Cho Yeoungin, Kim Dayeon, Yoon Haesol

Bottom row, team 2: Takeuchi Miyu, Cho Ahyoung, Huh Yunjin, Kim Suyun, Oda Erina

Team 1:

Cho Yeongin, 16, who auditioned alongside Lee Chaeyeong, moved from B to C and is ranked 62.

Iwatate Saho, 23, who auditioned with Miyu to Dancing Hero, moved from B to D and is ranked 24th.

Kim Dayeon, 15, future Kep1er, B class mainstay and ranked 65

Mogi Shinobu, 21, the living meme, who moved up from F to D and is ranked 59

Nakano Ikumi, 17, “known for her dancing”, who moved up from D to B and is ranked 53rd.

Yoon Haesol, 20, who auditioned with Question Mark, moved down from B to D, and is ranked 50th.

Group dynamic: Saho was the chooser for this team, and picked some girls that she would have known from B class (Yeongin, Dayeon, Haesol) and a few girls she knew from AKB48 (Shinobu, Ikumi). I think this group was formed 9th or later.  They’ve chosen Youngin as the leader, which is kind of interesting since she’s definitely not the oldest, nor is she the highest ranked, but I *think* she might speak a bit of Japanese so that might explain it. 

We see a flashback of the trainees all watching a live performance of the song, which of course means that many AKB-48 girls who are on the show would be visible in the performance. Sakura, Juri, and Jurina are all clearly visible, and everyone squeals when they see them. But Iwate Saho is like, “I was there too for that performance -- where was I?” She’s barely visible in the crowd.

What if she were center this time??? Would something be different????????

Saho trying to charm the other girls into letting her be center. 

She auditions and, to her delight, gets chosen as the center kind of quickly, ending the ICD, and they begin practicing. She sighs happily, pats her “center” sticker, and says “Ganbarimasu!” (That’s the Japanese version of “fighting!”)

Meanwhile, over in team 2, they’re deep in the middle of the ICD…. 

Team 2 (1:21:56)

Takeuchi Miyu, 22, the one who auditioned in the awesome orange bulls eye dress, fell from A to B but is still ranked pretty high at 11th place. 

Cho Ahyeong, 16, who auditioned with future Cherry Bullet Haeyoon, rose from C to B and is ranked 78th. 

Huh Yunjin, 16, future Le Sserafim, who somehow fell from C to F, was ranked 15th

Kim Suyun, 17, future Rocket Punch badass, has lived in class C and is ranked 51.

Oda Erina, 21, who was supposedly known for her singing, fell from C to F and was ranked 67th.

This group was formed 6th, and the chooser was Oda Erina. She picked a few Korean girls she knew from class C and a talented Japanese trainee she probably knew personally. 

Miyu wants the center, but meets opposition from Erina, who says that “having a Japanese person as the center would be too predictable.”  Miyu and Erina talk about it in Japanese, and then Miyu says, “New High Tension hago shipayo-- hangul chingu wa jowayo  ” -- a mixture of English, Korean, and Japanese used to indicate they want to make a new style of High Tension, and a Korean chingu would be good center. The other trainees all say “ahhh!” in understanding -- and the editors play that over and over in case you miss it.  So the Korean trainees leave it up to Erina and Miyu to pick the center. Miyu eventually says, in Korean so basic and slow that even I understand: “We think… giraffe-chan.” Meaning, of course, our very own Huh Yunjin! These are girls who know quality when they see it. They like her “giraffe” image. Yunjin gives a cute, happy smile that was the image at the beginning of this post.

Meanwhile, Team 1 center, Saho, looks over and notices that Team 2 has chosen a Korean trainee to be the center. She wonders if that was a smart choice, given that the Japanese trainees know this song so well. 

Lingering question: Who will make the better center -- an AKB girl, or Huh Yunjin? My money is on Yunjin because, um, she’s Yunjin. But I don’t remember who wins! This will be interesting!

SHORT HAIR

The song: I wouldn’t call myself an AOA stan exactly, but I do like them a lot. I love Jimin’s “hey hey”s, I love Choa’s vocals -- check out her song with Primary, Don’t Be Shy, an enduring top-100-of-all-time song for me -- and I love Chanmi/Dohwa’s swag. They always have this laid back, casual confidence that is weirdly charming -- very like “you can look but will never touch!” -- and their song Like a Cat is a Never Skip for me. 

That said, Short Hair isn’t my absolute favorite song of theirs, and was probably one of the least well known songs in the mix. It came out in June of 2014, so even though it was a pretty big hit, by 2018, it would have been old hat. Also, by 2018, AOA was sort of on the way out; Choa quit for mental health reasons (good for her!!!) in 2017, and the group hadn’t had an actual hit since 2016. 

1:23:45 Team 2

We start off visiting Short Hair Team 2.

Group Dynamics: I’m not sure who chose this group, but I assume it was formed 9th or later. They’ve chosen Sian to be their leader, and it seems like Mina is using a bit of pigeon Korean to be the group’s interpreter.

clockwise/left to right: Rena (in gray), Miku, Mina, Natsumi, Sian, and Yewon 

Ahn Yewon, 17, model , stuck in F, ranked 88

Hasegawa Rena, 17, who auditioned alongside Noe, fell from D to F, ranked 54th. 

Imada Mina, 21, the tall one with no bangs in Never Ending Ferris Wheel, who rose from D to C and is ranked 64th.

Lee Sian, 19, one of the Idol School girls who fell from C to D, is ranked 18th.

Matsuoka Natsumi, 21, with the sort of distinctive face from Never Ending Ferris Wheel, rose from F to C and is ranked 55th. 

Takana Miku, currently ranked C, was initially in this group -- she was one of the girls who auditioned with the Banana song. More on her later. 

They are, of course, mired in the ICD. 

Mina, Natusumi, and Sian all want to be center. They aren’t sure how to decide who the center should be, since none of them really know the song yet. 

Sian suggests using facial expressions at a key point as the audition piece. Natsumi says, in Japanese, “I don’t think I can win if that’s how we choose,” and then, half-seriously, suggests rock paper scissors to decide (!!). Sian’s reaction is priceless.

Like, seriously, guys, did you seriously just suggest that we choose the center for this with Rock Paper Scissors? Do you want to win the challenge? What the fuck? Is this a game for you? Are you out of your minds? OMG. OMG. What. The. Fuck.

Sian politely points out that this is way too serious to decide that way. Since the decision is to be made based on merits, Natsumi bows out. All of this is making me not really like Natsumi that much, so I have to kind of take a breath and remind myself that they’re all pretty stressed out and exhausted. 

That leaves just Mina and Sian running for center. Sian’s audition is charming and lively, with just the right tone for the song. Mina’s is more muted, though still decent. It seems obvious to my eyes that Sian’s look and style are better suited to the Korean palette, and that they should choose her, but the girls vote on country lines, giving Mina the center. Natsumi says in an interview, “we thought that if we made Sian the center, we’d be Sian and the Girls.” Which… is almost like admitting that you know she’s better than you at this particular thing. It means you should make her the center and step up your own game. You know? 

Sian is frustrated. She says she realized that there’s a difference of opinion among countries. The editors play the trouble music to let us know that it isn’t just opinion at stake. 

Lingering question: Will Mina make a good center?

Short Hair 1 (1:25:33)

LTR: Mako, Juri, Minyoung, Minseo, Sihyeon, Yuri

Kojima Mako, 21, auditioned with Playing With Fire, rose from C to B and currently ranked 23rd. 

Takahashi Juri, 20, future member of Rocket Punch who auditioned with Mako, rose from B to A and is ranked 29th.

Yu Minyoung, 18, the always squinting mint polka dots wearer in Celeb Five who moved from A to B, is ranked 32

Kim Minseo, 15, yellow polka dots in Celeb Five, stayed in C, ranked 39th

Kim Sihyeon, 18, future member of Everglow who rose from B to A and is ranked 13th.

Jo Yuri, 16, future soloist, the one who fell from A to F, ranked 19th. 

Group Dynamic: Mako was the chooser of this group, and it was the fifth group formed, so Mako had a decent pool to pick from. She would have met Minseo in group C, and would have known Juri from the AKB franchise. I’m not sure how she picked the others, though I assume she picked Yuri and Sihyeon based on their reputations. Looks like they made Sihyeon the leader -- she’s certainly the most experienced, having been on the show in season 1. 

Storyline: They, of course, are in their ICD. But the contrast between this group and Short Hair 2 couldn’t be more stark. Sihyeon thinks the center should be either Juri or Yuri, and they both sing to audition. It’s hard for us to hear their voices since they’re singing over the track, but the girls can hear and decide that Juri should be the center.  Juri tries to explain, in a mixture of Korean and Japanese, that since it’s a group battle, she wouldn’t want to cause any harm for the group, so maybe Yuri should do it. But the whole team tells her that she’ll be great. They all like her and want her to be the center -- it seems like even Yuri is on board. Both Sihyeon and Yuri offer to help her, using a hilarious and random mixture of Japanese and Korean. 

Sihyeon: If there’s anything wakarimasen[Japanese for “don’t understand”], please ask.

Yuri: Watashi-wa (“I” in Japanese)…. towajesoyo (“will help” in Korean).  

We end on this split frame…

…Group 1 already beginning to work together, while Group 2’s Japanese contingent sitting down while Sian is up and practicing. I mean, this shot was cherry picked and who knows the context, but it’s hard not to be swayed a little by it. MNET editors!!! Why are you so evil?

VERY VERY VERY 

The song:

Aww, who doesn’t love nomu nomu nomu? Nomu nomu nomu nomu? Nomunomumnomunomnomnomo nomnonomnonomomnomono mnomnomunomunomunom..

It’s catchy and iconic and all the good things. I mean, JYP might be creepy and weird but he can write a hit. Bad Girl Good Girl by Miss A, Nobody by Wonder Girls, ADTOY by 2pm, A by Got7, Icy by Itzy, Feel Special and More & More by Twice, the guy’s a genius. And at least he’s not as overtly gross as YG. 

So yeah, Very Very Very was a monster hit and in a way it was responsible for the success of IOI. Their first few singles didn’t exactly set the world on fire, and they needed a hit to cement their status as a hit group. If IOI had never done Very Very Very, there might not have been a season 2 of PD101. Imagine a world without Wanna One or IZ*one! Wild, right? So yeah. We all have to be grateful to JYP for giving this song to IOI, because otherwise you might not be reading these words right now. 

In terms of difficulty, I’d say that this song isn’t super hard to perform. It may have originally been intended for Twice -- can’t you imagine it as a Twice song? -- and it has that kind of upbeat, cute-but-confident vibe that Twice has. I don’t think it’s an outrageously difficult concept to rock. The tune is easy to sing -- even the adlibs are easy --  and the choreography is more about cuteness than anything else. Any team would be smart to want to perform this one. 

So, let’s check in with the teams who will be performing this iconic hit.

At 1:27:10 we peek in with Sakura and friends. Sakura is learning the Korean word for water -- mul (pronounced more like bul) -- and sharing the Japanese word -- mizu. The other trainees think that Sakura’s team is the team to beat. 

An Yujin laments her situation. Everything else was great! She was chosen to pick the first team after Sakura! She got great teammates! But then she had to go up against Sakura’s team. “I thought we were absolutely doomed,” Yujin says. Park Minji speaks for everyone as she interviews: “Sakura’s teem is more popular, but Yujin’s team fits the song better. It’s like Captain America versus Iron Man.” 

It’s Spiderman versus Ant Man. It’s Cake versus Ice Cream. It’s Shark versus Tornado. It’s IVE versus Le Sserafim. Winner? All of us!

Let’s take a look at the two rosters. This is a juggernaut lineup. More than half the future lineup of IZ*one is represented between these two teams!

Yujin’s team, which was formed second: 

An Yujin, 14, future member of  IVE who rose from B to A and is currently ranked 2nd overall. Wow! And she’s 14, you guys. I always forget how young she is here. 

Choi Yena, 18, friendly Yena from Yuehua who kept us company for a lot of episode 1, fell from A to B, and is currently ranked 6th. 

Honda Hitomi, 16, the super cutey who worked her way up from C to A and is currently ranked 47th.

Jang Wonyoung, future Wonyoung, known for being Wonyoung, who has stayed in B and is ranked 4th.

Na Goeun, 18, future Purplekiss, A class and ranked 20th. 

Shiroma Miru, 20, future visitor to Queendom Puzzle, who fell from B to D but is ranked 22nd. 

Sakura’s team, which was formed first: 

Kim Choyeon, 16, fire-eyes girl and future Bugaboo, fell from A to C, ranked 75 

Kim Minju, 17, a Very Pretty Girl, rose from D to C, ranked 17 

Kwon Eunbi, 22, future soloist, fell from A to C, is currently ranked 3rd

Lee Chaeyeon, 18, future soloist, famous older sister and dancing machine, who stayed in A and is ranked 10th.

Miyawaki Sakura, 20, THE SAKURA, future member of Le Sserafim who stayed in A and is ranked 5th. 

Motomura Aoi,  21, sweet faced Aoi from Never Ending Ferris Wheel, who rose from D to B and is ranked 42nd. 

(Because “Choyeon” and “Chaeyeon” are such similar names, I’ll call them Kim Choyeon and Lee Chaeyeon throughout this discussion to help you keep track of who is who.)

Fun fact: Though it was implied that Sakura’s team is more popular, Yujin’s team actually has a higher average ranking -- 16.8 versus 25.3. Sakura’s team is dragged way down by Kim Choyeon, though; without her, their average ranking would be 15! 

LTR: Yujin, Hitomi, Miyu, Gaeun, Yena, Wonyoung

We hang out with Yujin’s team for a bit. They��ve elected Na Gaeun leader, which seems smart; she’s one of the older members and is the only one who has been rated A the whole time. 

Naturally, they dive right into the ICD. It’s Yujin versus Wonyoung, and Wonyoung obviously suits being a center more for this particular song. (If it had been Boombayah or Peekaboo, I would have said Yujin.) 

Meanwhile, on Sakura’s team, they’re in their own ICD. 

Kim Choyeon has the AUDACITY to say she wants to be center. 

Sakura CANNOT BELIEVE IT.

After all she is THE SAKURA whose smile is completely natural and beautiful and not at all strained or weird. And she can be the ONLY CENTER. She raises her hand to say she also wants to be center, and you can almost hear Kim Choyeon's hopes shattering. 

Look, if I were on this team, obviously I’d be ok with making Sakura center, but given that she’s already THE CENTER of the whole show, it might be smart to let someone else be center here, like maybe Minju or Eunbi. However, as much as I feel for Kim Choyeon, I just don’t see a reason to make her center. The judges would yell at the team if they did. Honestly, the judges will probably yell if they make anyone but Sakura center. And they'll probably yell at you even if you do, to make more TV content starring Sakura. I think it’s just part of being within Sakura’s gravity well. You’re blessed, but you’re fucked, too. 

Lee Chaeyeon, who is a smartie-pants, recommends Minju. I see why -- she’s super pretty, she’s fairly popular, she makes a great center, and she help offset Sakura’s power a little. I know that for Lee Sian’s team, I said that they should just make Sian the center and step up their game, but in this case, Sakura’s overpowering popularity is not actually matched by her charisma, and it would just be smart to balance things out a bit with another girl who will do just as good a job in center and has the ability to be just as popular.

Sweet-faced Aoi unexpectedly backs Minju -- maybe she’s a little sick of the Sakura train? -- and so does Kwon Eunbi. And thus, both Sakura and Kim Choyeon are shut out; Minju is chosen. 

Minju is super flattered, but says, “I don’t think I deserve to be center.” 

And Sakura and Choyeon are like, What’s that, you say? You want one of US to be center? Well, if you absolutely insist…. 

So, each of the two candidates auditions, and Choyeon wins.

With the centers both chosen, we take a peek at each team as they start to try to learn the choreo.

Over on Yujin's team, Yujin is already a bit confused, but many members of Sakura’s team already know the choreo (notably Eunbi and Lee Chaeyeon, who are known for their dancing skills). Then Hitomi reveals herself as choreo learning machine, and the team starts following her. 

And that’s the end of this segment! 

So yeah I made this scatterplot to show you the rough correlation between average rank of a team and the screentime they get. You're welcome.

It’s slightly thrown off by the fact that some teams were sort of approached together, like the two Love Whispers and the two Avengers teams, and other editing decisions like that, but the trend is pretty clear -- the higher the average rank of the team, the more screentime they get.

The two biggest outliers are Short Hair 1 -- Juri and Yuri’s team -- which didn’t get a ton of screentime despite their high rank because they were getting along so well, and Boombayah 2, the leftovers team, which got a lot of screentime relative to their kind of low rank because their situation is so pathetic. 

Ok, thanks for reading (or skimming) this! I hope you enjoyed it. Things are heating up! Next we’ll actually be seeing some performances!! Wild. 

[boysplanetrecaps]

Brief Interlude: Some analysis of the grade changes

In the previous post in my Produce48 Rewatch Project, I told you the final grade changes in episode 3 of Produce 48. In this post, I'll tell you some things I noticed about the grade changes (ie, from the first to the third episodes). I crunched some numbers, I pored over my spreadsheet, and did some deducin'. It's a super brief post, so check it out!

Overall, the trend was to move downward.

I converted grades to numbers and calculated the overall change. For example, if someone moved from B to A, that's a change of +1, but if someone moved from A to C, that's a change of -2. The sum of all the changes was -45. That means that the average grade change was about half a grade down per person.

The only group with a net positive change was F.

Of course, A's net change would have to be negative, as the only change possible was down, and F's net change would have to be positive, as the only change possible was up. But I was surprised that every group except F had a net negative change.

A's average change per person: -1.2 B's average change per person: -0.96 C's average change per person: -0.4 D's average change per person: -0.2 F's average change per person: +0.6

The Japanese trainees had a positive net change and the Koreans had a negative net change.

Given that the Japanese trainees made up most of F and D classes, and given that negative change wasn't possible for F class trainees, it makes sense that Japanese trainees would have a positive net change. It worked out to be a net change of 9, which works out to about +1/4th of a grade up per person. The overall average change for the Korean trainees was almost a whole grade down.

What does it all mean?

It could mean a few things. Maybe it means that the judges were too easy going with their initial assessment, or that they were too harsh with their second assessment.

The explanation I favor, though, is that the task was just too hard. AleXa has stated in interviews that the girls really only had about a day and a half to learn the choreo and two sets of lyrics to the song. Most of them were set up to fail on at least one of the two performances. For the two Chinese trainees and the one American trainee, none of whom spoke Korean or Japanese fluently, it was a doubly difficult task, and all three of them dropped at least one grade.

I guess none of this is really earth shaking information, but analysis is kind of my jam so thanks for indulging me! And now back to our regularly scheduled posts! The next one will pick up with the big group performance of Nekkoya. See you there!

[boysplanetrecaps]

The Great Produce 48 Rewatch: Ep 3, Grade Reassignments Concluded

Welcome back, National Producer-nim, and Happy New Year! 

This crazy Produce48 Rewatch project is just flying by! In episode 1, we saw the girls enter the studio and begin their auditions. In episode 2, we saw the end of the auditions and the dorm move-in, as well as the video evaluations for their final grade reassignment, which we covered in the previous post. Now, in episode 3, we’ll finish the grade reassignments, see the huge performance of Nekkoya, and see the beginning of the first Challenge Mission! Of course, in this post, we’ll only see as much as I can cover with only 30 screenshots, which is up to the end of grade reassignments. Feel free to watch along: https://kshow123.tv/show/produce-48/episode-3.html

We start off with a short clip of YGK+ model Ahn Ye Won on the phone with her mom. The 17-year old would-be idol can’t help but cry. In her journal, she has written “I started crying as soon as I called my mom. I told her it’s hard. I wanted to go home.” 

This kicks off a montage of trainees expressing their doubts and fears. Future Kep1er member Kim Dayeon voice overs, “It’s a lot harder than I expected.” Previously voice-less Goto Moe says, “I felt like I lack a lot.” Show-punching-bag Shin Suyhun says she feels like she’s the only one falling behind, which is definitely not true. Friendly Choi Yena says she’s mad at herself. Kato Yuuka journals, “I feel like I’m facing a wall.” As we see Honda Hitomi’s cute face, we hear from Yu Min Young, the mint-colored-polka-dot auditioner, who wonders, “Is this all I got?” They’re all so tired, emotionally and physically. 

But peppy music kicks in and the montage gets more cheerful, as girl after girl says something like “I want to debut!” and “I’m going to keep trying!” 

After the title/credits, we get right back to where we left off at the end of episode 2 -- with the Great Grade Reshuffling. 

As a reminder,

Jeremy* is giving the news to the A class

Psychopath giving the news to the B class

Cheetah giving the news to the C class

Mary J Lee giving the news to the D class 

Dance Bae giving the news to the F class 

*That’s what I call Lee Hongki

We don’t see much of Mary J Lee, but she seems really great. These are her grade-delivering heels!

Also, a lot of the Japanese girls aren’t present because they’re off doing something else for their AKB48 jobs. 

So the plan for the Great Grade Reshuffling is to have the girls from the lower grades move to their new grades first. This means that the A-class will find out their fates last. Jeremy tells them that if a lot of new girls arrive in the A classroom, there is an even higher chance that they’ll move down.

Side note: It's interesting that Jeremy was chosen to deliver the news to the A-class girls. He wasn't their vocal teacher -- Soyou was -- so he would have been comparatively unfamiliar. It might just have been that Soyou was unavailable, but I could convince myself that they chose Jeremy because Soyou is too nice to mess with their heads the way that Jeremy does. (Clearly Jeremy is just acting on orders from production, of course.)

We've already seen a few people's grades, but let's see a few more, and then when we're done I'll tell you everyone's grades and the new makeups of each group.

First up is a trainee moving from D down to F. It turns out to be YGK+ model Choi Yeon Soo, who completely forgot the words during her video evaluation. We saw her being sweet to Sailor Mercury earlier on, drawing a little picture to encourage the 14-year-old to get some sleep. She seems like a really nice girl, even if she might be a nepo baby. It’s a bummer that she has to move down to F class, but at least she’ll get to join her equally nice label mate Ahn Ye Won, who has failed to move up from F. 

Yewon laughs at Yeonsoo a little, but I don’t think it’s mean-spirited. From what we see of both girls, they seem really nice. 

Next we see a trainee moving down to F from  -- it’s Jang Gyuri from fromis_9, as discussed earlier. The girls are really really chincha chincha shocked. 

There’s Huh Yujin, future Le Sserafim, wearing yellow, second in a column of two. 

Next, there’s a trainee moving from D to B. And it’s Miru-chan, as we talked about earlier. The Japanese girls already in class D are surprised to see her, because she charming and they consider her a good dancer. But the judges think her singing is unstable and her dancing is “heavy,” like she’s getting twice as much gravity as anyone else. It’s just because she’s sad! Aww, Miru-chan! 

Next, we’ll see a girl moving to C from F. Of course, Chiba Erii would love to move up to C -- she’s not confident about her singing but she is confident with her dancing. But as we know, she’s staying in F. Dance Bae says, of Erii and her dancing, “Every time I see her, it’s so sad.”

She really does have an arresting face, though. 

So who is moving up from F to C? Well, as previously mentioned, it’s Goto Moe, the one with laryngitis on audition day. 

She says she thinks the trainers are giving her a C for "chance." Aww, this is sweet. She’s still a pretty terrible singer but hey, she’s getting better. Ganbatteyo, Moe-chan! 

Who moved to C from D? 

It’s Very Pretty Girl Kim Minju, who has also proven herself to be a Very Hardworking Girl. Dance Bae says, of Minju’s audition, “She’s not very good, but she doesn’t deserve to stay in D.” That’s Dance Bae for you! It’s accurate -- Minju’s singing was sometimes on key, but sometimes a few tones off, and though she seems to have done the whole dance, she still doesn’t exactly own the floor. Still, it’s great improvement. Minju, fighting! 

She voice overs something kind of sad: “I was told that I’m ambiguous. I’m not very good at singing or dancing or even acting. Then it said C next to my name for my final grade. I thought I was always ambiguous. I was disappointed.” I get what she’s saying. She’s so pretty that the entertainment industry is looking for an excuse to put her on screen, but she doesn’t really stand out with any particular skill. Aww. At least she seems fairly self-aware. 

Next to Minju in the shot above is Nakanishi Chiyori, who wore the pink fluffy skirt in What's Your Name?. Looks like she’s not thrilled with moving up only one spot. Hey, take your wins, Chiyori!! Some people in F stayed there -- it could always be worse. 

Next, someone is moving from C to B -- let’s see who it be! As mentioned in a previous recap, it’s Son Eunchae, future Bugaboo, who got so much story focus. She seems pretty happy, though -- not annoyed that she didn’t get into A class.

But who *did* make it into A class, stealing spots from the current A-class girls? Even though the spots aren’t limited?

First, it’s Kim Shihyun, future member of Everglow, who literally comes running in to the A-classroom. She’s obviously delighted to be there. 

We see a clip of her evaluation video, and obviously, she does great. 

Next is Ah Yujin, who also moved up from B. 

Also moving up from B is little Kang Damin (label mate of flat tummied Hwang Soyeon) and  future Rocket Punch Juri.

I hate that the staff told the A girls that if more girls moved up from lower ranks that they were more likely to move down, because as the lower ranked girls enter the room, no one seems happy to see them. Kind of a rotten welcome. Of course, that must be editing, too. I bet Soyeon was happy to see Damin. 

Moving up from C are Ko Yujin (“Hyuna lookalike”) and Honda Hitomi, as I mentioned earlier. We see a clip of Hitomi’s previous practice that we’ve never seen -- Soyou saying that Hitomi has one of the weakest vocals among all the Japanese girls. The judges were all shocked at how much she had improved. Wow, that’s great! I love that. (Kim Nayoung, future Lightsum, also joins, but we don’t see her come in.)

The A-classroom is starting to fill up. Jeremy, piling on the pressure, tells the girls that they should know that there was also a girl who moved up from F class all the way to A, but that she’s in Japan right now due to a scheduling conflict. 

We get a cute scene of Jeremy telling Yabuki Nako that she moved all the way up to A, via video chat. She screams and jumps up and down. It’s adorable. Her dream came true!

The new members of A-class: Kim Shihyun, Kang Damin, Ah Yujin, Juri, Kim Nayoung, Ko Yujin, and Honda Hitomi 

Now that the new members of A class are there, the current members of A get their new grades. They aren’t supposed to react or spill the beans, so as to maintain the suspense (that I already ruined). 

Who is this formerly A-class person walking through the door of B-class?

The Starship girls -- including original-face-Wonyoung -- are shocked that it’s…. Yuehua's Choi Yena. 

She looks so different without her cheerfulness and without her ponytail. It must have been weird for her to experience the happiness of her Yuehua labelmate joining A class, only for her to almost immediately leave it behind.

Now, who’s this coming into Class C? MNET drags it out, of course, but it’s… Kwon Eunbi.

She sits down behind Kim Cho Yeon (fire eyes girl) and Kim Doah (future Fanatics/GP999), who have also both moved down from A class with her, and quietly begins to cry. None of them really has the strength to comfort the other at this point. 

Kim Su Yun, future Rocket Punch and current labelmate of Eunbi’s, covers her face to hide her tears. Suyun probably didn’t come on this show genuinely hoping to make the top 12 -- she’s here for exposure, mostly, and the experience -- but she knows that 22-year-old Eunbi really NEEDS this. 

Eunbi tearfully explains that she feels bad because as an unnie, she always tells her younger labelmates that they can do this -- and she feels like she broke her promise. 

Back in A class, Jeremy announces that the trainee who is moving down to F should go now. Someone stands up, and no one looks that surprised, just sad. They saw her recording her evaluation video and knew that something like this was possible, even likely. A pixelated blur moves down the hall and makes its way to F class. Who could it be? The F class girls are shocked to see that it’s Jo Yuri, one of the Chewing Gum auditioners (she was in the lemon yellow). 

We see a clip of her evaluation video, in which she completely froze. Poor kid. She’s only 16. When I was 16, I had a fight with my mom the night before the SATs and I couldn’t sleep all night, like not at all, not even for 10 minutes. I was just seething with rage and I couldn’t make it stop. I had to go take the SATs on no sleep at all and I just stared at it, like, what is this? What is 2+2 again? If my whole future had rested on that exact test, my whole future would have turned out quite different than it did.

Thankfully, I had another chance, and thankfully, Jo Yuri will have another chance too, when she does some of the upcoming missions. So it’ll be ok, Yuri. 

Now that Yuri and the other “failures” have been kicked out of the room, Jeremy tells the 14 remaining A-class girls that they will be the center of the big performance of Nekkoya. 

And here is the final arrangement of trainees:

New group A: 

Before, there were 15 members of group A.  After, there were 14 members of group A.  Obviously, no one moved up, but 9 members moved down.  8 new members joined.

Left to right, top row then bottom row:

Kang Da Min, the li’l baby in pale yellow at the audition with her flat tummied teammate, Soyeon, future member of Queenz Eye, moved up from B

Ko Yu Jin, very pretty “Hyuna lookalike” who did Lip and Hip, moved up from C

Kim Na Young, future Lightsum, did I Don't Like Your Girlfriend, moved up from C

Kim Si Hyeon, future Everglow, had been on PD101 season 1, moved up from B

Na Go Eun, future Purple Kiss, was in A all along

Sakura was in A all along

An Yu Jin, future IVE, moved up from B 

Yabuki Nako, who moved up from F to A like an absolute monster! 

Lee Ga Eun, the Pledis giraffe and former member of After School, in A all along 

Lee Chaeyeon, future soloist and famous older sister, in A all along 

Lee Ha Eun, the “mini-Chungha” little 13 year old, in A all along 

Juri, beautiful future Rocket Punch Juri, assumed her rightful throne, moving up from B

Honda Hitomi , auditioned with Mister by Kara, moved up from C

Hwang So Yeon “little Sunmi” with the flat tummy, was in A all along 

New group B:

Before, there were 25 members of group B.  After, there were 20 members of group B.  17 members left. Of them, 4 members moved up, and 13 members moved down.  12 new members joined. 3 came down from A, and the other 9 came up from lower grades. 

Left to right, top row then bottom row:

Kim Dayeon, future Kep1er, was in B all along

Kim So Hee, future Rocket Punch, moved up from C

Kim Chae Won, future Le Sserafim, was in B all along

Kim Hyuna, husky voiced Hyuna, was in B all along

Nakano Ikumi, who is known for her dancing, moved up from D

Jurina was in B all along

Motomura Aoi, sweet-faced Aoi, moved up from D

Park Minji, future Secret Number, was in B all along

Bae Eun Yeong, mint Chewing Gum member, moved up from C

Son Eun Chae, future Bugaboo, got a lot of story focus, moved up from C

Yu Min Young, who did the Celeb Five song wearing mint polka dots and who Psychopath told her she had no charisma, moved down from A

Yoon Eun Bin from CNC school, who may have a crush on Psychopath, was in B all along

Jang Won Young, the Giant Baby herself, future IVE, was in B all along

Cho Kahyeon, the non-IVE Starship trainee, was in B all along

Cho Ah Yeong was in B all along. She’s from FNC and auditioned with Cherry Bullet’s Haeyoon

Choi Yena, future soloist, who auditioned with the two future Everglow members in the first audition, moved down from A

Kato Yuuka moved up from C. She wore the furry orange collar in Funny People.

Kojima Mako moved up from C. She was in Playing With Fire with Juri.

Takeuchi Miyu, the talented singer/song-arranger who sang in that fabulous orange bulls-eye dress in her audition, moved down from A

Han Cho Won, future member of Lightsum, moved up from D

New group C:

Before, there were 22 members of group C.  After, there were still 22 members of group C.  18 members left. Of them, 9 moved up, and 9 moved down.  18 new members joined, 9 from higher levels and 9 from lower.   It's all very symmetrical.

A lot of these names are probably familiar by now, so I’ll only review those who we haven’t talked about a ton. 

Left to right, top row then bottom row:

Kwon Eunbi - moves down from A

Goto Moe - moves up from F

Kim Dahye - from Banana Culture, moves down from A

Kim Doah - future Fanatics/GP999, moves down from A

Kim Minseo - was in C all along, yellow polka dots in Celeb Five

Kim Minju - a Very Pretty Girl, moves up from D

Kim Suyun - future Rocket Punch/Queendom Puzzle, stays in C

Kim Choyeon - fire eyes girl, future Bugaboo, moves down from A

Naiki Kokoro - was in Funny People, moves up from D

Nakanishi Chiyori - was in What’s Your Name?, moves up from D

Matsuoka Natsumi - distinctive face, was in Never Ending Ferris Wheel, moves up from D

Murase Sae - was in Funny People, moves up from D

AleXa - moves down from B

Wang Yi Ren - future Everglow, Chinese, moves down from B

Imada Mina - tall, no bangs, was in Never Ending Ferris Wheel, moves up from D

Lee Seunghyeon - aka H1-Key Riina, moves down from B

Lee Yu Jeong - future Lightsum, was in C all along

Lee Chae Jeong - future Alice, was in C all along

Ichikawa Manami - shorter hair, was in What’s Your Name?, moves up from F

Cho Yeongin - auditioned with Shower, moved down from B

Choi So Eun - auditioned with Question Mark, moved down from B

Tanaka Miku - auditioned with the Banana Song, moved up from F. 

New group D:

Before, there were 15 members of group D.  After, there were 16 members of group D.  12 members left. Of them, 8 moved up, and 4 moved down.  13 new members joined. Of them, 9 came from a higher grade and 4 came from F. 

Left to right, top row then bottom row:

Kim Yu Bin from CNC school, who auditioned with Team, moved down from B 

Mogi Shinobu, the living meme girl from What's Your Name?, moved up from F

Muto Tomu, who auditioned with Juri with Playing with Fire, stayed in D

Miyazaki Miho, the multi-lingual queen who auditioned with What's Your Name?, stayed in D

Park Seoyoung, the blonde former YG trainee who sat in the Number One Chair, moved down from C

Park Chanju, who auditioned with Roller Coaster, moved down from C

Park Haeyoon, my new Cherry Bullet bias, moved down from A 

Shiroma Miru, our Miru-chan from Queendom Puzzle, moved down from B

Shitao Miu, who wore the hat on her waistband during her audition to Mister, stays in D

Asai Yuka, who auditioned with Knock Knock, moved up from F

Asai Nanami, aka Sailor Venus, moved up from F

Wang Ke, the Chinese girl who wore red polka dots in Celeb Five, moved down from B

Yoon Hae Sol who auditioned with Question Mark, moved down from B

Lee Si An, former Idol School contestant and grape Chewing Gum girl, moved down from C

Iwatate Saho, who auditioned with Dancing Hero, moved down from B

Kurihara Sae, who had the great bangs in Never Ending Ferris Wheel, moved up from F

New group F:

Before, there were 19 members of group F, but 2 of them dropped out, so 17 members stayed.  After, there were 22 members of group F.  9 girls moved up.  14 girls joined F from higher grades. 🙁

Left to right, top row then bottom row:

Kang Hye Won “Purity is all she has” - started in F, stayed there

Nagano Serika, who auditioned to Mister by Kara - started in F, stayed there

Murakawa Bibian, the little baby doll from Never Ending Ferris Wheel, - started in F, stayed there

Park Ji Eun, future ex-Purple Kiss, fell from C

Park Jinny, the former YG trainee/ future Secret Number member, fell from C

Sato Minami, aka Sailor Mars, owner of Lemon-chan, fell from D

Shinozaki Ayana from What's Your Name?- started in F, stayed there

Shin Su Hyun, the one who auditioned by herself to Playing with Fire, fell from D

Aramaki Misaki, one of the girls from Never Ending Ferris Wheel, started in F, stayed there

YG KPLUS model Ahn Ye Won, started in F, stayed there

Yamada Noe, gravelly voiced girl who probably shouldn’t have been put in C in the first place, fell from there

AKB48 Oda Erina, who was apparently known for her singing, fell from C 

Won Seoyeon, who I thought did a great audition with Heroine in her blue plaid dress, fell from C 

Jang Gyu Ri, from Idol School / Fromis_9, the pink Chewing Gum, fell from B

Little Cho Sa Rang, who we saw sweetly singing Tomorrow from Annie, fell from B

Jo Yu Ri from Idol School, the lemon Chewing Gum, fell from A 

YG KPLUS model Choi Yeon Soo, fell from D

Tsukiashi Amane who applied her name tag up really high in Never Ending Ferris Wheel, started in F, stayed there

Chiba Erii, aka Sailor Mercury, started in F, stayed there

Hasegawa Rena, Noe's partner in the audition, fell from D

Heo Yunjin, future Le Sserafim, fell all the way from C to F. 

CNC School’s Hong Ye Ji, who auditioned with Dayeon and the other CNC girls, fell from B 

At some point around episode 3, Tsukiashi Amane withdrew from the competition, so this is our chance to say goodbye to her and see how she’s doing now.

After she left the competition, she went back to HKT48 and performed with them until 2020, when she graduated, saying she wanted to leave the J-pop sphere. However, in 2022 she debuted in a J-pop group called Fruits Zipper. Per their website:

FRUITS ZIPPER is a 7-member idol group consisting of Tsukiashi Amane, Matsumoto Karen, Manaka Mana, Sakurai Yui, Hayase Noel, Nakagawa Luna, and Chinzei Suzuka. 

​The group was formed from participants in ASOBISYSTEM’s idol project KAWAII LAB. The group’s name combines FRUITS, meaning ‘to bear fruit,’ and ZIP, meaning ‘to give energy.’ The group’s concept is ‘from Harajuku to the world,’ and the group will transmit what they call ‘NEW KAWAII’ from Harajuku, an area known for fashion and individuality, to the world.

​From collaborating with renowned creators to selling out monthly concerts, the girls have already made a name for themselves at numerous large-scale events despite having only just debuted. 

​Even before FRUITS ZIPPER made its debut, the girls attracted plenty of attention with their stunning visuals. With their cute image and incredibly powerful stage performances, the group has already captured the hearts of fans around the world.

They’re doing a thing and honestly, I’m here for it. That’s Amane in red in the middle.  

This is either their most popular MV or an ad for Beanie Babies. I’m not 100% sure. I’m not adding it to my playlist, I guess I’ll say. 

Her tiktok is pretty active, as is her insta. Looks like she’s dabbling in gravure a bit, and also doing some modeling for magazines and brands. Get that money, girl!

Ganbatte and Happy trails, Amane-chan! 

And that's it for this post! I'll see you in the next one, when I provide a bit of analysis on the overall grade changes. We're getting close to the first challenge mission. Thanks for reading, and I hope you have a great New Year!

[boysplanetrecaps]

The Great Produce 48 Rewatch: Ep 2, Phone Calls Home and Judges Table

Hey, National Producer! It's always so nice to see you. Let's dive back into our amazing Produce48 rewatch!

When we left off with this ridiculous project, we had seen many of the trainees recording their evaluation performance for the grade reassignment, and I whispered to you sweetly to tell you what their grades were as we went along, in an effort to subvert MNET editing.

In this post, we'll cover the girls weepy phone calls home, usually to their moms, and then see some of the judges' table. Along the way, we'll find out more of their final grades, too. Get a whole box of tissues and watch along if you like: https://kshow123.tv/show/produce-48/episode-2.html

At 1:48:33, the segment begins. The girls are brought one at a time to a small room. They know what’s coming -- it’s phone call time! They’re handed a cell phone and told they can call one person who they can think of right now. Some of them start crying at the mere thought of it. 

Kim Dayeon, future Kep1er, cries even while the phone is still ringing. She’s only 15, poor kid. We never see any of her audition, but hopefully she will be happy when she finds out that she maintained her B-status. 

We also see Sakura and Lee Gaeun, both calling their mothers. Gaeun’s greeting comes out in a tight squeak.

Huh Yujin, future Le Sserafim, is so overcome that at first she can’t speak. Her mother says hello first in Korean and then in English, suggesting that she doesn’t recognize the phone number Yujin is calling from. Both her Mom and I want to hug her. I still can’t get over the judges moving her down to F! 

Choi Soeun, who auditioned with Question Mark and earlier said that B-class was communicating telepathically, communicates telephonically as well with her mom. We don’t see any of her audition, but later on she is moved down to C-class.  

Park Chanju’s mother helpfully says, “you must have missed me so much. Stop crying.”

Sakura, who has gotten through to her mother, can’t speak. Her mother just keeps asking “Daijobu? Why are you crying?”

Kato Yuuka’s mother asks her, “was there anything that bothered you?” Yuuka auditioned with Funny People, in the furry orange collar. If only Yuuka knew that in a few hours she would be moving up to B-class -- she could have told her mom the good news! 

They seem to be filming Jo Yuri through the tiny window in the door as she tells her mother, “I’m not quite meeting my own expectations.” We didn’t see any of her evaluation performance, but it apparently didn’t go well at all. I’m kind of surprised they didn’t show it, because it was so bad that she is going to move all the way from A to F. As we see later, she just totally froze in place during the recording. Poor kid.

Pretty little Kang Damin, future Queenzeye, who auditioned in the pale yellow shirt alongside “mini-Sunmi” of the flat tummy, gets a pep talk from her mom. We later see a bit of her audition video, in which she’s really throwing herself into it -- she didn’t even need that pep talk! The judges move her up to A class. Good work, Damin!  

Individual trainee Park Jinny -- one of the ex-YG girls and future member of Secret Number -- gets a pep talk from her dad. Hopefully it’ll give her a bit of strength when she finds out shortly that the judges are moving her down from C to F. 

Honda Hitomi gets a pep talk from her mom. She really is a cutey. We’ll see more of her during the judges’ evaluation part.

Shitao Miu, who auditioned with Honda Hitomi to Mister and wore the cap on her belt, says she feels better hearing her mom’s voice, even though mom had scolded her right before she left. She interviews that she realized that she felt thankful toward her mom all along. She’s going to learn soon that she’s staying in D-class. 

Naiki Kokoro, who auditioned in Funny People (wearing green), says that she realized she’s not alone because she has her family.  That’s sweet! And soon she will have her friends in C-class, because the judges are moving her up! 

Then we transition into the parents who laugh at their kids.

The mother of husky-voiced Kim Hyuna asks her if she’s the oldest in the competition, and she says she thinks she is. She’s not -- that would be the multi-lingual Miyazaki Miho, who is 24 -- but at 23, Hyuna is definitely among the oldest. We’ll see more of her during the judges’ evaluation part.

Park Minji, future member of Secret Number, gets asked if there’s anything she wants to eat when she gets home. Minji tells mom that she has plenty of food, and mom scolds her for eating instant noodles. Hopefully mom wouldn’t have scolded her for keeping her status in B class. 

It’s kind of funny how both Park Minji and Park Jinny auditioned with the Chung-ha song Roller Coaster, though separately, given that they were destined to both be in Secret Number together.

Cho Kahyeon, the girl from the Starship group who isn’t Wonyoung or An Yujin, is literally me talking to my mom. Her mom says Kahyeon is good enough to be there but can’t make her debut, because, apparently, Kahyeon is “fat”. Thanks, Mom! Thmom. Kahyeon tells her that she’s on speaker phone, and mom apologizes, but goes on to say that Kahyeon had said that “someone in Gugudan used to be fat” (I assume she’s talking about Kang Mina?), and Kahyeon’s dying of embarrassment that her mom is repeating all this on national tv.  Mom says, this won’t be aired, right? And Kahyeon, who is smart enough to know what’s up, is like “yeah, I don’t know about that.” I wonder if Mom would have been proud to know that Kahyeon stayed in B class, or if she would have scolded her for not moving up? 

Judges Table

At 1:51:26, the judges assemble for the grade evaluation.

The judges talk about how they’re expecting the Japanese trainees to do well at looking at the camera. They watch Gaeun’s and Sakura’s performances -- both great, as you may recall, so they both keep their A status -- then Jeremy is super excited to see Lee Chaeyeon. He actually says “Oh my God!” in English, which is pretty cute.

The judges say that she was sick during the training period and couldn’t take lessons from the teacher, so she must have taught herself. She does great -- singing, dancing, performance. They love her -- Dance Bae says “I want more trainees like her.” As we find out later, she keeps her A status. 

Next is Cherry Bullet’s Park Haeyoon, and Jeremy says “Please do well.” But…

… things don’t go well for my new Cherry Bullet bias. Oh no! She forgets the words, and I think she forgets the steps. Her voice sounds tired and strained. Dance Bae snarks, “I don’t know why I’m even watching this to the end.” It’s a real bummer. Jeremy apologizes to the other judges -- the joke is that he’s from the same agency, FNC  -- and Soyou says “Her strength is in high pitches. I even marked her name” (ie, Soyou had noticed her at the audition) “but she isn’t good.” Oh no!! As we find out later, she gets placed in D class, a huge downgrade from A. 

Next up is Jang Gyu Ri, fromis_9 member, who we saw audition with Chewing Gum (she was the pink one). The judges comment on how pretty she is. 

We only see a bit of her audition, but she doesn’t seem to even try to sing. She must have forgotten the lyrics completely. As we find out later, she gets placed in F class, a huge downgrade from B.  

Next is Kim Choyeon, the fire-eyes girl who we talked about earlier. (If you forgot, she is going to move down from A to C.)

Then Cho Sa Rang, the little 14 year old who sang the song from Annie as part of her audition.

She has a complete brain failure, poor kid. We find out later that she gets moved down to F, a pretty far fall from B. 

Shin Suhyun, who auditioned by herself with the song Playing With Fire and who had voice-over-ed earlier that the Japanese trainees were impressive in their revaluation, also goes blank. The judges roll their eyes. We find out later that she also gets moved down to F.  The show really, really hates this girl. Other trainees also don't do a great job, but the show never misses an opportunity to shit on poor punching bag Shin Suyhun.

Next is Park Jieun, future ex-Purple Kiss, who, as we discussed earlier, really blows it. The judges are getting fed up, saying that all their aces are disappointing them.

Next up is Goto Moe, who had lost her voice in the audition. They’re all excited -- Jeremy says she’s on his “A-list.”

She starts off wrong, but she keeps going, and though she gets kind of shrill and shouty, she’s actually kind of on key. She’s not nearly as nasal as most of the Japanese trainees. The judges find her charming and unique. We find out later that she has been moved up to C-class, which is huge, and I think well-deserved. Nice work, Moe! 

Next is Mogi Shinobu, our living meme girl, who as we discussed earlier, moves up to D.

Then Murase Sae, who we met during her performance of Funny People, in which she wore the worst outfit.

Dance Bae, impressed with Sae’s energy, offers her own kind of praise: “She’s so horrible -- but I want to teach her.” Mary J Lee, who has been working with the D class girls, says “She’s a hard worker.” We later on find out that they have moved her up to C. Good work, Sae! 

Next is dancer Nakano Ikumi, who we discussed earlier. Her energy and enthusiasm, as well as her obvious improvement, moves Dance Bae to ruminate, “I had expected to scold the Japanese trainees a lot today, but I really have no comment. They’re just not experienced.”  See, she’s not a psychopath the way that Psychopath is, you guys. I swear she’s not. Dance Bae adds that the Korean trainees should prepare well because the Japanese girls are coming for them. 

We’re reminded that the girls needed to learn the songs in both languages, and then we see “mini Chung-ha”, little Lee Ha Eun again (we saw her earlier). She seems to rock the Japanese version, proving why she deserves to keep her A status. 

Next up is future Lightsum’s Kim Nayoung, who auditioned with I Don’t Like Your Girlfriend.

She has no trouble hitting the high notes, and just generally seems to be doing great. Dance Bae -- who, mind you, has been teaching her in C class for the past day or two -- says in surprise, “Why is she in C-class?” Jeremy calls her a hidden treasure. We find out later that she had been moved up to A. Great work, Nayoung!

The next few girls are each shown for a few seconds each, as a sort of montage of trainees who can’t remember any of the lyrics to the Japanese version of the song. 

The first in this group is Kim Doah, future Fanatics member and GP999 contestant, who psyches herself out a bit trying to sing in Japanese.

We find out later that she is moved down to C from A. Poor kid! I still like you, Doah. 

Next is Kwon Eunbi, who we discussed earlier.  (She crashed and burned and was moved down to C.)

Then Kim Yubin from CNC school -- part of Dayeon’s group.

She keeps smiling but doesn’t sing a note. We find out later that she gets moved down to D class. 

Next is husky voiced Kim Hyunah, who apparently isn’t showing her vocals here…

… though she must do really well otherwise, because the judges later decide to keep her in class B. 

Next is Kim Dahye from Banana Culture, who we talked about earlier. 

Then it’s Honda Hitomi, the one that we saw a lot of in the dance lessons. The class had high expectations of her -- and she seems to be delivering.

My favorite is Dance Bae asking, “Is she singing in Korean?” I mean, if you have to ask…? But still, gotta respect the hustle. The judges certainly do, and we find out later on that she has been moved to A group. Nice work, Hitomi!  

She’s not the only Japanese trainee to memorize the lyrics in Korean. (I’m still not clear on whether or not they were required to.) 

We see a nanosecond of Imada Mina -- who we discussed earlier -- then a nanosecond of Tanaka Miku, the girl in F-class with the cute bangs who was hanging out with Bibian and Nako when Erii was getting yelled at. It was hard to get a screenshot of her, but she was doing a decent job, and we find out later that she moves up to C class. 

We also see a nanosecond of Kurihara Sae, one of the members of the Never Ending Ferris Wheel group. Like many of her teammates, she’s putting her heart into it. The judges are going to put her in D class. 

We see a fair bit of Iwate Saho’s evaluation. She was in Dancing Hero, and she’s the one we saw learning the choreo from H1-Key Riina in her class. I guess the lessons didn’t really stick. She seems to sort of improvise new steps or something, making all the judges laugh, and though Psychopath says “my heart wants to give her an A,” they ultimately move her down to D-class.  

Then we see a nanosecond each of CNC School’s Yoon Eunbin -- she’s REALLY throwing herself into it, maintaining her place in B class -- and Kang Damin, who we discussed earlier, letting out a cute high pitched “hoo!”.  

After that, there’s Ko Yujin, who auditioned with Lip and Hip and who claims to look a bit like HyunA, and the judges love her. They say she looks like top-5 material to them. 

The judges are going to move her up from C to A, reversing the fate of Kim Cho Yeon, the “fire”-eyes girl who also auditioned with Lip and Hip and went from A to C. 

Then we see Yabuki Nako, who the judges love. We actually get a mini montage of her in dance class, and learn that she’s the other trainees’ pick as most likely to succeed. 

She does great -- vocals, dance, performance, it’s all there. Sure, it’s not the style of singing I love, but darned if she isn’t on key despite jumping up and down the whole time. It’s good. We find out later that the judges move her from F all the way up to A! Sugoi! Congrats, Nako-chan! 

As episode 2 draws to a close, we see the judges leaving judging table to meet with the girls in their respective classrooms, and the editors tease us with a bit of what’s going to happen next.

Jeremy talks to the A class, and is cagey about how many of their grades have changed. I’ll tell you that it’s 8.

Psychopath tells the B class that 17 people’s grades have changed.

Cheetah tells the C class that 18 people’s grades have changed.

Mary J Lee tells the D class that 12 people’s grades have changed. 

Dance Bae tells the F class that 9 people’s grades have changed.

There are 15 girls in D, but only 11 are present, and there are 17 girls in F but only 9 are present. It also looks like Sakura and Miyu aren’t present in the A-class. This is because -- as we learn later -- a bunch of the AKB girls had professional obligations back in Japan. 

What’s really odd about the preview is that it straight up shows us that Lee Gaeun and Sakura have both gotten an A, but then we just see other girls being handed their grades without finding out what that new grade is. They also show a completely, 100% pixelated blob walking down the hallway with a caption letting us know that someone has fallen from A class to F class. Again, what's the point of showing the pixelated blob, MNET? They could just as easily show us a wall with a sign that says "I'm just wasting time."

Sooooo close this time, AI image generator. Soooo close.

Anyway, that’s the end of the episode! Woot!

In the next episode, they’re going to dick around and waste time forever and day without telling you who is what new class, but you’ll already know the fates of at least 53 of them! Because you live in the FUTURE!!!!!1! 

Then they show the ranking of the 96 girls as they stood at the time. I’ll give you a quick reminder of who each girl is and note any rank changes of more than 20 spots (or just notable changes) from the previous ranking. It’s worth noting that all three girls from the polka dotted Celeb Five audition leaped up significantly. Also, all future members of IVE, Everglow, and Le Sserafim are in the top 25.  I bolded names of people you might have heard of because they debuted in groups later on and are still active. (I'm not bolding the Bugaboo girls since that group already disbanded.)

Lee Gaeun - the Pledis queen

Ahn Yujin - future IVE

Kwon Eunbi - future soloist, leaping up from 25th place

Jang Wonyoung - future IVE

Miyawaki Sakura  - future Le Sserafim

Choi Yena - future soloist

Wang Yiren - future Everglow 

Goto Moe - laryngitis girl 

Yamada Noe - gravely voiced Noe, leaping up from 45th place 

Lee Chaeyeon - future soloist, leaping up from 29th place 

Takeuchi Miyu - the other Japanese girl in A, leaping up from 39th place 

Matsui Jurina - the Jurina

Kim Sihyeon - future Everglow

Jang Gyuri - Fromis_9, pink Chewing Gum

Huh Yunjin - future Le Sserafim

Miyazaki Miho - multilingual queen

Kim Minju - a Very Pretty Girl

Lee Sian - purple Chewing Gum

Jo Yuri - yellow Chewing Gum

Na Goeun - future Purple Kiss

Kim Chaewon - future Le Sserafim

Shiroma Miru - Miru-chan, smiley queen, falling hard from 9th place

Kojima Mako - auditioned alongside Juri to Playing With Fire

Iwatate Saho - Dancing Hero, flying up from 46th place

Kim Doah - future Fanatics/GP999

Park Seoyoung - blonde, Number One Chair

Yabuki Nako - went from F to A

Muto Tomu - auditioned alongside Juri to Playing With Fire

Takahashi Juri - future Rocket Punch

Bae Eunyeong - mint Chewing Gum

Murakawa Bibian - little baby doll girl

Yu Minyoung - mint polka dots, A class (for now), leaping up from 86th place

Wang Ke - red polka dots, Chinese, leaping up from 92nd place

Ko Yujin (aka Go Yujin) - “Hyuna lookalike”

Park Haeyoon - future Cherry Bullet, leaping up from 59th place

Cho Kahyeon - other Starship girl, leaping up from 65th place

Nakanishi Chiyori  - from What’s Your Name

Chiba Erii - swollen lip and glitch mode in F class

Kim Minseo - yellow polka dots, leaping up from 62nd place

Kang Hyewon - “purity is all she has” 

Asai Nanami - Sailor Venus

Motomura Aoi - sweet faced Aoi

Murase Sae - auditioned with Funny People

Kim Sohee - future Rocket Punch

Shitao Miu - auditioned with Mister

Hwang Soyeon - flat tummied little Sunmi, leaping up from 90th

Honda Hitomi - little cutey

Lee Yujeong - future Lightsum, CNC school

Park Jinny - ex-YG trainee, future Secret Number 

Yoon Haesol - auditioned with Question Mark

Kim Suyun - future Rocket Punch/Queendom Puzzle

Choi Yeonsoo - YGK+ model

Nakano Ikumi - known for her dancing 

Hasegawa Rena - auditioned alongside gravely voiced Noe

Matsuoka Natsumi - distinctive face, falling hard from 35th place 

Park Minji - future Secret Number 

Shin Su-hyun - solo Playing With Fire

Lee Haeun - “Mini-Chungha”

Mogi Shinobu - living meme girl

Lee Seunghyeon - H1-key Riina 

Aramaki Misaki - Never Ending Ferris Wheel 

Cho Yeongin - auditioned with Lee Chaeyeon

Kim Nayoung - future Lightsum 

Imada Mina - no bangs in Never Ending Ferris Wheel 

Kim Dayeon - future Kep1er 

Sato Minami  - Sailor Mars, Lemon-chan’s mom

Oda Erina “known for her singing” 

Yoon Eunbin - from CNC school, low-key my fave

Park Chanju-  auditioned with Roller Coaster

Park Jieun - future ex-Purple Kiss

Tanaka Miku - auditioned with the Banana Song

Kim Hyuna - husky voiced Hyuna

Kato Yuuka - furry orange collar in Funny People

Kang Damin - pale yellow shirt at audition, auditioned with “little Sunmi”, future Queenzeye

Kim Choyeon - fire eyes girl, future Bugaboo 

Hong Yeji - fell down in her evaluation video

Won Seoyeon - auditioned with Heroine by Sunmi

Cho Ahyeong - auditioned alongside Cherry Bullet’s Haeyoon

Han Chowon - future Lightsum

Asai Yuka - auditioned with Knock Knock

Nagano Serika - auditioned with Mister

Naiki Kokoro - auditioned with Funny People 

Ichikawa Manami - shorter hair, auditioned with What’s Your Name?

Kurihara Sae - Never Ending Ferris Wheel

Son Eunchae - future Bugaboo

Alex Christine - aka AleXa

Shinozaki Ayana - beauty mark under lip

Ahn Yewon - YGK+ model

Kim Dahye - auditioned with I Don’t Like Your Girlfriend, fell from A to C

Cho Sarang - sang Tomorrow from Annie

Tsukiashi Amane - high name tag in Never Ending Ferris Wheel

Choi Soeun - auditioned with Question Mark

Kim Yubin - from CNC school

Lee Chaejeong  - future Alice

Umeyama Cocona - already dropped out

Uemura Azusa  - already dropped out

See you in the next one,

Love, BPR Unnie

[boysplanetrecaps]

The Great Produce 48 Rewatch: Ep 2, Signal Song [Part 2]

Hey there, National Producer! (That's you, you cutey-pie!)

When we left off with this ridiculous(ly important) project, we were watching the trainees rehearse for the "signal song," Nekko-ya. In this post, we'll finish off talking about their rehearsal period. It's a comparatively shorter post. Woot woot!

We pick up with the girls in F class, who have noticed that the letter F, in the mirror, looks like a Korean double K (ㅋ) . Used alone, ㅋ can mean “LOL” or “ha ha”, so they jump up and down and laugh seeing the equivalent of “LOLOLOLOL” on their backs. 

They’re in the middle of joking around when Dance Bae comes in. Immediately, they quiet down. They’re all scared of her, but here’s the thing about Dance Bae -- she’s not a total psychopath. She just has no patience for untalented girls using the show as a springboard for their acting career. If you try hard, and listen to her, she’ll treat you with basic kindness. 

She notes that most of the girls are Japanese and tells them they’ll have to work hard. They try the chorus, working on their synchronized dance, and she says that they’re doing better than the C class, which makes them feel great. She congratulates them on how hard they’re working, saying “I thought you’d be a mess since you’re F-class. But you’re doing a lot better than expected, so, fighting!!”

I love how Ahn Ye Won, the YG KPlus model, looks like an actual giant in this photo. She’s only 5’7! 

A lot of this segment focuses on Chiba Erii, aka Sailor Mercury, second from the left in the photo above, shown in what is apparently some kind of glitch mode. She does not know how to sing, and she doesn’t seem to enjoy learning to dance. A lot of these girls find this process difficult but still seem… I don’t know, interested? But Erii is barely there. I’m not accusing her of laziness. I’m saying that she’s so miserable that she’s checking out. It’s kind of uncomfortable to watch. One really wonders why she came on the show. 

She doesn’t normally have such a full upper lip, so maybe she was having some sort of allergic reaction or something here. That might explain why she was so out-of-it. 

They dance in a group, and Dance Bae notices how disconnected Erii is. She asks Erii to dance alone, and Erii, fully enmeshed in this nightmare from which awakening isn’t possible, complies. It gives off vibes like someone should have edited in really loud sneaker noises. It only takes a few moments for Dance Bae to stop her, saying that Erii is just as bad as Sohye (from Produce101 -- a girl who obviously just went on the show to launch her acting career and accidentally won). Dance Bae tells her to work harder if she ever wants to get out of F class, and Erii begins to cry, hiding her face in her shirt. 

The other girls don’t seem to have much sympathy for Erii. 

Left to right: Yabuki Nako; Bibian; and Tanaka Miku. We haven’t really met Nako or Miku before, because they sang the Banana song together that was just too hot for MNET!

Here’s another shot of them from earlier in the scene so you can see what they look like from another angle. Left to right, this is Bibian, Nako, Natsume, and Miku.

Anyway, to go back to what I was saying about the girls not seeming to have much sympathy for Erii as she’s crying. The look on especially Bibian’s face is very much… not… sympathetic. I am not saying anything bad about any of these girls. I have no idea if Bibian and Erii hate each other. I have no idea if Bibian even had this expression on her face at that moment, in reaction to Erii crying. What I do know is that if there is animosity among AKB48 girls -- and there definitely, objectively, factually is -- it is caused by the AKB48 system itself, which is (or at least was) designed in such a way that animosity runs through the whole project like fudge ripples through a fudge ripple. They’re always competing in the General Elections (or at least, they were doing so at the time this aired), and always competing for who will sing on the A side or even a B side of a single. I’ll talk more about this later on with regards to gravely-voiced Noe and some rumors about her, but there are lots of stories about AKB girls physically attacking each other, or hiring other people to do so, and/or starting malicious rumors, really nasty stuff like that. I just have to be glad that the worst of that seems to be in the past, and that for whatever reason, you don’t tend to hear about stuff like that in Kpop these days. I also think it’s sweet that when put in an environment where people tend to help each other and cooperate, the AKB girls very quickly adjust and begin to adapt that perspective. It shows that at heart, most people really want to be friends. At least, I’d like to believe that that’s true. 

Ok, back to it. Erii crying kicks off a montage of other F-class girls crying. They know that if they don’t move up from F-class, they won’t even be allowed to stand on stage during the big performance of Naekkoya. Honestly, they get to me, because most of them, I know, are working hard and it has to be so stressful to be so young, so far from home, working so hard on so little sleep. Bibian’s comments might be the saddest: “I can’t even be in Class F. I’m so much worse than that.” As if she’s heard what they said in their interviews, Dance Bae tells them, with unexpected softness, “Let’s all go up to the higher classes. I really want to see you all perform on stage…. Let’s pull the A graders down! Let’s go. Fighting!” See, I told you from the start that she’s not the psychopath around here. 

Then there’s a really cute montage of the F-class girls working together and trying to encourage each other. A Japanese girl offers Hyewon a sweatshirt, pantomiming “being cold”, and Hyewon understands and accepts it.  Matsuoka Natsumi interviews that the Korean trainees came over to talk to her when she was crying. 

I'm pretty sure that that's Ahn Ye Won, the YGK+ model, comforting her.

As the Love Theme from Produce 48 plays, they all say that they’re working the hardest because they know they have the furthest to go. Even Erii is working hard! I’m here sitting on my cat paw cushion shouting at the computer screen. FIGHTING, girls!! FIGHTING!!! Also please get some sleep!!!

Heading Into the Final Eval - 1:36:53

It’s the night before they will record their individual performances of Naekkoya for their final evaluation. Some of the girls are lying in bed, practicing the lyrics and hand movements. Others, like Takeuchi Miyu’s Korean roommates, are still practicing, leading her to wonder out loud, in slow Korean, “Don’t the Korean trainees sleep?” Sakura notes the same thing, that they seem to just keep practicing instead of sleeping, so she’s doing the same. She’s embarrassed that seven years after her own debut, she’s not nearly as good as the other girls. But it’s obvious that part of the problem is that she’s completely exhausted. Girls! Listen to your unnie! You need to sleep or you’re going to have a complete brain collapse tomorrow! 

Choi Yeonsoo, one of the YGK+ models, tries to help Minami, aka Sailor Mars/Lemon-chan’s mom, who looks like she’s about to drop. She’s only 14, for heaven’s sake.

Yeonsoo uses little drawings to try to communicate.

Side note: to any of my lovies who are studying for something, remember that your brain is part of your body and if you don’t take care of your body with enough sleep and stuff, your brain also won’t work well and it’ll be hard to learn. Please try to get some sleep! Your health is important.

They are all working together and trying to help each other. Most of them want to make it to A class (or stay in A class) so that they could be in the center. As if it isn’t obviously going to be Sakura. 

Ok, that’s it for this post! In the next one, we’ll begin talking about the grade reassignments. See you then!

[boysplanetrecaps]

The Great Produce 48 Rewatch: Ep 2, Signal Song [Part 1]

In my previous post in this silly yet necessary project, we finished off the auditions, including the ones that weren't aired on MNET. It's time for the girls to move into their dorms and start practicing for their upcoming large-group performance to your favorite song and mine, Nekkoya! Let's do it.

In this second phase of the Produce 48 series, the 96 trainees (well, 94 -- 2 of them dropped out already) are asked to learn the lyrics, tune, and choreography of a song then get one chance to perform it in front of a video camera for their final grade. Did I mention that they have to learn the lyrics in both Korean and Japanese? Also, per AleXa in her interview with Grazy Grace, they had about a day and a half to learn the choreography and lyrics in both Korean and Japanese, and this was the very next day after they filmed the auditions for about 24 straight hours. Seems… like a bad idea. But what do I know?

So, the signal song is called Pick Me aka Nekkoya. The only signal song from any of the Produce series that I actually like is Nayana from Broduce101 -- I remember hearing it playing at Cafe Bene in K-town and just liking it without knowing what it was. But I’m not wild about Nekkoya, even if it is marginally better than Pick Me from Season 1. (I mean, “oh won’t you pick me up?” is the worst, ugh). I do enjoy the fact that Nekkoya sounds extra funny to the Japanese girls, because “neko” is the Japanese word for cat. You’d think that someone would have noticed that already…? 

The girls are told that they’ll get to perform on MNET countdown. They’re so happy, despite the obvious fact that most of them aren’t going to get any camera time. They’re probably just giddy from lack of sleep. As in previous years, those in higher ranked groups will get more screen time -- but it’s even worse this year than in previous years, because rather than having the Bs and Cs flanking the As, they’ll all be stacked behind each other, so that it will probably be impossible to see even the members of the B group, much less the Ds.

The diagram at the top of the post shows the F ranked girls at the very back, but actually they won’t even be allowed on stage. The F-ranked girls, the majority of whom are Japanese, are heartbroken, notably the fashion challenged Mogi Shinobu in her blue furry sleeves. This girl is like a living meme.

We stan a relatable queen. 

The judges remind them that all the grades will be reassigned, and that only someone from group A can be in the overall center, a very desirable position. I genuinely don’t remember who gets chosen, but it also seems obvious that it’s going to be 🌸Sakura🌸….? 

Dorm Move In

The girls move in to their dorm room and find color-coded t-shirts waiting for them. I feel like I can feel the texture of these t-shirts through the screen. You know, those t-shirts that feel like steel wool and hang off you like a burlap sack? But despite being a full centimeter thick they somehow are also see-through and show the outlines of your bra? No thank you.

Miru is happy, but I think she is always happy. Honestly, I’m jealous.

Many of the girls like the colors, but the A girls are especially excited by their shirts, which feature a glittery A on a light pink background. Gyrui, the member of Fromis-9 who rocked a side-pony in her audition, is a bit salty that some of her roommates have pink shirts while she has to make due with orange. 

Meanwhile, the F-ranked girls get gray, just to make sure they feel as bad as possible about their situation. SUFFER, the producers seem to be saying. SUFFER FOR YOUR DEFICIENCIES. 

Suffer more, Ichikawa Manami! Your performance in What’s Your Name means you don’t deserve such a thing as “color”!

The F-ranked girls are joking that at least the F is on the back so they don’t have to see it themselves (unless they turn around really really fast). Goto Moe, who mysteriously seems to have completely recovered her voice, finds a white shirt she plans to wear instead. Doesn’t seem like a good idea, Moe. 

Some of the girls find rules posted in their rooms. The rules, as translated by Google translate via my phone camera: 

Adhere to the class schedule

Maintain cleanliness of accommodation and practice rooms. 

Do not make noise while going to bed.

No unnecessary physical contact.

Compliance with writing a practice journal.

Prohibition of use of mobile phones and communication devices 

Thorough management of the training center facilities 

That fourth rule causes a lot of giggling and “touching” among the girls, and the editors play Knock from Broduce 101 in the background. Uh-oh, no skinship allowed! (Gossip online seems to imply that this is because of certain trainees, but I’m not sure that this is true and I don’t want to put anything out there like that without more confirmation.) This was a new rule for this season, but to the best of my knowledge had been kept in place for later seasons. For example, I remember that it was a rule in Boys Planet as well. 

The girls have trouble communicating with each other, but some translation heroes step forward. Miyazaki Miho, who was in What’s Your Name and who I noticed writing in Korean at the beginning, can speak  Korean reasonably well too, and serves as interpreter in one of the D-class dorms for Kim Minju. 

Multi-lingual queen Miho!

Lee Chaejeong, future member of Alice who auditioned with Roller Coaster, has a little stuffie (that she calls her “chingu”) with her. Cho Ahyeong, who auditioned alongside future Cherry Bullet’s Haeyoon, has a stuffie that is sitting in for her mom. Kim Da Hye from Banana Culture (who auditioned with I Don’t Like Your Girlfriend) has a pink stuffie that is a gift from her mom. Wang Yiren (future Everglow) has a piggie. Strong approval on all that. My Christmas wish list is at least 50% Squishmallow. On the other hand, Sato Minami (who I continue to think of as Sailor Mars) has a terrifying doll named Lemon-Chan. No thank you. 

NO THANK YOU

I SAID NO THANK YOU

1:05:35 Training Begins

Ok, we’re an hour into the episode, so it makes sense that it’s time to do something or another! The girls gather in the big studio wearing their Caste T-shirts (see what I did there? I spelled it caste not cast) and get ready to learn. 

Kindly Soyou says, “You will be practicing the title track starting today. Since it’s the first time that the Japanese trainees are being trained in the Korean way, this may be quite difficult.  But please trust in us, your trainers, and listen to us.”  The girls are excited to learn new things -- we hear from Bibian, with her distinctive baby-doll face, and Nakanishi Chiyori, who had the fluffy pink skirt in What’s Your Name.

So the dance class, led by Psychopath, begins.

You can tell that he’s trying to break down the steps and give specific advice. I don’t know how it worked with the translations -- none of the Japanese girls seem to be wearing in-ear devices, so there must have been someone on a microphone, translating the information into Japanese or this would have been chaos. But it I had to learn a dance with someone speaking a language I don’t know, with a translation following a few moments later, it would be so hard to learn. It’s going really fast even for some of the Korean girls, and the Japanese girls look completely lost. Even Miru looks sad. Oh no! Protect Miru! Then after they suffer for a while, Dance Bae tells them the part they just learned is the “easiest part of the choreo.” Oh no!

It’s time for them to study in their groups. This is their class schedule, with the benefit of my google translate on my phone:

I think “consonant practice” should say “self-practice”. 

The A group and B group both have Soyou for vocals and Psychopath for dance. The C group has Dance Bae for dance and Soyou for vocals.  The D group has Mary J Lee for dance and Jeremy for vocals.  The F group has Dance Bae for dance and Jeremy for vocals. 

So, let’s start off with group C, in their yellow shirts, who apparently did the best at the big group dance instruction. Park Seo Young, the blonde individual trainee, has been elected leader and has the L sticker on her shoulder to prove it. 

They are scared when Dance Bae comes in. 

They go up to do the choreo in smaller groups, 5 or 6 at a time, and Dance Bae’s eagle eye picks out even the smallest mistakes. When they make mistakes, she tells them they have to try harder, which, like, lady, they ARE trying. 

Then she picks out Son Eun Chae and Honda Hitomi to dance on their own -- one Korean girl and one Japanese girl to represent their respective groups. 

They both look great, and Dance Bae compliments them. The other girls think they’ll both move up a rank. 

Meanwhile, in class B…

B group has elected Park Minji -- future Secret Number -- as their leader, perhaps because she has experience from being on the first season of Produce 101.

AleXa is serving with a deep red lip. She understands the assignment. 

When Psychopath comes in, they introduce themselves in unison, and he greets them impatiently. He watches them perform, then tells them they have to be more “bashful” in their dancing, mocking their more “powerful” attempts at the girlish choreography. 

They all love him, saying that he’s a good dancer. Cho Ka Hyeon -- the Starship girl who isn’t Wonyoung or Yujin -- voice overs, “I stared at him shamelessly because he’s so good at dancing.”  

Yoon Eunbin likes him a lot. 

They might also think he’s handsome or cute, for all I know -- he was only 34 at the time of taping, so not necessarily too old for them to have crushes on (though obviously way too old for them to date, to be clear!). I know he’s being relatively nice to the girls and it must seem weird that I’m calling him Psychopath, but I DO NOT FORGIVE HIM FOR WHAT HE DID TO THE BOYS ON BOYS PLANET. It was full on psychological abuse. 

Anyway, the dance practice continues. Miru-chan is trying to keep smiling, but she looks more like she’s crying. Psychopath scolds her, because that’s so helpful, and Jurina comes over to try to cheer her up. 

This choreography is much harder than what any of them are used to.  

Her training diary consists of this drawing and the words, “Today I had my first singing and dancing lesson in B class. I couldn’t follow the choreography during class B. I made the teacher worry. Is there no hope for me?” Aww, Miru-chan!! 

We check in with Team A, who are having a vocal lesson with Soyou. Lee Gaeun from Pledis has been chosen as leader, probably on the strength of her already having debuted, and being the oldest in the group. 

Soyou asks for a brave volunteer, and at first, no one steps forward.

Left to right: Lee Ga Eun, Jo Yu Ri, Park Hae Yoon, Kim Do Ah, Yu Min Young, Miyawaki Sakura, Takeuchi Miyu, Kim Cho Yeon, Lee Ha Eun, Lee Chae Yeon, Kim Da Hye, Hwang So Yeon, Choi Ye Na, Na Go Eun, Kwon Eun Bi

Finally, Na Go Eun (future Purple Kiss) volunteers. We’re reminded that at her audition, Soyou had said of her, “She’s the most promising trainee among the ones we’ve seen so far.” But Goeun, singing acapella, goes slightly off pitch, which is what happens to people who don’t have perfect pitch. I mean, most people don’t have perfect pitch! Soyou tells her that she’s going sharp, and that she sounds like she’s just reading a textbook. I would also find it difficult to put emotion into lyrics like: 

From now on, you’re mine, mine, mine, only mine / Mine, mine, mine (Superstar) / From now on, you’re mine, mine, mine, only mine / Will you tell me? Pick me up

… but I guess that’s why I’m not cut out to be a K-idol. That’s literally the only reason, though. 

Jo Yuri goes next, and has a bit of trouble with the high notes. Soyou tells her that she, Soyou, had fought for her, Yuri, to be in A group (no pressure!) and then tells her she’s disappointed. Kwon Eunbi is next to be insulted for her pronunciation and lack of, I don’t know, spirit (?). 

🌸Sakura🌸 is next, and inspirational happy music plays as she talks about how she has studied the Korean lyrics -- amazing!  She sings completely incorrectly, like the tune is only slightly an approximation of correct. Instead of insulting Sakura and/or expressing intense, soul-destroying disappointment, like she did with every other girl, Soyou kindly asks the talented Miyu to come forward to sing it correctly to help 🌸Sakura🌸 understand the melody. Finally, 🌸Sakura🌸 manages to sing a few notes correctly, and everyone applauds. I get it that the other girls like her, because she’s a nice girl, but even so. What. Is. This. 

Next we check in with D group, who has chosen the multi-lingual Miyazaki Miho as their leader. Good call! 

They are working with Mary J Lee, who many of them know from her Youtube dance videos. They seem a little star struck by her. 

Sweet faced Motomura Aoi, who we met during the Never Ending Ferris Wheel performance, is in the back row and seems to have trouble seeing what’s going on. She knows the other girls are more skilled and is determined to do better.

Kim Minju, one of the Very Pretty Girls, is having a lot of trouble with the dancing. She’s self-conscious, looking at everyone instead of focusing on herself. She’s acutely aware that the others are better than her, and she’s taking it to heart, crying in the interview chair. We see her showing up in the dance practice room when no one else is there to practice some more. 

In what may or may not be the next day, we check in again with the B girls at 1:21:48. Kim Sihyeon, future Everglow, and Lee Seunghyeon, who I’m going to just call Riina from H1-Key, interview that their group has Americans (AleXa), Chinese people (Wang Yiren from Everglow, Wang Ke of the red polka dots), Japanese people (Iwatate Saho, Miru from Dancing Hero, Juri, and Jurina), and of course, Koreans. So it can make communication tricky.  

We see Jang Gyuri (future ex-Fromis9) and Lee Chaewon (future Le Sserafim) trying to get Jurina to understand that they want to practice the Japanese version of the lyrics together, using mostly English, but Jurina doesn’t seem to understand.

Husky-voiced Kim Hyuna (who did that excellent audition with My House by 2pm -- did you watch it yet?) encourages everyone to come watch the dance on the tablet, and the Japanese members, who don’t understand at first, come over later, when there’s already a big crowd. 

Jurina interviews that the Koreans crowd around so much that the Japanese trainees can’t see at all. She is obviously frustrated. 

What we see in the video, though, is that the Japanese trainees’ method of trying to see the video is to just stand there looking sad and wishing that the video will magically come closer. We don’t, for example, see them tapping anyone on the shoulder and pointing at the tablet with a hopeful facial expression. They just STAND THERE. I know it’s a cultural thing, but toxic passivity drives me nuts. 

Quick story time. A few months back, I was flying somewhere for work, worried I’d miss my connecting flight which would cause serious issues with my job. I was seated in an aisle seat, and I noticed that boarding was taking a really long time. There was a woman standing in the aisle wearing a big backpack that kept smacking me in the face as she spun around trying to let people pass her. She apologized when I pointed that out, and I was like, it’s ok, but why don’t you just sit down? And she said, well, there’s someone sitting in my seat. I asked her which one was supposed to be her seat, and she pointed to the aisle seat in front of me. I was like, just say something, and the woman was like, oh no, I can’t, I don’t want to be rude. Meanwhile, people were still trying to board. The woman with the backpack was trying to duck into chairs that are open to let people pass, but there were hardly any open seats left and so she was really slowing down boarding, making everything really difficult for everyone. And all because she doesn’t have the chutzpah to either (a) tap the person on the shoulder and say “I think you’re in my seat” or (b) at least ask a flight attendant for help. So then I had to be the one to tap that person on the shoulder. Turned out she had sat in that seat KNOWING IT WAS THE WRONG SEAT because there was someone in HER seat, which was the window seat. So then I had to tell the person in the window seat that SHE was in the wrong seat. Like here I am just trying to get the plane to take off on time so I don’t miss my connection and no one has the ability to speak up about the simplest of things. The woman in the wrong window seat realized she had just made a mistake, and she apologized and moved up one row to the correct seat, and everyone got seated. But like, my GOD. What was your endgame, backpack woman? To just stay in the aisle the whole flight? URGH. I get it, some people are shy, but sometimes if you don’t speak up, it’s actually irresponsible and rude. And it’s even worse if you then make the other people out to be the bad guys. 

Sorry, this is a pet peeve of mine. Deep breaths. 

The four Japanese members sulk about how no one is “letting” them see the video, without ever, I don’t know, pointing to it? Walking over and gently taking it out of someone’s hands? ANY FUCKING THING? If I had to deal with people that passive I would evaporate. Just boil away into space. 

Finally, husky-voiced Hyunah grabs Jurina by the arm, drags her over to the side of the room, and begins teaching her the choreo. Jurina realizes that the Korean girls who know how to dance learned the choreography first, so that they could teach it to the other girls, and regrets the misunderstanding. 

H1-Key Riina helps Saho learn the choreo.

Saho interviews that in Japan, the girls typically work by themselves, but in Korea, the girls work together as a group, which makes her really happy. What I’m learning from this show is that Korean culture is superior to Japanese culture. Thanks, MNET editors! Thmeditors. 

We see some of the Korean girls using English to talk to AleXa. Cute!

Choi So Eun interviews, “It feels like we’re communicating telepathically.” 

We end the segment on this shot of the girls all crowded around Juri and Jurina -- looks like maybe Juri had been crying and then everyone in the whole class came over to cheer her up? Maybe? Anyway, it’s cute. They’re working together. This is my favorite thing about shows like this. 

At 1:24:20, we switch over to watch the A girls at their dance practice. Gaeun shows off her dancing, and she looks great, of course. She’s so cute! 

Behind her, you can see, left to right, little Lee Ha Eun, the “little Chungha” girl; Kwon Eunbi, looking a little different with her hair pulled back; Lee Da Hye from Banana Culture; behind Gaeun, you can see a tiny bit of the short, talented Miyu; Jo Yuri, of the yellow Chewing Gum; and Yu Minyeong of the mint green polka dots in the Celeb Five performance. (We’ll see Minyeoung dance in a little bit….) 

As Gaeun finishes her performance, we get to see Hwang Soyeon, the “little Sunmi,” show off her teleportation skills! At 1:24:45 she’s standing by the wall next to 🌸Sakura🌸, calmly applauding for Gaeun. 

Psychopath praises Gaeun, saying that all the details of her dancing are very neat and precise. 

At 1:24:57, Soyeon has teleported to be sort of behind Gaeun. Dahye from Banana Culture is still near the wall -- but she’s out of breath and is pumping her t-shirt back and forth to cool herself down. Jo Yuri and Miyu seem to have disappeared. Soyeon has charged the part in her hair, and also seems out of breath. Gaeun’s hair is much messier, too. 

And at 1:25:00, Soyeon has teleported back to her original position next to 🌸Sakura🌸, with her hair put back to its original part. 

These are some talented girls, my friends. 

Look, obviously this is just some bad editing, but it wasn’t an accident. For whatever reason, they wanted it to look like Psychopath was praising Gauen alone. Maybe he was, but maybe he wasn’t. This is all just to go back to one of my key points about this show: It is edited with such a purposefully heavy hand that it might as well be fiction. 

In the next group, though the editing wants us to focus on Choi Yena, my eye kept getting drawn to Kim Doah, future Fanatics/GP999 contestant. She’s just so expressive there! 

Left to right: Eunbi (권은비), Doah (김도아), Dahye, Yena (최예나), and Minyoung (유민영). 

Psychopath reminds Yena not to let her fingers go in her mouth in the “tap near your mouth” part of the choreo. It’s interesting to think about those little details. 

Many of the girls have their turn, and then he asks Yu Minyoung to come out to the center. He calls her “Celeb Five,” not by her name, even though she’s wearing a huge name tag.  He called Gauen and Yena by their names, but not Minyoung! She makes quite a few mistakes. We see a flashback to the very first dance rehearsal, something we’ve never seen before -- Dance Bae pulling Psychopath aside and asking why on earth did Minyoung get an A. Honestly, I wondered that too at the time -- I said I would have given her a C.  Psychopath reminds her that Minyoung was part of that Celeb Five performance. Back at the A-team’s dance rehearsal, Psychopath, showing his true nasty colors, says, “I think it was a really good idea to do Celeb Five back then. But you have no charisma now. You’ll end up in lower classes.” She just sort of says “Yes, I understand.” She wants to stay in A class, but I think she knows her skills are just not up to the task given her short training period. 

This next segment, which begins at 1:27:35, is probably my favorite part of the whole episode. Jeremy just actually teaches the D-grade girls to sing. Instead of insulting them, or scolding them, or telling them that they have to “try harder,” or rolling his eyes and asking if they even want to be here, he just teaches them how singing works, physically. It’s a delight to watch. He has them do something that my vocal teacher taught me, an exercise to open up your palette. You start by being super super nasal, making a sound fully through your nose, then sort of make a “nnnngg-gga” noise that clears the sound out. It’s hard to explain in words, but it’s something I do before I sing a note, even alone in the shower. He even explains it to them in Japanese, since there are so many Japanese members of the class and the Japanese girls are especially nasal. Is he or is he not the most lovable of people? 

He has Minami (owner of the Lemon-chan doll) lie flat on her back to learn how to engage her abs while she sings, and afterward, she can hold a note without wavering unpleasantly. You guys, this is what learning to sing is all about. The segment is only about 2 minutes long, which is a shame -- I could watch this for a long time. I like watching kindness in action! If you want to watch, here’s a Youtube clip. 

And that's as much as I can fit in one post, so I'll have to cut it off here! I hope you're at a temperature you like to be at, and that you have the right number of Squishmallows nearby. Take care and see you in the next one, when we finish off their preparations for the signal song evaluation!

[boysplanetrecaps]

The Great Produce 48 Rewatch: The Unaired Auditions

Hey there, National Producer! (That's you!)

In the previous installment of my beautifully pointless Produce48 recaps, we finished off the majority of the auditions, but there were still a few more to talk about -- the ones that MNET didn't air at all, not even for a second, including the audition of soloist AleXa and future members of Lightsum and Secret Number. We also need to look at some pie charts and stuff to analyze the complete distribution of grades amongst the different contingents! So let's get to it! This is a relatively short post, so don't be afraid.

Let's start with

Audition 36

Shitao Miu(17), Nagano Serika (17), and Honda Hitomi (16), from AKB48, doing Mister by Kara.

In the photo above, left to right, that's Hitomi, with the colorful jacket, Miu with the hat on her belt, and Serika with the dark sneakers. 

Full audition here

My thoughts: At least they’re really trying to do a kpop song and choreo. The beginning part where they’re all doing different things is part of the original choreo of the song, if you're wondering. They don’t really nail that classic “butt” choreography that Mister is famous for, but it’s actually pretty deceptively difficult to do. They also manage to not clap on the beat at about the :45 mark when they’re supposed to be… you know… clapping on the beat. Aww, bless ‘em. But they are singing in Korean, they’re throwing themselves into the choreo, they’re singing on key, really this isn’t bad at all. 

I am distracted by these horrible pants, however. They look like something one of my aunts would order from the Chicos catalog and wear to the vortexes in Sedona. They look like 1990 threw up on a group of Y2K ravers. They look like something Balenciaga would convince a dumb millionaire to buy and wear to Ibiza. I don’t much care for them, is what I’m saying. 

Hitomi got a C; Miu got a D; and Serika got an F. I think the F for Serika is a bit harsh but as always it’s hard for me to hear their live singing.

Audition 37

future soloist AleXa, age 21, doing Gashina by Sunmi

Full audition here  

My thoughts: Oofta. She must have been really nervous. She was ahead of the beat a lot of the time, her vocals were shaky, and she was sharp most of the time. Her dancing was sort of vague, somehow. Just… really not so great. I think the judges were actually pretty kind to give her a B. We still love you, AleXa. You’ll be coming back into vogue. 

Audition 38

Ahn Ye Won (17, in all red) and Choi Yeon Soo (19, with the black skirt) from YG KPLUS, doing Only You by Miss A 

Full audition here

Yeonsoo, left, and Yewon, right

These are the two models, here from their modeling agency to show that they can do other things. But can they? The dancing is lazy and vague, but I’ve seen much worse. Yewon had that smile frozen on her face the whole time, while Yeonsoo forgot to smile even once, and I’m not sure which is worse. The singing sounded really good, but given that Yewon got an F from the judges and Yeonsoo got a D, I think that was all backup track. I can’t figure out why Yeonsoo deserved a higher grade than Yewon, so maybe it was their solo singing later. Really, they weren’t Hyewon level atrocious, and I don’t think Yewon deserved an F unless she literally couldn’t sing at all on her own. 

Audition 39

Kim Dahye (16?) and Kim Nayoung (15, future Lightsum) from Banana Culture performing I Don’t Like Your Girlfriend by Weki Meki

Full audition here

Nayoung, left, and Dahye, right

Overall, really not bad, though this choreo looks a little silly with only two performers. I don’t love Nayoung’s vocal color, but she was on key and strong. Dahye mostly rapped, and when she sang, her tone was strained and harsh. I think she’s applying for the rap position so she’s held to lower vocal standards. She did that kind of talk-rap that a lot of girl-group members do in Kpop (Twice, I’m looking at you). Dahye showed some pretty strong, sharp dance moves, and Nayoung mostly kept up. Nayoung had the better stage presence of the two, but neither of them seemed unusually nervous or shy.

The judges give Dahye an A and give Nayoung a C. I think I would have given them both Bs. I really don’t understand the A for Dahye in particular when she didn’t really display any vocals. 

Audition 40

Park Seoyoung (19) and Park Jinny (20), ex YG-trainees, doing Roller Coaster by Chung-ha

Full audition here

Park Seo Young, left, and Park Jinny (future Secret Number), right. 

Seoyoung sang mostly decently, though she obviously relied heavily on the backup track. Jinny rapped over it with a lot of CL/LE-style swag to her voice, in a way that sort of threw me off because it’s not in the original song and sounded a little out of place. It wasn’t “bad”, just surprising. It reminded me of that old skit about Obama’s anger translator, where President Obama says something in a formal, political way and his “anger translator” says that thought in angry slang/AAV. 

𝅘𝅥𝅯𝅘𝅥𝅯I remember very first time in love 𝅘𝅥𝅯𝅘𝅥𝅯 ⦿I remember, unh, I remember, unh⦿  

Both of them danced pretty well -- this choreo isn’t easy -- and had decent stage presence, though Jinny was a little… too much. They both get Cs. I actually think that’s pretty fair. 

Bonus “Audition”: Tanaka Miku and Tabuki Nako, both age 16, from HKT48

Not really the audition, but here 

Ok, bear with me. This is the best we can do to see what their audition would have been like, since their audition isn’t on Youtube due to MNET censorship. The song is about two bananas talking to each other about who will mature sooner. I mean, obviously -- what else would a song be about? These lyrics are suggestive in a variety of ways, and I think that’s on purpose, but MNET really over-reacted. I’m not going to list all the more suggestive things mentioned in many of the other auditions, but you probably have a sense. In any case, I can’t actually evaluate this as it wasn’t really live, but I guess it’s cute…? Their audition didn’t go very well, I guess, since they both got Fs from the judges. 

57:45 The auditions are over

The judges announce the final ranking results, including how many trainees were in each grade. Here’s the overall break-down:

It’s worth taking a look at the difference between outcomes among the two groups. 

There are 39 Japanese girls and 57 other girls (most are Korean, though a few are from other countries and signed to a Korean label) in the competition. Since about 40% of the trainees are Japanese, you’d hope that about 40% of each “grade” would be Japanese. But most the Japanese girls got D or F, and most of the Fs and Ds were among the Japanese girls. 

Here’s the break down for the trainees signed to Korean labels:

Here’s the break down for the Japanese girls:

Put differently: 

15 As were awarded, and only 2 of them went to Japanese girls (13%)

25 Bs were awarded, and only 4 of them went to Japanese girls. (16%) 

22 Cs were awarded, and only 5 of them went to Japanese girls. (22%) 

15 Ds were awarded, and 11 of them went to Japanese girls. (73%)

19 Fs were awarded, and 17 of them went to Japanese girls. (89%)

So the Japanese girls have quite an uphill battle in front of them. 

The End of the Audition Phase

Per AleXa in her interview with Grazy Grace, that first day of filming was 24 hours, with only short breaks for food. Wow! And it only took me, what, two weeks to write all this. So that’s almost as good. Thanks for being with me so far. Next segment will be about them trying to learn the “signal song,” Pick Me aka Naekkoya! 

Stick around, and hope all is well with you, Constant Reader.  

[boysplanetrecaps]

The Great Produce 48 Rewatch: Ep 4, Like Ooh Ah (Twice) Challenge

Welcome back, National Producers, to to the thing I’m doing for some reason: The Great Produce48 Rewatch Recap-ma-jig! When we left off in the previous posts ((part 1) )(part 2), we saw the two Boombayahs match up in a hellish landscape of inexplicability! Yay! 

In this post, we’ll see two teams match off in a battle to cover Like Ooh Ah by Twice. It features Chaewon from Le Sserafim, Riina from H1-key, and Haeyoon from Cherry Bullet. Let’s do this thing!

Lee Seungki welcomes the two teams up on stage. 

The pink team, in a burst of surprising prescience, have named themselves Team Pop! Somewhere, Nayeon was watching and was like, “YES.” 

LTR: Hwang Soyeon, Kim Chaewon, Lee Seunghyeon, Goto Moe, Kim Doah, Park Haeyoon

The blue team has named themselves “Team Yours” (a reference to the Nekkoya lyrics).

Park Seoyoung, Lee Haeun, Park Jinny, Cho Kahyeon, Naiki Kokoro, Choi Yeonsoo

Seungki asks Goto Moe, what were some of the challenges she faced in rehearsal? She says (in Japanese). that the styles of dance in Japan and Korea are quite different, so she struggled to move her body the way she wanted to. The audience laughs politely. But they worked together as a team. Backstage, the judges agree that teamwork is important, and we dive into a flashback.

They’re at an early dance rehearsal with Mary J. Lee, and it’s really looking good. 

The members, left to right:

Goto Moe, the laryngitis girl, who moved from F to C and was most recently ranked 8th.

Kim Doah, future member of Fanatics and visitor to GP999, who moved from A to C and was ranked 25th.

Park Haeyoon, my new Cherry Bullet bias, who moved from A down to D and was ranked 35th.

Lee Seunghyeon, aka H1-Key Riina, who moved from B to C and was ranked 60th.

Hwang Soyeon, the flat tummied “little Sunmi” who stayed in A and was ranked 46th. 

Kim Chaewon, future Le Sserafim, who stayed in B class and was ranked 21st.

When we left off, Lee Seunghyeon, aka Riina from H1-key, had been chosen center, and Goto Moe was having trouble with the key butt wiggle in the choreo. Soyeon was the group chooser, and Haeyeoon was the leader. We were left wondering, would Moe figure out how to wiggle her butt?

This is a strong group, if you haven’t noticed. Four of the six would go on to debut in a group, and though yes, some of those groups are more popular than others, they are all good performers. Plus, they have Soyeon, who is super skilled as well. 

When they’re done with their run through, Mary J Lee applauds and tells them they have good team work. She praises Haeyoon’s leadership skills, then tells Moe that she needs to work on her timing, because she’s usually a few beats ahead of the group. There’s trouble music playing to let us know this is trouble. 

Over to vocal class. They’re running through the song and everyone sounds good, until they get to Moe.  She’s off key and off rhythm and it does not sound good.. Jeremy’s reaction:

He explains in Japanese that she’s going too fast, and has her try it again a few times, and it’s not really getting better. To her credit, she can tell it’s not right

Caption: “I sing it over and over, but it doesn’t get better.” 

Jeremy addresses Leader Haeyoon and kindly encourages her to work with Moe to fix the problem, and Haeyoon agrees. The vibe isn’t super negative or unkind, but Moe starts to cry a little. Jeremy addresses her in Japanese, asking what’s wrong, as she tries to hide her face behind her hair. I think she’s just frustrated. She says that even when she practiced with the AKB48 girls, she was always a beat or two ahead. She feels bad for hurting the team. 

The girls gather Moe-chan into a big group hug, telling her she’s doing a great job. 

I swear, she’s in the middle of all that. 

Haeyoon is talking to her in what sounds like pretty good and idiomatic Japanese, telling her she’s doing a good job and that they have time to improve. 

Haeyoon, Moe, and original-hair-Chaewon work together to get the timing and tune down. (It’s so funny how the most famous one in this group is getting almost no story attention.) They all keep working on it, but Haeyoon is really gentle with her and Moe seems really dedicated to improving.

On a day that Moe had to fly back to Japan for a day or two for her AKB48 activities, the other five girls gathered to rehearse a little, just the five of them…

that's Kim Chaewon with the curler in her bangs! fearless!

But they got a message from Moe!

Is it a 'fit, or is she just skinny?

She recorded herself running through the dance and asked them if they noticed any mistakes. The girls write back and forth with suggestions -- adjusting angle and other details. Moe interviews that she’s grateful to the girls, especially Haeyoon, for helping her so much.

The girls gather for some inappropriate product placement. Some nice diet drinks for these extremely thin young girls. Ugh, diet culture. 

It’s about time for them to perform, and Haeyoon encourages her team to have fun. 

The judges comment that the team has really good teamwork and actually look like a debuted group. 

And now it’s time for the performance!

Here is PD48 Editing’s blessed edit.

Standing, LTR: Soyeon, Doah, Moe, Chaewon Kneeling: Haeyoon, Riina

LTR: Moe, Doah, Haeyoon, Soyeon, Riina, Chaewon

standing: Doah, Riina, Soyeon kneeling: Moe, Haeyoon, Chaewon

Just an extra picture of original-hair, original-blush Chaewon:

My thoughts: Overall, this was really good. They really did look like a debuted girl group -- a rookie one, yeah, but still. They all brought the stage presence, with the possible exception of Chaewon, who seemed a tiny bit muted. It’s not at all that she did a bad job -- it’s just that the others outshined her a bit. I think she was weighed down by her hair. 

Every time I see Kim Doah do just about anything, either here or on Girls Planet 999, I feel a little sad that she hasn’t had more success. She is pretty great, even here as a 14 year old. 

Haeyoon’s vocals stood out, as they should, since she was the main vocal. But no one was bad vocally, not even Moe.

Soyeon did great, but it felt a little cosplay to me. I think she’s just made for other concepts. She still did great though, don’t get me wrong. I’m just imagining her on a Boombayah team and sad for what we missed out on. 

Really, everyone did well. I don’t have much to add. 

The MNET edit emphasized Moe -- girls reacting to her prettiness, Jeremy nodding approval to her vocals, and all of them expressing surprise at her high jump. They also approve of Haeyoon’s vocals -- Soyou says that Haeyoon is the best singer so far. 

There’s also a weird moment when Psychopath seems to approve of Soyeon’s cute pose, but he calls her Seolhyun. That’s how it’s spelled in the Korean subtitles, too. But her name is Soyeon. I double checked. I thought maybe he was talking about Riina, whose real name is Seunghyeon, but again, there’s a G at the end of her first syllable, not an R/L. Maybe it’s a nickname? Or a reference? IDK. 

They finish to excited cheers from the audience -- “that was great!” “You girls are stunning!” The judges say that it was the best performance so far (we don’t know the order, though -- it’s possible, likely even, that the order on show night was quite different than the order it was aired). Soyou even says that it makes her job rewarding to see a performance like this. For once, the judges and I really agree about a performance. 

When the first group is done, the second group comes up, smiling sweetly. They look cute. We jump back to their rehearsals.

So, let’s remember the team:

The members: 

Park Seoyoung, age 19, the blonde who sat in Chair 1, fell from C to D and was ranked 26th at this point.

Naiki Kokoro, age 20, auditioned with Funny People, rose from D to C, and was ranked 82nd. We don't know much about her, and unfortunately, aren't about to learn much either.

Park Jinny, age 20, future member of Secret Number,  is the other “individual trainee” who auditioned with Seoyoung. She fell from C to F and was ranked 49th.

Cho Kahyeon, age 14, is the Starship girl who isn’t Wonyoung or Yujin. She held steady in B and was ranked 36th. 

Lee Haeun, age 13,  is the “mini Chung-ha” girl who held steady in A, and was ranked 58th.

Choi Yeonsoo, age 19, is one of the YGK+ models, fell from D to F, and was ranked 52nd.

The captain and chooser was Naiki Kokoro, and was probably formed 10th, 11th, or 12th, something in there. They made blonde Seoyoung both leader and center, but it seemed like maybe little Haeun might have more skills, so there’s a sort of power battle between them, and it’s stressing out model Yeonsoo. But don't worry, we won't hear from Yeonsoo at all in this segment. Or Kokoro or Jinny, for that matter.

We check in first this time with little Haeun. She interviews that Group One got ahead of them quickly -- that they were practicing the dance when her own team was still deciding on parts. It’s not going great for them. Some of the team members are getting worried, but Seoyoung says, “Don’t worry, we have plenty of time.” 

Cho Kahyeon interviews that she and Haeun were anxious about everything. Are they planning a mutiny? That would be exciting!

We go to vocal/rap class with Jeremy and Cheetah.  

LTR: Seoyoung, Haeun, Kahyeon, Kokoro, Jinny, Younsoo

We see Seoyoung kind of giggling and making faces as she sings, making it kind of clear that she doesn’t quite know the lyrics.

Cheetah is post haircut, so this has to be a few days into the process.

When they’re done singing, Cheetah asks Group 1 what they think of Group 2’s performance, but they don’t say anything.  Jeremy says it sounded like they were fighting when they were singing the refrain -- and not the good kind of fighting, either. Cheetah asks if they practiced wearing headphones, and they don’t answer. Maybe singing with headphones playing the music is a bit like dancing while looking in the mirror -- you need to be able to perform without the crutch, too. 

Cheetah asks who the leader is, and Seoyoung identifies herself. Cheetah says, “you need to do a better job. It’s not just a title…. Do you girls not get along?” Seoyoung is shocked Pikachu face at the question. I think she genuinely thinks that they’re getting along fine. 

Haeun interviews, “Compared to other teams, we rarely practice together as a team.” 

“Quick, camera-guy! Kokoro is sitting by herself while the other members of her team ran off to use the bathroom and stuff for a minute. Get a shot of her by herself to make it look like her teammates don’t rehearse together. Yes, I know that their stuff all being right there clearly shows that they’re gone for just a minute and will be right back but if we put like, spotlights over it and play sad music and stuff, we can make it look like she’s been alone for hours and hours. Thanks, camera-guy! Thamraguy.”

Seoyoung takes the criticism to heart. She struggles not to cry as she interviews that her mind is flooded with thoughts. 

We cut to the girls having a meeting. 

It’s kind of funny because there’s a circle of water bottles behind them on the floor, showing signs of the other group leaving in a hurry. Seoyoung asks her team if there’s anything they want to tell her, and Haeun’s face is already twisting up into knots as she tries not to cry. She says she’s really stressed about the time pressure and wants to practice so much. She felt like only Kahyeon and herself felt stressed, like everyone else was too relaxed. Seoyoung says, “Now that I know about this, we’ll try harder.” 

She interviews that she should have realized this sooner, and, not to be mean, but yeah, she should’ve. Sorry! I’ve heard Seoyoung is really sweet. AleXa has said in interviews that Seoyoung is one of the few girls from the show that she keeps in touch with, which is a major point in her favor. But part of being a leader is taking the time constraints into account and pushing your team a bit. 

Oh no, Seoyoung and Haeun are both crying, and Team 1 is even getting involved. Cherry Bullet’s Haeyoon is exuding big time mom energy as she soothes them both. 

Haeyoon’s hands wiping away Seoyoung’s tears. 

We get a quick montage of them dancing with more power and enthusiasm, and then we’re almost to the stage. Park Jinny voice overs, “There’s always a twist in a drama. We’ll show them a twist.” Haeun say that they’re going to win. I love the energy, girls.

PD Editing’s blessed edit.

LTR: Park Jinny, Kokoro(#24), Haeun (Hawks), Seoyong(Wayward), Kahyeon, Yeonsoo(striped socks)

Standing: Yeonsoo, Seoyoung, Jiny Kneeling: Haeun, Kokoro, Kahyeon

My thoughts:

Overall, this was really good, too.

Center Seoyoung is so darned cute. She nails all the little simpering details form the intro without any hint of irony. I’m surprised a YG girl like her is so good at cute concepts. Her vocals were a little pitchy, but I think she might have earned my vote.

Park Jinny, her fellow individual trainee/ex-YG girl, didn’t fare as well, to me. She rapped almost as if this was a real rap, not a Twice song, which isn’t exactly what she should have done. She just somehow didn’t look comfortable to me, either. Maybe I’m reading into it, but she seemed out of place.

Cho Kahyeon did a lot right, except that she often didn’t smile. Even in her ending fairy, she has a straight face. Even when she does smile, if you look at hear eyes, they look sad. I think she knew that the audience wasn’t going to get on board with her and created a sort of self-fulfilling prophecy. 

Yeonsoo, the YGK+ model, looked almost terrified the whole time. When she did any transitions, she’d look around or look at the ground, and her smile dropped a lot. Despite all that, considering her low, skill set when she joined the competition, she did really well. 

Kokoro looked the part and brought the vibe. Good for her! Her vocals were not great, but she only had a few lines and she did her part -- dancing and looking cute -- well. 

Lee Haeun was the the MVP of the team. She isn’t as attention grabbing as center Seoyoung, but her smile is super charming, she doesn’t miss a step, her energy stays high throughout, and her vocals are absolutely on point. She hits every detail perfectly.  If I could have seen her fancam, I think I would have voted for her. 

Really, I think this team would have beaten a lot of other teams. It’s a shame they were up against such a powerhouse because this performance mostly came together and even their weaker members blended in. 

The MNET edit emphasizes how good they are. The judges exclaim especially over Haeun’s voice, and the girls backstage go nuts over Jinny and Kahyeon’s dancing in the dance break.  It’s kind overall, but does cut out about 15-20 seconds of it for no real reason. They needed those 15 seconds to show, I don’t know, an audience member shouting for Sakura. 

We cut to the results bathroom. 

Pink team is pretty sure that they’ll win, but blue team is still hopeful. 

They reveal the main vocalists first, and little Haeun wins over motherly Haeyoon. Kim Chaewon, showing one of the first signs that she might be a force to be reckoned with in the future, gets 104 votes, putting her in 17th place for the night.  Poor Kaheon gets only 14 votes, and the flat-tummied Hwang Soyeon gets 10 votes, putting them fourth last and second last for the night overall. We don’t get to hear from them much, though. 

I know that Kahyeon doesn’t meet Korean beauty standards, which is stupid and pointless and makes me mad, but at least I know why she got so few votes. I wish I knew why the audience never seemed to warm up to Soyeon. I’m not an expert on what is considered pretty or not, but if she is said to look like Sunmi, then she must be pretty, right? And she’s a great dancer and a good singer, so I don’t get it. It’s like the way that the audience never warmed up to Lee Yedam on Boys Planet, despite him being great at everything. Maybe it’s because Soyeon is from a small agency with no real reputation. 

Riina is heartbroken over her 26 votes, especially since she was center. 

Seoyoung’s 72 votes feels about right. She’s really happy with the result. 

That just leaves Moe versus Kokoro, and as usual, the Japanese members got more votes than I would have thought. Moe pulls out an amazing 172 votes, fourth highest of the night, and pink team takes the win. 

Full results: 

Pink team (win) Goto Moe 172  Hwang Soyeon  10  Kim Chaewon 104 Kim Doah 80 Lee Seunghyeon  26 Park Haeyoon 50

Blue team: Cho Kahyeon 14  Choi Yeonsoo 46 Lee Haeun 86 Naiki Kokoro 86 Park Jinny 38 Park Seoyoung   72

The final word goes to Goto Moe, who interviews, "I thought I wasn't good enough for my team. But everyone taught me with kindness. I think it was a good group. I was thankful."

Ok, my loves, that's it for this segment! In the next one, we'll be hitting the big time, with Very Very Very, featuring half of IZ*one and and members of Le Sserafim, Ive, and Purple Kiss. See you then!

[boysplanetrecaps]

The Great Produce 48 Rewatch: Ep 4, Boombayah Challenge, Part 2

Welcome, or Welcome Back, to The Great Produce48 Rewatch Recap Project Thingy Dingy! Today we're going to a dark world... a world of fire and brimstone. It's Boombayah, Group 2, aka Hellbayah. The story was too big and required too many screenshots for just one post! When we left off, we were talking about the Boombayah team 2 -- Let's finish the story!

So, we were at Vocal rehearsal with Cheetah and Soyou, and the girls were doing a terrible job.

Hyewon interviews, “Everything seemed so bleak. I only volunteered because no one else did. I felt like we were messing up more because of me. I think it’s harder because I lack confidence.” And her Very Pretty eyes fill up with Very Pretty tears. Aww, Hyewon. I make fun of her but I really do appreciate the fact that she at least volunteered to be main rapper, even if she seems unable to follow instructions. 

Soyou tries again. She says, “Hyewon-ah, here’s some advice. We’re not judges up here. We’re here to help you.” The Love Theme from P48 plays on plinky pianos as she goes on about how the National Producers are the real judges, so…. “Please, at least raise your voices!!”  Cheetah encourages them to think to themselves, “This is exciting! I’m excited!” Soyou and Cheetah raise their arms like they’re cheering, saying “this is exciting! Yay!” and even Minami and Erii crack a smile.

Soyou is like, “omg, you’re smiling, yes, let’s practice fucking smiling now, since that’s where we’re at,” and they practice SMILING, my friends. 

Chowon interviews that she’s grateful to the trainers for helping and that all she wants to do is perform. She begins to cry, then says, irritated, “I promised myself not to cry!!” 

We get a montage then of Chowon trying to help Hyewon with the rapping. We see Hyewon recording herself and then listening to it back and being pleased with it, which is actually really cute. 

They have a meeting and Chowon tells them that the song is out of their control, so why not just do their best and try to surprise everyone with a good performance? Erii decides to try going forward. Well, I guess better late than pregnant never. Erii asks Chowon for help with the pronunciation and dance, and starts to actually learn and have fun. 

She looks so different when she smiles. 

Then they do a little product placement for some sort of diet beverage called “Calorbye.” It’s gross to have actual children promote your diet culture but whatever. We spend almost as much time on this product placement as we did for all of team 1. 

Things have gotten better, and they’re hopeful now. Will they succeed? 

(In the Spanish version, there’s some commercials here, including a commercial for Ford cars. Imagine living so close to Japan and deliberately buying an American car? Wild.)

Here’s PD48 editing’s blessed edit. 

My thoughts:

That was great!

Ha ha, jk.

No, obviously that was pretty terrible. 

Nanami tried her hardest, bless her, but she couldn’t quite relax her shoulders and get a groove on and really dance. She did do a good death stare toward the beginning and she varied her expressions. Also, she did a really decent job with the singing, I will really give her that -- much better than I would have guessed. In fact, I kind of wonder if she was autotuned, because some people who were there live said that the vocals were all really bad. 

A girl is a WHAT?!? Damn you, Stylist Unnie. 

Yuuka looked terrified most of the time, but smiled and moved her arms like she’s supposed to. She wasn’t embarrassing to wath or listen to.  

Hyewon did much better than anyone would have guessed she would. She managed to get that confused look off her face for at least some of the time, for starters. Yes, she looked down at the floor sometimes, and you could almost see her counting the steps sometimes. But still, when she had to actually rap, she basically did, bless her. Her dancing was also much better than most of the other girls’ -- she put more emphasis into it, straightened her arms, that kind of thing -- and when you consider her audition, this was a complete breakthrough. Good for you, Hyewon. 

Minami was sort of unsteady and nervous. She looked down at the floor a lot and seemed sometimes to be on the verge of breaking into giggles and other times to just releasing her soul from her body. She did some choreography but I don’t think it could be called dancing per se. 

Erii was vague and lifeless most of the time, but she mostly did the moves and vaguely made noises when it was her turn to rap.

Chowon was obviously the one person holding this team together. She was great and I have no criticism. Amazing that she’s just 15 -- she was such a queen throughout this process. I've seen people saying that even her performance wasn't that great, but given that (1) she was 15 (2) she had to be both leader and center (3) she had to teach the rap to the main rapper and teach everyone else pretty much everything else (4) she didn't actually evaporate, I think no one is allowed to criticize her.

Here’s a brief clip (like 8 seconds) from about 2022 of Chowon reacting to the performance. She’s saying, “I’m so sorry, Blackpink-sunbae-nim.”

The MNET edit seems to really try to make them look good. They could have zoomed in on some of the wobbliest dance moves, or instant-replayed some of the worst rapping, but instead they showed the judges noting that they were in sync, and the girls backstage smiling and applauding. 

Thankfully, a lot of praise is being heaped on Chowon, who Cheetah calls a dark horse. 

(If you don’t know the idiom “dark horse,” it means someone who you didn’t notice before, but is actually really great and a contender.) They also note that Hyewon has a pretty face. 

Jeremy says that he has a feeling group 2 will win, and Mary J Lee, who doesn’t have dark visions of the future, thinks group 1 will win. Group 1 should win, as they put on a watchable performance, but sometimes people just like things that are terrible. Viz: I am doing this project. The judges try to bribe the staff into telling them the result because they can’t wait. 

Here’s a link to the results scene, if you want to watch it.

The girls teleport to the Results Bathroom. Group 1 is fully expecting to win, based on all the praise they’ve gotten from teammates and judges. Even Chowon expects Group 1 to win. 

At first it looks like Group 1 will take it, although Erii’s 102 votes are absolutely infuriating to me. It bothers me when people vote for terrible performances. 

But then poor Chanjoo, center of group 1, gets only 22 votes to Minami’s 86 goddamn votes. Who voted for this child? Why? Tears begin streaming down Soyeon’s face when she gets only 22 votes as well, despite her excellent singing.

Everything about the voting, except for Yujin’s appropriate 198 votes, is pretty infuriating. Here’s the full results. 

Team 1 (loss): Kim Sohee 30 Ko Yujin 198 Lee Chaejeong 54 Park Chanju 22 Won Seo Yeon 22 Average: 65.2

Team 2 (win): Asai Nanami 144 Asai Yuka 30 Chiba Erii 102 Han Chowon 42 Kang Hyewon 44 Sato Minami 86 Average: 74.7

I really hate popularity games. 

Group 2 begins shrieking and sobbing in delight. 

Group 1 is just stunned, slowly wiping away tears. 

Chaejeong says that the National Producers just didn’t like their performance, trying to take it in stride like the mature soul she is, but no, not really. They just weren’t fans of anyone in your group. Plus the other group had some children in it, and apparently these people are fans of small dancing children. Sigh. 

Also, apparently there were some netizens who were mad at Group 1 for “picking on the weaklings” in Group 2, and may have voted them down on purpose to punish them. Great. Thanks. This is why we can’t have nice things.

And there ends Boombayah/Hellbayah. 

Thanks as always for reading along and enjoying the journey! You're a delightful human.

In the next we'll be covering the Like Ooh Ah teams, and after that the Very Very Very team, which is the last one of this mission. See you soon!

[boysplanetrecaps]

The Great Produce 48 Rewatch: Ep 4, Boombayah Challenge, Part 1

Welcome, or Welcome Back, to The Great Produce48 Rewatch Recap Project Thingy Dingy! When we left off in the previous post, we saw team High Tension. But today we're going to a dark world... a Black World, if you will... and a world of fire and brimstone. It's Boombayah, Group 1, and it's Hellbayah.

(And if you’d like to watch, you can click here and go to the 1:09:20 mark)

Let's do it!

Lee Seungki calls the two Boombayah teams up to the stage, and in the judges room, Cheetah cutely does the sort of “backstroke” arm move from the dance. 

Team 1 introduces itself as “Black World.”

LTR: Kim Sohee, Won Seoyeon, Park Chanju, Ko Yujin, Lee Chaejeong

Team 2 introduces itself as “Snack.”

LTR: Han Chowon, Asai Nanami, Asai Yuuka, Chiba Erii, Kang Hyewon, Sato Minami

Seungki challenges them to talk a little smack to each other, and both teams promise to win. We see that the audience is full of fans of Nanami and Erii. 

We flashback to Team 1’s rehearsals… 

The story so far is that Chaejeong picked the group with Boombayah in mind. She thought Yujin would suit the song, that Chanju would learn it quickly, and that she needed Soyeon to sing. She added Sohee on purpose to provide cuteness. Naturally, given that she had a whole plan in mind, the team elects her leader immediately. Everything’s going so perfectly... Is it maybe too perfect? 

Kim Sohee, age 14, future member of Rocket Punch, rose from C to B and was ranked 44th.

Won Seoyeon, age 18, who auditioned to Heroine by Sunmi, fell from C to F and was ranked 77th as of episode 3. 

Park Chanju, age 19, label mate of Chaejeong’s, fell from C to D and was ranked 69th. 

Ko Yujin, age 17, the “Hyuna lookalike” who auditioned with Lip and Hip and rose from C to A. She was ranked 34th.

Lee Chaejeong, age 18, future member of Alice, stayed in C and was ranked 94th. 

We skip to dress rehearsal and the judges are complimenting them on their skills, talent, energy, and charisma. They do say, however, the Chanju is lacking a bit as center, and suggest that maybe they should change. In a flashback-within-the-flashback, we see them at rehearsal with Mary J Lee, where Chanju is making a lot of mistakes. Mary J Lee suggests changing the center to Yujin. Then we go to vocal/rap rehearsal, where Cheetah tries to get Chanju to put a little more “oomph” into her introductory “Black World in your area…”. Chanju is pronouncing it “annea” not “area”, too. Cheetah is like, “This is basically your only line -- can you not do it right?” and Chanju just keeps doing it the same way. Chaejeong tries and does a much better job, and Soyou suggests changing the center to Chaejeong. 

LTR: Sohee, Chaejeon, Chanju, Kojin, Soyeon

They have a meeting to discuss it and Chanju apologizes for all the mistakes. Chaejeong, who is Chanju’s labelmate and her friend, tells her it’s ok, there’s still time to improve.

They exchange a look...

and then Chanju collapses into tears. 

Her team tries to cheer her up. She continues quietly sobbing through her whole interview. She vows to make her team not doubt their decision to keep her as center. 

And that’s it! That’s all the rehearsal footage they get. 

Here’s PD48 editing’s blessed edit. 

LTR: Chaejeong, Sohee, Chanju, Yujin, Soyeon

Clockwise from bottom left: Yujin, Sohee, Chanju, Soyeon, Chaejeong

I don’t think the stylist unnie did them too many favors. This is all just black and white, no color at all, and Chaejeong’s outfit just adds bulk around her middle instead of emphasizing her curves. You can tell she’s a pretty trim and fit girl, but that’s not how she looks in the outfit. Chanju’s outfit is the worst offender -- the loose knit shorts with a weird suspender/ garter belt thingy over it? What is that? And those trouser socks pulled up to her knee? What is happening? At least her hair looks gorgeous. 

My thoughts:

Kind of underwhelming. Not terrible, but not spectacular.

Chanju does her best as center, and she does manage that first moment ok. I don’t know what, specifically, is missing. 

Her hairography is great, though.

I think the biggest problem is Sohee. 

I think you guys know by now that I quite like Rocket Punch, and Sohee does a great job as a member of Rocket Punch. But… she’s so young here and really doesn’t fit the concept. She also doesn’t do a very good job, unfortunately. Her dancing is weak and vague, her singing is wavery and pitchy, and she looks completely out of place next to most of the others. I know that Chaejeong picked her to “add cuteness” but I’m not sure that this group needed cuteness. It needed a 100% badass team to really rock it, and Sohee is very much the weakest link. Not her fault. She just needed more time to grow her skillset, and she needs a different concept to really shine. Never fear, Sohee! You’re going to debut in just a few years and do great! This just wasn’t your time. 

Soyeon’s singing anchored the team and she had the look and attitude down. There’s a bit of spark missing, I think? But it’s not anything I can pin down. 

Chaejeong killed it. Her rapping sounded great to me, and her attitude and performance overall was great. 

Yujin also killed it. Everything Chaejeong did, just with Korean-approved visuals too. I think she should have been the center. 

The MNET edit has lots of positive reactions from the other and from the judges, but they actually cut out a few seconds of the performance for no reason I can figure out. As Chaejeong raps, we hear Chetah saying, “She’s so full of charisma -- she’s made to perform.” The trainees and judges are signing and dancing along, and when the performance is done, they applaud with apparent sincerity. 

When they’re done, we go almost immediately to Group 2.

Soyou says,

“I think I’ll cry if they [group 2] do well.”

Dance Bae notes that both teams have good visuals, and the judges all say that they’re cheering for Group 2.

The members:

Han Cho Won, age 15, future Lightsum member who rose from D to B, ranked 79th.

Asai Nanami, age 18, aka Sailor Venus, who rose from F to D and was ranked 41st.

Asai Yuuka, age 14, who auditioned with Knock Knock, rose from F to D and was ranked 80th. 

Chiba Erii, age 14, aka Sailor Mercury, consistent F class girl ranked 38th.

Kang Hyewon, age 18, Miss Purity herself, consistent F class girl ranked 40th. 

Sato Minami, age 14, aka Sailor Mars, fell from D to F and was ranked 66th.

The story so far is that this group is the “leftovers” group -- the group of trainees no one else picked. Han Chowon, a member of group B and a talented young trainee, took over as leader and center because no one else would, and Kang Hyewon, the slightly dimwitted seeming Very Pretty Girl, unexpectedly stepped up to take on the main rapper role.

We jump back to rehearsals. 

Han Chowon is going through it. She’s exhausted from her quadruple role as leader, center, cheerleader, and teacher to the rest of the group. “I’m trying hard to lead the group,” she says, “but not everyone is able to follow along.”

I know this is a moment of them resting, and Erii is obviously watching the performance on the tablet, but they just look so dispirited. I think that’s Sato Minami on the left with her hair over her face -- I think she’s asleep, actually -- and that’s Asai Nanami sitting on the floor staring off into space. 

A staff member asks Chowon, what is the most frustrating aspect? And Chowon pauses for a long time before saying, “Sure, we had members who worked very hard” (and the camera shows us Nanami running through the moves) “but a few members made me doubt if they even wanted to perform” (and the camera points out Minami and Erii, giggling together, or sitting on the floor and needing to be literally dragged into practicing). 

The problem seems to be the three 14-year-old Japanese members of the team. The two 18-year-olds, Nanami and Hyewon, do their best to literally drag them into practicing.

“Get up. We have to practice.” - Hyewon doing her best 

We saw stuff like this with some of the younger boys on Boys Planet, as well. It’s almost as if, oh, I don’t know, maybe most 14 year olds don’t have the emotional maturity to face up to a situation like this and rise to the challenge, or the physical strength to keep going when you’re exhausted and underfed -- not to mention the constant mental drain of being in an environment where you can’t speak your native tongue. It’s almost as if, oh, I don’t know, maybe they shouldn’t let 14 year olds on shows like this? 

Erii, who breathes through gills on her neck and thus wears her mask under her chin, interviews, “Korean raps are so difficult. The tempo is really fast.” 

Minami says she felt demotivated. G”I don’t think I tried very hard,” she interviews. God, she looks so miserable.

To the left: Team 1, rehearsing. To the right: Team 2, standing around. 

We go visit the girls at vocal rehearsal.

Minami, Erii, Yuuka, Nanami, Hyewon, Chowon 

Minami and Erii are shown sort of… murmuring vaguely, I guess I’ll say… in the opening lines, which are in English: “Been a bad girl, I know I am / and I’m so hot, I need a fan / I don’t want a boy, I need a man.” They are putting absolutely no emphasis or energy into it. Not even a little.

Look, I get it. Rapping along with a rap song not in your language is tough. But there are Korean rap songs I’ve heard enough times that I can at least do a “na na na” noise to in rhythm even though I have no idea what they’re saying. If I had two days of practice, I think I could learn two or three lines of lyrics, especially if I just had to read them off of a sheet of paper! Also, the opening lines of Boombayah are in English, and they’re the same lines in the Japanese version and the Korean version. The song was a monster hit -- did they not hear the song thousands of times? Didn’t they study English in school? These are all fairly elementary English words, I feel like. I’m not just tearing these girls down over nothing, but I feel like they’re not even TRYING. It’s uncomfortable to watch. 

Cheetah is like, “What are they DOING?” PS: I love when Cheetah does her heavy makeup, bright red lip thing. She’s such a queen. Have you listened to Villain yet? Because it slaps. 

Soyou is ded.  

They get to the first “Boombayah!” and Cheetah is like, ok, that’s enough. After an uncomfortable pause, Cheetah asks, “What was I supposed to even watch? … I don’t think this is a language barrier issue.” 

Soyou immediately agrees, asking them if they just aren’t trying because they don’t want to do it. Yuuka, who is also 14 but appears to be trying a bit harder than her young teammates, shakes her head no, and Nanami, the team “mom” I think, also shakes her head no, as if trying to say, no, we’re here to try. But Minami and Erii just stare. Minami looks sad, at least, but Erii is just… well, whatever this is. 

LTR: Minami, Erii, Yuuka, Nanami

Honestly, Erii’s dead eyed stares get on my last nerve. I am trying not to be mean about the girl because she’s young and under stress and all that but OMG. GIRL. WTF. Why are your bangs just a little clump in the center of your face, and why is your brain just a little clump in the middle of your head? Sigh. That’s mean. But I’m not deleting it. 

Soyou calls out Minami and Erii. Pointing to them, she asks, “Are you both that discontent? You’re not even nodding. Your not singing, you’re not replaying, you’re not responding.

Aww, Minami looks terrified. I feel for the kid, despite everything.

Soyou says, “If you don’t want to be taught, then get out.”  There’s a long pause again, then shes asks Hyewon to give it a shot. We’re reminded that Hyewon stepped up to be main rapper. She tries to say “Blackpink in your area,” but manages to give it the volume and enthusiasm you’d give the phrase “hey, can you pass me the salt?” while someone else is telling a story at the dinner table. 

Cheetah is trying not to lose her shit. 

She makes her do it again and she does it exactly the same every time, and every time she looks at Cheetah when she’s done, hoping for approval. Meanwhile, her attempts are so similar to each other that you could believe it’s just the same audio clip played over and over again, which, maybe it is. When Cheetah sort of yells at her, she laughs uncomfortably and apologizes. Cheetah is like, you don't have to be sorry to me. My butt isn’t getting on stage in a few days.

Soyou is all of us.

Ok, let's pick up immediately in the next post, because I'm out of space for photos!