Recap of Boys Planet Episode 1, Part 2
Part 1 was here. On to part 2!
Team USA performing Rush Hour
At about 58:00 in, it’s time for USA’s own Jay and Kamden to come back out. Jay is jabbering nervously in English as they come out from backstage. The trainees in the Space Council seem excited for USA to perform. One of the dance judges calls USA “Father, mother” (either that or he’s remember the words he learned in first year English class?).
The trainees are impressed with Jay and Kam’s swag. Wait until they hear them sing.
My take:
They’re really fucking good. I don’t have to explain this, right? They’re just actually good. They sing well, and perform well, on a singing/performance competition show, ahhh what a relief. Watch the Youtube version if you want to figure out how really really good Kamden is too. I don’t know why they focus so much more on Jay -- Kam kills it just as much. Jay does have a lovely vocal color, but Kamden does too!! I will also point out that Jay’s initial acapella singing was off key, but he must have been really nervous and exhausted.
The judges give Jay 4 stars ⭐⭐⭐⭐ and Kam only 3 ⭐⭐⭐, which is stupid and wrong because Kam also should get 4 stars. Whatever.
The judges notice that the American kids know to bow 90 degrees. Hey, there’s a lot that goes into successful Kpopping. Bow a lot, future foreign kpoppers. When it doubt, bow.
At 1:00:34 the judges say that it’s time for a break, so it’s time for the trainees to go adjust their makeup and talk about how handsome and talented everyone is, and whether they think K or G will win the day. Feel free to skip to 1:02:00 for the next segment:
Yuehua K versus Yuehua G.
G on the left, K on the right.
I assume that the long term plan here is for all (or most) of these eight boys to debut as one group down the road; that would be smart, because we’d know them all at least a little bit, and many of them are fairly memorable. I bet that would work -- We really have no way to know how well they know each other -- do they train together in Korea? Hard to be sure. But the impression I get is that they do know each other, and while they’re feeling competitive right now, I think they are also cheering for each other deep down. I mean, look at Brian (fourth from the left) grinning at the others.
Ji Yun Seo, fifth from the left, says that the K-members are a bit better, again suggesting that they know each other a bit. Ricky (blonde) trash talks back in a combination of Korean and English. The trainees in the Space Council are edited to seem anxious about all of this.
Kick It (G)
Zhang Hao: 22 years old, Chinese: “I’m the musical prodigy and ace leader.”
Ricky: 18 years old, Chinese (in English): I’m young and rich, tall and handsome, Ricky.”
Ollie: 16 years old, Chinese. “I’m your chocolate! Ollie is the youngest.”
Brian: 20 years old, Canadian “I’m Brian, with a soft voice.”
Hao and Ricky tell the Space Council that Ollie is nervous and get the trainees to cheer for him, which they do willingly. He’s cyoo!!
Ollie is wearing the same overalls that Yuehua’s Justin wore in Season 2 of PD101.
Everyone says that Brian is handsome, even the MNET editing team, who give him a halo.
The judges ask Hao about his “prodigy” status, and he explains that he can play a lot of instruments and in fact studied music in university. I love it when an idol has genuine musical talent. A staffer brings out his “not that expensive” 10 million won violin (about $7,500) and he plays beautifully. Everyone enjoys the moment of classiness. And then… we begin.
My take: I sort of fell in love with this song when it was performed by Seo Young Eun and Yoon Ji A in Girls Planet 999. I know, N-citizens are like, wut, but yeah. I did. Now I like it a lot, and have opinions as to how it should be performed.
If you don’t do that arms up over your head movement to “New thangs! New thangs!” with the right kind of ominous, confident energy, then why do it at all?
And for me, none of them really did it quite right. Ricky has a look like he should be able to do it, but somehow, he fell a bit flat for me on stage. I bet they were all nervous, though. Ricky did that cool flip, they all had variable facial expressions, and all of them kept up the energy. Really, they all did fine, just not superb.
Zhang Hao: He made eye contact with the camera, which a lot of other trainees were nervous to do. Obviously the best singer in the group, and he held that long note accurately -- but it didn’t exactly sound nice, if you catch me. Still, I can see why the judges give him 4 stars ⭐⭐⭐⭐-- it’s not unearned.
Ricky: He has a strange charisma, where he looks great in still photos, but somehow falls flat when he’s moving. I think he must have been a lot more nervous than he even seemed, so I’ll kind of cut him a bit of slack and see what else he can do. I think 3 stars ⭐⭐⭐ was more than fair for that -- if they had given him 2 I wouldn’t have been shocked, but maybe they bumped it up for his flippy flip.
Ollie: Rapped very clearly, with good pronunciation on the English and what I assume was good pronunciation on the Korean. I was actually wondering if he might have spent some time in the US or Canada, and all I can find is that he was a child model, so he might have traveled around a lot. Three stars ⭐⭐⭐ again seems fair.
Brian: Did a decent job dancing and was mostly on key/rhythm singing. He’s on his way, for sure. The judges give him 3 stars ⭐⭐⭐, which seems right, though I think some others with similar performances got lower scores.
Backstage, the Korean Yuehua trainees note that the G-group did the same as when they (the K group) were “monitoring them” -- again implying that they train in the same building, and maybe just split up when they were prepping for this show.
The judges hand out their stars, and the G-group members congratulate Hao (Ollie calls him Hyung, like a Korean kid would) and the other three try to be ok with their three stars. Hao vows that all four will get 4 stars next time.
Kick It (K)
Now it’s time for the K-group to come out and also perform Kick It. Let’s get it! (1:11:10)
When they come out, the G-group Yuehua teams waves to them cheerfully from their seats in the Space Council.
Yeah, they’re totally buddies.
K group introduce themselves:
Ji Yun Seo: (18) ”I’m the energetic Dragon leader!”
Yoo Seung Eon: (19) “The main vocalist with a titanium voice.”
Han Yu Jin: (15) “the lovely charismatic golden maknae”
Kim Gyu Vin: (18) “the genius you want to see every day.”
The judges tease them about their supposed rivalry with the other half of Yuehua. Apparently, the G-group Yuehuas said that “our youngest” Han Jujin was the most likely to win an allstar. Han Yujin checks their formation before they get started and then we get down to it.
They do a brief intro first, featuring what must be original choreo, and then launch into their version of Kick It.
My take:
Yoo Seung Eon really does have a fantastic voice - I think he strains a bit and could benefit from additional training, but that’s the kind of feedback someone gets when they’re actually good, like he is. He dances better than some working main vocalists, too. His mic pack seemed to come loose for him (and for most of this group) and he delt with it pretty well. For me, he was the ace of this group, but you know. MNET hates vocalists. You’ll do a great job in the Yuehua boy group that will debut in 2024, Seung Eon. I’m already a fan.
Han Yu Jin is of course really great at dancing, and his one line was sung correctly. For me, there was something, I don’t know, stiff? one note?? about his dancing that was slightly off putting, and I don’t think he did the New Thangs part correctly. But he is a tiny baby and he’s just going to keep getting better and better with more training.
Ji Yun Seo danced with power and precision, and his singing voice was pleasant enough. I don’t have a ton to say, but really, he’s very good.
Kim Gyu Vin is a really good dancer. I’d watch a fancam of his. His mic pack came loose right at the beginning and that’s such a fucking bummer because I think it inhibited him a bit. But you still see his power, his charisma, his attention to detail. He did that New Thangs move correctly, looking down into the camera the whole time, so good. He only sang one line, and his vocal color is kind of foggy, but he’s on key and on rhythm -- exactly what you want from a main dancer.
The Yuehua-G group seems proud of their chingoos, and say, basically, that they feel like they didn’t know quite how good they were until now.
MNET’s editing is hyper focused on Han Yu Jin for whatever reason, and the judges tell him he dances like one of them, so that’s big. I understand why the judges were so excited about him -- that good that young! They ask him to freestyle, and he does a freestyle popping-heavy routine that leaves the other trainees wondering how he could be that good.
The judges are about to award their stars when Gyu Vin asks to do something else for them, specifically dance to REVEAL by The Boyz. He takes off his shoes, he’s so into it. I think he does great with this performance, too, though I can’t really tell through the editing.
Ok, so I was watching his performance, and I said to myself, “Self,” I said, “there’s a boy who idolizes Kai from Exo.” I looked it up, and turns out I was right -- Kai is in fact one of his idols. So, good job, me.
All four of them are given All Star ranking⭐⭐⭐⭐, and I can’t disagree with any of that. The judges act as if Gyu Vin’s dance to REVEAL put him into 4 star territory, but for me Kick It already did that. The G-group Yuehua teammates seem sincerely happy for the other four. Zhang Hao in particular seems emotionally touched.
And, yeah, overall, I’m excited for all eight of these boys to hopefully end up in a group together. I like all eight of them and think that together they’d be better than apart.
1:23:55 Next Segment: My House
Everyone is excited when the Cube trainee comes out, and it turns out to be Bak Do Ha, in his blue satin shirt. The camera tries to zoom in on the quarter inch of exposed chest we can almost see between his lapels. Sexy sexy satin! He haltingly introduces himself by saying “With a cute face but a voice that isn’t,” which I think is a reference to his voice being deep.
He’s here to perform My House, by 2PM. This is a great song and if you’re not familiar with the original, go check it out. It’s great. The whole thing with this song is that the 2PM guys are all tall -- between 5’10 and 6’1 -- and were all fairly mature when it came out in 2015 -- they would have been between 25 and 28. It’s like, “hey pretty lady, we’re both adults, let’s go home together. Take my hand, let’s go.” The choreography is a little silly looking, so you have to deliver it with all the confidence of an ostrich doing its mating dance.
20-year old Bak Do Ha is not as confident as an ostrich, because he’s not as good a dancer as an ostrich, and he has one of those uncomfortable deep voices that are a little hard to coax into melody. Good looking guy, though, and he seems to charm Lip J into wanting to take his hand, but mostly what his dance inspires is laughter. Perhaps they’re not exactly laughing at him, though -- they’re laughing at “the other guy.”
That’s when we, the audience, find out that what actually happened, in real time, was this: red-shirt wearing 23-year-old Jung Min Gyu, from an agency I’ve never heard of called CABIN74, came out first, performed My House by 2pm, and then shortly thereafter, Bak Do Ha came out and did the same song. But for no real reason, the MNET editors were just like WHAT IS TIME? WHAT IS CHRONOLOGY? and decided to tell the story in flashback.
So now we get to see Jung Min Gyu’s attempt. It’s even worse than Doha’s version, for kind of the same reasons -- he seems embarrassed of the song, embarrassed of his sexy satin shirt, embarrassed to be singing and dancing in front of judges. He seems relieved when they laugh at him, because he had expected them to be silently angry. Poor guy. CABIN74 is a newish agency, and mostly made news for signing, and then losing, a member of T-ARA. I think they mostly have actors under their banner, and maybe this guy really wants to be an actor. I mean, I hope he does. He claims his specialty is “Changing facial expressions quickly” and that his favorite song is by Barry Manilow. So, yeah. It would make sense if he were trying to be an actor, not really an idol.
The other thing about their performances is that this choreography, like a lot of choreography, looks really silly all by itself. Perhaps because of this, the judges ask Mingyu (red) to come up and join Doha (blue) and they dance together -- Mingyu takes off his shoes because they’re “slippery” -- and it’s obvious to everyone that they look much better together than they did on their own…. but that they’re still not good.
Apparently this moment has gone viral, and I mean, sure, it was fun.
My take is that it’s not good in a genuine way -- I feel like we’re laughing at them, not with them. I think it was mean to have either of them perform alone and it was mean to give them this song. That’s my take.
Both trainees get zero stars, which is harsh but fair.
1:31:57 Team Hot
This Chinese team wearing red outfits consists of Wang Yan Hong, 24, and Yang Jun, 23. Neither appears to be signed to an agency.
My take:
Yeah, this isn’t so good. They wander from the key and rush the rhythm really badly, the high notes are too high for them, and they have not great vocal color. They aren’t synchronized in their dancing, and this choreo looks silly done by done two people instead of 13. They are committed and have decent facial expressions, and they don’t laugh or otherwise undercut themselves, but yeah, this isn’t great.
But I think the reason that people kind of like this performance in a weird way (the existence of this video argues that point) is that they’re human beings trying their best, doing something they’re maybe not that great at. There’s something charming about a real human. Yoo Seung Eon from Yuehua, the one with the “titanium voice,” seems somehow super human when he sings. Maybe we don’t always want titanium idols; we want idols who are flesh and blood. Hence the fame of William Hung, hence the win of Kim So-hye in PD101-1, hence the rise of singing groups in kpop who really can’t sing (I shall name no names because I enjoy being alive).
Oh boy, the MNET editing makes them look even worse. Anyone would look bad if you interrupt and replay 2 seconds every 5 seconds. In the full-cam Youtube version, you can hear that the Space Council cheers when Yan Hong and Jun finish, but in the MNET editing, they end to complete silence. I don’t know why MNET editing, and the judges, went so hard against these two. They weren’t that much worse than anyone else. Yes, they earned their zero stars fairly, but there was no reason to be so cruel. They were gentle with Jung Min Gyu, the red-shirted My House performer -- maybe because he’s Korean.
Criminal I
Next up is Lee Dong Gun, one of two trainees who audition with Taemin’s Criminal.
Donggun is only 17 and admires both of the male dance masters, and is clearly here in his capacity as a dancer. No mention is made of his young age, or his bravery at performing alone, or the difficulty of trying to do a cover of a song originally performed by arguably the best dancer in all of kpop. Nope, no reason to mention any of that. Instead, let’s play only his worst high notes, edit it to make it comical and insulting, and then focus on the judges saying things like he was never on key for a single moment.
You guys, check out the full cam on youtube. He’s 90% on key for the first minute or so, and yeah, after the one minute mark it goes off the rails. But watch it on mute if you have to. His dancing is good. These are intricate, strange, varied movements he’s doing, and he’s doing it with commitment and bravery. The notes are wrong, but he sings them with some lung strength. Compare his singing to that of Haruto, who the judges inexplicably gave a 4-star rating despite his horrible, terrible, no good singing. Compare Donggun’s singing to that of Taemin or Kai when they debuted, or Sehun when… now. Sehun now. (Sorry, all. I’m Exo-L, I’m allowed to say this.)
Heck, compare Donggun’s singing to that of any MR removed performance of pretty much any non-SM boy group. Enhypen springs to mind as a group whose MR removed videos don’t exactly show them in a great light. Why? Because they’re DANCERS. I like Enhypen a lot, and will delightedly watch Niki and Jay fancams. But I don’t fool myself that they’re singers. Come on, Engenes, you know it’s true.
So my point is…. I guess my point is, I don’t know why I put myself through watching these shows. The judging is so random and the editing is so awful. Why does Haruto get off scot free and they come down so hard on poor Donggun? I don’t get it.
Anyway, they give Donggun 1 star ⭐.
Then we get a montage of bad singers, none of whom are as bad as Haruto was. We see:
Jeon Woo Seok, performing Criminal
Wen Ye Chen, part of the Call Me Baby team
Jang Min Seo and Jung Se Yun Performing Damdadi by Golden Child, their Woolim sunbaes
Osuke and Yuki performing Crown by TXT
Then we get a montage of harsh judges comments about their singing, followed by a general admonition to the Space Council to be better singers, which pisses me off for a lot of reasons.
First off, there’s nothing they can do about it right now, you dumb dumbs. It’s probably 2 or 3 in the morning, and they’ve been there for 22 hours. They’re 16 or 18 or 20 years old. They’re terrified and undertrained. You yelling at them will not make them better singers, right now, in the remaining minutes or hours before they stand before you.
Also, and while I hold the opinion that Kpop singing has gotten terrible across the board and I would like to see more groups like EXO who can actually fucking sing, like is that too much to ask??, I also know, as these boys must know, that singing in Kpop is low key optional. Hell, look at how the MNET editing is already pushing Haruto at us and hiding how bad his singing is. If I were them, I’d be genuinely angry to be yelled at at this point.
Anyway. Deep breaths.
I watched all four of these performances so you don’t have to. Let me give you the dealie.
Criminal II performed by Jeon Woo Seok
He was really committed to the performance -- I mean, peep the bare feet, the binding on his hands, and expression. He had his hands tied together for the whole first half, and tore off his binding with his teeth. If you watch it on mute, it all actually looks pretty good! I bet his idol Taemin would see something to complement here. Watch the position of his hands and feet -- he really is doing the thing. He’s 19 years old and he dances some difficult choreography with maturity and grace. He doesn’t crack up or giggle at having to be sexy. He just does it. He had the same commitment that Shim Seungeun had when she did Paradise Lost in GP999.
Yep, his singing was in fact, egregious. Both off key and off rhythm. Unforgivably bad. But Haruto’s was worse. The judges were just wrong to give him 0 stars.
Call Me Baby
Krystian, 23, was also on Youth With You 3, and was regarded very well on that show. Judges gave him 2 stars ⭐⭐.
Wen Ye Chen is 22. The judges gave him 1 star⭐. His finger looks weird in the picture because he was moving.
Chen Yu Geng, 24, is also known as Crayon. The judges gave him 1 star ⭐.
Chen Jian Yu, 24, got 1 star ⭐.
My take:
As a big Exo-L, I didn’t hate their performance. I love this song -- in fact, it might be my favorite Exo title track??? -- but I’m the first to admit the choreo is really weird, and for the most part, I think these guys pulled it off. I won’t say seek it out and watch it, but it’s really not that bad.
Wen Yu Chen was the main vocalist, and he was stepping in the footsteps of vocal giants. Who among us can sing Kyungsoo’s “Hey girl”? For the majority of the time, he was totally on key and fine, you guys. His voice sounded a bit thick to me, the way people’s voices sound when they’re straining or a little sick. But he hit a lot of the notes and danced the steps. I think 2 stars would have been fairer.
Krystian was a little flat, but he actually has a nice husky vocal color, and there’s something sort of just compelling about him. I looked into him, and on Youth With You he auditioned as a rapper. I think that he stepped up to the plate to sing because someone had to, and did his best. I’m glad he got 2 stars -- it could have been worse.
Crayon and Jian Yu didn’t stand out to me in any particular way, but weren’t ear shattering or anything.
Damdadi performed by Jang Min Seo (16, left) and Jung Se Yun (15, right).
Jang Min Seo has already left the show, citing extreme knee pain, but maybe it was because the judges were so cruel to him and to Se Yun. Se Yun is the third youngest on the whole show, just a month older than Takuto and 5 months younger than Yuehua’s monster rookie Han Yu Jin. Like, hey, if you’re going to have high school sophomores on this show, can you at least not be mean to them?
I wasn’t familiar with this song, but I listened to the original and I feel like they were doing their best to emulate their sunbaenim. The song was well chosen for them, youthful and cute, and I think they brought nice energy to it. They both danced so hard their nametags fell off! I think they both had a little trouble with some of the footwork, and lost their balance a few times. But they both stayed on key as far as I could tell, and Se Yun rapped really fast. And if Min Seo was in horrible knee pain, you can’t really tell in the audition -- he keeps smiling. Poor kids.
The judges gave them both zero stars. I think 1 star would have been fair.
Crown by TXT performed by Osuke (19, darker hair) and Yuki (21, lighter hair), both from Japan
Ah, what a great song. Not a great performance.
Sometimes they sang sharp, sometimes they sang flat. They may have had trouble finding the key since it had been transposed lower. When you’re used to a song in a certain key, as they probably are used to the original version of this song, it’s hard to switch to a different key sometimes. You have to take your cue from what you’re hearing in your headset, and maybe they had trouble doing that. Or maybe they just have trouble… you know… singing.
The dancing felt kind of cursory to me, as well. If you’re going to make a heart with your hands or arms, you have to do that long enough and with enough sharpness that I can get a screenshot of it.
Osuke got 1 star⭐, and I’m not sure how he was better than Jeon Woo Seok (who performed Criminal barefoot).
Yuki got 0 stars, which seems fair.
Ok, so our “bad singers montage” is over. The judges congratulate themselves on having yelled at their young trainees.
1:38:25 Final Stretch
The sun has set (filming began in early December, so if the sun was setting it was around 5pm) and many trainees have not yet auditioned. Assuming an average of 2 trainees per song and 10 minutes per audition, it would take around 500 minutes (8 hours, 20 minutes) to see them all. Hey, here’s a thought, MNET -- film this over two days. You could make them all wear the same clothes for the two days and pretend like you filmed it all on one day, but just give it two days so you aren’t filming until 3am and making your young trainees sick.
All I Wanna Do
Next up is Seok Matthew, from Canada. Brian, the Canadian Yuehua trainee, cheers loudly, and other trainees seem very welcoming. The judges say he looks like Xiumin, validating me at a level I had not expected.
What do you all think? Does Matthew look like Xiumin?
Before Matthew can perform, we get a flashback to earlier in the day. Turns out that Sung Han Bin, who will be performing next, knows Matthew from when they trained at Cube together. (Which also suggests that they might both know Hui.) Hyung Hanbin is super supportive of Matthew, and waits back stage as Matthew performs.
My take:
Overall, I think he’s great. He sounds a bit sharp to me a lot of the time, which could be nerves -- he really did sound nervous. He has a lot of charm somehow that just makes him fun to watch. Maybe it’s the North American in me reacting to the North American in him -- I like how natural he seems on stage. He doesn’t sound out of breath even though he’s dancing pretty hard.
The editing makes him look even better. Aww, Hanbin is shedding relieved tears backstage! How sweet. The judges are weirdly in line with me on this. They say he’s a bit sharp, which, yes, and fun to watch. They give Matthew three stars ⭐⭐⭐, which disappoints the Space Council, but I think it’s fair, or at least it would have been if other people who were worse than him hadn’t gotten four stars.
Beautiful Beautiful At 1:45:45
HanBin comes out and says that he spent two years as a backup dancer, specializing in tutting and waacking. Naturally, LipJ challenges him to a waacking battle and it’s really fun to watch. The editing makes it almost impossible to tell what they’re actually doing, alas, but it’s still fun.
Then the judges ask him why he didn’t check off “vocal” on his intake form (shown below with a translation). He says that he isn’t confident about his vocals and wants to work on them here.
He also says that during the years he spent as a backup dancer, he wondered if he could ever make it as an idol. Hey, HanBin, have you seen yourself in a mirror lately?
He didn’t check off “visual” on his application form!! Just “dance” and “choreography.” Wild!! (Here is a screenshot of the part of the form they showed, with my translations below it.)
My take:
Ok, as a full on Fuse (fan of ONF), I am so psyched that their songs are being seen and heard more often. Beautiful Beautiful is such an ONF song -- it’s hard to imagine anyone else doing a song like this. If you don’t really know ONF, you might know the “smiley boy” who did a dance cover of Hype Boy at a military talent show? That’s J-US from ONF, who looks great with a shaved head.
Anyway, I love this song.
And I liked this performance! Boy was I wrong about this pretty boy -- he can dance and mostly sing! I’d give him 3.5 stars for dance, 3 stars for performance, and like 2.5 stars for singing. So I’d give him 3 stars overall, and yeah, that’s what the judges give him ⭐⭐⭐. I felt like he was a tiny bit stiff, holding back a little, and a few of his movements kind of don’t play as well as they could. But the changes he made to the choreo to include more tutting style moves actually work really well with the choreo as it stood. He has both power and control and looks great on stage. Born to be a K-idol.
That’s kind of what the judges say too -- that during his performance he seemed a tiny bit flat compared to when he was waacking with LipJ. The judges praise his singing too. So I’m like, 2-for-30 with the judges today.
Hanbin seems perfectly happy with three stars, which makes him look like a real sweet guy. Wow, he’s pretty, and humble, and skillful? Hanbin is so making the final lineup, don’t you think? (I’m saying this only having watched the first episode -- this is a prediction based on what I’m seeing, not a spoiler.)
The judges say that any agency that had both Hanbin and Matthew must have been good, and the camera cuts to Hui, with the caption “proud of Cube.” Um, I bet not. Every trainee at Cube hates Cube.
Cry Time: Shine 1:53:55
Next out are Ichika(30), Itsuki (16), and Ouju(18) all Japanese trainees. Yes, Ichika is 30 -- he’s about 10 months older than Hui. The average age of the trainees, according to my spreadsheet, is 20. But he doesn’t look out place here. Part of the joy of a song like Shine is that you’re kind of supposed to look like mismatched dorks, all different heights and styles.
But of course, they’re not really here to audition, at least not according to the MNET editors. They’re here to make Hui cry by performing Shine. Well, they’re here to make the entire Space Council cry.
So first, I'll explain why Shine would make Hui cry, for anyone who doesn’t know. Shine was a huge hit, and rightfully so. It was so beloved. For some reason, it didn’t win any music show awards, but whatever, it was a bonafide hit. And then E’Dawn got kicked out, and E’Dawn was a major sort of “face” of the group. Tons of scandal. Fans saying they’d boycott them if E’Dawn didn't get kicked out, and other fans saying they’d boycott them if E’Dawn DID get kicked out. And their next few songs just didn’t chart, despite being great. The guys must have thought they were at the start of a major break through, and then it looked like they were more like one-hit wonders.
For Hui, thinking back to Shine, back to that time when it looked like they were going to be big, when everything seemed possible, but knowing that it all crashed and burned…. Yeah, it would make me teary do. I mean, it does make me teary. I mean, I am crying.
When they’re done performing, the judges ask Hui what he thought of their performance, and he doesn’t really give any feedback. He just says, “I had a great time watching your performance, and I was grateful as the original artist. Thank you.” Then he bows like, 120 degrees to them.
My take on their actual performance:
If you watch their practice video, there were originally six of them performing together, and apparently three of them were sick or injured or something. I’m not clear on that yet. So they had to scramble and redistribute the lines and remake the choreo at the last minute. I won’t go too hard on them.
Ouju’s voice cracked several times. Ichika was off key most of the time, but he does do the heavy lifting, singing a lot of the lines. Itsuki’s vocals were also not fantastic. But they all brought that silly, “I’m a dork” energy to the choreo that you have to bring for this song, and they all kept going and didn’t give up. It’s actually kind of fun watching them, as unpleasant as it is to listen to them.
The MNET editing is kind, actually.
The judges give Ouju and little Itsuki no stars, and give tall Ichika one star⭐. That seems about right.
As of 1:57:00 it looks like Hui might be going next, but if you know MNET at all you know he won’t really perform until next time. They sure do find some clips to make it look like he does poorly and gets zero stars or something.
And that’s pretty much the end of the episode, except for the live ranking! Here’s the ranking. Trainees who I haven’t mentioned or seen before will be in italics; I’ll try to give you a reminder as to who the rest are.
Sung Han Bin - pretty tutting boy
Kim Ji Woong - we saw him in the audience often, for example wishing he could go to university in Winnie’s place
Han Yu Jin - the young phenom from the Korean Kick It team
Lee Da Eul - walked in first
Kim Gyu Vin - the very confident dancer from Korean Kick It
Lee Hoe Taek - Hui
Zhang Hao - the leader/good singer from G-group Kick It
Anthonny - the cutey from Glitch Mode
Kim Taerae
Cha Woong Ki - we haven’t met him but he debuted as Woonggi in T01
Hiroto (not Haruto!)
Ricky - the blonde tall guy from G-group Kick It
Lee Seung Hwan
Keita - debuted with Ciipher
Park Gun Wook - sexy guy from Jellyfish and GBTB
Ma Jing Xiang
Oh Sung Min - We haven’t met him, but he debuted as Jerome in T01
Seo Won -we haven’t met him but he debuted in NINE.i
Lim Jun Seo - came in first
Takuto - little boxer
Krystian - on the Call Me Baby team
Zhang Shui Bo
Ollie - in the overalls, G-group Kick It
Mun Jung Hyun- we saw him in the audience a few times
Dang Hong Hai - blonde Vietnamese guy from View
Lee Dong Yeol - we haven’t met him but he’s in Up10tion as Xiao
Bak Do Ha - blue shirt “My House”
Chen Jian Yu - on Call Me Baby team
Wang Zi Hao
Jay - excellent American singer
Kum Jun Hyeon - fought for chair 1
Seok Matthew - Canadian, went by himself toward the end
Xuan Hao - blonde member of Team God’s Menu
Park Han Bin
Lee Jeong Hyeon
Yuki - lighter haired “Crown” by TXT performer
Brian - on Kick It - G team
Lee Hwan Hee - we haven’t met him, but he’s a member of Up10tion and has an amazing voice that a lot of people agree sounds a lot like Baekyhun from Exo so of course I think he’s great
Haruto - amazing dancer, cutey pie, bad singing, All Star
Park Hyun Been - rapper on team GBTB
Choi Woo Jin
Cai Jin Xin
Lee Dong Gun - performed Criminal wearing shoes
Yoo Seung Eon - “titanium voice” singer on Kick It -K
Lee YeDam - saw him in the audience a few times
Choi Seung Hun
Park JiHoo - told Hui “I just got here”
Jung Ho Jin
Wumuti - ethnic Uyghur from China
Jung Min Gyu - red shirt My House guy
Jang Yeo Jun - on team GBTB
Jeong I Chan - we haven’t met him but he was on I-LAND (as Jaeboem)
Haru
Chen Kuan Jui - super flexible guy
Choi Ji Ho
Wen Ye Chen - main vocal on Call Me Baby team
Yutaka
Ichika - tallest member of Team Shine
Chen Ren You - my favorite in Tiger Inside
Jeon Woo Seok - barefoot Criminal performer
Park Gwan Young
Hyo
Osuke- on team Crown by TXT
Park Min Seok
Itsuki - wore the hat in Shine
Cong - brown haired Vietnamese trainee from View
Ouju - voice cracker from Shine
Jung Se Yun - the short haired member of team Damdadi
Yuto
Han Seo Bin
Nice - the shy no-eye contact Thai guy
Jang Ji Ho - we haven’t met him but he debuted in NINE.i
Yoon Jong Woo
Han Yu Seop - from team GBTB
Chen Yu Geng/Crayon - blonde member of Call Me Baby
Kei
Winnie - Thai guy who turned down university to do Kpop
Kim Min Seoung
Wang Yan Hong - on team HOT by SVT
Min - Thai member of Glitch Mode
Jeon Ho Young
Na Kamden - was partnered with Jay
Chen Liang - on God’s Menu
Yang Jun - on team HOT by SVT
Toui
Ji Yun Seo - the leader of team Kick It-K
Hong Kong Hee
Qiu Shen Yang- blonde member of team Tiger Inside
Lin Shi Yuan - red haired member of God’s Menu who rushed the rhythm so much
Kim Min Hyuk
Dong Dong - from Team Tiger Inside
Feng Jun Lan - dark haired member of God’s Menu who I thought was pretty good
Riku - we only saw him get his seat stolen
Ok, that’s it! Thanks for reading.
Here's Episode 2's recap, right here.
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