#riku wo

[riku-wo]

Despite Everything, it's still you ❤️️

(i hope i'm not late)

[aaozora]

たとえあなたを忘れても / Even if I Forget You (2023)

[aitsuheart]

Chapter 3 - Don't Think Twice One Shots

He looks like me— or maybe it's the both of us combined

Sneakpeek:

"I thought he was me at first when I saw him at the Toy Box world," Sora began explaining the story, "...but I never looked that good looking. Goofy insisted it was you. And Donald kept saying, it wasn't me."

Riku stared, "Good Looking?"

"Hey you're blushing!" Sora suddenly pointed out speaking louder than before.

Riku turned his head slightly away, "No... I'm not."

[kaizokuou-ni-naru]

Hello! With the recent revelation in Chapter 1113 by Vegapunk, I was wondering if you think this is what Cobra was saying in the speech bubble that gets blocked in chapter 1085? Something like “sinking world”?

Are there any clues for this in the original Japanese?

oh, good question!! so, here's what this section looks like in japanese. the first phrase appears to be 歴史の本文を守りなさい/ponegurifu wo mamorinasai, "protect the poneglyphs." and then there's the big obscured bit, of course, and then we can see the end of the sentence, 世界に夜明けの旗をかかげ/sekai ni yoake no hata wo kakage ("bear/raise the flag of dawn against the [...] world").

what's missing is indeed some sort of phrase preceding/describing the word 'world'. i know that in the english translation they did this as "...ING WORLD". we can see that it probably ends with the sounds ～りく/~riku, but what it might be beyond that is hard to say. there's a few situations where a word might end with ku in japanese; it could be a verb with a ku dictionary ending (like tsuku, 'to be attached') or it could be an adverb version of an adjective (such as atarashiku, 'newly', or ookiku, 'in a big way').

i can't really think of an obvious way to say 'sinking' that would fit what we have here- at least, neither 沈む/shizumu nor 沈んでいる/shizundeiru fits. but i do think it's definitely plausible for the sinking world to be what cobra is describing here, one way or another.

[wen-kexing-apologist]

Rose's Day of Asks

Who were some of your favourite overall performances in terms of physical acting? Hands, face, body, whatever you prefer.

Have a great Day💜

 Hmm this is is a really hard question to- 

Billkin in I Told Sunset About You

Billkin as Teh is one of my favorite physical performances, not just in BL but of all time. I said this in The Conversation episode where we talked about I Told Sunset About You but for a boy that does not say much, Teh is incredibly loud as a character. The way he sits up, the way his face falls, the way he always circles, the grandiose and the miniscule ways that his body reflects his emotions. Do not get me wrong, PP is gorgeous and devastating in his role as Oh, but Billkin has a very very difficult character to contend with and to embody and from the posture, to the motion, the anger, the tears, the jealousy, the joy. He is constantly, constantly moving: tapping his fingers, shaking his leg, pacing, peeking, there is no way Teh is not an exhausting role to play, and he absolutely nailed it.  

[the rest of these are in no particular order, but there are so many, you really need to limit me to like..five cause I can’t do that on my own.]

Nike Nitidon in 180 Degree Longitude Passes Through Us 

Nike as Inthawut is an understated physical performance that I really enjoyed, Inthawut as a character is incredibly self-isolating, distrusting, shameful, and Nike carries that character very stiffly, squared shoulders, rimrod back, but he still moves with such grace to him. I watched all of 180 Degrees just thinking “he’s moving like a dancer” the entire time. Which is such a fascinating way to exist in a story where Inthawut and Sasiwimol as characters are engaging in a sort of social dance around each other and around Wang as they attempt to deflect questions about Siam. 

Hagiwara Riku in My Beautiful Man: Eternal 

Hagiwara is incredible generally but I really want to highlight his performance in My Beautiful Man: Eternal which has one of my favorite acting moments of BL. That is his performance when he is rescuing Kiyoi from Anna’s stalker. He moves so swiftly, so gracefully on a dime between threatening and violent, to soft and loving in his body and in his voice and in the shimmer in his eyes. Is it a surprise that he was able to pull that off? No, he showed such incredible range in his physical performance in the original season jumping between the timid, awkward, pushover to the loud, aggressive to the point of needing three people to hold him down, when he is defending Kiyoi, but it was truly so fun to watch him turn it on and off at any time. 

Also just an additional shout out to Yasei Yugei, specifically for the scene in Utsukushii Kare 2 when Hira tells him he doesn’t love him. The way his face fell? Incredible. 

Hasegawa Makoto in Koi wo Suru nara Nidome ga Joto

I wouldn’t say Hasegawa as Miyata is overall my favorite physical performer, however he had one of my favorite face changes of all time in the episode 4 sex scene. The way he sets his lips, the challenging look in his eyes, it was such an incredibly impressive shift in Miyata who has until that point been rather annoyed, bitchy, or awkward. 

Tod and Boy in Ghost Host, Ghost House

Again, I wouldn’t say they have one of my favorite physical performances overall BUT Tod and Boy in Ghost Host, Ghost House had one of my favorite physicality moments of all time with their sex scene in Episode 4. More accurately with the build up to their first time. Kevin in his shorty little short shorts knowing exactly what he was doing. I can’t even describe the whole thing or what exactly it was about the scene that really did me in but you can absolutely feel the desire, the tension through the screen, and that is in huge part due to the physical performance of both of those actors. Pluem covering his mouth, trying to look away, ugh, exquisite. 

Nishijima and Uchino in Kinou Nani Tabeta? 

I think the hardest thing for me to appreciate with a lot of the Japanese actors is that I haven’t watched a ton of Japanese media so I rarely see the actors cross over between shows or genres and that makes it hard for me to understand just how talented they are at embodying their characters. But oh my god, these two, they are just. Their hug at the end of season one is one of my favorite moments of all time, it makes me so emotional. The full body panic that washed over Shiro’s body when Kenji turned to leave in the first ever episode of What Did You Eat Yesterday? Kenji’s face during the “I know you’re hurting” line, the increasingly frequent smile from Shiro in season 2. Just AHHHH they are both such good physical performers. 

Louis Chiang, Hsu Kai, and Takeda Kuohei in Kiseki: Dear to Me & Old Fashion Cupcake (respectively)

Louis and Hsu gave me the same physical acting moment in Kiseki that I loved in Old Fashioned Cupcake which is the body responding to something differently than the brain is, especially in something as physically demanding and choreographed as a kissing scene. All three of them did such phenomenal jobs in their respective scenes with Ai Di looking so fucking confused when Chen Yi kisses him, and actually kissing back for a split second before biting him, Fan Ze Rui kissing Bai Zhong Yi back while trying to push him away and then immediately giving up, and Nozue fully doing calculus in his head while still kissing Togawa back. I appreciate actors so much because I could never oh my god. 

Milk and View in 23.5 Degrees

I gotta get some ladies on here and who better than the loves of my life Milk and View. Milk I just want to commend how variable her performance is between 23.5 and Bad Buddy. I am so so here for all the rolling, flailing, fainting, screaming. She’s doing such an incredible job in what I am sure is a very physically taxing role. 

View going on the complete opposite end of the spectrum with a very stiff character with a very flat affect. I love everything about Aylin, and I especially love those little moments of emotion that do break through. The small smile Aylin gets, the crying breakdown she has on the basketball court, the delay before she too runs all gangly and awkward to the door to greet their friends. Stiffness feels like a hard thing to embody without it feeling like bad acting, because I think a lot of what I see of bad acting comes from people who are too stiff, for completely non-character related reasons. 

MOTHERFUCKING BARCODE TINNASIT IN DEAD FRIEND FOREVER

This kid. Was. SO. CREEPY. I am so proud of him! When I first saw Barcode on screen in this show, I thought they picked him for the role of Non because he was the sweet, baby-faced little boy you remember from KinnPorsche and thus would garner sympathy. But no. 

NOPE. 

I WAS WRONG. 

It is because BARCODE IS A FUCKING POWERHOUSE at 18 years old. The laughter, the smiles, the absolutely deranged behavior. The breakdowns. This kid. Holyyyyyyyyyy shit. 

__

In truth there are so so so so so many moments, performances, actors that are just absolutely incredible and worthy of praise, and the nice thing is that even small moments can make huge impacts on me, on an audience as a whole. Sometimes it’s not just the physicality of the actors that really makes the performance, it’s the anatomy of the scene, it’s choreography, it’s lighting, it’s sound. The silence in Our Dining Table, Episode 8 when Yutaka reaches back for the briefest of moments. The editing of the masturbation scene in I Feel You Linger in the Air cutting between Jom’s hands on Yai’s back and Jom’s hands on his own body. Han Baram’s sad, sad little face and his sad sad little song and the way he and Im Han Tae cuddle even when they are platonic in Sing My Crush. Sam Lin + Alcohol in We Best Love. Like ugh there’s just so many beautiful physical moments out there. 

Additional Shout Outs: 

First Kanaphan, Mark Pakin, Fourth, Ohm, Singto: all of these boys are so impressive in their physical acting in so many ways. First as Yok and First as Akk was almost completely unrecognizable to me when I first saw them. First is an incredible physical actor, and I wish that GMMTV would actually let him maintain complex characteristics rather than turning him in to the weepy boy every time. But from a physical acting standpoint, he’s incredible. Mark Pakin truly is GMMTV’s six man: he was on The Warp Effect, Moonlight Chicken, and My School President which all aired at the same time, with him playing three very different characters. It was such a treat to see Fourth and Gemini back to back in MSP and MLC as well, but the happy bouncy puppy dog that was Gun compared to the jaded, angry young adult that was Li Ming was just marvelous to behold, I swear to god I saw a storm cloud pass over that kid’s brow at one point during MLC. Ohm because of course. Singto because that dude is able to convey so much by moving so little of his face, it’s truly astounding. 

James Supamakong in Bed Friend, Episode 4

This is honestly more from a vocal perspective but the way he fucking screamed and cried in both attempted rape scenes haunts me to this day. 

The cast of Ossan’s Love Returns, but especially all of the fight scenes between Hayashi Kento (Maki) and Yoshida Kotero (Kurosawa), they were so fun to watch, especially because they are supposed to present as such put together characters, and the sustained fight scene in Episode 6 was fucking hysterical. 

Non-BL mentions: 

Toby Stephens and his voice acting in Black Sails

Matthew McFayden and the hand flex in Pride and Prejudice 

Kalki Koechil and physically portraying cerebral palsy as an able bodied actress in Margarita With a Straw (you can check out my write up for my thoughts on the ethical component of that though)

The fencing scene from The Court Jester

I have never watched the movie, but Christopher Reeve’s Clark Kent to Superman transition

Sense8. All of it. 

I haven’t even seen it, but Orphan Black

What are some of yours?

[khtamadventures]

Fish Sora has come and gone, and Base Sora is back. I've done my usual routine, although I found that his happiness takes a bit more than usual. Not sure if it's just *me* or that the Tama is actually like that.

I got KHII Sora, and with playing Pink Agaracus only and kept his happiness and hunger to the max in hopes of getting Xion or Axel.

but...

It wasn't meant to be...

-

At this point, I found a Reddit thread a little younger than the start of my adventure, going on the same quest; to get Roxas. They too- woed that there wasn't accurate information regarding the Tama. So... I thought I'd do it!

I started this like:

Text reads: Tama Log 16:35: 3 food, 3 icecream 19:05: 1 Gummiship, 1 icecream 19:35: 2 food, 1 icecream 21:35: 1 coliseum, 3 food 23:25: 1 Gummiship, 1 food

13:05: 1 Mushroom, 1 food, 2 icecream 15:05: 1 coliseum (incomplete), 1 Gummiship, 2 food 17:05: 1 food, 2 icecream 19:05: 3 food, 1 mushroom 22:05: 3food, 2 icecream, 1 coliseum 00:05: 1 colliseum, 1 icecream, 1 food

12:15: 1 Gummiship, 3 food 14:20: 1 food, 2 icecream 16:20: 1 food, 1 icecream

beeped frequently

Riku

I use Discord because I can access it via pc and mobile, allowing me to make edits easily and anytime. (I don't always have my phone on me). I also rounded the time up to the nearest 5.. the log doesn't have to be THAT detailed.

I then decided that, that wasn't good enough... what does 'beeped frequently' even mean? so- I went even more in-depth:

Text reads: Tama log 12:24: 3 food, 1 Gummiship, 1 Mushroom. 15:25: 1 food, 1 Coliseum 16:25: (beeped) 1 food, 1 Gummiship 17:25: (beeped) 3 food, 1 Mushroom 19:55: 1 food, 1 Coliseum 21:55: (beeped) 2 food, 1 Gummiship 23:32: 1 Food, 1 Mushroom 12:35: 2 food, 1 Coliseum 15:05: 1 food, 1 Gummiship 16:10: (beeped) 2 food, 1 Mushroom 18:15: 1 food, 1 Coliseum 20:15: (beeped) 3 food, 1 Gummiship 23:15: (beeped) 3 food, 1 Mushroom, 1 Coliseum 12:08: 1 food, 1 Gummiship KH2 Sora 14:00: 1 food, 1 Gummiship 15:15: 1 food, 1 Gummiship 16:30 1 Gummiship 17:25: 1 food, 1 Gummiship 20:30: 2 food 1 Gummiship 21:30: 1 Gummiship 23:30: 1 food, 1 Gummiship 1:25: 1 food, 2 Gummiship Christmas Sora

As you can see, Sora beeped 6 times for attention, and I got KH2 Sora. A whole lot of playing Gummiship- which according to the wiki, nets you Xion; I got Christmas Town Sora.

But then things start getting... weird.

This is my next log:

Text reads: Tama log 13:35: 3 food, 1 Gummiship 14:35: 1 food 15:15: 1 food, (beeped) 1 Mushroom 16:50: 1 Colosseum, 17:35: 1 Gummiship 18:05: 1 Mushroom 19:20: (beeped) 2 food 21:20: (beeped) 3 food, 1 Colosseum 22:40: 1 food, 1 Gummiship 12:05: 2 food, 1 Mushroom 14:00: 1 food, 1 Colosseum 15:30: 1 Gummiship 17:05: (beeped) 3 food 18:55: (beeped) 1 Mushroom 20:05: (beeped) 3 food, 1 colosseum 22:30: 2 food, 1 Gummiship 00:30: 1 food, 1 Mushroom 12:20: 1 food, 1 Colosseum Riku

Sora beeped six times, and I got Riku. I know Tamas beep for different things, and they have different (although very similar to my eyes) icons when needing something. Even though Sora beeped the same amount of time- is it because one specific need wasn't met enough that triggered the different evolutions? seems very convoluted if you ask me.

I'll continue to record in-depth and add each discovery to every month-update.

Currently, I have just restored Dark Riku, here's his exclusive scene that I missed taking images of last time:

[sarahsartedits]

“I need more affection than you know”

I decided my soriku edit collection wouldn’t be complete wo a sanctuary lyric one with ghost sora w/ Riku style poetry 😭🥹 a riku appreciation edit in honor of me FINALLY watching Riku is gay and why it matters video the whole thing oh wow shit it’s so good and interesting! I made this during one of my settings of watching the video so that why it relates

Consider this edit above as part 2 of last Friday’s edit! @skytsunrose @eradicatetehnormal @alphascorpiixx @heartspocky

[aphros-de-los]

Mo st im porta nt thin g in the wo rld ? > Ri ku > R iku > Riku

fateswap sora for @ohonama !

[boysplanetrecaps]

Boys Planet Episode 2, Recap Part 1

In this watch-along-if-you-want-to recap, I’ll cover Episode 2 of the popular MNET show, complete with my usual screen grabs, gifs, helpful information, and snark. Let’s get to it! 

A few quick notes -- ages given are international ages; ranks given are as of the end of ep 1/ beginning of ep 2; when I say "Space Council" I mean the other trainees watching the audition.

If you want to skip past the teaser, go to 1:14. 

The boys have gathered in an auditorium to watch the first episode. And who is that coming in but Sunmi, who I would basically summarize as a performance artist at this point. Man, I love her. 

Haruto asks her where she’ll be sitting, and all the boys strongly suggest she sit by them. She puts a chair in the middle of the aisle, so she’s in between pretty-boy waacker Sung Hanbin and charming Canadian Seok Matthew, and she makes this face for some reason. 

And then they start playing the episode. 

The boys enjoy each other’s trash talk, especially Yoon Jong Woo’s comment that G Group can’t win because “our roots are different.” (We’ll be seeing more of Jong Woo very shortly, trust). I feel like maybe this comment loses something in translation, because everyone reacts like it’s the quip of the century. Jong Woo is clearly a “personality” and is most likely here more to jumpstart a career on Youtube or something -- at least, that’s my take. 

Everyone dies of laughter at the My House performances, and Sunmi can’t even stay in her seat. There’s also a lot of laughter at Team Hot’s performance (in the red leather jackets). Everyone’ shaving fun but I mean, oh boy, this is going to follow them around for the rest of their lives. I hope they can… deal with it. 

Then the ranking is revealed. 

Someone had to be 93rd, and it’s 18-year-old Japanese trainee Riku. He interviews in Japanese that he was shocked and disappointed.

Sung Han Bin, who performed Beautiful Beautiful at the end of last episode, is crowned first place winner, and Hui, who is sitting next to him, congratulates him sincerely. This would have bene several weeks into filming so Hui and Hanbin could have gotten close in the last few weeks, but maybe they really did know each other from Cube.  Hanbin is overjoyed at his ranking. 

If you’re curious, according to my spreadsheet, the average ranking of the G-group trainees is 52.8, while the average ranking of the K-group trainees is 41.0, which is a pretty stark difference. Of the top 10, only two are G-group; of the top 20, only 7 are G-group. Of the bottom 20 (74 to 93), only 6 are K-group. This despite the fact that we saw more auditions from G-group trainees in episode 1. You���re going to get some of that when they weight the votes the way they do, but hey, it’s their country, it’s their show, it’s their prerogative.

More stuff about how to vote. Feel free to skip to 7:57 for the episode to really start. 

Time for more auditions!

Team Redstart ENM

The four Redstart trainees come out, covered in a total of 37 star stickers. So, I guess they’re confident.

I had never heard of Redstart ENM, so I looked them up. They don’t have any acts signed to them that I can find evidence of. This agency seems to exist only to promote these four trainees.

Choi Woo Jin is 18 years old and ranked 41 as of the beginning of this episode.

Hong Keon Hee is 18 years old and ranked 87 as of the beginning of this episode.

Kim Min Seoung is 19 years old and ranked 78 as of the beginning of this episode. He was on another show called Loud.

Kum Jun Hyeon is 19 years old and ranked 31 as of the beginning of this episode. (31)

The judges joke about how Kum Jun Hyeon’s loose baggy pants are very hiphop, and then they dive into their performance of Jessi’s Nunu Nana, which, as always, I watched the full cam of on Youtube before I exposed myself to MNET editing. 

My take:

This was a brilliant choice of song. It was a huge hit -- 200 million views on Youtube -- and it was originally performed by a woman, so there’s that slight thrill of gender flipping it. It’s primarily a rap song, which suits their skillset, with rather minimal choreography that gave them almost a blank slate to embroider on to make this performance their own. 

Their dancing and performance (as in, stage presence, charisma, that kind of thing) were both excellent, for all four of them. Watch their footwork, their angles, their consistent facial expressions even when they’re not vocalizing. They’re powerful yet controlled. And Min Seoung did that killer flip. (I love the loud appreciative wooooah from the Space Council you can hear clearly when he flips.) Both Min Seoung and Jun Hyeon had decent enough vocals that they could be a main dancer in an idol group, though I don’t really love Min Seoung's rapping vocals. He wasn’t bad or anything, I just didn’t love the sound. I liked Keon Hee’s natural deep vocal tone when he rapped, but his singing was a bit off key. Woo Jin’s vocals were shakier, both in rapping and singing. I think I’d give Jun Hyeon and Min Seoung higher scores over all -- either give them both a 3 and the others a 2, or give them both a 4 and the others a 3. 

The MNET editing makes the performance look even better -- they might have brushed up Jun Hyeon’s vocals a little, but I’m not sure. We get to see Min Seoung’s flip three times, and there aren’t any shots of the vocal judges making that sour face they make. 

The Space Council thinks they did great and might all get four stars.

Omigod, I’m in tune with the judges for once. 

Keon Hee 3 stars ⭐⭐⭐

Woo Jin 3 stars ⭐⭐⭐ 

Jun Hyeon 4 stars⭐⭐⭐⭐

Min Seoung 4 stars⭐⭐⭐⭐. 

Hang on, let me just double check that it’s not raining frogs or anything…. Nope, it’s just a normal day in our climate hell. I am just somehow agreeing with the judges!

Jun Hyeon is really happy to get 4 stars. 

Jun Hyeon has a lot of personality, folks. He reminds me of one of my younger cousins, so I find him irritatingly endearing, if that makes any sense. I just want to tell him to shut up, but in a nice way, you know?  

11:50 Tall and Short Teams Perform Conduct Zero and Reveal

Back stage, two teams are waiting -- a team from China who are very tall, and a team from Japan who are kind of short. They great each other in Korean. 

The Chinese trainees interview (in Korean) that the Japanese trainees are cute, and call them “dongsaes” -- the Korean word for a younger sibling/friend. Snarkily, the show tells us that the Japanese trainees are actually older by a few years. A little number floats over the trainees heads, saying that Hiroto, Keita and Ma Jing Xiaoh are 22, 23, and 20 respectively.

(I love the constant look of bewilderment on Jing Xiao’s face throughout this encounter. He must have been really nervous to perform, but it almost looks like he’s confused as to who these hobbits are.)

Jing Xiao is 19 in the international system, so that checks out. What’s weird is, I have Hiroto’s and Keita’s ages as 20 and 21 in the international system, which would make them 21 and 22 in the Korean system…? I used their birthdates and an online birthday → age now calculator because I was too lazy to do all that math. Anyway, must be something I don’t really understand about the Korean age system. That’s why I just use the international system in these recaps. 

Anyway, no one cares. Let’s watch the Osaka team perform! 

Conduct Zero

Yuto is 18 and, if you’re wondering, 5’7. He’s ranked 69 right now, and is the only member of his team to give himself a confidence ranking of 3 stars instead of 4. 

Kei is just 16, is also 5’7, and is a member of a “dance and vocal unit” called Edamame Beans, a subunit of EBiDAN, which seems to be some sort of AKB48 style giant “music collective” under Stardust Promotion. I don’t know much about it, but there you go. He’s in a dance position in that group. He’s ranked 76 right now. 

Hiroto, not to be confused with all-star Haruto, is 20, was on Produce 101 Japan, and is signed under RBW and is on their pre-debut team. (RBW is the agency home of Mamamoo, Oneus, Onewe, and Purple Kiss.) Probably from all his pre-show exposure, and his cute face, he’s ranked 11 as of right now.   

Keita is 21, a former YG Treasure Box contestant, and is a member of idol group Ciipher. He’s ranked 14 right now. 

So yeah, the team comes out and Keita introduces them as “charming as takoyaki,” which Wikipedia tells me is a “Japanese snack made of a wheat flour-based batter and cooked in a special molded pan”, filled with diced octopus, and that it originated in Osaka. 

Oh man. That does look charming, now you mention it. 

The judges talk to Keita about how long he’s been a trainee - 9 years - and how he is a debuted member of Ciipher. We have a sad piano segment about how hard it’s been for Keita, that debuting in Ciipher didn’t solve all his problems.

I didn’t know much about Ciipher, so I looked into them. They have three title track MVs, with 3-11 million views each. I liked “Blind” best, easily -- I added it to my playlist, let’s see how long it stays there. I don’t know, they have their charms -- I hope they find a song that really breaks through. 

Everyone assumes they’ll do a cute song because they’re all “cute” and short (they’re all around 5’7, as far as I can tell, which isn’t THAT short but whatever). It seems obvious to me that they won’t do a cute song dressed in all black, and of course, they don’t. 

After encouraging each other with pats on the back -- very “got your back” before an improv show vibe -- and to the shouts of “ganbare!” from the Space Council (ganbare/ganbatte = fighting!) they dive into Conduct Zero, a 2015 release from Block B’s subunit called Bastarz. 

My take on their performance: 

Overall, an enjoyable watch. 

All four of them danced pretty decently in my opinion. Yuto and Hiroto didn’t have quite enough power, while Kei was maybe too powerful, needing to relax a little more. Keita struck the right balance between giving the moves power while still seeming relaxed in his performance. 

Vocal wise, they were all fairly decent too. Yuto’s vocals were the shakiest,  but not by a lot. Keita’s rapping stood out -- good breath control, specific tone, all that good stuff. He also put some expression into it. 

I would give Keita four stars, and the others 2 or 3 -- leaning more toward 3 for Kei for his strong dancing. I think it’s better to overdance than underdance. 

The MNET editing is, if anything, kind, but it really looks like it’s the Keita-and-friends show.  The judging seems to be just about Keita, too. They say the “K” in Keita must stand for K-pop. Lip J, addressing him as Keita-san, tells him he got 4 stars ⭐⭐⭐⭐. The others get 2 stars  ⭐⭐, which I guess is pretty fair. They seem happy with that. 

At 17:05, the tall Shanghai team comes out in slow motion, and everyone freaks the absolute fuck out. Like they’ve never seen such tall, handsome people in their lives. 

But the guys stand on stage in fig leaf position, clearly nervous. 

Here’s some info on them, including their heights since the show is obsessed: 

Ma Jing Xiang is 19 years old and currently ranked 16th, and he’s 6’2. He’s a member of a predebut team called Midsummer Cubs, which is one of my favorite names for anything ever. Per kpop fandom wiki, “His specialty includes model walking and posing.”

Cai Jin Xin  is also 19 and currently ranked 42nd. He’s also 6’2. He claims to be good at “mind controlling.”

Zhang Shuai Bo is 20, 6’1, and ranked 22nd. He was also on Youth With You 3, but eliminated in 100th place (out of 119). Oh noooooo.  

*Tao Yuan* is 23, 6’0, and has already left the show. I couldn’t find a reason why, but it has been mentioned that he’s going to debut as a member of a group called XODIAC, so maybe that’s it.   

Everyone absolutely loses their shit about how handsome Jing Xiang is, which again reminds me that I am not always in tune with who is and who isn’t considered handsome on shows like that. Please understand, I’m not calling him ugly or anything, not at all. I’m just saying that if you were to ask me to pick out the most handsome guy on this whole show, it wouldn’t be him.

They look great just standing there…. But then they start performing. 

My take: 

Yeah, this isn’t good. 

It’s tough to tell whether they’re all equally bad or if some might be better than others. For example, right at the start, Tao Yuan in the white fringed shirt does a movement about a full second after the others, which makes you not sure at first, were the others early or was he late, or both? And when many of the members are that far off key, it’s hard to tell if maybe some of the others might be on key, because your ear loses where the key should be. Also, if you’re on a team with people singing off key, it’s likely to throw you off key too. I feel like maybe Zhang Shuai Bo did a little better than the others, singing wise, but I really can’t be sure. I don’t have the energy to watch this performance any more times than I already have, so I’ll say that I’d give Shuai Bo 1 star and the rest no stars. 

MNET editing could have been a lot worse. The Space Council think the team members look good with their long limbs, and credit is given for them attempting the song in its original key, but a series of bad notes makes the vocal judge make this face:

In the MNET editing, they end to complete silence, but of course, in real life the trainees in the Space Council cheered for them when they were done. (You hear it in the Youtube full cam video.) 

The dance judge, who choreographed this song in the first place, wants to say nice things about the performance because he likes his own choreography. He says he enjoyed watching their performance, which makes Shuai Bo smile so happily. 

Aww, my heart. He wasn’t expecting a single word of praise, you can just tell. 

But the good times can’t last. The vocal judge says they were completely out of tune the whole time. 

Ma Jing Xiang gets 2 stars⭐⭐, I assume for his handsomeness, because I see literally no other reason. 

Cai Jin Xin with the mesh sleeves gets 0 stars.

Zhang Shuai Bo gets 1 star ⭐. 

*Tao Yuan* gets 1 star ⭐. 

For once, the judges were kinder than I was. 

20:23 Uncomfortable Sexy Times

At 20:23, there is a break during which the trainees and the judges pose for the cameras and try to look sexy. Then Kim Ji Woong shows up on camera and everyone says “woah!” at his expression, 

but this is his constant facial expression. He’s not doing anything. He just always has that same, slightly confused look on his face. It might all be an act -- impossible to say.

Then there’s this strange segment in which Ji Woong’s neighbor and teammate, Yoon Jong Woo, pretends to kiss / actually kisses Ji Woong on the lips, interviewing that his heart was fluttering, yadda yadda. Ji Woong seems completely unbothered either way by this, and then they both admit it was just a show, something fun for the audience. So like, full on queerbaiting? Several trainees interview about how handsome Ji Woong is. Anyway feel free to skip to.. 

0:23:15 Mirotic

The judges tease Ji Woong about how he isn’t wearing a shirt under his suit jacket, then grill him about his acting career. And yeah, it seems that yeah, this was just a queer-baity act, because Ji Woong has thus far only appeared in BL (“boy love”) genre dramas, including one called “Kissable Lips” and another one called “Roomates of Poonduck 304.” (Those NAMES!) So it seems his whole team is doing a sort of sexy BL concept for their performance of Mirotic. 

I don’t know much about this topic, but my impression is that once you’re in BL genre dramas, you kind of are stuck there. I do know that there is at least one Kpop group with a BL concept -- OnlyOneOf. They have really good music, as it happens, and I’m holding back from ranting about how much I loved their series of solo songs that they put out over the second half of 2022. From what I’ve seen, the gay community has embraced OnlyOneOf not as queer baiters but as representation for an underrepresented group. It feels fetishy to me, and inauthentic, but for a country with so much out-and-out homophobia, I guess it’s a step in the right direction…? I defer to any gay/queer/etc folk to weigh in on this, as it’s not really my place. 

Ji Woong seems to live his life in a daze, just sort of accepting the fact that everyone who sees him, male and female alike, wants to fuck him. It’s just the background noise of his life. But he really loves singing and dancing (and maybe he wants to get out of the BL rut? No way to know) so he saw Boys Planet as a great opportunity. 

Anyway, the performance. 

It’s hard to separate the performance from their concept, which is, “What if Mirotic, but gay?” I wouldn’t mind that at all if it weren’t so fake and fetishy. It’s just as fake and fetishy as Madonna kissing Britney Spears at the MTV Music Awards 100 years ago. I have to remind myself that this might actually be representation for young gay folk in Korea, and maybe that makes it good…? Overall, it’s a decent performance, with 3+ star dancing, 2+ star vocals, and varied performance. 

*Jung Hwan Rok* has already dropped out of the show, perhaps to return to his group, withus. (Judges gave him 2 stars.)

Jeong I Chan age 21, ranked 52. He used to be known as Jeong Jaebeom when he was on the show I-Land (that produced Enhypen); he  spent most of his time on I-Land in the “Ground” team (low ranked) and was eliminated at the end of the first half. He has legally changed his name to 정이찬 Jung “Ee” Chan; he seems to want to go by “E-chan” now, but the show seems to spell it I-chan. I’m kind of surprised at his low rank, as I thought he had a fan base. On the other hand, oof. These vocals. He was about a full half-tone sharp right out the gate, and I think it threw off his whole team. Not great. I also got the impression he was uncomfortable with the concept. Maybe I’m wrong. 

The judges give him 2 stars ⭐⭐, which seems fair. 

Kim Ji Woong is ranked 2nd; he’s 24 years old. 

He has a kind of surprisingly interesting vocal color, actually, and overall was a lot better than I’d feared he would be. He looks good dancing -- elegant, even. I was surprised, really. The judges give him 3 stars ⭐⭐⭐, which I actually think is pretty fair. 

(Side note: you can’t hear the rose crumble in the youtube version; that was definitely the foley artist. For once, they got to add a sound effect other than the “gulp” noise!) 

Lee Seung Hwan is 22 years old and ranked 13. He has really made the rounds of reality shows and whatnot. He was on Under19 and finished in 8th place, so he debuted as a member of project group 1THE9. When that group disbanded, he went on the show LOUD, where he was eliminated in the first round. He apparently was a backup dancer for Oneus during their US tour, so he must have some dancing chops. 

And he does! But his performance style is a little flat, somehow, like unexciting, so I understand how he’d make a great backup dancer. He is the one who hits that high note (”yeahhhhh!”), and it sounded pretty good until he cracked. He didn’t let it show on his face either, so I give him that. They’re tired, IDK. I think he did fine, just not special. But I bet he’ll do well on the show, because he probably can pick up choreography quickly if he worked as a backup dancer.  

The judges give him 2 stars ⭐⭐, which seems slightly low but not wildly so. 

Yoon Jong Woo is 22 and currently ranked 73. He is listed as a rapper and was “Ze:U” in the very short lived idol group Black Level, whose debut single was called Infection. Really? Infection? In 2022? Read the room, folks. I mean, it’s like every mid-tempo kpop boy band song got thrown in a blender with one or two trop-house songs and then poured onto a pile of monochrome outfits. Not the fault of the trainees or anything.  

His performance is fine -- he’s committed to the theme, I’ll say that. He does more rapping than singing, and both are fine. The judges praise him for dropping an octave at one point, and give him 3 stars ⭐⭐⭐, and that’s fine. 

The MNET editing focuses on how sexy it is and how it makes everyone a combination of turned on and uncomfortable, apparently. The main vocal judge says repeatedly that it made him really uncomfortable. “I’ve never watched a boy group perform and feel strange like this,” he says. “This was a valuable first experience.” 

28:21 Takuto Time

Honestly, I’m watching this so you don’t have to. Takuto comes out, makes big hearts with his arms, and everyone talks about how cute and young he is but how kind of weird he is for making hearts all the time.

My favorite moment is when he gives his age and the far more mature looking/behaving Han Yu Jin turns to his teammate and says, “He’s the same age as me.” I mean, Yu Jin is 15 and acts 25; Takuto is 15 and acts like he’s 5. I don’t have a lot of patience for this. Sorry if you like him a lot. He’s doing a thing, and maybe it’s secretly genius and I don’t get it. I know that Korean tolerance for over the top cutseyness seems to be higher than mine. 

He does a song that Korean singer/legend Rain did in 2002 called “Instead of Saying Goodbye” (which Rain performed in boxing gloves). I bet it's a sentimental fave, but it's not good. It's like, what if “Party Up (Up In Here)” by DMX had its life and soul sucked out? And then its dry, brittle corpse was filled with stale bubble gum?  

Ah, the very early days of kpop.

The song has been edited to include the voices of children laughing and saying “who are you?” (in English). It’s very Kidz Bop. He starts off with a random back flip, and then immediately loses his balance and falls when he lands, and that’s about it in terms of skills displayed. I’ll keep my comments short and sweet and say that the judge’s assessment of 0 stars seems very accurate to me, though I’ll add that the MNET editing that makes him seem half-witted is kind of unfair since he obviously just doesn’t speak or understand Korean, no matter how loudly and emphatically Solji speaks into her microphone. 

Both “My Housers” feel like they’re welcoming Takuta to their house, as the beginning of that now cursed song begins playing ominously in the background. 

32:40 Replay

The next segment features the two trainees we met at the very beginning of the first episode, who rated themselves with just 1 star. They’re ranked pretty well, though -- all that camera time did them some good, rankings wise. 

Lee Da Eul, with the lighter colored hair and light blue jacket, is 18 and ranked 4th. 

Lim Jun Seo, with the darker hair and brighter blue jacket, is 17 and ranked 19th. 

They are performing Replay, originally by SHINee, which I think is a smart choice for two teenage trainees. It’s one of those songs I never get sick of, even though it was already many years old when I first got into Kpop. They say it’s their first time performing in front of people -- they’ve only trained for a few months.

As for their performance, It’s the same in the whole video as it is in the editing. They do their little talent show dance, sing semi on key, and are cute and spunky. I didn’t notice one being better than the other. When they’re done, the judges make them freestyle dance. Jun Seo freezes up at first, while Da Eul hams it up, dancing like a class clown trying to get attention. Finally Jun Seo does a summersault. The judges give them both 2 stars⭐⭐, which is obviously too high. They gave Jeon Woo Seok (barefoot Criminal performer) 1 star! Honestly, these judges are just trolling us. 

I love these reactions from K-group:

Top, left to right is Haru ⭐⭐ and Riku⭐, who perform in Maniac. In the second row is Na Kamden’s ⭐⭐⭐ denimed legs, then Jay⭐⭐⭐⭐; those two sang Rush Hour. Then we see tall Ichika⭐, be-hatted Itsuki ⦰, and Ouju⦰, who performed Shine. (We’ll be seeing a lot more of Ouju this episode). Directly under Riku two rows down is Ma Jing Xiang ⭐⭐ in the choker, with a squinting Cai Jin Xin ⦰next to him, and then Zhang Shuai Bo ⭐ -- those three performed in Reveal earlier. You also see a bit of Winnie, the Thai idol.

What I think is funny is their reactions. Yeah, Jay is fine, and Ichika seems like a sweet, classy guy who would clap for anyone. But msot of the rest of them are showing their irriation, disbelief, and annoyance. Yeah, of course, they might just be bummed that the competition to see who can get more stars and thus see the Signal Song a day earlier is very much not going toward the G-group. But they might be extra bummed that the judges are just handing out stars willy-nilly to the Korean trainees.  Were Da Eul and Jun Seo really that much better than Itsuki and Ouju, who got no stars? Were they better than Zhang Shuai Bo, with his hesitantly happy smile, who got 1 star? Were they as good as Haru, who got 2 stars? I don’t know.

So, yeah, the competition between K and G is heating up. Who on EARTH will win? No way to know, even though all along G groups have scored poorly and K groups have scored better. Who will win? 

Then we have the briefest clips of multiple auditions, all of which the judges scored poorly: 

Maniac, originally by Stray Kids, performed by Haru and Riku 

UN Village, originally by Baehyun of EXO, performed by Wumuti

Love Scenario, originally by IKON, performed by Choi Seung Hun and Jeon Ho Young; 

Lullaby, originally by GOT7, performed by Jung Ho Jin, Kim Min Hyuk, and Park Gwan Young

I’ll be covering these, and other audition performances that were skipped completely, in a separate post. 

35:50 Things Get Real

The five members of Team The Real come out. 

Park Min Seok, age 20, is currently ranked 64th. He says his favorite song is Love Again by Baekhyun. Good choice. 

Kim Tae Rae, age 20, is currently ranked 9th. More on him shortly. 

Park Han Bin, age 20, is currently ranked 34th. He went on LOUD but was eliminated in the first round. He lists Woodz as someone he looks up to, which is a huge point in his favor. 

Lee Jeong Hyeon, age 20, is currently ranked 35th.

Mun Jung Hyun, age 17, is currently ranked 24th. We’ve been seeing him a lot in the Space Council, like when he sat in Chair 1 in episode 1. He’s a former child actor -- he was in four movies between 2012 and 2017 (so when he was aged 5 to 10).  

I have to rant a little more about Kim Tae Rae because I love him so much but don’t know why he’s ranked so high. He was on another reality show before, one called Top 10 Student, when he was 18; click here to watch him skillfully sing a boring duet on that show. (He’s on the left.) But I don’t know if that appearance explains his high ranking. Maybe it’s his cute intro video, where he plays the guitar and sings? I don’t think so, because it doesn’t have an unusual amount of views.  Could it really just be that people like his voice? I mean, that would fill me with joy. He’s so good, you guys. I get so happy when someone in Kpop can actually SING. He has a fantastic voice. It’s a tiny bit Baekhyun-esque, a similar vocal color anyway. Now I want to hear him, Baekhyun, and Lee Hwan Hee all sing together in close harmony. Ahhhhh…. 

Back to the point. 

The judges think that Mun Jung Hyun looks like Kang Daniel, and I mean, maybe? The judges tease all the trainees about their relationship with the WakeOne team from G-group (Anthonny, Haruto, and Min, who did Glitch Mode) and Anthonny gives us this angry, eyes-like-daggers look:

Just so we know that the rivalry runs deep and that they hate each other. 

Interestingly, the judges completely fail to mention the other two WakeOne trainees who are going to do Bloom Bloom later on. WakeOne sent 10 trainees in total, which is wild but makes sense -- they manage Kep1er, so obviously have a good relationship with MNET and this franchise. WakeOne also recently took over management of T01 and they manage popular soloist Jo Yuri. I’m excited to see the team they debut out of this! 

The judges ask them what is their unique strength, and blue-haired Hanbin replies, “There’s nothing we can’t do.” Out in the Space Council, Anthonny says that they’re good but that they (the G-group trainees) can beat them. And then they start. 

My take:

You guys. I LOVED THIS PERFORMANCE. Just watch it on Youtube. The MNET editing is trying to make it look better with all the instant replays and reaction shots, but it is so much better if you just watch it and enjoy it. This is hands down my favorite audition from this round. A lot of the lyrics are “Look at our dance” and they sell that idea to the audience, as a group. If you watch each guys individually, yeah, you notice some little things to improve, but if you watch it just all together, there isn’t an obvious weak link. 

Kim Tae Rae with the light brown hair sang so well. Yeah, he cracks a little on that high note, but he’s a human being and god knows how exhausted they all were. He’s a genuine talent. He also brought a lot of energy and personality and performance to his dancing. He did drop his “face” here and there -- I think he may have been trying to look serious/determined, and it just came across as blank. But these are minor quibbles for the obvious main vocal. I give him 4 stars. 

The judges give him 3 stars ⭐⭐⭐, just to make me angry, I guess. 

Little Mun Jung Hyun did really well too. MNET didn’t air this part, but he does this cool raspy rapping rap in the middle and pulled it off. Not to mention his “chum deureogayu” (the dance starts now) he does, holding out the finger heart. So fun, so much personality. I did notice that his footwork needs a bit of work -- but from the waist up, he’s doing great. I showed this performance to my fella, and he picked out Mun Jung Hyun as his favorite performer. My fella has good taste -- he picked out Ten as the best dancer in The Seventh Sense. I’d give him 3 stars, just because I think he could use a tiny bit of work on his dancing, but I think he’s great. (I mean, I'd give Jung Hyun 3 stars. I'd give my fella 3 million stars!)

The judges agree with me -- Jung Hyun gets 3 stars ⭐⭐⭐.

Blue-haired Park Han Bin was obviously a major presence in the performance. My fella thought his big facial expressions were too big and annoying, but I didn’t feel that way about it. I thought it suited the song and the style they were going for. Also, he was the center, so it made sense for him to be doing that. All in all, I think he deserved what the judges gave him: 4 stars ⭐⭐⭐⭐. But I disagree with LipJ, who says that he carried the whole team on his back. He didn’t have to do that; everyone here pulled his own weight. 

Lee Jeong Hyeon in the white short sleeved jacked did some really excellent rapping, and had fun and varied facial expressions. Honestly, I don’t see a reason not to give him 4 stars, but the judges do -- he gets 3 stars ⭐⭐⭐. 

Park Min Seok in the leather jacket must have been the lead vocal here -- he does some pretty good singing, perfectly on key and with good support and a pleasant tune. Sometimes you can kind of see him mentally counting the steps as he dances, but on the whole he does a great job. I would have been stuck between 3 and 4 stars and probably would have gone with 3, but the judges take another puff on their crack pipe and give him 2 stars ⭐⭐. 

God this whole performance gets better every time I watch it. If I had seen this exact performance on some music show, I’d be stanning this team. Yes, part of it is that this song is good, but I have to say that I’m not the world’s biggest ATEEZ fan. Their music is just not really my style, as skilled and talented as the guys are. I guess I’m just not that into pirates. So I had never heard this song before. And honestly, I like this version better than any live version that ATEEZ themselves did. They bring so much energy and enthusiasm to it. 

The Space Council loves the performance, too.  

Haruto turns to Anthonny and reminds him that Anthonny said that the G-team was better than the K-team…

The judges tell them that even though they must have practiced a ton, they looked like they were having fun on stage, and yeah, that’s the point. 

39:40 Trainee Lee Hoe Taek

Final boss Hui comes out, and everyone tenses up. 

The judges ask him why he came on this show, and he says: 

“I had hundreds of reasons. The biggest reason was… I needed change.” He interviews that when he got back from my military service, and returned to PENTAGON, things had changed a lot. He says that it’s been difficult for his team to even work with who they wanted to, that they were rejected a lot. He thought to himself, “We’re no longer appealing enough to work with.” It made him sad. “It was hard to overcome the invisible wall,” he says, as Solji blinks back tears. “The only option for me now is Boys Planet.” 

We get a short montage, set to soft piano music, of other trainees who have already debuted, starting with the immensely talented Lee Hwan Hee from Up10tion, who we see in an interview wearing his embroidered red jacket. Thanks, MNET. Be sure to show him talking about how sad he is while showing a brief clip of his audition, instead of just, you know, showing us his fucking audition. (Although, to be fair, his audition wasn't good so maybe it was kind.)

We also hear from Seowon from NINE.i, then Cha Woonggi who used to be in T01, then Seowon again, saying “I thought everything would work out if I debuted.”  The judges are sympathetic, knowing that the competition is stiff in the industry: “It’s like entering the eye of a needle now.” 

Lee Dong Yeol, better known (maybe) as Xiao in Up10tion, says, “I can’t perform just because I want to… I questioned what was in the future for me. I think I’m more desperate because I debuted.” 

Ok, quick note: Up10tion has some really good songs. Check out Spin Off. It’s so fun. Big and brassy and bright. I also like What If Love a lot. Give them a chance, ok? 

Anyway, the judges tell “trainee Lee Hoe Taek” to perform, and he does. 

My take: He does his version of BlackPink’s Shut Down, which probably means something to him emotionally, and he shuts it down, and fuck anyone who says otherwise. 

Why do we have this thing that everyone has to be an all-rounder? Hui is a top tier vocalist and he can write and produce songs. Why should he have to be the best dancer in the world, too? He isn’t the best dancer; he’s good enough to be a main vocal who dances next to the main dancer. Is D.O. from EXO a fantastic dancer? Is Chen? Nope. They dance well enough that they pull their weight, and then your eye goes to Kai, hamming it up in the center. Is Kai a fantastic singer? Nope. He has improved a ton, but he’s still not as good as most of his teammates and that’s OK. That’s why we have groups in k-pop. Jesus fuck.

So, I refuse to say, “Oh, his dancing is a tiny bit stiff, I hate this performance.” He MADE that the remix. He brought in the original violin piece that BP sampled, and used a larger clip of it. He sang and then layered his backup vocals. I bet he choreographed it himself because no way is his agency supporting him, and he’s probably too proud to ask for help. Then he sang, live, impeccably, while dancing well enough to entertain. 

So fuck the judges for implying they might have given him 3 stars because his dancing “wasn’t good enough.” If you’re going to give some nearly-tone-deaf trainees 4 stars, then give Hui 5 stars. Fuck. 

48:00 Who won between K group or K group? 

With that, they end the auditions and announce the winner. They hem and haw and drag it out of course, but K group won by a landslide. 

Out of 200 stars awarded, 119 went to K group, representing 59.5% of the vote, and making the ratio of stars awarded just about 3:2 in favor of K group. K Group is excited to get the benefit of being able to practice the Signal Test Song one day earlier, but I don’t know why that’s such a benefit, since it’s obviously the exact same song they used for every other male version of this show. 

Click here for my take on the auditions that weren’t aired: Attention, Bloom Bloom, Freak, Gambler, Love Scenario, Lullaby, Maniac, UN Village, Veil, and Who. That’s a total of 18 trainees we didn’t see perform at all.

Click here for the second half of this recap of Ep 2, 49:34 to the end. 

Thanks for reading! If you're enjoying the recaps, tell a friend! This kind of recap appeals to a specific kind of person so I'm not sure how people will find me, so word of mouth would help a lot. Thanks! <3

[thistaleisabloodyone]

Watching the newest RMPG video on CL Live, where they are divided into three teams to complete challenges. When they assigned the teams, I think they ever-so-slightly stacked the athletic cards in Team Likiya's favor. (note: it does not yet have English subtitles and I am nowhere close to fluent in Japanese, we are rolling with visuals and the few words I can recognize only)

(second note: I am inherently a sarcastic human being and I curse like the dickens, but this is all meant in good humor and good fun.)

Team Likiya is the six man team and has Likiya, Kaisei, Riku, Makoto, Shogo and Kenta. Likiya, Kaisei and Riku all tend to excel athletically. And they've proven they can excel athletically together - while it did not last all of Dodgeball Kingdom, the three managed to basically shut out Rampage Silver for their first game. Kenta and Makoto were also basically the MVPs for Rampage Silver during Dodgeball Kingdom as well. Shogo, in my estimation, has not necessarily been the most excellent athlete in the Rampage, but he's also very determined.

And they were the team to have the most people go twice on the bicycles - Kaisei, Kenta and Shogo all went twice. Team Likiya also seems to have run off with the most paired bicycles, as they had 3 paired bicycles and Kaisei and Shogo both did both their runs as a pair (Kaisei & Makoto; Shogo & Kenta; Kaisei & Shogo).

Team Zin is Zin, Rui, Itsuki, Hokuto and Takuma, with Zin and Hokuto both going twice (once as a pair together, then each one individually). And... We love Hokuto. Hokuto is fantastic. Hokuto is not exactly the best athlete in the group. Hokuto's here to have a good time and that's valid.

Itsuki is, honestly, probably the best athlete on this team. In an episode of Run! Run! Rampage!, there was a challenge to see who could run, then dive and slide across a pad to grab a flag. They were in groups of four - Riku won his group (notably running and sliding with so much force he slid off the pad and into the wall - there were people to catch them for following rounds), Likiya won his group, Kaisei won his group and Itsuki won his group. Kaisei won the challenge over all (with a beautiful dive, in my opinion - and having basically four inches on everyone else in that round probably didn't hurt), but I am just recapping this to point out that Itsuki's the only one from that final round who isn't in Team Likiya.

Team YamaSho is YamaSho, Kazuma, Shohei, Ryu and Takahide. Takahide and Kazuma both went twice - once as a pair together, then each one individually. None of them stand out to me as particularly weak or particularly strong athletes. In the Run! Run! Rampage! live show, Takahide and Ryu were both chosen for the tug of war challenge - and Team Silver did win the first round of tug of war (ah... before Team Gold tagged Kaisei in and promptly won the next two rounds).

(when it comes to athletic challenges, Kaisei almost seems to be the cheat card - that might be why Kazuma tried to steal him for Team YamaSho when they were assigning teams at the start 😂)

Kaisei and Makoto started off for Team Likiya on a joint bike and, goddamn, were they fast. Took the lead quickly and did not let it go, then Likiya was also similarly fast. Then it was Shogo and Kenta and them going "Ni ni ni ni ni" in unison was fucking hilarious.

Then Riku fucking lapped Itsuki, who was still trying to finish lap 3 for Team Zin, while Team Likiya was on lap 4. Kaisei and Shogo took off on Lap 5 and Takuma really, really tried his best to help Team Zin catch up, but it's hard to catch up when you're a lap behind.

And then Kenta, for Team Likiya's final lap, also lapped Zin, trying to complete Lap 5. Team Likiya obviously won, with Team YamaSho in second place and Team Zin, unfortunately, in third by a decent amount.

But, yeah. TL;DR - in my opinion, Team Likiya pulled most of the best athletes in the Rampage and that made itself very evident in this weird bicycle challenge. However, we'll see how it works out for them overall in this series.

[riku-wo]

Babe wake up, new miku just dropped

Edit: tbh i didn't know Fairy Miku was this popular

[starmaginoubi]

ROLEPLAY HISTORY !

The rules are simple ! Post ten characters you’d like to roleplay as, have role-played as and might bring back. Aside from that, please repost instead of reblogging !

CURRENTLY PLAYING

Riku Haruna (Beta) - Original Character

HAVE PLAYED

Protagonist/MC4 (Mumei Norahito) - Tokyo Afterschool Summoners

Haseo - .Hack//G.U. Last Recode

Dong Feng Xian Yu - Wo Jia Dashi Xiong Naozi You Keng

WANT TO PLAY

Cerberus - Original Character

Mammon - Obey Me! Shall We Date?

Ryota Yakushimaru - Tokyo Afterschool Summoners

Sevilbarra - Granblue Fantasy

MIGHT BRING BACK

Protagonist/MC4 (Mumei Norahito) - Tokyo Afterschool Summoners

Banri Tokisada - Original Character

[aajjks]

tc!jk adjusting her self slightly to where she can slightly ride his finger while looking riku directly in the eyes.

y-yeah that’s right.. especially my man, he’s very… hm, possessive… he’s not one to let me go without a fight… certainly would never let another man even get the chance… i’m so sorry but i-i really would love to retire, today has been very… amazing but it has taken so much out of me… i would to spend more time with you guys… in the morning when i am full rested- we can all have breakfast together! right baby? t-tell them about the breakfast we’ll be having…

“O-Oh fuck- I mean… we will be having a grand breakfast haha… my king and queen, crown prince.. I and my queen wo see you tomorrow… you can retire in the silver wing. Amazing dinner. See you all tomorrow morning I have to take care of something really precious.. good night.”

“Come on my queen let us leave for bed.”

*he takes his fingers out of you… licking his soaked fingers.*

“Oh I just loved the dessert. Got it on my fingers… haha.. good night.. baby are you OK? Let’s go.”

[toku-explained]

The Strongest Sister's Rage

Hagane wo Tsugu Mono: Ryuga rushes to where the Horrors are, leaving Souma to contemplate his blade. At the building, a woman is saved from 3 Horrors by the arrival of the Swordsmen of AGORA, Ryuga, Mutsugi and Koyori arrive soon after. With Horrors still arriving from upstairs, they plan to have Mutsugi erect a barrier, but Ryuga, knowing Souma will come, has them wait until he does, promising to prevent any Horrors leaving. Igusu and Ron head upstairs to try and suppress the masses, after the majority in the lobby are sealed Ryuga sends Obi and Koyori after them. After telling Koyori to run if she has to, Mutsugi asks why Ryuga is so sure of Souma, Ryuga asserting Souma is in skill a match for Godou. Obi and Koyori send Igusu and Ron further up, exploring the floor, Obi finds a woman hiding, though Obi is almost as nervous as her, but they swear to protect her even as more Horrors come, chasing them back to the entrance, Ryuga and the Priestesses holding the Horrors off as Obi evacuates the woman, in the scuffle, Koyori is saved by Soma's arrival, he affirms that he is ready. As soon as Obi returns Mutsugi begins erecting the barrier, the others fighting the Horrors until Souma sends Ryuga after the Gate. Igusu and Ron return as well, and with no success so far, Ron suggests Souma give a good idea and his misdeeds will be forgotten. With Zaruba sensing stronger Jaki, Ryuga fights his way higher, as Souma lures a crowd of Horrors to Koyori, who sends them through a portal to a closed off area where the AGORA swordsmen wait. Souma admits he sent them too many but they think they can handle it, as more appear Koyori sends them to other enclosed spaces. Igusu warns Obi especially to fight harder if he wants to match Souma, as Souma and Koyori keep a whole swarm contained. In order to contain the Horrors they have left, the 3 AGORA swordsmen each summon their HAGANE and use a combined technique. With all their targets cornered, Koyori uses a blinding technique to disorient the Horrors and escape, allowing Mutsugi to seal them with a barrier. Ryuga finds the room the outbreak started in, and when the phone rings answers, hearing a strange voice before it disconnects. Zaruba informs him the phone is the Gate, but before he can seal it the lead Horror, Kazamatsuri, enters, Ryuga relying on his senses to cut it down. As dawn comes, the remaining Horrors are burnt away by daylight, and Ryuga seals the Gate. The voice, male, declares it understands now that the Night of Dawn is the first step, and that it is going to SEKIGAN Forest.

New Generation Stars: Ignis shows Yuka how to set up the GUTS Hyper Key to record data, and the robot decides to show battle records of this dimension, showing the time Z, Geed and Zero fought the Belial Fusion Kaiju, and uploading Z's data to the Hyper Key, though the result is a Sevenger Key. With Yuka wanting to see more of Riku, she's shown when Geed and Zero battled Gyeron, and gets annoyed the two had forms she didn't get to see as Geed's data is added to the Key. She's further shown Zero and Ultimate Force Zero battling the Darkness Five and Kaiser Darkness, which adds Zero's data to the Key, completing it as the STORAGE Key. Ignis, who hasn't been able to as Akito to make these keys thanks to winding up here, leaves it in Yuka's hands while he seeks treasures in this world, leaving an annoyed Yuka with the robot.

Gotchard: Thanks to Hooper1, Ichinose has secured TriCera, but Renge seems in an unusual mood, it takes Hotaro's mother to realise she's in love. Speculating it's Spanner, the others follow her, and see her approach with a gift as he has a bouquet, but they pass, Renge is actually one of many admirers, of all ages and genders, of a blond ikemen, Kajiki is also among the admirers. Kyouka has brought Spanner to his parents' grave, and discusses the problem of Minato, now unsure of his goal. Greyon is disappointed by Minato's failure and, at Atropos' suggestion, enhances Clotho's strength with gold, and she attacks Kyouka, but Valvarad easily holds her off, and a Smilodon Malgam that arrived decides they must fall back, to Clotho's frustration, but in seeing Prince Zukyun and his admirers hatches a plan. Prince Zukyun seems to encourage finding their own sense of beauty. Hopper1 has been freaking out since seeing Zukyun, and Sabimaru sees message boards if people talking about friends and families becoming obsessed with him and becoming enervated, as we see one devotee become, but all still profess admiration of him. Sabimaru realises Hopper1 was identifying Zukyun as ZukyuMpire, and they decide to confront him. He admits to being a Chemy, snapping Renge out, and is able, like Wrestler G, to possess Ichinose, Sabimaru and Renge in turn to demonstrate his power. Clotho and the Malgam decide to let him gather more power, and when ZukyuMpire runs off to Zukyun the world, Renge and Sabimaru take care of the people while Ichinose and Kudoh pursue, only to be caught out by Clotho and the Malgam. During the battle Clotho forcibly merges with KaMantis, Fire Gotchard matches using AppareSkebow, and Valvarad joins in for payback, using AngelCopter Custom to defeat both Malgam. However, Clotho refuses to give in, and forcibly merges with KaMantis and SabeLiger, forming a Malgam from two different categories. Meanwhile, ZukyuMpire prepares to save everyone, beginning to create a giant heart in the sky.

Kingohger: Tikyu is devastated, the Ohsama Senta broken, Gira alone is able to stand, Dugded asking if he really wants to continue fighting. Earlier, Yanma unveiled a plan to combine the Royal Powers to turn God King-Ohger into a robot capable of matching Dugded at universal scale, unfortunately though, the plan requires Jeramie's immortality, now lost. They're hoping they can get to Hakabaka and ask Ryneol for advice, but then Dugded appears and declares he's wiping the slate clean right now. As the Kings fight him, and Yanma confirms he wouldn't be able to get the plan working even in 24 hours, the Kings initiate Evacuation Plan 0. The retainers lead the people to the shelter, while each bringing a white bag on the King's orders, and Racles ensures everyone can make it. When they are assembled, Caucasus Kabuto Castle arrives, and Racles tells those assembled to board and that the Shugods will come for anyone left. Suspicious, Douga opens his bag, despite orders not to do it until safe, the other Retainers keep Racles from stopping him, and finds the Founder's Crown. The others open their own bags to find the symbols of rule, and Gerojim finds the Venomix Shooter, which projects a message from the Kings. As their ancestors did 2000 years ago, they want their people to flee to another world and complete the plan by recreating the eternal life, giving their own lives to ensure the plan can be competed someday, refusing to be defeated until they see God Caucasus Kabuto take off. The Retainers are aghast at Racles for going along with this plan, and he has to tell that of course this isn't what he wants. The retainers point out that this might mean they survive, but will just consign them to another 2000 year misery. It was miraculous for the Kings to come as far as they have, but only they have a chance. Racles dismisses them as fools, agrees, and prepares to lead them back to the fight, only for Goroge to try and rile the crowd to take the Symbols as their only chance of survival. Except the actual Goroge turns up, easily identified by Boone as being more annoying, and the revealed Kamejim is challenged by Racles, who is even more angered when he appeals to their one time friendship. Kamejim drops an attack to make the people cower, but before anything else can happen a door to Hakabaka opens and an emissary emerges, Deathnarok VIII. Dugded drops meteors of Shugoddom, knocking the whole team down, with only Gira managing to stand, and questions if he really wants to keep going.

[kuningaskunta-sielut]

Tässähän siis näkymätön puhuja eli Mikki kertoo, kuinka löysi itse "tämän puolen Keybladen", mutta suomentaessa on käynyt pieni ja varsin ymmärrettävä kämmi, joten nyt Mikki väittääkin Rikun löytäneen sen Keybladen jossain välissä.

En omista yhtäkään japaninkielistä KH-mangapokkaria, mutta oletan, että mangassa käytetty repla on hyvin samankaltainen, kuin alkuperäisessä pelissä, ja japaninkielisten cutscenejen löytäminen kyllä luonnistuu. Eli katsotaanpa, miten se kuuluu:

Kochira gawa no Kīburēdo wo te ni haireta

Tässä tosiaan puhutaan "tämän puolen Keybladen haltuun saamisesta" - mutta sitä ei mainita ollenkaan, kuka sen Keybladen oikein löysi. Japanin kielessä kun on sellainen jännä ominaisuus, että lauseesta on täysin hyväksyttävää jättää subjekti pois, eikä sanojen taivutuksistakaan voi päätellä tekijää, joten se täytyy vaan päätellä kontekstista. Mutta mitäs sitten jos kontekstia ei ole tai sitä ei vaan tiedä? Sitten ei auta muu kuin arvata, ja tässä tapauksessa suomentaja ei kaiketi joko hoksannut, että puhuja tässä on Mikki tai että se Mikin lopussa heiluttelema avain on just se "tämän puolen Keyblade", ja oletti lauseen näkymättömän subjektin olevankin Riku. Huppistakeikkaa.

[yusukenui]

instead of adding a feature that lets u submit ur pics for header and profile pic and have a palette made from them as prompt for ur theme, tumblr gives us... capitalism