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boysplanetrecaps · 2 years

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Recap of Boys Planet Episode 1 (Part 1)

It’s time for another giant MNET show! Are you excited, fellow Star Creator? Woo!

This is Boys Planet, also called Boys Planet 999 by random incorrect people, including me. And this thing you’re reading is a “watch along” guide/recap to the show. You can read it as you watch the show to get the behind the scenes dirt, or to keep track of who is who and what is going on, or after you watch, or whenever. I don’t spoil anything with respect to who gets kicked off, but I will help you connect the dots with respect to who is who. I’ll use helpful pictures and stuff, too.

All time stamps will correspond to the version on Viki. When I list ages, I’ll use international ages (Korean ages have historically always been 1 more than the way the rest of the world accounts ages).

Who am I?

An internet rando. I live somewhere in the United States and am over 21 years of age. I used to sing acapella and have a strong sense of pitch, but for dancing I just know what I like. I can read/understand a bit of Korean and a bit of Japanese as well, and can tell the difference between spoken Korean, Japanese, and Chinese, so at times I might be able to shed a little light as to what’s going on. When it comes to evaluating performances, I’m not likely to be mean, and I try to understand what might be going on with people but I will be snarky and honest, especially about the editing. Cool? Cool! 🙂To the recap!

Feel free to skip past the drama-teaser to 1:25 for an earnest promise that the show’s producers have paid other people to watch them so that they can’t possibly cheat, before the show can begin and of course, immediately begin to cheat. Yay!

The show’s host, I’m sorry, “Star Master”, Hwang Minhyun, talks earnestly and dully about how there are stars in the sky and foreign members of kpop groups. Hilariously, he appears to be in a futuristic room looking out into a starry sky, perhaps aboard an orbiting space station with a really good gravity system in place. His desk, a cheap Ikea looking affair, is bedecked with a model of the main seating area for the show -- The Space Council Chambers -- a name plate that says “Star Creator”, an unusually huge yellow desk lamp, and an old fashioned globe. This is the shit I live for.

Minhyun is known for his appearance on Produce 101 Season 2 (aka, Broduce 101) as well as for being a popular member of both Wanna One and NU’EST. I’m more of a Baekho girl, but I like Minhyun just fine. There’s something about his face that I never, ever, ever recognize him when I see him, which I find is often the case for Korean “visuals.” He is nice looking, if a bit… personality free? But that could be the directing.

Anyway, Minhyun gets up and pushes a button that says start…

And then we see a (computer generated) room which has been set aside to house a large…. gumball… machine... thing (that is computer generated). Large plastic balls fall from the two parts of the machine to meet in the center. None of this is necessary, or real, and I find that delightful.

Minhyun tells us that now, we are all Star Creators and we’re going to make the next Kpop boy group that the world wants. You know, in case you’re not happy with A.C.E, Astro, Ateez, The Boys, BTS, Ciipher, CIX, Day6, DKZ, Drippin, Enhypen, E’last, Exo, FTIsland, GOT7, Golden Child, Highlight, IKON, JustB, Kingdom, Lucy, Monsta X, NCT, Oneus, ONF, OnlyoneOf, Pentagon, The Rose, Seventeen, SF9, SHINee, Stray Kids, TO1, Treasure, Trendz, TXT, TVXQ, Up10tion, Vav, Verivery, Victon, Vixx, WEi, Winner, Xdinary Heroes, Younite, or Z-Stars. But yes, we need more groups. Bring ‘em on.

Minhyun goes on to talk about how there are two groups of trainees -- K group (Korean) and G group (Global), represented by blue and pink respectively, as well as two heavily mic’d flags.

“Please vote for the boy shining brightest!” the shiny boys chant in unison.

You can vote for whoever you want, whether K or G, though the editors do strongly suggest you vote K, and the votes will again be weighted the way they were in GP999 -- ie, Korean votes will be weighted as 50% of the votes, and Global votes will be weighted as the other 50%. If you want to skip past the voting instructions, skip to 5:20.

So, we look down at what looks kind of like one of those rolling-marble puzzles,

but it turns out to be the hallway through which all the trainees have to walk on their way to the Space Council Chambers.

Lee Da Eul (18) and Lim Jun Seo (17) from 143 Entertainment, the first to enter, are offered sparkly star stickers, and they decide to give themselves 1 star each, adding that they aren’t totally sure if they even deserve those one stars. Ok, politeness is sweet, but why go on this show if you don’t believe in your abilities? Anyway, these chosen two get to say “woah” and “eego buyo?” as the lights turn on loudly. They explore the Council seating, feel the soft seats for the top 9, then decide to sit in seats 4 and 5. (Later on, they’ll perform “Replay” by SHINee as their audition.)

Next to enter are the trainees from Wakeone, who, we see in a flashback, had a pre-show meeting with their sunbae, Kim Chae Hyun from Kep1er, who did really well on GP999. Chaehyun encouraged them to be confident on the show, saying, “If someone is very good but has no confidence then there’s no charm to them.” The five Korean trainees from Wakeone gave themselves 7 stars each -- these are Kim Taerae, Park Hanbin, Lee Jung Hyun, Mun Junghyun, and Park Minseok. Their confidence spurs Lim Jun Seo to go move to seat 9. Wakeone’s maknae, Mun Jung Hyun (17), sits in the chair for #1. (Later on, these 5 will perform “The Real” by ATEEZ.)

From here there’s going to be a lot of fighting as to who gets to sit in that chair, and I’ll be honest, I don’t care that much.

Next to enter is: Canada! One of the Wakeone trainees says “I would’ve never imagined someone from Canada” as the on-screen words say, “What will this Canadian trainee look like?” The combined impression from those two sentences is that people from Canada are unimaginably weird looking. Mun Jung Hyun wonders, “Will people with blonde hair and blue eyes show up?” Which, again, hilarious. Do they not know that Somi (IOI/soloist/future Star Master this season), Wendy from Red Velvet, Mark Lee from NCT, and a bunch of other k-idols are from Canada? Why do I know that, come to think of it? Why do I know that, and not where my keys are?

Also, whenever Koreans talk about Canada, all I can think about is the k-drama, Goblin, in which they talk about “Canada” as if it is a single city with maybe two restaurants, and where it is always the beginning of autumn, encased in a gentle fluttering of orange maple leaves.

We meet Seok Matthew (20), who is independant, and has given himself three stars. He looks a tiny winy bit like Xiumin from Exo to me. In an interview, we can see that he speaks Korean reasonably well. His sister got him into dancing and now he really likes it, and he came to Korean to reach his dream.

Then we meet Japanese trainee Takuto, born November of 2007, dressed for… boxing? He has boxing gloves hanging from a string around his neck and has a sweat band around his head. In his intro package, he speaks in sort of halting Korean -- hey, it’s a lot better than my own Korean -- and poses in power poses to show he’s a “manly man” (they translate it as “tough guy” but google translate says “manly man” and I think that’s funnier).

An up close shot reveals he has actually stenciled “Takuto” in English letters on his cheek with blush.

As the MNET editors mercilessly play the clip of him saying he’s a manly man ( “상 남… 상 남 자” /“Sang nam… sang namja…”) over and over and over again as if to teach us the proper pronunciation, Takuto looks around at the older bigger guys and makes a big heart over his head with his hands. All the other guys react by laughing and clapping, charmed.

MNET obviously isn’t showing everyone who comes in, as eagle eyed viewer will spot additional trainees in the Space Council who were not shown entering, but hey, I mean, whatever, it’s MNET. This has been edited so much it’s basically fiction.

In comes Wumuti (23), who has such a unique look to him that I was curious as to his background. My internet roving tells me that he was also on the MNET show Under 19, and that he’s an ethnic Uyghur from China. I was like, ok, what is a Uyghur? Turns out they’re a sort of Turkish ethnic group but mostly they live in Northwest china, and oh…. It’s really sad and awful, guys. The Chinese government is doing things like work camps and forced sterilization and stuff to try to wipe them out. I can’t help but root for anyone who comes from a background like that. Also, his name written in Korean characters looks cute: 우무티. Later on he’ll perform UN Village by Baekhyun.

So, Wumuti comes in and we see he’s given himself 6 stars. He makes a beeline for Chair 1, where he loses Rock Paper Scissors. Come on, can’t the guy catch a break?

Then we see a montage of trainees fighting for Chair 1, and again, I don’t care. They plank for it, thumb war, etc. Kum Jun Hyeon, 19, who has absolutely covered his nametag in stars to the point you can barely see even his name, is cheered on by his Redstart ENM labelmates as he nabs the chair. They have also gone completely HAM on those stars. (Later on, he’ll do Nunu Nana by Jessi.) I feel worse and worse for our initial two guys, giving themselves just one star.

Apparently, MNET isn’t interested in spending time watching each trainee come in this time, and that’s possibly for the best, but it does make it a bit sketchy that we see certain trainees.

For example, we meet the trainees from Taipei, who come in like this:

Left to right, this is Chen Kuan Jui, Qiu Sheng Yang, Chen Ren You, and Dong Dong. Kuan Jui, holding that bejeweled stick, has given himself 5 stars, while the others have given themselves 2 or 3 each. Mun Jung Hyun and Kim Tae Rae wonder to each other, is that a magic staff? Like the kind that Sun Wukong carries? (Sun Wukong, aka the Monkey King, is a famous character from Chinese mythology.) (Later on they’ll do Tiger Inside by SuperM.)

Kuan Jui marches up to Chair 1 and does a full standing split that would actually put Le Sserafim’s Kazuha to shame

And thus, he earns the seat.

I don’t know if the ability to put one’s ankle behind one’s neck is a something I need from a kpop idol. But I mean, good for him? I guess?

In come the trainees from Jellyfish, and Lee Ye Dam reacts as if someone has splashed him in the face with cold water, which, given that this is MNET, is not impossible. Someone says, “no way!” which is very odd, because Jellyfish always sends trainees to shows like this. I mean, Mina and Sejong came out of PD 101. And it’s not as if Jellyfish is doing all that well. They squandered Sejong, they murdered Gugudan, and their most successful group is Verivery, who are very sweet, talented, and hardworking but not exactly smashing sales records. So yeah, not sure what Yedam is so excited about.

We get a bit of a slow-mo to take in what we might reasonably be excited about: sexy Park Gun Wook (18).

To be clear: I don’t personally find him sexy; he’s way too young to seem sexy to me personally. I’m saying that that is obviously what he’s going for. He gives off big time Kang Daniel vibes to me, not really in looks but in terms of what he’s aspiring to. He and his fellow Jellyfish trainees are tall and manly, and Gun Wook already may have a fan following since he did pretty well on another survival show called Wild Idol. Gun Wook goes straight for Chair 1, and the other trainees comment on how muscular he is. He challenges the current seat sitter, a Japanese trainee named Riku, to a thigh wrestling game (??). Poor Riku -- we didn’t see him take the seat, but we sure see him lose the seat.

Time for an American trainee! I love that the Korean word for USA is “MiGuk” (or Bi-Goo, as it’s usually pronounced). Apparently it translates to Beautiful Country, which is so kind of them to say. I hope that the USA will do more things to earn that name going forward.

Out come Jay and Na Kamden. Jay, lovey, there are already enough Jays in Kpop --you have to think of a different name. It seems like Jay strongly prefers speaking English, but understands some Korean, while Kamden understands Jay’s English but prefers to speak Korean. Kamden appeared on Wild Idol as well.

Then we get a montage of tall global trainees, mostly Chinese. For people like me who don’t readily understand heights in cm, it’s good to know that 183 cm is 6 feet. So someone 188 cm is like, 6’2.

We also meet Cong and Dang Hong Hai from Vietnam, who later on will perform View by SHINee. Hong Hai speaks Korean, even if it’s with a really thick accent. It has to be so hard for the global contestants.

Then we meet the group from Osaka, Japan, and it turns out one of them is Keita, who the whole Space Council recognizes. He was on YG’s TreasureBox, the show that made the group Treasure, and then later on debuted with Ciipher. It’s not too weird he’d come on this show, as Ciipher is still, alas, in semi-nugu territory.

Ah, here is Yuehua, who are sending in 4 Korean trainees and 4 Global trainees, each entering via their respective doorway, which is so charmingly unnecessary. The Korean trainees come out in all black, while the “global” team is a bit more colorful in faded denim. If you’re not familiar, Yuehua is a Chinese company with branches in Korea. They co-manage WJSN with Starship, and manage Everglow outright. They also manage new boy band Tempest.

Anyway, then there’s a montage of the trainees finding each other handsome and saying they look like other famous people, capped off by the entrance of Sung Han Bin to the strains of tender piano music that presumably plays in his wake naturally due to his extreme handsomeness.

Even I can tell that he is in fact, quite good looking in that classic kpop way. He looks like he should be with SM entertainment, but he’s from STUDIO GL1DE, which doesn’t bode well for his skills. A guy who looks like that who could do a nice step-touch and could at least carry a tune in a bucket would get picked up by a more prestigious agency. But maybe I’ll be proven wrong on that…. Hmmm….

Cube’s trainees are announced, and we’re treated to a brief montage of Cube’s top artists, including BtoB, Pentagon and G-Idle. The camera pauses for a moment on Hui from Pentagon as the group performs Shine. The trainees talk about how talented the Cube sunbaes are -- how talented would their hoobaes be? Out comes Bak Do Ha, looking like a figure skater. (Later on he’ll be performing My House by 2PM.)

There’s still one more empty chair, and the Space Council wonders: what agency could sending the last trainee? It turns out it’s also… Cube?!? Bak Do Ha smiles and laughs to himself as the other trainees are wondering why this last trainee is being announced last and separately. They all immediately recognize him as Hui-sunbaenim from Pentagon, a group that debuted in 2016, has had some serious ups and some serious downs, and won a bunch of music shows as recently as a few months ago. This 29-year-old man who has already done his military service bows to the 15 year olds and introduces himself as Lee Hoe Taek from Cube, politely saying “I look forward to working with you.”

Guys. GUYS. I have a lot of feelings about Hui from Pentagon being on this show. I could talk endlessly about it, but the upshot is: negative. I have negative feelings about this. When Pentagon went on Kingdom, they actually kind of… fell in my esteem. Hui seemed so sad, like the group was just so sad, and Hui was pushing so hard to make his song remixes cool that he forgot to make them… pleasant to listen to, or fun to see performed. I think Hui is a genuine, top-tier talent when it comes to songwriting, producing, and singing. I love a lot of Pentagon songs, including ones people don’t talk about but should, like Can You Feel It and Sha La La. I am still angry that E-Dawn got kicked out over being a human being with a love life, and angry that it hurt Pentagon a lot, and heartbroken that a lot of that probably landed on Hui’s head.I get it that he’s doing this to get people to notice Pentagon. After all, their contracts are up in 2023, and no doubt they’ll want to leave that awful agency. Maybe they’ll pull a GOT7 and all leave together and stay together. So I get it that he wants to promote. But the thing is, I don’t believe that “all publicity is good publicity.” I think having people feel sorry for you will make them not feel impressed by you, or attracted to you, and I think that will hurt you. I think this was a big mistake and it makes me feel second-hand-humiliation. I hope I’m wrong. Sincerely, I do.

Anyway, this award winning songwriter and top-tier vocalist has rated himself 3 stars. Thinking about it, that was kind of the only move he could make -- he has to pretend to have a reason to be on the show, and that reason can only be to “work on myself and continue to improve to be the best Lee Hoe Taek I can be”, or something along those lines. To be Hui and give himself 4 (or more) stars would feel like an NBA star who came to dunk on a bunch of high school kids.

We cut to his first interview with the staff, in which he said that he had only gotten discharged from the military a week ago and feels shy in front of the camera. We get a brief montage of trainees saying they’re not sure why he’s here, some of them seeming a little irritated. Others say that it’s a honor to be on the same show with Hui.

Hui decides to challenge the current number-1 chair sitter (16 year old Park Ji Hoo, who says “I just got here!”) to a contest to win the chair, and bowing deeply and speaking politely, says he’d like to have a singing contest. Of course. He lets out a delightful musical phrase, and Ji Hoo stands there listening, then scurries away without singing a note.

There’s something so poignant about Ji Hoo saying, “I just got here” to Hui. He just got here in the show, he just got here in this industry -- he just got here on this PLANET compared to Hui. And here comes Hui to take the chair. I like Hui, I do, I just…. Ugh.

Ollie, who is representing China but seems quite comfortable speaking English, notices that the two sides of the room are really different, with K-group mostly wearing suits or leather, and G-group more varied and colorful. Yes, that is obvious. Can we have another season of Youth With You that doesn’t end with a milk scandal, please? Anyway…

Interestingly, Ollie can also speak a decently pronounced, if slightly halting, Korean in his interview. Zhang Hao can also speak a bit of Korean -- it sounds to me like he has a Chinese accent on his Korean, but it’s not like I would really know. But they’re both Yuehua trainees and it wouldn’t surprise me if their agency gave them intensive Korean language training. Love that. It’s really smart of Yuehua, and so truly helpful to their trainees.

0:23:00 The Judges Come Out

The room darkens and the trainees watch a short video about how they’re on Boys Planet now and are trying to become shining stars or whatever the shit. Turns out this year, there will be multiple hosts, and the viewers will be called Star Creators. The boys are nervous in general and in specific.

Time to meet the vocal master: Lee Seok Hoon. The trainees recognize him, and while they clearly respect him, they’re scared of him after his time on Produce101. He’s known for turning his head to the side and looking disgusted when someone hits a sour note, or for nodding appreciatively with his eyebrows raised when someone hits a good note.

Solji is the female vocal master and their enthusiasm seems bigger -- it’s Solji from Exid! Who doesn’t love her? Wrong people, that’s who. A trainee says that she’s been teaching at a University, and like, I hope so. I just want Solji’s life to be full of respect and comfort. She just seems like such a class act. I bet she’s an excellent teacher. And then Onestar comes out, who we might recognize from GP999. The trainees cheer for him and he makes them cheer more.

Then the rap master: pH-1 from H1ghr music, who introduces himself in rapid English. Several of the trainees claim to be big fans. I’ll be honest and say I’ve never heard of him. And I actually do listen to some k-rap. Per Wikipedia, he was born in Korea but moved to New York when he was 12. I guess he chose English as the lingua franca, but in that case, talk more slowly, dude. Anyway. Wikipedia adds, “As the three keywords he pursues in his music are truth, positivity, and experience, his work contains positive or honest messages, generally excluding references to drugs, money bragging and excessive "flexing", and explicit sexual content.” So, look forward to that. Or not. I don’t know what you’re into.

Dance Masters: From 1Million, Back Koo Young and Choi Young Joon. Look I don’t know much about much but I *do* know that 1Million is top tier when it comes to dance. So these guys are good. The trainees are psyched to see them. Also, Lip J, who is “the living legend of waacking.” The trainees say their judges/trainers are like the Avengers.

The judges immediately move into intimidation mode. It’s time to find out how the trainees rated themselves, star wise. The Korean group was more confident, overall.

What’s sort of interesting about this is that during GP999, the Chinese girls were far more confident than the Korean girls. That’s because Chinese culture isn’t as self-effacing as Korean culture is, in general. Kind of interesting, too, that they had the boys do this, but not the girls. With the girls it would have been such a mine field because it’s “unfeminine” to have faith in yourself. Anyway.

Japanese trainee Haruto interviews, in Korean, “Only a maximum of four stars were allowed, but almost everyone did whatever they wanted.” Yep.

The judges explain that their first performance will be the “Style Level Test”, during which their self-assessed star levels will be replaced by judge-assessed stars. Also, we learn that K-group and G-group are being pitted against each other; the team that wins more stars overall will get access to the next song that they have to practice a day earlier. Kind of cruel -- my assumption, without having seen the whole episode, is that the K-group will win, and the G-group will be at a further disadvantage, having one day fewer to practice and needing even more time due to language barriers. Why do I watch these shows? Am I mentally well?

Auditions Begin: 0:32:58

Finally, we get our first audition -- Team Jellyfish, who gave themselves all 4 stars. The trainees are suitably cowed; after all, Kim Dayeon from Kep1er is from Jellyfish. Kim Gyu Vin (who is a serious talent in his own right, and will later on perform Kick It) calls Park Gun Wook “Park Gun-Wook -nim” even though, as he notes, Gyu Vin is actually a bit older than Gun Wook. It’s just that Gun Wook looks so big and mature. Little boxer Takuto met team Jellyfish backstage and backed away from them as if scared, his hands in a fig leaf position, and they encouraged him to come closer and were nice to him and called him cute. Gun Wook is the leader, the all rounder, and is also apparently pretty nice. See? Kang Daniel vibes?

They’re going to be performing GBTB (Go Beyond the Barrier) by their sunbaes, Verivery. One of the dance masters actually choreographed this, but the boys seem confident to perform it in front of the choreographer. Fighting!

Left to right: Jang Yeo Jun, Park Hyun Been, Han Yu Seop, Park Gun Woo

My thoughts:

I’ll be honest, this is my first time hearing this song, and I’m ok not hearing it again after this. Just sort of… like what if you took all the NCT songs and threw them in a blender with an electric guitar? Sorry, VERRER. I still think Verivery are very cute and charming and my bias is Dongheon.

As for the performance: I have not a ton to say, because it was fine. All four of them did fine dance wise. Gun Wook stood out with his charisma and his big nice face. (I know the Korean ideal is small faces, but I like big faces.) I think Jang Yeo Jun danced a little bit better than the others, doing those weird leg kicks a little bit better, and Park Hyun Been rapped really fast and pretty well. Their singing was on key, too. I think Han Yu Seop was the main vocalist, but I actually think his singing was among the weakest -- there were times that I couldn’t even hear him sing. But they were dancing really hard. So for an audition for one of these shows, he was ok.

They ask GunWook to dance by himself, and he chooses a song by Seventeen. The dance masters warn him that it’s hard, but he’s unbothered. He has good charisma, great facial expressions, and sharp movements. As far as I can tell, he’s good.

The judges give them all the same score -- 3 stars ⭐⭐⭐ . They took away a star because the boys didn’t sing loud enough. The boys do their best to accept their fate.

WakeOne doing Glitch Mode.

The team comes out in a choo choo train formation -- sorry for that extremely technical term -- then introduce themselves (and I’ll tell you a little more):

Super Charming Anthonny! (He’s almost 19, from Japan, and got all A’s on Produce 101 Japan)

Refreshing energy Min! (He’s 22, from Thailand, and also went on Under Nineteen)

Powerful Dance Haruto! (He’s 18, from Japan, specializes in dance, and went semi-viral for complaining that his profile picture didn’t look like him, even tho it kinda does….)

After they introduce themselves, Haruto asks if they can have a moment to check their formation -- basically, they want to rehearse on stage during the audition? The judges let them, sighing about kids today, but everyone is mildly impressed that these foreigners are talking to each other in Korean. Min’s profile says he speaks Thai, Korean, Chinese, and English, but not Japanese, so maybe that’s why they’ve settled on Korean to talk to each other -- plus it looks better to the judges that they know enough Korean to communicate.

My thoughts:

I have to note that Glitch Mode is the kind of song I’m a bit over. I really like Cherry Bomb and Firetruck and even got on board with Kick It but this sort of shouting-in-unison, wandering base line, jazzy-melodic-SM-bridge when the singers can sing… I just am a bit past it. Sorry, folks. (Update: But I do love Ayo, so who knows anymore?) So I don’t know this song super well. I listened to it twice before watching the performance trying to figure out what the melody is and kind of failed. So. There’s that.

This was a really cute performance, though. I watched the full version on youtube before I watched the show version. All three of them danced well, with a lot of energy and great facial expressions.

Haruto obviously stood out for dancing, doing aerials and backflips and splits. He rolled with the fact that his mic pack fell out of his pocket right at the beginning, and didn’t let it show on his face. But his singing was egregious. He’s not a singer, and this song is incredibly difficult to sing even when you’re standing still. Also, his rapping wasn’t too bad.

Min did some high kicking and acrobatics as well, and his rapping was actually good. I won’t say his singing was good but it was on key as far as I could tell, which is an achievement.

Anthonny was the vocalist of the team and as such didn’t do any flipping around, but he sang the best. Like I said, overall, pretty charming. I have a soft spot for Anthonny for no darn reason. He’s just a cutie.

Interestingly, the version that aired on the show had most of the bad singing edited out. I think the show wanted Haruto to look better. The judges ask him about his dancing ability and he says he used to do ballet and proceeds to do a sort of crazy 30 consecutive ballet turns. Haruto is obviously a really good dancer, but so was Min, who also rapped well. And Haruto’s singing was very, very bad -- did I mention that? But they still gave him an All Star rating ⭐ ⭐⭐⭐ , which strikes me as objectively incorrect. I like him, you guys. I do. He’s charming and cute and a great dancer. He didn't sing well in his audition. That isn’t an opinion; it’s a fact. I think maybe 2 or 3 stars would have been fairer. Or maybe Haruto sang a separate song and did a lot better in it, but we didn't see...?

Min and Anthonny both get 3 stars 3 stars ⭐⭐⭐ , though the show doesn’t care enough to bother to show it.

Next up, at 49:00, is Team Taipei. I’ll put their photo back up so you don’t have to scroll back and forth.

Again, left to right, that’s Chen Kuan Jui, Qui Sheng Yang, Chen Ren You, and Dong Dong.

The judges immediately ask about the big stick and he explains he needs it for performance.

My thoughts: They perform Tiger Inside by SuperM. As always, I checked out the Youtube version first, before I watched the MNET edited version. I like this song just fine, if you’re wondering.

The flexible Chen Kuan Jui is 22. His online profile mentions he does ballet and that one of his hobbies is “stretching.” Yeah, that checks out. His dancing is very good -- little details like how he bends his fingers, stuff like that. You just know his toes are pointed inside those boots. That said, his vocal color is unpleasant, and his choice to retrieve and spin that dumb stick was…. You know…. A choice. A wrong choice, but a choice. Sorry if you liked it, but I found it really unimpressive. I’d rather just watch this talented dancer dance.

The blonde Qiu Sheng Yang is 21. He also was on Atom Boyz with Ren You, on the same team but eliminated much sooner than Ren You was. His performance here is not fabulous but not awful. He seemed uncomfortable to me, like he was overdancing a bit.

The distinctive looking Chen Ren You is 19. His online profile states that he’s a singer; he was on a Taiwanese reality show called Atom Boyz that sounds like a frickin’ hoot, but doesn’t seem available in full with English subtitles, anywhere. Ren You has one of those faces -- like GunWook on this show, or Sehun from EXO, or that one guy from Drippin, Junho. Like a face that’s just like HI, I AM A FACE. I dig it, don’t get me wrong. Anyway, his performance was good. I thought his dancing was purposeful, but sort of calm, and his singing was really good. On key, on rhythm, pleasant, all that good stuff. I’m rooting for him.

The delightfully monikered Dong Dong is 22 and represents Stardust Entertainment. I’m old as shit but I am still apparently 12 years old on the inside because I can’t. He apparently was on a Chinese reality show called The Coming One 2. Anyway, he does fine, I guess. On key, dancing is decent, it’s not awful. Bring it on, bringenon, brigggedon!

So yeah, I say Chen Kuan Jui was the best dancer in the group, and Renyou is the best singer in the group, but they were all basically ok. Of course, the MNET editing focuses almost entirely on the stupid stick, and Renyou’s excellent singing is edited out. They give Renyou 2 stars ⭐⭐ . Are we watching the same thing? Maybe his dancing was bad and I just can’t tell because I know nothing about dancing.

The judges focus on flexy Chen Kuan Jui and give him time to dance, and of course, he’s genuinely a very very good ballet dancer. He can get up with his toes and flip around and do all sorts of crazy stuff. But I really dislike his singing voice and I don’t know, I find him off-putting for no good reason. That’s not fair of me, but yeah, it’s where I’m at. Regardless, the judges give him 4 stars. ⭐⭐ ⭐⭐ We don’t see it, but Dong Dong gets 1 star ⭐ and Sheng Yang gets 2 stars ⭐⭐ .

Now we have a montage of G group groups: team Vietnam doing View, team Thailand doing Kokobop, and a Chinese group doing God’s Menu. The editing here is brought to you by MNET’s editing team, shown here at their most recent staff meeting.

We barely see any of these teams, so I watched their full performances on Youtube and will let tell you about it!

Team Kokobop:

A Thai duo who greet everyone with a sawadee ka. Zhang Hao from Yuehua (good looking guy with auburn hair -- we’ll meet him soon) tells Ricky from Yuehua (distinctive blonde guy, giving us Keifer Sutherland in Lost Boys vibes) that he wants to be friends with the Thai guys because he likes Thai food.

Winnie, from FirstOne Entertainment, claims his specialty is freestyle dance. He’s 24. I’ve seen his name spelled Winne, but more official sources spell it Winnie. He’s a member of nugu group NINE.i -- two other members of that group are on the show, but they’re Korean, so we’ll meet them later.

Nice is an individual trainee. He’s 22. He seems scared to look up or into camera lenses.

My Thoughts:

They perform Kokobop, and I watched the whole performance on Youtube. I’m a huge EXO-L (my bias is ALL OF THEM) and I really love this song, so I know it well. Winnie was actually pretty decent, singing a really difficult song. He was a little sharp here and there but really not that bad. He also looked pretty comfortable and hit the dance moves reasonably well. I never know what the Korean public thinks looks good, but I think his styling isn’t working for him. He’s wearing way too much foundation, that shade of hair color doesn’t suit his skin, and his contact lenses just give him an unearthly, fake look. He looks better in some photos I’ve seen of him online, like this one:

Winnie, I hope for good things for you going forward.

Nice was terrible vocally; the dancing was ok but the vocals were unacceptable. He also looked really, really shy -- like he can’t even make eye contact with the camera. I think he is way out of his league, bless him. You’re very cute, Nice. I assume you’re rich or you wouldn’t be here, so I hope your personal wealth cushions the blow when you are rightfully kicked off. (Smash cut to Nice making the final line up because he’s cute….???)

MNET editing was pretty kind, honestly. Nice can only benefit by being edited down. He’s like the shark in Jaws -- looks great as long as you don’t see him for long. The judges give Nice 0 stars, and give Winnie 1 star ⭐ .

Next up is a G-group team: Team God’s Menu

Oh, these poor guys. They look good in their outfits, to be fair, but poor guys. Non-native speakers of Korean, trying to do this song? As someone said online, “Their souls probably left their bodies when they found out they had to do this song.” I’m trying to think of a group who could cover this song and do it justice. Monsta X probably could. And I mean, of course BTS could. Probably Hui or Jeon Soyeon could do a cool remix that would suit their own teams. Regardless, this is not an ideal song for a rookie group of non-native Korean speakers.

I watched the whole performance on Youtube. I’m not obsessed with Stray Kids but I do like them (my bias is Changbin!), and I love love LOVE this song. Here’s my take:

Xuan Hao also appeared on Youth With You 3, which I didn’t watch. He ended in 62nd place and apparently also uses the name “Swen.” He says on his initial profile worksheet that God’s Menu is his favorite song, and maybe that’s one of the reasons that he did a great job here. His dancing was sharp when it had to be sharp and fluid when it had to be fluid, and his singing was on key and on the beat. He’s a better singer than I.N. anyway. Yes I said it: I.N. is not a good singer. Come find me and kill me for it, I guess? That’s the kind of thing you should end a human life for, right? Anyway, I like Xuan Hao.

Lin Shiyuan was apparently once a Cube trainee, but is now independent. He has the job of rapping Changbin’s intro rap. He doesn’t do very well. He very noticeably rushes the beat pretty much every time it’s his turn to vocalize in any way, maybe because he’s nervous, and his pronunciation is not great. He had definitely learned these complicated dance steps, but he wasn’t dancing them, just doing them. I could see the fear in his face, and when he wasn’t singing or rapping, you could almost see him counting the steps. When they were flipping the pancake, he didn’t look up to wait for it to come back down, which is 90% of the fun of that move. I can’t blame him and I’m not blaming him. Poor guy.

Feng Junlan actually did pretty well. His rapping was on the beat and sounded good, and his dancing was precise. He looked up when they flipped the pancake -- it makes such a difference. If the judges have any sense that have to have noticed how well he did.

When I tried to watch it to focus on Chen Liang, Feng Junlan kept stealing my attention. Liang did fine dance wise, as far as I could tell (but didn’t look up when they flipped the pancake!), but his vocals were very off key (if at least more or less on the beat).

The judges are kind in their manner, but not generous with their stars.

Xuan Hao gets 1 star ⭐ , which seems too low to me.

Lin Shiyuan gets 1 star ⭐ , which must be for the dancing.

Feng Junlan gets 2 stars ⭐⭐ , which seems low to me, but I’m glad it’s not 1 or 0.

Chen Liang gets 2 stars ⭐⭐ , which seems high to me.

Team View - Vietnam

My thoughts:

Obviously, like any sane person, I love this song.

Basically, none of their performance gets shown, but you guys, they were pretty good! Honestly, they sang on key and tried to keep their energy up and yeah, I don’t speak Korean but I know this song well and it didn’t sound awful. Check it out on Youtube and see for yourself -- compare their singing to that of Haruto’s and you’ll see what I mean.

The judges give 22-year-old Cong just 1 star ⭐ , which is cruelly low, and give 19 year old Dang Hong Hai 2 stars ⭐⭐ , which is ok, I’m on the fence between 2 and 3 for him. But it’s like the judges are watching these auditions from Minhyun’s space station. And maybe… I don’t know… is there a little racism? Just a little bit? Against these two Vietnamese trainees?

From what we can tell from the editing, the judges really dinged them for their pronunciation, as if that matters the most? As if the ability to sing on key isn’t, perhaps, more important?

In an interview, Cong says, in Korean, that he practices Korean every day. His pronunciation is pretty bad, though. You probably wouldn’t guess from hearing it that that was Korean, but if you listen closely you hear the Korean verb endings. It must be so hard for someone coming from a tonal language, like Vietnamese or Chinese, to learn a non-tonal language like Korean. I think it’s much easier for Japanese speakers to speak Korean -- they’re totally different languages but have similar sounds in them. (To be technical: Japanese and Korean are not related at all, but they have similar phonemes, which are the basic sounds you make when you speak. Korean has additional vowel sounds that Japanese doesn’t have, and there are other small differences, but if you can pronounce one language it wouldn’t be too hard to learn to pronounce the other.)

Then we get a mini montage about how much global trainees want to be kpop idols. Thai trainee Winnie says (in what sounds like very good Korean) that he wanted to be an idol since he was a kid. He turned down an opportunity with a very prestigious university, Chulalongkorn University (it’s the highest rated university in Thailand) in order to come to Korea and pursue this dream. -- in the audience, Kim Ji Woong, a 24-year-old individual trainee we haven’t met yet but who I assume is handsome,* mutters, “Can I go to that school in your place?” which strikes me as… super sad. Like, there’s stuff going on here we don’t know but can kind of guess.

*I have to say things like “I assume this person is handsome” because my standards of handsome/not aren’t always the same as everyone else’s. For example, I think that Chen is the best looking member of Exo. I think all of these boys are nice looking, and some of them are cute or charming, etc, but I can’t always tell who is going to be the “visual King” or whatever for a given season.

At 55:36, we see Qiu Sheng Yang (who we met earlier, in Tiger Inside), then his teammate, the flexible Chen Kuan Jui, then Osuke, a Japanese trainee we haven’t met (he’s going to do Crown), then Min, the Thai trainee who did Glitch Mode, all talking about how much they admire Korean pop music, all to the tender strains of gentle piano, and Koreans everywhere smile in satisfaction, I guess.

And that’s enough for one post! Part II will be linked here.

#Boys Planet #boys planet 999 #boysplanet #boysplanet999

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shadowetienne · 2 years

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Etienne’s Top Fives of 2022: Kpop Edition - Boy Groups

We’re on to Boy Groups as I continue down my list from the roundup post. This has in some ways been the hardest category to narrow down, specifically the order of 2nd-4th and who got the 5th spot (there’s a reason I’ve got 2 honorable mentions).

If a boy group has had subunits or members doing things solo, I consider that part of the group’s body of work for the year as long as they’ve also done some full group stuff. If only a subunit has been active, they’d probably get considered a boy group for the sake of this, and if only solos have been active, then they’d go in with solos.

The list with representative MVs is under the cut!

There were so many boy groups that did at least something that I enjoyed this year, including some that I hadn’t enjoyed anything from up until now. I think that part of the reason decisions this year were hard was that this was just an outstanding year for releases overall. Here’s a list of groups with songs that stood out for me this year in about the order that I heard them that didn’t make the list below: Up10tion (“Crazy About You” / "What If Love"), Onewe (“Universe” / "Montage" / "Still Here"), Drippin (“Villain” / “Zero” / “The One”), AB6IX (“1, 2, 3”), BtoB (“The Song”), Nu’est (“Again” disbandment song), Kingdom (“Ascension”), Ghost9 (“X-ray”), Just B (“Re=Load”), TXT (“Good Boy Gone Bad”), MCND (“W.A.I.1” < first time I’ve liked one of their songs), Vanner ("Rollin"), E’last (“Creature"), Omega X (“Play Dumb” < first song I’ve liked by them), TheBoyz (“Sweet” / “Timeless” / “Whisper”), Golden Child (“Replay”), Epex (“Hymn to Love”), P1harmony (“Doom Du Doom” < first song I’ve liked by them), and CIX (“458”).

Honorable Mention: Stray Kids

“Maniac” https://youtu.be/OvioeS1ZZ7o

If you’d asked me a few months ago, Stray Kids probably would have been making my top 5 hands down. I saw them live and they were amazing! They did a lot that I liked early in the year musically. I... didn’t like Maxident and especially the MV for “Case 143″ at all though (there’s... one song I thought was OK on the album), and it probably impacted their place here. I still love them! They’re among my top groups, but I was reminded that their music is hit and miss for me. It is good going back and listening to “Maniac” and remembering that I do love a lot of their music. I really wish that Maxident hadn’t felt so rushed for me because it definitely dampened my appreciation of their overall body of work for the year. They are incredible live though! And I appreciate that I’ve gained friends both on here and in real life over them.

Biases: Han, Lee Know, Seungmin

Honorable Mention: Ateez

“Halazia” https://youtu.be/SszP3hlQ55Y

Ateez came into this year for me riding the high of “Turbulence” that is probably to date my favorite of their songs, and I had high expectations. Their music so far this year has been interesting, but noting has quite caught me the way some of last years releases did. They were in very tight contention for making it into the 5th place, thus why I have these honorable mentions. I am very interested to see where they take their music and storylines next, and “Halazia” (linked above) was probably my favorite thing that they did this calendar year, it’s definitely an interesting sound and it may honestly grow on me further with more listens.

Biases: Seonghwa, Yeosang

5) Cravity

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This has been a killer year for Cravity! I loved “Adrenaline” and enjoyed “Vivid” earlier in the year. They had a song all in English that I liked with “Boogie Woogie” (a rarity for me, often understanding lyrics impedes me ability to enjoy songs that I like auditorily). “Party Rock” (above) was definitely my favorite of their releases this year! It gets stuck in my head, it’s so catchy. I definitely replayed it a ton right after it came out too! Cravity has flirted with being on these lists since debut, but I think that the last time they made it on one was their rookie year (granted, they’ve not been around that long). I think that they’ve finally started to hit their stride, and I’m really hoping for more of them embracing this sound!

Biases: Jungmo, Minhee

4) Oneus

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I’ve liked them since debut to some extent, and I’d properly fallen for Oneus as a group with “Luna” last year, but “Same Scent” and the entire Malus album was kind of what tipped them over from a group that I loved to one of my top groups. I had Malus on repeat for weeks. They’ve had a rough go of the past few months (don’t really feel like talking about this, I do have opinions, but it’s not a conversation I’m interested in having at this time), but they’ve had amazing performances since then. And I thought that they couldn’t make “Same Scent” better than it already is, and then they just recently released the traditional version (https://youtu.be/pIVfLX8zW00 warning has flashing lights), and it somehow makes the song even better. I love how they use traditional instrumentation and sound in their songs somewhat regularly!

Biases: Seoho, Leedo, Hwanwoong (I am aware that’s over half the group, no I will not narrow it down)

3) OnlyOneOf

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I’m breaking my own pattern a little bit by putting “ズルい女“ (their Japanese MV) as the representative song, but it was my favorite of their full group pieces this year, and I think that it shows their choreo and how they make music, even covers, their own really beautifully. The real thing that put’s OnlyOneOf this high on the list is their body of queer work with the member solos this year in the “be” / “undergrOund idOl” series. “skinz” was important to me conceptually, but it’s one of my least favorite OnlyOneOf songs, and I feel like “ズルい女“ is more interesting to me than “Suit Dance.” I like their songs as a body of work immensely in general though! For the biggest reason that I put them on here, see the “be” series:

Yoojung’s “begin” https://youtu.be/MBx_9nygxaQ

KB’s “be free” https://youtu.be/WkKU-9VnNRU

Junji’s “be mine” https://youtu.be/fzEZeQBvVA0 (close contender for being my favorite)

Rie’s “because” https://youtu.be/6u_nwPzf3pI (my favorite, I love this song so much)

Mill’s “beat” https://youtu.be/H6qN9QFrOJs

Nine’s “beyOnd” is upcoming early in January 2023

They are exquisite storytellers in their MVs, and they have committed to telling compelling queer stories. They have incredible cinematic references throughout their MVs, and I just can’t praise their work enough as a whole! I have made so many posts about their storytelling and queer elements in their work, if you want to see more of my thoughts on them, just go digging through my OnlyOneOf tag.

Biases: Rie, Junji

2) Enhypen

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It’s funny to me looking back that Enhypen didn’t make it onto these lists earlier. I was aware of them, and knew that I had some connections to them that made them appealing to me. (The one that I talk about more is that I watched Sunghoon and followed his career as a figure skater, I think that he actually made onto one of my figure skating lists when he was in juniors. There’s another one that’s more important, but that I don’t talk about as publicly.) I love the sound that Enhypen’s been living in recently, but they’ve overall had a sound that I’ve enjoyed from the start. I am very excited to see how they keep developing in the future! While I linked “Blessed-Cursed” above as my representative song for them (I’ve been going back to it consistently since it came out in January, it well deserves the spot), I want to also emphasize how much I loved “One In A Billion” (https://youtu.be/_ATqY9GFRh0) and “I Need the Light” (https://youtu.be/Pfq37N3eA7g) both of which are (at least kind of) OSTs.

Biases: Jay, Sunoo, Jungwon

1) Seventeen

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Seventeen have been my favorite boy group since they debuted, and they show no signs of stopping that trend any time soon. I’ve loved their releases this year, among them another solo from Junhui with “Limbo” (https://youtu.be/k0sKWlEhVRk) which was a change from his usual emotional ballad fare, but let him show off his dancing and make an MV that was just incredibly gender. I also have a new favorite Seventeen song, dethroning “Home” in it’s long rein, with “Shadow.” I got to see them live this summer, and Redeim only partially managed to capture me losing my mind over them performing “Shadow” live. Their albums this year have been spectacular, and as always, I cannot wait to see what they decide to do next. I hope that I get to see them live many more times in the future (and if you get the chance to do it, they’re an experience).

Biases: Junhui, Wonwoo, Woozi

I would love to chat about any of the groups on this list! I had such a hard time narrowing this down to 5 this year, and it probably would have been easier to do a top 10. There was so much good music this year!

#Etienne's Top Fives of 2022 #Kpop Edition #Boy Groups #personal #Kpop #Seventeen #Enhypen #OnlyOneOf #Oneus #Cravity #Ateez #Stray Kids #I honestly probably would have had an easier time making a top 10 for boy groups this year

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symeraid-s · 2 years

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2022 Retrospective: Album of the Year

This is a list of all the albums released in 2022 that I bought, ranked by the total album score. This is going to be a long one, I apologise.

Number 1: WOODZ – Colorful Trauma (7,6/10)

This is the one album, I bought this year, where I have all tracks on my playlist. And though I listen to a few of them more than the others, they are all fantastic. WOODZ really shines in any style and this album only serves to prove that more. The packaging is fine. It’s slightly bent, but I think it’s supposed to be that way. It’s still weird and looks wrong.

Dirt on my leather 8/10 – Rock and Roll in its purest form.

Hijack 8/10 – Lowkey could have been the title track.

I Hate You 8/10 – Pop/Rock how it should be.

Better and Better 7/10 – I can’t tell, if I like this song because it’s good, or because WOODZ sings it.

Hope to be Like You 7/10 – Makes me sentimental for some reason.

Number 2: E’LAST – ROAR (7,4/10)

I really wanted this album to be my album of the year, but it ended up having one song that dragged it down to number 2. I still love it regardless. I has some of their best songs so far. Funny story about it: I’m very confident, that I ordered a random version from Amazon, but I got both. I’m not complaining though, because that means I got Poison and Nightmare in high quality. Which is the one complaint I can make about the album as a whole: The final song being different between the red and grey version. It’s an odd style and I hope it doesn’t become regular for them. On the other hand, if you have all the versions of all their released mini albums, the spines combine, which is really cool.

Intro 8/10 – Unironically one of my favourite songs on the album. And I prefer it as an Instrumental track.

Creature 7/10 – Probably their weakest title track to date, but it’s still a good song.

Desire 7/10 – Funky with some really good vocals, but a tiny bit messy.

Shelter 9/10 – Showstopping, spectacular, etc. with absolutely fantastic live vocals

Let Me Free 6/10 – The one song I don’t care about on the album.

Grey Version: Nightmare 8/10 – Songs titled Nightmare can’t seem to do no wrong.

Red Version: Poison 7/10 – Stellar vocals and an In high note. What more can I ask for?

Number 3: PURPLE KISS – Geekyland (7,2/10)

This is probably PURPLE KISS’ strongest mini album so far, music wise. It has both one of my favourite title tracks and my favourite B-Side from them. The packaging of the album could be a bit better though. It kinda falls in on itself, like there is something missing. But it’s not as bad as memeM (which I’ll get to eventually).

Intro: Bye Bye Bully 8/10 – Out of all Intros PURPLE KISS has done so far, this needs to be turned into a full song the most.

Nerdy 8/10 – It’s HIP but make it funky. This is exactly the type of energy I need from them.

FireFlower 7/10 – Just a tiny bit generic.

Can’t Stop Dreamin’ 5/10 – The chorus doesn’t really fit with the rest of the song.

Love is Dead 8/10 – My favourite B-Side from them so far.

SuMMer RaiN 7/10 – Makes me emotional for some reason.

Number 4: Max Changmin – Devil (7/10)

The Devil Album is one of my favourite albums of the year. Changmin really went all out on this one and it shows. The theatricality packed into this album and this man is really astounding. The album design is really nice. It’s a simple hardback album that is covered in red or black velvet, depending on the version you own. It’s very nice to look at and touch, but I fear it might also catch a lot of dust easily.

Devil 7/10 – I don’t think this song would be as good, had any other vocalist sung it.

Maniac 8/10 – Just immaculate vibes.

Fever 8/10 – A one man musical. Also, something only Changmin could pull off.

Alien 8/10 – Helium but make it bisexual.

Dirty Dancing 6/10 – I like the verses, but the chorus is painfully generic.

Airplane Mode 5/10 – It’s inoffensive, but nothing more.

Number 5: TAN – Limited Edition ‘1TAN’ (7/10)

For a debut album this one is really good, but also needs more songs. It’s also really small and thin for a K-Pop album, which isn’t a bad thing all things considered.

Fix You, Part 1 7/10 – Needs to be longer and a Part 2.

DU DU DU 8/10 – The best debut song of the year.

My Girl (for FAN) 6/10 – It’s cute but nothing special.

Number 6: SID – Umibe (6,8/10)

SID remains as my favourite Japanese band and while this album isn’t their best, it’s still a good album. Their music sounds ethereal. It does remind me of why I love them so much. Different from K-Pop albums, J-Rock albums have no merchandise, and are mostly standard disks, so there is nothing to complain about.

Keibetsu 7/10 – It’s cool.

Daisuki Dakara… 7/10 – The slow pre-chorus is kinda weird, but everything else is fantastic.

Jusangatsu 6/10 – Weirdly slow.

Gairoju 6/10 – Mitsuyubi but make it melancholic.

Ekitai 8/10 – Beautiful and haunting.

Damashi Ai 8/10 – A banger with a fantastic guitar solo.

Shiroi Koe 5/10 – One of their weaker ballads.

Jiu no Kuchizuke 8/10 – I really like the inclusion of traditional instruments and it’s perfect for Heaven’s Official Blessing.

Yureru Natsufuku 7/10 – Natsukoi, but not as catchy.

Umibe 6/10 – Has Sea sounds mixed into the instrumental, which sounds really pretty.

Number 7: Jaejoong – Born Gene (6,7/10)

Everything about this album is pretty. Jaejoong is pretty, the music is pretty, the packaging is pretty. NOBODY LIKE YOU actually barely missed out my top 10 songs. Jaejoong is one of the best K-Pop vocalists and he deserves much more. The packaging is pretty, but also nothing special. It’s just a box.

NOBODY LIKE YOU 8/10 – An uplifting song enhanced by Jaejoong’s vocals.

Tick-Tack 7/10 – An odd collaboration, but works beautifully.

BPM 6/10 – The chorus is great, but the rest is just fine.

I Want to Ask You 6/10 – A nice ballad, showing off Jae’s lower register.

Locking Love 5/10 – Has very romantic lyrics, but not much else.

Broken Mirror 8/10 – Has amazing chord progression. I also demand a live recording of it.

Walking on Water 7/10 – Reminds me of the old Disney Renaissance Musicals.

In the Rain 6/10 – Reminiscent of Ladies Code’s The Rain.

Number 8: ATEEZ – The World Ep.1: Movement (6,7/10)

This album really feels like a massive tonal shift for ATEEZ, but not an unwelcome one. I mean, Guerrilla is a fine title track, but there is one song on the album (we all know) that would have fit a bit better. Though Guerrilla captures the essence of the album and concept perfectly. The Album design is very similar to their other albums. It’s a box, though not as hard to open as Beginning to End (I will always be salty about that…). I think the most I can say about it, is that the colour gradient is pretty.

PROPAGANDA 7/10 – The perfect intro for this album.

Sector 1 7/10 – Would sound a lot better without the Autotune.

Cyberpunk 9/10 – Yeah, this is my new favourite song of them.

Guerilla 7/10 – It grew a lot on me. I really like the pre-chorus.

The Ring 5/10 – It could be a lot more.

WDIG (Where Do I Go?) 6/10 – The chorus doesn’t seem to fit the song.

New World 6/10 – Kinda generic.

Number 9: Forestella – The Beginning: World Tree (6,6/10)

I had barely gotten into Forestella when I bought this album purely because it looked pretty. I listened to Save Our Lives before. It’s a fantastic song. But this buy was purely because of morbid curiosity. Something I appreciate about this album is also that there are instrumental versions of all songs on it. I’m not including them in the score though. So yeah, the album is just a book, but the cover art is pretty, and the styling is gorgeous. Though there is a lot of photoshop involved in the photoshoot that makes the members look very odd and is unnecessary.

Intro: Runes 6/10 – Very pretty but seems to be silent for 10 seconds.

Save Our Lives 8/10 – Amazing chord progression combined with absolutely fantastic vocals and harmonies.

Moonlight 7/10 – Very haunting. It literally gives me chills.

Stay 6/10 – The harmonies are beautiful, but it’s probably the most uninteresting song on the album.

The Forest Song 6/10 – Beautiful highnotes. They could do without the choir though.

For Life 7/10 – Woorim’s vocals in this song are perfection.

Number 10: KEY – Gasoline (6,5/10)

This was probably the album I was looking forward to the most this year. Except for Minho’s but that’s an entirely different thing (and an album I don’t own yet). And I wasn’t disappointed. Well, mostly. The album does have some stinkers, but also some B-Sides that I really love. But I do have to complain about the album design. The VHS version is fine. But sadly, that’s not the version I have. I have the floppy disk and honestly. Whoever designed this was a sadist. You literally have to try and peel off the sticker holding the album together carefully or you will rip it. So yeah, it looks cool, but it’s not functional at all.

Gasoline 7/10 – Would be better without the chant.

Bound 9/10 – Absolutely fantastic. Should have been the title track.

Villain 7/10 – Pretty solid collab but should have been a Minkey subunit.

Burn 7/10 – Nice song with amazing vocals.

Guilty Pleasure 6/10 – It’s not a guilty pleasure song, but still nice.

G.O.A.T (Greatest of All Time) 5/10 – I really don’t like the chorus.

I Can’t Sleep 6/10 – Causes Insomnia (real story).

Ain’t Gonna Dance 7/10 – Almost painfully gay.

Another Life 7/10 – Nice to finally have this song.

Delight 5/10 – Solid vocals, but not much more.

Proud 6/10 – Great, very sweet lyrics, but not much else.

Number 11: Kang Daniel – The Story (6,4/10)

As his very first album, this is pretty solid. It’s nothing outstanding, but still really good. I do believe that Daniel doesn’t need this many collaborations though. The packaging for this album is my favourite of the year. It’s supposed to mimic a book, but is a box. Yet the way it opens is just so satisfying. The way the cover fits the box is perfection.

The Story 7/10 – The perfect introduction to the album. Could have been the title track.

Upside Down 6/10 – A little too generic for my taste.

Loser 6/10 – Tries to cheer the listener up but falls flat.

Parade 8/10 – A concept I haven't seen done often in K-Pop. Daniel needs to do more stuff like this.

Don’t Tell 8/10 – The best collaboration on the album. This song is for the bisexuals.

Ride 4 U 6/10 – I don’t want Kang Daniel to die for me.

How We Live 6/10 – Kinda cute, but not much more.

Mad 6/10 – Daniel and Chancellor are a great team.

1000x 6/10 – Really pretty vocals.

Moment 5/10 – An okay ballad.

Number 12: ONF – Storage of ONF (6,4/10)

This album was a pleasant surprise during their military service period. The songs on it are nice and the remastered songs are a nice surprise, even though they don’t sound different to the OG songs to me. The packaging also looks really cool. It’s a ring book, essentially, with a planner and even foils to stick your photocards into. But it’s also the worst. The CD is in the cover, and I spend a good half hour trying to get it out without accidentally snapping it. I even googled, if I was supposed to get it out or if it’s just decoration. It’s also stuck in a giant plastic box, which seems really unnecessary to me.

Your Song 7/10 – As a song for the fans, it’s really nice and cute. Just like ONF. Makes me miss them.

Runaway 6/10 – The verses are really nice, but the chorus is a bit generic.

Traveler 5/10 – A boring ballad.

Gucci 6/10 – Just a tiny bit obnoxious, but also funny.

My Song 7/10 – Your Song, but as a ballad. Cute and wholesome.

On/Off (Remastered Ver.) 6/10 – Probably their most underrated title track. Doesn’t sound much different from the original.

If We Dream (Remastered Ver.) 6/10 – Still a nice ballad. Doesn’t sound much different though.

86400 (Remastered Ver.) 6/10 - Also still a nice ballad. Also doesn’t sound much different.

We Must Love (Remastered Ver.) 8/10 – Just as good as the Original.

Complete (Remastered Ver.) 6/10 – Still lowkey generic.

Number 13: Onew – DICE (6,3/10)

Finally having an Onew album that’s not just filled with ballads feels like a fever dream somehow. Onew is really good with cheerful songs and should do more of them. This album gives Atlantis a run for its money with shitty packaging though. It’s a thin, large magazine that doesn’t even properly protects its CD. It almost dropped to the ground and shattered when I unboxed it. That’s something so simple and yet they fucked it up.

DICE 8/10 – It’s cute and funky. Just like Onew.

Sunshine 8/10 – Similar to DICE this song is Onew in a nutshell.

On the Way 6/10 – His vocals are impeccable, but there is not much more to this song.

Love Phobia 5/10 – I appreciate the attempt, but it kinda falls flat.

Yeowoobi 5/10 – The verses are nice, but the chorus takes me completely out of the song.

In The Whale 6/10 – I wish there was something more going on.

Number 14: ONEUS – Trickster (6,1/10)

I bought this album out of morbid curiosity. I really don’t like the title track, but I heard one of the B-Sides in a random K-Pop video and I bought the album to see if there was anything else salvageable. There wasn’t really, but the album is still kinda nice overall. The album design is really cool though. The box looks like a giant card set and it even includes poker chips and its own 21 card set. The only issue I can find with it, is that it’s hard to open, because you don’t open the packaging at the side, but at the top. And it’s made from very thin cardboard.

Intro: Who Got the Joker? 6/10 – Too short

Bring It On 6/10 – Has good parts but is way too generic.

Skydivin’ 5/10 – Not as good as B.A.P’s SKYDIVE

Firebomb 6/10 – Really cool verses with a very painfully generic chorus.

Fragile 6/10 – It’s fine.

Mr. Wolf 8/10 – Should have been the title track.

Bring it On (English Version) 5/10 – If I wouldn’t know this is supposed to be English, I wouldn’t have realised it.

Number 15: Stray Kids – ODDINARY (5,8/10)

The ODDINARY album is fine. It’s not bad, but also not the best. I don’t have particularly strong feelings about it. The design is also simple. It’s just a box. It’s not easy to open, but also not too difficult. It’s just perfectly fine packaging.

VENOM 7/10 – Could have been the title track.

MANIAC 7/10 – The worse Maniac titled song this year, but still a bop.

Charmer 6/10 – I like the instrumental.

FREEZE 4/10 – The verses and pre-chorus’ are cool, but the chorus is the worst.

Waiting For Us 6/10 – It’s fine.

Muddy Water 6/10 – Has some good ideas but doesn’t execute them as well as they could be.

Number 16: TXT – Minisode 2: Thursday’s Child (5,8/10)

When I said, that I really liked the style of LO$ER=LOVER I didn’t expect them to do it again. And to be fair enough, while they tried, this Minisode is not as good as LO$ER=LOVER. I think they went a bit too far off the edge with this album. And the packaging… oh god the packaging. First of all, the protective covering is too small and so pulls the edges back a bit, making it look… not great. The photobook also creaks when you open it, which is a red flag to me. And the merch… it’s also bad. There was some sort of DIY 3D paper logo in the packaging that you need glue or duct tape for to build. I also ripped it while trying to build it.

Opening Sequence 7/10 – A great opener for the album.

Good Boy Gone Bad 6/10 – Goes a bit too far with the dark and edgy concept.

Trust Fund Baby 5/10 – I… I don’t know if they know what a trust fund baby is. Also, this is slightly creepy.

Lonely Boy (The Tattoo on my Ring Finger) 5/10 – A little too much autotune. This also is a weird ass song name.

Thursday’s Child has Far to Go 6/10 – Kinda generic.

Number 17: PURPLE KISS – memeM (5,6/10)

Overall, this album isn’t terrible. But it also includes one of the worst songs of the year, which drags it down a lot. RBW also really took inspiration from Happyface and the packaging of Summer Holiday for this album. It’s very thin cardboard and I ripped one of the edges while trying to open it.

Intro: Illusion 5/10 – The worst of their intros to date. The background sample is slightly obnoxious.

memeM 3/10 – Has parts that I like, but God damn, this is a style that doesn’t fit them at all.

Oh my Gosh 6/10 – Really generic.

Pretty Psycho 8/10 – Should have been the title track.

JOAH 5/10 – Gives me Taylor Swift vibes.

Hate Me, Hurt Me, Love Me 7/10 – Really cute and uplifting.

Cursor 5/10 – The chorus doesn’t fit the song.