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boysplanetrecaps · 11 months ago

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

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

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

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

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

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

Left to right:

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Left to right:

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Thanks, judges. Thudges.

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

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

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

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

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

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

And then it’s time for the performance.

Here’s PD48 Editing’s blessed edit.

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

My thoughts:

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

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

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

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

Aoi was frickin’ adorable, of course.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

And it’s time for the performance!

PD48 Editing’s blessed edit

My thoughts:

Well, obviously this was basically perfect.

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

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

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

But I live for this ending fairy.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

…. but Choyeon just looks down at her hands.

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

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

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

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

That’s Wonyoung hugging Choyeon.

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

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

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

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

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

Xoxo BPR Unnie

#bpr recaps p48 #produce 48 #le sserafim #ive #wonyoung #jang wonyoung #sakura #kwon eunbi #purple kiss #kim minju #honda hitomi #lee chaeyeon #akb48

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