#sistar memes

[maiavonsneeper]

Am bored so heres my headcanon on what kpop artists Yakuza characters would listen to.

Disclaimer: I'm not that familiar with anything recent in the kpop. The most recent you would see here is around mid-2010s.

Kiryu

Of course his no. 1 idol is Haruka. But for kpop it would have to be Girls Generation.

Its all because while playing Y5 where hes a taxi driver and takes place in 2012. I concluded that he has to have listened to Mr Taxi and was like "thats me :)" and i guess from then on he considered himself a SONE (or just a fan idk if he would know about fandom names lol)

Majima

A girl group/solo artists stan.

Definitely a huge inspiration for Goromi and her performances lol

And his collection of albums played for all the Majima Construction crew while they work.

I made a Goromi playlist (priv atm) which I just put in a bunch of female kpop artists in.

This includes artists like Kara, 9Muses, EXID, Miss A, Sunmi, Hyuna, AOA, Sistar, T-ara, Brown Eyed Girls, Lee Hyori, After School...and yeah alot of artists i put in lol

Akiyama

This was all based on a meme I saw on twitter where Akiyama is a Blackjack on stan twitter lol

So I can see Akiyama being a fan of 2NE1. Started listening to them when he saw it was popular with the hostesses and staff of club Elise and they shared it with him.

Tanimura

He would listen to a general amount of artists but would have a lot of interest in artists that have an international appeal...Wonder Girls "nobody" anyone?

(...OK that is the thing with kpop lol especially since it has a presence in Japan for awhile)

I mean like a multicultural image or just have non-Korean members. I can see Tanimura immediately taking interest in those types.

And of course anything that's popular with the Little Asia community lol

Artists: Miss A, Super Junior-M, f(x), Twice, U-Kiss, Wonder Girls, Momoland, 2NE1, Blackpink, 2PM, Big Bang

Shinada

Definitely into girl groups. Particularly ones that would have sexy dance moves which become popular and iconic later on.

And look Shinada has certain assets...

So he really likes to try out popular dances that usually involve using his tush in some way lmao.

Ex. Girls Day "Expectation" "Female President", Sistar "So Cool" "Touch my Body", AoA "Miniskirt", Kara "Mister"

Mine

This is probably very biased of me XD giving my favorite character my ultimate bias group.

Ahh yes Infinite the "Idols of Obsession" ...hmmm..

I imagine he isn't the type to follow celebrities nor have the time or interest to.

BUT BUT one day he listened to one of their songs and couldn't help but think of...a certain someone...

He doesn't considers himself a inspirit but he did walk into a music shop and bought a few albums, went home and spent his break listening to their discography while having AMVs take place in his brain.

Daigo

I'm aware of his emo taste so I tried here ^_^*

I decided to go with that Daigo listens to kpop bands. From my head it'd be CN Blue, FT island, LEDapple.

A non-band it HAS to be Dreamcatcher, another one maybe Vixx'; their dark concept songs mainly.

Haruka

I can see the idol herself listening to some idols for inspo lol

Few artists I thought of were Orange Caramel, Crayon Pop, Twice, f(x), Wonder Girls, Blackpink..

I can see her getting into some boy groups especially when it's what her friends and peers are into.

[innocent-diamond-2090110]

Do you have any ultimate biases?

Oh gosh... Where do I even start? Sorry in advance if I forget some groups! (I'm a huge multi-stan)

I have 1 bias for some groups but more than 1 for others.

I'm biased toward the foreign members in several cases.

I'm also biased toward the rap line in many cases.

Whether or not the group leader is among my biases, I wholeheartedly respect them, because being the leader is tough.

Before I get started, please watch this hilarious SEVENTEEN cover of Wonder Girls' "Nobody"! (there are several memes out there because you can green-screen the background into anything you want)

Girl groups!

(G)I-DLE: Yuqi & Minnie

9MUSES: Hyemi, Gyeongree, & Keumjo

aespa: NINGNING! I've been following her since SM Rookies were made public.

AOA: Shin Jimin & Kim Chanmi (she changed her name to Im Dohwa now)

ARTMS: Choerry & Haseul

BABYMONSTER: Aheyon for sure... plus a tie between Pharita & Chiquita (my new Thai Line babies)

BADVILLAIN: Too early to tell, but the rap line doesn't disappoint!

BLACKPINK: Rosé & Lisa

CLASS:y: Hyeju, Riwon, & Seonyou

CLC: Yeeun (still following since group debut) & Elkie (I've been following her since she was still at TVB)

Dreamcatcher: ALL 7 OF THEM have worked hard together for the group to grow organically as a whole, since they're not from a huge company. But if I see Handong, then I click. XD

EXID: LE! She's an excellent producer/songwriter too!

f(x): Victoria & Amber

FIESTAR: Cao Lu & Yezi

ILLIT: too early to tell, but leaning toward J-line

ITZY: Chaeryeong & Yuna

IVE: Reilor Moon! (if you've watched "Accdendio", then you'll know)

IZ*ONE: J-LINE FTW! I've always been an AKB48 stan, but it's been difficult to keep up with ever since COVID-19 happened. I also follow all 4 girls who chose to go solo (Kwon Eunbi, Jo Yuri, Choi Yena, & Lee Chaeyeon).

KARA: mainly Nicole

Kep1er: Xiaoting, Hikaru, & CLC's Choi Yujin (literally 1 of each ethnicity)

KISS OF LIFE: Natty & Belle

LE SSERAFIM: Sakura & Kazuha

Loossemble: Vivi, my one & only <3 (still upset that BBC gave her minimal singing lines)

MAMAMOO: mainly Moonbyul

miss A: Fei, all the way <3

NMIXX: Lily & Bae

PIXY: Lola & Dajeong

Red Velvet: Seulgi, the one & only <3

SECRET (TS Ent): Hyosung & Jieun

SECRET NUMBER (Vine Ent): Dita & Soodam

SISTAR: Hyolyn & Soyou

SNSD: Taeyeon, Tiffany, & Hyoyeon

SONAMOO: D.ana & Newsun

T-ara: Hyomin & Jiyeon

UNIS: too early to tell, but leaning toward J-line & Elisia

Wonder Girls: Yubin & Hyerim

Boy groups! (significantly less, sorry)

ASTRO: Moon BIn (R.I.P) & Sanha

B2ST/BEAST: mainly Hyunseung, but then he left... & I haven't been following the other guys (HIGHLIGHT) since then

BIGBANG: T.O.P (can't change my mind)

BTS: Gummy smile Yoongi!

DBSK/TVXQ: Jaejoong (I still follow after he left) & Changmin

EXO: Mainly Kris, but then everything went sideways @_@ (IYKYK)

GOT7: TEAM WANG featuring BamBam XD

INFINITE: Jang Dongwoo (can't change my mind)

SEVENTEEN: Wen Junhui before anyone else... next would be Xu Minghao... Subsequent favorites are based on everyone's individual/subunit activities.

SF9: mainly Hwiyoung

SHINee: mainly Taemin (although I don't follow all his solo releases)

Stray Kids: A tie between 3RACHA (as a trio) & DANCERACHA (also as a trio)... Sorry to VOCALRACHA.

Super Junior: everyone shines during main group promotions, but all eyes were on Henry & Zhou Mi for SJ-M albums

VIXX: fearless leader Cha Hakyeon

WayV: Lucas (before he left), Hendery, & Xiaojun (I don't really follow the rest of NCT)

Thank you for reading my research project!

[boysplanetrecaps]

Produce 48 Recaps: Auditions Begin (episode 1)

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

The judges come out!

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

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

Here he is as Jeremy. He’s ACTING! 

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

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

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

And then there’s her:

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

I don’t remember this lady:

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

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

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

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

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

41:50 The Auditions Begin

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

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

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

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

Audition 1: Yuehua

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

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

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

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

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

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

Link to full audition on Youtube

Song: Move by Little Mix 

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

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

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

Auditions 2 and 3: Woolim and WM Entertainment

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

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

Left to right: Suyun, Eunbi, Sohee, Chaewon

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

Link to full audition on Youtube

Song: Ah-Choo by Lovelyz / Bad by Infinite

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

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

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

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

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

Trainees: 

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

Song: Shower, originally by Becky G

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

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

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

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

Auditions 4 and 5: The Very Pretty Girls

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

Agency:  8D Creative

Trainee: Kang Hye Won

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

Link to full audition on Youtube

Song: You and I by IU (2011)

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

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

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

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

Agency:  Urban Works

Trainee:  Kim Min Ju 

Link to full audition on Youtube

Song:  No Matter What by BoA

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

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

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

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

Auditions 6 and 7: The Punching Bags

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Audition 8: Get You!

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

Agency:  AKB48

Trainees: Oda Erina 21, and Nakano Ikumi 17

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

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

Link to full audition on Youtube

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

AKB: What’s Your Name?

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

Here’s their audition.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

[its300am]

Algo pode estar acontecendo agora mesmo

O que está aqui escrito não passa de um compilado de incertezas, algo que eu deveria estar levando para sala de terapia da qual constantemente me vejo fugindo. Eu sempre quis ter um blog, achava o máximo, e sempre estive nesse meio. Estive nas épocas de ouro do Tumblr como leitora e vira e mexe me atrevia a escrever, mas a insegurança sempre me alcançava. Escrevia, mas morria de medo de ser lida. Quando alguém que me conhecia descobria meus escritos, pronto, nunca mais eu apareceria naquele site. E é por isso que afogada e fadada a provavelmente desistir que eu não darei certeza alguma de que isto um dia vire algo, na verdade, talvez se torne apenas um diário. Estará sempre em processo, e se perguntarem, bem, é algo que estou tentando fazer acontecer. Quem sabe um dia acontece mesmo sem eu saber.

Eu não sei se esse formato ainda funciona, pode parecer cringe aos mais novos, mas eu costumava gostar de coisas assim, e agora que estou mais perto dos 30s que dos 20s estou no direito de ser cringe ou antiquada de qualquer forma… Eu não tenho certeza de um username ainda, eu queria que fosse algo que representasse o que as pessoas vão achar aqui ou algo que mostre quem sou para os leitores. Eu acho que o nome vai vir eventualmente por vontade própria. Até lá sou its300am.

Tem assuntos que eu gosto ou manjo num geral e acho que deveria citar para ficar um alerta do que pode aparecer por aqui.

• Filmes, mas meu letterboxd é bem vazio, eu geralmente posto vagamente porque tenho receio com meus mutuals, tipo, eles me conhecem na vida real, então…

• Animes e mangás, mas faz tempo que nem chego perto, a faculdade tem sido bem difícil para mim. Mas ainda assim, meus favoritos são Dr. Stone, Bungo Stray Dogs e Jojo's Bizarre Adventure.

• Literatura, mas tenho tanta ressaca literária que passo mais tempo pensando em ler do que lendo (e a estante só sendo ignorada). Você pode checar como meu goodreads tá largado às moscas.

• Feminismo, tá bom, nessa aqui eu acho que sou mais ativa, inclusive faço parte de um coletivo de mulheres, posso comentar mais disso no futuro. Eu sou uma feminista marxista, por sinal.

• Eco-socialismo, esse aqui é novo para mim, mas sempre namorei o assunto e agora tenho me aproximado mais, talvez apareça uma coisa ou outra inclusive da minha exploração sobre o tema.

• Quadrinhos, esse aqui é o esqueleto afundado daquele meme na piscina, sabe qual é? Eu adorava, mas faz realmente muito tempo que não chego perto, inclusive, quero voltar. Eu gosto muito da DC, especialmente as mulheres de lá, como Mulher-Maravilha, Arlequina, Hera Venenosa, Punchline, Zatanna, e outras. Da Marvel eu gosto de X-Men, Guardiões da Galáxia e tenho interesse nos Eternos.

Fora isso eu me meto em de tudo um pouco, na música eu nem sei dizer qual meu gênero favorito, meus artistas favoritos transitam entre Mozart, Lily Allen, Sistar, Charlie Brown Jr, Selena Gomez, Ludmila, Green Day e por aí vai, sem nenhum padrão aparente. Minha for you se resume em compilados de gatinhos e alguns cosplayers, vira e mexe aparece algo sobre decoração ou DIY.

Na parte de jogos eu não tenho compromisso com nenhum, até porque não tenho muito tempo para jogar, mas gosto de Danganronpa, Identity V, Dead by Daylight, Street Fight V e Twisted Wonderland, este último é o único que eu jogo com frequência já que não exige muito de mim. Já fui viciada em Genshin Impact, mas saí do mundo das drogas, entrando no mundo das drogas pesadas (faculdade). A partir daí foi causa perdida, e nem sou boa aluna, só que preciso me esforçar em dobro para me manter no mínimo mediana, obrigada dislexia, obrigada transtorno bipolar, sem vocês minha vida seria muito fácil e assim não teria graça alguma. /ironia

Meus vícios do momento são ouvir podcast enquanto faço as atividades do dia a dia, alguns dos meus favoritos são Ciência Suja e Modus Operandi. Além disso, um outro vício é organizar minhas coisas, o problema é que nunca fica organizado, então estou constantemente organizando uma bagunça de uma vida inteira.

Agora que me conhece de forma íntima, vamos às formalidades, eu prefiro que me chamem de Kaká e não tenho nenhuma preferência ou identificação com um pronome específico, minha sexualidade é pan, mas não vou fazer guerra com quem confundir com bi, vivo num cansaço enorme, não tenho energia pra isso, sério. Estou cursando letras na modalidade de língua portuguesa e devo me formar quando o acaso acontecer. Quero ser professora, mas cada dia que passa perco a confiança de que tenho o que é preciso para seguir essa carreira, então meu plano b é encontrar uma editora que me aceite em sua equipe. Yo hablo español & also speak english (you can read my posts in english as well). Quero aprender italiano, francês, mandarim e russo um dia, não vai ser hoje.

Eu não sei o que estou fazendo aqui! Talvez vire uma espécie de diário de bordo, e no caso estou a bordo de minha própria vida, tentando descobrir o que vem a seguir e com muito medo do que será de mim.

É isso. Fim.

[puppetshcw]

In Tomie's profile you mentioned she was a child actress. In what movies was she acting? (if you mean real movies and not fictional just for her plot)

AINE ˳ ⠀⠀⠀ this has been in my inbox for over a week by now, i'm so sorry anon but i've kinda let it stay unanswered while i collected the movies / tv show she's been in 😭😭

under the cut, you will find all movies / tv shows that feature tomie – from her young age, up until her debut ( and after ) !

as a child, tomie was primarily featured in kids' shows and movies appropriate for her young age. many people remember her for being in numerous kids' shows, especially a disney show called jessie. her character, minyoung, is one of the adopted ross kids, having been adopted when she was five years old. minyoung, or mimi– as she tells people to call her–, is a quiet yet sassy kid who knows how to take care of herself and her siblings. she has been a part of the main cast since episode one, yet during the last season of the show, she's seen less and less as the show progressed. the other characters in the show have been saying that it's because she started going to a private school, and mimi quickly became just an occurring character until the show ended in 2015. in real life, 2014 was the year tomie moved to south korea, so it became difficult for her to fly back and forth for filming.

fans who have known her ever since jessie were genuinely surprised once she debuted in stupid cupid. and after the show became a meme online, tomie kind of stopped talking about it because she felt a bit embarrassed about being a disney actress.

while she stopped filming tv shows, there was still a period of time when tomie would be featured in various movies, most of them being south korean.

in 2016, tomie was a smart and fearless seventeen-year-old wonju, a niece of sanghwa from train to busan. being a kendo player, wonju is famous for always bringing her kendo stick wherever she goes. once the actual plot starts, wonju takes care of suan with her uncle when seokwoo is unable to, and is quick to become overprotective of her. unfortunately, near the end of the movie ( when seokwoo, suan and seongkyeong reach the train ), she gets separated from the trio as she tries her best to fight the zombies away, getting bitten in the process. in the last scene where she's featured, wonju makes eye contact with a shocked seokwoo, and nods her head as the last goodbye before running the other way to attack more zombies before she becomes one as well.

that was the last thing where tomie was featured as an actress before debuting in stupid cupid.

when stupid cupid debuted and were still rookies, tomie was unexpectedly shown in the teaser for a new movie called okja. there, tomie acted as a young, but brave girl mija. the group debuted in february, but due to tomie being featured as a main character in such a famous movie that same year in june, it helped stupid cupid skyrocket into fame almost immediately.

even tho she was on a hiatus back in 2018-19, mighty devil records couldn't help but chuck her into acting again until the whole "scandal" passed. so tomie had a chance to star in he is psychometric alongside got7's jinyoung and sistar's dasom. tomie's role was a supporting character named kwon eunji, a lovable young adult that went to the same school as jaein & ahn, getting closer to jaein and later working alongside her as a police officer. fans couldn't help but awe at the way tomie portrayed a fun and clingy best friend, despite having less screen time than the other actors. fans got skittish when her character got a lot more screen time at the end of the show because they feared she'd get killed off from the show ( which was later proven false, fortunately ). overall a good way for tomie to receive good support from people, and she quickly announced the ending of her hiatus after the show.

[eevee371]

just some Kpop fandoms rn

EXO: OT9 IS STILL VERY MUCH ALIVE AND WELL

Seventeen: *holding back tears* We won’t cry, we can’t cry, what’s crying

BTS: Dear BigHit: As usual, what the actual heck.

Shinee: RING DING DONG WHO IS IT ITS NINE YEARS WITH SHINEE

Twice: SIGNAL IS GREAT FITE US

Astro: *skipping around in sunshine and rainbows with Baby on repeat* :D

Seven O’ Clock: DEBUT STAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAGE

Monsta X: WORLD TOUR AND HI-TOUCH YAAAAAAAAAAS

Sistar: *aggressive sobbing*

A.C.E: It’s tIME TO DOMINATE

GOT7: MY SWAGGER~ *dab*

SF9: *Thumbs up* We are doing well and highly anticipating Kcon!

Gfriend: *thumbs up* We are also doing well and highly anticipating Kcon!

KNK: What they said!

NCT: We. Are. Not. Ready. For. June. 

Red Velvet: We are ReVeLuv, three years but we have finally received a name!

iKON: BLING BLING YO

Boyfriend: *rising from their graves* Its been two years, hallelujah we are blessed

[acupoftaeandkookies]

OMG😂😂😂

[blurtine]

make it louder uu

[lovenolo]

[roseband]

i cannot believe in the year 2k21 we’re getting... braaaveeee souuund

[passonquito]

No further comments. 👁👄👁 

[emeraldbabygirl]

Spam Dump 82/122?

[boysplanetrecaps]

Boys Planet Episode 6, Part 1 Recap

Alright, let’s cover Episode 6 with my usual mix of commentary, thoughts, analysis, reminders, screen caps, and silliness. 

By the way, I’m trying to keep my page a safe place to visit (or follow) even if you’re way behind-- I’ll make sure there are no spoilers above the “read more”. 

If you want to jump to my take on one of the songs click below:

Gang and Zoom

Home and Love Killa

Law and Man in Love

Rush Hour

Limousine

Feel Special

Not Spring

Butterfly

Tomboy

We start at 45 seconds in with a partial ranking, including votes so far (no distinction is made between K and G votes, or if these have already been blended using MNET math). Since 28 is the new cut off, this range may be of interest to us Star Creators. Here’s what they tell us, and I threw in their mission song and their rank as of the elimination in the previous episode:

24 Lee Seung Hwan Danger 507,3381   (20)

25 Cai Jin Xin Hot Sauce 419,853  (50) 

26 Ollie Hot Sauce 405,996  (28)

27 Hiroto Very Nice 389,175  (21)

28 Ma Jing Xiang Very Nice 366,570 (32)

29 Lee Jeong Hyeon LMR 349,008 (39)

30 Mun Jung Hyun Very Nice 336,421 (23)

31 Anthonny LMR 285,564  (19)

32 Jung Min Gyu Very Nice 266,096 (27)

None of the top 18 from the previous ranking has fallen into this range (though for all we know they could have fallen further, though it seems unlikely). Most of them are roughly where they were before, though the biggest story is definitely Cai Jin Xin, who was 50th at the first elimination and has jumped to 25th. It’s also worth noting that Anthonny has fallen from 19th to 31st -- kind of a big fall in context. 

Next, we can skip past the intro and recap to 1:39. The trainees are gathering to talk about their feelings… sort of. Because really this is a prank, and the staff has this woman made up to look like a scary ghost appear in front of them, and then when they run backward, a man in an obvious mask rush at them from behind. I don’t really love pranks, so I’ll focus on stuff I do enjoy: 

I like how the boys seem to be sitting in sort of random groups, not all K or all G, and they seem comfortable with each other. I hate the K-G competition stuff, and I’m so glad they do too. Like, I worry about the world and how we’re getting along with each other as a planet and stuff like this makes me feel a little better, that the basic spirit of empathy and friendship prevails even when MNET tries to drive a wedge between them.

Haruto is wearing a tiara. 

3. The mask the monster is wearing looks like it cost $3.99 at Family Dollar and I’m kind of here for it

4. Park JiHoo barely reacting to it, saying, “I told you, they totally would do this! They had to do scary stuff!” Ok, Park JiHoo, you just won me over. 

5:02 in, the episode actually starts! 

The boys all come in, and now they’re all wearing simple long sleeved white t-shirts that either say K or G, along with name tags that have their rank and name on them. I’m going to reproduce their current name and ranks here, so if at any time you are feeling like “who is that?” you can consult the list. They’re all wearing name tags with their numbers on them, so it’ll be easy enough, I hope! 

The white shirts don’t look good on any of them. Also, they all look tired. They’ve been instructed by the producers to wonder aloud about who the new star master will be (I assume). Kim Tae Rae is hoping it’ll be Hyolyn (from Sistar), and I mean, yes? That’d be great. 

But it’s Huta (Lee Minhyuk) from BTOB! A lot of the trainees seem really overwhelmed, especially Cha Woongki, who is freaking out, Kermit-meme style. For the record,  BToB debuted in 2012, and Huta was born in 1990. I liked his song “Ya” a few years back. He also has a song called “Boom” that I’d never heard but it’s got a great pre-chorus. He likes to go shirtless sometimes, and it seems like the people like it, judging by the “most played” sections of his videos. Side note: BTOB is signed under Cube, which is the same agency that Hui and his group Pentagon are from, so Huta is probably a sunbae/hyung to Hui. They don't seem to greet each other, though, so who knows.

Huta checks in with international sweetheart, Sung Hanbin, about how he feels about being ranked first place (“It made me think I should work harder from now on!”) and then checks in with Jeong I-chan, ranked 52nd, about how he feels barely having made it (“I’ll work harder from now on!”). Huta tells them all, basically, to never give up, or something, and they’re all touched. Now that everyone has decided to work harder, let’s give them a challenge!

Side note: Jeong I-chan seems to be in a better headspace now than he was at the elimination ceremony, so that’s good. 

Huta reveals the challenge: A Dual Position Battle. 

For the “Vocal & Rap” performances, they have to rearrange a song and write new raps.

For the “Vocal & Dance” performances, they have to rearrange the song and come up with their own choreography.  

For the “Rap & Dance” performances, they have to write a new rap and come up with new choreography. 

Considering that very few of these performers are likely to know how to do any of these skills, this is going to be a challenge. It’s especially cruel to expect non-native speakers of Korean to write a rap in Korean -- I wonder if they’re allowed to write a rap in English, if they speak that? Enough raps in K-pop songs are 50%+ in English that it wouldn't be unrealistic for them to write in English. I mean, risky risky wiggy wiggy this is an emergency, you know? 

Huta says, “the dual position battle will also be a battle between K and G,” and they’re all like SELMA???? (REALLLY??????) Huta doesn’t even have the heart (or cue-card reading skills) to drag out the joke, and almost immediately tells them that no, he was just kidding -- they can completely ignore the K/G divide from now on. They are all super happy to hear that. I’m happy, too!

The songs are:

Vocal & rap:

Tomboy, originally by G-Idle; Limousine originally by BE’O, which I admit I wasn't familiar with; Man in Love originally by Infinite, which came out in 2013 and I’m not familiar with; and Not Spring, Love, or Cherry Blossoms, originally by High4 and IU. 

They’re all super excited for Tomboy, which was a massive hit. The older trainees remember Man in Love, but the younger ones have never even heard of it.  

Vocal & Dance

Butterfly, originally by BTS; Feel Special originally by Twice; Love Killer originally by Monsta X; Home by Seventeen

At the announcement of the Twice song, Cha Woongki starts doing the choreo, and Seo Won says, “are you ready for the group of queens?” which is important foreshadowing. You guys, I am not going to speculate on anyone’s sexuality, especially since in Korea, being gay is still considered a mental illness by many, but I will say that a lot of guys on this show are surprisingly comfortable with their feminine side, and I’m here for it! Zhang Shai Bo is losing it, since Feel Special is his favorite song of all time, and I mean, same. 

Love Killer is also my favorite song of all time. It was my ring tone for a long time until my fella got sick of my phone saying “Oh, I’m sorry, did I make you anxious?” every time someone tried to reach me about my car's extended warranty. 

Side note: Krystian seems to have redone his hair a bit, dying it a bit darker and dying his eyebrows brown again, and it looks miles better. I’m glad to see it. 

Rap & Dance

Law by Yoon Mi Rae and Bibi; Rush Hour by Crush; Zoom by Jessi; and Gang by H1ghr music. 

The trainees are overwhelmed at the idea of trying to improve on a song by Bibi, which is the correct way to feel, since Bibi is a goddess who walks amongst us. Rush Hour was already sung by Jay and Kamden in the Star Level Test, and no one wants to compete with Jay’s vocals. 

At the reveal of Zoom, Takuto says, IN KOREAN, to Haruto, “I like this song so much I set it as my morning alarm.” Two things: Takuto, you learned a lot of Korean! His pronunciation sounds good to me, not that I’m the best judge, but yeah. He could be speaking Japanese to Japanese-speaking Haruto, but he’s choosing Korean -- that’s big. Also, Takuto likes Jessi? That’s a relief, because I can’t take someone who is all aegyo all the time. 

My little cousin Kum Jung Hyeon says he’ll never do Gang, never-never-cherlte-cherlte, so you know he’ll end up doing it. 

At 15:10 in, Huta begins to explain how song selection will work, and basically, it’s this -- the lowest ranked people go first, and choose a song, but if someone higher ranked wants to push them out, they can. If you get pushed out, you have to go to a song that has room in it. Unlike in previous seasons, the arrival of a newer person doesn’t automatically kick out the lowest ranked person, though. Instead, the new person chooses the person they want to kick out. So this will be extra awkward. 

The members of the team that wins within each category will get 100,000 points each, and the one who gets the most votes within that team will also get 150,000 extra points. Also, the three teams that win get to go on MNET and get special online promotion. 

Since MNET spent their whole budget on those matching pajamas that time, this is the best they can do for a set for the song selection process, which runs from about 17:00 to 31:00. 

Is that duct tape forming the lanes? I love the chandeliers just sort of hanging there from the ceiling, just the perfect compliment for that elementary-school style indestructible gray carpet. 

I’m not going to recap the song selection beat for beat, but here are some things I enjoyed or thought were interesting:

Tomboy is the most popular and fought over song, followed closely by Love Killa.  

Krystian got a real evil edit for pushing someone out -- they were all pushing each other out like that, but only he looks "evil."

The Rap/dance songs filled up the most slowly.

I loved Ma Xing Jiang confirming that he’s in front of the correct song by doing a little of the choreo (since maybe reading English isn’t a specialty of his).

I think it’s a bummer that Yoon Jong Woo can’t do Love Killa, since I think he’d suit it really well. But I don’t know why he chose to do Home -- he said he wanted to do a performance with Seung Eun, but I still don’t understand. 

It was also a bit sad when Ricky got kicked out of Love Killa, party because I think he’d be great at it and partly because he really wanted to work with Mr. Sexy Kim Ji Woong.

I don’t think Matthew should have taken Tomboy. I think he would have done better with a lighter, sweeter concept song.

I loved it when my little cousin Kum Jeong Hyun just wanted to have General Gunwook on his own team and so was begging Sungbin to kick out Gunwook 

I loved Lee SeungHwan just being like, "yeah, alright, I’ll rap and dance, heck yeah," when he got kicked out of his team. That’s the spirit, dude! I keep low-key forgetting who Lee SeungHwan is, so I double checked. He was on the Mirotic team for the Star Level test, and he was the put-upon and hard-working leader of Lee Da Eul’s very own personal song, Danger by BTS. Oh yeah! Him! He’s a peach. 🍑

We learn, via a subtitle that is hardly addressed, that our sweet Lee Hwanhee, the main vocalist from Kill This Love-K (who is also from the nugu group Up10tion), has left the show due to health issues. I hope he’s ok. He can still sing, at least!

We also find out that the Top 9 get these fairly ugly windbreaker jackets to wear, so that’s... good…? I guess...? Also, I wonder if these fine themed garments are available for purchase at a store near me at an unreasonable price, so I can show my love for the boys through consumerism.

Team: Love Killa

Shirt color: Dark blue

Positions: Vocal and Dance

Leader: Seok Matthew

Time stamp: 30:49 Screen time: 4:28

Trainee name (rank)   Star Level test Challenge 1 age final star level

Seok Matthew (2) All I Wanna Do / KTL - G 20 🌟🌟🌟🌟 Kim Ji Woong (3) Mirotic / BD- K 24 ⭐⭐⭐ Kim Gyu Vin (6) Kick It / LMR - K 18 ⭐⭐⭐ Seo Won (18) Attention / Very Nice - K 22 🌟🌟🌟🌟

Seo Won feels bad as the only non-top 9 on the team -- he’s worried he will drag the team down. 

Matthew wants to be the leader to prove he’s not a baby who needs to be taken care of. I get the feeling that Kim Ji Woong doesn’t really like being the leader, and is only too happy to hand over the reins.  

When it comes time to pick someone for the killing part, English pronunciation becomes an issue, and Matthew correctly says that the feeling matters more than pronunciation since they can always work on pronunciation later. They give the part to Kim Ji Woong, which is really a good call, though I think Kim Gyuvin would do a great job at it too. 

Team: Feel Special

Shirt color: Light Blue

Positions: Vocal and Dance

Leader: Cai Jin Xin

Time stamp: 35:19 Screen time: 2:31

Trainee name (rank)   Star Level test Challenge 1 age final star level

Cha Woong Ki (25) Bloom Bloom / Very Nice - K 20 ⭐⭐ Zhang Shuai Bo (36) Reveal / BD - G 21 ⭐ Lee Dong Gun (48) Criminal (shoes) / Hot Sauce - K 17 ⭐⭐ Cai Jin Xin (50) Reveal / Hot Sauce - G 19 🚫

Cai Jin Xin says, “I love our team,” in English, and (a) his English is really well pronounced and (b) me too!! Woongki says the team is well balanced, because they have two G and two K team members. Also, as Jin Xin points out, “only the pretty guys are here.” I will say that this seems to be the Team Full of Queens that Seo Won prophesied earlier, and again, I am totally here for it. 

They are realizing that it might be a tough job, because they’re all comparatively low ranked, and also, the music is really high pitched. They are given a version of the song in a lower key, but I feel like they could lower it further, right? They are allowed to rearrange the song. Because it’s so high, no one wants the main vocal, or even a normal amount of stage time. Woongki, who seems to be taking on an actual leadership role in addition to the Killing Part, encourages the others to be confident, saying that this might be their last stage so they should take the chance to stand in the center one more time. He interviews later on that he’s never had to beg people to take parts before!  

Team: Home

Shirt color: Black

Positions: Vocal and Dance

Leader: Yoon Jong Woo

Time stamp: 37:50 Screen time: 4:02

Trainee name (rank)   Star Level test Challenge 1 age final star level

Jay (9) Rush Hour / LMR - G 21 🌟🌟🌟🌟 Yoo Seung Eon (17) Kick It / Very Nice - K 19 ⭐⭐⭐ Dang Hong Hai (33) View / LMR - G 19 ⭐⭐⭐ Yoon Jong Woo (38) Mirotic / BD - K 22 ⭐ Ji Yun Seo (47) Kick It / BD - K 18 ⭐⭐⭐

They’re distributing the parts, which of course is tricky here since there are a lot of great vocalists on this team. Ji Hoon is still really really bummed to not get to work on Love Killa, but he’s consoled a bit by getting to work with a good team who seem to all respect and like him. 

The original choreo is a lot, and the chorus is really high. Naturally they give the main vocals to titanium voiced Yoo Seung Eon whose voice is like, Exo quality. I love Kim Tae Rae, but I have to admit that Seung Eon is the best vocalist on the show, better even than Hui. 

The team is trying to decide who will take which dance position, so they dance to “Na bina”, which is kind of funny.

Team: Butterfly

Shirt color: White

Positions: Vocal and Dance

Leader: Chen Kuan Jui

Time stamp: 41:52 Screen time: 3:45

Trainee name (rank)   Star Level test /Challenge 1 age final star level

Chen Kuan Jui (26) Tiger Inside / KTL - G 22 ⭐⭐⭐ Lim Jun Seo (30) Replay/ Danger - K 17 ⭐ Cong (35) View / Very Nice - G 22 ⭐⭐⭐ Brian (41) Kick It - G / BD - G 20 ⭐

This team has a nice sense of camaraderie. 

Lim Jun Seo is lacking in skills, and is open about that, which I have mixed feelings about. Honesty is good, but you need to have a positive attitude. The other boys on the team promise to help him -- Chen Kaun Jui offers to help him with his dancing, and Cong offers to help with his singing, saying, in Korean, “I too. Vocal.” Jun Seo replies by calling him “hyung,” which makes Cong smile. Cong’s Korean is obviously still a bit elementary; that’s not a criticism, just a note. I have all the sympathy in the world for the global trainees who don’t know Korean. 

Incidentally, we see in a flashback that Lee Da Eul volunteered both of them to go first on the first day, and he did that knowing that Jun Seo did NOT want to go first, and I’ll let all 2-3 of you reading this decide for yourself whether that’s a cool thing to do or not.

Anyway, they are trying to decide who gets the killing part based on freestyle dance, and Jun Seo is like, so we’ll learn the choreo quickly? And it’s like, no honey, no, you sweet child. Once he realizes what freestyle means, he’s out. I’m like, “Just give the killing part to CKJ already, because you know he deserves it,” and they do.

I hate that the story is mostly about Jun Seo, instead of being about the far more talented Chen Kuan Jui. I didn’t like CKJ much at first that much for whatever reason, but he’s grown on me a lot. I think he’s sweet, hard working, and an incredible dancer. I don’t think he’ll make it onto the final lineup, but I hope we keep seeing him around the kpop verse. 

Team: Gang

Shirt color: Black

Positions: Rap and Dance

Leader: Lee Seung Hwan🍑

Time stamp: 45:32 Screen time: 2:08 

Trainee name (rank)   Star Level test Challenge 1 age final star level

Kum Jun Hyeon (14) Nunu Nana BD - K 19 🌟🌟🌟🌟 Lee Seung Hwan🍑 (20) Mirotic Danger - K 22 ⭐⭐⭐ Mun Jung Hyun (23) The Real Very Nice - K 17 🌟🌟🌟🌟 Lee Jeong Hyeon (39) The Real LMR - K 20 ⭐⭐⭐ Chen Jian Yu (45) Call Me Baby BD - G 24 ⭐

This team consists of mostly people who got kicked out of the song they wanted. So, their spirits are kind of low. My little cousin and noted yeller Kum Jun Hyeon is bummed out -- he really wanted that bleepin’ Tomboy. And none of them have any experience making choreo. I do think that my little muffin Mun Jung Hyun knows something about rapping, and that maybe Lee Jeong Hyeon does too, so fingers crossed. 

Side note: Chen Jian Yu looks great with his current hair color. Miles better than the light blue and also better than the dark color he had in the Star Level Test. 

No one steps forward to make the choreo, so my little cousin Kum Jun Hyeon finally steps up, saying, “Although I can’t guarantee the quality, if I didn’t do it, I didn’t think anyone else could do it.” I find that very charming. Fighting, little cuz!  

WHAT KIND OF PERFORMANCE WILL THEY PREPARE???? We’ll find out… 

Team: Zoom

Shirt color: Dark blue

Positions: Rap and Dance

Leader: Keita

Time stamp: 47:40 Screen time: 2:37

Trainee name (rank)   Star Level test Challenge 1 age final star level

Keita (8) Conduct Zero /KTL - G 21 🌟🌟🌟🌟 Haruto (16) Glitch Mode/ LMR - G 18 🌟🌟🌟🌟 Ollie (28) Kick It - G /Hot Sauce - G 16 🚫 Wumuti (43) UN Village/ LMR - G 23 ⭐⭐ Park Hyunbeen (49) GBTB/ Hot Sauce - K 17 ⭐⭐⭐

Keita, who is really feeling himself, says that he likes the song and wanted to do it, and adds, “I thought things would go well if I came to lead this team, regardless of whoever came or was here already.” Like, he’s not wrong. 

Naturally, they make him leader -- I knew that as soon as I saw that he was on the team. 

And they start practicing the Killing Part -- it’s that beginning part, “I see you looking at my P-I-C,” and they all want it. Hyunbeen says that they’re all wary and competitive with each other, and he’s especially desperate to win the extra points because of his low rank. He wins the killing part, though, so he’s over the moon. Oh god, are the judges going to tell his team to give the killing part to someone else?  

Team: Law

Shirt color: White

Positions: Rap and Dance

Leader: Park Hanbin

Time stamp: 50:17 Screen time: 2:06

Trainee name (rank)   Star Level test Challenge 1 age final star level

Han Yu Jin (4) Kick It BD - K 15 ⭐⭐⭐ Park Hanbin (22) The Real Hot Sauce - K 20 🌟🌟🌟🌟 Wang Zi Hao (29) Veil KTL - G 21 🌟🌟🌟🌟 Na Kamden (31) Rush Hour BD - G 21 ⭐⭐⭐ Lee Ye Dam (42) Gambler LMR - K 20 🌟🌟🌟🌟

This team is excited to be working together at first -- both Wang Zi Hao and Lee Yedam are among the very best dancers on the show. However, most of them are not really rappers -- they’re just vocalists. Park Hanbin says, “I rap like I’m reading a book.” Hey, we saw Lee Yedam rap in his Star Level test, and he was really good! But they’re worried anyway -- most of them don’t specialize in rapping and they don’t know how to write lyrics. Oh no! A lot of trainees I really like are on this team. Well, to be fair, I like almost all the trainees at this point, so I could say that about pretty much any of the teams. 

It does seem that Na Kamden has some vague idea of how to write rap, at least. That’s really all you need -- one person who can write a rap and teach it to the others. Fighting, Kamden! Yujin steps up, too, saying, “I did learn a bit about rap.” Meanwhile, the other three can make the choreo. They’re going to get through it! 

Side note: Did they make Han Yujin at the same laboratory where they made Sung Hanbin? Do they also make purse sized dragons there? Little dragons that will love you and be loyal to you? Is that the kind of thing they also make at this laboratory? I hope I can visit there someday. 

Team: Rush Hour

Shirt color: Light Blue

Positions: Rap and Dance

Leader: Oh Sungmin

Time stamp: 52:23 Screen time: 2:57

Trainee name (rank)   Star Level test Challenge 1 age final star level

Ricky (12) Kick It - G /BD - G 18 ⭐⭐ Takuto (15) Instead Of... /Danger - G 15 ⭐ Hiroto (21) Conduct Zero /Very Nice - G 20 ⭐⭐ Ma Jing Xiang (32) Reveal /Very Nice - G 19 🚫 Oh Sung Min (34) Bloom Bloom /LMR - K 21 ⭐⭐⭐

By the time we visit them, they’re already dancing. We can see from their sign thing in the background that Ricky has the Killing Part, and is both main dancer and main rapper; and we watch as Oh Sungmin is unanimously voted the leader. He’s the oldest, he used to be in a debuted group (TOO/T01) and he’s also the only 3 star (and there aren’t any 4 stars). So, that makes sense. But it does seem odd to me to be starting the choreography when they haven’t written their raps yet…?

Naturally, it’s hard to teach Takuto. You can see that he’s doing the steps more like they’re the steps from “Na Bina.” Sungmin is trying -- he even says “Daijobou?” to Takuto, which is Japanese for “Ok?” -- but he’s going too fast for someone like Takuto, and he’s going to need to break it down a LOT more. 

Meanwhile, Ma Jing Xiang is trying to move ahead, and there’s an interview from Hiroto about how MJX is just “thinking about himself,” how he did the same thing in Very Nice, trying to learn the choreo from the K-team who were so far ahead. Ricky apparently is studying the choreography video, and again, we’re told that this is bad, but why? Ricky speaks a few languages and is a kind soul, and I bet he’s trying to learn the choreo at least in part to be able to help his teammates. But the show makes this looks selfish, and Oh Sungmin interviews, “We need to work on our teamwork first.” 

I don’t understand this take. Why does the word “teamwork” seem to mean “We have to get Takuto step-perfect on each dance phrase before the team can go to the next phrase”? Couldn’t teamwork mean, “We work on different things to get the whole job done”? Doesn’t it only benefit the team to have more people who know the choreo and music in general? While Takuto does the same 10 steps over and over, why should the whole team do that? Especially considering that Takuto is in the safety zone, rank wise, while MJX is definitely not and needs to do everything in his power to put on a good show. Takuto can go ahead and screw this up and he’ll still probably make it through the next elimination round. And that’s a bummer, but that’s how these shows are. 

Ok, let me out myself. I’m a teacher. WHAT? Yeah. I am. I don’t work at a school -- I teach adults, who sometimes are older than me, as well as teenagers and little kids. It’s a weird job and I’m not YOUR teacher so don’t worry about it, ok? Alright. So we go that out of the way. And the thing about being a good teacher is that you have a responsibility to the students who are ahead just as much as to the students who are behind, and a lot of teachers don’t know how to fulfill that obligation.

And it’s not really Oh Sungmin’s fault that he doesn’t know how to be a really great teacher, but I think that if I were there, I’d advise him to not worry right now about Takuto getting the choreo perfect. It’s going to take a lot of work before that happens, and it’s not going to be today. They should be going for the big picture, and making sure that everyone has a chance to get the basics of their routine down so that it becomes possible for people to do individual practice later. It’s like putting together the frame of the jigsaw puzzle first, and then putting together the pieces in the middle. The frame helps you get started and know where to put the other pieces.

Ok that was probably more than you cared to read but anyway. That’s how I feel. This is dumb and irritating. 

On to the next team! 

Team: Man in Love

Shirt color: Dark blue

Positions: Vocal and Rap

Leader: Lee Dong Yeol

Time stamp: 55:20

Screen time: 3:10

Trainee name (rank)   Star Level test Challenge 1 age final star level

Kim Tae Rae (11) The Real BD - K 20 🌟🌟🌟🌟 Jung Min Gyu (27) My House (Red) Very Nice - K 23 🚫 Lee Dong Yeol (40) Who Very Nice - K 24 ⭐ Choi Woo Jin (51) Nunu Nana Hot Sauce - K 18 ⭐

They’ve elected Dongyeol, who is a member of the group Up10tion, their leader, and that makes sense. 

The team is sitting around listening to the song, and Mingyu is saying it’s nostalgic for him, and WAIT is that a hickey on TaeRae’s neck?

I mean it’s not. Is it? It’s not. It can’t be. But also, whoever makes out with TaeRae, please be gentle to his neck, ok? That’s where he keeps his singing parts. He needs those. For singing. 

Anyway, the team is talking about how much they like the song. Mingyu and Dongyeol, age 23 and 24 respectively, remember and like the song, while Tae Rae didn’t know it before but liked it when he heard it prior to song selection. Tae Rae thinks it suits his voice well, and Mingyu agrees, interviewing that he’s grateful that Tae Rae joined the team. I'm grateful that Tae Rae joined life!

They each try the killing part, and Dongyeol sings a bit, and his voice is actually much better than I thought it was, though he cracks a bit. When he’s done, no one reacts, so he applauds a tiny bit for himself until everyone else joins in. Aww. Then TaeRae sings and it’s so nice. It’s just… yeah. Listen, I know that titanium voice kid, Yoo Seung Eon, has a better voice, but I like TaeRae’s better. It’s like how Chen from EXO has a better voice than D.O., but I’d rather listen to D.O. 

Meanwhile, Choi Woojin is having trouble even finding the note to sing. I’m kind of surprised he chose vocals, but maybe he was scared to write a rap? In that case, what is he good at? I watched his Hot Sauce and Nunu Nana performances, and he was basically a backup dancer in both -- he doesn’t seem to be a vocalist in any way, either as a singer or a rapper. What a bummer that we lost Hong Keon Hee and Kim Min Seong, because both of those were in the Nunu Nana group with him and both did a much better job in their various performances. 

Red house Mingyu sings really really loud, apparently, and Woojin sings very quietly, so this will be tough. 

Team: Limousine

Shirt color: Light blue

Positions: Vocal and Rap

Leader: Anthonny

Time stamp: 58:30 Screen time: 1:27

Trainee name (rank)   Star Level test/Challenge 1 age final star level

Anthonny  (19) Glitch Mode /LMR - G 19 ⭐⭐⭐ Krystian (37) Call Me Baby /BD - G 23 ⭐⭐ Park Ji Hoo (44) Freak /Hot Sauce - K 16 ⭐⭐⭐

Anthonny has been elected leader, but Park Jihoo ends up kind of stepping up to lead. He suggests that they think about what the song is really about -- it’s about a man achieving his dreams. They’re working on achieving their own dreams, so he thinks they can focus on that in their raps. 

Trainees writing raps about how they’re trainees who want to debut? 

Krystian is on his Very Best Behavior, and calls Jihoo, “Park Jihoo-shi,” which is kind of ridiculous given that Jihoo is seven years younger than him. He would still be polite in Korean standards to call him “Jihoo-ah” or something like that, and I bet he knows that. 

Krystian calls him “mature” (in English), and since he can’t find the right word in Korean, explains it as, “you know what you’re doing.” And Jihoo agrees: “Genius, genius,” he says in English, of himself. Jihoo is a hoot. 

(Incidentally, Jihoo says he’s 18, because he uses the Korean age system, which says you’re a year old at birth, and that also calculates your age based on the year it is, whether or not your birthday has happened yet. So he’s really 16, and will be turning 17 in July, by international standards.)

Team: Not Spring, Love, or Cherry Blossoms

Shirt color: Black

Positions: Vocal and Rap

Leader: Jung I Chan

Time stamp: 59:57 Screen time: one whole minute

Trainee name (rank)   Star Level test /Challenge 1 age final star level

Lee Da Eul (13) Replay /Danger - K 18 🚫 Bak Do Ha (24) My House (Blue)/ Hot Sauce - K 20 🚫 Jung I Chan (52) Mirotic /Danger - K 20 ⭐⭐

Oh boy. This team. MNET gives them exactly one minute of screen time and most of that is just mocking their past performances. 

I think Bak Doha is a decent guy who just needed better advice from his agency and more realistic goals in life, and I hope he makes it as an actor. Jung I-chan has been at this a long time and must have some talent or he wouldn’t keep making it halfway on shows like this, but he’s yet to really prove himself at a key moment. And you guys know how I feel about Lee Daeul -- I don’t like being unkind so I literally cannot say anything about him, whether it be about his personality, past behavior, or observable skill set. It would be such a redemption moment if any of these three could do something great in their performance, but I’m not exactly holding my breath. I’ll say though that I-chan has the best attitude he can have, considering.

Team: Tomboy

Shirt color: White (but basically, purple/blue top-9 jackets)

Positions: Vocal and Rap

Leader: Hui

Time stamp: 1:01:05 Screen time: 5:25, the longest of any team by a full minute

Trainee name (rank)   Star Level test Challenge 1 age final star level

Sung Hanbin (1) Beautiful Beautiful LMR - K 21 🌟🌟🌟🌟 Zhang Hao (5) Kick It - G KTL - G 22 🌟🌟🌟🌟 Hui (7) Shut Down LMR - K 29 ⭐⭐⭐ Park Gunwook (10) GBTB KTL - K 18 🌟🌟🌟🌟

This team is a little TOO stacked. Three of them are top 9, and General Gunwook is in 10th place. They have three excellent leaders on the team -- Hui, Zhang Hao, and Gunwook would all make excellent leaders. And they have three excellent candidates for a center/killing part roll - basically, anyone but Hui would do a fantastic job at it. (Not that Hui can’t, but the others are that bit better.)

Gunwook says, “You can’t have a better team than this. As if I were Liu Bei, who gained Guan Yu and Zhang Fei, my shoulders kept rising.”

Ok, a few things about this. This isn’t the first time I’ve seen Koreans talk about “shoulders rising” as if that indicates pride or confidence -- maybe it’s a bit like “holding your head up high” in English idiom. Makes intuitive sense, too.  

Next, it’s as if General Gunwook knows that I call him General Gunwook, because he’s making a reference to Liu Bei. Lui Bei was a Chinese warlord (born in the year 166) who founded Shu Han, one of the Three Kingdoms of China. Liu Bei gathered a team together during the Yellow Turban Revolution of 184, which I’m sure you already know all about, and gathered a group of loyal followers, including Guan Yu and  Zhang Fei. So Gunwook is positing himself as a Warlord Emperor, and his teammates as his loyal generals. Love it.

The show seems to be implying that Gunwook is a little too solicitous of his team, fetching the lyric sheet and getting pens for them and stuff, but that’s what you do when you’re a polite younger person in Korean culture, and Gunwook is a polite guy. Of course he’ll get a pen for someone who is 11 years older than him! 

Zhang Hao says that Gunwook was scary in Kill This Love, but now he’s a cute and sweet dongsaeng (younger sibling/friend). He seems genuinely surprised, but I’m not at all. Gunwook expands to fill the space -- if no leader is present, he’ll lead, and if one is present, he’ll follow. He’s a General, but he recognizes Hui as a Major General, and will follow commands.  He’s also smart and wouldn’t want to look like a rude kid on TV! 

Zhang Hao really wants the killing part, and so do Sung Hanbin and Hui. I think Zhang Hao is by far the best, and General Gunwook agrees with me, but the win goes to Sung Hanbin. That’s kind of a bummer but given how popular he is I guess it’ll work out well for the team. Zhang Hao is a class act -- he’s bummed, but he knows that Hanbin is also really good. So he sets himself the challenge of being able to rap quickly in Korean, reasoning that if Yuqi from G-Idle can do it, so can he! Hanbin is helping him and he’s improving already. Zhang Hao, fighting! 

Side note: Kind of funny that they’re not acknowledging that Hui is from the same agency (Cube) that G-Idle is from. Hui probably knows Soyeon and Yuqi and the girls, at least in passing. I kind of wonder whether Hui and Soyeon get along? They’re both music producers who lead their teams and take responsibility for their members, so they have all that in common. On the other hand, sometimes people don’t like each other if they’re too much alike. Man, imagine if Soyeon and Hui teamed up, Triple-H style? Or even better, just a Pentagon/G-Idle crossover group, NCT style, where they just use whichever members from either group that would work in a particular song? Sigh. A girl can dream. 

And with that, we’ve reached the end of this part of the Recap! Click here to go to Part 2, which is my discussion of Gang and Zoom!

Or if you'd prefer, you can scroll up to the top and look at one of the other songs! Or if you'd prefer, you can go on to Episode 8.

Thanks for being here! <3

[its300am]

Something may be happening right now

What is written here is nothing but a compilation of uncertainties, something I should be taking to the therapy room from which I constantly find myself running away. I always wanted to have a blog, always thought it was great, and I was always in this field. I was in the golden eras of Tumblr as a reader and every now, and then I dared to write, but insecurity always caught up with me. I wrote, but I was terrified of being read. When someone who knew me discovered my writings, that was it, I would never appear on that website again. And that's why drowned and doomed to probably give up that I'm not going to give any certainty that this will one day become something, in fact, it may just be a journal. It will always be in process and if anyone asks, well, it's something I'm trying to make happen. Who knows, maybe one day it will happen even without me knowing.

I don't know if this format still works, It may seem cringe to younger ones, but I used to like things like this, and now that I'm way closer to my 30s than my 20s I'm in the right to be cringe or old-fashioned anyway… I'm not certain about my username yet, I wanted to be something that represents what people will find here, or what I look like to readers. I think the name will come to me eventually by itself. For now I'm its300am.

There are subjects that I like or deal with in general, and I think I should mention it to be aware of what may appear here.

• Movies, but my letterboxd is pretty empty, I mostly post vaguely there because I'm afraid of my mutuals, I mean, they know me IRL, so…

• Anime and manga, but it's been a while since I got close to any of those, college is being so hard on me. Still, my favorites are Dr. Stone, Bungo Stray Dogs and Jojo's Bizarre Adventure.

• Literature, but I have such a reading hangover that I spend more time thinking about reading than reading (and the bookshelf is just getting ignored). You can see as my goodreads is left to flies.

• Feminism, okay, in this one I think I'm more active, I'm even part of a women's collective, I may come to comment more on that in the future. I'm a Marxist feminist btw.

• Eco-socialism, this one is new to me, but I've always loved the subject, and now I'm getting closer, maybe one thing or another will appear even from my exploration on the subject.

• Comics, this is the sunken skeleton of that pool meme, you know what it is? I used to love it, but it's really been a long time since I've been close, I want to go back. I really like DC's specially their girls such as Wonder Woman, Harley Quinn, Ivy Poison, Punchline, Zatanna, and others. From Marvel, I enjoy X-Men, Guardians of the Galaxy and I have interest in the Eternals.

Other than that I get into a little bit of everything, in music I can't even say what my favorite genre is. My favorite artists transit between Mozart, Lily Allen, Sistar, Charlie Brown Jr, Selena Gomez, Ludmila, Green Day and so on, without any apparent pattern. My for you is summarized in compilations of kittens and some cosplayers, occasionally something about decoration or DIY appears.

In terms of games, I'm not committed to any, because I don't have much time to play, but I like Danganronpa, Identity V, Dead by Daylight, Street Fight V and Twisted Wonderland. The last one is the only one I play more often, since it doesn't demand much from me. I was addicted to Genshin Impact once, but I left the world of drugs and entered the world of hard drugs (college). Since then, it was a lost cause, and I'm not even a good student, I just need to work twice as hard to keep myself at least average. Thank you dyslexia, thank you bipolar disorder, without you my life would be very easy, so it wouldn't be any fun. /irony

My current addictions are listening to podcasts while doing daily activities, some of my favorites are Ciência Suja and Modus Operandi, both in my native language (Portuguese). Plus another addiction is organizing my stuff, the problem is that it never stays organized, so I'm constantly organizing a lifelong mess.

Now that you know me intimately, let's get to the formalities, I prefer to be called Kaká and I have no preference or identification with a specific pronoun. My sexuality is pan, but I'm not going to make war with anyone who confuses it with bi, I live in a huge fatigue, I don't have the energy for that, really. I'm studying literature and modern languages, focused on Portuguese, and I should graduate whenever destiny has planned to. I want to be a teacher, but every day I lose confidence that I have what it takes to pursue this career, so my plan b is to find a publisher that will take me on their team. Yo hablo Español & I want to learn Italian, French, Mandarin and Russian one day, not today.

I don't know what I'm doing here! Maybe it becomes a kind of logbook, and in this case I'm on board of my own life, trying to figure out what comes next and very afraid of what will become of me.

That's it. Fin.

[foreverxdaydreaming]

[lunaxmadel]

*casually types my bias' name in the Tumblr search bar to gasp at pictures and cry about my bias' beauty*