#song linked in emoji btw. check it out

[robonene]

[01. NZN]

I heard the sound of my future breaking,

being stabbed into with a fork from above.

It gave birth to an irreplaceable past.

I couldn't say even one simple "thank you."

[02. SHU]

Until the very end,

I couldn't hear the dull sound of your sobs.

I'm a worthless, heartless grown-up.

Staring at your big, smiling eyes through the picture frame is the worst kind of goodbye.

[ 🎼 ]

(092023)

[sgdlr-asdfghjkl]

Link Click Musical update 149

(March 21-24 performances summary, part 2)

Follow up, starting with

March 23rd, night: Shu Rongbo, Wu Yihan, Qian Dongyue, Zou Ziyue, Xu Fangxing

The only photos from that day were posted by the actors themselves >< Seems like they were having fun taking photos of each other ^^'

⬆ those 2 photos are especially dear to me, bless you Zou Ziyue for the one with matching outfits 🙏 the other one was posted by wyh first and the actors were being cute asf in the comments <3 like:

srb: 'wuhu wúhú [tornado emoji]', wyh: 'brother bobi', Li Zexi: 'You two look so good ❤', zzy:'I think my photos are better'

plsss 😭💖

March 24th, noon: Ji Xiaokun, Guo Hongxu, Cai Lu

Guo Hongxu came back from a health break ^^ There are quite a few clips from that day, check them out if you wanna see ghx get stuck on 'Dive back in time' lyrics and jxk reaction ><'

⬆ these photos were taken by Ji Xiaokun with a camera from the audience ^^

Look at this dorky sd photo 🥺 💛

March 24th, night: Zhao Muzhi, Zhu Hanbin, Wu Hanglu

I strongly recommend you watch this encore! It has:

CXS looses rock, paper, scissors despite cheating and bluescreens >< LG uhh kinda...caresses his face to make him snap back to reality.

he's locked in

Oh yes, Zhu Hanbin did whole encore wearing his shirt inside out >< Wu Hanglu points it out after they're done with last song.

*btw I need to check, how do we write Muzhi's surname? Bc atp I've seen 3 versions: 'Cao', 'Zhao' and 'Tsao'. I use 'Zhao', Sael uses 'Cao' and on weibo I've seen a meme signed with 'Tsao'. WHICH ONE IS IT?

Anyway, he did a lot of cute and funny faces, but I couldn't fit them all in this post ;w; I'll post them later~

k bye bye :*

[bangchanswolfpelt]

Aight I'm a good 6 years older then Yeonjun, and I don't stan any 4th gen groups, but fucking Yeonjun and Taehyun dragged me kicking and screaming into TXT when they passed their cutie concept phase and I can't get out. I couldn't find anything for Taehyun on your blog, maybe I didn't know what to search for, but how do you see him? Soft dom, hard dom? Switch? Sub? He gives me a really, really interesting vibe. Very intense, as if he's not afraid of anything when it comes down to it and would try anything, but also reserved?

ahahahaha, i feel you—i'm right around your same age i think and i was lured in by Soobin being an adorable Jin stan, only to find out that once i was in the door, Yeonjun was waiting there to ambush me with his face and his voice and his stupid sweats that say "run up" right on his dick. 💀

you were probably searching just fine, it's just that there was nothing to find! this blog's only a month old and most of the asks i've been getting are about Soobin. so nearly all of what i've been writing is about. Soobin… 😂 (this is NOT me telling anybody to stop btw, i love it, i just also think it's deeply hilarious when the point of this blog was to stop yelling at my roommate about petplay and just write about getting railed by Bang Chan in a fursuit😂😂😂) re: searching my blog, tho, the most consistent set of tags i have is [group name/abbreviation][emoji]; for txt it's txt👾. if you're in the browser, you can find them all to the right of the page under 'Trending Tags'; i also have a link in my pinned navi post, but i'll add them all as actual tags to that post too, just so they're easier to get to.

i wasn't actually planning on writing for Tae or Hyuka, even though they've hit age of majority they're still very much cutie babies to me. (watching Hyuka in Lovesong felt too much like watching a babby cousin try to relive my high school days on tiktok 🥺) i DO know that the latest teasers have been fucking people up, tho, so like. check back in a bit and i might be singing a different song. 👀 (also if anyone wants to send anything my way that might make me change my mind... 👀👀👀)

looking at your question from my currently extremely clinical, well-hydrated perspective, tho—

i think you actually have a really good read on Taehyun! especially in regards to him being kind of reserved—when it comes to romantic/sexual relationships, he’d be very cautious with his feelings up until a certain point, but if you DO manage to get that far with him, then it’s all or nothing—like, following you out of the shire all the way to mt. doom kinda all or nothing. 🥺 and he's definitely the type to only get into d/s stuff with someone he really trusts (honestly, i don't think he'd even get too far along with vanilla physical intimacy without that level of trust, unless something had him really caught up in the moment). once you’re that person, though, buckle the fuck up cause you weren’t wrong about intensity. 😅

he'd take any kind of power play really seriously, even if you’re not interested in doing anything hardcore at first. he does a lot of research and wants to have serious, sit-down talks about what you both want and need, even if he has a hard time looking you in the eye for the first few conversations. it’s actually probably very sweet, because he tries really hard to make sure that you’re comfortable, even as you can see he’s clearly struggling.

Taehyun definitely starts things out sitting across from you at a table because that’s how Serious Grown-Up Converations happen, right? reach over and hold his hand, or better yet, make him move over to the couch with you to cuddle. he’s the type to get into his own head about this kind of thing, i think, so a reminder from you that this is something you’re both in together will go a long way towards him chilling the fuck out. especially if you’re older/more experienced than him—he won’t admit it, but he’s probably looking to the way you behave for cues and feeling like he’s got to try and keep up with you.

i think his personality would have him be slightly more inclined to dom, but inexperience might make subbing a little easier on him to start with; a lot of it would also depend on his partner. so basically, he’s switchy but distinctly dom-leaning. either way, he’ll want to go hard—while for some of the boys, i feel like d/s dynamics with them are more of a natural extension of your regular relationship dynamics, Taehyun would want them to be something distinctly different from your day-to-day. this isn’t a boy who goes halfway with things; whether he’s domming or subbing, he wants it to be exciting and intense and boundary-pushing. by the time the night is over, aftercare will involve putting one of you back together again.

once he’s confident he knows what he’s doing and (most importantly) knows how to read you, he’d honestly be a dream of a dom. he’s observant and careful, learns all your little nonverbal tells, so he knows what you’re feeling maybe even before you do, and uses that to play you like an instrument.

he’d be a really great partner for experimenting with, too, i think. unless it’s something that really squicks him out, Taehyun’s willing to try pretty much anything you’re interest in at least once. going to him with new ideas might be a little intimidating, because he’s more serious and measured, and not the type to immediately jump onboard enthusiastically like some people would *cough*Yeonjun*cough*, but he’ll always hear you out and never judge or shame you for what you want. even if it’s something he’s not that into at first, he’ll read up on it and look up videos; he’s the type of person whose response to “weird” kinks isn’t ‘what the fuck?’, but ‘what’s the appeal there?’, so he ends up rationalizing himself into a lot of new kinks, including most (if not all) of yours.

the only thing i would worry about is honestly him not letting you know where his limits are—he feels like the kind of person who would have trouble safewording when you hit a point that's uncomfortable for him in a scene, just because it's not something he brought up while you were establishing boundaries and rules. he’s the type to be very concerned about safewords and hard limits and aftercare for you, but forget that those things apply to him as well. if the way you two play gets really intense, you’re probably going to hit a point where you need to talk to him about being upfront and honest about what he needs.

tagging: @jensdior

[kari-a-la-tari]

The (Unneccessary) Lore of the WG Spanish Dubs

Aka me being like this meme for an entire post

OKAY so a couple of weeks ago I had just learned that there existed a Spanish version of Wordgirl called “La Chica Supersabia” which is honestly super cool cause who doesn’t wanna hear their show in a different language?

But alas, this ended up taking me into a much deeper rabbit hole than I was expecting and it’s honestly pretty interesting so I thought I’d share it with y’all!

DISCLAIMER: I am not an expert by any means nor do I intend to come off as one, this is simply an elaborate essay of what I’ve found through my informal research. I will also be translating anything in Spanish to the best of my extent, so I apologize if I mess up a bit with the wording since it’s not my native language.

So then *places a baseball cap with glued lightbulb on my head* let’s get started shall we?

Okay so first things first, there are a couple of select episodes of La Chica Supersabia (I’ll use LCS from here on) available on the internet. The most reliable source that I’ve found is on an old Facebook account here where a fan would upload LCS episodes based on when they aired. However, the only episodes available are a select few from season one.

Now this got my mind thinking “Hey, what if there’s more episodes?” So naturally, I started scoundering on Google (like the rat I am) to see if there was indeed more. And according to this one site there are only two seasons of LCS that were dubbed.

Translation: In Latin America, the first season premiered on Discovery Kids August 3, 2009, while the second season premiered on the same channel January 11, 2010, being the only two seasons issued. (Source)

However, later on I discovered that there was some mislead in that info because someone else found a Spanish episode that was from season 3, which doesn’t make sense because why would there be another season available when it clearly says that they technically shouldn’t exist? (Btw I tried finding it myself cause I did see that episode before but for some reason now I can’t find it dhdvvdbdvd 😭)

At first I thought maybe this is just some info added from a fan. After all, that statement was posted on a Spanish Wikipedia page so it is possible. So I began looking for other articles that talked about the Spanish dubs, but they all said the same thing. Well, until I came up with this site that said two very intriguing things:

Translation: The series actually had 3 seasons and is dubbed in Caracas, Venezuela. On May 2012 the series stopped running on daytime hours and was removed from the programming one year later, on June 17, 2012. It is unknowns if it will be aired by another channel or come back to the Discovery Kids programming, besides only the two first seasons were dubbed in Spanish. (Source)

I was a little bit confused here with the wording because it still didn’t confirm my original questions; if anything it left me with more. But then I read the next section below which got me completely off track.

Translation: The series received negative critics and complains on behalf of parents of families in Latin America that claimed that it wasn’t appropriate for the objective public of Discovery Kids. Without doubt in the U.S. the series had been well received and even won an Emmy award for Jack D. Ferraiola, writer and coproductor of the series together with the creator of the same show, Dorothea Gillim, who declared the following in respective to the series: (Source)

Now this one took me by a whirlwind: WTH why was this version hated by people in Latin America while it’s adored by everyone in the U.S.?? And I watched some episodes of LCS and while the dubbing is pretty funny (lol) there wasn’t anything inappropriate about it. For the most part they stuck on script with the original episode they had to dub.

So I dove even deeper...

And o h m y g o d there is an answer to this.

Translation: The program premiered in Latin America on August 2009 on the Discover Kids channel, aiming at pre schoolers. Although the channel gave a lot of promotion for the show during the final months of 2009 and the majority of 2010, at the end of the year they decided to change the programming to nighttime hours because the show received a lot of critics from parents saying that the show was too “violent” and that it encouraged kids to lie to their parents (due to the obvious fact that Becky had to give an excuse everytime she had to leave to turn into WordGirl and save the day), and they complained constantly on the message boards now deleted of the channel. The program was eliminated completely on June 2012, without doubt, PBS maintained the Spanish dubs so that they would use for SAP (Second Audio Program) in the U.S. in a different studio (Dubbing House in Mexico and later Lorry Post in Miami, FL), but the program no longer returned to Discovery Kids until August 2014. (Source)

And DUDE no y’all this was just a complete hilarious yet ridiculous slap to the face. I mean..what the, why was that the reasoning as to why it was hated so much? Just cause of some literal PG kid friendly cartoon violence? And what do parents mean when they say it teaches them to lie to their parents?? I mean with all due respect, who was Discovery Kids target audience they had in mind vs. what it actually was? Because if there actual audience was very very young kids, they okay sure I can understand the need to point fingers at them in that sense. But if it was for slightly older kids (8-10 years old), then I think that parents can probably show kids at that age the reasoning behind why Becky lied in the show (not to mention that most kids at that age can understand what’s going on for the most part).

“Now is this actually true?” some of you may ask, which is understandable since this is coming from a wiki page. Well, I think it’s about time I put another disclaimer: sadly for the most part, the majority of these sources that I’ve attached have broken links when it comes to their references. And the ones that aren’t broken don’t mention anything about the topics that have been discussed here. But there are some smaller sources I’ve found here (look at the last three comments) and here that do indeed confirm that the show was canceled due to the force of parents.

However, the current grey area I’m in still is on the Spanish dubbing listing. See, I originally thought that there were three different dubbings according to this one post below (M&M Studios, Dubbing House and Lorry Post). I even thought I cracked it since according to this chart below the rest of the seasons were under the Dubbing House studios! However, it turns out that one of the studios Lorry Post doesn’t actually exist. Like nothing related to dubbing came up at all when I searched it up.

Translation: Dubbing Studio 1 - M&M Studios (Seasons 1-2). Dubbing Studio 2 - Dubbing House (Seasons 3-8). Dubbing Studio 3 - Lorry Post (Season 8 - final episodes). (Source)

And then that’s when I took a harder look at this website and realized that it’s part of a Spanish Wiki page called “Propuestas de Fans de Doblaje” (Fan Proposals for Dubs). *insert facepalm emoji* And just...I honestly feel so dumb that I didn’t notice that detail when I did my initial research cause that would’ve saved me a lot of time 😤. Anywho so that explains the Lorry Post mystery, but then lies the other question: do the other dubs exist?

Well, this is where I draw the line. See, on that same wikipage, it mentions that LCS had completely different voice actors for each of the dubbings. The first dub (M&M) is from Venezuela and after looking at the VA’s, they can be traced back to LCS. But after looking at the VA’s for the second dub (Dubbing House) in Mexico, there is nothing related to them and LCS or WG. Not even on movie databases.

“Now are you gonna give up on this idea?” you may ask. And the answer is......

No.

Why? Well, it’s mainly because there is a compellingly set of evidence that proves that the first two dubs do actually exist, which is...

undefined

THIS VIDEO, which shows that there were not one, but two variations of the LCS Spanish theme song. The first one is the Spanish version, and the second one that plays is the Venezuela version. And if you can remember, there were 2 dubbings of LCS; one located in Mexico (Dubbing House) and another In Venezuela (M&M Studios)!

Anywhosole, that is where I conclude this elaborate essay of mine. There are still a couple of loose strings here and there that I wanna check out myself but I’ve already tired myself out with this essay. I hoped you liked seeing me lose my mind speculate on the LCS episodes! This was honestly pretty fun ngl, maybe I’ll try doing this again in the future if something else interesting pops up! If you have anything you wanna add or maybe point out something that I may have forgotten, please by all means bring it up!

[budol-finds]

I BOUGHT AIRPODS 2 on LAZADA for only P1299😲

I'm not expecting a lot for the price. The Original price of AirPods in the Philippines is 11k +++ . I just bought mine for just P1299🔥

As I was browsing in Lazada for good finds, I came across to this store, so many reviews with quality Lazada store, they also have a lot of followers, they have social media accounts like Instagram and Facebook, I also tried to read reviews for social media proofing. Of course I messaged them and ask questions about there product. Their chat support is superb, replies within a minute

So after further questions, I was convinced to buy the product. by the way they offered 7 days refund and Lazada warranty so I have customer protection to avoid any scams.

I received the package after 3 days. You'll never believe it, they put so much effort to pack my package with thick bubble wrap that's why I had a hard time opening it. Right after delivery I unboxed everything. The package is complete with FREE Silicon case ❤❤❤.

The Seller sent me tips on how to care of my AirPods, and they also sent me a thank you message. Btw, I've been using my AirPods for a month now and all functions are working very well.

DIsclaimer: The AirPods I bought is just a premium copy with all the functions working similar to the original ❤ THIS IS NOT SPONSORED.

here's the summary of all the functions with some comments :D

📷3D pop-up animation- Works smoothly and very satisfying, I love watching it specially when I open the case

📷 Wireless Charging Case- Yes I tried it and works fine

📷 iCloud log in- I tried it too but not perfect

📷 GPS Tracking- This works very well, you can try it on find my device

📷 Change name- I Love this very much I can Personalize my AirPods and put some emojis

📷Can Change Gesture (Tap Function) - this works perfectly you can change functions on your settings if you want to stop, change or next your song. It also works when you answer a phone call anddddd Double tap to enable Siri, YAYY!

📷3 hrs talk time- I used mine longer but maybe depending on your usage

📷 2.5-4 hrs listening/music time- same as above

📷 Infrared sensor activated (Ear detection)- you will love this feature, the song/ video will stop when you remove one of your AirPods. WORKS LIKE MAGIC

📷 Siri activated- Just Double tap and WALAAAH

📷 10 meters range- I like this especially when I'm washing the dishes hehe

📷 Bluetooth 5.0- YES for faster connection that's why it connects very fast

📷 6D BASS- FOr it's price I never thought that it would bring so much bass, like even at level 1 volume the sound is high but depending on the type of music you're lsitening to.

Inclusion: 📷 One pair of AirPods 📷 Charging box 📷 Charging cable 📷 User manual

AND A FREE SILICON CASE

The CONS

1. Inaccurate battery life- according to them and based on the reviews of other AirPods 2 it really Doesn't have an accurate battery life. They Have AirPods Pro which is a 100% copy it has Transparency mode, Active Noise Cancellation and Guess what the new feature is PSATIAL AUdio where you can watch movies with Theater like surround sound😍😍😍😲😲😲 I will definitely buy it hehehe.

ALL in ALL I really love my AirPods for only P1299, Feature-packed I must say and worth the price + They have a lot of vouchers + Very Good Customer Service.

Here's the link guys if you wanna check it out:

https://www.lazada.com.ph/shop/the-top-pod

[twdmusicboxmystery]

More Suspicious IG Stories

Boy, the suspicious EK social media posts keep on coming! Emily posted in her Instagram stories about an upcoming virtual fan event called Fandemic that she will be a part of and is looking forward to. Two things she said stood out, and I quote “One of my favorite things about my job…” and “and meet people who are watching things I’m working on. ” ???? All VERY present tense because what is your actual job right now Emily? Check her IG stories, I’m sure it will be on there for awhile since she is linking how to get tickets!

Yeah, we’re definitely getting some suspicious things right now. As of when I posted this, it’s still there. So everyone can click HERE to watch. Here are some pics:

I’m even side-eyeing this one. A song about it not being her home, he mentions Rome, and then she uses the little return star emoji. 

But also check out Norman’s. There was the black and white shoe laces edit he posted the other day. And then (while I was watching the new episode last night, btw) he posted a video from the S8 premiere show that included Scott Wilson coming onto stage and he (Norman) and Emily hugging. 👀👀👀

Check it out HERE before it disappears.

So, I’m gonna give you guys one spoiler that we all want to know. I watched 10x16 last night, and no, she doesn’t show up. 😭 Does it suck? Well, yes. Obviously. But I’m not even that worried about it. The symbolism in this episode was SUPER potent. And I can’t help wondering if Emily is doing this fandemic thing because she’s about to show up, perhaps in FTWD or TWB? 

Just saying. Look for my analysis of the episode (it’s gonna be long 😉) on Sunday night. 

[kazesuke]

Hiya! For the emoji asks, how about 🍭 and 🎶? Love your work btw!!

🍭 - Favorite Candy?

hmmm do chocolate bars count? I used to love this one called Boost, it’s got caramel, chocolate nougat, rice krispie pieces, I think? It’s awhile since I had one and you can’t get them here but it’s good shit.

🎶 - Top 5 favorite songs?

I’m gonna do this for right now cos it changes a lot XD 

1  -  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9cuRqc08o5c - ロキ

I stumbled across this version (it’s a vocaloid song but there’s lots of people that have made dance videos) because of the adorable brunette in the sweatband. So I’d just seen the stage play of kamigami no asobi and the guy in this video played Loki. Loki in katakana is written ロキ (only the title of this song is supposed to be read more like rocky) 

So I thought it was some kamigami video he’d done - but I got to watch him bounce around and be cute. This is also the actor who picked on me to be pranked when I went to see kamigami

2  -  https://open.spotify.com/track/4Zg3yWH7vyhydc3aDAER4w?si=JxQ_PVB1SCmPjV7tYb_p6w Elegy of Prisoner - Takanori Nishikawa

Honestly this whole album slaps. Good stuff, definitely check it out 

3  -  https://youtu.be/q4sSnKJ39Qs?list=PLfa97Hd52wd66oI1LpX3Meq3bhSkbgJUV&t=3364 GHOST - GACKT

Sorry for the long video but it should link to the point where the song starts! This isn’t 100% my all time favourite GACKT song but the choreography is just -chef’s kiss- and GACKT is above all my all time fave.

4  -  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SVS3Z8wKLIE Yokohama Walker - M.T.C.

I’m not hugely into Hypmic but I live in Yokohama so gotta represent ;)

5  -  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MuhkUzGAeHA Butterfly - Koji Wada

My go to karaoke song, I’m not so familiar with the second verse though ahahaha but it’s fun to sing and people often know it!

[shit-talk-turner]

Oh yes, those single heart emoji comments of hers! Here's a drinking game for you: take a look at her Instagram and take a shot every time you see a single heart emoji comment from a closed account with 0 posts and 300-400 follows AND followers. Here are your bots. They might or might not have a pfp, doesn't matter - bot farms are known to steal regular people's photos online.

Also, here's a link for you:

https://www.modash.io

It's a tool to measure the fake followers. It's the only one that's kinda free-ish (you get 1-2 tries, and then have to register), so it's not top-notch precise, but still. It shows 15% of her followers are fake. That's 9000 accounts btw. Also, check out the graph there on her followers growth through time. Starting somewhere in spring this year it's a literal straight diagonal line??? What exactly are the chances of a person having their follower count rise in a steady geometric progression for a ~year of them posting really sporadically???

The funny bit is, I am actually understanding of young artists, musicians, models, actors doing this shit. It's one of the very few ways you have to get your "content" (songs, aesthetics...) onto people's explore page and into their eyeballs. But you have to have "your content". Louise apparently did this to get her Carel endorsement. Which got abruptly cut short after AM fans took exception to her "cheetah print coat and knee socks" ad for them. OMG.

☕☕☕

and THAT is the tea!! Thank you, Anon. Amazing

[seeksstaronmewni]

Samurai Jack Season 5 in Review: EPISODE XCII

Here is my absolute favorite Samurai Jack episode, because it’s not the end. It’s only the beginning of the end.

I was on the hype train for the return of @cartoonnetwork​’s Samurai Jack after I saw the Season 5 trailer on February 8th, 2017 A.D. (I made a recent post to celebrate it) One reason was that I became obsessed about The Powerpuff Girls during the nostalgically incorrect Season 7 (the first “reboot” season) due to a liking for the Season 5-6 designs and animation, a part of the "Cartoon Cartoons” I grew up watching... and I was right to expect former PPG creatives on it! This post highlights the events of the episode and why it’s one of the best Samurai Jack episodes ever--and how much I binged on it at first! You can check the episode out here (Season 5 reran Sunday mornings at 3:30A on Adult Swim), and soon on HBO Max. Also, if you’re on Twitter, check the links to my tweets in the underlined text! They’re old tweets and need some love!

If you saw not this episode yet, be aware of SPOILERS!

/!\ SAMURAI JACK This Program is rated TV-14-V. Intense Violence.

X

The day of the season’s premiere, March 11th, 2017 A.D., too late found I that [as] was doing a streaming of Season 1-4 (I came in during EPISODE XXXIII’s “Wild Ride”). Following was a Q&A livestream with Genndy Tartakovsky, during which I tried again and again to call, but the line was always busy. Luckily Season 5′s premiere was going to be for free--online--via the stream at 10:40P! I was so there for it! Of course I watched the televised premiere on @adultswim​, but the stream first!

While I began ceasing from trying to get Genndy on the PPGs again, all of a sudden...

...it began, and I was totally there for it.

A view of a distant town (not Townsville) appeared. All quiet.

That is until an explosion or 2 set off (and not with the stereotypical H-B/Universal “powah-wahh” explosion sounds either). There goes the giant windmill.

Partially and slowly revealed is that some aliens are on the run from the town...

...from those “beetle bots”. GIANT beetle bots, I might add.

There is this precious little moment where, being surrounded by the giant beetle bots, the mother and daughter visually--not by speech--exchange “I love you!” to each other with hearts in place of “love”. Oh, and there’s a baby too.

As the beetle bots come to a stop, the sound grows quiet. A motorcycle is heard approaching. When the motorcycle is revealed close-up, Tyler Bates’ bass-filled music is sparked: a warrior with a serious, menacing face is riding on these hot wheels...

...and he aims his machine gun out... only to launch a projectile at these familiar foes...

...resulting in the first explosion Jack caused in this glorious 5th season.

He slowly circles around with his gun. Is he a threat to the aliens?

Nope. Just pwning more evil scrap metal.

Once I heard the Looney Tunes-esq “pshhh...” of smoke from his guns, I became more certain that Joel Valentine was back on the show... unlike the PPG “reboot”.

As the Season 5 sneak revealed late in February 2017 shows, the warrior’s motorcycle is packed with punk tires that can scrap these pests up! All of his guns are just as lethal... with all of those cool action shots and poses and all.

The warrior then reveals another weapon: not a sword, exactly, but some manner of pitchfork on one tip and a taser on the other. Graphically, he destroys one beetle bot by twisting the wires inside, and proceeds to scrap the rest until one of them knocks... the mask off?

That warrior is none other than the samurai called...

“...?”

Just another day in the life of the samurai! Shouting a charging yell, Jack continues smashing the wires out of the beetle bots with a front scruff that fits perfectly with the mane... a look that is very appropriate, new and fitting for Jack.

The daughter gives a symbol of either “Is it dead?” or disgust. Because of the emoticons that are a major part of their visual language, I suppose that these aliens should be called... emoji-fawns?

“50 years have passed, but I do not age.”

As the samurai continues onward into the sunset, a new intro is revealed for Jack to explain how much worse things are become. The former intro started with Aku’s prologue before the theme song, but Season 5′s intro is pretty much a prologue. This feels true to the nature of of The Powerpuff Girls’ former intro which also started with a prologue, but PPG Season 7-9 has a shorter, different intro (although the extended version has an updated version of the prologue with most of its original Tom Kenny narration, “DJ Avalanche” score, and few of Joel’s SFX).

Regarding Jack’s opening statement, creator Genndy Tartakovsky said that 50 years were passed apparently between the events of EPISODE LII, “Jack and the Baby”, and EPISODE XCII. I think, however, that Jack meant that 50 year passed since he ended up in the future in EPISODE II, “The Samurai Called Jack”. There could be more seasons of this show to explore more adventures of Jack, regardless of the time that passed; if anything, turn those comic books into episodes!

Anyway, for some reason, the rip in time Aku created to send Jack into the future caused Jack’s body to supposedly not grow old, though I believe that, slowly, he still aged to a point. Aku’s still the bad guy (with a new voice, but I talk about this in XCIII’s post), and hope seems lost unless Jack can return to the past.

The intro ends with a slow reveal of the shows title, burning red in the dark, sporting an epic, exciting, modernly cinematic feel to the show. What follows, of course, is a scene just as cinematic...

A quiet, eerie chant of the name “Aku” subtly fills the dark, fire-lit room. This reveals the worship of a great evil which reminds us of how dangerous and powerful Aku truly is... given that “Jack vs. Aku” is the previous episode where Aku has a speaking role (you know... “EXTRA THICK!”), though he vocalizes in a following episode “Seasons of Death”.

The episode’s opening credits reveal that Bryan Andrews and Genndy Tartakovsky are the main board artists for this season, still directed by Tartakovsky himself with art direction by Scott Wills. Apparently, character design was very crucial to this season, so the main character designer of the season, Craig Kellman, is listed at the beginning on all of these episodes. This’s rare for cartoon shows, but this isn’t much different from old CN shows of the 1990′s like Dexter’s Laboratory crediting the model/character designers on the episode’s opening credits.

“They will succeed where so many others have failed, and we will find favor in your glory.”

Seven daughters?! Is that kind of physical labor even possible?! That explains all of Grey Delisle-Griffin’s screams, but she’s soon back on her feet... to raise her children to serve pure evil.

BTW, it’s a good thing that the baby vocals that Joel used are not the common Sound Ideas Series 6000 cries, since that recording is far more annoying. Anyway, I find the scene very intriguing and exciting because it’s all really dark, and that’s something that “kids” shows often weren’t in the past. It all just feels so epic that it sucks you in; am I right?

Back to Jack: the score revs up quickly in this montage of Jack riding around the country, wherever he is, as if he’s on some epic quest. Is he looking for a time portal or Aku’s place?

It’s Fall at this point and Jack’s in a pretty forest. The lighting is beautiful, cinematic and very realistic in this shot--one of my favorites from this episode. The paintings are still by art director Scott Wills; they’re just digital.

Such scenes as this are long periods of no dialogue, where music and sound can help to set the mood--sometimes, a very peaceful mood...

...until, slowly but surely, Jack’s mind is hauntingly messed up. This’s where Tyler Bates’ music hits on the slow, hardcore, eerie, electronic percussion that subtly drives the intense situation that’s not like what kid’s action shows used to be. This would be frightening to younger children, but the sheer terror of this scene is awesome, and the music is hardcore hot!

Some days later, we go to another sequence that occurs at night, where we focus first on a cute little owl hooting (and not the cliche, classic H-B/Valentino SFX Library owl hoot that many cartoons use, including past episodes of Samurai Jack). This goes to show just how realistic Joel’s sound design can be, and I admire him greatly for that attention to detail.

Jack endured another vision that night, where his father claims that he never came back, though Jack revealed that “Aku destroyed the way home!”

The way? How many time portals or such were there?

“He destroyed everything! Everything is burning!”

Woah. Was it something that Jack ate? It may be that that rat was under-cooked...

Anyway, every time Jack was haunted by the visions, a mysterious figure appeared afterward. Now Jack was motivated to find the village that he previously noticed was under attack. Time for a commercial break... and a breather for us fans of this nostalgic series!

As we return from commercial, we see the progression of the 7 daughters in training. They kind of remind me of Pokey Oaks Kindergarten’s students... but taller.

Training is tough on these little munchkins, though--but Ashi is distracted by a light that comes from the outdoors... to which her mother slowly objects. Her strength endures some real testing over time with her mother’s harsh treatment!

“Are you weak?!”

I mean... I felt like it was almost all over for Ashi at this point.

Luckily for her, “Aku’s fire stirs inside”. The art direction on the following scene is very interesting in terms of lighting: black, white and some red. It helps for the simply-detailed designs to stand out more. Since I saw very little of Sym-Bionic Titan at this point, Ashi’s hairstyle reminded me somewhat of Ilana (who has the same hairstyle and same voice actress, Tara Strong).

Meanwhile, Jack walked through the village to find whoever caused the destruction. He comes to a shady figure in the smoke, revealed to be a hot-shot assassin robot who goes by many names...

“Scaramouch the merciless! The Pied Piper of Ruination! The Crooner of Carnage! The Ambassador of Annihilation! The Eradicator of All, baby!”

The chipper, upbeat, overly positive attitude of “Aku’s most favorite assassin” made him instantly lovable. I loved this tin man from pretty much the very beginning. I immediately tweeted about this guy during the online premiere. I took a little while to know who voiced this guy (kind of sounded like Jimmy Gourd to me for some reason), but it was certainly familiar. Tom Kenny is the groovin’ voice of Scaramouche--another iconic voice from the man who narrated The Powerpuff Girls and voiced the Mayor of Townsville, Spongebob, Bon Bon the Birthday Clown and so many other great voices!

“Wait. Back off, beardsly. Where... is... your sword?”

You were probably wondering about that... so was I.

“You... lost... your sword!”

Well, the coloring on the handle of the sword is reversed in this shot, and it was just brown for the previous shot of the sword, but... yeah. Flashback to an episode that appeared not in Season 4. Destined to become an episode in the next season if CN makes any to explore the pre-Season 5 events.

Jack’s new pitchfork/taser thingy still makes the same “ching” sounds that his sword makes (and not the cliche Hollywood Edge recordings), though.

Anyway, Scaramouch was about to tell Aku the news (Aku apparently forgot about Scaramouch ‘cause he’s all like “Who is this?” First line since “Jack vs. Aku”!) when Jack and Scaramouch dance in a duel of musical magic.

“Ooh, nice choreography, baby!” Scaramouch replied. In a tweet I made of that line, I was thinking of cinematography instead and noted this to art director Scott Wills. I probably meant to note this to board artists Bryan Andrews & Genndy Tartakovsky.

Oh I just LOVE that “fffwwwhOOMP!” sound there on the ease-in. Joel Valentine packs the perfect punch into the sound of an object’s weight with those big whoosh sounds.

More important, perhaps: how can Scaramouch play the flute when he’s just a robot? He hasn’t any lungs or lips... that I know of... though he apparently has teeth and a tongue, and I can hear breath sounds during his lines... and his voice sounds not at all robotic!

Jack can really throw some real weight around as he battles against a monster made by music and of building parts...

“That samurai has gone beaucoup cuckoo!”

...but his haunting visions distract him from his heroic efforts...

...once again seemingly attributed to that shadowy figure. This is a “CinemaScope” ratio for this shot, while the show is in standard widescreen (1.78:1 “matted”/”flat”). Those ratios can change a lot, kind of like IMAX (in movies in IMAX, one often sees certain shots of a 2.39:1 movie turning into 1.78:1 on a large screen, and the ratio goes back and forth). Still, ultimately the show is not in “letterbox” widescreen / “scope” format, like most Cartoon Network DVDs say; perhaps Warner Bros. Home Entertainment says this because Star Wars: The Clone Wars (the Dave Filoni series, only produced for Turner networks) was in 2.39:1; this caught on to some [as] shows like Genndy Tartakovsky’s Primal and Tigtone (the logos are 1.78:1, however), but most CN shows are just in 1.78:1.

Anyway, knocked out of his mentally overwhelmed state, Jack was back into the fight, but, even though he sliced the flute in half, Scaramouch was the real “musical magic”. He just goes all “Scatman John” on Jack and can control wherever his sword goes, striking it right at Jack!

This is definitely one of my favorite shots from the episode... a slow-mo shot.

Jack seems to be fighting the sword itself until he comes closer to Scaramouch, who soon pulls another cold blade out...

“Dig that beautiful sound, baby!”

...a split blade whose very tone of ring when clashed against an object can cause the clashed object to explode!

Luckily, Jack has good aim for his sword... so good, that it just blows Scaramouch away.

“Looks like you’re the headliner now; huh?”

Was...

...is...

...and always will be.

Before the end of the episode, we see the last of the 7 daughters’ training. The music here just rocks. Its long, harsh percussion and bass-blowing beats really drive all of the action in this sequence.

This shot has great animation and angles, where Ashi shows an opponent who’s boss as she grabs the 3rd arrow shot and kills her with it.

For more sensitive viewers, first note that this and the following shot are violent/bloody enough to earn the episode its “TV-14-V” rating “for some intense violence” (I’d think that “TV-PG-V” might fit it, since it’s not as strong as it could be). However, CN aired some “TV-14-V” rated movies on their “Action Flicks” block back in early 2009 (i.e. Batman: Gotham Night). That’s right: CN, not [adult swim]! Since, like, 2007 or 2008, they aired a lot of TV-PG rated cartoons like Teletoon’s edgy Total Drama franchise, Regular Show, MAD, Teen Titans Go!, and even The Tom and Jerry Show (though that one seems overrated). I can understand why they often rated certain programs TV-PG-V: even a kick or punch could be a bad influence if a kid was prone to imitating action (The G-rated Garfield’s Pet Force strangely earned this rating too). The point is that CN needs to air Samurai Jack Season 5 on, even if some of the episodes are bloody (only few deserve the TV-14-V rating IMHO). They might be able to cut EPISODE XCII down to a TV-Y7-FV, perhaps.

It’s nice to see that Darrick Bachman from Paul Rudish’s Mickey Mouse still served on this lovely season. He’s the head writer for the 5th season... and the upcoming video game Samurai Jack: Battle Through Time.

As a devote fan of “Cartoon Cartoons”, I personally point the sheet timers out since CN’s traditionally animated shows have lesser animation these days, namely SMIP-animated shows. I mean, that Robert Alvarez and Randy Myers did the “Sheet Timing” on this episode of Samurai Jack (animated by Digital eMation) and animation direction on Seasons 7-9 of The Powerpuff Girls (the “reboot” episodes, animated by SMIP). Compare the action sequences of both shows, and the animation/timing will stand out; unlike Samurai Jack, the 2016-2019 PPG episodes (like SMIP’s work on Infinity Train & Ben 10) usually lack weight in their rather gentle, slow-paced animation. Those PPG episodes animate not at all like The Powerpuff Girls Movie or any PPG episode where Genndy Tartakovsky directed.

Here’re some of the new people on Genndy’s team for Season 5: Susy Campos, Andy Flexner, Jackie Sheng and Dick Grunert. Production Assistants (or, in this case, maybe production coordinators) can turn into major creatives for the story or art of the show, so watch for those names in future CN Studios projects! Team Cartoon Network Studios rules!

This season’s prop design is in the hands of @heydusty​, who also contributed effects design and some character design / design clean-up. Dustin D’Arnault and others are new talent that live up to the work of Genndy Tartakovsky! The late and great Chris Reccardi returned, starting off with some prop designs as well. The design clean-up artists were also new to the team; these people clean the character, props and effects designs up after the respective designers did their designs, so they’re just as much designers as the designers listed. These “Clean Up” people are not to be confused for animation clean-up, however.

Next up are the background artists: “Layout Keys”/background designer Lou Romano (The Powerpuff Girls, Cats Don’t Dance, Ratatouille) and art director/Background Painter Scott Wills (The Ren & Stimpy Show, Quest for Camelot) bring the beautiful, colorful locations to life. Leticia Lacy, a former Spümcø member like Wills and Reccardi (and many other Cartoon Network Studios creatives), returned as a color stylist, who chooses the specific colors for the character, props and effects designed.

The voice credits are a bit lacking, since lesser characters are only listed as “ADDITIONAL VOICES”, compared to Seasons 1-4. This happened on Seasons 7-9 of The Powerpuff Girls too; i.e. Ms. Keane play supportive or minor roles in an episode, but Jennifer Hale is just credited as “ADDITIONAL VOICES”, though Keane is an important character to that series. Tara Strong is uncredited for voicing young Ashi since she only vocalizes--no lines. Greg Baldwin is in place of Mako as Mako passed away years before Season 5′s dialogue was recorded. Ultimately, though, Jack and his parents are still their respective voices, and it certainly is Phil LaMarr’s best.

Unlike Seasons 1-4, Genndy Tartakovsky himself served as the voice director; previously Colette Sunderman handled the voice direction. Aku may no longer be voiced by Mako, but Genndy was able to direct Greg Baldwin’s “Aku” voice himself. Robert Serda still served for engineering the dialogue recording equipment at CN Studios.

The score composers score with their super awesome hardcore score. Tyler Bates composed music for Genndy’s Sym-Bionic Titan (I can’t believe that I never watched that show when it aired). Joanne Higginbottom co-composes with Tyler on Primal. Dieter Hartman also contributed score on Samurai Jack Season 5. For this episode, no score mixer is listed. Music Editors are uncredited in this season.

The animation company on most episodes of Season 5 is Digital eMation, which looks much smoother than the designs in the digital animation of Rough Draft Studios (lines looks slightly blobby on close-ups). The animation directors credited on the series are generally the overseas animation directors; in Season 5 they’re listed on the end credits since they relate to the animation studio.

Regarding post-production, I was very happy to see Joel Valentine credited for “Sound Editing” (He used to prefer being credited by the name of his company “TWENTY FIRST CENTURY ENTERTAINMENT, INC.” AKA 21st CENTURY SOUND DESIGN CORP.). I was afraid that it would be like Dexter’s Laboratory Seasons 3-4 (or 5-6) and The Powerpuff Girls Seasons 7-9, where mixing studio Hacienda Post/Sabre Media would do the sound design, but luckily Joel was on it. This time, former Supervising Re-Recording Mixer Timothy J. Borquez, CAS is just a Re-Recording Mixer with Alex Borquez (former Hacienda mixer Eric Freeman moved to mixing and editing sound at Disney Television Animation in 2014); both Tim & Alex were Supervising Sound Editors and mixers on PPG’s reboot era. Also credited for the final mix is Taylor Pierce, then a Mix Assistant. Currently, Genndy’s shows credit Hacienda Post’s facility, Sabre Media Studios, Inc., as the “Audio Mixing Facility”, rather than referring to Hacienda/Sabre as Post-Production Sound Services (Joel Valentine/21st Century Entertainment is just as much a sound service, NOT just editing!). I’m not sure if any other editors are involved at Sabre/Hacienda, but someone was recording and performing foley for this show, and, due to time, they get no credit, which is a crime in my opinion since that brings the show to aural life. Paul Douglas remains as the Supervising Editor and Jim Hearn as the Dialogue Editor for CN.

The Cartoon Network Studios logo for this season was visually simple, as it was just the face reveal scene show inside the logo (CN tends to use episode clips more often than animatics these days). Joel Valentine fit the sound effects to this well, though, with the sounds of a sword (not the ones Joel tends to use) and an anime-like accent. As for the “reboot” PPG episodes, they just did something weird... (couldn’t they show, like, the Hanna-Barbera swirling star inside the CN Studios logo instead?! at least for nostalgia?)

The Williams Street logo ([adult swim]’s production company), complete with the Mark VII jingle, follows since it was produced for that often junky block of CN...

...but, on the digital copy prints, the 2016 Cartoon Network ID follows! Nostalgically, though, I prefer the 1999 “Cartoon Cartoons” ripple ID, which Samurai Jack and even PPG Seasons 7-8 used to show. I mind the 2016 ID on the PPG “reboot” episodes, but I mind it not on Samurai Jack because it proves that, while considered “Adult Swim”, the amazing Season 5 still remains a part of the “new new new new” era of Cartoon Network.

Any viewer of Samurai Jack could start with this episode as Jack’s adventures are just beetle bots here and Scaramouch there, occurring over few days. The other side of the episode, the youth of Ashi, occurs over probably years; this only sets the main events of Season 5 into action with the next episode.

As for me, I did all that I could with the streaming marathon of EPISODE XCII. It went on from, like, 10:48P or something until, like, 7:30A that morning. I couldn’t help but observe the episode again and again and again... I binged on it. I update the credits on IMDb. I tweet much about this episode and its team. By the end of over 8 hours of the episode’s stream, I felt that this was an appropriate response:

Before the end of this post, here’re reasons why EPISODE XCII is one of the best Samurai Jack episodes ever:

This “Cartoon Cartoon” returned after 12 years, 14 months and 5 days. According to Genndy’s forward on the Season 4 DVD, “The big question as we neared the end of production was, ‘Should we end the story and send Jack home?’ At the time, I felt that the proper way to end it would be to do a full-length movie - and still do. Hopefully, that movie is somewhere in the near future...” CN Asia-Pacific did this “Sayonara Samurai Jack” marathon for Season 4, but they were hasty, since the return came a dozen of years later, and Season 4 wasn’t the true end of the story. I feel the same about Disney Channel calling Star vs. the Forces of Evil Season 4′s finale “Cleaved!” the “series finale”, and both Daron Nefcy and fans look forward to more episodes in the future.

The nostalgic design and animation of Genndy’s Cartoon Network Studios team was something that the then-current Powerpuff Girls episodes were certainly lacking.

The action is just as intense and detailed as ever, with the right amount and style of music too. Perhaps even more wicked than before, though I miss “DJ Avalanche” James L. Venable, who wasn’t on it because he was busy with Clarence. Paul Rudish wasn’t on this season either, probably due to his hilarious vision of Mickey Mouse of course. Still, the stakes are high and handled well.

The precious moments of our little emoji-fawn family and the haunting fears of Samurai Jack are draaamaaa

The wonderful Scaramouch is our comic relief for the episode. Thanks, Tom Kenny!

“WATCH OUT!” There’s that classic closing to most of the episodes, just like we remembered it. The credits look just as simple as they looked before, too.

Next Episode’s Review

Tweet version here.

Tweet version as a shoutout to Tom Kenny & Greg Baldwin here.

[p101recaps]

Broduce 101: Episode 8 First Half (Quick Livestream Recap)

Since I missed the first half of the livestream, here’s a quick recap off the raw. I’ll link this to the second half recap too.

Before elimination heartbreaks, they’d served some fanservice to numb the pain with a bit from when BoA came to visit before position evals.

She brought them pizza! The boys had a collective breakdown of food appreciation, and we see a brilliantly photoshopped press picture of BoA holding up pizzas like an angel, like Kim Youjin clearly imagines.

Jung Jung, at the brink of tears: WHY IS IT SO DELICIOUS

They’re just happy to be around her, which is fully understandable. She does a little happy dance as they chant for her, and mingles with the trainees (there’s a nice shot of the Amazing Kiss group talking to her) before leaving them to their food.

Sidenote: the cameras always catch Noh Taehyun in the background, and he’s always unintentionally pulling the ugliest faces possible, unaware he’s in the shot.

Cube Chick Yoo Seonho is by far the happiest, putting away as much pizza as he could to compensate for only getting three meals a day at dorms. He’s obviously at that age where you eat everything in sight, it reminds me of my brother.

Cut to eliminations day and shots of tears. Okay, the warm and fuzzies have disappeared.

The trainees all do their entrance into the Ceremony Hall of Crowned Chairs.

Kim Donghan did a move from Shape of You, then a heart and wink combo.

Starship boys did something weird, ofc

Brand New trainees did the point choreo from Twice’s comeback song, Signal. Cute. 

My man Ong-ssi transitioned from a very stiff and formal bow to his high note meme face from Get Ugly

FNC Yoo Hwiseung did his lip-swipe

Cube chicks, whose backstage hwaiting needed to be redone three times for them to be in sync, did the Shugo Chara frame.

Pledis’ Nu’est boys did hearts and more Twice references.

Hashtag that Twice relevancy

Bae Jinyoung did the ear flapping move too

So did Maroo Park Jihoon. I suddenly miss Kwon Hyeob, seeing him up there alone.

ONO Moonbok, who looked ridiculously pretty btw - I hope they stick to styling him like this, did something that looked like Red Velvet’s Rookie or Lovelyz’s WoW, and held up his lovely hair in two pigtails. Adorable. The trainees were KO’d

Star Empire Takada Kenta looks more like a puppy than ever.

The Yuehua kids shot hearts and Ahn Hyungseob acted like he got hit by one

S.How trainees used their minimal screentime references - Namhyung did his finger to the lip with elevated pinky detail that had impressed Lee Seokhoon, while Dongsu did the plucking from the air bit from the Amazing Kiss stage.

MMO trainees, extra as always, integrated Auntie Jisung’s clapping move with Twice’s Signal. 

Baby maknae Lee Woojin did his meme face and finger heart from the Be Mine stage. A worldwide cutie.

C2K Kim Seonglee did finger hearts with the Very Very Very head bobbing

YGK+ Kwon Hyunbin tried a headstand before just rolling over like a cat in a blanket

Real Performers Ardor and Able Noh Taehyun and Ha Sungwoon did a finger point choreo before moonwalking off the stage in sync

RBW puppies referenced fallen trainee Dongmyung by doing his warm up flapping dance and hearts. 

Protect Them.

Tension building and then cut to concept evaluation song distributions.

They keep playing up the fact that Jihoon dropped ranks...are they egging the fangirls to have a flatout fight?

This way of arranging missions, with distributing trainees into teams and then shuffling after half of them leave is stupid and could be avoided if they split up the mission footage better. The show could fully have filler episodes between missions at this level of popularity so the vote timing and mission preparation could be allocated efficiently. 

Imagine working at a song and then having to start over a few days later. It’s ridiculous.

Songs are introduced by their producers. The viewers have been voting to match the songs to their favourite trainees for this mission. 

I’d said earlier that the idea was just going to incite some kind of fuckery, with fans not used to this amount of legitimate power. Sure enough, there was cheating involved so Kang Daniel, Lee Kiwon and Kim Dongbin were banned from their leaked song preferences.

Honestly, the cat emoji morse code was great. It’s one of my top controversies this season. 

First up is my personal favourite of the song concepts, I Know You Know, produced by heavyweight producer Joombas (who is famously responsible for Exo’s Growl, SHINee’s Dream Girl and also apparently worked with HOTSHOT). I’m all about the funky R&Bish vibe: not the kind of song that tops charts, but probably stays there a while. Watch this song be ignored though lol

Second is Oh Little Girl, a name even the producer draws quote marks around. This is the song for the hip-hop concept, and has a jazzy easy listening feel.

Next is Showtime, coming from a trio of newer or less popular producers. This seems catchy, but it sounds very familiar - not a song I’d remember. The choreo looks fun though, and they reference Dongmyung’s warm up! The trainees love it, cracking up as they mimic the move.

Fourth are another famous producer group, Devine Channel, who I believe do a lot of SM’s songs. They’ve also done a lot of very trendy title songs, including BTS’ Fire and VIXX’s The Closer. I think the English title for this song is Open? Correct me if I’m wrong. It sounds great, oddly like something I might have heard from Nu’est. I’m looking forward to this too, the choreo looks great.

Fifth song is from the producers that get the most hype, Hyuna’s new charity project from Cube, Triple H’s Never. Auntie Jisung decides he wants the song because Hyuna is involved, which, honestly, same. The EDM structure also feels overdone but I have a sneaking suspicion this is going to be the song that gets maximum hype since there’s no ballad.

Trainees get allocated their songs in envelopes and have to go to wait in separate practice spaces for the rest of their team.

Jaehwan doesn’t want to be in same team as Hyunbin, which I understand, considering that he’s had to carry him twice already. Like the other trainees, he wants to work with GodJonghyun. 

Pretty boys Bae Jinyoung, Park Jihoon and Ahn Hyungseob get sorted together. Maybe their fans have been working in sync. They also get excited puppy Gunhee, which means their vocals will be taken care of. 

Once the trainees all gather, their songs are revealed. Byun Hyunmin decides to rip the sticker for his room and accidentally pulls off the whole thing. 

Byun Hyunmin: :O

Noh Taehyun: Everyone, we’re not singing.

Hyunmin retries.

All the trainees: cAREFULLY 

The group gets Showtime, which was Samuel’s pick. He’s ecstatic.

Minhyun’s room has their sticker peel by Emperor Hwang to reveal Never, which pleases most of them. 

Park Jihoon’s room has a breakdown before Dongbin peels the sticker to show Oh Little Girl, a song I can see Sewoon do well in. The Yuehua trainees are all in this team too.

Moonbok has a braid in his lovely hair this segment, it looks fire emoji.

Hyunbin’s room has I Know You Know. Taedong, who has a lower range than the song needs, is nervous.

Baekho’s group gets Open, which most of the trainees are excited about. Seunglee in particular is relieved, since it was one of his picks. 

We go into centre struggles for the killing part.

Oh Little Girl has Jihoon battling Euiwoong and Minki. They all demonstrate, and vote Jihoon and Minki as their preferred centres. 

Euiwoong is getting worried. He’s one of the only initial popular trainees that seems to be dropping down ranks every week. Kahi gives him a much needed confidence boost at dance check in, and Don Mills praises him at vocal check in too.

Product placement break.

Open team wants a dance focus trainee as leader because of the high level choreo and elect Daniel, who now probably understands what he needs to do to lead his group after faltering last mission. 

But the team has so many people that they split into two halves while leaning choreo and one team falls behind since Daniel doesn’t split his attention between the two initially

Kahi calls them out on the distinction, with one group lagging while the first one does great. The second half, which has Park Sungwoo, who we know needs a lot of focused help, starts to catch up after the whole team gets scolded.

There are so many trainees in this team that won’t survive eliminations, oh god. 

Kim Seunglee, you deserve better.

Showtime group has a lot of strong singers. Woodam wants to be main vocal, and Yoo Hwiseung needs that vocal hype boost since his rank is risky too. 

Auntie Jisung: I want to try to do it too.

They start talking about the need for facial expressions and singing, Samuel wants to lowkey be centre. They need to have impact to bring the concept across, they decide.

Auntie Jisung: I still want to try though!

They ask the trainees to sing and do some face expression to pick centre and main vocal. Jisung and Samuel share centre while Woodam and Hwiseung share main vocal.

Coach Shin Yumi likes Hwiseung’s control over the notes better. He’s a lot more stable than Woodam, maybe because his natural tone is stronger?

Yoo Hwiseung gets some screentime for the first time.

Far out, Mnet. You really annoy me.

Never team has Ha Sungwoon being worried about being in a team with high ranking trainees, most of who want to be centre. 

They all battle with facial expressions but the trainees vote for Guanlin and Minhyun as centre.

At dance check in with Dabbing Ajusshi Kwon Jaesung, however, Sungwoon is the first one to volunteer to dance. 

He gets some well deserved praise for it, which honestly, the kid needs. Being in a group of trainees that are all popular is awful enough, but he’s a true all rounder. Without enough screentime or helpful editing, he’s been fading despite being good looking and a consistent performer. 

More product placement.

I Know You Know team has the underdog feel straight up, with the lower ranking trainees. I called the song as not being the kind to be popular.

Appealing time for the centre spot. RBW Hwanwoong stands out. Ah, my heart. Donghan and Hwanwoong get centre.

Dance check in with Kahi has her appreciating their hard work. Hyunbin’s dancing seems to have improved, I guess being cyber bullied has that effect on you. She also thinks Hwanwoong is a good centre choice, which is some well deserved praise. 

Tears and mournful instrumentals are abound as the low ranking trainees recount their experience before for upcoming eliminations. We get flashbacks for some of them, which should prepare you for what’s coming.

We all know where this is heading. The rest of the recap can be found here.