Interesting voting preliminary results.
Namu Wiki has a nice table with the added total and the average votes per day. Curious how they are gonna implement the individual voting. Redemption arc seems to be still strong with the Koreans, à la Kaeun, with Yujin cell topping the Korean voting. Power trio of Xiaoting, Youngeun and Yurina in second is slightly surprising, but I guess Ruiqi and Hikaru are more popular to international fans. Yeseo, Mashiro and Xingqiao cell in 3rd. Internationally Ruiqi cell coming first followed by Yujin cell and Youngeun cell. If you go by Korean votes alone only one cell changes from the elimination cut off which is Jia cell bouncing out Sein cell. By international votes Chaeyun cell loses their spot to Bora's cell. So no huge differences between eliminated cells. The ranking themselves aren't too dissimilar too, mostly different at the middle. We'll see a clearer picture with the individual voting and when they eventually ditch the cell format.
Bahiyyih cell coming in 5th both with Korean and international voting. As I said before inflating youtube numbers is way easier than committing to voting daily even if it's free. Still very popular but not runaway with it popular as the numbers made it look like it would be. Looking at her cell those votes are all hers so maybe if she had a few more popular members maybe she comes in first. The cells ahead of her have at least 2 popular girls.
Some people are already overreacting and anointing girls as locks. I still think it's too early and a lot can and will happen. Granted a lot of girls maintain popularity throughout the show and I feel like girls like Yujin, Ruiqi, Hikaru, Xiaoting and Yurina need to really tank in some way to drop out. But I'm not so sure about girls like Yeseo and Youngeun. There is already push back for Yeseo in both Korean and international communities. She seems to be the odd one out of Mnet's favorites that a portion of fans aren't accepting unlike Yujin and co. Her cell still got a lot of votes in both spheres, but I can see her ranking dropping if more people gain interest in the show and the volume of votes increases. Youngeun had a good performance, but I don't know yet if she solidified her own personal fans that would be carried when individual votes decide ranking. Right now she figures to me as one of those girls everyone likes but isn't their top pick.
From the girls I'm following only one is in elimination range in Ito Miyu, which was expected. She didn't perform particularly well and her performance got cut from the show along with a not so popular cell. The small hype she got on Korean communities before the show not enough to push her into staying so far, and I don't see the masters saving her. A lot of girls that caught my eye in the elimination range though and a lot of talented girls. We'll see how things shape up next episode, but we are inevitably losing a lot of good girls.
Not too happy they wasted so much screen time fishing for drama with the part distribution bit. I would much rather they showed more training than that. They showed not a single trainer helping the girls out aside from the interim performance check too. It would just jump from you looked bad on the check and with no practice shots they just got "better" for the performance or the opposite. These girls aren't producers, they aren't fully equipped to properly judge and decide who is best for what position for the best performance. That's why I like Bae Yoonjeong, she not only taught and monitored their dancing she would also guide the girls on what was best for their performance by changing parts and diagnosing problems. Granted some teams didn't heed her advice but at least she gave them constructive criticism. We didn't get to see any footage of trainers helping the girls so maybe they did but just didn't show, and I would have liked to have seen that rather than 5 mins of who wants to do what part but didn't get it. Also the editing to force narratives is typical Mnet. Not even gonna get into that cause at this point it's so overdone it's just exhausting to even comment.
The dance battle thing also feels so forced and formulaic. The reward for winning isn't a huge deal so I'm not really gonna waste time on the judging. It's just so obvious they are trying to force viral videos of girls that are supposed to be great dancers when the original one were much more natural. Not to mention the format is such a mess. I would have traded the first 45 mins of this episode for the girls interacting with each other like the self-shot relay cam, more training and practice footage and the audition performances preparation and dorm.
Sadly the full version they put up on youtube is not single camera full body shot so really hard to judge. Team "The Ones You want to See" has 3 good vocalists in Hyerim, Moana and Chaehyun that made the performance sound pleasing. Along with Yiman, Yuling and Chiayi who seemed pretty decent too before and in this and Jiwon and Ayana that also more than held their own. Sumomo is probably the weakest link vocally, but she didn't make any major mistake and was the 7th vocalist. Hyerim had a mistake right at the start but did well the rest of the song. A few girls had breathing problems here and there, mainly Ayana and Yiman. Moana had at least a couple I noticed too. Overall a very pleasing sounding performance. I know there is probably some software magic to correct some stuff, but I can't really worry about that since we are never hearing it. The dance isn't too challenging and everyone seemed to pull it off well enough. Ayana and Yuling had a bit awkward expressions. Everyone else did decently well. The best ones being Jiwon and Chaehyun imo expressions wise. I'd say Chaehyun impressed me the most this stage. Sang really well and had great expressions. After her I'd say Moana. Also sang well, had some good expressions, still needs to fix her breathing while singing and dancing at the same time though. After that I'd say Jiwon, Hyerim and Chiayi did similarly well. Hyerim for her mistake at the start and her expressions could have been better. Chiayi and Jiwon did well most of the song a few off singing parts for both, but not to the level of Moana and Chaehyun. Yiman was just a small step below. Had a nice voice and sang well, but a few mistakes here and there. Yuling, Sumomo and Ayana did well for their parts but still not quite polished with a few more mistakes to iron out. A pretty good performance. I thought they managed to fit the energy of the song. The edit made the process seem very hard and didn't really show how they fixed it. Makes me wonder if it was just editing forcing the issue or if they just cut a lot of practicing and correction the girls did.
The practice edit for team Energy Bar is exactly why the cell elimination is a horrible idea. Sein is still a kid that is pretty lost in this competition. She is young so it's fine for herself if she doesn't make it she has a lot of time to make it in another group after the show, but Wenzhe is one of the oldest members, already debuted, can't really afford to miss out on the double point chance, even if only for 24 hours. It isn't really Sein's fault that she is just a kid that can't focus it's just her personality and age. Wenzhe might have been eliminated either way if it was solo, and they might even not be eliminated now considering they are just at the cutoff to surviving for now, but at least it would have been fairer if she was eliminated for her own lack of popularity rather than a possible victim of a weak cell. It also creates unnecessary drama and possible fighting, which I'm sure Mnet loves. Anyhow it's another team they made it seem like the preparation was hell, but somehow magically performed and the world didn't fall apart without showing us how they actually got to that point.
This team is vocally weaker than the first one. Outside of Ziyin they don't really have another good vocalist. Sein has a nice voice and shows promise but she isn't there yet. Ririka did her best, and did better than on Fancy but still has some improving needed. Risako sounded the third best to me. Wenzhe fit in better as the 2nd vocal here than she did as a main vocal. She did well but still has some parts that could be better. Doah and Momoko managed their parts well enough. Cheukying first part was a bit off but she recovered on her later parts. Chaeyun didn't sound bad but was more amateurish. Again didn't notice anyone stand out poorly dancing a fairly straight forward choreography. Expression wise, Sein still hasn't improved much. Momoko and Ziyin look a bit awkward. Chaeyun had a cute confused smile that I don't think matches the song really. Cheukying, Ririka and Wenzhe had decent expressions. Doah and Risako were probably the best at it, although I do agree with some people that Doah overdid hers a bit in the intro. The girls did decently well considering their skill levels. No one stood out to me like Chaehyun did on team 1. My top performers would be Doah and Risako on this team. Zyin was the best singer but her expressions were lacking. Everyone else did pretty similar if you average out their short comings and strengths. Maybe Chaeyun a bit below everyone else. I do agree team 1 deserved the win, but they were more stacked with talent to begin with imo.
I can't really tell if what the judges said about Hidden Card team being faster than the song was right or not. Didn't sound off to me. I thought they did a pretty good job. Xinyu had a pretty pleasing voice. Seungeun and Miu also sounded good. The three made a big mistake going off-pitch in the middle of the song though. A shame because they were doing real well. Jia did a good job with her rap. Dayeon and Tzulin did well, but lacked more impact. Moka's parts were really short. She lacked a bit of energy on her first but did fine on her second. Rinka did sang very well. Tammy did a good job with her parts too. I couldn't notice anyone looking out of place or making mistakes in the dance. It took me a couple days to write this and the individual cams came out in the meantime. I'll watch those later and see if my opinion changes. I thought both Rinka and Jia killed it with their expressions. Miu and Seungeun did a nice job but were a little bit off. Xinyu had a variety of expressions some good but some not like she was struggling to find the right tone of the stage. Tzulin was similar but less severe. Her good expressions weren't as good but her awkward ones also weren't as awkward. Tammy couldn't really capture the feel of the song at any point that I saw. Dayeon and Moka did fine with their expressions but didn't stand out to me. This stage wasn't nearly as bad as they made it sound in the show to me. Rinka dand Jia absolutely stood out and did a great job. The big issue is the very clear vocal mistake in the middle that sticks out like a sore thumb. But after that no one lost composure and they finished the performance well. It's kind of sad how the show and masters are focused so much in the Korean contestants they didn't even mention how well Rinka did. Why even bring trainees from other countries honestly just make the show only Koreans or trainees in Korea and nobody would complain.
Plan Girls didn't have the big mistake like Hidden Card but I thought the performances weren't that far apart. Xia Yan absolutely killed her part. Amazing job. I was pleasantly surprised by Youngeun singing. She also did a great job. Cai Bing did a good job with her rap, and so did Yeongyung but was a bit less impactful. May sang well within her limitations. Yurina and Yujin also sang well enough but neither really stands out. Vivienne had the same part as Moka on the other team and did a similar job. Was ok but lacked a bit of energy. Xiaoting sang well but had a couple breathing issues. Again when I watch the individual cams it'll be easier to comment about their dance. Aside from the Cai Bing mistakes at the start and a couple of May's moves looking off-beat it was hard to see anyone doing particularly well or poorly. Xia Yan also killed it with her expressions. From this group I think she was the only one who nailed it. Xiaoting didn't quite express the proper feelings imo. Neither did Youngeun or Yurina. Vivienne couldn't really capture the song much too. Yeongyung had the second best expressions after Xia Yan. Not quite as fierce but a good job. Yujin and May looked a bit too cute and innocent for the arrogant vibe the song has. My issue with Cai Bing expressions continues. If you take away her eyes she doesn't do much, and even then if her eyes weren't so unique it wouldn't look as good because she doesn't do much with them either. At the end because of the big mistake Hidden Card had and how this team didn't have as big a mistake I'd also give them the win. The issue is it never felt like the other team had a chance and if it weren't for their mistake I would have given it to them. This team has some big favorites of the show in Yujin, Cai Bin and Yurina. It felt like even if the other team had killed their performance which they very nearly did they wouldn't win anyway. Overall I thought team Hidden Card had better vocals, stage presence and standout performers. Xia Yan matched Rinka and Jia, Youngeun matched Xinyu, but no one matched Miu and Seungeun without the mistake. Dayeon was also a step above Yeongyung. Vivienne and Moka did a pretty similar job.
One thing I'd like to say about the judges and us evaluating the performances. It's a very different beast to do it live without the benefit of re-watching several times a performance. It's so easy to miss stuff or let your inherent biases induce you into a certain opinion. It's very hard and no one is perfect at it. That is exactly why I think the more people do the judging live the better because you can mitigate those factors. Granted live audience isn't perfect or possible because of the pandemic and how it's usually just a popularity test, but I do feel like just the masters judging lacks something. Even with the girls voting for the performances too, they also have their own internal biases and motivations not to mention they are all probably mentally exhausted from preparing for the performances.
It's worth noting too that normal K-pop groups don't have to go through this when they debut. Sure when they are training and being picked to debut or not by their company they go through this much scrutiny, but once you debut people are not judging your dance, singing and stage presence like hawks. They just watch you and enjoy the stage. Sure there will always be haters that will criticize, but it will be way less people and your fans won't do it. Not saying it's a wrong thing we do for the show, because the benefit they get from these performances is huge and I think it's only fair to the girls if they get judged by their performance and skill fairly since they put so much work for it. My point is the stresses and demand of this show is different from the stress and demand for when you debut. A lot of active groups if put through this type of analysis would come out with similar criticism. So when we point out the flaws on someone's performance it isn't saying they can't be a girl group member, just a current evaluation of that performance specially in relation to everyone else on the show.
I feel the need to say this because a lot of K-pop fans specially on social media have this elitist fake notion that K-pop is only about talent and that you don't "deserve" to debut unless you are a perfect singer/dancer, when in fact it's about marketing and selling yourself. Yes your skills are part of that but not the only part. Just because someone isn't a main vocal or main dancer doesn't mean they can't debut.