The editing was kind of weird for me. They started a few storylines and just awkwardly dropped it or never even mentioned again. Maybe it was just coincidence but it sure does feel like they decided to pick on the Chinese members. A lot of bad edits and criticism I don't necessarily think was worthy.
Starting with Xingqiao and the All About You team. I didn't really think the way the trainer scolded her was necessary. I do get that sometimes you feel people aren't taking things seriously enough but I don't think that was the case there. They only had 1 day before the "interim" check so her messing up wasn't an egregious mistake and to me felt more like a light hearted "I can't believe I messed that up". She ended up doing fine on the performance, and maybe it was because of his comments and she took practice more seriously after that, but it's impossible to know without being there and maybe she would have done fine regardless. The way it came off to me on screen was more needlessly authoritative than a reality check that he wanted it to be. I did think at one point it sounded like she was straining her voice a bit, but after listening to it again it was less obvious. Her and Yeyoung are pretty good vocalists and both did well. I do think Yeyoung did better though. She sounded very good and it's nice that she got to show her biggest strength. Miu did fine herself but it's clear she doesn't have the same quality as the other two.
I agree with the trainers when they said the concept didn't really match their expressions on the interim check. But again only 1 day to practice so not a big deal their performance wasn't fully fledged. Also I think this is the exact point of the check, or at least should be in my mind. As I said before the girls aren't producers and shouldn't be judged as such so the trainers taking a look at what they have done and advising them on how to improve and what to change is the best way of doing it. It shouldn't really be portrayed as the girls failing because this is the natural process of making a performance. No one gets it right first time even pros and you constantly have to reevaluate and adjust things. One thing though is I was expecting them to change the lyrics considering their concept, but it doesn't look like they did. It isn't a big deal, but the original lyrics don't quite fit the story they came up with. I do like the rock instrumental way more than the original more electronic ones. It's a matter of preference though since I enjoy rock and don't particular care for electronic music. During the performance I still think their expressions were a bit mixed. Some times they had the scorned girlfriend look others they had a more standard seductive look. It's a minor mistake because they weren't expressionless just fluctuated on the kind of concept they were portraying. I thought Mashiro first rap/singing part was a bit too dry but she bounced back right after and did a great job. It's interesting that you can see her slip and lose her balance a little in her solo cam and the single cam versions but they aren't in the version that aired in the show. Just your standard reshooting for the solo cams for youtube so not a big deal just a unique tidbit. Yaning also did pretty well. I was specially pleased with her singing. Jiwon also did very well. I liked her rap the best of the 3.
VVS is one of the songs that I don't quite agree they should have chosen. I get why they did it, it was super popular and it's from another flagship survival show by Mnet, but it's a pretty generic from rags to riches flaunting money rap song. It doesn't have a vibe that really matches the girls or most girl groups. Not to mention as I've said before they don't really need 2 rap only songs, and at least We Are had a theme that fit better. Anyhow the narrative the editors decided to take was pretty much ragging on Jiao. I don't know what happened but there are several reasons she needed to go to the bathroom so much and if you believe her sister and the people translating her stuff she was sick. At the time I was watching I wondered what was up with her, because it could 100% be her feeling unwell or being too nervous, neither of which I think is some heinous mistake. Her wanting to practice alone I get but also do agree might not be for the best. I understand she probably felt lacking and wanted to work more on her rap, but we see this in idol survival shows all the time and team work is more important and getting the whole performance down is better than using time for group practice on solo stuff. Also not a huge mistake that should bring her any hate, but imo definitely a mistake. I think this team had communication problems, because all this could have been solved with a proper sit down and let's get our priorities straight, at which point Jiao could say she is sick and they could convince her group practice is better. It's to be expected they couldn't communicate though because you have three very young girls that don't speak each other's languages and by what it looks from the footage they show us with basically non-existent adult or trainer support. Unless they are cutting out a lot of stuff it doesn't seem like they have anyone around to help the girls aside from the interim check and the practice on the performance day. The fact the girls still manage to make decent and some great performances is very impressive considering what it seems to be. Anyhow it was a pretty weak performance saved for Kotone. She did a great job, was the only one who actually pulled off their concept of "I'm not cute anymore I'm fierce" and her lyrics were the best of the three. Mentioning her lack of screen time and how it would be a shame if she were eliminated when she has so much to show. I'm not gonna kill the other two because again they aren't rappers and they are still very young. Jiao and Chaeyun still looked too cute trying to pull off this concept. Chaeyun skrr skrr was very much like your younger sister trying to pretend she is a rapper. Jiao was also very shaky rapping. Not a great performance, but again they are cute kids who are 17, 17 and 15 at the time of the performance, with Chaeyun turning 16 today. It's impressive that Kotone managed to pull it off and not a surprise Jiao and Chaeyun didn't.
The difference in tone and approach to the mistakes team My Sea committed was very clear and a little bit sad. Why couldn't they have done the same to the other groups? Anyway it was a pretty strong performance by the girls. They are almost all very good vocalists so that made the song very pleasing to listen to. It's a shame Jiyoon couldn't pull off her high note. We know she can do it and for some reason, be it nervousness or being in a bad condition, she couldn't do it in the performance, and that's unfortunate. She did well with her parts though aside from that mistake. The stand out was clearly Chaehyun. Her part fit her voice and skills perfectly and she knocked it out of the park. We'll see if she maintains her top 2 spot because even though she has a good following she is right at the edge of it. Ziyin also did very well, as did Shana and Yiman. All very good vocalists. Shihona is the odd one out. Even though she did perfectly fine with her parts you can tell her voice is a bit more limited. Nothing to be ashamed though, you have what you have and she didn't hold anyone back during the performance and diligently did her job well. A very strong performance and I would say they would have competed for best performance were it not for the mistake Jiyoon made.
I also think the Yale thing was blown out of proportion. They had 1 day to get things ready for the interim check it's not a huge mistake they weren't perfect specially considering they were trying something more different than the original. It looks like they talked it out and in the end everything worked out fine. Youngeun stood out on this performance. I already knew she could sing well because of the How You Like That performance but she showed some pretty nice techniques. Yale also a good singer did way better on her natural habitat. Sang well, but I was surprised she didn't stand out more and above Youngeun. Ayana did her part well, but still lacking a bit. Not a surprise because of her age and I assume she had very little vocal training if any not being a trainee from a kpop company. They did pretty well and all the drama was all for naught.
Now the big doozy. Salute team and the Cai Bing drama. I won't kill the girl just yet because I don't speak mandarin and don't really trust the mnet translators or the random twitter people that have no proof and are very biased. All I'll say is if there isn't some very big stuff lost in translation and the meaning of what she said is really how they portrayed it I think it's a case of the difference between a boss and a leader. She acted like a boss and not a leader. I get it if she wanted to move on fast and continue practice to improve but that isn't a great way of approaching it. It's another communication problem. I think she missed the point of what her position is supposed to be. It's not about making the choices and ruling with an iron fist it's more about making sure everyone is working together and that the performance comes out the best they can possibly make it. There really wasn't enough time for this to have affected the voting this elimination and I believe she is still very popular but next elimination it's going to be the real test specially considering they reset the votes. We'll see how many people that voted for her were her actual fans and will stick by her after this or were voting for her along with other people they liked because they had some small affinition for her. What the trainers said about her dancing though is how I felt since day 1. She isn't a particularly impressive performer. I was surprised when the trainers picked her for the first top 9 and praised her How You Like That performance. Having said all that in the end their performance was one of the best. Everyone did well and all I have are small nitpick stuff. I would put the girls in 4 tiers. Tier 1 is Jia and Risako. I agree with the trainers they both killed this performance and stood out the most with their dance and stage presence. I'm happy they decided to highlight more than one girl this mission because girls that do very well like Risako got no screen time last mission and now they at least mentioned her a few times. Tier 2 is Chiayi, Hyerim, Hana and Moka. I think all 4 did very well on their parts but didn't stand out as much. Tier 3 is where the nitpick starts it's Cai Bing and Doah. They both danced well, and ironically for Cai Bing it was her best performance imo. She still looked a bit stiff at times though. Doah danced well but her dance lacks a little bit of detail, not bad by any means just not main dancer material. Tier 4 is Luofei. You can see how talented this team is but she was in my view the clear weakest dancer. Was off beat a few times and looked a bit more stiff than anyone else in the group. She still danced well enough but not to the same level as everyone else. In the end after all the drama Cai Bing didn't get up with Luofei so they must have resolved it somehow. I don't know if the editors played up the drama for the show and it was just one day of arguing because in the end their performance didn't really suffer at all.
Team Fate was a bit weird watching for me. Not because of their performance but because of the reactions from the other girls. I get that the concept they ended up going with was touching and directly related to every girl there, but it was a dance performance and they didn't change the lyrics. It's very hard to be moved by a dance performance and many people can never be that emotionally impacted by dance alone. I don't know how they got all those girls to cry. It felt very weird and out of place to me. Kind of immersion breaking because it made me wonder if they staged it somehow. Specially the girls that don't speak Korean. I know the song is very emotional and I myself enjoy it very much, but not to the point of tears. I guess it could be natural if they are all very involved in the whole story the girls wanted to tell and if they actually told them what it was. Still it felt very strange to see a lot of crying for modern dance. The issues with choreographing the song was also another symptom of 1 day to prepare and the girls not being producers. In the end everything worked out and I liked how the dance trainer advised them better than how Onestar(vocal trainer) did to some of the trainees. It was a very good performance and everyone did very well. Modern dance is harder to judge because everything is interpretative but no one looked stiff or shaky. Everyone had good expressions too that fit the theme of the song.
This time I agree with the masters choices. If you ignore the drama and focus only on the performance Salute team was better than Ice Cream. They did have the more talented girls though so it isn't surprising and Ice Cream team did well themselves. Team Fate had the cleanest and most balanced performance of the 6 person teams. Maybe if Jiyoon had nailed her high note they could contend but she didn't and team Missing You didn't make any mistakes but some girls were clearly ahead of others skill wise. Same with In the Morning team. They were the most balanced team. No Excuses team did well but not quite as impactful and both My House team and All About You team had one member not quite at the same level. Out of the three winners I would be fine with anyone winning. Unlike the first mission in which The Eve team was clearly better than everyone else this mission performances were more even all around. My personal pick would be In the Morning because I felt they picked a different concept than the original and delivered very well. Team Fate take is more of what groups usually do with the song and Salute was pretty straight forward the original take. But whichever standard you use to decide a winner between those 3 I'd be fine with.
Creation mission is gonna be fun. Original songs are always fun to me because you get to see the girls figure out what kind of image they want to put out without having to worry about following or not something that already exists.
As far as top 9 goes I can see a few changes. They reset the votes and we have some more episodes for people to pick new favorites and get interested in different people. I don't expect a huge shake up though. Elimination wise they showed Xinwei, Kotone and Dayeon right at the cutoff. I can see Xinwei staying were she is and being eliminated because they really haven't focused on her much after the initial memey focus they gave her for her goofy personality. Dayeon I can see making the cut she got a pretty good edit and her episode aired first. Kotone could have gotten a bump is her performance was aired first but she was on the second group of performances so even though she did a great job it was only with one day left in the voting.
Going by the first voting results the girls that would be eliminated were on C group: Tammy, Cheukying, Luofei, Zige, Nancy, Xinyu, Yale, Chiayi, Wenzhe and Jiao. We've seen Xinwei out of the surviving top 8 and my best guess on who took her place is Wenzhe given how much spot light she got for the planet pass. I can see Yale also getting a bump after her fans rallied because of the edit she got, and if she does Yiman probably gets knocked out. I don't think anyone did anything to gain or lose popularity much at least for this voting period maybe next voting we see some repercussions. If that happens you have a few candidates for planet pass. I would say Yiman, Tammy, Chiayi and Xinyu all have equal claim to it. Maybe Chuekying has an outside shot but I don't think she showed enough for the masters to pick her. It's a tough one but I would pick Chiayi. Not sure who the masters would pick. Maybe Yiman.
The J group who were in elimination range going by the first voting are: Hana, Moka, Ayaka, Moana, Risako, Ruan, Kotone, Shihona, Reina and Ayana. We know Kotone moved up to 9th but that is still in the elimination range. Maybe Miu falls from 8th, maybe not. Hard to tell not much happened with the Japanese girls to change popularity. Mainly the already popular girls got screen time. Ririka is getting a bit more attention from fans on social media and forums but she was 5th last voting so it wouldn't be surprising if she isn't eliminated now. Manami got a good edit but she was 7th, so same case. Maybe Reina makes a push, but she got very little focus even though she was the best on her team. Kotone did great but as I mentioned above it aired to late to make an impact. Same with Risako. If we say Miu loses her place to Kotone or Reina the planet pass can change a lot. If Reina doesn't make I think she gets it. If she does make it I think it's a toss up between Kotone and Risako. Moana has an outside shot at it, but I don't think the masters have taken note of her. I would pick Reina if he gets eliminated and would be fine with any of the three I mentioned if Reina stays in. Maybe a little edge to Moana because I know she can sing and dance from pre-show clips, while I don't know how good a singer Risako or Kotone are.
K group girls were: Hyerim, Hyewon, Jeongmin, Chaeyun, Jiyoon, Yeyoung, Bora, Jiwon, Jia and Myah. We know Dayeon fell to 9th at the mid point of voting. If we say Myah took her place I don't see anyone else dropping out. Maybe Suyeon and Jia takes her place, but Suyeon got a good edit and performed well, so it's hard to see her losing popularity. Jiwon got 90k points, but I don't think that will be enough to push her to or above 8. If we say Myah makes it over Dayeon the planet pass is a big fight for this group. You have Dayeon, Hyerim, Jeongmin, Jiyoon, Yeyoung, Bora, Jia and Jiwon all who could easily deserve it. I don't think they give it to Hyerim again specially considering how low she ranked. Onestar really gave Yeyoung huge praise but I don't know if the osther masters agree with him. Dayeon has a lot of support from the PD at least. Jia seems to be appreciated by all the trainers. really tough choice. I would personally pick Jeongmin because I like her performance a lot and I don't think she got the spotlight. But all those girls are very talented and would be an absolute worthy choice. I think in the end of the day the masters pick Jia.
We have 5 episodes left and I think they will go with the PD48 schedule of the original song elimination then final performance with 2 teams. We are gonna have 27 girls left. On pd48 they went down to 30 then to 20. Since they are going for the whole in 3s thing I think they keep it just one more elimination and just do top 9 regardless of group debut. So maybe they go down to 18 girls for the last mission and 2 groups of 9. They have been hammering down the 9 thing so I don't think they are going to do the producer pick like they did for I-Land and they discontinue the planet pass at least for the final debut ranking maybe even this next elimination.
It's a shame and a waste that Bora, Hyerim and Moana didn't perform a vocal position. None of them had much of a choice picking near the bottom. Moana might have chosen to dance even if she picked higher but I would like to see what she could do with a vocal performance.
It's interesting that SM let Chaehyun and Jeongmin go. Looking at Aespa concept I get it, but I think you could do a pretty strong vocal group with the two. It's a what could have been kind of case.
Biscuit entertainment has some pretty solid base too with Yume, Risako and Youngeun. If Youngeun makes it to the final group it's hard to tell what they are gonna do but if she just misses it they could debut a pretty well rounded group with those 3. It all depends on who else they have as trainees, but they already have 3 very good performers. If only talent guaranteed anything in Kpop they would have a blockbuster on their hands. Sadly way too many super talented groups live in nugudom so they need some luck and good concept choices.
A bunch of survival shows are popping up. The variety oriented boy group from MBC. The MBC girl group will air in November. Supposedly there is a Hybe gg in the works, a Source Music gg, Baby Monsters, JYPn, etc. There is also a question if I-Land girl version will happen. The market continues to be saturated. It's going to be interesting to see what happens in the future. Competition will not be lacking. There is also Wonyoung and Yujin group.
Looks like we are getting close to a generation change too with Red Velvet contract coming up, Twice contract, GFriend already no longer with their company. It's gonna be interesting to see if the already debuted groups take over like ITZY or if it's gonna be new groups taking over. Blackpink is focusing more on solo work for now and they already didn't come out with new songs frequently. Aespa seems to be on the rise, Stayc seems to be doing well. Oh My girl and WJSN are gonna be the wild cards. They are just a tier bellow the top girl groups but doing well and could either continue growing when the big groups promote less/disband or lose ground to the new comers. A very intriguing time for Kpop ggs. I think there will be an audience to be had just have no idea who is going to take it. I don't think kpop is going to lose steam any time soon so there will be gap that someone is going to fill. Could be GP999 girls, could be someone else.
Also will be interesting to see if Mnet pushes for a Boys Planet or if they go new IP. They will for sure make a boy group survival show within the next year, but what kind of branding they will use is the question.
she was half the reason I watched this show