#produce48

It’s performance day. Fans are lined up, excited to see their favorites perform. 

The girls are getting ready…. Ready for some product placement, that is! All I know is that I want those colored contacts lenses and Subway sandwiches that come in those really cute neoprene bags. 

I did some digging (thank you, auto translation in Google Chrome) and apparently these bags were a pretty big hit when they came out in 2018. I wonder if any of the girls still have theirs? I would treasure mine! As the blogger of that link wrote, "Look at the avocado's solemn face! They're so cute they give me a headache."

Anyway, back to the show.

Lee Seungki comes out on stage and is greeted by an auditorium of screaming fans. He explains the rules -- each of two teams will perform the same song, and then the audience will vote for the single trainee amongst all the girls who deserves their vote. And then… it’s showtime! … Kinda. 

As you know if you’ve watched these shows before, what is going to happen is that we’re going to call the groups up on stage, and then we’re going to watch an extended flashback package about their experience getting ready for the performance before we finally get to kind of see the performance itself. I say "kind of" since the MNET edit will be almost completely intolerable.

To introduce the first group (though I get the feeling they didn't actually perform first), Seungki says, “Which girl group comes to your mind when I mention innocent looks and powerful dance moves?” And the whole auditorium is like, “yeoja chingu!” (G-friend). So out come the Love Whisper teams.

The two groups come out and introduce themselves as “Never Give Up” and “Giant Baby”, respectively. Kang Damin from "Giant Baby" -- who you may know as the Kawaii Avengers -- starts in on the smack talk, saying that they’re cuter than the other team. Gravel-voiced Yamada Noe says, in English, “But! My team is powerful!” In the judging room, Dance Bae says that Noe is so funny it makes her happy. Soyou replies, “But her singing skills…”

And we cut back to the flashback (1:38:45 - 1:47:04). 

Just to remind you of who is who in group Never Give Up:

Left to right:

Son Eunchae, 18, future member of Bugaboo, who moved up from C to B and is ranked 85th. She’s the leader and we'll be seeing a lot of her here.

Wang Ke, 17, a Chinese girl who had the red polka dots in Celeb Five, moved down from B to D and is ranked 33rd. She’s the center and is easy to spot since she's the tallest. She will also get a lot of story focus.

Nagano Serika, 17, who auditioned with Mister by Kara, has lived in F class and is ranked 81st.

Yamada Noe, 18, with her gravelly voice, moved from C down to F and is ranked quite high in 9th place. 

Muto Tomu, 23, the chooser of this group, a D class mainstay and ranked 28th. She actually seems to have a lot of personality but we hardly get to know her.

Ichikawa Manami, 18, with the shorter hair, from What's Your Name?, rose from F to C, currently ranked 83rd. She’s currently the main vocal by default, since no one else wanted to do it.

The story so far: Tomu’s team basically cannot sing. Noe cannot make sounds come out of her mouth, and others aren’t much better. Of the group, it seems that Manami is actually the best singer -- she physically can hit the high notes. We were left wondering: Can they sing this song?

We cut to their vocal lesson. It’s going really, really poorly. Soyou is looking like this…

.. then asks them to turn off the music. She says she doesn’t know if she can even help them, that it’s even worse than a middle school talent show, which is true, but even so. Hey, Soyou, what the fuck? Teach them to sing. Get Jeremy in here or something, because it’s not helpful to just insult them. They’re bad singers. Noted. Now help them. 

Eunchae feels bad that as leader she hasn’t done a better job of helping her team, but her team is a bunch of girls who cannot sing. I mean, what can anyone do? 

Poor Manami tries again, and a few notes in, she gives up, shaking her head. “Manami-chan,” Soyou says, more gently. “Why are you the main vocalist?” Manami just shakes her head. Poor kid. I think that it’s kind of obvious how Manami ended up the main vocal, Soyou. Be nice. Soyou asks Wang Ke to try, and she does. Wang Ke sounds pretty awful to me too, but Soyou seems to think Ke is better. 

Manami interviews that she is determined to do her best as main vocal, but Eunchae, who is trying to be a good leader, announces in pigeon Kor-pan-glish, that they need to change who the main vocal is. She asks Manami-san if she’s daijobu (ok), but Manami-san is definitely NOT daijobu. She spent a lot of time memorizing her part -- the song is in Korean, which she does not speak -- and she is gutted that all that time was wasted. Not to mention that she’ll have to learn new lyrics. Eunchae feels awful too. And Wang Ke feels awful too, that she’s not good enough to be main vocal. She’s willing to do it, though, if it will help the group. Everyone feels awful. 

Ke does her best, and then ends up crying in a closet. 

She’s full on sobbing, but the staff just jams a camera in there to investigate, and the poor kid has to summon up enough Korean to explain herself (remember, she’s Chinese, so every part of this has to be 2x as stressful and difficult for her than it would be for anyone else). Everyone’s crying, and Eunchae feels like she let everyone down. The situation is so dire that the other team (the Kawaii Avengers) even comes over to investigate. 

Poor Eunchae is taking it really hard, like she is at fault, but she's only 18 and it's not cool that there's so much pressure on her. I know that when I was 18 I thought I was an adult, but now that I’m a lot older, I realize that you kind of never really become an adult. You just creeping closer and closer to adulthood, like Zeno’s arrow. And 18 is so, so young. I just want to hug all these girls. They really need mental health experts to be available on these shows.

It’s the next day and they’re at a dance lesson with Psychopath. They start the dance, and the first move is to take each other’s hands. Eunchae can feel everyone’s desperation, and she just starts to cry. 

She’s trying to smile and dance but she’s crying, and it’s just awful. She’s talking about how this is her last chance (you’re 18, girl!). They try again, and Wang Ke begins to sob too. We never even see Psychopath’s feedback, just them crying and talking about how desperate they are. 

And now… it’s time for the show. 

A beautiful soul on Youtube named PD48 editing has created videos that allow you to just watch the performances without constant interruptions and instant replays. Bless you, PD48 Editing. Blessings on you and your family and your cow. 

Link to the edited version 

Serika, Eunchae, Motu Tomu, Noe, Manami, Wang Ke

Serika, Motu Tomu, Manami, Eunchae, Wang Ke, Noe

Tomu - subvocal1  Eunchae - subvocal 2 Serika - subvocal 3 Noe - subvocal 4 Manami - subvocal 5 Wang Ke - main vocal

My thoughts: Vocally, they were much better than I had feared they’d be, to the point that I wonder if something is up, like if they prerecorded some vocals or something. Tomu and Eunchae end up singing a lot, as subvocals 1 and 2, and though Tomu is a bit wobbly, they sound ok. Wang Ke managed to hit the notes, though she sounded pretty shaky and rough. 

Dance-wise, I didn’t notice any mistakes. The choreo to this song is so weird that even when it’s done correctly it looks wrong, so I checked it against the original and it was actually right, though they added in a few cute flourishes. I thought that Manami really stood out in the dance parts.

Stage presence wise, Noe is super distracting. She is turning the cuteness up to 1000% and honestly, it’s offputting. It comes across as sarcastic.

The rest were all pretty cute, if a bit dead eyed sometimes. Wang Ke does the doe-eyed look straight to camera really well. 

Oh, god, Eunchae is crying in the ending fairy. 

Overall, this really wasn’t bad. The song is so not my favorite so I don’t know if I would ever be into a performance of it, but I think they did exceptionally well given their skill level and the time they had to practice. 

The MNET edit: The judges praise their facial expressions and energy, and we see lots of shots of the other girls backstage looking nervous, implying that they’re doing well. After Wang Ke’s high notes, Jeremy and Soyou exchange glances, and Soyou nods, as if to say, “This is good for them.” Soyou says that they practiced a lot and improved a lot. 

Backstage, the girls are saying thank you to Eunchae, and they’re all crying. They did a good job, overall. 

GROUP 2

Left to right:  Nayoung, Damin, Eunbin, Nako, Sae, Misaki

As a reminder, the members are:

Kim Nayoung, 15, future member of Lightsum who auditioned with I Don’t Like Your Girlfriend, went from C to A, and is now in 63rd place. She’s subvocal 2 and leader.

Kang Damin, 14, the cute future member of Queenz Eye, went from B to A, and is ranked 74th. She’s subvocal 5.

Yoon Eunbin,14, one of the CNC girls, stayed in B, and is ranked 68th. She’s subvocal 1. 

Yabuki Nako, 16, who moved up from F to A, is currently ranked 27th. She’s Main vocal.

Kurihara Sae, 21, who had the great bangs in Never Ending Ferris Wheel, who went from D to F and is now ranked 84th. She’s subvocal 4.

Aramaki Misaki, 17, who auditioned with the blighted Never Ending Ferris Wheel group, has been stationed in F class, and is ranked 61st. She’s subvocal 3. 

As you’ll recall, Nako picked this group to be the Kawaii Avengers, they seem poised to take this one.

We find out that Nayoung has been a fun and sweet leader, constantly telling her teammates that she loves them and that they’re doing a good job.

She helps the Japanese members with their pronunciation and tries to keep all their spirits up. 

In their dance rehearsal with Psychopath, he dings them first for not being ready the second he says standby. Then they have to dance without music and they make a bunch of mistakes. He basically makes them feel like shit, which is his M.O. Honestly, I think this is just because they’re not having any drama at all, so they had to find some stuff for their rehearsal package. The tiny mistakes they’re making are so minimal that it seems stupid to verbally abuse them for them -- not that any amount of mistakes justify verbal abuse.

Fast forward to dress rehearsal and they’re not synchronized enough. So they decide to keep practicing. “Let’s start,” Nayoung says, in Japanese. And they try again. 

Now it's performance time!

PD48’s blessed edit 

Misaki, Nayoung, Damin, Yunbin, Sae, Nako

Top row: Nako, Nayoung, Yunbin

Bottom row: Misaki, Damin, Sae 

My thoughts: Overall, really good, to the standard expected of this song.

Vocally, they were definitely superior to the other team. No one here has a voice that I would delight to listen to, like how I love listening to Yuju, but voices like Yuju’s are rare. Nako does hit those notes cleanly, but I find her vocal color a little shrill. It’s not a deal breaker, though. Vocally, I thought Nayoung had the most pleasant voice to listen to. But it was actually hard to tell their voices apart, so that’s a sign that they were doing something right.

Dance wise, I don’t notice any mistakes. Given that the camera man hardly ever shows their footwork, there’s almost no point in them even learning it. Nobody really stood out for good or bad. They seemed energetic and confident. Man, this choreo gets weirder ever time I see it. Sorry if this is your favorite song or something. 

Stage presence wise, Nako obviously knocks everyone else out of the water.

That's Nako top right, with the braids.

Everyone else was being cute, but Nako just *IS* cute.  I don’t know how anyone can smile that much and still make it look natural. Is there a special smile implant surgery that she underwent? More witchcraft from Nako.

I think Misaki could have brought a little more energy and I think Damin low key gives off “kid in a child beauty pageant” vibes...

but again, none of that is a deal breaker.

Really, they all did pretty well. Thinking more about it, it becomes even more clear to me how much having Yamada Noe hurt the other team for me. I’m sure a lot of people would disagree, so it’s fine if you are one of them, but Noe’s weird fake cuteness was kind of painful to watch and super distracting. I think Team 2 wins merely by not having that. I think they would have won anyway. 

I know all the girls tried their best, and my heart breaks for Eunchae, Wang Ke, and all the girls who try their hardest and still lose. But I think it would be hard to vote for anyone else but Nako.

MNET edit: There’s this cute part where they show Psychopath mouthing along with the lyrics -- kind of funny. Of course everyone goes batshit when Nako hits the high notes. Other than that, it wasn’t that intrusive of an edit, thank god.

When the Kawaii Avengers are done, both teams come up on stage to make their final appeals.

Lee Seungki asks Eunchae about how she almost cried at the end, and she says “Each one of us worked so hard, and I know this might be our last stage, so I got emotional.” Poor Wang Ke starts crying again, and Manami almost starts up as well. 

Backstage, the other teams all tear up as well, and then, and THEN, AND FUCKING THEN, the judges say to each other that they feel bad for the kids. Cheetah says, “They must have been really stressed.” And Soyou is fanning her face to dry her tears.

Where was all this fucking sympathy and empathy when they were rehearsing? Do you think that maybe part of the reason they were stressed is that you guys were YELLING AT THEM ALL THE DAMN TIME? 

Seungki gives them time to appeal to the audience, but we only get to hear what Noe and Nako say.

Noe yells, in halting Korean that I think she reads off a note written: “HELLO PRODUCERS! I ALWAYS HAVE THIS HUSKY VOICE! I LOOK FORWARD TO YOUR KIND EVALUATION!!!” 

Nako says, in smooth Korean that she must have carefully memorized, “Hello, I’m Yabuki Nako from HKT48. I know I was nervous, but I had a lot of fun, thanks to the National Producers.” 

Imagine standing there, looking at the audience while they vote, or don’t vote, for you? No thanks.

They go to the Results Zone, which is clearly just a the bathroom area of a women's locker room. The chairs are gym mats placed on top of a bench and there are 197 cameras arranged to catch Nako from 197 angles. 

The producers reveal the votes slowly, of course, and at first it looks like Eunchae’s team might win. 

Motu Tomu gets 52 votes, more than Eunbin’s 42.  Eunchae gets 88 votes, more than Nayoung’s 32.  Yamada Noe got 106 votes, much more than Sae’s 18. Manami gets 38, more than Damin’s 36. Serika’s 22 loses to Misaki’s 30. But even so, Team 1 is winning.  It’s down to just the main vocals: Wang Ke versus Nako. 

And then they reveal the result. Wang Ke gets 28 votes, and…. Nako got 330 votes. 

Three hundred and thirty. 

No one even reacts at first because it’s so much more than anyone else, by a lot. And I, an intellectual living in the year 2024, can tell you that this will turn out to be the most votes of the whole night, by a LOT. No one else even breaks 200! 

Nayoung is tearful, and at first I thought it might be because she got only 32 votes. But it turns out that she is both grateful and sorry -- grateful to Nako that she won the night for them, and sorry that the team needed her to do that. 

She’s crying like a little kid, sniffling and wiping her face, and she just seems exhausted. Jalhaess-eoyo, Nayoung-ah. You kept your team together and helped everyone. You have nothing to be sorry about. I think Nako just really suited this song, and also that her smile has magic powers. 

And I hope that Eunchae was ok when her team lost. She was taking the whole thing so hard and she seems like a really nice girl.