girlishpop: twice's myoui mina (a sentimental spring)
[personal profile] girlishpop
so, let’s get the obvious out of the way. girls planet 999 is produce 101 in a wig, aiming to capitalise on two big neighbouring music markets. (they’re not even subtle about it.) produce48 and izone were incredibly successful overall, izone had amazing sales for a kpop girl group, so it feels like a logical conclusion to try a similar collaboration? and china has 1) a lot of untapped potential as a market that kpop has struggled to break into properly for far longer than the decade i’ve been into kpop, and 2) a ban on survival shows for the coming couple of years. there’s no time like the moment, truly.

overall i really enjoyed the first episode, it gave me everything i was hoping for from a survival show. angel/devil edits, corny wishfulness, fake drama, over the top reaction shots, etc. the downgrading of cgroup felt predictable even if i’d been hoping mnet wouldn’t lean into it as much given how sinophobic knetz already are (the struggles of stanning chinese kpop idols lol) and stan twt isn’t much better at times, even if i sincerely wish for ppl’s weird stanning and positivity abt idol ccp socmed posts to never happen again. anyway.

i’m incredibly happy that the show is available on iqiyi, and that much like for qcyn2 the proper subs are out within a day! which is also interesting because i feel like this is the most easily available mnet survival i’ve watched yet as an international fan, tho admittedly the last one was queendom like two years ago? but in many ways it really feels like they’re not just catering to the korean audience, which is probably for the better when they have both chinese and japanese trainees?

although i’'m not sure at all how the voting system will work for this show, i haven’t bothered looking into it - by which i mean i’m not sure which demographics will be able to vote. ngl if voting is limited to korea again i’ll be slightly annoyed, because that was something that definitely was disadvantageous to the japanese girls during pd48. on the other hand, with people (possibly?) being eliminated per c/k/j girl cell, that would be less of an issue? i’m still not entirely sure if it’s actually true the final group will be 3 c/k/j girls but i hope it is, ngl, even if i know some people will be mad “more deserving/talented” trainees didn’t make it in that case — but that’s also just what it’s always like. i kinda wish the group would be 12 members just because i feel like 4 of each nationality would be easier for me to pick lmao!

it’s too early to fully predict who’ll make it, but i feel like xu ziyin is getting a v flattering edit so far (and she’s probs going to stun w her vocals next week) and really hope yujin makes it bc while i’ve only ever been a casual clc fan but i’ve always found her super cute! i’m really scared she’ll end up another kaeun tho, but since idt mnet is dumb enough to keep rigging after getting caught w produce series she hopefully won’t. shen xiaoting, su ruiqi, and cui wenmeixiu feel like other strong candidates from cgroup based on initial hype before and after 1st ep/pre-existing fans, but who knows? early highlightisation doesn’t always mean you’re in. (most qcyn2 alumni don’t feel like they have as much hype, aside maybe from chen xinwei?) for the japanese girls i feel like it’s a lot less clear since they’re more unknown for most part, even if mnet’s faves in the first episode are very obvious? (hikaru, yurina, mashiro) and for korean girls it’s definitely more difficult since most of them got very good edits and the korean system in general is ~the standard~ the chn/jp girls are compared to. which i have some feelings about i’ll either talk about in another post or never.

some general comments about the episode? as predictable as it was that the girls would scream for the host/planet master, i’m glad that sunmi and tiffany got almost as loud cheers and a lot more emotional n talkative reactions from the girls... idk it just felt very nice. when women are idolised by fellow women, etc. and as a former sone, it was also just so sweet to see the cell with girls who became idols bc of soshi all happy together, and when yurina mentioned them too... like i get that the fact that they have tiffany on the show probably also makes them highlight it more, but it still makes me very happy.

i don’t know enough about the dance masters to really comment on them, but i’m onboard with kinda clowning the vocal masters for their achievements based on the groups they’ve worked with, and yes i’m saying this as a nct dream stan? but there’s just the whole.. idk. if you’re going to have people who’ve trained idols in the past it would absolutely do you good to have ones who have groups with really strong/good vocalists? but otoh it might not be their fault some idols can’t sing LMFAO.

oh! i’m also very interested to see if gp999 will pull a produce and start with low viewership rates and then climb up, or if it’ll be like queendom and have poor ratings throughout? i really could see it go either way. and queendom still had a very positive effect on say oh my girl’s career, so it’s not necessarily like the final group will tank just bc of low korean viewership, plus idt it’s accounting for global or chn/jp fans watching either? i’m really just very curious! okay, so.

THE GOOD
+ i like the idea of cells containing one c/k/j girl each. maybe not so much the ‘everyone in the same cell gets eliminated’ aspect, bc that isn’t fair if true, but as awkward as it was bc they couldn’t communicate much, i think it was really cute and a great idea forcing them to interact and not just become cliques among themselves?
+ i’m so happy seeing qcyn2 alumni again! they have so much character lmao... wen zhe calling yeo jin-goo ‘oppa’ before catching herself and admitting they’re the same age cracked me up so much
+ people watching survival shows acting like river girls have killed more people than all the volcanos on earth combined endless source of entertainment tbh
+ hotsaus gipi dip that promo when the male vocal master was introduced we love to see it. dreamzenisms first. no, this is not contradicting the point i made above
+ there is nothing more amazing than girls and women, and survival shows prove it (i can not explain my poetry often, so please don’t ask me to)
+ looking forward to getting to know more trainees!!

THE BAD
+ despite saying earlier i find reaction shots expected/fun, i do wish they wouldn’t cut to the masters every time someone is even slightly off key? even after years into kpop/k-tv shows i’m not always the biggest fan of how they edit, and i find it v distracting when it happens all the time
+ bring back the letter grading system! this “top 9 candidate” system is bullshit and even more arbitrary than the a-f ranking was, and i say this as someone who has called the a-f rank system completely arbitrary before. sorry, i was wrong. please bring it back.
+ stan twitter. so many people are either to stupid to understand what makes survival shows fun, or don’t know what the whole rigging mess was and call any sort of editing/bias from mnet rigging, or are weirdly moralistic abt not watching a new mnet survival / having a superiority complex about seeing thru mnet for making another survival show? like? okay? good for you?

THE UGLY
+ yeo jin-goo, according to chen xinwei. by accident. honestly so fucking hilarious.


as for the actual performances, i haven’t watched too many of the unedited/full/unaired performances, so this is commentary mostly on what's in the show! some of these comments are from my livetweets, some of them are just for this post, and it's not in order atm, because i can't be bothered to check.

PERFORMANCES
boombayah my favourite performance shown in the episode! hikaru deserves all the hype she gets, anyone who says otherwise is lying. the whole group was very impressive and felt very cohesive, the jgirls hyping them up beforehand were right to do so. wish i could remember any of their names aside from hikaru (mb shana was in this group?), but that’s not just on me being introduced to 99 girls for the first time, but due to mnet’s editing.

dumdi dumdi mashiro is very cute n pretty, and i really liked this performance a lot! it doesn’t really stand out in my memory anymore but i enjoyed it so much when watching the episode, definitely one of my favourite performances, it was very solid and rly made mashiro stand out — ig it also helps that she has her backstory, which obviously is highlighted a lot bc it makes for such a good narrative? (and talking about jyp/itzy will create buzz etc)

rumor shen xiaoting outclassed the other girls, as expected based on ranks, AND got an angel edit so i feel like it’s very clear that mnet wants her in the final group, and i’m not complaining even if she’s not yet part of my 9pick. very curious on how things will pan out for chen xinwei is the going to be the sohye of the season?

black mamba the aespanators on twitter trying to defend giselle from nepotism rumours by shitting on chaehyun can die idc. she wasn’t super impressive but she sure wasn’t bad, and maybe i’m just saying this because her face reminds me of someone but not sure who. it was a decent perf, but not very memorable. could be a lot worse.

fancy yurina is going to make it, i’m like 87% sure. she’s gorgeous, a kpop fan (boa, kara and snsd!!!), and sings well enough. people acting like twice don’t sound like this group without strong backing tracks/pitch correction are delusional, and i say this as someone who likes twice and has defended them and their performances before. also i must say it again but ririka is so pretty and cute!

kick it for those unaware i suffer from intense haterisms irt nct 127/nct as a brand, and i know that i’m a horrid unreasonable unagreeable person but the kick it girls calling themselves hotsaus a travesty!!!!! you picked ur stage bc kick it was the hot thing and now ur using dream’s title track name for clout, i hate ot23zens. now that this is out of the way... their dynamic is so cute! energiser youngeun and straight man..woman... jia. i won’t say i ship it but i also won’t say i don’t. as always bg choreo is better when girls do it, yes i’m biased and i’ll never pretend otherwise, however i do genuinely not like this song and won't ever stockholm myself into it either.. rly great perf tho! deservedt even if im a hater, excited to see more from them.

pop/stars i didn’t care much for this even if ia they did a great job with the choreo and suyeon was very captivating? i’ve honestly never heard the song before and i didnt care for it either, which mightve influenced my feelings on the matter. and idt the masters were wrong in giving suyeon the sticker and neither of the other girls, but there is something amusing abt the pretty girl 'standing out' among her group mates who def sounded better than she did (even if she was fine)? like i love her face too, but. Yeah.

crazy it was very obvious from how they were framed narratively that it was going to be a solid girlcrush performance, and these little kids were so cute and did so well? (tho imo only myah and yeseo should've gotten the stickers.) i think this song is great and their cover did it justice, there’s not really a whole lot to say about it that wasn’t said already in the episode. it was impressive and it sucks that sein had to go talk shit abt hikaru bc it made ppl sour on her. yeseo is daughter material tho, let’s #Walk_the_flower_path to debut!

hmph! after seeing a compilation of the liang twins’ dancing skills i’m p sure theyre playing it up for screen time, and another video with a performance from the theatre that included their vocals was honestly one of the better i’ve seen, so i’m curious to what we’ll see from them in the future lol. it’s kinda funny on twitter seeing ppl who don’t know they’re from snh be like “they’re really good at capturing an audience” tho bc, yeah, if there’s something you can say about 48g is that they know how to connect with people.

twinkle i was surprised by how weak wang yale’s vocal performance was in this, which was a real disappointment? she’s one of the qcyn2 girls i really want to do well even if realistically idt she will. it’s difficult to comment on the whole perf when they pm just show when they mess up, but she looks super cute and pretty. i’m so charmed by how soft she looks even if i loved how the sharp qcyn2 bob looked on her too, her cold look in flammable and explosive perf forever seared into my mind. sorry for making everything about her.

violeta i wish they would’ve shown more, but YES! XIA YAN! and that’s really all you can say, it’s impossible to make an assessment based on the episode. also i thought this during qcyn2 but xia yan kinda has yerin vibes visually? or mb im just insane.

helicopter i don’t think the helicopter performance was bad and i also don’t think people are being honest when they act like fu yaning's performance was bad, i think she was really impressive. i understand why stan twt doesn’t like her and i’m not going to make any excuses, but can people please just be honest. so sad wen zhe struggled vocally in this ngl, she’s done a lot better in the past, but i liked that exchange between the vocal master and her and felt like it might’ve painted her in a slightly positive light, especially if she improves in coming episodes. cai bing is gorgeous and while i honestly wasn’t as blown away by her as many others seem to be, i really enjoyed her performance? idk. i liked this performance a lot for most part.

bubblepop obviously hasn’t aired yet, but yujin is so charming and pretty? looking forward to it a lot!

Date: 2021-08-11 12:04 am (UTC)
luckyzukky: sana (left) and nayeon (right) from twice (twice | nasa #1)
From: [personal profile] luckyzukky
i probably won't be watching gp999 (except maybe clips? idk) but this sounds like what i expected really. i honestly wouldn't put it past mnet to rig it again anyway even though they got screwed last time, but hopefully they won't lol, or at the very least not rigging to the point of totally fucking over specific contestants. the concept of having chinese/japanese/korean trainees is pretty cool, i do like that a lot but seeing as how the japanese trainees in pd48 were clearly less favored i'm not surprised that it's about the same this time around (with the korean trainees being favored). i guess it makes sense since it's a korean show forming a kpop group but oh well lol. overall i'm cautiously optimistic and looking forward to the final group, but it'll certainly be a mess on the way there lol

Date: 2021-08-14 07:41 pm (UTC)
From: (Anonymous)
i think the tail end of the ep mentioned that 50% of the votes counted will be domestic n 50% intl? n i THINK that ppl will need to pick 3c/3j/3k anyway or the final lineup will be 3/3/3 split so the nationality bias might not come into play tooo much.. ig ppl who would only have faves from j/c/k will probs just pick their cellmates to fill in slots if need be

i have RLY mixed feelings abt the cell concept lol i do rly like that its k/j/c, but the all-or-nothing aspect rly bothers me as an audience member/voter bc what if i rly like a contestant but not her cellmates n vice versa...!! tho ig ill worry less abt my faves who are t9 since they get to pick their own cellmates n im guessing most of them will be strategic n pick ppl who are less likely to be eliminated LOL but still. well see how it plays out in practice

LOL coming from c ent survival shows i feel like i cant clown the vocal/dance masters working w non-stellar singers/dancers considering some of the ppl csurvival shows have brought on as mentors like at least they r professional trainers n yeah i think theres a limit to how much training can do if the original goods r subpar/mediocre since i assume the big 3 can afford to hire the best trainers money can buy...

re the masters i dont rly know tiffany/snsd n im not a sunmi fan but i rly enjoyed them in this ep, esp sunmi... she comes across as very cool n collected yet also genuinely interested in the contestants n performances n i enjoyed her commentary a lot even tho i didnt 100% agree with all of it... n the amount of soshi stans! when they were all singing into the new world that was such a sweet moment even as a non sone. (cont)

Date: 2021-08-14 08:06 pm (UTC)
From: (Anonymous)
from this first ep i think i was most impressed with j group overall n not just cuz jidols have a reputation for being talentless LOL (n i thought it was kinda funny that the show included so many cuts of kgroup contestants making such remarks... i figured that any drama mnet would wanna include wouldnt be drawn on racial/national lines, altho mb the jp audience is accepting of the jidol=talentless stereotype) boombayah grp killed it and the jgroup teams that were fast forwarded through sounded p good, altho ill need to watch full performance cuts later... i wasnt too impressed by anyones vocals in this episode altho most of the performances were also dance focused/had pretty exhausting choreo but maybe well see more Singers next ep... hoping for xu ziyin to Slay *~* was extremely pleasantly surprised by how much screentime she got this episode n anticipating her angel edit! even tho i dont think shell do well bc she has a pretty quiet personality BUT i rly hope to be proved wrong... was rly nice seeing a lot of qcyn2 girls back too but i was also disappointed by yale and wenzhes perfs, i wanna chalk it up to new different language + stage jitters n maybe twinkle not rly being wyls type of song but we will SEE... i also rly want her to do well lol even tho as u say realistically she prob wont ;-;

LOL @ xinwei getting the sohye treatment u r so correct, except i did not and do not like sohye tbh but im fond of xinwei even if im not voting for her. the kick it performance i LOVED the performance n both youngeun n jia have such great arresting faces n i rly like/am rooting for them both... that said this is the most i have heard of kick it n i was struck by just how horrible a song it is and the rap lyrics... ik markyong fans mention markyong writing their own lyrics as a point of pride but i wouldve invented a ghostwriter if i were them (cont)

Date: 2021-08-14 08:24 pm (UTC)
From: (Anonymous)
ok this is getting annoyingly long LMAO im sorry u r receiving a dissertation of a response but iaaaaaaa @ anyone thinking the fancy cover was so much worse than a twice mr removed perf is fooling themselves LOL. they were cute n i would honestly be shocked if yurina didnt make it to the final lineup but more insane things have happened i suppose. CRAZY WAS SO GOOOOOD, the girls pulled it off great im also biased tho bc i love the original song and like 80% of 4minutes discography. also re helicopter i agree so much... im not a fu yaning stan so i dont mean to play defense squad for her but shes really talented and gave a great performance here lol, ppl are rly unable to separate personality from performance! i think i was more disappointed that her diss track re yujin/helicopter had to be so corny/lame than anything lol... excited for ep 2 ;-;

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