Asian Junkie Asian pop. Without discretion.
I guess I’m invested enough in ‘Produce 48‘ by now that I might as well continue recapping it, and so here goes episode two.
Honestly, I never respected people who recap shows as much as I should’ve, because no matter how basic a recap and how much you enjoy the show, it’s still a pain in the ass.
——
As you may have already suspected was going to happen, the show picked off right where they left off with the auditions and grades.
Kim Choyeon
I actually like Kim Choyeon because she seems like an extra mess that will choke slam a bitch if it means she’ll debut. Also, she has them crazy eyes.
Stone Music
It was solid and also something I had absolutely no reaction to or interest in.
Lee Haeun
An impressive dancer for sure, though I can’t say it truly left much of an impact on me beyond that reality.
AKB48
Takahashi Juri is coming with the genius strategy of revealing herself as a Koreaboo and then heaping praises onto Korean artists. Calculated.
Probably had the best AKS contestant group performance in terms of skill, but other than that it was relatively whatever.
NMB48
Right, these are the kinds of auditions I prefer. Show the ability to be entertaining and to have a natural gravity towards you because a lot of the rest can be drilled into the contestant eventually. Out of these, at least Shiroma Miru should do well.
Matsui Jurina
Felt like she could’ve got an A grade if they’re providing allowances for star power or gaze or whatever the fuck. She has that in spades and her talent level is acceptable enough.
Miyawaki Sakura
Okay, so I guess this is what everybody has been talking about. It’s an understandably controversial ranking, since her skills didn’t seem to warrant an A grade. However, I mean it did mainly seem to be due to Bae Yoon Jung wanting to fuck her and she seems to be the commander of the judges, so … yeah.
That said, the salt over this from K-pop circles was fascinating, as they never batted an eye at some of the other generous gradings for Korean contestants but were up in arms over this. International K-pop fans in particular need to chill with the nationalist caping, Korea isn’t gonna fuck you for defending their honor or whatever.
…
my clothes when i hang them to dry outside in windy weather pic.twitter.com/tJKudwgNjw
— tbs 🍈▶️🏟 CF18 pre-order on 📌 (@theblueslope) June 22, 2018
Dying at the memes, tho.
——
The re-evaluation process is where the show gets more interesting, because then you can see the interactions between the contestants, narratives beginning to form, and characters start to develop.
DAT DETERMINATION DOE
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=i4v5k2xBVvM
The weird part about this narrative is that AKS schedules can be brutal as shit from what I’ve read, though I suppose not in the context of training skills.
Class A
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WrtUs0LqZFw
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DpZ_PvTP2NY
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Lwod9Rrf4wY
Yoo Minyoung‘s struggles with choreography were highlighted. Hopefully she eventually adapts to the choreo, because I like her a lot.
Aside from the overly dramatic stuff, it’s easy to see why trainers favor Sakura given that she seems to work like a Korean trainee is expected to. Just bash your head into the wall until you get the shit correct, and put in the extra effort that others won’t.
Class B
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ljOr2FlmY68
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fdwZ_Ic-b0E
Most important thing? We got a glimpse of how Jurina is gonna break that damn skinship rule.
Hong Yeji broke her own ankles like Chris Paul just pulled off a Shammgod crossover on her.
Class C & Class D
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=P-VvpFFmHtA
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4HfXx5xh_GQ
These kind of shows really highlight to me how much of the “talent” part of K-pop is being able to learn choreography more than any kind of vocal excellence.
Class F
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mv9IFLiTBW0
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9kyRPh8A2DQ
I have no heart, so the sob stories ain’t doing it.
Judges Panel
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LVbPDusLz9I
YABUKI NAKO IS COMING BITCHES
——
Perhaps the most noteworthy thing that happened on the show in this episode is the contestant circlejerk for “Pick Me” and “Heavy Rotation“.
“Beginner” and “River” are so much better, tho.
Oh yeah, this happened.
THIS IS STILL FUCKING FUNNY TO ME THE 48 GIRLIES LOOKED SO CONCERNED ABOUT THE NO UNNECESSARY SKINSHIP RULE LIKE… FUCK WHAT DO WE DO NOW THEN IM CACKLIGN pic.twitter.com/4Kh0XLNYu9
— 𓆑 (@j66ngwoo) June 23, 2018
——
The rankings for this episode show a bunch of changes.
[📊] 'PRODUCE 48' Episode 2 Rankings (1)
1 Lee Kaeun
2 Ahn Yujin
3 Kwon Eunbi
4 Jang Wonyoung
5 Miyawaki Sakura
6 Choi Yena
7 Wang Yireon
8 Goto Moe
9 Yamada Noe
10 Lee Chaeyeon
11 Takeuchi Miyu
12 Matsui Jurina #PRODUCE48 #프로듀스48 #プロデュース48 pic.twitter.com/An9zDQpGS3— PRODUCE48 Update! (@PRODUCE48UPDATE) June 22, 2018
Takeuchi Miyu is the noteworthy mover here, as she has skyrocketed to relevance thanks to her vocal ability. Curious to see where Sakura and Jurina end up with their performances now being shown.
——
Alrighty, so we are two weeks into this shit, and I already hate all the people complaining about talent not getting support and the subjective grades all that shit. It’s early, they are still figuring out who is popular and what kinds of characters they have and how they want to tell the story. Seriously, if you stop caring so much about the fairness and justice of reality television and instead just evaluate the show based on the quality of the narratives delivered and entertainment value, you’ll be much happier.
I feel like I’m playing myself here by continuing to follow the whining even though the hand-wringing is hilarious at times as well.
One thing I was thinking about was whether it even makes sense for members like Sakura and Jurina to make the final group. Do they really want to spend like almost three years of their life promoting in this project group? I wonder.
