I really appreciated that all the teams received feedback on their performances by the experts. In all the other shows that I have seen, I only have seen them give critique for the practices but never the performances, so it is definitely something new and refreshing. I really liked that they included positives and negatives in each performance so that the groups can really learn and see what works and what needs to be fixed.
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SF9
I think the choice of The Stealer for their song was perfect. The song really fits SF9's image and sound and is perfect for the sort of concept that they were aiming for. I think the other choices of Giddy Up and Bloom Bloom would have been too difficult to turn into a storyline based performance, but the Stealer definitely fits with impactful hits and the already heist concept of the original song. I also found that the acting advice segment from award winning stage actor Jung Sung Hwa to be very interesting. I was surprised to see all of the acting stuff the members were in and was really impressed with the clips of Chani. You could tell that Jung Sung Hwa was an amazing actor and I'm sure that the advice he gave was probably really helpful. I also loved seeing the choreographing for the fighting sections. As I have said repeatedly, it is always fascinating to me to see the behind the scenes of what they do.
Such a good performance. I really loved the concept and storyline that they were going for. All of the creative decisions that they made were on point. I particularly loved the dance break because it wasn't an out of place dance section, it was a choreographed fight. I think this was a great way to showcase their dancing and acting abilities, while still staying true to the concept and story. I only have one very minor issue and that would be the lighting during the dance break. For some goddamn reason they started using those laser RGB lights that really does not fit. This is not a club. But other than that, I thought that section was amazing. One thing that I really didn't get that seemed to be aiming for was a huge impact moment. Like last round, the whole performance kind of flows together and there is no one part that really stands out for me, so I guess they didn't really achieve that. I personally am fine with it. I'd rather have everything flow together and be cohesive than have a huge impact point that doesn't seem to fit in. Anyway, I loved how psyched they were after the performance. It was really great to see how proud they were of what they created, especially after last round when they seemed so disappointed.
The Boyz
I loved them doing the pinwheel from KO for literally no reason and New not wanting to part of that shit. It was something fun and lighthearted which was definitely needed for The Boyz section of the show, which so far has been pretty serious and kind of a downer. They also had members from Oneus, VeriVery, and ONF visit. It was a lowkey Road to Kingdom reunion. I did not watch Road to Kingdom but it was nice to see that some friendships were able to form between the groups. I do feel like I'm missing something by not watching it because they do talk about it quite a bit. They definitely feel hindered by their appearance since they feel like they can't top the performances that they gave and their rankings haven't been as high. I can't really say if it actually has since I haven't seen their Road to Kingdom performances but I have found their Kingdom performances lacking in the story aspect that they keep talking about.
Do I understand the story of this performance? Not at all and the description of the performance does not really help. According to the Viki English subtitles it says, "Final serenade under the red sun. Extravagant, intense show that took samplings of Moulin Rouge OST 'El Tango de Roxanne' and Schubert's 'Erlkoni'" and the title of the performance is Red Wedding. At first, I assumed it was another Game of Thrones reference, however the performance doesn't seem to resemble the show at all. In Game of Thrones, (spoilers I guess) the Red Wedding refers to the massacre of the Stark army that occurred at a wedding. It occurred because Robert Stark broke his marriage contract with one of Walder Frey's daughters and Walder Frey wanted revenge. This performance does not have a single person dying and the only reference to a sort of wedding occurring is with the beginning with the chairs, which are essentially gone after a minute and a half into the performance.
The major props in this performance are the bird cage and the arrow, neither of which fit into a Game of Thrones Red Wedding theme, if that is what they are going for. I love the bird cage prop, I think that they used it beautifully and it is definitely something very unique and interesting. However, I don't understand the purpose of it. Bird cages usually represent the feeling of being trapped or a longing for freedom. If I were to be an English teacher and really try to stretch the meaning to fit the theme of a wedding, I guess I could say that it could represent how once one gets married they no longer have the freedom of being single and are trapped in the marriage? Or maybe for the Red Wedding theme, it being Robert Stark stuck in the marriage contract and wanting to be free to marry who he chooses? Both of these sound like I'm trying too hard to find symbolism and pulling it out of my ass, because I am. There is no purpose. Now the arrow and the whole second part of the performance with the sun. I did think it was a very fun prop. I love the dancing with it particularly with the effects on the screen. I understand why Sangyeon was so upset about the arrowhead not lighting. Without the lit arrowhead, the dancing with the effects screen was really dark and a little hard to see. With the light, it might have been a little bit easier to see the dance and make the fire effect on the screen make more sense. However, I am beyond confused why this arrow prop exists. Why are we trying to shoot the sun now? How does this relate to anything? Where is the wedding theme in this part? The Boyz kept on saying how they are trying to convey great storylines, but I swear to god this performance does not have a comprehensible storyline. I have no clue what the fuck is going on and how it relates to anything.
Besides the lack of plot, I did think that the performance was gorgeous. I found it very interesting that they decided to use tango elements while SF9 was more inspired by paso doble. Juyeon is such an amazing dancer, so watching him dance tango in his solo sections was a real treat. On that note, all of The Boyz are just top notch dancers, because every performance that they have had so far has been so graceful and expressive but still synchronized. I don't know how they do it but it looks absolutely stunning.
iKON
They honestly seem like a great group of dudes. They are so humble and friendly with the other teams. I love the budding friendship they have with ATEEZ and them shouting encouragement to SF9 last round. I also loved when they showed them on the balcony. You could tell that they are a tight knit group of guys and that they work reall hard but also have a lot of fun doing it. I don't really know any of ATEEZ's song's but I do think that having Inception as a concept is very interesting. After listening to the original song, I found it a very interesting song for them to pick, since it sounds so different from iKON's signature sound. I guess they really wanted the concept, and they definitely changed the song and made it their own.
When I first saw this on YouTube, I'm not gonna lie or sugar coat, I didn't like it. Upon multiple viewings, I'm still not a fan of the arrangement because I just don't like that style of music, which is the main reason I don't listen to iKON, but I do recognize that they used a lot of interesting ways to convey their concept. I definitely see influences in the whole warping building and props and the effects that they use. With the buildings moving, I was kinda confused with Donghyuk's section because I think they were trying to make it so he was pushing the buildings to move them in a certain way but I think he must have missed a cue or something because the building moved on its own. Then, Bobby's rapping section. The effect they put on it definitely brought that psychedelic dreamlike aesthetic, but jesus did that hurt my head. It's like the Jo Kwon, Hyoyeon, and Min Born to Be Wild MV, that filter legit gives me headaches. My favorite section was definitely they slowed down, it added to the whole dream theme while also looking really cool with the red lighting, glitter, and dancing. All in all, not my favorite performance but I do understand what they were going for.
ATEEZ
Them being fans of iKON is just the cutest. Wooyoung really wanting to be friends with Jinhwan was just so endearing. Not knowing anything about this group before this show, I get the feeling that they are just a great group of guys that are just really excited with what they're doing. This is one of the reasons why I love seeing Hong Joong work on this show. He really is inspired by everything and I think his ideas are just so innovative. For this round, he describes how he wants to make Rhythm Ta more latin inspired and that he borrowed ideas from the Spanish drama Money Heist (La Casa de Papel). I definitely think that his two inspirations work hand in hand and by adding the latin influences in the music, it would make the heist concept more of a reference to Money Heist rather than just a heist concept.
Hong Joong and the ATEEZ's creative team are absolutely brilliant. I was saying for the last round that the time traveler thing was unnecessary but little did I know that ATEEZ was going to do this huge overarching narrative. They really be playing 4D chess right now and my mind is blown. That being said, I do think that there is a bit too much going on storywise for this performance. Not only are they doing a heist as inspired by Money Heist, but they are also revolutionaries that are trying to spread music to a society that bans art of any kind, reminding me of the only example I can think of right now, the AKB0048 anime. Like choose one, there's too many messages and things going on. With the heist the whole goal would be to enter and leave without being caught by anyone. Obviously, that's not gonna happen if you try to also spread music because in order to spread it you have to talk to someone. In the performance it really just flip flops between the two, while I'd rather just have one or the other. Talking about a lot going on we also have iKON's Rhythm Ta being mixed with latin influences and Vivaldi's Summer. Don't get me wrong, I really like the arrangement I just found it fascinating that they incorporated so much stuff. One of my favorite parts of this performance was the rope dance. It was a great display of San's dancing while also keeping to the theme of heist and moving the story along since he was able to the vault. Another thing I really liked was the sort of whispering going throughout the song. It really added to the feeling of spreading music under wraps.
BTOB
I also look forward to BTOB's section because I always know it's going to be a fun time. Eunkwang's handwriting is laughably horrible during their brainstorm section, and their phone call with Stray Kids was really lighthearted and enjoyable. Changsub was definitely the MVP for making Stray Kids completely lose their mind when he starts talking and then hanging up not once but twice when they ask BTOB's opinion on what Stray Kids should perform and who BTOB's favorite member is. For the performance, they decided to have different genres/identities for each member as inspired by Mamamoo's performance in Queendom. Personally, I think that that is a very difficult concept to make a good cohesive performance out of and its success really comes down to the arrangement. We didnt see much of the arrangement process with them only filming Eunkwang working the sound engineer to get the perfect knocking sound and Peniel writing his own rap.
I honestly found this performance a little lacking. The concept was very simple with the members being backstage preparing for their concert, making it seem like you are using the back door, I get it. However, the whole idea of each member having a different sound and identity was dropped pretty quickly. First off, there's four members and only 3 styles of music, Rock, Trap, and Funk, according the description translated on Viki. There's already an issue there with them not giving a style to each member. They started the song with Changsub with a rock style, then Minhyuk shortly with Trap, and Peniel with Funk. But then they went back to Minhyuk, and instead of trap, it was rock. If you are going to a concept, please just stick to it. Like I understand doing rock for a everybody, but for Minhyuk's solo section it should be Trap again if you are going to associate him with Trap. Another qualm that I have is that I just wasn't particularly impressed by the performance. I understand wanting to do something different from everyone else that fits your style, but I just found it kind of boring. The concept was literally just a band preparing for their concert, there really isn't that much to it. Most of the time they are just hanging out and lounging. Yes, they still nail singing and rapping live, but it just wasn't the most interesting performance to watch.
Stray Kids
I love how into BTOB's cover of Back Door they were. Like them getting up and vibing like they were at a concert was so cute. We also continuously see them fanboy with their phonecall with Changsub in the BTOB section and with 3racha visiting Eunkwang and Peniel. That section I absolutely loved. Both groups were trying to get information from each other while also joking around, which was just really nice to see. Stray Kids said that they were stuck between choosing Movie, I'll be Your Man, and Wow. Wow would've been insanely difficult to make a concept out of since it really is just a song talking about how they saw a girl that was hot. Movie would've been really fun, but I think that BTOB already did a good job of making a concept for that one with each member being a different movie. If Stray Kids were to follow that concept, not only would that be hella expensive for props and stuff, they just wouldn't be able to really make it their own since it was done before.They also had a segment where Lee Know, Seungmin, Felix, and I.N. went to make jewelry for some reason? They said it was because the song is a love song to someone you cherish so they wanted to make rings for 3racha. Idk why they even bothered to try to relate it but it was really cute and the whole Changbin "mooyaho" was great with Changbin being lowkey salty at Seungmin and Seungmin explaining that they couldn't use the initial DK for daeki (Pig+Rabbit) because it reminded them too much of Donkey Kong. It was really cool to see them in the recording studio. As I keep on saying, I love seeing the creative process and the behind the scenes.
Absolutely amazing. The story is well thought out and put together. The idea of desperately wanting to save someone, even to the point of sacrificing yourself, is so compelling and moving, especially with their portrayal of it. I will say that story wise, I felt that the boy was already dead and that they were bringing him back to life. I think it is mainly the little boy statue which really is reminiscent of what you would see at cemetery. I loved the darker route that they took with sacrificing Felix. My favorite line by far is section is Felix getting dragged. The "No hope but still I try" is so fucking Australian, I love it. All I can think of is "Nor Cleor". Jokes aside, the whispered part "All I hear from you are cries" is just chef's kiss. I also think that Changbin fucking killed it. There's something about his rapping style and performance in this song that just portrayed anguish so well. You could even see just through his rapping section the change between hopeful sorrow and then desperation. It's just absolutely amazing. My major qualm with this performance is that the key does seem to high for them. Like you can tell that they are seriously struggling with the high notes. Sadly, I.N.'s mistake at the end was quite noticeable, but if he hit that note it would've been so good. The ending was already so good with the Changbin rapping, Han and Seungmin's harmony, and Bang Chan's high note and ending and I.N. hitting that note would've been the cherry on top.
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I think my favorite performance was Stray Kids's for this round. The story was clear and the performance was extremely impactful. Yes, it was not a perfect performance, bit the emotion behind it really stood out and sold it for me. For second, I would say SF9. I think it was pretty close to flawless, and the only reason it isn't first for me is because of strong emotional impact of Stray Kids's. I did not have the popular opinion again with the rankings being:
1. ATEEZ
2. SF9
3. BTOB
4. iKON
5. Stray Kids
6. The Boyz
The ranking process is hella complicated, so I want to clarify that this is the self evaluation and expert combined ranking. I don't use the final ranking for each round which includes the YouTube views and global ranking because they never tell us the actual ranking for that and every time they talk about the previous round's rankings it's always these ones. Compared to the previous episodes, I definitely prefer episodes 4 and 5. It seems like they started to focus more on some interactions with the different groups since they are doing covers of each others songs. I'm excited for the next round since the groups will be working together so there will be interactions galore. So... Um... Yeah...
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