#btob meme | Explore Tumblr Posts and Blogs

boysplanetrecaps · 1 year

Text

Boys Planet Episode 6, Part 1 Recap

Alright, let’s cover Episode 6 with my usual mix of commentary, thoughts, analysis, reminders, screen caps, and silliness.

By the way, I’m trying to keep my page a safe place to visit (or follow) even if you’re way behind-- I’ll make sure there are no spoilers above the “read more”.

If you want to jump to my take on one of the songs click below:

Gang and Zoom

Home and Love Killa

Law and Man in Love

Rush Hour

Limousine

Feel Special

Not Spring

Butterfly

Tomboy

We start at 45 seconds in with a partial ranking, including votes so far (no distinction is made between K and G votes, or if these have already been blended using MNET math). Since 28 is the new cut off, this range may be of interest to us Star Creators. Here’s what they tell us, and I threw in their mission song and their rank as of the elimination in the previous episode:

24 Lee Seung Hwan Danger 507,3381 (20)

25 Cai Jin Xin Hot Sauce 419,853 (50)

26 Ollie Hot Sauce 405,996 (28)

27 Hiroto Very Nice 389,175 (21)

28 Ma Jing Xiang Very Nice 366,570 (32)

29 Lee Jeong Hyeon LMR 349,008 (39)

30 Mun Jung Hyun Very Nice 336,421 (23)

31 Anthonny LMR 285,564 (19)

32 Jung Min Gyu Very Nice 266,096 (27)

None of the top 18 from the previous ranking has fallen into this range (though for all we know they could have fallen further, though it seems unlikely). Most of them are roughly where they were before, though the biggest story is definitely Cai Jin Xin, who was 50th at the first elimination and has jumped to 25th. It’s also worth noting that Anthonny has fallen from 19th to 31st -- kind of a big fall in context.

Next, we can skip past the intro and recap to 1:39. The trainees are gathering to talk about their feelings… sort of. Because really this is a prank, and the staff has this woman made up to look like a scary ghost appear in front of them, and then when they run backward, a man in an obvious mask rush at them from behind. I don’t really love pranks, so I’ll focus on stuff I do enjoy:

I like how the boys seem to be sitting in sort of random groups, not all K or all G, and they seem comfortable with each other. I hate the K-G competition stuff, and I’m so glad they do too. Like, I worry about the world and how we’re getting along with each other as a planet and stuff like this makes me feel a little better, that the basic spirit of empathy and friendship prevails even when MNET tries to drive a wedge between them.

Haruto is wearing a tiara.

3. The mask the monster is wearing looks like it cost $3.99 at Family Dollar and I’m kind of here for it

4. Park JiHoo barely reacting to it, saying, “I told you, they totally would do this! They had to do scary stuff!” Ok, Park JiHoo, you just won me over.

5:02 in, the episode actually starts!

The boys all come in, and now they’re all wearing simple long sleeved white t-shirts that either say K or G, along with name tags that have their rank and name on them. I’m going to reproduce their current name and ranks here, so if at any time you are feeling like “who is that?” you can consult the list. They’re all wearing name tags with their numbers on them, so it’ll be easy enough, I hope!

The white shirts don’t look good on any of them. Also, they all look tired. They’ve been instructed by the producers to wonder aloud about who the new star master will be (I assume). Kim Tae Rae is hoping it’ll be Hyolyn (from Sistar), and I mean, yes? That’d be great.

But it’s Huta (Lee Minhyuk) from BTOB! A lot of the trainees seem really overwhelmed, especially Cha Woongki, who is freaking out, Kermit-meme style. For the record, BToB debuted in 2012, and Huta was born in 1990. I liked his song “Ya” a few years back. He also has a song called “Boom” that I’d never heard but it’s got a great pre-chorus. He likes to go shirtless sometimes, and it seems like the people like it, judging by the “most played” sections of his videos. Side note: BTOB is signed under Cube, which is the same agency that Hui and his group Pentagon are from, so Huta is probably a sunbae/hyung to Hui. They don't seem to greet each other, though, so who knows.

Huta checks in with international sweetheart, Sung Hanbin, about how he feels about being ranked first place (“It made me think I should work harder from now on!”) and then checks in with Jeong I-chan, ranked 52nd, about how he feels barely having made it (“I’ll work harder from now on!”). Huta tells them all, basically, to never give up, or something, and they’re all touched. Now that everyone has decided to work harder, let’s give them a challenge!

Side note: Jeong I-chan seems to be in a better headspace now than he was at the elimination ceremony, so that’s good.

Huta reveals the challenge: A Dual Position Battle.

For the “Vocal & Rap” performances, they have to rearrange a song and write new raps.

For the “Vocal & Dance” performances, they have to rearrange the song and come up with their own choreography.

For the “Rap & Dance” performances, they have to write a new rap and come up with new choreography.

Considering that very few of these performers are likely to know how to do any of these skills, this is going to be a challenge. It’s especially cruel to expect non-native speakers of Korean to write a rap in Korean -- I wonder if they’re allowed to write a rap in English, if they speak that? Enough raps in K-pop songs are 50%+ in English that it wouldn't be unrealistic for them to write in English. I mean, risky risky wiggy wiggy this is an emergency, you know?

Huta says, “the dual position battle will also be a battle between K and G,” and they’re all like SELMA???? (REALLLY??????) Huta doesn’t even have the heart (or cue-card reading skills) to drag out the joke, and almost immediately tells them that no, he was just kidding -- they can completely ignore the K/G divide from now on. They are all super happy to hear that. I’m happy, too!

The songs are:

Vocal & rap:

Tomboy, originally by G-Idle; Limousine originally by BE’O, which I admit I wasn't familiar with; Man in Love originally by Infinite, which came out in 2013 and I’m not familiar with; and Not Spring, Love, or Cherry Blossoms, originally by High4 and IU.

They’re all super excited for Tomboy, which was a massive hit. The older trainees remember Man in Love, but the younger ones have never even heard of it.

Vocal & Dance

Butterfly, originally by BTS; Feel Special originally by Twice; Love Killer originally by Monsta X; Home by Seventeen

At the announcement of the Twice song, Cha Woongki starts doing the choreo, and Seo Won says, “are you ready for the group of queens?” which is important foreshadowing. You guys, I am not going to speculate on anyone’s sexuality, especially since in Korea, being gay is still considered a mental illness by many, but I will say that a lot of guys on this show are surprisingly comfortable with their feminine side, and I’m here for it! Zhang Shai Bo is losing it, since Feel Special is his favorite song of all time, and I mean, same.

Love Killer is also my favorite song of all time. It was my ring tone for a long time until my fella got sick of my phone saying “Oh, I’m sorry, did I make you anxious?” every time someone tried to reach me about my car's extended warranty.

Side note: Krystian seems to have redone his hair a bit, dying it a bit darker and dying his eyebrows brown again, and it looks miles better. I’m glad to see it.

Rap & Dance

Law by Yoon Mi Rae and Bibi; Rush Hour by Crush; Zoom by Jessi; and Gang by H1ghr music.

The trainees are overwhelmed at the idea of trying to improve on a song by Bibi, which is the correct way to feel, since Bibi is a goddess who walks amongst us. Rush Hour was already sung by Jay and Kamden in the Star Level Test, and no one wants to compete with Jay’s vocals.

At the reveal of Zoom, Takuto says, IN KOREAN, to Haruto, “I like this song so much I set it as my morning alarm.” Two things: Takuto, you learned a lot of Korean! His pronunciation sounds good to me, not that I’m the best judge, but yeah. He could be speaking Japanese to Japanese-speaking Haruto, but he’s choosing Korean -- that’s big. Also, Takuto likes Jessi? That’s a relief, because I can’t take someone who is all aegyo all the time.

My little cousin Kum Jung Hyeon says he’ll never do Gang, never-never-cherlte-cherlte, so you know he’ll end up doing it.

At 15:10 in, Huta begins to explain how song selection will work, and basically, it’s this -- the lowest ranked people go first, and choose a song, but if someone higher ranked wants to push them out, they can. If you get pushed out, you have to go to a song that has room in it. Unlike in previous seasons, the arrival of a newer person doesn’t automatically kick out the lowest ranked person, though. Instead, the new person chooses the person they want to kick out. So this will be extra awkward.

The members of the team that wins within each category will get 100,000 points each, and the one who gets the most votes within that team will also get 150,000 extra points. Also, the three teams that win get to go on MNET and get special online promotion.

Since MNET spent their whole budget on those matching pajamas that time, this is the best they can do for a set for the song selection process, which runs from about 17:00 to 31:00.

Is that duct tape forming the lanes? I love the chandeliers just sort of hanging there from the ceiling, just the perfect compliment for that elementary-school style indestructible gray carpet.

I’m not going to recap the song selection beat for beat, but here are some things I enjoyed or thought were interesting:

Tomboy is the most popular and fought over song, followed closely by Love Killa.

Krystian got a real evil edit for pushing someone out -- they were all pushing each other out like that, but only he looks "evil."

The Rap/dance songs filled up the most slowly.

I loved Ma Xing Jiang confirming that he’s in front of the correct song by doing a little of the choreo (since maybe reading English isn’t a specialty of his).

I think it’s a bummer that Yoon Jong Woo can’t do Love Killa, since I think he’d suit it really well. But I don’t know why he chose to do Home -- he said he wanted to do a performance with Seung Eun, but I still don’t understand.

It was also a bit sad when Ricky got kicked out of Love Killa, party because I think he’d be great at it and partly because he really wanted to work with Mr. Sexy Kim Ji Woong.

I don’t think Matthew should have taken Tomboy. I think he would have done better with a lighter, sweeter concept song.

I loved it when my little cousin Kum Jeong Hyun just wanted to have General Gunwook on his own team and so was begging Sungbin to kick out Gunwook

I loved Lee SeungHwan just being like, "yeah, alright, I’ll rap and dance, heck yeah," when he got kicked out of his team. That’s the spirit, dude! I keep low-key forgetting who Lee SeungHwan is, so I double checked. He was on the Mirotic team for the Star Level test, and he was the put-upon and hard-working leader of Lee Da Eul’s very own personal song, Danger by BTS. Oh yeah! Him! He’s a peach. 🍑

We learn, via a subtitle that is hardly addressed, that our sweet Lee Hwanhee, the main vocalist from Kill This Love-K (who is also from the nugu group Up10tion), has left the show due to health issues. I hope he’s ok. He can still sing, at least!

We also find out that the Top 9 get these fairly ugly windbreaker jackets to wear, so that’s... good…? I guess...? Also, I wonder if these fine themed garments are available for purchase at a store near me at an unreasonable price, so I can show my love for the boys through consumerism.

Team: Love Killa

Shirt color: Dark blue

Positions: Vocal and Dance

Leader: Seok Matthew

Time stamp: 30:49 Screen time: 4:28

Trainee name (rank) Star Level test Challenge 1 age final star level

Seok Matthew (2) All I Wanna Do / KTL - G 20 🌟🌟🌟🌟 Kim Ji Woong (3) Mirotic / BD- K 24 ⭐⭐⭐ Kim Gyu Vin (6) Kick It / LMR - K 18 ⭐⭐⭐ Seo Won (18) Attention / Very Nice - K 22 🌟🌟🌟🌟

Seo Won feels bad as the only non-top 9 on the team -- he’s worried he will drag the team down.

Matthew wants to be the leader to prove he’s not a baby who needs to be taken care of. I get the feeling that Kim Ji Woong doesn’t really like being the leader, and is only too happy to hand over the reins.

When it comes time to pick someone for the killing part, English pronunciation becomes an issue, and Matthew correctly says that the feeling matters more than pronunciation since they can always work on pronunciation later. They give the part to Kim Ji Woong, which is really a good call, though I think Kim Gyuvin would do a great job at it too.

Team: Feel Special

Shirt color: Light Blue

Positions: Vocal and Dance

Leader: Cai Jin Xin

Time stamp: 35:19 Screen time: 2:31

Trainee name (rank) Star Level test Challenge 1 age final star level

Cha Woong Ki (25) Bloom Bloom / Very Nice - K 20 ⭐⭐ Zhang Shuai Bo (36) Reveal / BD - G 21 ⭐ Lee Dong Gun (48) Criminal (shoes) / Hot Sauce - K 17 ⭐⭐ Cai Jin Xin (50) Reveal / Hot Sauce - G 19 🚫

Cai Jin Xin says, “I love our team,” in English, and (a) his English is really well pronounced and (b) me too!! Woongki says the team is well balanced, because they have two G and two K team members. Also, as Jin Xin points out, “only the pretty guys are here.” I will say that this seems to be the Team Full of Queens that Seo Won prophesied earlier, and again, I am totally here for it.

They are realizing that it might be a tough job, because they’re all comparatively low ranked, and also, the music is really high pitched. They are given a version of the song in a lower key, but I feel like they could lower it further, right? They are allowed to rearrange the song. Because it’s so high, no one wants the main vocal, or even a normal amount of stage time. Woongki, who seems to be taking on an actual leadership role in addition to the Killing Part, encourages the others to be confident, saying that this might be their last stage so they should take the chance to stand in the center one more time. He interviews later on that he’s never had to beg people to take parts before!

Team: Home

Shirt color: Black

Positions: Vocal and Dance

Leader: Yoon Jong Woo

Time stamp: 37:50 Screen time: 4:02

Trainee name (rank) Star Level test Challenge 1 age final star level

Jay (9) Rush Hour / LMR - G 21 🌟🌟🌟🌟 Yoo Seung Eon (17) Kick It / Very Nice - K 19 ⭐⭐⭐ Dang Hong Hai (33) View / LMR - G 19 ⭐⭐⭐ Yoon Jong Woo (38) Mirotic / BD - K 22 ⭐ Ji Yun Seo (47) Kick It / BD - K 18 ⭐⭐⭐

They’re distributing the parts, which of course is tricky here since there are a lot of great vocalists on this team. Ji Hoon is still really really bummed to not get to work on Love Killa, but he’s consoled a bit by getting to work with a good team who seem to all respect and like him.

The original choreo is a lot, and the chorus is really high. Naturally they give the main vocals to titanium voiced Yoo Seung Eon whose voice is like, Exo quality. I love Kim Tae Rae, but I have to admit that Seung Eon is the best vocalist on the show, better even than Hui.

The team is trying to decide who will take which dance position, so they dance to “Na bina”, which is kind of funny.

Team: Butterfly

Shirt color: White

Positions: Vocal and Dance

Leader: Chen Kuan Jui

Time stamp: 41:52 Screen time: 3:45

Trainee name (rank) Star Level test /Challenge 1 age final star level

Chen Kuan Jui (26) Tiger Inside / KTL - G 22 ⭐⭐⭐ Lim Jun Seo (30) Replay/ Danger - K 17 ⭐ Cong (35) View / Very Nice - G 22 ⭐⭐⭐ Brian (41) Kick It - G / BD - G 20 ⭐

This team has a nice sense of camaraderie.

Lim Jun Seo is lacking in skills, and is open about that, which I have mixed feelings about. Honesty is good, but you need to have a positive attitude. The other boys on the team promise to help him -- Chen Kaun Jui offers to help him with his dancing, and Cong offers to help with his singing, saying, in Korean, “I too. Vocal.” Jun Seo replies by calling him “hyung,” which makes Cong smile. Cong’s Korean is obviously still a bit elementary; that’s not a criticism, just a note. I have all the sympathy in the world for the global trainees who don’t know Korean.

Incidentally, we see in a flashback that Lee Da Eul volunteered both of them to go first on the first day, and he did that knowing that Jun Seo did NOT want to go first, and I’ll let all 2-3 of you reading this decide for yourself whether that’s a cool thing to do or not.

Anyway, they are trying to decide who gets the killing part based on freestyle dance, and Jun Seo is like, so we’ll learn the choreo quickly? And it’s like, no honey, no, you sweet child. Once he realizes what freestyle means, he’s out. I’m like, “Just give the killing part to CKJ already, because you know he deserves it,” and they do.

I hate that the story is mostly about Jun Seo, instead of being about the far more talented Chen Kuan Jui. I didn’t like CKJ much at first that much for whatever reason, but he’s grown on me a lot. I think he’s sweet, hard working, and an incredible dancer. I don’t think he’ll make it onto the final lineup, but I hope we keep seeing him around the kpop verse.

Team: Gang

Shirt color: Black

Positions: Rap and Dance

Leader: Lee Seung Hwan🍑

Time stamp: 45:32 Screen time: 2:08

Trainee name (rank) Star Level test Challenge 1 age final star level

Kum Jun Hyeon (14) Nunu Nana BD - K 19 🌟🌟🌟🌟 Lee Seung Hwan🍑 (20) Mirotic Danger - K 22 ⭐⭐⭐ Mun Jung Hyun (23) The Real Very Nice - K 17 🌟🌟🌟🌟 Lee Jeong Hyeon (39) The Real LMR - K 20 ⭐⭐⭐ Chen Jian Yu (45) Call Me Baby BD - G 24 ⭐

This team consists of mostly people who got kicked out of the song they wanted. So, their spirits are kind of low. My little cousin and noted yeller Kum Jun Hyeon is bummed out -- he really wanted that bleepin’ Tomboy. And none of them have any experience making choreo. I do think that my little muffin Mun Jung Hyun knows something about rapping, and that maybe Lee Jeong Hyeon does too, so fingers crossed.

Side note: Chen Jian Yu looks great with his current hair color. Miles better than the light blue and also better than the dark color he had in the Star Level Test.

No one steps forward to make the choreo, so my little cousin Kum Jun Hyeon finally steps up, saying, “Although I can’t guarantee the quality, if I didn’t do it, I didn’t think anyone else could do it.” I find that very charming. Fighting, little cuz!

WHAT KIND OF PERFORMANCE WILL THEY PREPARE???? We’ll find out…

Team: Zoom

Shirt color: Dark blue

Positions: Rap and Dance

Leader: Keita

Time stamp: 47:40 Screen time: 2:37

Trainee name (rank) Star Level test Challenge 1 age final star level

Keita (8) Conduct Zero /KTL - G 21 🌟🌟🌟🌟 Haruto (16) Glitch Mode/ LMR - G 18 🌟🌟🌟🌟 Ollie (28) Kick It - G /Hot Sauce - G 16 🚫 Wumuti (43) UN Village/ LMR - G 23 ⭐⭐ Park Hyunbeen (49) GBTB/ Hot Sauce - K 17 ⭐⭐⭐

Keita, who is really feeling himself, says that he likes the song and wanted to do it, and adds, “I thought things would go well if I came to lead this team, regardless of whoever came or was here already.” Like, he’s not wrong.

Naturally, they make him leader -- I knew that as soon as I saw that he was on the team.

And they start practicing the Killing Part -- it’s that beginning part, “I see you looking at my P-I-C,” and they all want it. Hyunbeen says that they’re all wary and competitive with each other, and he’s especially desperate to win the extra points because of his low rank. He wins the killing part, though, so he’s over the moon. Oh god, are the judges going to tell his team to give the killing part to someone else?

Team: Law

Shirt color: White

Positions: Rap and Dance

Leader: Park Hanbin

Time stamp: 50:17 Screen time: 2:06

Trainee name (rank) Star Level test Challenge 1 age final star level

Han Yu Jin (4) Kick It BD - K 15 ⭐⭐⭐ Park Hanbin (22) The Real Hot Sauce - K 20 🌟🌟🌟🌟 Wang Zi Hao (29) Veil KTL - G 21 🌟🌟🌟🌟 Na Kamden (31) Rush Hour BD - G 21 ⭐⭐⭐ Lee Ye Dam (42) Gambler LMR - K 20 🌟🌟🌟🌟

This team is excited to be working together at first -- both Wang Zi Hao and Lee Yedam are among the very best dancers on the show. However, most of them are not really rappers -- they’re just vocalists. Park Hanbin says, “I rap like I’m reading a book.” Hey, we saw Lee Yedam rap in his Star Level test, and he was really good! But they’re worried anyway -- most of them don’t specialize in rapping and they don’t know how to write lyrics. Oh no! A lot of trainees I really like are on this team. Well, to be fair, I like almost all the trainees at this point, so I could say that about pretty much any of the teams.

It does seem that Na Kamden has some vague idea of how to write rap, at least. That’s really all you need -- one person who can write a rap and teach it to the others. Fighting, Kamden! Yujin steps up, too, saying, “I did learn a bit about rap.” Meanwhile, the other three can make the choreo. They’re going to get through it!

Side note: Did they make Han Yujin at the same laboratory where they made Sung Hanbin? Do they also make purse sized dragons there? Little dragons that will love you and be loyal to you? Is that the kind of thing they also make at this laboratory? I hope I can visit there someday.

Team: Rush Hour

Shirt color: Light Blue

Positions: Rap and Dance

Leader: Oh Sungmin

Time stamp: 52:23 Screen time: 2:57

Trainee name (rank) Star Level test Challenge 1 age final star level

Ricky (12) Kick It - G /BD - G 18 ⭐⭐ Takuto (15) Instead Of... /Danger - G 15 ⭐ Hiroto (21) Conduct Zero /Very Nice - G 20 ⭐⭐ Ma Jing Xiang (32) Reveal /Very Nice - G 19 🚫 Oh Sung Min (34) Bloom Bloom /LMR - K 21 ⭐⭐⭐

By the time we visit them, they’re already dancing. We can see from their sign thing in the background that Ricky has the Killing Part, and is both main dancer and main rapper; and we watch as Oh Sungmin is unanimously voted the leader. He’s the oldest, he used to be in a debuted group (TOO/T01) and he’s also the only 3 star (and there aren’t any 4 stars). So, that makes sense. But it does seem odd to me to be starting the choreography when they haven’t written their raps yet…?

Naturally, it’s hard to teach Takuto. You can see that he’s doing the steps more like they’re the steps from “Na Bina.” Sungmin is trying -- he even says “Daijobou?” to Takuto, which is Japanese for “Ok?” -- but he’s going too fast for someone like Takuto, and he’s going to need to break it down a LOT more.

Meanwhile, Ma Jing Xiang is trying to move ahead, and there’s an interview from Hiroto about how MJX is just “thinking about himself,” how he did the same thing in Very Nice, trying to learn the choreo from the K-team who were so far ahead. Ricky apparently is studying the choreography video, and again, we’re told that this is bad, but why? Ricky speaks a few languages and is a kind soul, and I bet he’s trying to learn the choreo at least in part to be able to help his teammates. But the show makes this looks selfish, and Oh Sungmin interviews, “We need to work on our teamwork first.”

I don’t understand this take. Why does the word “teamwork” seem to mean “We have to get Takuto step-perfect on each dance phrase before the team can go to the next phrase”? Couldn’t teamwork mean, “We work on different things to get the whole job done”? Doesn’t it only benefit the team to have more people who know the choreo and music in general? While Takuto does the same 10 steps over and over, why should the whole team do that? Especially considering that Takuto is in the safety zone, rank wise, while MJX is definitely not and needs to do everything in his power to put on a good show. Takuto can go ahead and screw this up and he’ll still probably make it through the next elimination round. And that’s a bummer, but that’s how these shows are.

Ok, let me out myself. I’m a teacher. WHAT? Yeah. I am. I don’t work at a school -- I teach adults, who sometimes are older than me, as well as teenagers and little kids. It’s a weird job and I’m not YOUR teacher so don’t worry about it, ok? Alright. So we go that out of the way. And the thing about being a good teacher is that you have a responsibility to the students who are ahead just as much as to the students who are behind, and a lot of teachers don’t know how to fulfill that obligation.

And it’s not really Oh Sungmin’s fault that he doesn’t know how to be a really great teacher, but I think that if I were there, I’d advise him to not worry right now about Takuto getting the choreo perfect. It’s going to take a lot of work before that happens, and it’s not going to be today. They should be going for the big picture, and making sure that everyone has a chance to get the basics of their routine down so that it becomes possible for people to do individual practice later. It’s like putting together the frame of the jigsaw puzzle first, and then putting together the pieces in the middle. The frame helps you get started and know where to put the other pieces.

Ok that was probably more than you cared to read but anyway. That’s how I feel. This is dumb and irritating.

On to the next team!

Team: Man in Love

Shirt color: Dark blue

Positions: Vocal and Rap

Leader: Lee Dong Yeol

Time stamp: 55:20

Screen time: 3:10

Trainee name (rank) Star Level test Challenge 1 age final star level

Kim Tae Rae (11) The Real BD - K 20 🌟🌟🌟🌟 Jung Min Gyu (27) My House (Red) Very Nice - K 23 🚫 Lee Dong Yeol (40) Who Very Nice - K 24 ⭐ Choi Woo Jin (51) Nunu Nana Hot Sauce - K 18 ⭐

They’ve elected Dongyeol, who is a member of the group Up10tion, their leader, and that makes sense.

The team is sitting around listening to the song, and Mingyu is saying it’s nostalgic for him, and WAIT is that a hickey on TaeRae’s neck?

I mean it’s not. Is it? It’s not. It can’t be. But also, whoever makes out with TaeRae, please be gentle to his neck, ok? That’s where he keeps his singing parts. He needs those. For singing.

Anyway, the team is talking about how much they like the song. Mingyu and Dongyeol, age 23 and 24 respectively, remember and like the song, while Tae Rae didn’t know it before but liked it when he heard it prior to song selection. Tae Rae thinks it suits his voice well, and Mingyu agrees, interviewing that he’s grateful that Tae Rae joined the team. I'm grateful that Tae Rae joined life!

They each try the killing part, and Dongyeol sings a bit, and his voice is actually much better than I thought it was, though he cracks a bit. When he’s done, no one reacts, so he applauds a tiny bit for himself until everyone else joins in. Aww. Then TaeRae sings and it’s so nice. It’s just… yeah. Listen, I know that titanium voice kid, Yoo Seung Eon, has a better voice, but I like TaeRae’s better. It’s like how Chen from EXO has a better voice than D.O., but I’d rather listen to D.O.

Meanwhile, Choi Woojin is having trouble even finding the note to sing. I’m kind of surprised he chose vocals, but maybe he was scared to write a rap? In that case, what is he good at? I watched his Hot Sauce and Nunu Nana performances, and he was basically a backup dancer in both -- he doesn’t seem to be a vocalist in any way, either as a singer or a rapper. What a bummer that we lost Hong Keon Hee and Kim Min Seong, because both of those were in the Nunu Nana group with him and both did a much better job in their various performances.

Red house Mingyu sings really really loud, apparently, and Woojin sings very quietly, so this will be tough.

Team: Limousine

Shirt color: Light blue

Positions: Vocal and Rap

Leader: Anthonny

Time stamp: 58:30 Screen time: 1:27

Trainee name (rank) Star Level test/Challenge 1 age final star level

Anthonny (19) Glitch Mode /LMR - G 19 ⭐⭐⭐ Krystian (37) Call Me Baby /BD - G 23 ⭐⭐ Park Ji Hoo (44) Freak /Hot Sauce - K 16 ⭐⭐⭐

Anthonny has been elected leader, but Park Jihoo ends up kind of stepping up to lead. He suggests that they think about what the song is really about -- it’s about a man achieving his dreams. They’re working on achieving their own dreams, so he thinks they can focus on that in their raps.

Trainees writing raps about how they’re trainees who want to debut?

Krystian is on his Very Best Behavior, and calls Jihoo, “Park Jihoo-shi,” which is kind of ridiculous given that Jihoo is seven years younger than him. He would still be polite in Korean standards to call him “Jihoo-ah” or something like that, and I bet he knows that.

Krystian calls him “mature” (in English), and since he can’t find the right word in Korean, explains it as, “you know what you’re doing.” And Jihoo agrees: “Genius, genius,” he says in English, of himself. Jihoo is a hoot.

(Incidentally, Jihoo says he’s 18, because he uses the Korean age system, which says you’re a year old at birth, and that also calculates your age based on the year it is, whether or not your birthday has happened yet. So he’s really 16, and will be turning 17 in July, by international standards.)

Team: Not Spring, Love, or Cherry Blossoms

Shirt color: Black

Positions: Vocal and Rap

Leader: Jung I Chan

Time stamp: 59:57 Screen time: one whole minute

Trainee name (rank) Star Level test /Challenge 1 age final star level

Lee Da Eul (13) Replay /Danger - K 18 🚫 Bak Do Ha (24) My House (Blue)/ Hot Sauce - K 20 🚫 Jung I Chan (52) Mirotic /Danger - K 20 ⭐⭐

Oh boy. This team. MNET gives them exactly one minute of screen time and most of that is just mocking their past performances.

I think Bak Doha is a decent guy who just needed better advice from his agency and more realistic goals in life, and I hope he makes it as an actor. Jung I-chan has been at this a long time and must have some talent or he wouldn’t keep making it halfway on shows like this, but he’s yet to really prove himself at a key moment. And you guys know how I feel about Lee Daeul -- I don’t like being unkind so I literally cannot say anything about him, whether it be about his personality, past behavior, or observable skill set. It would be such a redemption moment if any of these three could do something great in their performance, but I’m not exactly holding my breath. I’ll say though that I-chan has the best attitude he can have, considering.

Team: Tomboy

Shirt color: White (but basically, purple/blue top-9 jackets)

Positions: Vocal and Rap

Leader: Hui

Time stamp: 1:01:05 Screen time: 5:25, the longest of any team by a full minute

Trainee name (rank) Star Level test Challenge 1 age final star level

Sung Hanbin (1) Beautiful Beautiful LMR - K 21 🌟🌟🌟🌟 Zhang Hao (5) Kick It - G KTL - G 22 🌟🌟🌟🌟 Hui (7) Shut Down LMR - K 29 ⭐⭐⭐ Park Gunwook (10) GBTB KTL - K 18 🌟🌟🌟🌟

This team is a little TOO stacked. Three of them are top 9, and General Gunwook is in 10th place. They have three excellent leaders on the team -- Hui, Zhang Hao, and Gunwook would all make excellent leaders. And they have three excellent candidates for a center/killing part roll - basically, anyone but Hui would do a fantastic job at it. (Not that Hui can’t, but the others are that bit better.)

Gunwook says, “You can’t have a better team than this. As if I were Liu Bei, who gained Guan Yu and Zhang Fei, my shoulders kept rising.”

Ok, a few things about this. This isn’t the first time I’ve seen Koreans talk about “shoulders rising” as if that indicates pride or confidence -- maybe it’s a bit like “holding your head up high” in English idiom. Makes intuitive sense, too.

Next, it’s as if General Gunwook knows that I call him General Gunwook, because he’s making a reference to Liu Bei. Lui Bei was a Chinese warlord (born in the year 166) who founded Shu Han, one of the Three Kingdoms of China. Liu Bei gathered a team together during the Yellow Turban Revolution of 184, which I’m sure you already know all about, and gathered a group of loyal followers, including Guan Yu and Zhang Fei. So Gunwook is positing himself as a Warlord Emperor, and his teammates as his loyal generals. Love it.

The show seems to be implying that Gunwook is a little too solicitous of his team, fetching the lyric sheet and getting pens for them and stuff, but that’s what you do when you’re a polite younger person in Korean culture, and Gunwook is a polite guy. Of course he’ll get a pen for someone who is 11 years older than him!

Zhang Hao says that Gunwook was scary in Kill This Love, but now he’s a cute and sweet dongsaeng (younger sibling/friend). He seems genuinely surprised, but I’m not at all. Gunwook expands to fill the space -- if no leader is present, he’ll lead, and if one is present, he’ll follow. He’s a General, but he recognizes Hui as a Major General, and will follow commands. He’s also smart and wouldn’t want to look like a rude kid on TV!

Zhang Hao really wants the killing part, and so do Sung Hanbin and Hui. I think Zhang Hao is by far the best, and General Gunwook agrees with me, but the win goes to Sung Hanbin. That’s kind of a bummer but given how popular he is I guess it’ll work out well for the team. Zhang Hao is a class act -- he’s bummed, but he knows that Hanbin is also really good. So he sets himself the challenge of being able to rap quickly in Korean, reasoning that if Yuqi from G-Idle can do it, so can he! Hanbin is helping him and he’s improving already. Zhang Hao, fighting!

Side note: Kind of funny that they’re not acknowledging that Hui is from the same agency (Cube) that G-Idle is from. Hui probably knows Soyeon and Yuqi and the girls, at least in passing. I kind of wonder whether Hui and Soyeon get along? They’re both music producers who lead their teams and take responsibility for their members, so they have all that in common. On the other hand, sometimes people don’t like each other if they’re too much alike. Man, imagine if Soyeon and Hui teamed up, Triple-H style? Or even better, just a Pentagon/G-Idle crossover group, NCT style, where they just use whichever members from either group that would work in a particular song? Sigh. A girl can dream.

And with that, we’ve reached the end of this part of the Recap! Click here to go to Part 2, which is my discussion of Gang and Zoom!

Or if you'd prefer, you can scroll up to the top and look at one of the other songs! Or if you'd prefer, you can go on to Episode 8.

Thanks for being here! <3

#boys planet recaps #boys planet recap #boys planet #boysplanet999 #boysplanet #boys planet 999 #ricky #zhang hao #kim tae rae #hui #sung hanbin #kum junhyeon #park gunwook

17 notes · View notes