MumboJumbo

I think he's fine, though I really do wish he'd stop straining so much because he's going to end up damaging his voice. Even ignoring his presumed lock in to the lineup and his preferential status, I think the reason a lot of people continue to include him is he still looks like he fits in when you put him in to a group with the likes of Haruto/Jeongwoo/Keita/Yoonbin as much as he suits being in A. So he's a nice pivot point. That being said, a younger group with Haruto/Jeongwoo at the forefront survives without him but an A lineup would have serious issues so.

This is what I included Keita for in my ideal lineup as he's a strong dancer while able to keep up to a good standard in other areas. I know many consider Hyunsuk to fulfil a similar role. That being said, YG choreography tends towards extremely low complexity and intensity to the point where I'd say a picking someone based purely on dance ability and to have a 'main dancer' is kind of a waste if they don't bring a lot extra to the table. Jihoon is pretty charismatic and not hopeless vocally so when comparing those two, I'd probably go with him.

I'm kinda surprised people are actually taken off guard by this, given this is the same man and company behind Mix9 and Mix&Match (aka, vote for the new boy least likely to take lines from your pre-existing fave).

It's really worth saying the structure of this show is a mess. Eliminations going 1, 1, 6, 9? What? Regardless of which spoiler is correct, if any, the show appears to be circling the drain on Team A debuting, in which case, debut them as 6 and don't waste anyone else when they'd fit much better and be less of a weird extra appendage in a non A based lineup. Yes it's pretty much a waste of the actual show and emphasises it never actually mattered who did what or how well because it was all preordained from the jump, but eh, it is a preferable result at this point.

At this point, I could see a case for a 9 member line up. I'm going to operate under the assumption we're not going to see a Team A +1/2 scenario because the flaws in that line-up and why they weren't just debuted have become generally acknowledged, I feel, but with YG, god only knows. Also, since it's a recent topic: Seunghuns issues with straining and scream singing are generally agreed, but it's also worth noting he gets by far the most post processing help of the singers.

The volatility is definitely in some part down to a certain fanbase. I suspect they will be cut off from voting at the end. That being said, Sungho being #1 is fun, I like his gloomy Eeyore vibe. 😂

Not a big fan of the edit this episode. The rap selection part was a tad obviously shorter (albeit cute) and making the performance selection entirely about whether Sihyeon has picked Doyum was... a bit much given how prominent both have already been, and the other team were a complete afterthought, even though Seunghwan's team has the much more interesting hook of having to very directly go up against the rap version of Her? But I guess he picked too many people the editors don't care about. Definitely the eliminations are overdue I think. First cut nearly half way through a series is a bit late. I think the edit definitely wanted to make Sangmin and Yonghun look unreasonable and Soomin as being wronged by them, but quite frankly, I think they were totally in the right, given they had already been totally reamed by the trainers and told that someone needed to step up and take the responsibility. Soomin's complaining in the corner in particular rubs me the wrong way. Manipulating is a reach, and the fact is Jinsung seems to have no background in musical theory so someone had to take the reins, but the stuff with the ad-lib was particularly control-freaky/passive aggressive even if he probably thought he was just being helpful. Yechan/Jinsung/Hyeonjoon are all in painful positions being as young as they are and having to be in charge.

The editing is more than a bit heavy handed; definitely feels like nothing at all was learned from MixNine in terms of how to build a show. YG certainly hasn't learned anything about what people think of his 'judging style' anyways. J were probably the best of the episode, very competent across the board. I'm glad Keita got some praise because he did stand out quite a bit and if more than 2 were gonna progress from any group it should have probably been from here? B have negative levels of chemistry together for obvious reasons but their performance could have been worse given their struggles. I'm not sure I like Jihoon or Jaehyuk's vibes, despite liking them both visually. Yoonbin has an extremely strong aura that can bring an entirely different feel to a song, I'd like to see him try something really light just to see how it would come across, but I suspect that's never to be. C was a nice choice and given they're least likely to make it across the board with the one obvious exception (who is going to sound good vocally regardless as long as it is a song with lines that be sung), they can afford to play it faster and looser. I'm sorry, but even with the vocal post-production and the reaction editing, that Team A performance was pretty awful vocally. Seunghun did well his first part and landed the big note, but you can literally hear him going off key 5 seconds before, and Junkyu and Midam were off pretty much throughout and its audible through the heavy studio work. If I had to describe it in a word, I'd use 'shrill'. But the narrative of the episode was already 'Team A has drama and then triumphs through adversity' and YG was not gonna let the actual quality of the performance change that. I think Seunghun and Gon probably did the best.

Fairly easy to split these as Rap - Idol/Heartbeat Vocal - Tempo/Energetic (or View) Performance - Sorry Sorry/View (or Energetic) if the contestants are to continue being kept in their categories and this rumour is true.

I also suspect Chinese votes account for the weirdness/more volatility in the other categories, particularly in rap. Voting for other performance team members for Muti stans isn't preferable, since it brings them closer to him in votes, so they probably assigned votes to lesser known people/likely no-hopers who were less likely to threaten him for the final in any capacity, and the rap team is quite evidently the least popular so ideal for that purpose. That being said that may have saved Kim Yejun by accident which is all good by me because he seems to be a legit triple threat that no one acknowledges because he's a little beefy.

Yeah, AKB's original concept was 'idols you can meet', while Team 8 is 'idols who come to meet you'. There's at least one girl who gets a tonne of work in her prefecture tourism wise, though I can never remember which. They're unquestionably the strongest team and generation in a long, long time imo, and it's showing in how they've become a force handshake wise and them getting folded into the other teams for kennings to help them out. Plus the fact the new AKB ace is Team 8 original. I still wish they could get full sister group treatment occasionally (and that management would get back to pushing Yamada, who seems to place in the top group in every metric barring sounsenkyo), but I understand why that's not possible.

Then why speculate that 'i just think it's obvious by the way sakura is being pushed that they thought she would win first at ssk'? Them randomly deciding that Sakura was going to win #1 and building their show around that when they have plenty of public data, not to mention 48groups internal data from goods and handshake sales etc, to indicate who was heading for the crown this year is a stretch. I think 'right girl, already popular, right time' is a better explanation. The first part about Mnet is not necessarily true. Cube got a focused audition in Ep 1 of S1, Adore&Able and Lee Woojin both got nice segments in S2, all of which could have suggested they could be favoured, and all 3 had very different edits later (Dropping likes flies with mixed tone, more focus in the middle for one with a late game surge for the other, and tailing off to disappearance mid-season respectively). We're only 2 episodes in, and Jurina had segments in both, so I wouldn't describe her as dropped. For the rivalry though, hard to keep that up as a storyline when they won't really be interacting in the group battles at all. Besides, the rivalry between Somi and Sejeong only really started once people realised they were going to be #1 and #2 in some order in the endgame. Same with Daniel vs Jihoon. We'll have a better idea of who the actual 'rivals' are once the show gets further in. Right now my instinct would suggest Ahn Yujin vs Sakura, but who knows, maybe it'll be Gaeun vs Nako or something like that.

Anyone who has followed AKB knew Jurina was going to win, especially with the deck stacked in her favour (SKE 10th Anniversary AND held in Nagoya AND SKE fans being infamous powerhouses when it comes to election season. The only possible threat was a late Sayanee return to election, and even that it's hard to say because NMB48 fans are the opposite of SKE when it comes to sounsekyo, despite Sayanee probably having a bigger fanbase and inarguably having more general, casual fans than Jurina). The only question was by how much she'd win by, so claiming they thought she'd lose and focused on Sakura as the presumed winner is misguided at best. They likely went with Sakura as the priority here precisely because she probably wasn't going to win the election (and so will not be pressured to 'remain' with the group as much as the #1) which is a more interesting storyline than 'already the big winner', does have a certain aura and always has, and is likely looking for a different challenge since she has ruled out future elections for the time being. As for the the plan for Jurina, I'm not sure. If 48group holds sway, it wouldn't surprise me if they pressure Mnet into giving her every second of screen time possible, because they have NEVER been shy of pushing or overpushing her. She's the recipient of the biggest push in 48group history, so it wouldn't shock me if she gets the same treatment here and finishes in a plum spot. But if Mnet is more about letting the dice roll for most of the final group (barring the obvious plan for having Kaeun/Sakura there), I can see the rising Miyu/Moe/Hitomi/Nako/Erii contingent pushing her out if she stumbles.

By the (very obviously not binding) rules of who made it from IOI/Wanna One, you need to have your audition shown, even if in a brief montage and be in roughly the top quarter by the time first elimination rolls around to make the group. Out of curiousity, I did a rough check of who hasn't managed the former, and this would eliminate Nako from being a potential member already, and in fact if we count the brief Honda Hitomi team flashback, she is actually the only 48 member whose audition was not shown even in part I believe. Buuuuut I think between the potential F -> A trip, the fact Miku leaving may have messed up the planned edit on their audition so it got left on the cutting room floor, and the rumours regarding her slayage come Group Battles, I think she could make it. Right now there's a fair amount of J-members ahead of her in terms of positive edits (Sakura, Noe, Jurina, Juri, Miru, Moe), plus Miyu's dark horse thundering up early, but if the next episode is good for her, I think she can still do it. Especially since she seems to have BYJ onboard somehow (is this a HKT trait?). My favourite moment of the episode was definitely the Heavy Rotation dance along. Not many songs in K-Pop or J-Pop rival AKB's best for sheer fun factor.

The NGT fans clearly decided to forgo bulk buying that single to ensure they can fully rice-nuke the elections. I don't blame them either, they want to prove last year wasn't a fluke, and I don't blame management for the unfortunate scheduling either since there's so many groups now and the consistent AKB 4 single schedule to work around. I'd take it over a 1/2 single a year system for the sister groups. I'm very interested to see just how many girls they get in and how high they can go (Could Ogiyuka challenge for the top?).

Of the international girls, maybe Cherprang? As I understand it, she's incredibly popular with the Thai fans. Not sure who else could make it in, but I'm sure the different fanbases will try and unite behind one to get a placement high as possible.

Mion literally had streams of her studying, doing quizzes, had her fans asking her trivia at handshake events, and even had the reputation of being a wota becoming an idol when she joined having previously gone to theatre shows. Japanese fans even reacted with 'as expected' when she ranked first. Sasshi is a huge idol fan with experience of producing setlists for HKT from the back catalogue, Yukirin has been around for a long time, Annin is known for being intelligent and has a good memory, Yokoyui also has been around an age and had to do make sure she did well as the GM or it would have looked really bad. No one else in that lineup is someone management would rig it for, and I query why they would bother rigging it wiuth a B-SIDE that is essentially meaningless and just an excuse to have another fun event to keep fans occupied.

Seo Seunghyuk managing to get Sohye to cry, got Yoojung choked up, a nice word from BoA, and laughter through tears. Keep giving this guy screentime, he never stops delivering tbh.

Pretty much. I think we can realistically guarantee it to Sorry Sorry Team 2. And having figured that #1 individually is at 200 votes or greater, I'd like to think Woodam managed that somehow, especially when Jihoon was against strong competition but it's hard to believe it happening when pre-show hype played such a strong role. Then again, Hyunmin did manage 100 against a 13 candidate selection and had arguably stronger competition, whereas Woodam is in a selection of 11... Miracles happen.

There's no way to know that they would have lost when we don't know where Hyungseob's votes would have gone had he not been in that team; Hyunmin may well have gotten the lion's share of them for 'wow factor'. Some could have gone to Red instead, some to other White members, some may not have voted at all. It's speculative though. It's from the third episode. Just as BoA is announcing the 3k benefit to the crowd, it switches to a shot of 6v6 results. The names and song name is blurred out, but the votes are not, so it's easy to total and see that someone got more than BIL's score. And then there's only one song that is a 6v6 member duel left for the second episode.

Well, we know it has to be 200+ to supplant whichever 'P' is at the top even if this is the case, although looking at the team make-up and groupings, and knowing how performances generally went from the eye contact cams, I'm not sure how anyone else could even hope to get close to that.

Something I noticed looking at the next ep teaser:

Daniel doesn't come off as cocky at all to me. Confident in himself mostly, yes, but even when he was singing, you could see he didn't think he was killing, more that he was game to try it and get better. Looking forward to what we get shown tomorrow; should be pretty telling about Mnets intentions. Hopefully Woodam gets his chance to shine. And for those saying they feel bad for Guanlin; I'm very sympathetic but to me, it really shows he's not really ready for this just yet; he needs more training and (most importantly) more time to acclimate to Korea and learn the language. Voting for him now is really deep-ending him to me.

Just some freewheeling thoughts/speculations on edits so far:

His bar finally appeared on maboy.