Warning: This recap is not spoiler-free. Proceed at your own risk!
Past Recaps: Episode Two / Episode Three / Episode Four / Episode Five
Now that my horse has left the race and is feeding peacefully in the neighboring pasture, I can watch this show without frayed nerves.
Before I natter on about the pointlessness of eliminations and rankings, let me link to a feature I posted earlier in the week, where I outlined the kind of idol-based variety I’d like to see more of:
Six K-Pop Idol Variety Concepts I’d Like to See (Instead of another survival series)
Unlike those ideas, most of Road to Kingdom‘s behind-the-scenes moments during the collaboration rounds consisted of the groups talking about how much they need to win, and how many points they needed to get. I find it telling how RTK and Queendom have essentially played to gender stereotypes, with more of a focus on bonding with the girls and more competition for the boys. After all, Queendom spent over an hour of airtime having the girls pick their duet partners in a series of (friendly) social persuasions. It was probably my favorite episode, actually. There’s not a lot of socializing on RTK. Everyone is just hyper-focused on WINNING.
A couple other observations before I launch into the individual performances:
1. This tired trope of “The Avengers” needs to end. It seems like every Mnet series has to give this label to at least one team at one point. It feels arbitrary and lame. (and after all, we already know who the real Avengers are…)
2. The forced reaction shots during performances are getting a little too over-the-top, and it makes it feel even more scripted. At this point, they’re reacting to a damn fog machine like it’s the Second Coming.
COLLABORATION ROUND
I reviewed VERIVERY and TOO’s performance last week, but we still had more to see this week.
PENTAGON & ONF – KILL THIS LOVE (original by BLACKPINK)
Let’s be honest, there’s not a lot of meat on Kill This Love‘s bones to begin with, which makes it a pretty good choice for rearrangement. As expected, most of the work in this regard seemed to fall to Pentagon’s Hui. Despite these two teams’ desire to work together, I found the behind-the-scenes content to be pretty stilted. It didn’t feel like much of a collaboration — more like a guest feature.
Those who read my reviews often won’t be surprised to hear that I loathed this trap-fueled arrangement. It was so needlessly dark, and stripped an already melodically spare song of its (few) redeeming features. The “pa rum pum pum pum pum” parts felt especially silly when performed in such a “serious” context. Enough with the “armed militia” and “graveyard haunts” concepts.
THE BOYZ & ONEUS – HEROINE (original by Sunmi)
Starting with the behind-the-scenes clip, this was the only stage that felt like an actual collaboration. I wonder if this is because the two groups are both of a similar age, so there wasn’t too much of that awkward hierarchy?
Regardless, these two teams picked the best song, by a mile. They also had the best performance. The concept was refreshing and unique, and I liked how it spotlighted collaboration and unity (which was the point of this round, right?). It gave everyone a chance to shine in their respective fields, and was the only stage this round that felt remotely joyful or celebratory.
If I were ranking the three performances:
3. VERIVERY & TOO / PENTAGON & ONF (tied — I disliked them both)
2. –
1. THE BOYZ & ONEUS (by a clear margin)
Of course, the actual ranking turned out to be:
3. THE BOYZ & ONEUS
2. VERIVERY & TOO
1. PENTAGON & ONF
And… if I wasn’t already aware from last week’s elimination that RTK‘s small voting block has completely different taste than me, this pretty much sealed the deal. I just don’t get it, at all.
‘YOUR SONG’ ROUND
And here’s when whiplash sets in. Seriously, there’s no breathing room between rounds and performances on this show. It’s like bang! bang! bang!… “that was so uplifting, but we have to vote NOW. NO ONE’S SAFE. NEVER FEEL JOY AGAIN BECAUSE YOU LOSERS ARE ALWAYS IN DANGER OF ELIMINATION!”
And… they’re already in their stage outfits for the next round. Seriously, has Mnet ever heard of the word “transition?”
For this round, if I caught everything correctly, the groups picked a song to perform, but then the twist was that their former collaborators would actually be the ones performing it. Ok. Very clever, Mnet.
Honestly, though, I think it would have been more fun to see the groups perform songs from each others’ discographies rather than picking any K-pop song they wanted. We ended up with a real hodgepodge of old classic and newer… choices.
For this portion, I’ll write about the performances in ascending rank (according to yours truly), rather than the order they actually aired on the show. Of course, we only saw half of them this episode.
3. TOO – Hard Carry (original by GOT7)
I’m interested to know what their idea of “punky” is, since that was meant to be the concept here. I certainly didn’t get “punk” from this performance, apart from some of their styling (which was almost universally awful). Instead, this felt like a serviceable re-creation of the original song. It lacked any unique perspective of its own (and no, those appropriated dreads don’t count as “perspective”). The ending bit with the spray paint was particularly cringey.
I guess kudos to them for getting GOT7 to guest-star in their behind-the-scenes clip!
2. ONF – It’s Raining (original by Rain)
There’s a Grand Canyon-sized gulf between this performance and Hard Carry, even though I’ve ranked it in second place.
I loved the behind-the-scenes clip, mostly because I got to see Monotree’s Hwang Hyun at work. I kind of geek out over my favorite producers, and Hyun is definitely in that category. It’s always fun to see these people as more than just a name on the credits of an album. Plus, major props to E-Tion for speaking truth to power regarding bright versus dark concepts! I support you, kid!
I’m also a big fan of It’s Raining, and combining that with a Michael Jackson concept speaks deeply to my musical tastes. The arrangement here was pretty much everything I wish K-pop was in 2020. Mixing in that epic riff from Complete was an inspired choice, and I loved the Beat It-esque electric guitar. The only aspect that bumps this down to number two on my list were all of the unnecessary pauses in the performance. I feel like they really stalled the momentum. But, you better believe I’ll be listening to the recorded version of this often!
Now… every boy group in K-pop, listen up! You had better start releasing this style of music again. Save us from the moody trap!
1. ONEUS – Be Mine (original by Infinite)
Okay, Infinite is my ultimate bias group. I consider Be Mine to be one of the greatest, most iconic K-pop songs of all-time. But, I’ll admit that it’s awful in the context of competition shows. It’s just not the kind of song that lends itself to these kind of stages, and groups who perform it on survival series almost always receive poor results.
With that said, this was probably the best re-arrangement of the song I’ve ever heard. Of course, there really haven’t been that many re-arrangements! Most competitors on these shows try to perform it straight, and without the pop of Infinite’s vocal line it just comes off like a lackluster copy. I was so afraid that ONEUS would opt for some melody-killing trap mix. But, they kept the DNA of the original and heightened it for this setting.
The staging was also really cool. I loved the cutting of the banner, and the use of props at the beginning. It was just really creative, and supported a clear story rather than distracting from it. I think this was ONEUS’s best performance of the series, by far.
Also, I’m kind of obsessed with “RomeHo.” I don’t think they fully grasped the connotations of that in English!
The Bias List // K-Pop Reviews & Discussion 
“The forced reaction shots during performances are getting a little too over-the-top, and it makes it feel even more scripted.
This. I only watched golcha performances tho, this guy appeared two times in both golcha videos and his reaction was so cringy…
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How about abandon this show and go to “Good Girl” instead?😀
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Pentagon and Oneus’ stage was also without a doubt my absolute favorite of the collaborations. I found the concept incredibly unique and touching. The part when Seoho nervously auditions then is replaced with New hits deep… For me it represents all the growth one must undergo as a person while pursuing the idol path, or just any dream. Even if you don’t feel like you’re on par with others, you’ll eventually get to where you need to be as long as you work hard and put your heart into it. While pursuing a dream, one must not be discouraged by harsh feedback or by the successful performance of others, as everyone moves at their own pace.
But putting my emotions aside, the stage did incredibly well in highlighting the talents of the members. To begin with, I really enjoyed the opening with Sunwoo’s and Leedo’s rap. It seems like both really put their hearts into it, and I love the amount of emotion that Sunwoo conveys. In addition, I really love the creativity in the choreography; Q, Juyeon, Ravn, and Hwanwoong especially executed it amazingly (but all of them did well). However, my favorite part was the vocals, from Seonho’s addicting color to New’s high note. I also love when New, Seoho, Keonhee, and Sangyeon step forward while harmonizing; I don’t know why, but this really had an impact on me. In addition, when the members said that they wanted to showcase their vocals instead of creating an intense stage, I thought, “Oh no, more murky trap and ballad.” However, they obviously proved me wrong with and interesting arrangement and a stage that was entertaining throughout. And shoutout to them for including Golcha’s name at the end hehe. I went into the collaboration results expecting the worst, and well, it lived up to that so I wasn’t too surprised.
On the other hand, I thought that Pentagon and ONF’s stage was almost the definition of style over substance. I love both groups and think that they’re incredibly talented. However, the stage was just underwhelming. What I found especially disappointing was that the arrangement was built on uninspired trap and never seemed to go anywhere, and I kept anticipating some unexpected turn that never happened (Come on, Hui!). I also didn’t really know what they were getting at with those um vocal effects, and the end of the stage just unnecessarily dragged out.
When they showed that Oneus had to perform Be Mine, I got really excited since that’s also one of my favorite songs of all time. Props to The Boyz. However, I too was worried that the arrangement would take a wrong turn. They proved me wrong, as it was engaging not generic like expected. During the choruses, I was taken aback a bit when the trap kicked in, but they picked the momentum back up after a few measures.
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*The Boyz and Oneus oops
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the rankings this episode…..at least the second round got a couple right and if you just switched the positions of pentagon and golcha round one was, dare I say it, pretty accurate. but this episode. of course that’s compared to my personal/biased rankings but still, I can’t feel like the voting system is at fault and it’s going to get worse, not better (I’m talking about the ranking teams aspect, the 2nd round thing was a whole other mess and seemed very popularity based and the fact that they just seem to be pulling a new voting system out of a hat every week is not reassuring). the decide your own rankings concept worked pretty well in queendom but now that it’s not the first week anymore and with the threat of elimination here I can’t help but feel like it’s going to affect how they’re voting more and more (which is like, you can’t blame them. you don’t want to get eliminated. it’s understandable). being allowed to rank their own team just made it worse. it’s hard not to feel like part of the results this time are from the other two teams not wanting to give the boyz a seemingly insurmountable lead and oneus just getting dragged down by it too. I’m still enjoying seeing the stages but nearly everything else about this show is making me just hate it more and more.
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I really didn’t like Pentagon-ONF version of the song. They took off all the fun and the energy of the song to make a weird sound. I liked Hyojin’s voice but it’s all.
I loved The Boyz-ONEUS stage. It was focused on the melody and the vocalists did well. I liked they recallt to everyone they all work hard, every group.
I was disapointed by the editing. First, the collaboration’s scenes making were super short when it could have been really fun to watch their interactions. They could focus this episode with the 3 performances and the BTS scenes. I don’t understand why they mixed with 2 other competitions.
The reactions were weird sometimes and they made us miss some parts of the choreo.
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As a person who grew up in a poor, unsafe community, I would love for these kpop idols to quit pretending to be punks, gangsters, or whatever the hell they think they’re pretending to be. They clearly don’t know what it means to be any of those things and it’s so cringey.
With kpop becoming more global and consistently making efforts to break into the western market I’m done with the ” They don’t know any better excuse”. You need to understand the audience your marketing to( which includes more than using the english language. non-asian minority groups aren’t having it.
Personally I’m done with groups who do this consistently and especially when they’re trying to break into the western music scene.
*coughs* G-idle.
Kpop is so oversaturated that losing a few groups isn’t a problem to me.
I completely agree with you nick on the rankings. I’m happy for ONF but they didn’t deserve first place at all. The space in between performances is completely wasted, it’s not interesting at all.
High key, I want TOO to get eliminated. I really loved their rising sun performance but they just keep giving sub par performances now.
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The “Street Thug” theme has been around for a long time, and, I agree the kpop version of it is all pastiche. Problem one is the classic “trying too hard”, which as the cool kids know isn’t cool. Problem two: they are spending too much money trying to be cool. Real street, real punk, gets knockoff cheap stuff and works with it. Fix those two (which they won’t), and they would be at least, well, heh, maybe, part-way … ? Individual charisma would also help, but that doesn’t often happen in kpop either.
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I’m glad to see that I’m not the only one who feels this way.
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As somebody who’s a Toogether (Too fan), I really want their stylists to put work into their costumes. Especially those dreads, they and Chan (the person who wore them) need to get educated on these things. I also expect them to get eliminated. Their performances weren’t bad, but the performances from other groups were better. God, I sound like a fake stan. I’m sorry if this bashed on the group.
Collab rankings
3. Pentagon and onf
2. Verivery and Too (this one is quite biased since I stan both of them)
1. The boyz and Oneus
Your song rankings
3. Oneus
2. Too
1. Onf
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Gotta give props to The Boyz, they are really sly (In a good way!). They know that mnet have made a “Beat The Boyz and win!” Narrative and probably decides to went for the ceasefire concept. They didn’t win but, most likely they got many support from other groups fans now. “Kill this love” winning over this is terrible, i guess individual moments from it must have stood out more compared to “Heroine” (The ending did leaves much impression)
The MJ remake of it’s raining is awesome tho, major improvement to the songs.
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This show is more like a drum corps competition, where the winner is more the concept that the band director chose and the band parents help build and execute, and less so the band itself, especially at the highest levels, the Blue Devils – Vanguard level.
The boy groups here themselves usually hits all the marks and don’t have many technical flaws, but here on this stage with canned music and vocals and the swirly cameras it is hard to tell. So every week I find myself considering whether the concept is appealing and well thought out by the people at the agency.
On top for me: The Boyz – Oneus “Show must go on”. The backstage journey theme has been around since movies started making movies about movie making. I thought it was well done, nicely sentimental, and with the “Heroine” slower arrangement … oh, I am going to say it, they made it their own. There were some nice (pre-recorded) harmonies at the end when they did “take the stage”. The show producers also did us a favor and made the stage brighter so we could actually see what was going on!
Apparently, they had the Golcha fan chant going on in the background at some point (the taking the stage part?). I don’t know the Golcha fan chant enough to confirm.
I can see how with the highly suboptimal voting system, the Pentagon / ONF Kill this Love musical rearrangement was actually “voted” on top. It is a remix that changes enough, most notably the tempo, that people think it is clever. The visual performance itself, well, kpop has been doing the seductress theme for a long time, at least since “Mirotic” and probably even further back than that.
The other people picky choosy your song part: Oneus Romeo and Juliet was well done but the music behind it was dull. TOO black light neon Hard Carry – Ringa Linga homage – was even marks for both music and visual. ONF Rain homage = high nostalgia points, I could even pick out classic Rain choreo. They are all about equal to me – none of the three stood out as hey wow to me.
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Haha that marching band comparison is so true
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It’s probably due to the chosen songs but to me everything after round 1 is ever more underwhelming and I enjoy the show less and less every episode. Whereas I used to be on the edge of my seat, I think I spent most of this last one just checking my phone.
It certainly doesn’t help that my two chosen rookies are serving dookie after dookie. I mean, for one, this time they took one of the precursors of the trap era and put some even more obnoxious-sounding trap on it. I don’t think Hard Carry is a song fit to be listened (hehe), much less played in a show.
On the other hand, if ever The Boyz deserved a 1st place (not saying the other performances weren’t worthy), that’s now, and yet to get the last place… I’m almost sure it’s mostly the public getting tired of them getting first all the time but now the choice was just unfortunate, given the other two performances.
So by now I think I’m just watching the show out of inertia and to see if we can get some upset win on the final and get 2 teams on Kingdom, which should at least have better mechanics than this iteration.
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I’m never forgiving this show…you mean I could have gotten ONEUS doing Shangri-La???? ARE YOU SERIOUS??? YOU TOOK THIS AWAY FROM ME? TRASH
I would rank the first round:
3. PENTAGON & ONF
2. VERIVERY & TOO
1. THE BOYZ & ONEUS
I feel bad putting them at 3 but the remix was not my favorite…people on twitter seem to agree. VV and TOO are in second because I have to give them some props for just using the entire monolith of them on stage lol. You can tell that they’re all rookies (this includes VV). They don’t have their oomf yet. Will be fun to see both teams grow in the future. Oh wait…Verivery moved away from their fun music…oh well I liked Lay Back so whatever I guess. I hope TOO actually get to find an identity for themselves.
Now for the second part my ranking is:
Whatever: Everyone else
1. ONEUS
What was Verivery on when they chose Hard Carry? Hard Carry is 1. awful, 2. never covered…and that’s for a reason. Who the hell wants to cover Hard Carry? TOO were given an awful pull here and I honestly kind of want them to stay because it wasn’t a total shit show. Chan and Kyungho were obviously the most ready to debut from them and if they get eliminated they have expanded their fanbase by the truckload. I’ve only really liked (absolutely adored) their Rising Sun cover and it’s made me a fan. More of that, please.
Now for ONF…I love ONF. I don’t even want to rank them because they removed everything from ‘It’s Raining’ that makes it the song. It doesn’t feel like a cover or any sort of Homage to Rain. Some might appreciate completely turning it into their own song by incorporating Complete but…I don’t know. I feel like it took away from the spirit of the challenge. At least it was fun to watch?
ONEUS came hard for both performances. I say this everywhere but Hwanwoong is a star and it’s only a matter of time before everyone gets on the same damn page! This performance was nice. There was story, the original song and dance weren’t completely removed from the situation. They did Infinite well which is a feat within itself. They’re probably going to get eliminated and I’m going to be mad for like 3 weeks :))).
Well for next week I’m looking forward to the TBZ doing VIXX because I can’t even imagine it. Will they be able to pull off that kind of restrained grace? The previews made Pentagon’s ‘Follow’ performance look like a standard cover. I know a lot of people haven’t liked TBZ extravagant fluffy performances but PTG hasn’t done anything to make me think they shouldn’t be in the bottom. I completely forgot about Verivery…man now I wish I could have seen TOO do Gogobebe.
At this point it looks like we’re getting ONF and/or TBZ in Kingdom. Anyone know who the hell is going to be in Kingdom? When that airs? Do the winners get to have a comeback in between?
Justice for Pentagon and ONEUS
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The teams actually didn’t choose any of these songs for themselves. It sounds like there’s a mistranslated part in the main subs. The teams always knew they were picking songs for the other teams, they just didn’t know for which team.
There was probably some strategy involved in picking the songs. Songs like Hard Carry or It’s Raining definitely seem like they were added to trip teams up.
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Thanks so much for the update! That was my impression from before the subs but then people said differently so it’s nice to be on the correct page. That said…VERIVERY IS FOUL FOR CHOOSING HARD CARRY LOL
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I’m used to be a moderate fan of both The Boyz and Oneus attitude, and unlike you I found their Heroine performance no less than disturbing. Almost embarassing.
Their freshness is – or maybe *was*? – so close to the sound of this song I’ve been dreaming about an epic and choral technopop triumph for a week, and on the contrary I got a noisy soup of random loops and WTF-is-this-trance-drop-instead-of-the-original-synth-riff that never starts and never ends. The hip hop lines with the piano at the beginning are ridiculously overperformed, the drum beat is continuously crashing after the takeoff, the choreo is a randomic sequence of Kung Fu Panda moves and even the english pronounce is… “The show must go WON”.
My ranking:
3. THE BOYZ & ONEUS / PENTAGON & ONF (tied)
2. –
1. VERIVERY & TOO
By the way, I completely agree about the remake of Be Mine by Oneus, which is so far my absolute No.1 KPop track EVER. It’s not exactly a masterpiece, but at least it saves a nuance of the original rhythm of the song (but the choreo is awful as well compared to INFINITE one).
My ranking:
3. TOO
2. ONF
1. ONEUS
This said, I find TOO and VERIVERY so unnecessary on the KPop scene I hope them to be eliminated, although their not-that-disappointing version of On. Eh-Oh!
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Don’t you think saying you want someone to be eliminated because they’re “unnecessary” to be too harsh? They’re people too. However, I do agree that the Heroine performance was a little underwhelming, although the message was nice.
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I will never understand how people inherently believe that a bombastic dance fueled stage is automatically more “Competitive” or better than a detailed and well thought out story driven sage. I saw so many people saying they loved the Heroin stage but that they did not think it was as competitive as the others. Even OneBoyz themselves basically said they thought the stage might suffer due to a lack of intensity. At least for me it was the most intense stage of the episode and as of now stands as my favorite stage of the entire series. It was so intensely relatable, and emotional that to me it felt like an immediate triumph. They poured their hearts and immense talents onto that stage and I loved every second of it. I also want to point out that as awkward as the two groups seemed at first, they already felt like best friends at the end. I would not be surprised if telling a story that was so immediately relatable to all of them really helped them bond as a group. So, if it wasn’t clear I would rank Heroin first and then the other two, I really don’t have much of a preference between them though. Overall while OneBoyz were still being competitive about the whole thing, this stage really did feel like a true moment of solidarity. It really seemed like they were staring down mnet and saying we all deserve to be here, we all shine, and no matter how hard you try to convince us otherwise we will still believe that. That alone would have been enough to make this my favorite stage but then they had to go and add on that four part main vocal harmony, as if I needed more convincing.
I got into Road to Kingdom because of Oneus. They are my bias group. They are still young but sometimes it really feels like they were made for me. Throughout each round I really tried to be objective and appreciate all of the group’s stages. That being said I’m still fully prepared to die on the hill that is loving Oneus’s Be Mine stage. I don’t have enough words at this point to describe how talented I think they are, or how much I have loved their stages. I am a very proud To Moon. Even though their storytelling abilities and extreme attention to detail has been continuously underappreciated, they have never ceased to amaze me. Their stages are so detailed I need strangers on the internet to tell me all the things I missed. I mean did anybody else notice that right before they pulled that big crest sheet over the stage that the backup dancers were actually arranged into the shape of Infinites logo. Like seriously who comes up with this stuff. I also think they brought just enough originality and clever prop usage to the stage that they really brought new life to a story that may otherwise seem overused. Whether or not they go home next week I really hope they are proud of themselves for all they did here.
When this show started, I saw someone call ONF the dark horse of this show and they were right. ONF has performed brilliantly overall and I would absolutely love it if they won. They are ridiculously talented, hilarious, and they have so much more in them then what they have been allowed to show so far. I came into this not knowing them at all and I really thought out of all the groups an early elimination would have hurt them the most. So, watching them succeed has been truly enjoyable. I am going to have to say it I am now a Fuse.
Similarly, to when all the groups preformed their own songs, I think TOO drew the short end of the stick with Hard Carry. I strongly dislike the song and that seems to be true for a lot of people, and in general it doesn’t seem like a song you can do much with. So out of the three stages we’ve seen this one is definitely my least favorite. Right now, TOO is fifth so if they go home, I won’t be surprised.
As we have only seen three out of the six stages I have no guesses for next week at this point. The only thing I am sure of is there will be tears and I will hate it with every fiber of my being.
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The moment when the melody to Heroine kicks in… chills. Hard to believe that anything could sound so timeless after only two years. (Incidentally, this performance also emphasized how good the drop is in the original… by doing something far, far worse.)
I’ve always liked ONEUS, and Be Mine crystallized them as my favourite performers within the context of the series.
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I’m the person who commented in your 6-reality-show-pitch post a couple of days ago about “okay what would I give for new artists to cover Infinite’s hits. but I fear they’ll go to the tired tropical house crap”
I didn’t expect to get this so fast? That’s a great reinterpretation of the song, they made it not merely a copypaste of the original artist. Although a part of my birdbrain thinks the arrangement lack Angst. Whatever that means.
Also, I noticed artists usually go for Be Mine as an Infinite cover. While it’s very acceptable (a hit everyone knows, catchy as hell), I can’t help but wanting Paradise or The Chaser for the extra epicness.
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What a performance by ONEUS. I’m here for their inevitable rise to greatness.
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I liked the Be Mine cover a lot (although some of the chorus parts were… interesting) because I liked the vibe they established and their use of props, and I loved RAVN’s rap. Their concept was specific. However, I do wish they were a little clearer on the storyline of their concept, or maybe pulled a little more from their concept into their performance, because I was kind of lost what they were trying to depict sometimes.
Personally, I felt that the Kill This Love cover was subpar in the sense that it had overused and unclear concept. It was a dark concept themed around… what? Evil women? I appreciated, however, that Hui tried to bring new flavor into the song for the second time around, as Kill This Love was really just not the best song in the first place.
I didn’t like the Heroine cover much, though. It has a heartwarming and lovely concept and idea, but one that I have seen used by idols for various performances and songs in recent years, though I understand it was something new for both groups to try. The use of backup dancers seemed a little messy, like when New sang and the two dancers on either side of him were obviously not centered or in sync. Just when I thought it was a rather somber concept, they would suddenly smile brightly. The vocals were very stable indeed, but I didn’t feel like they consistently showed the depth of emotion I was looking for. In scenes like the clothing racks part, I was consistently confused what emotions they were trying to depict. Were they happy? Depressed? Proud? It was unclear. There weren’t any particularly memorable points in the choreography or stage itself, except for the ending. One part I did love was their clear focus on collaboration and working together; that was great to see. But on the whole, I didn’t necessarily dislike it, I just didn’t… love it. All I really remembered after the performance was its concept, but not really anything that stuck out about the performance itself.
I enjoyed ONF’s cover of It’s Raining. Actually, it wasn’t a song I was particularly familiar with in the first place, but I was impressed with how drastically they changed the tone of the music. Although the concept was definitely very confusing and threw me off a couple of times, their arranger did an excellent job. Even without impressive and flashy props (not that I don’t love them), they delivered a lot of impact with their music alone.
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Heroine was not my favorite performance of the night, but what I really liked the most about it was the message that it gave to the other artists. The best part is that despite Mnet’s constant want to pit these groups against each other and to bring out the worst in this competition, you can see that these groups all really respect each other and the difficult path they travel as kpop artists. For once, Mnet’s evil editing wouldn’t work because the whole performance was centered around the groups being supportive of each other and that in itself is a win to me.
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After years of quitting kpop I decided to come back through some groups that gave me hope that this industry wasn’t all lost. For that reason, had to stop watching this show, I think it sums up all the problems kpop has and that’s too upsetting. However, I decided to trust your reviews and watch only the ones you liked, it has worked for this episode since I didn’t have to go through this painful process of cringing every two seconds, so thank you!
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No problem! And… oh boy… what a year to come back to K-pop…
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