I'm a bit late with this one, but Episode 3 of '8Face' Season 2 has now been uploaded with English subtitles by 아나 (ANA) - you can find it here. [Last Episode here]
As always, this is just a post where I leave my thoughts and give a bit of a recap, because I'm nothing if not a yapper~
So, where the first episode was focused on Seonghwa and Jongho, and the second one was focused on Hongjoong and Yeosang, we now get one centered around Yunho and Mingi! ♥
Bro, Yunho saying his solo is "moderately sexy" is so funny to me for some reason - especially after the MV for it was all about him being a ghost stuck in a time loop where he takes his own life at the end of each cycle. Like yes, fair enough I suppose - the tragedy of it all did knock that one down to a 'moderate' on the sexiness scale, I can't argue with that.
He truly is one-track-minded, but only when it comes to abura soba and I gotta respect that, honestly. Love that he now put his ability to cook this one singular dish on his resume (not that he'll ever need a resume ever again - he's still gonna be dancing 'Hala Hala' by the time he's eighty after all).
Dude, imagine going to a local restaurant and there's just Yunho behind the counter. Like, you best believe I'd turn on my heel and book it.
Their middle school dance teacher dropped by for them - that's so wholesome 🥹
It also speaks volumes about all the members just how frequently we get introduced to someone from their past whom they've stayed in touch with over the years despite their busy schedules - be that non-celebrity school friends, teachers, mentors, or people they've worked with on previous projects.
On top of that, there have also been so many instances of people praising the members for their kindness completely unprompted - from restaurant workers, over members of staff at a venues or filming sets, to people from other fandoms who just happened to share a brief interaction with them. They really are just absolute sweethearts, aren't they?
Promo for their dance teacher's new academy which will open in Shibuya!
Mingi summarizing his stage like "baaaaah - the end" is the most Mingi thing he could've done. Damn, I adore this man.
No pressure for all future concert goers, but when it comes to 'Roar', half the performance is in your hands, folks!
No, but genuinely, it's so unbelievably on brand for Mingi to create a performance which is so heavily reliant on fan-participation in order to be successful. The moment he made barking with the audience his signature move, he also chose to place his trust in us - after all, if we chose to stay quiet in response to his directions, the entire energy in the arena would simply plummet and recovery from that would be immensely difficult. And yet he does this each and every show with the hope - and to an extend also the knowledge, I would hope - that we won't let him down. And I think that's pretty beautiful, honestly.
The way they brought back the table tennis match from Season 1 is so cute! And he was even gifted a new racket!
In case you didn't watch the first season: Mingi was all big talk about his table tennis skills in the beginning, so they later brought in a professional to go up against him in episode 4. He immediately got so embarrassed and nervous before she even walked in, but she was absolutely lovely and everyone in the room had such a blast during the entire experience - it was adorable ♥
We've now moved on to the next segment and the whole squad has returned - yay!
Their new objective: convincing the jury (aka one of the hosts) that the news they have to share are worthy of being reported in Ateez Weekly magazine (a fictitious magazine, of course).
The way Hongjoong looks genuinely proud after Seonghwa shared he bought a lightsaber is honestly hilarious.
Nah, but legit - why has nobody talked Seonghwa into watching 'Andor' yet? I need to hear him yap about the entire Narkina 5 arc because it's literally one of the most well-executed plots I've ever seen in anything. Peak writing, peak acting, peak pacing. And the way the architecture of the prison was so essential to the storytelling? Oh my god, it's so gaaah - it's so good! Literally Sci-Fi at its finest.
Not Wooyoung's rejection pose 😭
But yes, it's sadly true - after Seonghwa got accepted because the host shares his nerdy interests, Wooyoung came in with the story of how he switched from drinking water to drinking coffee before he goes in for vocal recordings and the judge was not impressed.
Mingi's story was then greenlit after he shared he's been enjoying music from Vaundy who's song appeared in 'The Summer Hikaru Died' - an anime he's been enjoying recently.
In case you haven't watched this one yet and haven't read the manga either: it's a very heavy story which deals with grand themes like processing grief, battling with the question of what makes us human, what makes a monster, and queerness in all its forms and every sense of the word.
It's also a piece of work that takes full advantage of its medium by using the limitless freedom of 2D drawings (and in the anime's case also sound-design) to portray the reality-warping being that is 'the new Hikaru':
Season 1 has finished airing on Netflix fairly recently, so now is a good time to binge, especially since Season 2 has already been confirmed as well. However, since this is an anime that puts quality above all else, they won't start production until more chapters of the manga have been released and the current arc has been fully wrapped.
Moving on from that, we've got San absolutely nerding out over 'Haikyu!!' (lmao)
Once again: if you've never watched or read this one - simply put, it's about a high school volleyball team, but theme-wise, it's primarily about friendship, perseverance, learning to trust others, and growing your own skill-set alongside your own character.
At its absolute core though, it's about two idiots who go from enemies to unspoken soulmates across the seasons/chapters because they're the only ones they both know who are this single-mindedly focused on volleyball and volleyball alone. It's honestly just a really good time to watch this one (even if the animation drops in quality quite significantly at a certain point, but hey, I've watched watched all of Yu-Gi-Oh up to Vrains, so I've seen worse).
Not Hongjoong using his opportunity to pitch his story to call out Mingo for not knowing the Vaundy song Seonghwa covered JÖALKDJFÖLAKSDA And Seonghwa's judgmental face in the back, oh my god, I'm dying dude that's so funny what the fuck ölakdjfölaksdlösaö
Mingi's green light legit got revoked as a result lmaoooooo
After this they did a speed-run of the others with Hongjoong saying he's been watching a variety of romance (kdramas? movies? I really don't know), while Yeosang's story was completely glossed over and Jongho was only briefly heard singing. All three of them were given a green light though, as was San who talked about watching the 'Formula 1' movie (which everyone and their mom seems to have seen in South Korea, but I don't care enough to watch it - sorry not sorry. I already know there's only one perfect movie on this earth and it's 2002's 'Lilo & Stitch' - no, I do not accept criticism for this choice.).
Yunho then talked about how his stomach seems to have shrunken recently, so he hasn't been able to eat as much abura soba. That, of course, got him the green light as well - as it should.
And that's it for this episode! ♥
