Produce 48 Concept Evaluation Review/Opinion
**SPOILER WARNING**
If you haven’t watched episode 10 or the concept performance clips on MnetOfficial Youtube channel, you’ve been warned! -------------------------------------------------------------------- The anticipation leading up to this episode was WOAH. I mean, no joke, I played the little samples of each concept song over and over and over again. And when that wasn’t enough, I watched their practice clips over and over and over again. Even that wasn’t enough though cause I needed to hear the songs in the trainee’s voices. Let’s be honest, the demo voices used in “1000%” and “Let’s Meet Again” were excruciatingly squeaky and mousy and just plain unpleasant to hear.
Mnet just uploaded the clips to their official Youtube channel and I pounced on those clips like ... like a hungry person on a plate of food? I don’t know; I’m bad with analogies but I’m sure you get the point. Let’s just get straight to the review: TO REACH YOU: Absolutely stunning and beautiful and everything I never knew I needed in my life! Unpopular opinion but I loved the dresses. I’ve heard people compare them to children’s dresses and such but I thought they really captured the innocence that the concept is all about. And all the girls had long hair that they wore down which was so good. This performance was just soooo goooood. Chowon did a great job as center (I also really love the tone of her voice) and Yuri, as always, has such a strong vocal. In the last episode, when they were recording the song, the composer of the song mentioned that Goeun has a problem with rhythm which wasn’t something I noticed until this performance. She definitely seemed half a second faster than she should be. Her high note reminded me a lot of Yuri’s high note in Energetic but a bit less stable. I wish Nako were given more lines cause I feel like her tone matched the song the best out of everyone. And then Gyuri ... I had no idea she was even in this group until I saw the performance and even then, was she really even there? Of all the times previously where Mnet gave her the favorite child treatment (or tough love on a favorite child treatment), she had maybe 2 solo shots??? What even? Did they give up on her? I’m not sure if it was a result of her not having much presence in the performance that she didn’t get as many solo shots or if her not having many solo shots made her have less of a presence. Either way, I honestly think she may as well have joined a different group altogether cause she was basically invisible. Perhaps she would’ve done better in the Rollin’ Rollin’ concept? ROLLIN’ ROLLIN’ Either I don’t get the tempo of this song or everyone was kind of rushing through it. Nayoung honestly killed this concept! She’s so cute and sweet and I’m glad she got to showcase her vocal prowess with this song! Hitomi, of course, fit this cute concept really well too. I don’t really know how to feel about Wonyoung? Lately I’ve been feeling like she’s way too overhyped for no reason. Yeah, she’s good at being center but that’s such old news now and somehow, I don’t think it felt quite right with her in center for this performance. It felt a bit forced to me. Some knetz were saying (before the episode came out) that Doa had such a change in concept from her last performance that her performance in this song was a bit jarring. I can understand that a bit. I think she excels at girl crush type songs and this just wasn’t the right concept for her. However, concept voting started before the position evaluation episodes were released so no one really knew where she belonged prior to that. Before I forget, let’s talk about the outfits. Knetz were saying their outfits were the worst of the night but I think it kind of matches the concept. It is a bit hodge podge and some outfits don’t necessarily match (Like Miru’s outfit but I’ll get to her in a second). They should’ve done more of a tropical theme than a modern pop theme for the outfits cause Nayoung’s outfit fits the concept best I think, with Doa’s outfit coming in second and everyone else is labeled with a big fat “?” cause I’m not too sure how I feel about them; not the best but not overwhelmingly bad. Miru’s outfit made her seem much more mature than the group and she kind of stuck out from the rest rather than being cohesive. Don’t get me wrong; she’s gorgeous but I don’t think this was the right concept for her. Both Miru and Doa should have been in the I Am concept cause they would’ve matched that better.
I AM Worst. Performance. Honestly, this performance was such a let down cause I love this song so much. It’s my favorite song of all the concepts so my expectations were way up there. The outfit choice was kind of a miss. Like, it’s a cute outfit and it fits with the vibe of the concept pretty well in my opinion but since this is one of the few concepts that is more dance focused than vocal focused, the loose top was more of a distraction than anything. May J Lee said that when she choreographed this, it was supposed to be a mixture of cute and sexy. I feel though that this song is more of a confident flirty sexy vibe. Like sexy but not sooo much, just a playful amount of sexy. I think Yena did the best in this performance but honestly, I don’t think she matches this concept very well. She should’ve switched with Miru to be in the Rollin’ Rollin’ concept cause she does have such a bright personality that would work well in that concept. I get why she wanted this song though cause she does seem like someone that prefers less girly songs and more powerful type songs, especially with her dance style. But my opinion still stands; she would’ve done better in Rollin’ Rollin’. Seems they changed center from Gaeun to Yujin. UNPOPULAR OPINION THAT WILL GET ME INTO FIGHTS: I don’t like Gaeun, Yujin or Yunjin. They’re all overhyped and they have such big egos from the voting results now. Even though they’ve fallen a bit due to recent episodes, they still have such over confident attitudes that aren’t backed up much by talent. If anyone, Gaeun actually has some talent and the other two are debatable. I think Gaeun would’ve been fine as center cause like I said, this concept should be more of a playful sexy vibe rather than cute/sexy. Yunjin did sing well so I guess it’s okay that she got main vocal position and she did look really pretty in this performance.That’s really all I can say about her, especially after the temper tantrum she pulled in the position evaluation episode. Yujin ... I don’t find there to be anything special about her. She did the dance, she sang the song. To me, she doesn’t have star quality but she must have some cause everyone else is all up on her all the time. I feel so bad for Juri. Knetz had said that she because kind of invisible in comparison to everyone else in her group, which makes sense cause everyone else was trying so hard to stand out in this group. I think Juri did the raps really well and she did the dance to the best of her ability. We all know she’s not a dancer so maybe she shouldn’t have been in a concept group that had such a big focus on dancing. She probably would’ve done well in Rollin’ Rollin’. Maybe if she’d switched with Doa? I’d like to just sneak in here real quick to say that Chaeyeon deserved so much better than to be kicked out of this group, especially as the leader of the group. 1000% Funny enough, I think this group matched the concept really well. Somehow the leftover groups always do pretty well compared to the groups that had first pick. Minju as center, great. Chaeyeon as main vocal, super great. (Like super super great cause wow, them vocal cords though.) Miho as sub vocal, so great. Moe as sub vocal, also great. Miu as sub vocal/rapper, ... I wish there were a bigger rap part for her but what little she had was great. The background set was cute although I do question if it would have been better suited for Rollin’ Rollin’? (I have many opinions on how Rollin’ Rollin’ could have been better.) I love the outfits as they seemed the most cohesive honestly. Not too much to say here though from me. They did great; it’s a good concept and I hope they get really high scores. LET’S MEET AGAIN Mnet is doing the most for this performance with the intricate floral background, the slowmo close up on Yiren, the stabilized follow shot of Sakura dancing, pink background lighting, moving footage of petals falling in the backdrop, glowing edit. It’s the most cohesive performance of the night from outfits, makeup, stage setting, everything. Wasn’t the choreographer’s idea for the dance to resemble a sakura flower blooming too? I would say Yiren does a great job as center here, as she always does. I think the trainers criticized her too harshly in the last episode. Somehow, she still manages to be humble even though she’s been voted in the top for a while now. Knetz were saying Sakura stood out the most for this performance but I definitely didn’t see it that way. Could be due to Msnake editing to give her as little screen time as possible compared to the beginning of the season. I do think she needs to rap more often though cause she did pretty well. Haeyoon is definitely main vocal material. I think she’s done well to secure that position for herself, especially after this performance. Also, did anyone notice she got whipped in the face by someone’s hair during her high note? Hyewon’s rap tone was much better suited for this song than the previous ones that she’s done. I do wish she would smile a bit more though cause honestly, when she would have her solo shots, it kind of brought the mood down. I love the girl and how she’s grown in the show from just innocence to multi-faceted but girl needs to match her expressions to the song; especially since Minami is in the crowd watching her! Best for last, Miyu did AMAZINGLY. She’s so adorably cute in this performance with her bright-ass smile and her top-tier vocals being front and center FINALLY. And Mnet finally gave her a lot of screentime too during the performance! RUMOR The performance we’ve all been waiting for after that 20 second preview in the last episode. This is the most interesting concept out of them all. There’s no doubt that this is the most popular out of all the concepts as well. (Especially after the injustice that was done to Go Yujin.) I have way too many feelings about this stage so I’ll just jump right into it. I’ll be the first to say that I honestly never realized Shihyun was so goddamn gorgeous! This is definitely her style and the look that she gives in the beginning gives me chills. I love that slow down part in the middle of the song too where they just strut across the stage. Chowon was my fave after last episode but I feel like she’s doing too much in the performance. At one point, she’s actually yelling instead of rapping too. She also needs to work on her hairography cause her hair was all over her face all of the time. No doubt she’s gorgeous though; her eyes could kill. Eunbi did fantastic as main vocal and I really hope she makes it to the final. She’s such a hard worker and she deserves so much. Sae is another one of those trainees that’s super hyped for reasons I don’t understand. The only way I can explain it is that her looks and seductiveness must not translate well through the camera footage cause everyone in person always falls under her spell. She did well though in dancing and singing so she definitely did her part to contribute to this performance. Sian, my meme girl. Ever since position evaluation practices, I’ve been rooting for her. She’s so pretty and I absolutely love her personality. The faces she makes too off stage are hilarious. She shows off how well she can sing in this performance and how well she can dance too. If I had to predict, without watching the full episode yet cause I wait for the subs, I wouldn’t be the least bit surprised if this performance was the one that won the night.
