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Welcome to my episode four review of NCT Universe: LASTART.
If you have not read my introduction post yet to this competition reality show, please go back and read it to get a great idea of what to expect from this show.
If you do not want spoilers, please do not continue reading because I will not hide anything in my review. Besides, these episodes already aired a while ago.
For what seems to be a disastrous rehearsal, Team U is now about to take the stage.
Team U: Yushi, Sion, Sakuya, Haruta, Minjae, Ryu, and Riku singing and performing "U" originally sung and performed by Super Junior
Artist Director BoA thought that the true title of the song was "Because I Can't Stop." Her fellow Artist Director Eunhyuk confirmed that "Because I Can't Stop" was the demo title, but it was eventually changed to "U." Eunhyuk also mentioned that this song also has nickname: Mustard Ketchup Chicken Spatula. Vocal Trainer and Artist Director Jang Jin Young thought that these stories would inspire the trainees if they knew about it. Super Junior members Eunhyuk and Ryeowook, who is the guest Artist Director for mission two, reminisce about how they tried to leave an impression on the audience by attempting to play with the lyrics and wink at the audience. BoA remembered that when she promoted her song, "MOTO," she had to think of ending poses for her songs as her fans were anticipating it. Back then, artists promoted their songs for four weeks, which meant BoA had to become more and more inventive. Super Junior member Heechul was also memorable for bringing a prop fan and throwing it at the end of the performance. In the end, the artist directors mention that this trainee group "U" has members who rank high and low so they are interested in seeing how well they will do.
After the performance, the Artist Directors allowed Team U to introduce themselves and Eunhyuk asked them what type of advice Super Junior member Donghae gave them during practice.
Sion answered that Donghae gave the advice to win the artist directors over whenever they danced in the center. Therefore, they practiced poses to front of the mirror. BoA caught on that they had turned their attention to her and were pointing specifically at her when they were dancing.
Since Eunhyuk is the original performer of this song, he observed more carefully and mentioned that this group made their own version of this song and he was happy to see that. Ryeowook talked about how hard the Super Junior members practiced including how to hold a microphone while dancing back then. Team "U" had to make use of both hands for the dance performance, which must be more difficult.
Director Jang gave his high praise to Yushi, who was able to sing live as he was given vocal parts. I assume that comment meant that he doesn't normal take the singing role. Director Jang thought Yushi hard carried the team in his role. All artist directors agreed and acknowledged his vocal talents. Sakuya's voice was loud and had a punch to it.
BoA gave advice to Yushi to open his mouth more while singing to improve as a artist. BoA also thought Ryu's end notes and vibrato were sung like an amateur. Director Jang reminded everybody that BoA is the "Ear Goddess." BoA was also alerted to Minjae's note improvisations while everyone was dancing and found out that it was Minjae. She wanted to know how Minjae practiced it. Minjae answered that vocal coach Jang advised him always to match his voice to the song and he also needed to raised his pitch in this case. BoA liked Riku's dance gestures. She liked seeing Sakuya's confidence in gestures and rapping. Sakuya confessed that he thought a lot about how to gesture, but in the end, he was so nervous that he ended up freestyling the gestures. Sometimes, being in the moment will bring unexpectedly good results. Lastly, BoA thought that Haruta didn't stand out in this performance so she could not give any feedback. Haruta needs to find his own style when he is in the spotlight. Haruta admitted that he was not good at making facial expressions or gestures.
Ryeowook thought that when Ryu sang the "Don't leave" part, it convinced Ryeowook to not let him go. Minjae's high notes and voice control was done well. However, at the beginning, he could have squatted lower to match the level of his teammates. Overall, Sion and Yushi definitely stood out, but the overall performance of the group was good and well-balanced.
Eunhyuk thought Minjae had some parts that he could have improved. Riku's facial expressions on stage were really good. Eunhyuk actually didn't have any negative feedback for Riku. Director Jang then commented that it was because Riku's voice sounded much like Eunhyuk's voice so Eunhyuk confirmed that was probably why he liked Riku's voice. Eunhyuk continued to ask Riku to perform a dance.
Riku decided to do a popping dance. Everyone was impressed, though somehow I wasn't too impressed. I was expecting something like what NCT Jisung would do with popping that makes the body look like it explodes with passion.
Backstage, Sion thanked Riku as Riku was the person who was the most detailed and remembered most of the choreography in Sion's absence as Sion and Yushi had to split their time between the two groups.
Riku ended up helping out to lead the practice sessions. I can see Riku's worth in the debut team.
I thought the "U" team's performance was tight. I was worried about them because of the disastrous rehearsal, but very excited that they pulled through for the actual performance. Their dance began with sharp and synced movements, which led me to appreciate the song more. I felt that Ryu's overall body position looked stiff and when he put his hands on his pelvis area, he looked uncomfortable. However, his voice is not bad and has potential for growth with his end notes being shaky on two occasions so there is some inconsistency in his execution. When Yushi sang, I thought his voice was very clear and I wanted to hear him sing more. I find it odd that he has this hidden talent that he does not show by default since I think he mainly wanted to be a dancer. I thought his vocal performance was better than his "Lucifer" performance where in the "Lucifer" performance, I heard his notes being cut too short. Could it be that he took BoA's advice and improved himself in the next performance? Minjae's voice was very nice and I liked his improvisations. Unfortunately, I also didn't see anything special with his dancing or facial expressions, but I wouldn't say that would be a reason to reject him, though he is not exactly high on my list in terms of impression. I love how fluid Sion's dance movements were when he raised his leg to dance to the side. He has the best individual dancing style and interpretation. I think he tried a little bit too hard to crane his neck while he was singing "Wooah" in his individual part, but overall still a great job. I thought Haruta's look with a slighty messy look, tank top with chains around his neck didn't suit him or match the group. Perhaps giving him a different outfit might help his overall impression. It seems like his overall effort was less than all the other members. I was surprised to hear Sakuya's strong rapping as opposed to his cute rapping in the "Chewing Gum" song. He has definitely entered my radar of attention and the fact that he winged it shows that he does have talent and potential to make a great stage. Riku is so stable in his performance that I really think he should debut right away. He looks like he is born to be on stage with amazing confidence to perform. Riku is on his own level. His last hand fling move during his solo part was memorable and natural. What I love about the group performance the most was the razor sharp arm movements at the beginning and end of the song from the entire group. It really solidifies their appearance as a strong group. Overall, I am proud that both groups ended up giving us a great performance.
For the top ranking positions, I am selecting Riku and Sakuya as the strongest contenders in this team.
It is time for the new IP TF team to provide their half of the scores. The benefit from being in the top four ranks is another photo shoot with the SM Rookies Sion and Yushi.
Some of the comments from the IP TF team were:
Sion and Yushi were very impressive compared to the others.
Jungmin is the MVP for the Lucifer performance, covering parts of two to three singers and good at covering crucial parts.
Ryo could have had voice breaks, but he pulled off his part well.
Kassho did not stand out in the performance and needs to work on when to pause and hold his positions
Heitetsu needs to work on his moves as he looked awkward given his tallness
Anderson gave a stable performance, but he didn't have enough charm.
Yushi covered many vocal parts in the "U" performance.
Sakuya was impressive and his part was impactful.
Riku's performance was most impressive after Sion and Yushi with his rap part being stable.
Haruta could perform better and his balance was off.
Ryu had potential.
Minjae's vocal parts were difficult while standing still, but his dance skills wasn't good enough.
The trainees enter the stage to receive their rank for mission two, the group mission with SM hits.
1. Jungmin (previously ranked 3rd)
2. Riku (previously ranked 1st)
3. Sakuya (previously ranked 5th)
4. Minjae (previously ranked 6th)
5. Anderson (previously ranked 2nd)
6. Ryu (joint-rank, previously ranked 8th)
6. Ryo (joint-rank, previously ranked 4th)
8. Kassho (previously ranked 9th)
9. Haruta (previously ranked 6th)
10. Heitetsu (same rank as last time)
Members who secure their debut will participate in a showcase in Japan after the conclusion of the NCT Universe: LASTART show. In my mind, I thought the the finale would be live and that would be difficult to do. I would later come to find out that this show is pre-recorded back in April/May so that would make sense that they would be ready to debut after the show.
I'm happy that Jungmin was able to secure a high rank. So far, Jungmin and Riku are probably the two trainees that I feel comfortable with a debut. Sakuya is growing on me and if he continues to perform consistently, I will consider him in the debut line. This is a bit difficult because there are only four spots and would like Anderson to be in one of them. It was too bad that he didn't make the cut in this mission.
My personal top four trainees are as follows:
1. Jungmin (still a required trainee for debut and I think he is the true hard carrier of vocals)
2. Riku (there is basically no competition. He is THE rapper)
3. Anderson (this is where it gets tough as I am not completely sure and Anderson looks like a rookie with great dance expressions)
4. Sakuya (I see improvement from the first mission)
I had to sacrifice Ryo. It seems these half to one year trainees, Anderson, Sakuya, and Ryo are going to be difficult to rank.
Eunhyuk revealed the next mission being Japanese hit songs from SM Entertainment. SM Entertainment is always so good at promoting themselves. They will be assigned in groups again to perform with Sion and Yushi.
The mission two photo shoot was held in the rooftop of SM, known as Kwangya.
In the next part of the show, trainees are brought in with their respective mission one teams into a practice room with many random objects so that the audience can observe their MBTI. I am not sure why knowing their MBTI and behaviors are relevant, but I'm glad that they get to have some fun in between missions. I personally don't understand MBTIs too well. At the same time, I think the purpose of this part is to get to personally know each trainee a little bit better.
In team Lucifer, we have the following members with the following MBTIs:
Jungmin and Ryo - ENFP
Anderson - ENFJ
Heitetsu - ESTP
Sion - INTJ
Kassho - INTP
Ryo went straight for the exercise ball and endlessly bounced around.
Jungmin played with the wigs.
Heitetsu and Anderson played with the limbo pole.
Sion went straight for a book
Kassho sits on the couch to observe the setting
The extroverts start getting a bit chaotic with the exercise ball and the limbo. Sion, in a perfect leader fashion, warns them not to get physically hurt from the activities.
Jungmin ordered Kassho to do sit ups, quickly tiring Kassho out. Poor Kassho.
Next, team Lucifer enters another practice room where the staff revealed that they being observed.
Jungmin had so much fun that he didn't observe what other trainees were doing. He was so busy playing with the exercise ball, wearing a wig, playing limbo, training Kassho, and giving a guitar performance. He didn't see Ryo playing with the exercise ball or Heitetsu playing limbo. I thought Heitetsu would like limbo for flexibility since he likes creating interesting dance moves like the jumping worm.
Team Lucifer gets the extra benefit of watching Team U from another room through the monitor.
In Team U, we have the following members with the following MBTIs:
Yushi - ISFJ
Riku and Ryu - ISFP (This is also my personality type)
Sakuya - ENFP (same as Jungmin and Ryo)
Minjae - ENFJ (same as Anderson)
Haruta - ESFP
The three introverts head over to the bean bag couch area and Ryu was asking if he could touch the guitar, but everyone ended up laughing as Sakuya wore the colorful clown wig on his head. Everyone thought Sakuya was cute. It turns out all the ENFPs, Jungmin, Ryo, and Sakuya, love the wigs. Sakuya ends up playing with the exercise ball alone.
Haruta and Yushi started looking at a Korean book together. Ryu continues his guitar play.
Minjae notices a camera while holding a wig. Riku and Sakuya didn't seem to care. In the end, all six members started playing limbo. Ryu couldn't make it under the limbo poll and made some interesting high pitches, which seem to hurt Sion's ear as team Lucifer was listening with the earbuds.
Team U joined Team Lucifer in the other practice room where the truth of the observation room was revealed to check MBTIs and they discussed their activities in the observation room. Jungmin sort of bragged that he made Kassho work out. Again, poor Kassho.
We are back at the studio again where the Artistic Director team is getting ready for the performances of mission three. We are introduced to our dancing queen, Hyoyeon from Girls' Generation. BoA tried to correct Eunhyuk that she was the dancing queen, but Eunhyuk wittingly responded that BoA is the dancing goddess.
Hyoyeon revealed that she was a SM trainee for seven years, starting at the age of 12. Hyoyeon thought that she would become a soloist, but she went through a difficult period to train hard and ensure her debut towards the end of her trainee period to join Girls' Generation as the amount of members were not specifically set. Hyoyeon was also was a back dancer for BoA in the past. They are both in the GOT the Beat girl group together where Hyoyeon closely observed BoA's dance moves and how BoA would make those dance moves her own. BoA wasn't used to being in a girl group so she wasn't familiar with dance formations too well. BoA gave her thoughts on Hyoyeon that Hyoyeon practices haphazardly, but dances very well to show her charms in front of the cameras when it is time to dance. Eunhyuk realized that Hyoyeon has the position of rapper or dancer in her group, but she can actually sing very well.
Eunhyuk asked Hyoyeon what type of criteria she will be looking for in this mission and unsurprisingly, Hyoyeon will concentrate on dance skills, showing charms, and dance details like lifting up one's chin. Eunhyuk joked that in the last mission, many trainees tried to seduce BoA and failed.
Eunhyuk had a sudden surprise announcement, which made me nervous. The executives at SM Entertainment, the IP TF team, decided to add one more trainee to the competition because they felt that there was too much reliance on Jungmin and Minjae to provide good vocals. The new contestant is an 18-year-old boy who only trained for three months at SM so far, but is rapidly improving his skills. This trainee's vocal tone is also different from Jungmin and Minjae. As it is the IP TF's goal to debut a high quality group, this trainee will join the competition show. This announcement is sure to shake up the trainees. I am not thrilled about this announcement, but I also understand this can happen in real life where a trainee can be easily replaced.
Back in a practice room at a different time, Sion and Yushi are sitting on the floor with the trainees. Sion and Yushi hold envelopes to announce which team the trainees will be in for their third mission. Sion will call out the names of the trainees in team "B" while Yushi will call out the names in team "A." The teams are then announced.
Team A:
Jungmin
Ryu
Anderson
Kassho
Ryo
Sakuya
Team B:
Riku
Haruta
Heitetsu
Minjae
Sakuya is the last trainee to be announced in the team and he thought he would be in the Team B by default, but everyone got a surprise when Sakuya is called into Team A. Anderson stood up and commented that the teams are "imbalanced." Sion suggested that the members sit with their corresponding teams. The trainees switch places and continue to ask why the teams were divided in such a way. Sakuya and Jungmin hold hands to brace for an announcement. Sion announced that a new trainee will be joining them from mission three onwards.
Sion calls for the new trainee to enter the room and everybody's heads peaked in the direction of the door. The new trainee coolly enters the room with a bright personality and announces that he's here. All trainees smile as they all seem to know him.
The eleventh trainee is named Daeyoung, born in 2005, and from Daegu. I am shocked. Artists like Red Velvet's Irene and SHINee's Key are from Daegu. Most importantly, my husband's family is also from Daegu so I feel that I am already inclined to support this trainee. However, I will do my best to stay neutral and judge everybody based on their performance and skills. We see a scene of him playing the piano. As he is only a three-month trainee, I will need to check on whether he has potential to debut in this new group. Daeyoung mentions that his specialty is powerful high notes and delicate falsettos.
As a result of joining the competition show, Daeyoung has joined Team B. Minjae tries to convince himself that he is not nervous and he is the one who needs to put effort to win the competition. I think that is a good mindset, but naturally, he should feel a bit of pressure from this announcement. Jungmin admits he is nervous since they are both vocalists. It would be a miraculous for me to believe a three- month trainee can do better than Jungmin. However, I haven't heard Daeyoung sing yet, so I can't be too sure. Ryo was happy that Daeyoung joined and so was Sakuya who trained with Daeyoung in the past.
Daeyoung was asked which trainee he is close to and he answered Kassho. They go shopping together in Hongdae and go to the noraebang (singing room) together as well, but the trainees are surprised that Kassho would sing. Kassho clarified that it was Daeyoung who would sing and he would be the listener. I was disappointed to hear that because even though Yushi is a dancer, Yushi is also a good singer. Kassho should take some notes and become an all rounder at SM Entertainment. Who isn't an all rounder at SM Entertainment? If Kassho wants to take limited roles, then he is in the wrong company.
Sion leads the group into shouting the word, Fighting!, so that the trainees gain some motivation after the sudden announcement.
Yushi asks the trainees what SM Japanese songs they think will be part of their mission. Ryo mentioned BoA's "Merry Chri," but that is a ballad song. Sion guessed NCT 127's "Chain," which is a song that I love and also a Japanese song that impressed me a lot. Minjae guessed Taemin's "I'm Crying" song. Daeyoung guessed EXO's "Electric Kiss."
Yushi asks to reveal Team A's song: Exo's Electric Kiss (Daeyoung was right!)
As per the IP TF team, Jungmin can carry the main vocals while Ryu can support him. The song also has individual parts that show individual charms so Anderson was picked for this song. Sakuya and Ryo matches the energy of the song. Kassho can also contribute to the dance.
Team B ended up getting TVXQ's "Why?" How ambitious!
The IP TF team thinks this song requires a lot of energy and big movements. Riku was selected as well as tall trainees such as Haruto and Heitetsu. Minjae has long breaths so he should be able to sing the song along with Daeyoung.
As usual, I appreciate the IP TF's professional input on why the trainees were assigned to certain songs and not have any randomness to the process.
The burden seems to be put on Minjae to get those high notes secured. This will be a challenge. Daeyoung is a newbie so he will have to learn fairly quickly to provide a great performance.
At this point, our episode ends as the trainees need to work hard for another week to successfully succeed in mission three.
I kept telling my husband that a Daegu man joined the show and hence my nickname for Daeyoung is Daegu man. My curiosity kills me because I have to wait another week until I hear him possibly sing.
Please leave a comment if you would like about this episode and we shall continue to episode five of NCT Universe: LASTART.
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