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Sunday, November 19, 2023

Book Review: Beyond the Story by Myeongseok Kang


Note: The above link is a affiliate link to Amazon.com

 

Below is the short explanation of my review for those short on time:

Synopsis:

This is a ten-year-detailed biography book about the career of the male Korean idol group, BTS, with direct quotes from their experiences of their music and career. This version of the book is in English language and is translated from the original book written in the Korean language.

Reasons to read it:


If you are a semi or big fan/ARMY of BTS, the book goes behind the scenes to bring readers the story of how their albums and songs were created and how BTS's musical career went through ups and downs before rising to global fame. If you are interested in the career side of BTS, this book has a lot of details and I am sure every fan or ARMY will learn something new from it.

The book is also interactive in that you can scan QR codes in most pages to supplement what you read in websites, Soundcloud, and Youtube links.

Reasons not to read it:


If you are a reader who is not a BTS fan or have no interest in them, there is no reason to read this book as the reader will be lost and have no idea what the book is about. A bit of Korean music industry knowledge is recommended and at least a little bit of background in K-pop in general is recommended to enjoy the book. Each chapter is around 50 to 100 pages long. If a reader does not care about BTS, I don't recommend reading through 495 pages of BTS history and buying the book, which is not cheap. If you are not sure whether to buy the book, borrow the book from your local library to see if you would enjoy the book first.

If you are a BTS fan or ARMY who wants to read this book expecting to find gossip and juicy details about BTS' personal lives, this book is not the book to read. This book is a historical book that focuses on BTS' career and not so much their personal lives.

The lesson learned from this book:  

Keep chasing your dreams and results will follow. Follow your own path. Success occurs because you never give up.


Buy the book at 

Note: The above link is a affiliate link to Amazon.com


Wehaiyo’s Book Recommendations:


Unfortunately, I have never read a biography of a K-pop idol/group before. I hope there are more biographical books about Korean celebrities. I have yet to recommend a similar book. Please leave a comment if you, the reader, have any recommendations. I can recommend a good K-pop fiction book and probably will review K-pop fiction in future book reviews.

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A few weeks ago, I have been seeing the official BTS book at Target, Amazon, and even my local library. Even though I am not a deep BTS fan, I was curious. The book is 496 pages long with each chapter about 50 to 100 pages long. I had to ask myself again as a K-pop fan: Why am I not a BTS fan? The Korean male group, BTS, has been all over the USA in recent years. I was happy for them, yet I do not consider myself an ARMY (dedicated fans of BTS), but a casual listener who appreciated some of their work. I do not take offense every time I tell somebody unfamiliar with K-pop music that BTS is the first name that they think of when I mention K-pop. A lot of people assume that just because I love K-pop, I am automatically a fan of BTS, which I am, but not at the level of being part of the fandom and collecting all of their albums. I do have a BTS album that I bought only because it was on clearance at Target. I can't tell you which one it is unless I go specifically check for it though I have a feeling I know which album. One of my co-workers wished my last journey to Korea to be "smooth like butter." However, I must admit that after reading this book, my appreciation of BTS has risen. I wish that there were other books about other artists as well because reading the book could potential turn me into a fan or at least, in this case, a fan who has a lot of respect for BTS. This is a review of the book and also my personal journey with BTS. I am a K-pop fan from the second generation onwards, but I do have my passing experiences with BTS.

The book begins with portrait photos of each member with a whitish grey background and white clothing. Each member has three photos: one standard photo looking straight ahead, one photo with a pose, and one photo with their eyes closed It signals to me that the members of BTS were ready to bear telling their true feelings and personal stories about their lives, only that it wasn't totally the case. The book mostly referred to their thoughts about their career and not really about their personal lives too much. The book does not even mention the member's birthdays. Therefore, this book is not about gossips or the personal lives of the members. Even though I know about BTS, the group, I still struggle to figure out the names of the members so the portrait shots are helpful to give a bare bones introduction. By the end of the book, I felt confident that I can recognize each member of BTS. 

The book has seven chapters, divided by a certain period in BTS's life, and in a chronological fashion, which helps me understand the history. The QR codes in the book especially helped me appreciate what the book was describing by leading me into website links, audio files from Soundcloud, and Youtube videos. Because of this interactive experience, the book took me three or four times as long to read through and experience all the content. I admit, I fell asleep many times while watching almost an hour long video. However, I have never read a book this way with QR codes and I think this could be the future way of reading books.

I will break down what I think are the highlights of each chapter.

Chapter 1: Seoul

I like this chapter because it explained the personal lives of the members as trainees before they became BTS. This is probably my favorite chapter of the entire book because it describes their personality and their personal experiences. This chapter focuses on how the BTS members joined Big Hit Entertainment company (now known as Hybe Corporation) and how they first arrived at the dorm. RM (the book does not normally use his old stage name, Rap Monster, so I will do the same to refer to RM by his current name) and Suga were already living in the dorm, but the book began with j-hope arriving at Big Hit Entertainment. 

RM was from Ilsan and interestingly, I went to Ilsan Lake Park during the summer time. It was way too hot and the heat was intense. Suga and V were from Daegu. Jung Kook and Jimin were from Busan. Jin was from Gwacheon and j-hope was from Gwangju. It seems to be fate that these boys came together from all over the South Korea to become Big Hit's next male idol group.

At the time, Big Hit was a  small company and pretty insignificant in the k-pop industry. The book stresses this fact until BTS became undeniably successful. An interesting fact was that 2AM, mainly a ballad group, was co-managed by JYP and Big Hit entertainment. I never knew that fact, but maybe it should not be a surprise to me when founders Park Jin Young (JYP) who founded JYP Entertainment and (Hitman) Bang Si-Hyuk who founded Big Hit entertainment were friends and former roommates.

Sleepy of the hip-hop duo group, Untouchable, was interested in RM's work, and recommended RM to Pdogg, a Korean producer, composer, and lyricist for Big Hit. That was how RM joined Big Hit Entertainment. All the male trainees at Big Hit were rappers or hip-hop fanatics as the book describes it. From what I read in the book, RM and Suga were the main rappers of the group and the two members/trainees who studied and breathed rap the most. j-hope, Jimin, and V had prior dance experience. Jung Kook came from the "Superstar K3" auditions as a performer, but he wasn't sure what he wanted to do at the time and had a lot of options. Jin thought that he would be an actor. Ultimately, j-hope was also considered a rapper/hip-hop expert and the other four members, V, Jin, Jimin, and Jung Kook, were considered part of the vocal group. Jung Kook was ultimately inspired by RM and RM's talent and RM was the reason why Jung Kook wanted to be part of Big Hit and BTS.

Both V and Jimin were scammed by the cab driver, who charged them 38,000 won (around $38) for a short cab ride to Big Hit Entertainment as their first trip to the company. Honestly, I would have been scammed too even in today's world as my husband told me that there were premium taxis.

My initial thought from reading early K-pop news articles in general that BTS couldn't dance at all and they worked hard to improve their dancing skills was that I knew they were a hardworking group of guys, but this book goes into depth on how hardworking they were in the past decade.

Jin was also the cook of the group, making meals when j-hope was only "eating to live" according to the book. I thought that was sad and it is not uncommon to hear about k-pop trainees leading a grueling life for the mere chance of debuting with an entertainment company.

From what the book describes, it seems Big Hit's previous girl group, Glam, were not very successful, which led Big Hit to stake everything on BTS as it seems the company might go bankrupt and it was their last chance for success. BTS indirectly knew they would debut when the majority of the thirty trainees were let go, especially to make space for the dance practice rooms.

I learned what Kalgunmu or "razor-sharp group dancing" meant. BTS had to practice repetitively until they mastered Kalgunmu and under Bang Si-Hyuk's direction, every angle and pose of their dance must be perfect. At the time, Kalgunmu dance was very popular (and still is in my opinion), even though BTS is more of a rap and hip-hop type group in which we expect them to act more like a YG Entertainment artist on stage with swag more than choreographed dance. BTS ended up in the overperformance category when they did some acrobatic moves where Jung Kook lifts Jimin up to do his scissor kicks on the backs of the rest of the BTS members for "No More Dream." 

Unfortunately, I initially came to know the "No More Dream" song not through BTS, but through the idol reality survival competition show, "Produce X 101" in 2019. Only one of the contestants assigned to the song, Kim Hyun Bin, knew about this song and became the leader of the group to perform "No More Dream." At that time, I felt as though I discovered a hidden treasure song from BTS. This scene from Produce X 101 and trainee Kim Hyun Bin is etched into my mind forever. After reading the book, I realized BTS worked a thousand times as hard to put together that perfect Kalgunmu performance, which makes the "P.T.S." produce X 101 team look like nothing as the team only had a week to practice it. It was a shame that I did not pay attention to or "slept on" BTS at the time.


Chapter 2: Why We Exist

BTS debut on June 12th, 2013 without much public enthusiasm. Some thought "Bulletproof Boy Scouts" was a ridiculous name. I personally thought it was creative and endearing because I have such a pure image of boy scouts. SM Entertainment, one of the top three Korean Entertainment companies, debut their newest male group, Exo, earlier in the year, so that already meant the competition was tough. V was Big Hit's secret trainee, who was only revealed at a later moment prior to BTS' debut while other members were already known to the public for months.

Without the backing of a top three agency in Korea, BTS's beginnings were humble. They maintained a blog and constantly released teasers and other organic content. While BTS looked up to a popular hip-hop, dance, electronica group such as Big Bang, some people accused them of trying to ride off of Big Bang's success. RM, Suga, and j-hope were already lyricists from the start of their first album, "2 COOL 4 SKOOL."

j-hope strained his leg during his "We are bulletproof PT.2" performance due to the need to put on a perfect performance. This was followed by the other members having their own special moments on stage, which awed the audience. If I am reading this correctly, their career should have gone well with these performances alone. BTS' performance ended up attracting a lot of attention and intrigue. Then, there was the famous "one row" of a dozen fans who came to watch BTS' live debut. Normally, having many fans attend a live music show performance is a indicator of the artist or artist group's clout in the industry, but BTS is forever grateful to those one row of fans.

I was sad to read that backstage in the green room, BTS had no industry contacts or peers in their network and had a hard time networking with everyone else. It is definitely not the case in today's world where new artists are doing dance challenges with other senior groups or artists and mingling a lot.

BTS won all the rookie artist awards except for MAMA. At that time, the group, SHINee, from SM Entertainment won artist of the year at the MMA (Melon Music Awards). Meanwhile, Exo had six albums in the top 10. BTS was clearly the underdogs of the boy groups.

That same year, BTS also released their follow-up album, O!RUL8,2?. I never knew what that title meant until I read the book. The title means, "Oh, are you late too?"

"Paldo Gangsan" was an interesting song on their album that combines Korean dialects into one song, raps about their hometowns with j-hope rapping from Gwangju, Suga from Daegu, and RM from Ilsan in the Gyeonggi province. Suga wanted BTS to become the bridge between idol and hip-hop music. Ironically, I find a lot of their recent works very much pop-oriented and catered to the American public.


The most interesting part of this chapter was regarding the diss that RM and Suga experienced on the podcast, "Kim Bong-hyun's Hip-Hop Invitational" show where rapper B-Free directly dissed them several times for being idols and not true rappers. I remember from watching the Youtube video about  RM and Suga being made fun of for being idols who wear make-up to perform. It was sad to know that the Korean public is against celebrities becoming idols in general. The public is critical (and still very critical) about how idols look and act. RM and Suga gave mature responses and that showed what types of people they really are and what they hoped to accomplish. I think this is the difference between Korea and the USA. USA rappers would have escalated the situation with retorts, maybe physical altercations, and even worse if guns and violence are involved. RM and Suga peacefully stated their opinions and nobody was physically hurt at least and mentally, it was a different story. I am sure B-Free will never live this moment down.

"Skool Luv Affair" was released as BTS's third album. Their "Boy in Luv" song was met with a positive reaction. I also did not appreciate this song until it was featured in a idol reality survival competition show, Produce 101 Season 2 in 2017. At that time, I was closely following the Nu'est members in this competition show and Baekho aka Kang Dong-Ho from Nu'est gave this song its true title, "상남자" (Sang Namja), which has the meaning of a "real" man. This song is really about a boy trying to act tough in front of a girl. Not only did Baekho act the part, he was also notably musically aware that his competition was singing or doubling the bridge part, "지금 달려갈 거야" (I'm going to run to you now) with three singers instead of two singers and called them out for it. Because of this show, I came to appreciate the Boy in Luv song of BTS.


After reading about "Just One Day," I listened to the song and was hooked on this song ever since. This song could easily be one of my favorite BTS songs and it is a short song or at least it feels like a short song. I have to listen to it on repeat for several times before I am satisfied. I normally do not listen to songs on repeat. It seems to be BTS' most romantic song. 


I thought it was also exciting how the book described the 2014 MAMA awards in which BTS strived to exceed Block B, another hip-hop idol group, in popularity. How funny to realize that former member of Block B, Zico, and his self-owned agency, KOZ Entertainment is under the Hybe umbrella of companies right now. On the surface, both groups had a collaborative stage, but in reality, the viewers would compare the two groups and ultimately one of the groups would be crowned better than the other group and ultimately, as the book says, one of the groups would become the "next generation of K-pop." 

I can't imagine that BTS was mocked for not being first place or ignored because they were not winners at music shows. BTS took this experience as a lesson learned and vowed to do better so that nobody would look down on them. I think it is this very attitude that is the foundation for success. They cannot become complacent and they aimed to rise above any challenges that they faced. Before going up on stage, RM would tell his members not to get excited as they are "nothing special."

Their fourth album, "Dark & Wild" did not do so well in sales. Unfortunately, BTS was staking their career on this album. I didn't think any of the songs struck me as a favorite.

I thought it was interesting that the book wrote that the most awaited content from fans of K-pop idols  were:

1) New album promotions
2) Concerts
3) Variety Shows

The chapter ends with some exciting drama regarding Bobby, a member of the group, iKon, who released his song "GUARD UP AND BOUNCE" and "Come Here" where Rap Monster was targeted as one of the rappers that Bobby dissed. This was especially dramatic because Bobby's diss track was released a day before the MAMA stage in 2014 where BTS was already busy preparing for the show. 

BTS prepared an explosive stage to their song, "Danger" with numerous back-up dancers, j-hope's knee-pounding landing, Jimin's shirt tearing apart due to his "sheer willpower and determination" as the book describes, and finally RM's response to Bobby's diss track. Reading about this moment in the book was exciting and I felt that I did not need to watch the video to see it happen.

Chapter 3: Love, Hate, Army

This chapter focuses on their "The Most Beautiful Moment in Life" series whereas the previous three albums were referred to as the "School trilogy" series.

Strangely, despite having some success, BTS found themselves still in uncertainty and success was not yet attainable. Suga tirelessly began working on their next album. After all, every other album was deemed a failure so far.

Within "The Most Beautiful Moment in Life, Part 1" album, I found more songs that I really loved: "I NEED U" and "Dope."

The original "I NEED U" music video had scenes depicting violence and emotional trauma, which the book states is unheard of at the time of K-pop and could have been career suicide for BTS. Personally, I love the typical dance or upbeat tracks from artists, but it made me appreciate the different approach that Big Hit took for BTS' career. I always forget that the "U" is spelled" "U" and not "You." 

This song also had great meaning for me when Jungwon's team performed this song on their "I-land" idol reality survival competition show in 2020. 



If BTS didn't start having a music show win, it is unlikely that they would be invited back to perform again on a music show. The stakes were high. Also, this was not described in in the book that winning first place is a huge indication that the artist or group has "made it" and advertisement revenue for the artist or group would rise substantially in general.

BTS' fanbase grew so much that the song became a huge hit and their first hit. Opportunities were opening up for BTS.

The title of their song "Dope," known as jjeoleo in Korean had an interesting meaning. Jjeoleo is commonly known to mean something like "awesome," but for this song, BTS used it to mean "to stink with sweat" according to the book. I thought that was very interesting, but the music itself with the intense music and saxophone going crazy in the chorus part was a huge highlight for me. This song is also one of my top BTS song favorites. The song was also meant to describe BTS as the underdogs of the K-pop industry.

The "V live" application became popular and a great tool for BTS to become closer to their fans. Personally, I am not a big fan of V lives in general as I never have the time to sit and watch idols for that long and also clicking on the buttons to support them is a pain in my fingers. To this day, I don't normally watch V lives, but I'm sure a good soul will highlight the important parts for me.

The book descries what "checks" and "BUMP" (Bring Up My Post) means for anti-fans. In checks, anti-fans will fact check and bring up negative information to shame the artists. Anti-fans would bring up past issues and make topic controversial again by bringing those old comments back to the top of the screen, making them relevant again. Seriously, anti-fans have way too much time on their hands. If they had that kind of time, they can help me write up articles on my blog instead and channel their energy for good though I read somewhere in psychology that it is easier for a human to hate than to love because hate is easily executable while people can hesitate to love.

In the next album, "The Most Beautiful Moment in Life, Part 2," I am definitely interested in "Butterfly" though this song highlights BTS's uncertainty about their success. I always thought the song brought hope like Mariah Carey's song, "Butterfly." However, I obviously did not pay attention to the meaning of the lyrics. This song was also performed by Lee Heeseung and Lee Geon Woo in "I-Land." I should have known the meaning because they performed it in a sad way.


I learned what a "topliner" means, which is a person who writes the central melody and key lyrics. Bang Si-Hyuk is such a person. We can learn industry terms from reading this book. The book did not generally cover the process of how Bang Si-Hyuk helped with all the BTS songs. That would have been interesting to know.     

In the special album, "The Most Beautiful Moment in Life: Young Forever," we have the previous music from the past two albums and also the iconic song, "Burning Up (FIRE)" or ""불타오르네 (Fire)"" and "Save ME," which are really good songs. Of course, these songs are also covered in "I-land" as well. I am familiar with these songs due to idol reality survival competition shows. After Rain, one of the show's guest judges in Part 1 of I-land shows how he raps the first line of "Fire," the first line is forever in my head: "When I wake up in my room (room)."


Chapter Four: Inside Out

This chapter highlights BTS' next albums, "Wings" and "You Never Walk Alone." 

It was amazing to see how V was juggling his acting job in the drama, "Hwarang: The Poet Warrior Youth" and his music job simultaneously. It didn't seem easy and it looks like V himself wasn't satisfied with his work when it was done under so much pressure. At this point in time, BTS experienced continuous struggle as they try to stay alive in the music industry. Therefore, there was little time to waste as they prepare new music and V's acting career.

In the album, "Wings," I enjoyed the songs "Lie" and "Blood Sweat & Tears." BTS interestingly wanted "Blood Sweat & Tears" to be ambiguous and play characters who are neither good or bad. There is also the element of sex appeal in this song, which eventually became a global sensation, spawning a world tour for BTS including the Americas. I remember thinking this was a great vampire song and kept thinking that BTS was singing "money, money, money" when they really meant to sing "원해 많이 많이 많이 많이" (Weon hae mani mani, mani mani) meaning to "want it/you a lot, a lot, a lot, a lot."

In the song, "Lie," Jimin was going through a lot of emotional turmoil to bring out such an interesting and striking song which took two weeks to record and re-record to perfect it according to the book. When Enhypen's Niki performed this dance, I was blown away by this song and thus realized this song is very unique. It has elements of evilness and the feeling of being trapped and helpless. The chorus tries to go into a major chords, but then falls back to the minor chords to signify evil. The song is also so short. I have to listen to it multiple times to be satisfied.


V's "Stigma" song was also worth mentioning as I realized that V actually has a great deep voice and he used falsetto that was ad-libbed to perfect his song.


BTS started working on a lot of solo work, but still under the name of BTS. The letters B, T, and S became a common search term on the internet to represent BTS more than their other aliases (방탄소년단/Bangtan Sonyeondan/Bulletproof Boy Scouts/Bangtan Boys). BTS never expected to have fans all over the world when they haven't released any music in a foreign language. 

Even as they were winning awards left and right, anti-fans continued cyber attacks whenever they won and award or had a concert, which is unfortunate. I never understood why people go through great lengths to hate somebody. From what I read, it seems every time BTS attended the MAMA awards, their performances were legendary and much talked about by the viewers. Unfortunately, I slept through BTS.

In the "You never walk alone" special album, I personally started paying attention to BTS when they released this song, "Spring Day." I remember the song sounding so sad every time I heard the song. I had no idea that fans had a theory that the song was about the Sewol Ferry incident that happened in April 2014. BTS left it open for interpretation, but I think that is what it was meant to be. Originally, RM wrote the lyrics as a message to his friends who he is no longer in contact with or has left his circle of life. It was sadder to read that Suga attempted to reconnect with one of his long lost friends and made efforts to contact this friend, but they would never meet again (at least that we know of from the book). I remember this was one of the two songs that took my attention away from the Produce 101, Season 2 show (with the other song being "Can't Cry" by Seventeen. The song is so sad like a farewell.


Chapter 5: A Flight That Never Lands

This chapter will go over the "Love Yourself" series and BTS' soaring popularity.

I remember when BTS won "Top Social Artist" at the Billboard Music Awards. I was actually puzzled when it happened because I had no idea how popular BTS was abroad, but also happy that a Korean music group penetrated the American music market. At this point of the book, BTS continuously won awards, left and right. I would have thought it would be a happy ending from hereon. However, BTS had internal struggles. The drama could almost be a movie, but it was also their lives.

BTS thought about quitting since they were so overworked and overwhelmed. They had no days off and they were exhausted according to Jin in the book. Imagine the book ending right at this point if BTS decided to call it quits. I am a little bit bewildered because I thought this type of lifestyle of creating music, touring, creating content, and winning awards was the goal for BTS. It sounds crazy to think that they would think about quitting. Most people would have just taking a vacation to recharge if a burnout is imminent. BTS also cannot go anywhere without being recognized at this point. They also have a lot of pressure to act perfect in public and not step out of line. 

In "Love Yourself: Her'," there isn't any song that stood out for me. I knew DNA was a popular song, but that song never stuck with me. Basically every song BTS produces that has any indication of being a romantic song, is about their love for their fanbase, ARMY. That is probably fine, but for me, I rather live in a fantasy instead where I imagine a love story between two people and not a love story between an artist and their fans. Interestingly, BTS said the original melody of the song, "DNA," was bad and Bang Si-Hyuk had to rewrite the melody to improve it. This was a good example story of Bang Si-Hyuk as a topliner.

Jimin's "Intro : Serendipity" song is beautiful. I came to appreciate Jimin's voice in his solo works. He has such a great soprano voice. First, it was the "Lie" song and now this beautiful "Intro: Serendipity" song.


BTS was invited to the American Music Awards in 2017 and that was also another defining moment for them to be recognized in the United States of America. BTS was so lucky that they have a relatively good English speaker in the group: RM. I think if all members couldn't speak English fluently, the group's global power would potentially diminish due to people's lack of interest and understanding of what they do. In fact, I am amazed at how there are so many BTS fans listening to BTS rap tracks when I am not sure if they know what the lyrics mean or at least the fans would have to get a translation of it and even the translation is not enough for them to completely understand the connotation of the words and phrases. j-hope had a lot of anxiety not knowing English and he took it hard according to the book. I understand that feeling as I would love to be fluent in Korean, but I don't memorize words and phrases that easily. I have to really understand the words, the connotation and its meaning for me to feel confident. Even though RM spoke English fluently, he had pressure to not speak out of line and cause tensions or misunderstandings between the two countries of USA and Korea. This sounds like it is a UN job on top of an artist job. 

I enjoyed reading about BTS dark moments of depression that they went through as this is the side of artists that the public does not get to see and even BTS themselves wanted the public to see the positive side of them rather than the dark side of them, though we still get to hear these moments in their music.

Amazingly, BTS's original contract was five years and they extended their contract to a longer period of seven years with Big Hit Entertainment, which is not the normal industry practice. On the other hand, BTS seems loyal to Big Hit and Big Hit gave them the opportunity to grow and expand to limitless heights. I would not think that is crazy, though having a longer contract benefits the company and not the artist, but if there is a deep trust between the two parties, I can only hope that there would be no big relationship dynamic changes and it could be a great cooperation between BTS and Big Hit Entertainment. BTS also believes that there is no BTS if at least one of the members left the group. A loss of a member would mean that BTS would disband rather than carry on without a member. There is a big sense of loyalty at every level. Sang namja (상남자), right?

BTS' next album, "Love Yourself: Tear'" was almost not made because of the pressures of their career, contract renewals, and their frustrations due to fame. I wonder if that is the reason why they put a tear in the title. Thankfully, songs like "Fake Love" and "Intro : Singularity" entered the world.

Surprisingly, the song, "Fake Love," was about BTS' unsure feelings of what they were showing their ARMY fans. Yikes. I guess, when I think about it, a fan's relationship with their idol can never be that of true love anyways. I'm fine with that. I don't have to marry my idols in real life. There is also that sense of intimacy, which is one way of course from an idol to his/her fans. However, BTS really meant that they didn't know if they were staying true to their fans and that worried them so it's not a romantic meaning, but just a doubt that they had within themselves to live up to their fan's expectations.

V singing "Into: Singularity" sounded very relaxing. However, I checked into the lyrics and it does not sound like a good thing at all. The lyrics are dark.

In the final series of "Love Yourself" comes the final repackage album of "Love Yourself: Answer." I believe that I own this album. I always heard of the song, "Euphoria" on social media and wondered where this song comes from and now I know that this song was sung by Jung Kook. I have heard this song being featured in Instagram videos a lot. He apparently excelled in his singing skills for this song according to the book.

For this album, j-hope started the dance challenge as a promotional tool for their title song, "Idol." Before this, fans never took part of dance challenges that have become normal and expected for song promotion in today's K-pop world.


Chapter 6: The World of BTS

This chapter covers the "Map of the Soul" album series. BTS seemed to be transcending into deep philosophical thought.

BTS' album "Map of the Soul: Persona" crashed the Melon (music streaming service) servers. At this point, fans are camping out just to see BTS and BTS began to be compared to the level of Beatles stardom, which is wild. I didn't know stadium tours for BTS were so exhausting because the stage is so big. 

Because of their exhausting schedules, BTS finally took a month-long break in August 2019. Since they decided to take a break, the "Map of the Soul" series went from a trilogy of albums to just a duology of albums. In this case, time really trumped the money that they could have been earning but I would say that I would not have it any other way. Mental health and rest are very important in life. However, BTS are workaholics and some of the members like Jin and j-hope didn't feel entirely comfortable with a break. The biggest takeaway was also for BTS to have a different perspective of life. The change in environment helped Suga slightly ease of his feeling of needing perfection in his work. j-hope went to work on a new album during his break. So much for a break! Work was "relaxing" for him. This reminded me of the "Fresh of the Boat" TV show quote, "Work is a vacation from poverty."

What struck me about Suga was when he mentioned that besides music, he would like to be a licensed psychological therapist who can help similar artists like him. Imagine the stories he would hear if that really happened. That thought also showed me a huge indication of the type of person that Suga is because I am also very similar to him. I always aim to help others and I can't imagine my life without this type of attitude. This is the reason why I started so many blogs. 

Chapter 7: We Are

We go into the COVID era of BTS where they had to promote their songs, "Dynamite" and "Butter" remotely, but still managing to gain more fans. BTS sorely missed their fans and the feeling of being back on the stage overwhelmed them. BTS is lucky that their career still thrived through the pandemic. The music industry took a hit during COVID times. 

The song, "Dynamite," was only created due to the pandemic to cheer up everybody affected by self-isolation and possible illness. If not for the pandemic, BTS would have continued their linked song series by creating a song that would answer their early song, "No More Dream" to perhaps, "Dream." Also, "Dynamite" is BTS' first English song and they worried whether they can pull it off. Recently, I saw a headline where Bang Si-Hyuk wanted to remove the "Korean" word from "K-pop" to just "pop" as this type of music is for the American pop audience anyway. I feel like K-pop music is morphing with every year and sometimes too fast for my taste. 

I found it funny that the young Jimin in his trainee days asked RM how he can get charisma. As per the book, RM replied that RM did not know either. I guess you have to get it through natural experience.

During the entire period of "Dynamite," "Butter," and "Permission to Dance," I was still a bit oblivious to who BTS was and why fans are so obsessed with them. I wasn't obsessed with these songs and in a way, the songs were being played everywhere so I wasn't too thrilled to hear it repetitively.

Amazingly, in 2021, BTS went from debuting in America at the American Music Awards to winning "Artist of the Year" at the American Music Awards. This is really unheard of from a foreign group who was also invited to give speeches at the United Nations.

Honestly, didn't understand why people thought BTS should be exempt from the Korean military service, but now after reading their book, I understand that they made huge contributions to the world. The topic is probably too late to discuss as BTS members are either in the army or going to the army soon for their mandatory service. The book didn't mention the fact that BTS announced that they will be doing solo projects from 2023 while each member goes to do their mandatory military service. It could be that maybe the book was already in print and couldn't include recent information as BTS is still history in the making. 

This book really opened my eyes to who BTS was/is, their music, and their history. I appreciated learning so many new things from reading the translated version of the book in English. There were times in which I questioned the translations, but in the end, I think I understood the overall meaning. This book only covered a decade so I wonder if a second book will be published ten years later to cover the second decade. If so, I will also be willing to review it for you.

Buy the book at: 


The above is an affiliate link.

Credits:

Big Hit Entertainment/ Hybe Corporation
Youtube
Beyond the Story by Myeongseok Kang
Wikipedia
Lyrics translation sites: https://genius.com/ and https://doolsetbangtan.wordpress.com/bts-albums/

Sunday, October 15, 2023

NCT Universe: LASTART - Episode 8

  

Source: https://commons.wikimedia.org

Welcome to my episode eight and final 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 and the winners were already announced in the last episode.

I sincerely delayed my last episode review because I was in huge denial of the fact that although there are seven debut members of the New NCT Team, one of my favorite members dropped out of the team. Therefore, my motivation for writing this last episode is low and bittersweet. Still, I don't like to back out on my promises and this is no exception. There is a saying that to "eat an elephant," one can do it one mini-task at a time so I took my time to write the review for the eight episode. 

The show continued with all the contestants bowing on stage, echoing thank yous or kamsahamnidas in Korean. Artist Director Eunhyuk and the other artist directors replied back with the word, Chukahamnida or Congratulations before standing up and getting out of their seats. Eunhyuk suggested that everyone go on stage to cheer up all the contestants.

As the artist directors go up on stage from the right side, Heitetsu was the first to get the "good job" or "you worked hard" or "sugohasimnida" comment followed by Haruta. I'm really going to miss all the eliminated trainees. This was another reason why reviewing this last episode was difficult since it was bittersweet. Eunhyuk told Ryu that Eunhyuk can tell that Ryu worked hard. Director Jang gave Anderson a thumbs up. Leeteuk encouraged Anderson not to cry. Eunhyuk shook Anderson's hand and told him sincerely that he was good and Eunhyuk meant it. I thought to myself if Anderson was really that good, then Anderson would be on the team. Anderson ended up bursting into tears again. This part of the show was going to be very hard to watch. Anderson walked away a little bit, wondering out loud to himself what he was doing crying like that. When Anderson rejoined the group, Daeyoung also told Anderson, "Sugohasimnida" in almost a whisper. In Anderson's personal interview, he admitted that it was a big mix of feelings, but he understood that he had a shorter training period than other trainees (six months when he started the competition). He thought that it would be more beneficial to him in the long run if he trained a longer period of time. He rather enjoyed training with such intensity of a competition, which I understand, because trainees can get complacent when the training life becomes repetitive. I will always remember what Jungwon from the male K-pop group, Enhypen, said in his winning speech to become Enhypen that he was previously practicing without any goal in mind, so I think he meant that he lost his focus in life and that can happen while being a trainee with no debut plan on the horizon. 

Director Jang gave Minjae a hug and told him that he had many chances in the future. It seems whoever Director Jang talks to would break down in tears. I think this was how close the trainees were with Director Jang. Eunhyuk also told Kassho nearby that he did well. Eunhyuk naturally walked over to Minjae who was crying and asked why he was crying. BoA also came by and smiled at Minjae. Honestly, I think artists know all about rejections so they would probably learn or try to take it with stride. BoA expressed to Minjae that he was good though. After wiping his tears, Minjae went to look for his buddy, Daeyoung. It was bittersweet that they collaborated two times already and only one of them got to debut so I felt that Daeyoung started crying for this reason while in an embrace with Minjae. Daeyoung thanked Minjae for helping Daeyoung all this time. Minjae downplayed his role by saying that he didn't do much for Daeyoung. In Minjae's personal interview, he felt that the competition time felt short and so many things happened while on the show. He felt sad the journey came to an end. Gosh, they all really have potential to debut so I will also wait for good news from them in the future.

Leeteuk was back at the right side of the stage praising the contestants again and Heitetsu was tearing up. Leeteuk encouraged Heitetsu by saying that Heitetsu might have noticed others grasping the choreography faster than Heitetsu, but in the end, Heitetsu completed all the missions. For that, Heitetsu did well. I agree because even though Heitetsu consistently ranked low, I have to give him credit for doing his part in every mission and trying his best. Leeteuk wanted to stay in touch with all the contestants. Leeteuk thought Haruta looked really handsome. Leeteuk and Kangta said their goodbyes with the "fighting" phrase. Heitetsu remembered every moment and wanted to tell himself that he did a good job. He hoped to bring good news to the people who supported him. He would use this experience as a stepping stone to gain confidence.

The trainees started making their way to center stage. Heitetsu and Minjae embraced. Ryu was a little surprised at himself for tearing up. Haruta was a little teary-eyed, but positive as he quietly stood by. In Ryu's personal interview, he realized that all the memories that they had together were precious. I felt like crying again. Ryu thought that this was a great experience.

In Haruta's personal interview, he planned to focus more on live singing and practicing basic dance technique. He would work harder in his next opportunity. I think if Haruta kept this momentum up, he would be in the next male debut team. 

Yushi was praised with "you worked hard" phrases from Eunhyuk and BoA. BoA insisted that Ryo grew taller as Ryo was taller than BoA in height. I really couldn't tell because I never saw Ryo and BoA stand side by side before. Next, Haechan praised Jungmin that Jungmin was great and Jungmin will be great. Leeteuk congratulated Jungmin and asked if Jungmin's throat was fine. Jungmin held his throat and nodded. 

Eunhyuk faced Sion and the group that their journey was starting now. Next time, they will probably meet, but BoA cut Eunhyuk off by telling him that it would be at SMTown. Eunhyuk offered the debut group advice to not hesitate to ask him or BoA any questions and he will do his best to help them. Eunhyuk then joked that Johnny will go on a power trip on the debut group. Johnny smiled and responded that Eunhyuk will scare them into thinking as such. 

Director Jang continued to collect crying contestants by reaching out to Yushi to tell Yushi that Yushi worked really hard. Yushi nodded and lowered his head. Director Jang leaned in for a hug and told Yushi that he worked hard. This fatherly gesture caused Yushi to break down in tears. Director Jang congratulated Yushi and commented that it has been many years. I think Yushi probably couldn't believe this day has come and all the hard work he put in with Director Jang has come to fruition. Director Jang confirmed to Yushi once again that he worked hard and that Director Jang meant it. BoA came by to ask why Yushi was crying. Eunhyuk also followed BoA. Director Jang moved on to comfort Jungmin, but I couldn't hear what Director Jang said to Jungmin. Yushi replied between sobs that it was nothing. Eunhyuk commented to Yushi that it was not like BoA scolded Yushi. I think everyone probably understood the feelings all the trainees had, but wanted to focus on the positive side of things. They probably know that crying is not a sole reason for negativity, but it could be used as a way to express overwhelming emotions in general whether it is positive or negative. BoA commented, "Ottoke? What to do?" Eunhyuk joked that it looked like Yushi was crying because BoA scolded him. Yushi then cried even harder, which made BoA laugh out loud. Eunhyuk carried the joke further and asked BoA if she made Yushi cry again. Eunhyuk went to put his arm around Yushi and of course, Sion made his way over to put his arm around Yushi too from the other side. Sion seemed to be the protector of Yushi. Yushi finally was able to muster up a "thank you." In Yushi's personal interview, Yushi admitted that Director Jang's "good job" comment made Yushi very emotional. Yushi had complicated feelings about it. Yushi thought that Sion and Yushi was able to show good results together with hard work. Yushi did not have any regrets. Yushi thought there were a lot of tough moments, but he will continue to work hard as he has done so far. I remember BoA said in the last episode that their professional career would be three times as hard after debut. I have faith that Yushi was ready for debut. 

Leeteuk seemed to have ran out of things to say as he and Kangta stood at the corner of the stage. Being the natural announcer and MC that he is, Leeteuk told the camera that they will be back for another season of LASTART. Therefore, if anybody had talent that other people recognize them for, Kangta mentioned there is a phone number at the bottom of the screen and asked the audience to join SMTown. Leeteuk continued to state that there will be global auditions as the show would be aired around the world. Nationality, age, and gender would not matter at all. Haechan and Johnny looked at each other with an incredulous feeling. I'm pretty sure Haechan would have been the one to be an announcer in this situation. Leeteuk ended his speech with hoping that the future contestant could become the boss of K-pop. Unfortunately, there will be no more LASTART shows as this show was already mentioned by SM Entertainment to be the last NCT unit for the company. One can only hope that SM would do this type of show again, but with the next debuting group in the future. I would love to review it on my blog, Wehaiyo!.

Eunhyuk announced that the trainees can talk among themselves as the artist directors were leaving. I was a bit disappointed that there was no footage of the New IP TF team congratulating the contestants. I figure they probably wanted to be off camera instead for their privacy. The Artist Directors clapped for the contestants before they left the stage. 

Sakuya adorably walked toward Ryo and they didn't hug, but have sort of a bonding moment. They acted like brothers who denied their love for one another. As the unofficial leader of the group, Sion maturely goes to all the other members and congratulated them. Minjae and Riku hugged. Kassho and Jungmin also hugged, which caused Kassho to shed tears. Jungmin mostly stayed silent throughout as I think he wanted to preserve his throat. I felt really bad that this happened to him during the finale of the show. Sion came over to comfort Kassho. Sakuya and Riku also came over to comfort Kassho. Despite having little screen time, Kassho was loved by other contestants on the show. Seeing Kassho cry, Riku eventually started bursting into tears himself and Sion quickly came to him to comfort him. Sakuya then came over to Riku as well to tell Riku a good job. When the trainees started leaving the stage, Kassho and Jungmin never left each other's side and Jungmin continued to hold Kassho as they exited the stage and out into the hallway. Kassho confessed to Sion in the hallway as they were walking that Kassho wanted to debut with them. I felt heartbroken that Kassho was in this situation. In his personal interview, Kassho stated that he did not get the result that he wanted, but he was sincerely happy for the members who made the group.


The staff members all presented the contestants with a gift after each of their personal interviews. As each trainee or trainee-debut opened the gift, it was revealed to be a photo album with pictures of their time on the show and the album had each contestant's name on it. The staff was so generous, thoughtful, and kind. I thought that this was such a beautiful gift for the contestants to look back on their memories and remind them of why they were doing this and what inspired them to do it. Daeyoung's album was probably smaller than the album of other contestants because Daeyoung joined mid-way in the show, but I would say he still had enough photos to make him tear up at the sight of it. Jungmin stated something very mature to say that people remember hardships the longest, which made this photo album present very meaningful. SM has enough trainees to make a second Japanese debut group in the future so I will look forward to it.

The last segment of the show made me cry a lot when I was watching it for the first time, so it was also a bit tough writing about it as well. I'm sad and happy that NCT Universe: LASTART was over. I have such mixed feelings, but I also can't wait to see the new debut group.

Moving on, the NCT New Team participated in their final benefit photoshoot at Studio A in Gwangjin-gu, Seoul. The first concept was the black and chic look. I can tell the boys were more comfortable in front of the camera than ever before. Riku mentioned in his voiceover that he gained more confidence than ever before. While checking on their photos, Yushi mentioned that they need more variety of poses. Sion agreed. They are really becoming professionals with their own opinions. 

The next photoshoot was a colorful and vibrant theme, which I think suited them better. I thought it was funny how the photographer asked the group to act natural, but Sion showed everyone a fake laugh. Then, Ryo followed afterwards with his own fake laugh. This was so ironic. I think it was Daeyoung who started making "Hng" noises while smiling for the photos. Out of nowhere, Riku kept complaining and asked one of his members to "stop it." I was feeling sibling energy. The culprit was none other than Yushi, who tried to maintain an innocent smile while he extended his arm to tickle Riku's legs. Of course, Yushi's next target was none other than Sion, who was in close vicinity of Yushi. Sion ended up collapsing further onto the ground due to the tickles in which Sion also had to tell Yushi to stop tickling him. They all had such fresh, young faces.

Some moments later, Riku, who was all the way on the right side, leaned forward to tell Ryo, who was all the way on the left side that "they," meaning probably the staff, told Ryo that Ryo looked cool. Yushi matter-of-factly told Ryo that Ryo was pretending to look cool. Ryo did not respond, so I guess he was too cool. I can't believe I witnessed Yushi's playful side when I have been seeing his serious side throughout the show. It was time for the members to review the photos again. Sion thought and mentioned in his voiceover that the picture where they unintentionally laughed was their best photo (Keep it natural, remember?). Riku mentioned in his voiceover that he was happy to see the natural sides of his members that day. In every photo shown, Yushi was right in the middle of it. It is clear to me that Yushi was the visual and the center of the group. 

In the last part of the day, each member took individual photos. Sion started his individual photoshoot first. Sion started off by doing a relaxing shoulder wiggle, which Yushi mirrored and followed as the rest of the group stood on the side. After a brief smile, he lowered his gaze and instantly turned into model mode with a stern expression. He moved his head up and down very naturally as a model. I think Jungmin saw this and was impressed. The other members freely gave their opinions on the side as Sion kept posing for the camera. 

Yushi went next. He naturally has a stern face, so I can see this as his natural face. Sakuya cried out that Yushi was handsome while Sion expressed that Yushi was cute. Yushi apparently had a wide range of emotions. If we looked back at some of Yushi's clips, Yushi made many different facial expressions while the cameras were rolling and focusing on other trainees. I don't think he realized that he was doing it. Upon receiving compliment after compliment, Yushi couldn't resist a laugh, but quickly went back to model mode.

Riku was third to do his individual photoshoot. Sion tried to get a rise out of Riku by declaring that Riku was handsome. In mid-pose, Riku confidently responded to Sion that Riku knew that he was handsome. Ryo's eyes widened with shock in response to Riku's narcissistic comment. 

The show cuts to an earlier scene in which Jungmin asks the members to point out the person who looked the best that day among the group. Yushi responded out loud that this request would be hard, but all the members except Sion ended up pointing to Riku on the count of three including Riku himself.  Sion basically opened his arms wide with his hands behind Sakuya and Jungmin and I am not certain who Sion ended up pointing to or if he decided to give up his vote. If Sion gave up his vote, it seemed to be such a leader thing to do and not take sides. Riku quickly acknowledged that he was the best dressed. Yushi was quick to point out that Riku picked himself with the translation, "By the way." at the end of Yushi's sentence. Yushi was getting sassier by the minute, especially when it came to Riku. Riku responded by placing a hand in front of his mouth, almost embarrassed to reply that Riku himself was handsome. The group was flabbergasted at such a response from Riku that Daeyoung dropped to a squat. Sion quietly turned around, exercising his jaw silently. Jungmin placed a fist in front of his mouth. Yushi shook his head and sucked in his breath in disbelief. Riku, with his fancy, lace shirt, seemed to be the "prettiest" looking one in my opinion. The voiceover echoed Riku's voice that he was the most handsome and confident one. 

Back to the present photoshoot scene of Riku, Sion continued the compliments by lamenting that Riku was the treasure of Fukui, Riku's birthplace. That comment was enough to make Riku break out of character and pause the photoshoot. Upon reviewing his photos, Riku commented out loud with a straight face that he was so handsome, causing Daeyoung to bend over and Ryo and Sion to laugh.  

Sion announced that the treasure of Saitama is next, which is Sakuya. Sakuya did a cute "W" shaped stretch with his shoulders before starting. Sion machine-guns the word, "kawaii," causing Sakuya to dip his head in shyness. Sakuya ended up grinning most of the time with perfect standard portrait pictures. 

By this time, Sion was the announcer of the group, announcing that the son of Nowon-gu is to go next: Jungmin. Based on this information, Jungmin is then assumed to be from the Nowon district of Seoul. Sion managed to make Jungmin smile before Jungmin even started. Sion continued that Jungmin's chin was so sharp (with Jungmin's side profile) that Jungmin might cut them. When Jungmin does his cheesy  "방긋" or bang geut (meaning an open, bright, silent smile, a term I mentioned in episode one) smile, Sion then openly called out his "deadly" smile. Sakuya followed up with a cute expression, "좋았다잉" (pronounced, jo-ah-da-ing?, with a questionable tone at the end), meaning in a cute way that Sakuya liked it.

The pride of Daegu is next: Daeyoung, which I mentioned many times in my review that he is from Daegu. Daeyoung announced that he was going (to do the shoot). Daeyoung always reminded me of somebody, but I couldn't point out who. I think Daeyoung's cat lips (I am not sure what it is called) reminds me of actress Kim Sae-Ron's lips. Riku also acknowledged Daeyoung's lips, which made Daeyoung laugh in shyness. Daeyoung also had dimples on the side when he smiled. When I saw Daeyoung posing in front of the camera, I really thought he came a long way from being a three-month trainee to now a full-fledged member of NCT. Sakuya, once again the comedian, used a restrained, stressed tone to exclaim, "살아있네! (pronounced, sa-ra-in-ne!)" The term, to me, meant "Looking alive" as an observational phrase. Daeyoung'e eyes widened, burst out a laugh, and had to turn around upon hearing the phrase, especially coming from Sakuya and not some older Korean grandpa. He then cried that saying that comment was cheating. 

Ryo was the last member to do his individual shoot. He was also met with compliments. Sion commented that Ryo was nice, cute, and a pretty boy. Ryo silently shot Sion a look of disbelief before Ryo continued his photoshoot. Ryo looked very focused to complete his mission. I thought that he has a strong willpower to succeed. Sion then expressed that Ryo has a cute face, but a manly facial expression. With the conclusion of Ryo's photoshoot, all seven members have completed their photoshoot.


Several days later, the members met again in a gymnasium in Seoul. Upon entering the gymnasium, they saw a huge congratulatory banner with each member's portrait shot in each banner. I thought that was very cool and exciting to see. It was also refreshing to see them somewhere besides a practice room or stage. The main reason they were at the gym is to play three games and win prizes. 

A staff member asks the group what they have been up to after the show. Yushi represented them all to answer that they have been talking a lot and trying to get closer to each other. Sion gave details about Ryo's sister, who is a NCTzen (NCT fan), almost passing out after she heard the news that Ryo became an NCT member. Riku claimed that his younger sister passed out for real. His story was definitely more shocking than Ryo's story. Yushi frankly told Riku that he was lying. I am really seeing these two members constantly banter. Riku tried to playfully imitate his younger sister's reaction with what looked like a pale ghost look, frozen in time. Yushi didn't look convinced. Daeyoung talked about his older brother, who was recovering from Lasik surgery at the time. Upon hearing Daeyoung's debut news, Daeyoung's brother thought he could open his eyes with a full recovery. 

The first game was an individual competition game, which was the "Going Far in the Chair" game. Whoever rolled the farthest in the chair with wheels won the game. However, if their feet touched the ground or if their chair rolled out of bounds on the sidelines, then they were disqualified. The winning prize was a massage gun. The members looked eager to win this prize. Honestly, I think I would want that prize too as I never had a message gun in my life and perhaps it would cure my fatigue. However, I was not in this competition. Yushi wanted the prize too. The members quickly started discussing strategies. Riku thought that simply getting to the finish line was sufficient. Yushi tried to one-up Riku by saying that Yushi will go farther up past the finish line. Jungmin told the members that he will literally go to Germany with it. The members are incredulous, saying that Jungmin would need to fly to get to Germany. 

Ryo was up first and got a feel of the chair with arm rests on the side. He accidentally used his feet past the start line and Yushi immediately noticed. Since it for practice, Ryo changed his strategy to roll backwards instead. The members were surprised that Ryo was allowed to roll backwards. Yushi predicted that the chair might roll slower when going backwards. Ryo started his backwards roll, straight and steady. Sion joked that Ryo might end up in Japan at this rate. However, Ryo made it only in front of the finish line despite trying to rock his chair backwards for more momentum. Sakuya thought he could beat Ryo easily. Yushi thought that going backwards looked too easy and forward facing might be the way to go. Sakuya agreed. Riku asked Ryo if it was scary to go backwards and Ryo replied that the resistance is stronger when going backwards. 

Sion also thought going backwards is scary so he chose to face the chair backwards, but his body remained facing forwards like he was skateboarding. Sion started off strong and his chair easily glided across the room fairly quickly, but that became his downfall as he was unable to stop his chair after the finish line and dropped his foot to the ground to prevent him from crashing violently into the wall. All the members saw Sion's foot violation and hence, Sion was eliminated. Sion thought the experience was scary, which caused Yushi to get nervous. 

Somehow Yushi looked uncertain as he sat down on the chair for his turn when he was so confident moments before it was his turn. The members yelled fighting as encouragement. Yushi sat on the chair facing forward and started his roll. However, his chair leaned to the side and he was unable to air yank his way back into the safe territory. Therefore, Yushi was also eliminated. Bye bye massage gun. Ryo was delighted as he was currently in first place.

Riku announced that he has a plan in place. Riku sat forward facing in the chair, but he planned to roll backwards. He started with strong momentum and quickly passed by his members, but his chair veered toward the direction of one of the stadium exits, even rolling onto the exit ramp, and the members playfully told him to "leave well," which is basically bye bye. Eliminated. The caption read that Riku took a lap around Seoul in a rocket chair, which I found hilarious. Sion asked Riku if it was scary and Riku confirmed that it was indeed scary. 

Jungmin took a shot at the prize by taking baby steps with his chair. He faced forward in his chair. However, like Yushi, his chair veered to the right and Ryo gleefully bid him bye bye. Jungmin continues to go towards the staff members and spun on his chair for the staff's entertainment. When Jungmin rejoined the group, Sion told him that he had a beautiful disqualification.

Daeyoung took his turn on the chair, also facing forward. Once he started, it seemed that he got his footing wrong and he already started exclaiming, "Wait! Wait!" Luckily, he did not yet pass the start line, so he was able to start over. Daeyoung started his take off again and stretched his legs forward after he passed the start line. Like Yushi and Jungmin, Daeyoung's chair started veering to the right. In panic, Daeyoung used the power of his butt momentum to force his chair away from the elimination line. Not only was Daeyoung able to control his chair's direction, he was able to put himself back on the path to win the prize. Ryo looked on in disbelief. Daeyoung yanked himself all the way to first place while still on the chair. 

Riku tried to give the last contestant, Sakuya, some pointers to go a certain direction. Sakuya looked like he understood and while going to the start line, he started yanking his legs in the air similar to Daeyoung's strategy. The members were in awe of Sakuya's power. Sakuya waved to the members to signal them to move out of the way. All the other members stepped back in response and panicked, wondering where Sakuya was going to go and what would happen. Sakuya also sat facing forwards and started racing forward. As with Daeyoung, Jungmin, and Yushi, Sakuya's chair veered to the right and he desperately tried to push his chair away from the elimination line. Sakuya tried hilarious bicycle air kicks, but it was no use. Jungmin happily wished Sakuya farewell. 

The winner of the first event was Daeyoung, who won the massage gun. Riku stated that he was jealous. That was a really cool prize. Daeyoung said that he would use it well.

While the group took a short break, they took out cameras and began taking selfies. Sakuya led the group by saying a quick cheer (Anybody who has signed up for the Rakuten Drive one year subscription promotional event would have access to the behind the scenes photos and pictures of these moments). Actually, it wasn't really a break as the members started promoting the phone that they were using and how fast they could share the video that they just took without the video needing to be downloaded by the receiver. 


The second game they played was "Gym Ball Rugby."  In this game, each member would face another member in pairs. They each would start at opposite ends of the court and once the game starts, one of them would have to take the huge exercise ball by hand and place it in the basket on their end to win the round. They will have three rounds with the winners moving up to the next round. As they have seven members, one member would only start joining in the second round. To make it fair, each member would blindly pick a ball from a box and whoever picked the green ball would only join in the second round. The prize for winning all rounds was a turtle shell cushion, which I also really want. SM had nice prizes. This cushion is perfect for anybody who ever dreamed of being a Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtle because the person can also wear the cushion with a hole for the body and arms. I found the cushion on Amazon. The younger members, Sakuya and Ryo are smitten with the turtle cushion while Riku mentioned that he really wanted it.

As they drew balls, the first round is decided: Jungmin vs Ryo (yellow balls), Yushi vs Daeyoung (red balls), Riku vs Sakuya (blue balls), and Sion who picked the green ball out of the box and got a free pass to round two.

Round one began with Yushi and Daeyoung. Yushi had a silent determination on his face. Once the game started, they both raced toward the exercise ball, but Daeyoung grabbed it first. However Daeyoung was bouncing the exercise ball like a basketball. Yushi used his arms to block Daeyoung's every move. Yushi managed to hit the ball once, which surprised everyone, but Daeyoung still had a hold on it. Daeyoung tried to shoot it in the basket, but it didn't go far enough toward the basket and Yushi caught the exercise ball. Yushi made a dart to the other side of the court and Daeyoung runs after him. Yushi expertly turned around, catching Daeyoung off guard. Yushi almost made the exercise ball go into the basket when Daeyoung's hands tried to block the ball with his last attempt for defense as Daeyoung passed by. However, Yushi dodged the block and eventually dropped the ball into the basket. Yushi moved to round two.

Ryo and Jungmin moved to their spots for their round one match. Jungmin was worried as he has no idea how he would beat Ryo. Ryo taunted Jungmin that Ryo would win no matter what. Jungmin retorted that he would not go easy on Ryo. After the game started, both players ran to the ball, but Jungmin missed the golden opportunity to grab the exercise ball and Ryo expertly held the ball down before rolling it towards himself. Ryo then ran to put the ball into the basket as Jungmin was stunned that he missed grabbing the ball and smiling the whole time. Ryo moved to round two.

The third round one match was between Sakuya and Riku. Both players are crouched down in anticipation to run. Riku apologized to Sakuya in advance because Riku told Sakuya that Riku would win. Sakuya had a laughing hyena face, which made him look a bit crazy. Sakuya only responded, "Ay Ay Ay Aya" as if we knew what that meant though Sakuya was probably trying to slow down Riku's perceived momentum. Once the game started, the two players ran to the ball, but due to Sakuya's crazed face, Riku was a bit intimidated by it, though Sakuya ran passed the ball into defense territory while Riku had some time to pick up the ball. Riku ran in semi-circles, but Sakuya was there to defend against Riku. Riku even ran behind the other members and eventually his tactics worked to run around in smaller semi-circles around Sakuya to place the ball in his own basket. Riku moved on to round two, but he was thoroughly exhausted. Yushi also responded the same way. 

 In the semi-finals, Yushi was set to go against Ryo. After the game started, both players ran to the exercise ball, but this time, they both have a hold of the exercise ball, which seemed hilarious to them because it looked like they were hugging the ball instead. Yushi put more effort into grabbing the ball, but Ryo was strong. Therefore, Yushi used his body to force Ryo to move to Yushi's side of the court instead, one step at a time. Eventually, Ryo used his superpower strength to force Yushi to walk back to Ryo's court. Yushi eventually dropped the ball and Ryo took the golden opportunity to grab the ball and run. Yushi tried to run after Ryo and made one last attempt to block with his arm while they were near Ryo's basket, but Ryo dodged it and placed the ball into his own basket and won again. Ryo went to the final round.

Riku took on Sion in the semi-finals. After the game started, Riku raced to grab the ball and then threw it in the direction beyond his own basket. Riku and Sion went off camera to grab the ball which went out of bounds. Riku somehow got a hold of the ball and Sion was actively blocking Riku from scoring into the basket. It turned out that Daeyoung previously gave Riku the strategy of throwing the ball to his own court, running to the ball and then scoring into his own basket. Riku used his body to push his way towards the basket. After a few circles around Sion, Riku eventually scored the ball into his own basket. 

The final round should be an exciting match between Ryo and Riku, who seemed to be expert players at this game. It would be sad if Ryo lost the prize because he almost won the first round. However, I saw how bad Riku wanted the turtle cushion so I think either win would be satisfying to watch. Riku started in a crouching position again while Ryo preferred to stand up. Once the game started, Riku ran at full speed to the ball, outpacing Ryo by a bit, but that became Riku's strength as Ryo was not able to defend against Riku well after that. Riku ran a straight path back to his basket, but Ryo was unable to block Riku from putting the ball into the basket. The match ended quickly. Riku was the final winner.

Riku happily ran over to accept his prize and eventually wore his turtle shell cushion. He looked so cute. Riku tried lying on the floor on his back on top of the shell cushion and everybody laughed as Riku laid on the floor. 

While setting up for the third game, the members had a bit of a break. With the help of staff members, Ryo tried on the turtle shell cushion. Sakuya asked Ryo to turn around so Sakuya can poke Ryo through the cushion a few times. Sakuya ended up wearing the turtle cushion as well. Unlike Riku, Sakuya laid face forward on the floor like a turtle instead as Ryo watched on. Sakuya looked so adorable. Ryo asked Sakuya to lie on Sakuya's back. Sakuya complied and then ended up rolling across the floor. The one turtle cushion was enough to entertain the young members.

The last mission was the 99-Second Last Mission game in which all members must complete their assigned task in sequential order altogether within 99 seconds. Normally, in these types of games, the group usually fails on the first try. There were seven missions on the court:

1) Egg carton table tennis: Player must bounce the ball once on the table and the ball must land on one of the egg carton spaces that is colored in red to succeed.
2) Bump the volleyball seven times with the wrist or palm without the ball touching the ground
3) One player must kick a slipper from afar and the other player must catch the slipper with a hand basket. They can fail this mission a maximum of three times before the mission is considered an overall failure.
4) Seven plastic mini chairs must be stacked without falling.
5) Water bottle flipping so that the bottom of the bottle lands upright on the table. This mission can be re-tried until succession.
6) Wear a cute sleeping bag and make it across the room.
7) With two people as the rope holders, five players must jump rope ten times as a group.

If the timer went beyond 99 seconds and all missions were not completed, then the group failed the mission. If there was an individual mission failure without the option to retry, then the team must start over with the remaining time leftover. If the team succeeded the mission within three overall attempts, then the team won the game with high quality pork as their main prize. This reminds me of when they all went out to a Korean BBQ restaurant. Sakuya and Ryo could not hide their surprise upon learning what the prize was for the mission. 

The team first discussed strategy with Sion leading the discussion. Yushi volunteered for mission one, the egg carton challenge. Riku volunteered for the volleyball bounce. Jungmin suggested that the slipper basket challenge go to the maknaes (youngest members) of the group, Sakuya and Ryo. Sion asked for volunteers for the chair-stacking challenge. Nobody volunteered for it. Jungmin chimed in again to tell Sion that stacking chairs was good for a calm older member of the group. Sion smiled and accepted the challenge. Daeyoung volunteered for the bottle flipping challenge as he said he has done it countless times in school. Jungmin then volunteered himself for the sleeping bag sprint. Jungmin then also volunteered himself and Daeyoung to turn the jump ropes while the other five are the jumpers. Jungmin tries to demonstrate for Daeyoung on how to turn the rope. This was a very smooth meeting with nobody in conflict over which challenge to do.

The team members went to their own station to practice. Everybody was struggling in some way to finish their mission. Yushi already felt the pressure as he was the first to attempt his mission. I am wondering a bit if Yushi chose the wrong mission to do because it is a difficult mission, but maybe he had some confidence in the first place. 

Yushi started his mission, but he was constantly failing as the balls either went out of bounds or the ball landed on a different egg spot. The group tried to encourage Yushi and with one determined gaze and pause, Yushi threw another ping pong ball and it hit a different egg position, but rolled into a red spot at the end. With 66 seconds left on the clock, Riku starts his volleyball mission. Riku was smart to bounce the ball low so that he could finish seven bounces faster. Sakuya kicked his slipper and Ryo caught it smoothly. With 50 seconds remaining, Sion started stacking small plastic toy chairs. However, when Sion stacked the fifth chair, it collapsed. At the same time, Riku and Yushi were wondering if they could finish the challenge on time, but Yushi had to run back to his station as Sion failed his mission. Yushi took a few tries to succeed on his mission. Riku, Sakuya, and Ryo succeed on their mission easily, but right after that, 99 seconds have passed and they failed the entire mission.

Riku mentioned that the ping pong mission was the hardest. Sion also mentioned stacking chairs was the hardest since there was wind blowing it (from the vents above). Sion suggested if they should switch places. Ryo thought for a bit before he asked Sion to switch places. Ryo started doing analysis on the chair stacking challenge. Meanwhile, Sion checked if doing the ping pong mission was right for him. He continuously failed to get the ping pong ball into the right egg spots. Sion ended up taking Ryo's old position as the basket holder.

The second attempt started with Yushi throwing a few ping pong balls before he succeed to get a ball into a egg spot on the left side. He only took eight seconds for his attempt so now I thought that perhaps this assignment is suitable for Yushi after all. Riku succeeded in his volleyball hit attempts. However, when Sakuya kicked his slipper, the slipper his the corner of Sion's basket and Sion was dumbfounded, sitting on the floor. Daeyoung quickly reminded the team that they had three tries to do it. Yushi busily cleared his ping pong ball station in case they had to start over. Sakuya kicked his slipper again and Sion caught it without a problem. As Ryo started stacking the chairs, Daeyoung and Sion ran behind Ryo to block the wind from affecting the chair tower from falling down. Sakuya joined them to block the wind. The entire gymnasium stayed silent as Ryo stacked the seventh chair and succeeded. Daeyoung started his mission with 30 seconds remaining on the clock. Daeyoung flipped his bottle many times as it did not go smoothly for him and his claims from school seemed invalid. The other members told Daeyoung to be calm and eventually Daeyoung flipped the bottle successfully. Jungmin took his sleeping bag and jumped across to a spot marked by a block on the floor and cleared his mission. Jungmin then ran over to start the jump rope session. Yushi ushered all the members to go into the jump rope one by one, but when it was his turn, he had a hard time finding the timing to go in. After three to four attempts, the time was over and they failed the mission once more. Yushi drops his head in disappointment.

Ryo told the members of the group that Jungmin should not do the jump rope. Due to Jungmin needing to do mission six, he lost 6 seconds to run over to do the last mission and start the jump rope. Sion said that either somebody else do the jump rope part or the sleeping bag challenge. The group decided that Sakuya should do the sleeping bag challenge. Therefore, Jungmin and Sakuya switched places. 

The last challenge started and Yushi had a hard time getting the ping pong ball into one of the egg spots. With further concentration, he managed to get the ball into a slot on the right side. Seventy seconds remained on the clock. Riku had a bit of trouble as his volleyball went in different directions, but he completed the challenge. Jungmin kicked his slipper high up, but Sion caught the slipper into the basket. With more than half the time remaining, Ryo started stacking the chairs. Four members including Yushi stood behind Ryo to block the wind. Ryo did his challenge well and succeeded. Thirty seconds remained on the clock, but Daeyoung finished his challenge on the first try and flipped the water bottle perfectly. Sakuya carefully stepped into the sleeping bag and happily started bouncing across the way while the other members frantically get in place. Daeyoung and Jungmin started the jump rope and Sion almost immediately went in followed by Riku. Yushi, Ryo, and Sakuya also went in smoothly and they all started jumping perfectly ten times. Just like that, they succeeded in doing the 99-Second mission. This group could do anything if they tried. Sion represented the group and returned with the pork meat prize. 

The group took turns to summarize their experience, which was overall positive. This was just the beginning of their journey. Sion placed the pork prize on the floor and they do a final cheer by each member mentioning his name while putting his hand in the center one by one above the pork prize and they all screamed, "Fighting!"


Finally, I have finished my recap and review of this reality competition survival show. Overall, I had a great time giving my thoughts on each trainee's performances. I cannot wait to see what else these boys can do and while I eagerly wait for the winners to debut, I will also do my best to be patient to hear news about those who are still trainees. I have faith in them and I hope everyone will get to debut one way or another. If there should be another reality competition survival show again from SM Entertainment, I will be sure to review it as well. It has been a pleasure and I enjoyed every minute of it.

I thank you for your support, I thank SM entertainment and all their staff and participants, and I hope to see you back on my blog to read other content that I have published.


Saturday, September 23, 2023

NCT Universe: LASTART - Episode 7

 

Source: https://commons.wikimedia.org

Welcome to my episode seven 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.

I am finally at the finale of this reality competition show. I hope the results are what I hope for in the new NCT team.

The 90's Love team is on stage for the rehearsal. The team looks anxious for their final performance. Vocal Trainer and Artist Director Jang Jin Young asks if the team is ready to start the rehearsal. After rehearsal starts, the intro part seems fine until Minjae misses the beat to step out in their hip-hop moves. Furthermore, he also misses it on several occasions. Surprisingly, Yushi loses his footing a bit when his shoe became lose and his foot step went sideways. Sakuya also had problems when his shoelaces became undone and trips a little bit while he was in front and center. While moving backwards, Anderson slightly bumps into Kassho. Kassho's voice sounded shaky during his part. At the climax when Daeyoung and Minjae were suppose to match dissonance notes, Minjae sounded a bit flat. Director Jang scrunched his face.

After rehearsal, Director Jang immediately goes to Minjae and Daeyoung and tells them to immediately practice their parts separately, but specifically pointing at Daeyoung. I thought Minjae sounded flat, but it seems Daeyoung needs the practice. Director Jang tells Kassho that his pitch was a little bit high. Director Jang went to Ryo and tells him that he can't hear him sing during his part and his ending notes were off. Director Jang made his way to Minjae to tell him the harmony was off in his high note for the climax of "90's Love." Director Jang went back to Daeyoung to tell him that he stopped singing mid-part when there were more melodies in his phrase. 

After rehearsal was done, Daeyoung quietly squatted at the front end of the stage, deep in thought. Minjae, who was also squatting next to Daeyoung, noticed and asked him what was wrong. Daeyoung admitted that his throat was not in good condition that day. Minjae kept focused and told Daeyoung to relax more and they should go over their climax part. Minjae tells Daeyoung as they walk off the stage that Daeyoung can make mistakes, but they should show them their potential during their actual performance. 

Backstage, the entire team looked visibly nervous. Daeyoung held his chest while Ryo tried to shake off his nervousness. Yushi also admitted that he was nervous. I think there are two things at stake here:
The IP TF (management) team and special artist directors are sitting in the audience and also, this final mission will decide who will be in the new debut group. 

The 90's Love team eventually moves to the stage while the "Boss" team is in the waiting room with nervous smiles. At least, they can smile for now, but their turn will be next. 

90's Love Team: Sion, Yushi, Minjae, Daeyoung, Anderson, Kassho, Ryo, and Sakuya performing "90's Love" by NCT U.


After this performance, I wanted to give them a huge congratulations for making it this far. I can't believe it's over. There were no major incidents that were seen during rehearsal. Team Boss realized that they were next to perform as the first team is done and Riku started to have mental panic. 

Artist Director Eunhyuk asked if the group was satisfied with their performance that day. Sion answered that when he made eye contacts with other members during their performance, Sion could see that they were all having fun. This was true as I saw Ryo and Sakuya having the most fun with their bright facial expressions.

Special Artist Director NCT Johnny cut to the chase to ask Yushi what he wanted to show in this performance. Surprisingly, Yushi answered that he wanted to showcase his singing ability. I always thought Yushi wanted a dancer position, but he has high ambitions, which is inspiring to me. However, Yushi continued and said, however, that the choreography was 빡세다 Bbakseda (tough/difficult), using a Korean slang term (or my husband thinks this is no longer a slang, but standard vocabulary due to its widespread use). Johnny continued that Sion and Yushi definitely stood out in the performance and were bringing everyone together. Johnny thought Sakuya can quickly change the mood of the song and that made Sakuya look refreshing. Out of everyone on the team, Anderson had the best energy. However, Anderson looked like he was too focused on himself and his feelings, so he could work on going beyond and make the audience feel it too. Johnny said that Minjae only shined during the high notes and that was a bit disappointing because Minjae looked like he was confused where his spot was on stage.

Special Artist Director NCT's Haechan thought Sion was powerfully leading the team. Haechan really loved Yushi's voice. Haechan will remember Yushi's voice after the show. Eunhyuk egged Haechan on whether it was because Yushi had a similar vibe as Haechan and Yushi both had unique voices. Haechan laughed and expressed that Yushi had a unique voice that does not get in the way of enjoying the song. Yushi's unique voice made the song more interesting so Haechan really liked it. I can't wait for Haechan and Yushi to collaborate in the future. Haechan saw that Daeyoung only trained for three months, but can hit the high notes very well, which impressed Haechan. However, Haechan confidently said that Daeyoung needs more training in dance. Haechan had the feeling that Ryo was the cute member of the group. Ryo showed a different charm from his members, which was nice to see. In this personal interview, Ryo explained that he practiced his smile a lot for this performance and he interpreted the judges comments to mean that he had the most fun in his performance. Haechan did not check how the vocal parts were assigned, but he said he wouldn't remember Minjae very well. Minjae would have to think about how to resolve it as he continues to perform on stage. Minjae should focus on improving his vocal abilities, but he should not overlook the choreography.

Artist Director BoA thought that Yushi and Daeyoung's voice complimented each other very well. Their vocal tones matched well together. Ryo looked a lot taller to BoA from the last time she saw him. BoA thought Ryo hard-carried his team during this performance. Ryo's stage etiquette and energy was great. BoA especially liked the part when Ryo was dancing in front of Sion and owned the performance with that particular vibe. Unfortunately, Kassho did not stand out to BoA as much as she would like him to stand out.

Special Director Leeteuk thought after observing Daeyoung that if Daeyoung practiced his singing and dancing more, he would make a lot of improvements. To ease the tension, Leeteuk immediately went into a story about how their main vocalist, Yesung, was backstage still practicing high notes when his microphone was on. This story made Leeteuk realize how much pressure main vocalists are under to hit their high notes. When Daeyoung was moving to the side of the stage to prepare for the climax high notes, Leeteuk saw Daeyoung's determination to do well. Leeteuk asked that if Daeyoung would be able to let go of his determination a little bit and relax more, he would be a better singer and dancer. Leeteuk will root for Daeyoung. Because so much is at stake, I don't think any trainee can relax in this situation, but at least they need to hide that during the performance. During Daeyoung's personal interview, he said that he was nervous ,but decided to only focus on the performance. He was sad that the performance was over, but he didn't feel any regrets. Leeteuk honestly thought that it was not easy to smile in front of all the senior members in the agency, but it looked like Sakuya is enjoying it.

Artist Director Eunhyuk thought that in past missions, Ryo looked too youthful and didn't fit the image of the group that he had in mind. However, in this performance, Ryo completed the overall style of the team. Ryo led his team well. Eunhyuk also mentioned that in previous missions, he gave feedback that Sakuya's facial expressions were plain. However, in today's performance, Sakuya had the best facial expressions. Eunhyuk kept watching Sakuya, who showed him great smiles and facial expressions that matched the style of the song well. Eunhyuk recognized Sakuya's hard work. Eunhyuk liked how Ryo and Sakuya both improved. Eunhyuk thought Anderson enjoyed performing by nature and had a talent. Despite having a short training period and experience on stage, Anderson does not look like an amateur on stage. He looked like he was born to be on stage. Kassho looked like he was a good singer and dancer, but he kept blending into the group. Kassho should think about how to fix this problem on his own. Lee Sung Soo, the CAO of the new IP TF team thought that since Kassho had a short training period, he can continue improving himself and reveal more of his talents on stage and leave an impression on the audience.

Anderson left an impression on Special Artist Director Kangta. Thee choreography has a flow and Anderson did a great job at utilizing the overall vibe and rhythm of the song. Kangta explained to Minjae that the burden of a vocalist is to present the song from start to finish. The audience should not see the artist's burden on stage. Minjae should keep this in mind as he continues to practice.

Artist Director Kang Jin Young knew that the trainees on this team wanted desperately to be an NCT member, so they must have felt more pressure in this mission. The team finished the performance without any mistakes. He wanted to thank them and tell them that they did an amazing job. While performing on this show, all members have improved. He hopes that all members continue to improve whether or not they make it into the debut team. If they can manage it, continuous improvement will help their careers a lot.

I will also give my feedback on the final performance. Sion led the beginning of the song well in the center as he tends to have exaggerated dance movements and that was the perfect time to do his special moves. Everybody seemed happy to do their "high touches" and I was happy to see that enthusiasm. Having Sakuya lead the hip-hop dance was awesome. Unfortunately, I didn't think Sion's voice fit this song well. He was more rapping than singing the lyrics. Sion's voice seemed weak in general for this song. Once Yushi came in with his part in verse 2, the song because more easier to listen to because of his clear voice. I wish Yushi smiled a bit more in this fun song. Unfortunately, Kassho seems to have 80% energy as the back-up rapper dancing in the back. I will admit that even the original singer, Winwin didn't have much presence either as a lead rapper. When Ryo sang the pre-chorus, he was really in his groove, which I appreciated very much. I finally notice Ryo as a worthy member. Ryo was living in the song and very immersed into his role. Daeyoung gave a smile and a heart while he was in the front, which was a good touch. Sakuya commanded in his rap role and took it to a new height for his performance. I missed his mission two fierceness that he brought out once again. I thought his facial expressions was not as good as when he practiced in front of Ten, but he still gave me the happy and playful vibes. Anderson came in strong, but his rap was more like a speaking rap than a rhythmic rap. I like his ending touch where he flipped his jacket open and moved his hands down the sides of his chest. That was creative and he acted like he has done it all his life (which I will not think about since that would mean he did it as a minor.) I am trying to say that he did his part very naturally. When Yushi danced in the front, the rest of the members beautifully supported him in the back triangle formation with Sakuya doing it strongly. Sakuya really brought his talent to the forefront in this performance. Unfortunately, Kassho did his part with a bland expression, which I didn't understand as he still hasn't got out of that too-cool-for-you character. His voice was great and his dance is decent, but that facial expression seems worse than Jungmin's robot look. I can't feel the song through Kassho. It's hard to detect that Daeyoung has a throat problem as he did a good job singing his part while Yushi flew by Daeyoung in the back with his own vocals. I only noticed Minjae during the climax part as he did his dissonant high notes with Daeyoung. While Daeyoung was looking and facing Minjae while singing, Minjae seems to be facing towards the back stage as he sang, which was strange to me. Facing the back of the stage is almost taboo when in the performing spotlight. Even Taeyong changed his original choreography with the "7th sense" instead of turning around and singing his part, he faced the audience instead. Daeyoung and Minjae should be facing each other when they sing this part just like Haechan and Ten would face each other as they sing together. Later on, Daeyoung also nailed singing an octave higher in his part with seemingly no effort. He looked like a wolf in howling position. There is no doubt that this team is strong despite having a rehearsal disaster. My only thought as I view this performance as a whole is that I didn't get the 90's feel from this group, but it feel more like a fresh group in the current era.

My initial ranking are as follows:
1. Sakuya - He led the team in many parts.
2. Ryo - He has his own groove, which fits the song well.
3. Daeyoung - Amazing vocal power and decent lead rapper. His rap parts weren't highlighted, but he did a great job. If he isn't feeling 100%, I'm sure his 100% would be very powerful.
4. Anderson - He fits well with the vibe of the song and he did a great job overall with creativity.

For the final lineup, I am sacrificing Kassho and Minjae as they did not meet my standards for debut.

After stepping off stage, the 90's Love team got into a semi-group huddle where Anderson explained that they have learned a lot from this experience, which improved all of their skill sets overall. Ryo explains that he had the most fun in this performance. Sion thinks that this is the time where they put in the most work to improve as trainees. He hopes that they remember their hard work and use it as their foundation. The group does their last cheer as a team to a good job and good work.

The Artist Director team is ready for the next song, "Boss" By NCT U. Eunhyuk asked Haechan if he though the song was difficult. Haechan explains that while he was not part of the performance of the song, he knows that the rap in this song is melody-focused with a singing rap. There are a lot of singing parts with trendy rhythm and blues lines. Executing these parts will be the key point in the song. Eunhyuk thought that the song has a lot of rollercoaster parts and a different range of styles. 

In the practice room of the Boss team, at Day -7, the team members were stretching. Sion asked the team if they did not yet learn how to count the beats of the song and the group answered, yes, to confirm. Sion said that they will go slow. During his personal interview, when Sion heard that they would be performing "Boss," he thought that it would be a good opportunity for everyone to show their different talents. Yushi suggested to Riku that they do a high-touch (handshake-hug) at the beginning of the song and they practice it.

At D-5 and D-4, they work on their angles and range of different charms during their performance. While they were practicing, the final guest mentor walked to the practice room and spied through the window: NCT's leader, Taeyong. At a certain point, he promptly opens the door to make his presence known. Riku thought he was really cool and Haruta thought that Taeyong had an intense aura, which was cool beyond words. Taeyong went to shake everybody's hands and repeat each members name at the same time. Taeyong playfully explained to them, though with a straight face, that he came to play.

Taeyong proceeded to call out names from his clipboard like taking attendance in a school classroom. When Taeyong called out Jungmin's name, he noticed that Jungmin has a talent of drawing the Spongebob character, which Taeyong can do as well. When Taeyong called Riku's name, he notices Riku's specialty is popping. When Heitetsu was called, Taeyong incredulously read his specialty as flexible, interesting poses. 

Next, Taeyong asked to see their performance so far. He asks the team if they are confident. The "Boss" team confirms with smiles. Taeyong told them that they should be confident and that they can do it. Yushi looked nervous to start, but Taeyong commanded them not to be nervous. Once the music started, Yushi was in performance mode and Yushi's nervousness vanished instantly. While they performed, Riku rapped live. Heitetsu followed up with his rap live. Taeyong looked adorably cute as his round eyes rolled around and focused on different parts of the performance. After the performance, Taeyong asked everyone to drink some water.

Taeyong expressed that he can tell everybody worked really hard. The team sat in front of him while he spoke. Taeyong mentioned that he rather not compare them to his present self as he had his own trainee days in the past. When he thought about his past, he thought it was okay to be more stressed than the present. He then proceeded to tell the trainees that they worked really hard, but that was it. Taeyong has big expectations. Taeyong wanted them to push themselves to the limit. This advice is totally opposite from the past mentors on the show, who showed a lot of encouragement. Taeyong gives his advice with tough love. Taeyong explained that there is a very thin line of difference where the audience can see them differently. Taeyong would like the team to treat this performance like it is a matter of life or death (wow). He wanted to see more teamwork and exude a vibe where they are working together. 

For example, during practice, Taeyong would like them to discuss what types of gestures they want to make for the performance and get approval. They could also talk about what they want to do with their positions. They will have to resolve the discussions among themselves. Once they do that, their performance will look more comfortable to watch. 

Taeyong expressed that the "Boss" song is a hip-hop song that has not existed before its release as there were not many groups that did hip-hop dancing as far as he could remember. He would like them to remember that it is not an ordinary choreography, but a whole new genre. The original Boss team also had a hard time with the choreography. The new Boss team can discuss how they can bring the hip-hop vibe to the song.

Taeyong tried to ask the team if they ate already, in which the team confirmed. Feeling awkward, Taeyong bought them fried chicken, but he said he will take it all and eat it himself. A staff member promptly dropped off all the bags of food and drinks next to Taeyong. The team could only laugh in this situation. 

Because there will be a new NCT unit, the topic is more special to Taeyong. He thought that this is a new way to let the world know more about NCT. Despite his harsh comments, he told the group that he was proud of them and he hopes that they become a group that shines. 

During their group photo, Taeyong asks the team to smile. Jungmin does not disappoint. 

Personally, it didn't look like Taeyong's session with the team helped that much. He gave such general advice. I normally enjoyed the guest mentors, but in this case, I am not sure if this advice would help them change their current strategy.

The team continues to monitor their performance. Sion asks Riku to put more weight into his performance. Sion also reviews Haruta's part. They talked about the choreography, but it was Sion who mostly talked to the members. Sion mentioned that they did not talk much about teamwork since they were engrossed into their practice. They tried to practice in a different way for several days and they did not bump into each other during the dance. Sion thought the overall formations looked neater.

For the next three days, the members practiced. Jungmin also practiced singing in his individual training room. Jungmin wanted to show that he was not only a good singer but a good dancer as well. Riku also practiced his individual rap. However, he has mixed feelings about debuting, but he knows that everybody is nervous so he wanted them to show what they practiced so far.

The Boss team were now in rehearsal. Vocal trainer and Artist Director Jang Jin Young looked on. At the beginning of the choreography, Haruta's leg slipped while bending over and walking. He continues to miss the beat while walking and bending over. During the chorus, the tones of the members did not sound good. During Jungmin's high note part, he did not secure his high note in time and froze in place. The team looked stressed after the rehearsal was over. Director Jang looked like he did not know what to do. The final mission seemed to have gotten to every contestant's nerves. 

Director Jang addresses the team and tells them to practice the "player" part of the chorus. Their tones keep going up as they were singing and dancing at the same time. Director Jang tells Jungmin that his overall tune is ridiculously off. He demonstrates the "yeah" parts. Jungmin is stunned and started shedding quiet tears. Jungmin explained in his personal interview that his throat hurt. This reminded me of what Daeyoung mentioned during his rehearsal. Jungmin stated that he couldn't control his voice so that was starting to make me nervous as I do not want him eliminated because of this problem. He looked so vulnerable on stage, but unlike Daeyoung, I thought Jungmin couldn't snap out of it. Director Jang stayed by Jungmin's side as Jungmin silently shed tears. Director Jang tells Jungmin that after the audition, they will take some time to fix his tone and it should be okay to work on the basics first. Even though Jungmin may make a mistake, he still has to do it. Jungmin nods and continued to silently cry. Director Jang wiped Jungmin's tears. Director Jang is such a caring mentor. He really wanted everybody to succeed. At this point, I am really worried about Jungmin. I can't have a team without him.

Eunhyuk and the rest of the audience were ready to see the next performance. The Boss team, led by Sion, is ready to perform with no regrets. However, Jungmin walks on stage with his eyes widened, unfazed by the camera, and looking stunned. I am really worried as that is not the correct mentality to go on stage. The 90's Love team is now very relaxed in the waiting room, but nervous to see the Boss team perform. 

The Boss Team: Sion, Yushi, Heitetsu, Riku, Ryu, Jungmin, and Haruta performing NCT U's "Boss"


After the performance, the audience was in awe. Eunhyuk thought this was a difficult song and Kangta said this song would make them stand out. The Boss team introduced themselves to the judges.

Kangta started the praise that the team understood the flow of the song well despite needing to sing and dance. Kangta gave encouraging words to Heitetsu that if Heitetsu practices enough, Heitetsu will beat even talented trainees. When Kangta looked at Riku's performance, Kangta can see the flow of the music. Riku did a good job of interpreting the concept of the song. As a joke, Kangta explained to Jungmin that there is an otolaryngologist or ENT who can help Jungmin with his voice. Their company knows a person (referring to BoA). Kangta advised that Jungmin learn how to produce sound without straining his throat. 

Johnny thought Yushi and Sion were cool. Jungmin caught Johnny's attention a lot. When Johnny looked at the screen which showed Jungmin from the chest upward, Johnny fell in love with Jungmin's face. Jungmin looked like he didn't know how to interpret Johnny's comment. Jungmin had a talent of capturing Johnny's attention. However, when Jungmin dances, his dance looked a little heavy. Johnny can relate as he tried hard to improve his heavy dance look himself. I interpret that to mean heavy steps when dancing. Johnny has faith that if Jungmin worked hard on it, he can improve. 

Eunhyuk compared Sion to a chameleon who knew how to express his himself through different songs and Yushi who knew how to keep the pace of every song to lead the performance. Ryu looked like he was doing his best, but his moves were a little bit rushed for the song. Ryu should relax more and express himself better. Eunhyuk could see confidence in Haruta's face. Eunhyuk praised Jungmin and Riku for leading every performance and are great at it. Jungmin had difficult parts in his songs.

Production Center 4 Chief, Chae Jung Hee thought Ryu's past energy and confidence in past missions could serve as his strength, but in this song, Ryu needed to show good control. 

Haechan thought Ryu's tone was cool and he can polish up his tone on stage and relax more, which would make him look better on stage. Haechan honestly told Jungmin that when he was a trainee, he did not dare to sing high notes, but Haechan thought it was cool that Jungmin still attempted high notes even if he possibly executed it the wrong way or made a mistake. If Jungmin can learn to use his voice better, he can become an unmatched vocalist. In his personal interview, Jungmin confessed that he used to be a cheerful person, but there was a period of time where he became timid. Other trainees helped Jungmin a lot. During the time they were standing side stage, Riku mentioned that not only is Jungmin's singing good, but Jungmin has charm. Jungmin promised to work hard and polish his skills so he can become a great vocalist. This confession made me think about what happened in his life to make him become so timid. Was it something he personally experienced like being bullied or was it the pressures of being a SM trainee where he felt he was not good enough?

Leeteuk gave Heitetsu feedback that his performance is too bland. There was a specific praying move with his hands and palms together in which he had to move it up and down along with the group during the chorus, but the way Heitetsu did it was dull and seemed slower than the other members. Leeteuk thought that Heitetsu knew he did not have confidence so Heitetsu danced father away from the group. Later on, Leeteuk explained that a person's average attention span is eight seconds. This is enough time for a person to skip over a music video. How long the trainee period only matters internally and the public will not care about that fact. Leeteuk looks forward to seeing all the trainees as professionals when they debut. Eunhyuk joked that he could only concentrate on Leeuteuk's words for the first eight seconds. Leeteuk joked back that his comments can be split into two episodes. 

BoA explained to Heitetsu that he was the tallest in the group, but he was floundering too much. Therefore, she recommended that he practice dance more seriously. Haruta caught BoA's eye a lot during the performance. She loved his performance and thought that Haruta finally expressed himself on stage. Riku's performance was great. Riku matched the song so well that BoA felt that Riku was a boss himself. Riku had the charisma. BoA saw that Jungmin had throat problems and asked how his throat is after the performance. Jungmin replied that he had a hard time vocalizing. BoA explained that she warned him that if he kept singing the way he sang in the first mission, he would eventually hurt his throat. 

Eunhyuk told the Boss team that they can relax now and wait for the final results. This is it!

Once the trainees are off the stage, Jungmin confessed that he didn't want to cry, but he actually cried twice that day with the first cry being at rehearsal and the second cry after Haechan's compliment. The subtitle mentions Jungmin as the crybaby of LASTART. Heitetsu soon began to cry himself. After seeing Heitetsu cry, Riku turned around in attempt to stop himself from crying. Heitetsu wanted to thank everyone and they huddled together to do a cheer with their hands in the middle. In his personal interview, Yushi had mixed feelings as well as he had many practices with the trainees. He will do his best to work hard. Sion mentioned that although their missions are completed, this is a start and not an end. He will also work hard and show improvement.

I will also give my thoughts on the performance. I didn't like Sion's voice too much in 90's Love, but Sion's voice was definitely better in Boss where I can clearly hear his melody. His flexibility in his dance is great as usual. I see Ryu improved in this performance. While the judges see him as rushed and not relaxed, I see Ryu's best performance yet. It would have been nicer if he held his melody until the end of the musical phrase instead of cutting it off short. I felt Jungmin wasn't mentally invested into the song, which was a shame. I can tell throughout the performance that he was thinking about something and not really being in the moment or in character. His dance also looked really heavy and he wasn't moving like how he moved in "Electric Kiss" where his mentality was do or die. Yushi's vocals are stable as always. I notice that I no longer see vocal problems of him cutting his melody short or out of breath anymore like I see in Mission two. Yushi must have increased his stamina. Riku is the main boss in this performance. He was very in character. I was trying to find the Taeyong and Mark of the group and it is looking to be Riku and Yushi who had the most charisma. Heitetsu's rap was really his best performance. He still has a long way to go in terms of improvement, but I feel like he has improved since mission one and his quick rap wasn't bad at all. I think if Heitetsu continues to practice, he will debut one day. Unfortunately, Jungmin came in again singing way ahead of the beat. I knew Jungmin's mind wasn't in the moment, but Jungmin kept his power in his vocals. He didn't put power into his arms and made it a fling instead, which was disappointing. He also took many glances at the floor during his performance. If I have to be harsh, this is Jungmin's worst performance and I will be nervous if he doesn't debut because of this performance. In a way, I felt like he was on autopilot mode. Yushi singing the bridge part was heavenly. He could have more dramatic moves since he had the spotlight, but I guess he needed to control his movements for a better quality sound. I think I need more of Yushi's voice in my life. When it was Jungmin's turn to finish the bridge, he had less movement than Yushi and was basically standing there. It reminded me of Minjae and how he stood in place in preparation for his high notes. I am relieved that Jungmin was able to hit his high note even if it was a bit shaky. Riku quickly made up for it by capturing me with his boss rap and high jump. Having Haruta do the low rap in combination with Riku's higher tone rap sounded really good. I didn't pay attention to Haruta until this point, but Haruta brought his chaotic energy with him as he strongly head bopped to his rap. That was an excellent climax to the song. I wanted to cheer for him as this was his personal best performance and very memorable. Just like Riku, Haruta brought his own boss energy to the song. I wanted to comment on how it was a bit unfair that Yushi, Sion, and maybe Riku had the best outfits while everybody else had mediocre styled outfits. Jungmin's outfit wasn't that attractive on him. Haruta and Ryu's outfit looked a bit plain. Overall, I am proud of the team's efforts in this performance and the disasters that we saw during the rehearsal were not evident in the actual performance.

The new IP TF team provides 50% of the scores and the artist directors will provide the other 50% of the scores. Only four out of the eleven trainees can debut with Sion and Yushi. The aptitude, talent, and growth potential of all the trainees along with their mission evaluations will be considered and included in the scores.    

Johnny was worried about what to say to the trainees who didn't make it. Haechan was just as nervous as the trainees. He wanted to give a warm welcome to the new members of NCT. With a smile on his face, Eunhyuk was curious to know whether the NCT members would be territorial with the new NCT members. Johnny gave his witty response to answer that it would be a given. Haechan cackled at Johnny's response. BoA then asked if the other NCT members were mean to Johnny when he joined. Johnny then replied that he was the one who was territorial. 

It's time for the SM Rookies and trainees to take the stage. Eunhyuk thanked all the trainees for their hard work and asked the SM Rookies for feedback on their experience. Sion wanted to thank all his friends and juniors for trusting him and following his lead. They went through a lot of tough experiences together, but they also made fun memories. He would like this experience to be a good memory for all. Yushi was very worried, but explained that the trainees followed his lead very well. He was very proud (of their efforts, probably).

Eunhyuk then turned to Haechan for an announcement. Haechan announced that NCT has a group concert in August and September (NCT Nation: To the World). Those trainees who debut will be a part of the pre-stage performance for the concerts. Haechan thought it would be a good opportunity for them to perform in front of the NCTzens who love NCT. 

This moment is where the title of "NCT New Team" is displayed in the video. I was hoping that SM would reveal the new name of the debut group, but I was disappointed to know that this does not happen on the show.

The ranking results of mission four and the final results are as follows:
1. Riku (Ranked 1st in the first mission, 2nd in the second mission, 2nd in the third mission)
2. Sakuya (Ranked 5th in the first mission, 3rd in the second mission, 5th in the third mission)
3. Daeyoung (Ranked fourth in the third mission)
4. Jungmin (Ranked 3rd in the first mission, 1st in the second mission, 1st in the third mission)
Surprise! The new IP TF team and artist directors had an emergency meeting and made a necessary decision for the structure of the group. Therefore, one more trainee will debut.
5. Ryo (Ranked fourth in the first mission, 7th in the second mission, and 7th in the third mission)

Unfortunately, this means the following trainees are eliminated from the NCT New Team:
6. Anderson (Ranked 2nd in the first mission, 5th in the second mission, 3rd in the third mission)
7. Ryu (Ranked 8th in the first mission, 6th in the second mission, and 6th in the third mission)
8. Minjae (Ranked 6th in the first mission, 4th in the second mission, and 10th in the third mission)
9. Haruta (Ranked 6th in the first mission, 9th in the second mission, and 8th in the third mission)
10. Kassho (Ranked 9th in the first mission, 8th in the second mission, and 9th in the third mission)
11. Heitetsu (Ranked 10th in the first mission, 10th in the second mission, and 11th in the third mission)

We have our final debut team. I will share my personal rankings:

1) Riku: He killed it with his performance. Just as BoA said, Riku looked like he already debut. Behind Sion and Yushi, I have faith that Riku looks ready for debut and he will deliver his part well.
2) Sakuya: He has captured my attention in every single mission. I am not sure how else to explain it other than that he has charm and he is not afraid to try new things. Perhaps it is because of his young age that he tries to take a lot of risks and the risks are paying off. Mentality plays a huge part in success. His youth is also his charm.
3) Daeyoung: Daegu man has made it! Since mission three, I know he is not perfect, but I can see his potential. He can sing, he can rap, and I can see him improving his dance skills in the future. He is the type of trainee that will get things done and focus on the matter at hand.
4) Jungmin: He was somebody I always thought was a necessity to the team. I was very disappointed in his mission four results, but not enough to kick him off my debut list. I have faith that he had one bad performance, but he will also have many better performances in the future. I have to keep the faith to believe that he will solidify the group with his quirky behaviors, main vocal talent, and his vulnerability. I am a bit worried that mentally, he could be unstable, but I am willing to give him some time to adjust and to pick up his confidence.
So far, I noticed that my choices matched the outcome of the competition show, which normally never happens in a reality competition survival show. If I have to look at all my review posts, my thoughts are mostly similar to the outcome, which I am proud of, which means I also have the "Pink Blood" (SM's Fan Club name) within me.

However, my fifth choice would have been possibly different.
5) Anderson: I was really rooting for Anderson to be in the lineup. He has consistently ranked in the top five of all missions. There is no reason to not include him in the group. Personally, I think Anderson would have a lot more to contribute than Ryo would and I like Ryo, but he was never a necessity in my mind, though Ryo had given a very good performance in mission four. The combination of Ryo and Sakuya also makes a good pair and it would be a shame not to debut them together. Anderson is good with words, has good dance skills, but I can see how the judges think he needs more training. I would also think the Japanese audience would like Anderson based on his looks and talent. I really wish that they decided to debut eight members instead. Then, I think I all is well with a perfect group created from a small pool of contestants. Since Ryo is picked, I will also accept the outcome as Ryo has great vocals and a great personality on stage. Like Sakuya, he is young and he is willing to take risks to reach success.

I wanted to give honorable mention to Haruta, who really sneaked into potential debut possibility. I saw his super fast growth from mission three onwards and if he keeps it up, I think he has debut potential. He would have been a formidable trainee contestant as I see him going up in rank.

This also gives me another thought that the trainees who did not make it can form another group in the future. We don't want to lose potential talent here as I see something special in each trainee and I have faith in them. I only worry about Kassho and Heitetsu, both whom I was unable to see clear growth in their abilities during this show. For sure, Anderson, Ryu,  Minjae, and Haruta can become a potential debut group. 

In this industry, we have to keep in mind that there are more rejections than there are acceptances. I am not directly in the music industry, but even I could not find a job in the music industry after college with three internships under my belt and many rejections. I'm sure Yushi and Sion went through rejections in order to get to this point in their debut. The trainees should not feel too bad and keep powering on until they get the results that they want. This is not an easy journey, but if they want it bad enough, I see opportunities in their future.

Confetti is shot in the air and Sion is visibly shocked by it.

In their closing comments. Haechan told the new members to cheer up and work hard. He wants to be close to them very quickly, but I'm sure it won't be long before he starts joking around with his new members. Johnny promised to drop by to check on their practice for the NCT concert and to chat with them in more depth at that time. He then congratulated the new team. Leeteuk had to interject and jokingly ask if Johnny will give the new team a tough time. Johnny smiled and said he will once he is alone with the new team.

BoA explained to the new team that they have entered into the world of professionals. They will have to make twice and thrice the effort to try harder from now onwards. She thinks they will feel it themselves once they take the stage. They will realize what they have done so far is child's play. She wishes that they grow into a team that befits the NCT brand. 

Leeteuk mentioned that this is not the end for the trainees who did not debut. They need to hone their skills to debut as another cool group in the K-pop industry. Leeteuk encourages the trainees not to give up and that this is only the beginning. 

Kangta mentioned that this is a rare opportunity before debut. The trainees should think of it as a good memory and remember their lessons and feedback that they received to become cooler artists. Kangta thinks many people will watch this show (Yes. Me included.). Therefore, they could have more opportunities because of it. This is true as now SM trainees, who are famously hidden from the public, are now public with the public knowing who Anderson, Ryu, Minjae, Haruta, Kassho, and Heitetsu are at SM Entertainment. 

Eunhyuk concludes the show by reviewing again the show's title "Last Start: LASTART." The show is over, but the member's dreams begin from this point. Eunhyuk asks for the viewer's unwavering support until the group receives love from all over the world.

I am already emotionally invested in this group, so I will be closely observing their career. A huge congratulations to the NEW NCT TEAM and I will go through major withdrawal until I get to see them on the screen again. It has been an interesting experience so far to note down all my thoughts and experiences throughout the show and I am proud of myself for being able to write this much about the show. I hope my readers also learned something and are entertained by it as well.

Seven episodes were not that long and yet I cannot believe it it is over. I am eagerly awaiting to see what types of NCT combinations we will get. A lot of netizens already mentioned the following twin-like pairs or great duo combinations:
Sion and Jaehyun
Riku and Mark
Ryo and Renjun
Haechan and Yushi

I can see how the netizens may not like the age gap that Sakuya and Ryo have with the rest of the NCT members, especially with Taeil, the eldest member, but for me, music and art have no limitations and bounds. I mainly appreciate the performance art and music by itself and not think too much of what should be morally right. NCT is the wrong group to support if we want to stay with the status quo. I can see NCT continuing to push the boundaries and to show us what is really cool in this world.

It is also true that Japanese NCT member Yuta did not attend the final mission. That is a shame and also too bad that he couldn't be there to cheer on the Japanese team and support them in some way during the show. Hopefully, we will get more interactions between them in the future.

I will take a little break to personally travel to Korea (No, not to see NCT, although that is nice.), but I will be back to review the final episode eight. I see that episode eight is not the last episode as the show continues to Japan, but I will not have access to watching the Japan shows, so I will review up to episode eight.

Please leave a comment if you would like about this finale episode and we shall continue to episode eight for the final episode review of NCT Universe: LASTART.

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