Hello everybody and happy 2024! I am now going into new territory: a game app review.
As this is related to the Korean entertainment world, and I previously reviewed a BTS book, I might as well also venture into reviewing video games. This is not a professional review, but a casual player review. I am not paid to write this review so please support my efforts by visiting an AD on this website.
I consider myself a casual gamer who loves simulation and idle games because I simply have no time for games. Currently, I have 56 game applications on my iPhone so this is a hypocritical statement, but I do not play all 56 games regularly. I also want to give a shoutout to my brother who works as a Senior Software Engineer for a game company, but I will not consult his expertise in game development for this review because this is a casual game review. I don't consider myself an excellent game player or the smartest player or the person who spends money on games as I am a F2P (free to play) player. I suppose playing games is meant to relax me and I have played war games in which my heart was pumping so I want to stay away from those thrilling games like PUBG or LoL (League of Legends). I liked RPG or MMORPG games when I was younger, but now I have no time for it.
I spent some days playing NCT Zone. For fear of copyright, I will not be posting any direct pictures of the game in this post so this will be strictly based on the review.
SM Ent. & TakeOne Company has launched a card battle and building application game on 27-DEC-2023 based on the members of NCT. Anyone who is a fan of NCT and/or any of the NCT subgroups should play this game. However, there are no NCT New Team members featured in this game, but I am not sure if they will be added to the game at a later time because that is a possibility. Business is business, so if they end up adding the NCT New Team members, I would be thrilled. I also think this game could be geared slightly towards females with gift-giving and intimacy levels with the members involved, but I think male players can also have fun in the game.
For those who are a BTS fan and have played "BTS World" before, which is also a card battle application game from the TakeOne game developement company, then they will see that it has similar gameplay. I started playing BTS World a long time ago, I think, in 2019 for a short while at a time when I didn't know who the members of BTS were and who is who. I knew their music, but I am not at the level of knowing each member's names. This game, in a way, helped me recognize each member of BTS. However unfortunately, life got in the way and I stopped playing the game. The game itself has shut down recently on 26-DEC-2023, one day before the NCT Zone game launched. Is this some type of conspiracy or has the TakeOne contract simply expired with BTS World? However, Netmarble is also involved with the BTS World as the game publisher, so maybe things simply didn't work out among the three companies along with Hybe Corporation, BTS' management company. I wish I played the BTS World game a little longer so that I can do more comparison for this review. If any readers played BTS World and NCT Zone, I would like to read up on the comparisons between the two games.
Seeing how BTS World shut down eventually, I am not having a good feeling that NCT Zone game will last forever, so I recommend trying this game as fast as possible to play it before NCT Zone possibly suffers the same fate or however their collaboration contract is written.
I am aware that SM Entertainment has a "SUPERSTAR SMTOWN" rhythm game to tappity tap, but I am not interested in rhythm games in general. Again, it makes my heart pump with stress so I just stay away from it. I love music, though as you can tell from my blog, but I don't think I can handle the rhythm game stress. My daughter loves rhythm games though. My thumbs would probably die and I was once a avid piano player.
Before I begin to write about my review, the "NCT Zone" game can be found at the following official link https://nctzofficial.com/ so those who are interested can obtain more information or play the game right away for free where purchases are optional.
However, for those who download the game on their phone, please note that they would need extra storage in their phones because while the game itself has a 315.5 MB file size, once they download the game, they need a lot more to download all the videos and more videos of the boys as they collect them. They can't download this game when their phone storage is about full so I recommend to free up a few hundred MBs of space to start the game.
It was a bit funny to think about now, because initially, before the game launch was revealed, NCT fans thought that "NCT Zone", when registered as a trademark, may be the name of the new NCT New Team, but come to find out, it was the name of the new NCT application game.
I like their OST song, "Do it (Let's Play)" for the game. I'm glad they released it for our audio pleasure. The above video seems to be the instrument only with background voice track. The below OST song seems to only have a few NCT members singing the actual song: Jungwoo, Jeno, Yangyang, Chenle, and Xiaojun.
Sypnosis:
There is a storyline in this game. The player has entered the dream world in which all the NCT members, who are agents, have nightmarish dreams. The player's job is to clear those nightmarish dreams with card battles in Kwangya so that the NCT members can have sweet dreams again. Nightmares causes the Neozone where the NCT members reside to collapse in toxic fog. Basically, the player is on a dream cleansing mission. However, in the NCT member's dream, the NCT member must not know that they are in a dream. If they realize that it is a dream, the dream will collapse. This logic gives me the "Inception" movie vibes.
At the same time, players can rebuild the Neozone, a place where all the NCT members gather to make items, collect items, and expand the neozone territory with sweet dreams.
Players need to collect each NCT player's CCOMAZ, like a communication device so the player can communicate directly with the NCT member. The CCOMAZ can be leveled up so that the NCT members can perform more tasks.
Once the NCT member's CCOMAZ is collected, players can gave the NCT member different outfits and also give the NCT member gifts to increase intimacy. As far as I know, increasing intimacy only gives me rewards, but no other game benefits.
Positive Points:
The storylines are fun to read and experience. I like how some of the Kwangya missions are tied to the members in real life such as the Haechan 37.5MHz radio mission and Nana's coffee lab mission. Haechan has his own radio show called "37.5MHz HAECHAN Radio" and Jaemin is known to be obsessed with coffee.
Watch one ad a day in the game to collect a reward. This is an optional task. This is better than watching multiple ads a day or throughout game play, which disrupts the game play.
If the player collects multiple NCT CCOMAZ and more than one NCT member is roaming in Neozone, players can move the NCT members onto each other and any nearby NCT members will also join in dancing to NCT songs in Neozone. This is so cute and never gets old (or tire out of it).
Players can choose their favorite NCT member to be displayed in the main Lobby menu, assuming that they have the NCT member's CCOMAZ device with the outfit and background that was selected in the "member room."
I love Haechan's voice whenever he announces "Combo!" during card battle. He is so enthusiastic and into character. I love using his cards and hearing his voice, especially his idiolect.
I love Taeyong's reactions to me giving him a gift with a slight surprise. He says, "Wah. Kamsahamnida." I am motivated to give him all my gifts. By the way, I selected Taeyong as my first CCOMAZ contact since he is THE leader of NCT. If one does not talk to the leader when there is trouble, who does one talk to?
Taeil's video is creative. When you give him a gift, he catches a gift box and exclaims, "Thank you" in English.
Depending on which menu the player goes to, there is different NCT song. This could be a positive or a negative aspect of the game because while it is nice to listen to different NCT songs, if I leave my phone open for a while, the same song is repeating over and over again and for those who are not super NCT fans, this could be exhausting to hear the same song.
When card battling, there is no time pressure, which I like, but who knows? The developer might decide to have PvP battles in the future where players can battle each other and I would think it would be real-time battles. As a normal battle tip, I recommend setting up all the elemental battle items by color before dragging the items to a card. If there is a color item where I do not have a card with the same color, I set them up in combinations of three as much as possible before I drag a different color item to its corresponding card to eliminate the unneeded elemental items.
I learned something about NCT along the way. I didn't know who the caracal flag represented so upon a Google search, it was meant to represent Johnny.
Negative Points:
There is a lag in the game in which clicking on a menu or item has a delay. This could be frustrating as playing a game should not have any lag. This is my biggest complaint about the game. I have a iPhone 14 Pro Max with 1 TB of storage space (though obviously some of that space is used), but still, there's lag.
Loading screens can also take some time.
Storage item inventory count takes a while to update. If my storage is full and I use some of the items, it takes a while before the system recognizes that the storage room is no longer full. I keep clicking on the storage room to update the inventory count.
I wish there was a way to control the quantity of items I want to use because it is a bit hard to control, such as when upgrading NCT cards with NCT memory chips. Either I click on the item once to add quantity or I have to click on a slider to indicate the quantity which is hard to control. When I am creating an item, I have to drag it to be made. I wish I can press a button to get it on the queue automatically to be made.
There is a friend feature, but I don't see too much benefit in making friends in the game. We can help each other create items, send gifts, but there is no real benefit to making friends as we do not directly play together. I saw some Korean user profiles state that they only want to be friends with Korean speakers only, but really, there is no conversation between friends in this game, so why would that make a difference?
If we go based on what happened to the "BTS World" game, then this game might be only available for a limited time. This is only my thought, but there may be a possibly that the game may shut down if it is not profitable in the future. Or this game may be so well received that NCT fans are going to keep it going for a long time.
Every gift received goes into the mailbox to claim. I would rather all the awards go directly to storage as this is an extra step to claim the awards.
As far as a FAQ or how to play, the game doesn't explain it too well. I don't see any game explanations on the website either. I didn't know how to make NCT dance together until I consulted videos on the internet. I had no idea how to complete the mission. I probably slept through some instructions.
As far as NCT cards are concerned, the Normal cards are useless. I have never used it once during gameplay, but probably great just for the collection of it. I am also beginning to wonder that it is probably not worth upgrading rare status cards either. I would only concentrate on SR (super rare), SSR (super super rare?), and I think there are higher cards than SSR, because I have seen it somewhere on social media.
Some NCT members are really into character in the videos and audio files, but others are not too enthusiastic into their character. In the voice files, I was disappointed in some of the members voices when I hit combos or mega combos with less than enthusiastic voices.
I am not a big fan of waiting for items to be created so I usually do the Neozone activities on the side when I am working or not actively playing because normally there is a wait time to create items. However, I like that there are different activities to do besides card collecting and battling.
As I mentioned earlier, I would like to have the NCT New Team added to the game in the future.
Conclusion:
The "NCT Zone" game is here to stay with plenty of things to do in the game. So far, I like the cute graphics and it has a lot of what I like such as card battling, card collecting, making a NCT Neozone town, NCT character dancing, NCT videos and audio. NCT fans would have fun. There is certainly room for improvement to make the game even better with more features, but that would also mean we need to download a bigger file to play the game.
I would like to also write a note of caution that this is only a game and players are not actually meeting NCT in real life so players should plan to not spend too much money on a game and have a budget in place. The situation can easily get out of control once real money is spent on the game to get all the benefits from the game. This advice can apply to any game with pay to play features. Card collecting in the real life world is already big business so just keep in mind these are digital items.
With that stated, I hope everyone enjoys the game and it could be pretty fun and time consuming. Maybe I'll see my readers in NCT Zone. I look forward to collecting all the members!
If this becomes a hit, maybe we'll see an Aespa game within Kwangya.
If you would like to know what I have so far, my player ID is BoChui, level 12, and I have Taeil, Taeyong, and Kun so far in Neozone. My dream lab is level 10 at the moment. Feel free to add me. Do it! Let's play!
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:
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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/
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.
