PTSD with Hybe 101
I dislike survival shows in general, debut shows even more, but I wanted to support these kids. There is no surprise that everything was so conveniently staged so the only thing it achieved was to traumatize the boys. Why needlessly threaten them with debut cancelation? When they read the letters from their families I was just sitting there awkwardly. What was the purpose of making them read that out loud? Something so intimate should have stayed private. The Seventeen mission was fun but Hybe somehow managed to force EVERY group into this. When the BTS mission was announced I internally screamed and was desperately hoping we'll hear the older songs and not the recent atrocities. The final stream was a whole another disaster... no-one looked like they wanted to be there. The MC was so awkward it made me uncomfortable. The pauses were too long. It looked like Hybe kidnapped a random stranger off the streets, put him in a suit, gave him a mic and a script and put him on stage. For some reason, the results were announced halfway through followed by an hour of thanking everyone. I wouldn't mind that much if the subtitles were in sync... the whole thing was a mess.On the positive side the game episode was fun (aside from the letter reading). Another fun thing was the TXT interaction. Also, the performances were awesome and I can't wait to see the members who didn't make it make their debut sometime in the future.
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This review may contain spoilers
there is quite a few ( a lot) of spoilers, so yeah here is my 100% honest opinion
WT*?! Why t* would they try to cancel the debut? Am I the only one who felt like the debut was fr**king flat? Like the song'Running with the pack' Was h*lla awkward AND why would they give them so high pitch notes? It didn't do ANY good to the song quite the opposite. AND why did I feel like this show was to turn them into furries?! I was laughing so hard about it, think about it, the intro is wolfs, the final stage song is 'running with the pack' like are we here to choose who is going to be the best furry?? that being said, here is my honest thoughts about.. a bit of everything.
The four debut members (Taki, K, EJ, Nicolas)
K. He was amazing in I-LAND and everything about him impresses me BUT in &audition he felt a little taken down by the show? I felt like they didn't want him to shine as bright as he could, that felt kinda disappointing. PS I am so happy that K and Taki debuted together they have such a sweet friendship!
EJ. I didn't really know much about EJ, I just knew him as the cute boy from I-LAND but he really surprised me, even though he had been kinda hidden by both I-LAND and &audition.
Nicolas. He ATE! He carried more then his part for all of the performances for sure! his rap, vocals and dance really impressed me! there is nothing more to say he ATE!!
TAKI. He has improved so much since I-LAND, I was really
impressed when I first saw Taki and heard his singing and saw him dance. I was really happy to see such a big imporvement from him.
guess who my bias is...
For the actual show I kept wondering why HYBE doesn't add a rap line, since they have so many talented rappers. For both
I-LAND and &audition there was no such thing as rap, which made me kinda confused and upset, like I get you want a dance/vocal group but then giving them songs with rap lines and expecting the most of them is honestly pure stupidity, if you don't train them to rap then don't give them rap lines that more then 80% of them will have a hard time with besides that why would they choose popular kpop songs that have rap lines to show their vocals?
There are so many really good and popular kpop vocal songs out there, that they could've chosen to show the contestants vocal skills, which I think would leave the audience with a way bigger and long lasting impression.
The trainee's.
personally I thought there was quite a few of the actual good trainee's that didn't debut. Gaku was definitely the biggest disappointment. That boy had talent, good personality and he was good for the camera.
Also the only thing that was good about this was when &audition meet txt. I had watched the video before without knowing that it was from &audition, so that surprised.
I wish the best to the traniee's that didn't debut and I am exited to see what will happen in the future.
For the debuted group, I am exited to see what they will accomplish!
BYE-BYE
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As I love the group that debuted thanks to &Audition, I had to rewatch it again this year <3
This survival show released on YouTube in 2022 has for objective to launch the first Japanese Boy group of HYBE Labels Japan. It can be seen as a Japanese sequel of the South Korean survival show "I-Land" (which aired in 2020 with Enhypen being the resulting debut boy group at the time). Indeed, the competition includes 4 former participants from the prequel who did not debut at the time and who are now participating in the program as part of the debut group. During "&Audition - The Howling", those 4 members already part of the debut group will be working in team with 11 other trainees. Some of the trainees will be able to debut with the 4 members as part of the new group.Casting-wise, I was super happy to find back the 4 former participants from "I-Land". I absolutely adored one of them and I grow to love a lot the 3 others. It was also particularly satisfying to know that those 4 will be debuting in any case and that the objective of the program was more to complete the group with additional trainees than to make those guys suffer once again. The program leaves the room open for the group to not debut at all if the team formed is not strong enough (at the appreciation of the producers). But honestly, this threat does not seem very credible and the level of angst is low regarding the future of those 4 participants, which I appreciated.
Regarding the 11 trainees, their future is much more uncertain as the number of members being part of the group is not known at first and it seems unlikely that they can all debut with the already selected 4 members. I found them overall quite likeable, I had some favorites such as Yuma, Harua, Gaku and Hikaru while some others did not leave a very strong lasting first impression on me. It is mainly due to the fact that the episodes are quite short overall, with the focus being on performances and teamwork but not necessarily in highlighting individuals talent and characters. There are very few storylines and the drama is kept at a minimal level with no fight between the participants.
Regarding the missions itself, I don't have necessarily performances that I would want to rewatch a lot (maximum a couple of those) but I enjoyed them as well as the original songs and covers they did (most being HYBE songs of course). I also liked the few cameos we had from other HYBE groups members. Some appearances felt a bit forced and artificial, but I appreciated it in any case. The Japanese judges were also part of the team training the candidates and if at first they felt a bit cold to me, by the end it was obvious how much they liked and cared for the boys, which was really touching.
I would recommend this to people that enjoy survival show with relatively lower stake and drama. There is still candidates eliminated as well as difficult to understand voting rules. But overall, no real evil edit and if you liked in "I-Land" some of the cast members, it is very pleasant to find them back here. Obviously, if you are a fan of the group that has debuted from &Audition, this survival show is a must watch to see how the group was created and witness their first interactions and performances together.
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