I wasn’t going to recap Boys Planet (and technically, I’m still not doing it), but I’m watching the series and thought others might appreciate a spot to discuss it. So, each week I plan on dumping a few of my random thoughts about the show. Again, this will not be a full, detailed recap. But, if you have something you want to mention make sure to include it in the comments!
Thoughts on BOYS PLANET Episode One
Thoughts on BOYS PLANET Episode Two
Thoughts on BOYS PLANET Episode Three
Thoughts on BOYS PLANET Episode Four
Thoughts on BOYS PLANET Episode Five
Thoughts on BOYS PLANET Episode Six
Dual Position Battle (Pt.2)
This round continues this week. Last time, my ranking was:
4. Gang
3. Home
2. Love Killer
1. Zoom
I’m not sure I’ll be able to directly compare this week’s performances with these four since they’re not fresh in my mind, but I’m looking forward to what’s in store.
“Law” Team
I’m a bit ashamed to say I’d never heard the original version of this track. That’s pretty unheard of when it comes to shows like this, so kudos to the producers for swerving away from expectations.
I thought this was really good during the choruses, but the rapping felt a little off beat to me. Also, the judges’ reactions were WAY over the top, which honestly took away from the performance. The dancing was strong, though!
“Man In Love” Team
First off, I’m biased as hell and this is one of my favorite K-pop songs ever. It’s cool that they brought in a live band for the instrumental and it was probably wise not to add choreography.
I thought this was a perfectly fine rendition. The standout was definitely Tae Rae, who sounded the most confident. The group didn’t really bring anything extra to the performance, but the climax was good. It just makes me appreciate Infinite’s skills and vocal blend even more.
(Also, can the industry make songs like this again? Please?)
“Rush Hour” Team
Takuto is cracking me up. He looks like a little stuffed animal delivering swagger that’s only a bit believable. It’s weirdly charming.
The fact that the judges mostly talked about this group’s looks says a lot. The performance was fine, but there’s just not a lot you can do with this song. It kind of stuck in one gear the whole time. But against my better judgment, I’m still rooting for Takuto (even though this is definitely not the venue for his particular strengths!).
“Limousine” Team
The rap teams have an extra challenge of writing lyrics, which are hard for me to comment on since I’m not a native speaker. As far as skill goes, I feel like this was one of the most polished (yet natural) stages of the round. But without being a fan of the song, it’s not one that I would choose to replay often.
However, I think the trainees did a great job and showed a ton of potential. I’m more eager to hear them tackle a different track. The vocalists were especially strong.
“Feel Special” Team
This had such potential to be one of the defining stages of the season, especially if the guys had fully committed to song and concept. But, it seems like they stopped halfway and the performance ended up underwhelming without the pizzazz it needed. I mean, I wasn’t expected a “lip sync for your life” style epic, but this was very vanilla. And apart from one member, the vocals were quite weak as well. It’s too bad.
“Not Spring Love Or Cherry Blossoms” Team
I remember when this song used to be so popular on Korean charts. It seems like its ubiquity has faded in recent years — even during springtime.
I’m not sure why they chose this kind of song for a competition series. Without a drastic reinvention, it’s just not the kind of music that fits this setting. It showcases vocals, but in a hazy, subdued sort of way that tends to fade into the background without a truly unique and captivating tone at the forefront. That’s a tall order for trainees. These guys did fine, but overall I was pretty bored.
“Butterfly” Team
I’m happy to see a BTS b-side rather than a track that’s been covered a million times before. Of the vocal-oriented teams, this one was one of the stronger efforts. There were definitely some bum notes, but the guys’ ethereal tones really suited the song.
The sheet (?) dance during the interlude was a nice touch, but the group kind of lost the pitch toward the end. It’s so important to end well, and the fact that the performance grew messier as it went on leaves an unsatisfying taste.
“Tomboy” Team
This is the “Avengers team” of the round, raising expectations for the performance. I’m forcing myself to get past my dislike of Tomboy as a song and focus on the skill of the group.
This was definitely good, though it suffered from the same thing these Avengers groups always do. I wanted it to be heads-and-tails above everything else and it was just… solid. The “badness” of this song is just so cheesy — like “ooh, we’re going to bleep the swear word and mosaic the performer’s mouth! These guys are just soooooo dangerous. I can’t even believe we’re allowed to show this on TV!”
Yeah… there’s me not getting past my dislike of Tomboy, huh? I’m sorry… I just can’t separate the two.
These guys have a lot of talent. Many will likely make the final group and deserve it.
My Ranking for This Week
Honestly, nothing really stood out to me. I’d put Zoom and Love Killer from last week above all of these.
8. Feel Special
7. Butterfly
6. Rush Hour
5. Not Spring Love Or Cherry Blossoms
4. Law
3. Man In Love
2. Tomboy
1. Limousine
The Bias List // K-Pop Reviews & Discussion 
My top three out of all these performances from this round would be Zoom, Limousine, and Tomboy! I see myself going back to these stages. Limousine was such a surprise to me. All the members really brought something to the table.
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I haven’t watched the episode or performances yet but I saw a clip of Kim Tae Rae smiling while singing INFINITE’s ‘Man In Love’ and boy did I fall for him.
I’ve watched the performance 10 times. His smile while singing is the most beautiful smile and on top of that his voice sounds so nice.
Even though I haven’t watched the other performances yet, I think ‘Man In Love’ will be my favourite performance. Sometimes, stages don’t need flashy dance moves or zooming camera shots. They just need a good song and voices that can bring those songs justice.
This group definitely delivered justice to a great song.
Oh how I wish I was there to see it live. I would have been cheering so hard for them. Such an incredible performance.
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Kim Tae Rae smiling while singing “Man in Love” is the best thing I’ve seen in Boys Planet so far😂. Close second is Wumutitititi’s intro. Everything else about the show bothers me a lot!!!
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Yeay Limousine team! Even though Mnet doesn’t show these members, they always gonna be great.
Y’know since mNet cannot rigged the ranks of these contestants, one of the ways they do to the contestants that they don’t favor is either evil edit them or not give them a screentime. That’s what some of Limousine’s rap is about.
There’s this one contestant, Anthonny, who is the killing part, but is given no interviews and lesser screentime. He is not showcased enough. Yeah he’s popular because he was in pdjp2 but because he has little to no screentime, his rank dropped drastically.
With 2 or so hours of airtime, it’s so obvious that mnet doesn’t want to show Anthonny. He was subvocal 1 in Love Me Right g group. Yeah he’s not as remarkable as Jay but that’s why they should have focused on Anthonny and give him a storyline in Limousine because he’s the killing part.
Mnet might gave us his reaction shots but literally not his progress on his skills. It’s so frustrating I can feel the xenophobia here, with c contestants being evil edited and j contestants not really showcased. They focus too much on k group contestants.
Pardon me for airing my frustrations here. It’s too much because at the end of the day, it’s about your bias trainee that you want to debut and you just want what’s best for him y’know. My bias is probably eliminated, and yehey he’s finally free, but it’s really frustrating that he is not showcased enough so he has less chance of surviving the competition. Oh well.
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As someone who isn’t actively watching the show, I asked on one of the earlier posts if there was any drama regarding how non-Korean trainees were being promoted compared to their Korean counterparts. At that time, the answer appeared to be no. But, your post along with other feedback I’m seeing on social media seems to show that is no longer the case. I’m not sure why MNET continues to recruits trainees from other countries if they are going to pull the same stunts over and over again.
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This seems to be the sentiment with everyone whose favorite isn’t getting decent screentime. It’s definitely annoying when, even if you don’t think someone would make the debut group, they’re not even really given the chance to try and fail. There’s not really a solution to giving attention to 51 trainees at once (and Mnet wouldn’t go for it even if there was), but it feels bad even as a non-fan/minimal viewer to watch someone not get to be judged by their merit.
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That Feel Special performance seems extremely roughhhhhh. With the exception of Woonggi (who I assume you are referencing), the vocals were a struggle and probably explains why you didn’t see a fully committed performance. I know I’d have a hard time dancing for my life if I knew I was struggling to hit the notes.
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I think the dual positions nature of the mission made it difficult to judge these performances against each other. For example, Law was really more of a good dance performance (it reminded me of K-Group’s Back Door from the first mission) than dance + rap. Whereas the members of the Zoom, Limousine, and Rush Hour teams obviously wrote their raps and tried to embody them. Zoom is still my favorite performance of the mission and should have won their category.
My biggest gripe with Tomboy is that the arrangement was not that good. I felt it needed to go harder and more punk (in a Kpop way). And while Hui undeniably has a great voice, it lacks the grittiness that could have elevated the song. The whole thing felt watered down but everyone looked the part, I guess.
That arrangement of Man in Love is fantastic. I didn’t know the original song so I went back and listened to it, and yeah, what a great song.
Feel Special was tragic in many ways, but most of all their outfits. No one is going to feel special in so much denim.
Overall, I’m glad that contestants like IChan and Anthonny were able to showcase their vocals before (likely) being eliminated. Probably no one from …Cherry Blossoms or Limousine is going to make it to the next round, but at least they went out on a high note.
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Gonna try to get this to go through one more time, haha. Sorry if it duplicates or there are copies of it on the moderation end, or something!
I really loved Limousine. It had the most significant timing issues of the night, but all that means is Anthonny was a little fast right at the beginning. Intonation was great throughout and the guys were really engaging performers — I think more so than Law team, even though I really enjoyed Law. All three of them had great vocal moments and the rap was immersive even though it’s not exactly a headbang type of song.
You can hear it a bit in the song, but I cannot describe how massive the cheers got for Jihoo when he started talking about his edit. Have your rockstar moment, little guy! Started voting for him, at least, the day after the taping, even though it’s effectively a wasted vote. He just did not show up enough or in the right way to gain traction until it was a bit too late.
I think it’s funny how well Vocal/Rap performances rank on my personal list despite me thinking they were at an inherent disadvantage here. Uptempo and flashy sells much better at this stage and everyone talks about how dance is the big draw of modern K-Pop, so, like, Cherry Blossoms was never going to win. Limousine was never going to win (and Jihoo gets nothing for getting potentially the second most on-site votes out of the whole show). Tomboy team just danced anyway, and they would have had to actively do poorly to lose their first-place spot. It was great live and they deserved recognition for it, but it being good was a bonus rather than the reason it ate up runtime on two episodes in a row. Despite all that, Limousine and Cherry Blossoms were two of my favorites of the night (maybe right after Zoom), one because it felt like it understood itself the best and the other because it was just a solid performance that gave me warm fuzzies. I hope everyone on those teams has an industry job in their future, because we all know their time on the show ends here, unfortunately.
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Woonggi hard carried the feel special team and tbh I wish the Avengers team got man in love instead of tomboy cause that’d be the best stage for the week for sure
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I am just relieved that there were a lot more performances to watch this week vs the prior few weeks. OK sure, some were better than others, but overall I think it was a fairly solid week for most. I don’t think there were any complete disasters. Perhaps this is because of the recent half cull, some kids who never should have been on the show in the first place, leaving on balance more average and above average kids remaining.
Hard to rank, as I have only watched each one once through, but I will vote the Infinite cover on top, because covering a 2nd gen vocal line song isn’t the easiest thing to do when one is a trainee with finite stage experience. And Infinite had or has a very solid all vocal line that we regulars here still talk about today. Kim Sung Kyu, Nam Woo Hyun, hard acts to follow.
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everyone from team limousine is eliminated ouuuuu thats not good
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