When “Produce48” was first announced, I wasn’t sure how the show would be and to be truthful, I was skeptical when I heard that 48 of Japan’s AKB48G (members of AKB48, SKE48, NMB48, HKT48, NGT48 including trainees – kenkyuusei) were going to South Korea to compete alongside 48 trainees from Korean entertainment agencies.
In the beginning, I felt that maybe Japan may have a small chance of doing well because the styles between J-Pop idol and K-Pop is like comparing apples and oranges.
In Korea, trainees are put through actual dance and vocal lessons, while Japanese trainees must learn on their own and they are promoting themselves based on Japanese idol standards and reaching out to fans.
So, a lot of people, including myself were a bit skeptical but as we started to watch the show and see various AKB48G members receive the training dance and vocal-wise, they were attracting Korean audiences (the only audience who could vote).
The trainers were very hard on the Korean trainees, who the Japanese thought were fantastic. But once the Japanese trainees saw how the trainers were with the Korean trainees, they were scared because they knew their training and their level was much different. It was difficult for the trainers to assign a grade to the Japanese trainees because it was a style they were unfamiliar with.
And because of that, they gave a few Japanese trainees higher grades while the majority got F’s. Miyawaki Sakura was seen for her talent immediately, although not as sharp as the Korean trainees, the trainers saw something in her and put her in the A Team (which some of the Korean trainees, just didn’t understand – at first).
But it was a Japanese trainee, HKT48’s Miyawaki Sakura who would be chosen as the first center of “Produce48” for their first song “Naekoya” (Nekkoya) which means “Pick Me”.
One would have to watch the series to see how both trainees worked hard to learn their choreography and songs. For the Japanese trainees, this was a bit of a stress because on top of their duties as AKB48G members in Japan, which they had to fulfill, they were back on the plane to Korea to work and learn the songs before taping.
It was no doubt a grueling schedule, that even AKB48 member Chiba Erii’s known for her honesty said to her mother on SHOWROOM LIVE about being on “Produce48″ and her reply,”It’s no fun. It’s scary. It’s not entirely bad, but it’s like hell every day”.
But despite how different these trainees were, because they had to work as teammates, they developed strong camaraderie and would become the closest of friends who trained their hardest to win a competition, but also together agonized in defeat.
Seeing this warms your heart because between two countries that have their differences, we are seeing these relationships, despite having difficulties not communicating with each other, they managed to grow, learn each other’s language a little and work together.
We have seen friendships such as Chaekura (Miyawaki Sakura and Lee Chae Yeon), the mother/daughter like friendship between Kang Hyewon and Sato Minami and Nakanishi Chiyori with her close friends from Korea that she met on the show.
We have seen the most talented succumb to the pressure and lose confidence on the show.
We saw a finale that left audiences in tears.
We saw a finale that left people dumbfounded as top ranked trainees were eliminated.
We saw Miyawaki Sakura who said she wanted to prove that Japanese trainees can work hard, consistently stay strong in the voter ranks and right into the final spot for the prized #1 center. While we saw a young teenage girl who turned 14-years-old that day, surprising everyone by being #1 (center).
But in the end, we have seen many highs and lows. The pressures of being a leader, the pressures of trying to make deadline, the pressures of lack of confidence, the pressure of having a vocal setback one week and not wanting to experience that ever again that it has them fearing for the worst for their next performance.
“Produce48” was a talent show that was unique because not only was it a show about selecting the final 12 trainees to become part of a global pop group, it was a show that had an intense international fanbase.
But there was one caveat, only Korean audiences can vote.
And each and every elimination week as the numbers went from 96 to 58 to 30 and then to 20 trainees up to the final episode leading to the top 12 trainees, it was fascinating to read the comments, the rumors but for me, I was more into the competition.
Knowing that voters wanted to get a different style of pop group by the people they vote for.
We would see people with amazing dance capability, people with amazing vocal capability, people with amazing rap skills eliminated. And we would see comments of whether or not voters were going for a more visual vs. talent type of group.
The hype machine was on, rumors were abundant and some were more damaging than others.
We saw rankings flip-flop with more Korean trainees, more Japanese trainees but there were people who remained constant.
But we watched a season finale that brought out every emotion and in the end we were entertained, happy, sad and so much more.
There were 12 episodes, episodes you can find with English subtitles on YouTube but I do recommend watching “Produce48”, not only for the aspect of watching a music reality show but to watch it and learn about two different cultures that were immediately melded together and became one.
The name for the new global pop group that the 12 will be part of will be known as IZ*ONE (IZ =12 coming together as ONE).
I look forward to this new group!
You can watch the episode finale starting from here:
Click here to watch the rest of the videos
