Produce 101 Japan (2019)

Produce 101 done right!

I'd never watched any Produce 101 before and I happened to watch this by chance since I'm interested in J-pop and Japanese music in general and this show won me over. If you're a fan of survival shows in general then maybe pd101jp won't attract you, for one this show is region locked and started airing after the vote rigging scandal destroyed the produce 101 brand. The english subs are available and the fansubbing group did an excellent job. This version does things differently in that the trainers are all independent and not affiliated with any agency and that makes all the difference: the agencies can't influence the decisions and the group formed is permanent. In the first episode the ex-HALO members were miles ahead of the Japanese trainees but as the show progressed you see the other trainees grow by leaps and bounds and genuine talent is on display.

I've never been so invested in participants of any show but this is the one show where I felt dread during every elimination episode and still follow their careers outside of the show. The interactions between the trainees are so wholesome and the variety segments are hilarious. It helps that idol culture in Japan isn't as cutthroat and that was reflected in the editing where more time was given to the trainees' friendships and stories. Screen-time was pretty consistent and nobody was really given a bad edit. The trainers were all professionals with established careers and they were fair for the most part and gave solid advice (Sugai sensei is a G.) The performances just got better and better and the original songs were well-written and produced. The hosts were a popular comedic duo and I appreciated that since they didn't hog screentime and more focus was on the trainees rather than if they'd hired a celebrity host.

My one major gripe would be that there was too much kpop but that's just because the show was leaning more towards a kpop-style boy-group. The other issue was that the voting periods were too short where voting would close a few hours right after an episode and that made the ones who performed last stand out. You can tell the budget wasn't that high but what Produce 101 JP lacks in glamour it more than makes up in genuine stories and entertainment.

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