MNL48 Weekly 2/7/2018

The Road to the Final 48 finally began last week when the Top 75 was unveiled and the candidates got a taste of what to expect: dance rehearsals for a performance that only ten of them will get to perform. Every week, the Top Ten ranked girls will get an opportunity to perform in the Saturday edition of “It’s Showtime!”, but everyone was supposed to attend the rehearsals anyway. It is somehow reminiscent of what these girls will definitely experience once they get in: they will all practice a routine that only the senbatsu (or the official line-up of a single) will ever really perform in shows and guestings.

Some of the girls were late for practice. Traffic in the Metro is common, and for some of these girls, it was quite difficult. But professionalism is always demanded from an idol and the dance instructor gave them quite a dressing down. MNL48 is not an after-school activity but a job they are applying for. I sure hope these girls learned their lesson because these second chances will become fewer and far between once the month of April starts waving at the corner.

Last Wednesday, it was suddenly announced that Blind Voting will be implemented from Wedneday to Friday in preparation for the big reveal on Saturday. I suppose they put in this little change to evoke some drama into the proceedings. As expected, a lot of fans are up in arms and doubts about the system are being tossed everywhere. Personally, I’m not really that much concerned about it since I don’t think it would really change things that much but we’ll see.

Come Saturday, the Top Ten were announced and they performed to…..a Donna Cruz track. Specifically “Kapag Tumibok ang Puso”. Now, in the days leading up to the performance, I already had a nagging feeling that the girls will NOT be performing any AKB numbers and to be honest, I don’t really have any problem with it. I did hope that they could at least feature AKB songs in the future to familiarize the viewer with AKB48’s songs, but that’s just the fan in me speaking.

https://youtu.be/SG4QsBKPpKw
https://youtu.be/oK1OT9Kwwbg
https://youtu.be/6CxWeFWfv4k
https://youtu.be/MLZZiz820aA

Keep in mind that all these tasks and challenges are geared at preparing the girls for eventually performing localized 48 Group tracks. They are designed to check the girls’ level of proficiency and this one was basically on the “easy” level in terms of complexity. Sure, we want to see them perform to AKB’s hits, but once the group is finally formed, we’ll get more than our fair share of them performing to AKB tracks.

Some Points:

• Despite the simplicity of the track, the Top 10’s performance was still far from clean. Performing on the stage in front of people is different from performing in the confines of your room.
• Alice really shined during the performance and I attribute it to her experience with Kawaii5. She’s very relaxed and focused during the performance, with good control over herself.
• Val as the Top 1 sort of disappeared in the middle of the number. She didn’t look lost, and I don’t recall her making much mistakes, but she should work on her stage presence more.
• The Duran twins are adorable together as expected. They did make a few mistakes during the number but I credit that due to nervousness. One thing popped on my mind though: the girls are really strong together, but they would also be very individual idols. I want to see what those two offer and I really want to see how they’d work when apart.
• I was surprised that some of them tried to do catchphrases during their introductions. Some of them fell a bit flat, but there are several that could turn out to be diamonds in the long run. Yes, Micah Faith, I am looking at you.
• Ashley seemed taller than I last saw her. Not that I have anything against that, they’re all growing teenagers after all. I was just surprised. I saw her last December 2 but I was too busy to check her height.
• On the topic of growth spurts, Good Lord! Uriko getting a growth spurt really surprised me. I haven’t followed her that much during the First Round, but I don’t recall her looking as good as she does now. I hope she gets her chance on the stage in the coming weeks.
• The Top 75 actually has a lot of gems. I know a lot of local fans have given up because of the audition process, but I’m hoping some of these girls can catch their attention.