Produce 48: The Korean Trainees You May Recognise

[adenar.livejournal.com]

On Produce 101, the first season of the Produce franchise, there were few trainees that the public had already seen, barring the few at-the-time controversial competitors who were already part of debuted groups. Audition shows and publicising your trainees has become much more commonplace since the first season, when it was already on the rise, and so in Produce 48 there may be quite a few Korean trainees that you may recognise besides the already-debuted Japanese competitors.

Idol School

Jo Yuri @ 0:41, Lee Sian @ 1:40, Jang Gyuri @ 2:42
Bae Eunyoung in Mr Mr

Going from one audition programme to another is a fairly good way of getting your name out there, but is also a good way of giving yourself an image of being always the bridesmaid and never the bridge. Lee Sian, Jo Yuri, and Bae Eunyoung are all on their second attempt now, having appeared on Mnet's less-popular Idol School. They all made it to the final show, but was Idol School big enough to give them enough of a boost early in the competition? Or will the fact that it was a fellow Mnet show mean that the editors give them preference?
Competing with them is successful Idol School competitor Jang Gyuri, now a member of the final group, fromis_9. Her inclusion has raised some eyebrows, but sort of makes sense; if you're going to send one of the members, you may as well send the member who placed ninth and only received a rise in popularity towards the end of the show.

MixNine

Shin Suhyun @ 0:38

Another trainee coming straight off of another competition is Shin Suhyun. On MixNine she was one of several Fave Entertainment trainees, but this time she'll be competing on her own. She placed 55th on MixNine, the second-lowest of the Fave girls, so this may be the same strategy that sent Jang Gyuri to PD48; keep the girls who are already popular to promote in the group, and send the least-popular member to gain some fans of her own.

Produce 101

& Kim Sihyun in Say My Name

This is the Korean Produce franchise's first return to girls, and with it naturally comes a couple of returning competitors from the first season. More popular, heavily-rumoured alumni actually gave the season a pass, but 71st-placed Park Minji (formerly of Magic Fresh, now MND17) and 40th-placed Kim Sihyun (formerly independent, now signed under Yuehua) have come back for seconds. Kim Sihyun's placement was fairly respectable for a trainee with no agency, and now with Yuehua behind her this could be a good competition for her. Park Minji was apparently accepted into Berklee College of Music after the first season, so her decision to return - under another unknown agency - is an interesting one.

Girl Group Members

& Kwon Eunbi (first singer) in Ye-A - Up & Down

Lee Kaeun has been the big news on a lot of people's lips aside from the already-known Japanese contestants, and understandably so - debuting into one of the most respected girl groups in the industry at the time, only to take part in two comebacks before being shipped overseas to watch their career trail into dust, is not only a sad story but a familiar one to Pledis fans (I hope you're looking forward to Japan, Seventeen fans!). Pledis have also had an excellent track record in the Produce franchise, supplying two members of IOI and one member of Wanna One. Kaeun is notable in that she spent many years in Japan predebut and speaks the language fluently, has a backlog of Japanese-language content available due to After School's promotions there, and may be able to appeal herself to Japanese voters a lot more strongly than other Korean trainees.
Produce 101 had a few ex-members of disbanded nugu groups, and following on that trend is Kwon Eunbi, who debuted with girl group Ye-A in 2014. She's representing Woollim, and having a better-known agency behind her may help her get screentime in spite of her nugu beginnings. She's the same age as the Lovelyz members, so it'll be interesting to see what plans Woollim has for her.

Big 3 Trainees

Lee Chaeyeon - black hair

While YG, SM, and JYP opted to send no trainees again, YG and JYP are still sort of represented by their former trainees. Former Sixteen contestant, Lee Chaeyeon, who was the first eliminated from that programme, is one of three WM Entertainment trainees, and it's worth noting that Oh My Girl debuted in 2015 and are finally beginning to hit their stride, so WM may already be making steps towards debuting a new girl group.
Less known to the public, but still with a small foundation of a fanbase due to the amount of interest in YG trainees, Park Jinny and Park Seoyoung left YG entertainment in December last year, and will be competing as individual trainees. Their leaving may coincide with casting for PD48, after it was announced in November at the Mnet Music Awards. They are both around the age of the Blackpink members, and both have hefty trainee periods behind them.

sources: Mnet Official (2), 1theK, drighk, jypentertainment

Do you recognise any of these trainees? Are you rooting for them? Which Korean agencies do you think have star competitors in their ranks?

Comments

[gathyou.livejournal.com]

Gugudan promoted as 8 when Soyee (also a lead vocalist) was recovering from a shoulder injury, it's quite easy to manage with big groups like those.
They can't really afford to wait until P48 is done, especially as it could bring in fans to have Gyuri on P48 while the group is promoting? idk

[goshipgurl.livejournal.com]

im surprised that heo chanmi isn't competiting again, but maybe sis finally realized that she is just not made for the idol industry

[tsubaki874.livejournal.com]

She's debuting in a 4 member girl group called High Color later this year supposedly (this was announced roughly Oct. 2017) She switched companies to Mostable Music and they threw her into MixNine to get the company some recognition, but it didn't really work out as well as they planned, she started strong and faded out just like PD101, I think her highest rank was #10? Either way she's racist so the group will likely flop internationally (esp with that ITNW performance so viral)

[scribblyness-x.livejournal.com]

OMG park minji made such an impression on me with break it that i still remember her from the thumbnail pic alone. please let her finally have some screen time!!

RISE KAEUN, RISE.

(ot but is anyone watching produce 101 china? i have so many feelings about that show especially re: meiqi bb who's killing it)

[cagallisakura.livejournal.com]

i haven't seen anything beyond episode 1 yet but i know there was a huge thing about one of the girls falling during the run for the songs and everyone just ran past her and left her to die. and then people started exposing all this stuff saying how it was filmed multiple times and faked lol

[pseudo-shigure.livejournal.com]

I watched 3 eps bc their center for pick me is so cute and i like the song. But the editing is so bad. I feel like i barely know he girls. They just dont show enough bts scene i guess. i know they probably release short videos for it, but if its not in the show i dont think people care or watch it

[myungung.livejournal.com]

coming in a bit late, but I agree with the editing part. there are quite a number of bts videos that have been released, they focus mainly on just a few girls? and the amount of short videos is a tad too much for me to watch even without subs, so for the international viewers who need subs it's gonna be a huge chore

[pseudo-shigure.livejournal.com]

idol producer still did it best editing wise. no evil edit. and idk if the bts scenes are too much or not, but i enjoyed it (but then again i only watched the ones with my faves. which still probably a lot but manageable lol)

[gathyou.livejournal.com]

I'm rooking for Kaeun so much :( I was so sad that she (and Eyoung) basically joined the group at a moment Pledis didn't really know what they were doing, s.he never really got a chance to be more popular.
Woollim sent so many trainees! I want to see how well they do, since we can now expect Lovelyz's sister group in 2019 (or late 2018?)

[annayism.livejournal.com]

def rooting for chaeyeon and cutie gyuri!

[abcd123.livejournal.com]

not planning to watch this because i'm tired of all these idol survival shows and i'm a little wary about the format of this one still but i hope kaeun makes it. I remember when it was revealed that nuest was on the show and tumblr was just a mess of wtf is pledis doing. this imo is worst cause granted she debuted in 2012 (same year as nuest) but like... she has the after school name attached to her, a name which has been around since 2008.

(also cause its a little funny how after school literally has the same concept as akb groups of graduations and shes on the pd48 version)

i'm looking forward to the two yg girls too cause if they debut and end up having more songs than blackpink does...

[abcd123.livejournal.com]

Also is kahi a mentor for this version again cause that could be mad awkward if so...

[adenar.livejournal.com]

No, she's missing this one because she's pregnant. She'll be in the first episode but idk if it's a video message or what's happening.

[welljustguess.livejournal.com]

ooh didnt think about that

[miyozari.livejournal.com]

I recognize almost all trainees... which says a lot about me and here I was thinking that I don't really care anymore enough to remember names or faces.

I swear I don't want another situation w/ Kaeun like JR/Jonghyun last year...

[myrrhcat.livejournal.com]

- i have that "babe" shirt that park minji is wearing, lol. it's from forever 21. there's a matching skirt which one of her other team members was wearing and i have that too
- i remember kim sihyun! she was one of the less popular trainees in season 1 that really caught my eye (those visuals!) and i was mildly rooting for her even though i knew she wouldn't make the final cut. i hope she does better this season. her singing in her intro video is great.
- and omg, excited to see chaeyeon, jinny and seoyoung. chaeyeon's intro video is SO CUTE.
- but if they're only having jpn viewers vote for kor trainees and vice versa, i guess having a korean fanbase won't really be an advantage for any of the girls?