atom boyz e8–9

[adevyish]

atom boyz: the show bringing taiwanese people together by judging me for watching it :p i am on a tape delay of one week, since even though the performances themselves are posted on youtube the day of airing, the full episodes are only uploaded a week later.

in dire times, i ended up watching bonus footage. and, only two people — two people who teach dance — knew the choreo to shinee lucifer?! *cries in old* (bonus kidz 小孩 going full aegyo to twice T_T.)

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round 4

for this round, the most popular contestant on each team was allowed to pick how many people went on stage and who went on. most teams sent on 7 of 10 people, but earth sent on 5 (because kk thought learning choreo was hard enough with 5) and venus chose to send on all 10 (!?)¹

this round itself is about showing a new side of yourself. “boys next door” earth did a decent job at becoming “bad boys”, even if they weren’t wholly believable. otoh, “flower boys” venus has some of the best dancers on the competition, so of course they pulled of the concept switch to “bad boys”. “cold & aloof” saturn got switched to a cheerful, boys next door idol concept, and the person who pulled it off the best was unsurprisingly rex 林煥鈞.

“cute & young” mercury ~called in~ two of uranus as tutors in facial expressions, and holy shit what kidz 小孩 came up with on the fly was incredible. anyway, i respect mercury for sticking with a concept that was difficult for them, both in terms of visual performance and physical performance. they still look like yer baby cousins trying to be hard but they tried! brian 李秉諭 did a great job actually.

meanwhile, “bad boys hip hop” uranus were assigned a cute concept, and did so poorly at dress rehearsals they got switched back to their original concept. and “bold & mature” mars just did their usual concept plus abs.

my favourite performances this round were:

• venus (cw flashing) — they 100% deserved to win this round
• uranus (cw flashing) — yes they didn’t do their job but this is some incredible rapping
• mars — the performance is a bit boring but it’s a catchy song

a lot of people got eliminated this round. i understand the rationales, though, unlike the 2nd round eliminations which i am still salty about. the eliminations this time were mostly of people who their own team members thought were weaker performers, or of people who don’t have strong stage presences.

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atlantix, the boyband that is not

several of the contestants on atom boyz, several of whom write their own songs, put together their own group/collective atlantix. not all of them are from the same entertainment company; at least one of them is not from any agency at all. and they’re still filming and posting music videos as the show goes on, including several songs that have been used on atom boyz!

it’s obviously an indie endeavour based on how low-budget and not-boyband the videos are. it’s good that atom boyz is letting contestants keep their own jobs during the competition, but letting them put out music as part of a newly-formed group in the meantime? when the people involved on separate teams? that feels a bit against the spirit of a boyband competition.

the members are: from earth, summer 林佳辰; from uranus, auztin (yu ting) 吳昱廷 and sean 高有翔 (高翔); from mars, j.lee (jim) 李哲言 and max 徐彭臒 (徐臒); from saturn, lcy (lany) 呂植宇 (eliminated 4th round).

the reason this is relevant to me now, of course, is because although team uranus failed to “show a new side of yourself”, kidz 小孩 was made to dance cutely to an atlantix song. for the first time atom boyz specifically called this out as an atlantix song, perhaps because it was posted online weeks earlier.

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final thoughts

the debut strategy i would like to see is a venus group, a mercury/earth group (plus rex), then a mars/uranus group. (i could also see mars and uranus debuting separately but as smaller groups.) as a Veteran Boyband Fan, not only is venus super-talented, but they have the close rapport needed for a truly successful boyband.

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¹ because of quarantining issues, three contestants were not able to compete this round, so two teams ended up being 6 and venus ended up being 9.