~ Episode 8: No Limit (2) ~

Hello everyone! Today, we'll debrief the 8th episode of Mnet's Kingdom. In this episode we conclude the first part of round 3 "No Limit" with the vocal battles of team Mayfly (ATEEZ, Stray Kids, and BtoB) vs. team It's One (Ikon, SF9, The Boyz). We also start the second part of round 3 with the performances of Ikon and Stray Kids. I previously commented that team It's One was my personal winner for the rap and dancing battles (while team Mayfly officially won these two battles), so now I'm going to comment the vocal battle, as well as the performances of round 3, part 2. 

I. No limit round 1: The vocal battle

Let's start with team It's One for the vocal battle. June and Jinhwan from Ikon, New and Sangyeon from The Boyz, and Inseong and Jaeyoon performed their version of Taeyeon's "Spark". I have to say that I'm impressed by Sangyeon's and Inseong's vocals. I already knew the timber of June and Jinhwan from Ikon and knew they would stand out the most from the start, but I was impressed by the overall level of this team. They really did no mistakes honestly, the performance was perfect, but the emotional dimension was missing, and that's what made the difference. 

Moving on to team MayFly. The vocal team is composed only of main vocals: Eunkwang from BtoB, Jongho from Ateez, and Seungmin from Stray Kids. I think this performance was magical, it literally made me travel to another planet. I cried watching that performance, but they were tears of happiness. Seeing artists enjoying singing on stage is a beautiful thing to see. Eunkwang was smiling throughout the whole performance, he was so happy to guide his teammates as the performance went along, and we could sense that strong chemistry between the three members. This is my favourite performance of the whole competition hands down. I enjoy it when idols rap and dance, but singing has always been my sensitive point. I'm a sucker for vocals and harmonies, and god knows how heavenly those harmonies sounded. 

Conclusion of the first round of "No limit", team MayFly (Ateez, Stray Kids and BtoB) won all three battles. I find the voting system for this round boldly unfair. In what way a member of TRI.BE and Son Dongpyo are "experts"? Dongpyo is a baby, and TRI.BE just debuted. Yes, Donghae and Shinwon from Super Junior are experts, but not the others. I'm really pissed at Mnet for that. 

II. No limit round 2: Performances

Ikon

Ikon opened the second part of the third round "No Limit". In last week's preview, we were teased with Blackpink's LISA appearing on the show. Indeed, the queen herself featured on Ikon's version of Pretty Savage. I'm glad they went for a b-side, plus that song really fits the vibe of YG groups in general: powerful, sassy and energetic. I loved the song re-arrangement and the choreography, and the member's attitude is always ON POINT. I also love how they renamed the song to "classy savage". I wish we had seen Lisa on stage WITH Ikon (she appeared on a separate stage, she was just surrounded by back-up dancers), but the queen still nailed her part. I mean, it's really hard to find mistakes at this point, because all the groups are talented and they're all getting better and better because they're getting used to the competition now. I really have nothing bad to say about this performance.

Stray Kids

Moving on to Stray Kid's version of Blackpink's Ddu Du Ddu Du, mashed up with their hit "God's menu". To be honest, I really got confused at first with what seemed to be a giant rice cooker, and then I read somewhere that they were making references to the movie "Deadpool". If they were, I'm sorry but I never saw that movie ^^' That being said, I'm glad they transformed the whole song and turned it into theirs, not only by incorporating the "DU DU DU" part of God's Menu, but also by writing whole new rap verses and changing some of the lyrics of God's menu (e.g Felix's "5 star Michelin" part). That performance hyped me up like I never was before. The first thing that shocked me (in a good way) was Changbin's "drrr drr" and whatever else he says after that, combined with a pretty high pitch. The second thing that impressed me was I.N's dancing skills. Not only our Maknae (youngest) did some workout (damn his biceps, when did he have the time to build them), but he left a strong impression on me even though it was only for a couple of seconds. Lastly... the whole last part of the performance, from the appearance of the tank to the "STRAY KIDS WORLD DOMINATION!". I absolutely loved that stage, I found myself smiling like an idiot and just popping and vibing to that performance.  

I won't give a personal ranking for now because ranking only 2 performances over 6 would be unfair, so I'll wait until next week at least before giving my personal favourites. 

III. Episode 9 preview

Next week, we'll have four remaining performances: Ateez, SF9, The Boyz, and BtoB. BtoB's stage seems to have a jazz/musical vibe featuring (G)-Idle's Miyeon. Ateez is going to perform their title track "Answer", and it seems like they're going to do a ... "crossover"? I don't know what that means, nor who is that person on stage with them. SF9 is going to perform Taemin's move (I'm curious how they'll turn a soloist song to a group song), and The Boyz is going to perform EXO's "Monster". 

That's it for the debrief of Mnet's Kingdom episode 8! I'll see you guys next week for the debrief of episode 9. Until then, take care!

Love, Swan