Idol Producer: Season 3 (2020)

I never thought I would become so invested in a 'Produce show', but Youth With You 2 grabbed my heart from beginning and never let go.
As this show finally came to the end today, after three months of following trainees journey, I thought I would share some of my thoughts and list some of the reasons why it's (in my opinion) the best of all Produce shows.

1. Production quality is really high
YWY is a competition but the production team doesn't make it look like the hunger games. The editing is not evil but actually made me burst out laughing many times and rather on creating unecessary drama, it focused on showing hard work and friendship between trainees and how much the girls supported each other.
The cameramen usually do a really good job and don't suddenly zoom into space or into the back of someone's head while filming.
Stage effects, outfits, makeup etc. (and of course talented trainees) make the performances look proffessional and impressive.

2. Mentors genuinely care about the trainees and give them useful advices
I think that the relationship between mentors and trainees is much closer than in different versions of the show.
It was a great decision to chose Cai Xukun as the main host. He knows what the trainees are going through, because he went through the same experience in Idol Producer so he's able to really empathize with the girls. Despite his young age, he already has admirable knowledge about music and performing and he tries to share this knowledge with the trainees.
Also, I think the panel with Alicia was one of the most useful panels for every trainee/rookie I've seen in Produce shows, because she actually addressed the struggles of 'celebrity life' without sugar-coating anything.

3. The contestants
First of all, the amount of talent the trainees have is insane and I was often impressed by the stage presence of some of the contestants.
The trainees really support each other and their friendships seem so genuine. There's not a single girl who's unlikable and you actually get attached to these girls and wish them best. The girls face hardships during their training but they're still able to keep their spirits up and lighten the mood.
The tone of the show is different from what I saw in Produce101. The contestants don't look like they're going to crumble under pressure. They are not afraid to express their opinion and even joke with their mentors.

4. The message
What I absolutely love about this show is the fact that it supports diversity and girl power. Rather than focusing on being cute and pretty, the girls show that you can be cool, you can have different image but most importantly you can be yourself and keep fighting for your dreams.
In my opinion, especially in Korean shows too much emphasis is put on the visuals.
Honestly I think it would be hard for a contestant with the image like Yu Zhang or Frhanm Shangguan to go far in the Korean Produce and I don't think it would be possible for a girl like Liu Yuxin to reach the top. But in Youth With You I was so happy to see girls who were not 'conventionally pretty', girls who had different styles and personalities.

To put it short: even if you're not interested in survival shows, I think you should give this one a chance.

YWY 2 is over now and I'm really gonna miss it. I wish all the contestans best of luck and of course I can't wait to see The Nine debut.


(Annotation: By using term 'Produce shows' in this review I refer to the shows which follow the same format as original Korean Produce101.)

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Thank you to all the 109 trainees and the mentors of this show that has accompanied me over the past few months. This was the first survival show I watched in whole and the first finale I ever watched live. If you want to watch a show where 109 girls strive to accomplish their dreams, with friendship, sistership, lots and lots of crying, and laughing along the way-- I definitely recommend watching YWY2. The bond between all of them is so touching. I'm so glad that they had all the trainees come back and even let them join on stage dancing Yes!Ok! one more time. The final line-up had me a little surprised but I'm satisfied. Of course, there are trainees who didn't make it (those within the top 20, top 35, and top 60) that I really wanted to debut but I think all the trainees gained a lot from this show and will walk on the flower road from now on :).

Don't really like the group name (The Nine) as I really wanted 9ever (Ninever) as their group name but it is what it is. Wishing them the best!

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Better Than Season One

As an original watcher of Idol Producer while it was airing in 2018, I had to see Youth With You season 2 as well. I really liked this season a lot more than the first season of Youth With You for several reasons:

1. There were" iconic" moments in the show like Esther Yu's "wow" and when Snow Kong's shoe came off when they did their group dance. I feel like this is especially important as it makes the show come off as more memorable.
2. There was no drama.
3. Although there is not enough screentime for every single one of the 109 trainees, they try their best in that aspect and ultimately do show somewhat fair amounts of screentime. Although maybe not as good as Idol Producer, their original Produce name.
4. All the debuted trainees are extremely talented and some of them would do especially well in variety shows because they are entertaining. This series is the ONLY survival show series where whoever ends up debuting in the group, I am satisfied with because they are all deserving of the spot.
5. I really liked how they invited over some of the Nine Percent members to do collaboration stages with the trainees. They're still so charming and funny and brings back a feeling of nostalgia. Although it's sad that they could not bring back the whole group together, I was happy to see at least three other Nine Percent members other than Kun.
6. The theme song is really catchy like "Ei Ei," although it took about 2-3 listens for me to actually start vibing with it. It took me a bit then I realized it's the theme song they've been playing this entire time and it clicked with me.
7. The songs chosen this season for the stages are all pretty catchy as well. (How Am I So Good-Looking, Ambush On All Sides 2, A Little Bit Sweet, etc.)

Although some of these reasons could be said for Youth With You season one, I felt that season one was more bland. Compared to the first season, the second season had trainees with very contrasting personalities that were able to mix well with each other and create more interesting interactions. I'm giving a lot of credit to all the girls in this season as they were able to make me stick with wanting to watch them till the end as did Idol Producer did to me.

A flaw that I found really disappointing since it could have been fixed is iQiyi translated the whole series and uploaded it on their website; however, the order of the episodes aren't in chronological order and you have to press around due to the order of the parts. Another flaw is that the editing for this season may be kind of awkward. They jump around here and there and it's sort of confusing. There were some scenes that should have probably been shown first rather than later, which can be shown through the ranking evaluations. The first evaluation felt like it took forever to take place. After the first evaluation, the second one occurred in a timely manner, but the third one came way too quickly and it left me wondering "didn't the second evaluation just occur?" What they should have done was put in the collaboration performance behind the scenes and stage first and then did the third evaluation. Speaking of the collaboration stages, the collaboration stages were very disappointing as Ella and Lisa were not even there to actually perform. They did their best in this aspect, but it still doesn't change the fact that it really sucks that the only two girl mentors were not able to perform with the girls. I wish they had a female rap mentor, rather than Jony J, no offense to him, but because it felt like he could not really relate to the girls as much as I would have liked him to.

Overall, I really enjoyed this series and I'm very excited to see what "The Nine" will do next. I hope they don't do the same as they did with Nine Percent and UNINE, where iQiyi literally did not give them much to do together at all, but inevitably, I feel the girls will end up the same as the other two debuted groups. Nevertheless, this show is amazing at giving all the girls the exposure that they need without the extra drama and negative attention like Mnet's Produce series.

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Just me ranting about YWY2

I still remembered after IPD the rumor for the next show was Q1 of 2019 for boy group and Q3/4 of 2019 for girl group
turned out that for boy group it changed name as Youth With You
well I really want to watch but at that time I was busy with school
and then I kinda forgot about this show, then heard again that this show would be named as NYSN (cmiiw)

at first I was like, wow they change name for every season
and there's rumor Lu Han would be the PD replacing Zhang Yixing
at first I kinda skeptical, then turned out this rumor was false, Cai Xukun turned out to be the PD for this season
as casual viewer of IPD I was curious how this show would turned out, as Kun was just a trainee and his journey after IPD was sky rocketing
he's not my 1 pick, but I still felt proud of him

and then I hear that kiki joined this show
I heard her name back in 2016, when she was in the same movie as Sehun, so I give it a try
around January 2020 I read several melon account talking about Kiki, Xueer, Anqi, and Yuxin

I remembered I watch this show the first time on Friday, March 13th
I gotta say that 7senses performance, despite not perfect, was still my favorite, Kiki's dance break made me choose her as my one pick

To think about this
I think that all the9 members got memorable part in audition
Liu Yuxin who got Lisa's approval
Yu Shuxin, despite not great performance, her non-stop chatter while explaining her audition was so funny (though at first I found her annoying)
Kiki her solo dance break for Who Is Your Girl and the one who dare to battled SGXA
Yu Yan, despite it's only a slight part of her performance, but the way she wake the other trainees with her vocal was so great
Xie Keyin who got Ella's approval as girl group main rapper and in his heart Kun would give her A, too bad Jony J was such a btch to her
An Qi, Hickey performance was one of the most memorable audition, and her joining dance battle
Zhao Xiaotang, poker face solo dance
Kong Xueer, the first A, and her also joining dance battle
Lu Keran, the first performer, sexy in her own charm
and all of them had been center at least once
and I really love the performances

from VDR my favorite would be The Eve (yes I'm being bias), Flammable and Explosive, Mono Eyelid Girls
from group battle: Ambush on All Sides II B, R&B All Night A, How Do I Look So Good A, A Little Bit Sweet B (just ignore QNZW's rap part it's good)
from 2.5 revenge battle: MAMA A, Ambush on All Sides II A, Missing You 3000 B, A Little Bit Sweet A
from concept evaluation: for performance I love Non Daily Revelry, Lion, and No Company but for song I'd go with Light Orange Island
from mentor collaboration: I gotta say I love almost all except for I'm Not Your Girl

I gotta say that my favorite mentor would be Wang Su Long, despite him only an x-mentor
he was so great and patient with the girls on top of that he's so funny
also Kun, I felt like he really did great job continuing ZYX's legacy
I love how meticulous he is monitoring all performances, and how perfectionist he is
yet at the same times he never force his opinion as the final word

overall this show is still my favorite and my comfort show
even though there's a slightly evil edit, but compare to the successor of this show or mnet's one, I'm glad it's not that bad

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This is my first "survival" show and it turned out to be really good!
I'm a bit sad that the last 2 episodes weren't released for free on iQiyi, because I had to find a third party website to watch it on, and the quality was bad so I just dropped it.
I really loved the mentors, and this show really allowed me to get to know them a lot better.
The overall group formed "The Nine" was pretty good I would say. Obviously there were girls that had the talent to get in, but then there's only 9 spots, so I hope the girls eliminated will get recognised sooner in the future somewhere else.
The show was intense, funny, sad, and also really exciting at the same time. The girls in the show also inspires that "No matter how far your goal is, you will always reach it." 多远都可以到达

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