Final plot twist: both groups are going to promote together as 13 called Treasure13! Hahahahhaha. I don't even know how to react anymore at this point. Now I understand why people are always skeptical with anything YG says, he's just doing whatever he wants. I think 'I'll believe it when I see it' is the right attitude towards any news that he drops. Right from the get-go this show was twist after twist after twist. We want to support this group, but we need to know where this is heading. How are we going to invest in it if we don't even know what it is yet. Is it going to be one group? Two groups? Are they going to promote together? Separately? Is this final? ARE YOU SURE??

This is how the show goes
YG: I'm debuting 1 (one) group
YG: Odd number of members, yes
YG: 7 is too many
YG: Maybe 5
YG: Lemme eliminate people and pick from this Top 13 trainees
YG: Okay, here's your debut team with 7 members!
YG: Hmm wait here's a second team with 6 members but two are NOT from your Top 13
YG: And these two groups are going to promote together as 13!
YG: See? One group with odd number of members. I thought of that from the start you know

Personally I don't mind big groups, this kind of reminds me of early EXO days and remember how POWERFUL they became when they come back together instead of K/M separately? I'm thinking of that kind of power so I'm optimistic! This is a talented and beautiful bunch of people. Also, unlike previous YG boy groups, this group is going to be given materials to sing/perform instead of producing it themselves, like I expected. So they can focus on performing and ... being cute I guess. Some people are saying that this group doesn't feel like a YG group but I think that's good! YG is trying new things and different concepts, I think this is fresh and exciting.

They said they're aiming for a debut sometime in May - July, and I'm hopeful! I just wish they'd release Going Crazy like yesterday because I need that song in my life.

Ah one thing I do not like though, is the name MAGNUM. Like... why. I'm grateful that the second group is not named Box because how sad it is that the first one is a treasure and the other is just a .... box. However, Treasure and Magnum doesn't go together at all. WHY. Also them mentioning that Magnum was originally a name thought for other groups is nagl. You're saying out of all English words out there, there's no better word you can use for a group name that you must use this leftover name? Really??

I hope the kids are given some kind of chance or freedom to express themselves/connect with fans via social media or VLIVEs and not just kept in the dungeon during this in between period.

Anyway I'm still excited for their debut. Go kids!

I was looking forward to the announcement of final member to the second line-up today when it turns out to be... Asahi. Waah waah. Definitely not a member I expect to be up there, and definitely changed my mind about the Japanese group concept. Now the group has 3 Koreans and 3 Japanese, looking more likely as a strategy to promote in Japanese market. I don't really understand why they split up Haruto and also kicked the rest of Team J members out of both line-ups, but I really need to establish it in me now more than ever, that there's no use of trying to justify or make sense of YG's decision. YG's gonna YG.

HOWEVER!!! I WAS SUPER HAPPY ABOUT YOSHINORI!!! I didn't think he would actually make it! MY BABY!!! I SUPPORT YOU!!!

I'm sure there are a lot of people who think that way about Asahi so I'll try not to be bummed about him making the line-up that badly. If it were up to me, I definitely will pick tiny little adorable Yeongue. Also people are saying Asahi & Yoshinori will be in charge of composing, and if they are targetting Japanese market, it definitely makes sense to have Japanese members compose/write lyrics for the group.

I'm also very happy about Mashiho. That kid has the passion, talent, and star quality to him, he HAS to debut.

Anyway, now that they finished announcing the line-up including the surprise second debut line-up, I feel like my life is empty. I used to look forward to 9AM in the morning to see who's the next trainee that will get a big life-change.

We don't even know when YG is going to debut these kids, but I feel like we'll be waiting for an eternity. I hope they at least announce the group name soon!

On the other side, I do feel bad for enjoying a show made based on exploiting kids emotionally and physically like this one. And in the end all of those brutal and painful elimination processes are pointless because YG is handpicking his favorite regardless.

They announced the first member! It's Yoonbin! He's good and I wish him the best of luck. I'm sure the second group would consists of talented kids and will do fine!

See? It's not Team J.

It's not Team J, and it's probably also not going to be the rest of Top 13 and now.... I kinda have hopes for Yoshinori and this is bad! I shouldn't have ANY hopes! I don't want to get my hopes up only to get crushed in the end! But I do want him to debut, look at that beautiful porcelain face and lovely smile, how could you not love him? He's so cute and adorable and seems like a good, hardworking kid I would give him all my love (ok not really but I wish him the best).

I wrote in my entry previously that YG just might be debuting another group but I didn't think he would really do it. And today, he announced that there'll be a second group hahahahhaa.

Okay. I don't follow any YG groups that closely and I don't get why people are so angry at him/the company all the time. I was just happy with this news, yay more group for everybody! I'm happy that these trainees are given the chance to debut. In the end YG Entertainment is a business with targets to achieve, investors to please, public image to maintain. They'd want success, profit, popularity, right? Looking at how successful other YG groups are, I really don't understand what people are angry about. BP needs more songs and comebacks, I understand. But Winner and Ikon both released multiple albums doing well on the charts and were on a world tour. That's ... good, right?

Adding more groups to the library is inevitable. How else would you grow as an entertainment agency? I should be more cautious in investing in these groups just in case to avoid disappointments in the future though haha.

Unlike what some people are saying, I don't think this is going to be a Japanese group. They showcased 7 Japanese trainees on the show, 6 with longer training period and 1 as a last minute addition (Asahi). Haruto is debuting with Treasure and I really doubt YG will just fill the line-up with the rest of the Japanese Trainees unless he has more of them up his sleeves. Other than Mashiho, the other five weren't very popular or particularly good in anything. They weren't getting a lot of screen time on the show, either except for maybe Yoshinori & Keita. And if it's a Japanese group, wouldn't it be more fitting if they do things on a Japanese platform instead? VLIVE isn't mainstream in Japan, and the show doesn't have a Japanese twitter account or ever tweeted in Japanese.

Secondly, I also don't think YG would wait 2-3 years to actually debut these groups. The groups or at least Treasure meant to be fandom-driven, meaning the agency will hand feed them everything. YG isn't looking for the next GD anymore, it doesn't seem like he's expecting these kids to compose their own hit songs and make an album on their own. They'll be given pop songs like Going Crazy and charm the public with their smiles. They already have at least one song, they can debut immediately! Maybe YG is trying a new strategy!

Anyway, they'll reveal one member every day starting from tomorrow to February 4th and I'm nothing but excited.

We got a name! The group is officially called Treasure. Which make sense.

I spent some time watching that special VLive yesterday, the show is almost 2 hours long, phew. Despite the fact that I did not fully agree with YG's final decision, I still love the boys and I'm interested to see how they'll grow and progress. At the beginning of the show, I was just completely smitten by them and I have already adopted them all as 'my babies'. They're my new babies and I love them.

However, as I continue watching it, turns out I still have some strong opinions lol. Here's my opinions about each member :

1. Hyunsuk : I think debuting Hyunsuk along with this group is the BEST decision. He's trained for a long time, he's older than these guys, he's funny, he's a good personality which is perfect for a leader. YG might have crushed his confidence over the course of this show, but now that he's debuting, I'm sure he can fulfill his role well.

2. Junghwan : He is still awkward and isn't the maknae that I wished for this group, but he's extremely young so I can only hope he'll grow out of his awkward phase soon. Still don't like him that much. But he's a baby and you should not hate a baby.

3. Yedam : He is the most articulate, clever, smart, talented person in this group, no questions asked. I was amazed by how smart he is! He was shown busy with school and exams during the show he had to skip practice, but there were a bunch of other kids younger than him, do they not go to school??? Don't drop out of school, kids! Anyway, excited for Yedam and he's also clearly the most popular contestant during the show and probably after. Lezgeddit.

4. Junkyu : I swear this kid is the most idolest idol if I've ever seen one. He's cute, smiley, funny, laugh a lot which is an easily enjoyable personality to watch. He's also tall which makes him good for modeling, and he's REALLY GOOD at singing. His voice is engraved in my head after I hear it. He is crucial for this group, personality AND talent wise.

5. Jeongwoo : Jeongwoo is awkward. He's very young so he has a lot of room to grow. He's got a great singing voice so I really wish they'll get songs in which he'll be able to showcase his strength. Hoping for the best for him.

6. Haruto : Haruto is a STAR. I agree with YG that he has a strong star quality to him. He's super young and also awkward, especially adding the language barrier factor, but he's confident and he's very proud of himself, which is cute. YG loves him so I hope they'll give him good rap verses that fit his voice color. He's tall, good looking, and funny. He's a good performer. His hyungs also seems to like him a lot so that's good.

7. Jaehyuk : Oh man, this is hard. I'm happy for him that he is picked. I love me my underdog stories and I want nothing but the best for him but it is really hard not to notice how awkward he is in there. The group doesn't seem to be close to him or like him that much. He doesn't fit in and it's ruining the group dynamic. But they're just formed, they're one day old on that day of the broadcast so they have a lot of time to get to know each other. No group is formed based on personal relationship of the members, there will be conflicts, there will be disagreements, awkwardness etc but they'll have to go through it and grow together. I hope these kids will be able to overcome this.

Okay, let's give them the benefit of the doubt. Most if not all rookie groups are awkward in front of the camera, even the biggest names when they were just debuted. This is Treasure's first appearance together as a group, they might not know each other that well yet, they don't know what to say in front of the camera, let's give them a chance. We'll see.

I can't help but keep comparing them to BTS because of the 7 members situation, and I always think that BTS is super lucky that they got RM as their leader, Bang Sihyuk is correct to follow his intuition building the group around RM with him as the first confirmed member. RM is mature beyond his age, and he leads the group well. I remember how ex-BigHit trainees talk about him, too. The dynamic and chemistry between BTS members is something no formula can ever replicate, and it's a big part of their appeal to a lot of people. We can tell that they just genuinely have each other's back. I don't know what YG is planning with Treasure, but according to that one industry financial forecast report, he intended this group to be fandom driven.

It seems like he is just trying his luck with a simple formula; get some good looking boys, put them together in a group, give them catchy songs = success! Debut them through a filler TV show that gives the viewer a sense of ownership so that they're attached before the group even debuted. I'm still interested to see where this is going, and I hope for the best for this group.

Also, justice for Mashiho.

They announced it today and it's Hyunsuk!!! Yaaay. He's popular, he's got a good personality, he's a good performer, he'd be the oldest and will be perfect as a leader of this group! Happy and excited about this group. They'll have a VLIVE tonight and I'm curious of what it's about. I wonder when YG is going to actually debut the group, hmm.

Today they announced the 6th member of the debut group and it is... Yoon Jaehyuk. Wow.

I was amused by this surprising news. I am very happy for him, he lacked confidence before and this will give him the boost he needed. I wish him nothing but the best. I don't mind him, really, he seemed like a nice kid, but it was still a shocking twist.

My amusement didn't last long though. Soon I realized Jaehyuk debuting means there is no chance for Mashiho and that actually makes me sad. I wanted him to debut along with Haruto, he is a good performer with strong stage presence, he had trained long years, he's cute, I can go on. Mashiho just seems to be the perfect fit for the group. YG wants a younger group and Mashiho is the same age as Jaehyuk, only with a longer training period, so this decision kind of puzzled me. I was in the state of shock I couldn't shake it off, spent like half a day reading angry comments on discussion posts.

I wasn't particularly angry myself, just surprised. I don't hate Jaehyuk and I am not actually that invested in this group lol. I did have a stronger opinion about Junghwan hahaha. Maybe I'm calmer because I got my period. I'm interested in which direction YG will take this group to. I'm still optimistic that they're going to have brilliant future. Going crazy is ready to be a hit.

The last member (?) is going to be announced this Friday. I don't know if I should trust anything YG said at this point, the show is twist after twist after twist, it was kind of exhausting to follow. Is it possible that he'd add more member(s)? Debut a Japanese group? Debut a different group along with this one? Is this one even ever going to debut? Within this year? In a couple of years? We will never know.

Wow. I don't know anymore lol.

I'll admit it, I don't like Junghwan lol. He's a kid, I know, but he just seems unsympathetic and whenever there's any option to pick a team or a partner, no one ever picks him! And from the start, no one ever in a million years think that he will be in the final line up. I just don't get it, but YG is gonna YG so what you gonna do. People are saying, he's just a kid, stop bullying etc but I JUST DON'T LIKE THIS KID. And it seems that a lot of people are disagreeing with the decision to debut him so, hey, these are legit opinions people are having. But we're not YG, there probably is something in him that we aren't aware of. Let the kid be and give him a chance to grow as an entertainer. He'll be fine.

So, this is just going to be the original line-up of Treasure 7, right? I hope Mashiho makes it so that Haruto could have a Japanese hyung with him. That's not my sole reason of course, Mashiho is a great performer! He can rap, sing, and dance, and he's good looking, too.

I... for one, don't care about the silver boys. I think these kids are talented and young and good looking and YG knows what direction he's going to take. I think it's probably over for silver boys.

One more thing, people are saying that YG intentionally picks younger line-up because it could take another couple of years for these boys to actually debut. Excuse me, WHAT. Don't do that. Yedam spent 6 years in the dungeon, went through emotionally excruciating show that eliminates all the hyungs he trained together with JUST TO BE PUT IN THE DUNGEON AGAIN???? This isn't making any sense. I hope this is not true. I don't follow YG groups but please don't do this to these kids.

Also to those keeps saying YG went with a younger line-up is because of TXT. PLEASE SHUT UP, THANK YOU. Debuting groups has been younger since years ago, this has nothing to do with TXT at all. I'm probably just being sensitive with the fact that I'm seeing TXT being mentioned everywhere. The group hasn't even debuted yet. This group hasn't even proven anything yet. Stop dragging them around. My only wish is for the world to treat TXT like any other K-Pop debut group.

Never thought I would be someone to say this but... I'm currently hooked on survival shows. I hate survival shows, I think it's exploitative, there are too many groups already, enough is enough. Yet here I am.

The first show is YG Treasure Box which I've been watching from the start. I don't even remember how I got into this, I probably just wanted to see Bang Yedam, to know the process of his debut, to see his potential debut mates like everybody else. He IS going to debut, right? RIGHT? I mean at this point, I know I shouldn't get attached to any of the contestants, and YG's favoritism is pretty clear. It comes back to his decision in the end, so I bet his faves are going to make it one way or another (see: iKON). Anyway, my dream team would be Yedam, Junkyu, Haruto, Mashiho, Yoonbin, Jeongwoo, Hyunsuk. 3 rappers and 4 singers seems like a good composition. I do not have any investment in Treasure A as a group or individually other than Yedam. I didn't keep track of YG trainees nor watch MIXNINE so other than the short glances in Stray Kids (the TV program) this is the first time I'm exposed to them.

Aside from who I think will or should make it, my personal favorite is Yoshinori. He's, super pretty like a doll. And he's adorable, too. He performs well and he's a perfect package for an idol. His weakness would be the language barrier. Watching his videos, his Korean has improved SO MUCH in a short amount of time which I'm proud of. However, being a non-native speaker it would still be difficult for him to actually write lyrics. For a rapper position, writing your own lyrics, spewing shit you believe is an important point. O wait speaking of this Haruto is actually in the same position lol. I don't know what directions YG will take, but from his assessments so far, I don't think Yoshinori will make it. YG should just debut him and Mahiro as a duet in Japan with Japan activities. Perfect. They could be the next Tackey & Tsubasa, who knows?

ANYWAY. I wasn't really exposed to Under 19 because that shit is owned by MBC, it's just not easily accessible because traditional TV channel hates online platforms. BUT! J-Hope guest starred in the latest episode (ep 10) and of course I had to see it!!!!! I watched preview clips of his part, I watched the show live on a very choppy stream but it was not enough. No. I had to watch the whole episode! I patiently download a 6GB file to watch it in HD greatness because this deserve it. It had to be watched, re-watched and scrutinized. And man, I don't need more lovely humans to invest myself in emotionally but all these trainees are just too adorable! How could they not, they're all UNDER NINETEEN. Like, as young as kids that were born in 2005!!! They're practically babies. Tiny!Yechan IS A BABY AND YOU CAN'T CONVINCE mE OTHERWISE. ANd YES I LOOKED THEM UP AND MEMORIZE THEIR NAMES INSTANTLY (not all of them though there are too many).

Watching this episode which heavily shows the Fake Love group I'm of course more drawn to them. But from the start, it was nice to see how many kids badly wanted to perform Fake Love. Lol stupid kids, that song is beautiful on the surface but crazy hard to perform especially live. It was hard even for BTS caliber, the original performer of this song who had years of experience and countless hours of practice under their belt. I don't know why the kids wanted to perform it, probably because it's the most recent among all the other songs presented, and BTS craze is real. I bet if you're a trainee you would look up to their success and dream that one day you could be standing on a big stage like them. But honestly seriously, Mirotic is a legend but the song was released in 2008, Tiny!Yechan was only 3 back then!!

Right from the get go the trainess are already adorable. Their faces when the songs are announced, when their names are called. Lol at anyone who was praying to get Fake Love, repeating the title many times as if it'll help. Sungwon was holding hand with Suren and was like 'Suren, me, please!' when they were calling names for Growl team. Suren was mumbling meaningless words as prayers to help him get chosen (and he got picked!). On a different note, it was very nostalgic to see glimpses of Luhan and Kris from the MV, reminds me of my old EXO stanning days.

Lee Sangmin in particular gets all the spotlight in this episode. From desperately wanting to be chosen for Fake Love team to J-Hope's segment. He has this innocence to him that just draws people in. He doesn't look 15 at all (Big!Yechan also doesn't look 16 to me). He was standing there nervously and not get called until third from the last. When there was still 4-5 people and only two were left from Rap team, he was holding onto his team mate's hand while begging to be in Fake Love team ('me, please please me'). When his friend got called he has no one else he knows so he just stepped closer to Taekyung and said 'annyeonghaseyo' in the middle of being a nervous wreck LMAO. He was so happy to be chosen, and he was praising how the other members are so good looking and that he's proud to be in the team (LOL???). Being from the rap team, naturally he got J-Hope and Suga's parts of the song.

And then.... J-Hope himself actually came to the scene to mentor the kids. Sangmin was standing there the whole time with his mouth wide open, slapping himself in the face in disbelief. He was panicking and frantically practicing his moves when J-Hope asks them to show them what they got. Taekyung was like 'lol stop it practicing now wouldn't make any difference'. Sangmin was belatedly protesting to Yechan 'Hyung, why did you give me J-Hope sunbaenim's part?!'. Yechan was just laughing it off. Sangmin is a wreck, he bows on the floor to J-Hope asking for forgiveness 'I'M SORRY' at the end of their performance because he wasn't sure if he does his part justice.

J-Hope was giving directions to Sangmin when he stopped and say 'you're doing my part, right?'. Sangmin was 'ah, yes, ah I'M SORRY' while dropping to the floor again.

Sangmin shyly says that he is doing J-Hope's part in front of J-Hope himself. J-Hope smiles brightly saying that he's happy to see him doing his part, and that he's getting fond of him for that, and then proceeding to walk towards him to shake his hand. Sangmin, in shock, panic, and disbelief quickly wipes his hand on his clothes and shakes hand with J-Hope. The edit on the video was so funny because he was holding the hand that was blessed by J-Hope (it was glowing) with the happy-shocked face on his face in slow motion with a love song. And then he dodged when other trainees was trying to touch that hand LMAO (with the caption : Don't touch my hand!). In the confessionals he said his heart skipped a beat when he shakes hand with Hoseok, and that he really liked it (was happy about it).

And then! Just right after! I know it was editing but it was so funny because Hoseok knows Sangmin now, but Sangmin was still light-headed from everything and he completely forgot where he was supposed to be standing in the formation for chorus part. His team mate calls him to position with his full name 'Lee Sangmin!' before he move forward. IMMEDIATELY, Hoseok almost lost it because memorizing your position is the most basic thing, this doesn't even require skill or have anything to do with movements yet. BTS members always said that Hoseok is scary in dance practices, he will scold people who make mistakes. Hoseok immediately yells 'SANGMINIE ANDWAE (DON'T BE LIKE THAT)'. But probably remembers that these are kids on televised program and he went soft saying 'Sangmin-ah, you have to do well, pull yourself together, eh?' with the biggest smile on his face (voice was still loud, though). Sangmin again, in panic slaps himself in the face and shakes his head to wake himself up.

ANYWAY. I also like Doyeom and Yechan, both seems like good, dilligent kids. Doyeom is also a big fan of BTS, he wanted Fake Love from the start. He was indisbelief that Hoseok was in front of him and he was pacing with his hand on his chest. He asked Hoseok what is the secret to their success because he's always moved every time he sees a BTS video. Doyeom learns the moves from Hoseok dilligently and he said this is a once in a lifetime opportunity and that he'll practice really hard. He got praised by Hoseok! Hoseok said his energy is overflowing. He was in awe seeing Hoseok doing the moves even for a small part and while being a good performer himself.

Yechan is good-looking, very mature, very articulate, very smart. He is the team leader and he's assigning positions to everyone. He was explaining the mission to J-Hope and he was happy to be able to meet him. Yechan and Doyeom ranks high in the voting, I wish them the best and I hope they can debut.

Other team members I don't really know about because they basically had 0 screentime. They're probably filler contestants, and I'm so sorry for them. They all worked very hard to get here. Sangmin was just a better personality to create interesting content. If he fails at becoming an idol he should be a YouTuber.

Kids rushed to grab Hoseok's hand when he asked them to put their hands together to cheer for their success. Hoseok was just laughing the whole time. He signed the kids' hoodies and said 'you guys are adorable'. Hoseok seems nervous at first but he is very GOOD as a mentor??????? Like???? He should be doing this forever??? He is kind, he stern when needed, he is giving good directions and insights, he is also super friendly. He brings the kids food because he knows they are being crammed in that training center.

Man, I don't even watch Under 19 but this is a really, really good episode I could repeat again and again. Imma watch again with proper subtitle when it's out.