&Audition - The Howling - (2022)

PTSD with Hybe 101

I dislike survival shows in general, debut shows even more, but I wanted to support these kids. There is no surprise that everything was so conveniently staged so the only thing it achieved was to traumatize the boys. Why needlessly threaten them with debut cancelation? When they read the letters from their families I was just sitting there awkwardly. What was the purpose of making them read that out loud? Something so intimate should have stayed private. The Seventeen mission was fun but Hybe somehow managed to force EVERY group into this. When the BTS mission was announced I internally screamed and was desperately hoping we'll hear the older songs and not the recent atrocities. The final stream was a whole another disaster... no-one looked like they wanted to be there. The MC was so awkward it made me uncomfortable. The pauses were too long. It looked like Hybe kidnapped a random stranger off the streets, put him in a suit, gave him a mic and a script and put him on stage. For some reason, the results were announced halfway through followed by an hour of thanking everyone. I wouldn't mind that much if the subtitles were in sync... the whole thing was a mess.

On the positive side the game episode was fun (aside from the letter reading). Another fun thing was the TXT interaction. Also, the performances were awesome and I can't wait to see the members who didn't make it make their debut sometime in the future.

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As I love the group that debuted thanks to &Audition, I had to rewatch it again this year <3

This survival show released on YouTube in 2022 has for objective to launch the first Japanese Boy group of HYBE Labels Japan. It can be seen as a Japanese sequel of the South Korean survival show "I-Land" (which aired in 2020 with Enhypen being the resulting debut boy group at the time). Indeed, the competition includes 4 former participants from the prequel who did not debut at the time and who are now participating in the program as part of the debut group. During "&Audition - The Howling", those 4 members already part of the debut group will be working in team with 11 other trainees. Some of the trainees will be able to debut with the 4 members as part of the new group.

Casting-wise, I was super happy to find back the 4 former participants from "I-Land". I absolutely adored one of them and I grow to love a lot the 3 others. It was also particularly satisfying to know that those 4 will be debuting in any case and that the objective of the program was more to complete the group with additional trainees than to make those guys suffer once again. The program leaves the room open for the group to not debut at all if the team formed is not strong enough (at the appreciation of the producers). But honestly, this threat does not seem very credible and the level of angst is low regarding the future of those 4 participants, which I appreciated.

Regarding the 11 trainees, their future is much more uncertain as the number of members being part of the group is not known at first and it seems unlikely that they can all debut with the already selected 4 members. I found them overall quite likeable, I had some favorites such as Yuma, Harua, Gaku and Hikaru while some others did not leave a very strong lasting first impression on me. It is mainly due to the fact that the episodes are quite short overall, with the focus being on performances and teamwork but not necessarily in highlighting individuals talent and characters. There are very few storylines and the drama is kept at a minimal level with no fight between the participants.

Regarding the missions itself, I don't have necessarily performances that I would want to rewatch a lot (maximum a couple of those) but I enjoyed them as well as the original songs and covers they did (most being HYBE songs of course). I also liked the few cameos we had from other HYBE groups members. Some appearances felt a bit forced and artificial, but I appreciated it in any case. The Japanese judges were also part of the team training the candidates and if at first they felt a bit cold to me, by the end it was obvious how much they liked and cared for the boys, which was really touching.

I would recommend this to people that enjoy survival show with relatively lower stake and drama. There is still candidates eliminated as well as difficult to understand voting rules. But overall, no real evil edit and if you liked in "I-Land" some of the cast members, it is very pleasant to find them back here. Obviously, if you are a fan of the group that has debuted from &Audition, this survival show is a must watch to see how the group was created and witness their first interactions and performances together.

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