Chapter 86

Miro Maze episode 1, which had built astonishing buzz with every scene, picked up pace fast the moment main MC Seo Taeil appeared on screen. It was finally shifting into full-blown idol-survival gear.

—Those who would reach the sun, fly high!

The 7-member debut lineup and Miro Maze's basic rules were laid out.

The setup could easily have been dull compared to the earlier scenes, but viewers didn't drop off.

title: [The production really used their heads] - since it's an in-house survival anyway there's no need for hit-piece edits on the trainees, so they just spent the whole front half laying out the trainees' characters at lengthㅋㅋㅋ hook us with maze escape as fun content and get us to lock in each kid's personality and character in the process, then the second the survival part starts we're already fully invested - ㅇㅇi thought the same thingㅋㅋㅋ production's smart - omg22 my mom usually says she can't tell today's kids apart and doesn't like them but she watched with me and memorized all 17ㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋ title: [this is just my guess but (subject MRMZ)] - since the performance videos dropped first anyway, the first-mission song and stuff got spoiled the reason there's so much maze-escape airtime might be for that tooㅇㅇ the standard idol-survival move is build the stage and pressure people with the results, but since the first mission was already exposed they seem to have shifted to a strategy of getting the kids themselves noticed instead... it can't have been an easy call to cut stages from an idol survival, but looking at the buzz right now, miro and the production made the right callㅇㅇ - what you said is fair but i'm a little disappointed tbh it IS a survival and there's just been so little stage talk - so what does that mean, they're not showing stages tonight? aren't we almost at the end? > gonna probably show them splitting the teams and a bit of practice then wrap - eh so i wait till ep 2 i wanted to see the stage prep

The somewhat experimental format split opinion, but reception was warm overall.

Even just leaving viewers curious enough to come back next week would've been a solid return on the episode.

But Miro Maze didn't stop there.

- yo MRMZ ep 1 is 150 minㄷㄷ just checked the schedule

The originally 90-minute slot had been extended by a full hour!

That had been the condition Ji Suho laid down for PD Kwon Myeongeun at their last meeting.

—Extend the runtime, and give every single trainee an equal, appealing spotlight.

The abundance of good footage had been eating at PD Kwon's side too.

Once she'd properly drawn her sword, she pushed the broadcaster all the way to a 150-minute runtime — and, in a final show of nerve, stretched what would've been a 10-minute opening to a full 40.

PD Kwon didn't deny this had turned out to slightly benefit Kang Hajin.

With the opening expanded, all of Hajin's catch-points that would otherwise have been cut for time made it into the broadcast.

But no fairness controversy or PD-pick suspicions came up.

Because with the runtime extended, every other trainee got equal coverage too.

—Not one scene is allowed to drag.

True to that philosophy, PD Kwon threw everything into episode 1.

Competition, friendship, growth, hardship, conflict….

The faintest hint of drama, she pulled in and put on the air.

And of course, the result was a hit.

handle: @strongjin name: Captain Kang [photo] our hajin has gak-seon-mi meaning: a guy crazy about angles and lines b-team choreo lead form is unreal and now, dance-break center + leader engagement: shares 781 · quotes 22 · hearts 1,009 title: [The Yubbang / 1-ho chemistry is INSANE] - special-class main dancer who slipped in the month-end and dropped a rank 2-Yubbang, and general-class Kim 1-ho who never got attention but had his potential blow up at month-end this stock is IN, seriously yubbang picks up choreo super fast and teaches 1-ho, and 1-ho's dance-break idea gets picked up isn't this literally the "gifted-slacker meets grinding-mid-tier" cliché - ah exactly they told them to have a battle and it's turning into a coming-of-age drama - i get 1-ho but why is he yubbang > geon=GUN=chong=bang! > truly, the world of surviv is a wondrous place

〈Boys of the World's Seo Taehyun, Astonishing Growth in 3 Years... 'Miro Maze' First Broadcast〉

〈Ha Yeongseo's MediaView〉 A Survival Without Hit-Piece Edits? The New Paradigm Miro Has Presented

〈MRMZ Performance Videos Finally Hit 1M Views〉

title: [Who's caught your eye most on MRMZ?] - seo taehyunㅇㅇ Boys of the World experience really shows the part where he catches One Day's details i keep rewatching - i caught jung siwoo for the face-voice-body but watching last night the personality is a fucking twist > 22 turns out my kid's a schemer-type - i'm on jaeyoungㅠㅠ him crying while getting choreo help from hajin because he couldn't memorize it was too pitiful - honestly the top buzz of ep 1 is stjin no? his gif account hit 10k followers > yesterday was stjin's day tbhㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋ > textbook manly-leader-look hexagon memberㅇㅇ > and who's stjin now > strong+jin > ha fandom life these days is fucking hard title: [no one-pick from MRMZ ep 2?] - been a while since a rapper worth catching showed up so i grabbed him but he's getting weirdly no mentions - his dance is... > his dance is...222 but yeah the rap is legit

That was how episode 1 wrapped, successfully.

The A-team and B-team practice processes were packed in tight, and an anticipation-building preview for next week was thrown in for good measure.

〈At last, the first mission — Daylight — begins!〉

〈The identity of the special mentor who has the trainees on edge?〉

〈Sudden Situation〉

〈What on earth has happened to the two team leaders?〉

The preview ended on slow-motion shots — Hajin lowering his head as if fighting back tears, and Siwoo pressing his forehead mid-confrontation with someone.

Now the Destis (the name for the Miro Maze fandom and voters both, short for Destination) started theorizing about next week's mission based on the preview.

They cut gifs from the various scenes of episode 1, added funny captions, and used them to promote whichever trainee they were backing.

But the bait didn't stop there.

The individual-appeal videos that had been the escape-the-maze reward went up!

- iiiiinsane wolpyeong-z new wave live!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! - admin, the fangirl-mode in the title isn't looking normal - siwoo-sunbae do you remember? we went on a school trip to the Lou*re Museum and i thought you were a statue and touched you and sunbae reported me and i'm still in jail....a jail called jung siwoo... > yo this bit's been passed around and around and gotten really weird handle: @tae_day name: TaeDay #MiroMaze #MRMZ #SeoJuDan #SeoTaehyun #JuEunchan #DanHaru who put the bunny ears on seojudan live long and prosper and stay healthy... [photo] handle: @MM_Official name: MIRO MAZE Official verified: true the bunny ears and animal onesie outfits were genius-idol Seo Taehyun-gun's idea♡ handle: @tae_day name: TaeDay m;c; why does seo taehyun not have a country yet handle: @rossy_1017 name: Rossy Day 2X0504 MiroMaze Benefit Special Wolpyeong-z / Kang-Lee-Kim-z - New Wave (LIVE ver.) mp3 audio extract (cover O / lyrics O) downloadable at the link below https://url.kr/lp1tyd #LeeDoha #KangHajin #KimWonho #MiroMaze #MIROMAZE engagement: shares 419 · hearts 694 handle: @roxeeey name: Park Jangmi ???? doha-yah you are the future of k-pop how is this a trainee's self-composed song???? all you fuckers who dragged doha on dance go watch the dohajin dance break aaaaaa!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! handle: @roxeeey name: Park Jangmi ???? kim wono solo dance INSANE right? lee doha rap diction + dance break INSANE right?? kang hajin dance break + 3rd verse chorus adlib fucking INSANE?????????????

The moment the three appeal videos went up — 3 minutes, 2 minutes, and 1 minute long — the Destis went into full frenzy. Whoever had planned them had struck the exact niche each set of fans was after — gem-tier content across the board.

Of course, the production side — having pulled off the kind of pizza-split survival the idol scene had never seen — wasn't about to leave the lower-ranked trainees' fans out in the cold either.

Only 30 seconds each, but appeal content for the remaining trainees was released too!

To keep some separation from the top-rankers it was all bundled into one video, but nobody complained.

The pacing wasn't a rushed relay format, and the effort put into content quality — comparable to the top-rankers' — was obvious.

Of course, some difference in quality between trainees was unavoidable. But that came less from any failing on the production's part than from unavoidable skill gaps between the trainees themselves, so viewers took it in stride.

title: [what is miro even trying to do here] - it's an 8-episode survival and this is what they're doing to me only ep 1 is out and my heart is already breaking over the fact that i've got to send home 10 of these 17 precious babies title: [hey guys, is survival-show fandom life supposed to be like this?] - i've watched plenty of idol survivals normally survival means blood-drying stress, mental-health-going-off-the-rails, bone-carving pain, worrying day after day about whether my kid's about to get hit-piece-edited or airtime-buried, putting out a bowl of water and praying — that's the true form, isn't it is it okay for me to be this at peace right now title: [MRMZ taste-test impressions] - pros: no hit-piece edits (deranged pizza-split airtime) all 17 are cute seo taeil is handsome it's a points-accumulation system so no mid-series eliminations cons: only ep 1 has aired and i've already gotten attached every minute and second is joyful and delightful, but 2 months from now, 10 of them will still have to go home that sadness is being maxed out and driving me insane kind of feels like watching the happy past flashback right before a drama's sad ending drops...

People trained over years by mala-flavored survivals were bewildered.

A healing survival? Could those two words even coexist?

But since it was a new flavor, testimony posts started flooding in — from people who'd sampled a taste, come to their senses, and realized they were already past the point of no return.

And Ntv didn't miss this remarkable shift.

〈'Miro Maze' Episode 2 Extended... Runtime Bumped Up to 120 Min〉

〈'Miro Maze' Final Episode Confirmed as Live Broadcast... "Details to Be Announced Later"〉

〈'Miro Maze' PD Kwon Myeongeun: "I Want to Preserve the Shining Moments of Every Trainee" (Full Interview ①)〉

Headlines that were transparently working an angle, but the Destis were too busy welcoming them with open arms to care.

After the tightly packed 150-minute episode 1, they trusted that even with more runtime the edit wouldn't drag — it would just mean seeing the trainees in more of their range.

'Ha.'

And, currently.

At a certain gymnasium in a city ju~st outside the capital region.

Where the additional filming meant to showcase that 'variety' was in full swing.

'Now, Selreg. Regress.'

Beep—! Irreverent commentary from the Fixed Regressor detected! Penalty being applied to the Fixed Regressor. (Reason: gross insolence) Penalty: Fixed Regressor's athletic ability reduced by 10% (duration 10 minutes)

'Sure. At least you're having a great time.'

Kang Hajin — feeling the strength drain from his body in real time the second the penalty landed. Freshly twenty years old, Regressor.

"Kangha-hyung, are you actually using your feet for jokgu? Ah, wait — jokgu is a foot game by default."

"……."

Currently, for certain reasons, yearning for regression…!