YMMV / Produce48

• Broken Base: Naturally, because Japan and South Korea has a history of political tension, decisions made by Mnet hasn't gone well for many people.
  • Out of the 96 contestants, only 12 will be in the final line-up. However, the viewers are not required to pick an even ratio of members of each country, which means the line-up can result in a disproportionate number of Japanese or Korean members. Even worse, there are 57 South Korean participants and 39 Japanese participants, which makes odds unfair either way.
  • The entire concept of having Japanese idols in the Korean idol system generated this as the two countries have very different expectations of what an idol should be like. Many criticised Japanese idols for being unable to sing or dance compared to their Korean counterparts — who tended to complete outclass them.
  • Only Koreans can vote in the competition, a move many people consider to be biased, especially when almost half of the participants are Japanese. Mnet made this decision because AKB48 already had a strong, established fan base in Japan (as it is considered Japan's national Idol Singer Girl Group, and they have a system where fans would vote for who gets to be in the next single) and this was to avoid unfair voting.
  • Wusple/Wisple/Yuesple girls ^note a portmanteau of Yuehua, Starship, Stone Music and Pledis getting more screen time than any other girls. Is this blatant favoritism by Mnet for agencies under CJ&M umbrella, which also include Mnet, or do netizens simply not like those trainees and are trying to blame this on favoritism? When the criticism reached Mnet, they simply used the anti-Yuesple posts to promote their next episode.
  • Lee Chaejong's team's decision to go against Han Chowon's team is either a tactical choice or unsympathetic. They purposely chose the team knowing that they were the weakest, as they were the ones who were forced to be in a group after everyone else had already been picked. Moreover, Han Chowon's team mostly consisted of girls from the F class, many of them young tweens who knew they would have trouble with the difficulty and charisma that "Boombayah" required. Mnet's editing didn't help either, since they focused on Chaejong's team laughing while making the decision and Chowon's team bursting out in tears.
  • Natsumi Matsuoka wanting to be the center of the first group battle but refusing to make an effort to try out for it is either unprofessional and rude, or not a big deal.
  • Erii Chiba has drawn some controversy due to surviving the first cut even though some of the contestants that were eliminated were better singers and dancers than her. Her defeated attitude towards being grouped in the final team and immediately crying when assigned "Boombayah" didn't help things either.
  • Kwon Eunbi's leadership skills. Was she a poor leader for deciding to change the center two days before the showcase, when other groups faced with the same criticism chose to work on helping the center improve instead, or it wasn't a big deal? Mnet's editing seems to want to push the former narrative.
  • Was Heo Yunjin too greedy for asking the center position when her teammates voted for another candidate to take that role, or are the watchers making this a much bigger deal than it is? Either way, she received a lot of criticism for it and it was a big factor that most likely cost her the chance of making it into the top 20.
  • The final ranking and line-up for the group IZ*ONE is very divisive among international fans for having nine Korean and three Japanese members. Not only was the nationality distribution uneven for a group hyped up to be a "global Girl Group", but a lot of internationally popular contestants like Lee Gaeun, Han Chowon, Miyu Takeuchi, and Miu Shitao didn't make the cut. Hyewon being part of the final line-up has also drawn online criticism for not being as charismatic as the others, while international fans are uncomfortable with 14-year-old Jang Wonyoung being the center. Either way, you'll find a lot of international fans expressing outrage at the line-up.
    • Before, the only hard evidence fans had of Mnet rigging the votes was the "airplane" incident, where fans noticed that all the Korean trainees for whom agencies bought plane tickets to Japan prior to the show's end actually ended up debuting. Now that the police has found evidence that Produce 48 may be rigged after investigating Produce X 101, people have been speculating who actually should have made the group instead^note The court ultimately revealed that Gaeun and Chowon were the ones rigged out from the lineup - they actually placed 5th and 6th respectively, no less. This is also further worsened by contestants on Produce X 101 and Idol School alleging that the producers were biased towards trainees who they wanted to make the group, with some even being taught choreography to songs that wouldn't get revealed until much later — which also narrows down to the whole debacle of how Sakura Miyawaki got an A in her first evaluation when many of the other contestants, especially Jurina Matsui, performed better than her.
    • In November and December 2019, the producer of the series, Ahn Joon-young, admitted he had pre-selected the entire line-up before voting for the finale opened, even though popular trainees like Sakura would have gotten in regardless.
• Darkhorse Victory: Both Han Chowon and Sae Murase exceeded everyone's expectations when they won the extra 100,000 points in the position evaluation votes in vocal & rap and dancing categories respectively. They are nowhere near the top 12, yet they surpassed other more popular trainees.
  • Miho Miyazaki ended up ranking #1 in week 9 despite her screentime being sparse before then. She had won over the audience during her performance of "The Truth Within" and Korean audiences appreciated more when they found out how much she loved the culture.
  • Kim Chaewon is the only trainee to debut in the final group despite not making it in debut range for the entirety of the show prior to the final voting.
• Ensemble Dark Horse:
  • Kaeun joined AfterSchool just one year before they entered in indefinite hiatus, contractually stuck in a bad management that never helped her find work, so she never had a chance to shine. She is now one of the fan-favorites.
  • Miyu Takeuchi spent 9 years since debut in AKB48 never even ranking in Senbatsu elections, that's how unpopular she was. Yet, her audition blew everyone away, becoming the first Japanese idol to receive an A-grade evaluation, and joined the top 12 in the first midweek ranking.
    • Because of exposure from this show, she became popular enough in Japan to participate in her first ever handshake event.
  • Nako Yabuki ranked in F but was placed in A during the reevaluation. During the first group battle, every member of her team was beat out by her counterpart... until she earned a whopping 330 points, beating the other team by a landslide. If it wasn't for her, her team would have lost.
    • Just to put it in perspective, had she gotten 5 more votes, she would have single handedly beaten all combined votes of the opposite team.
  • Hitomi Honda has also became this through her dancing, despite her sparse screentime. Her first evaluation wasn't aired at all, but she got high praise from Bae Yoon-jeong while learning the choreography for the reevaluation, eventually moving up to the A rank. For the group battles, she also learned the choreography for the song much faster than her group mates allowing her to teach the struggling trainees.
  • Sae Murase and Miu Shitao were on no one's radar, until they got rid of their cutesy Japanese styling and let their visuals excel during Mamma Mia and Peek-A-Boo performances respectively.
  • The whole "High Tension" performance is this. While everyone was expecting the Avengers team^note The team with the popular and well-rounded (skill-wise) members: Sakura Miyawaki, Kwon Eunbi, Lee Chaeyeon, Kim Choyeon, Kim Minju and Aoi Motomura to give a great show, it was this team's performance that blew everyone's expectations.
• Expy: Lee Gaeun is compared to Jonghyun (JR from NU'EST) because they both ranked at #1 during the first evaluations, #8 near the end, and didn't make the final line-up despite their popularity and talent. The major difference is however, that Gaeun was rigged out of the lineup; Jonghyun's loss was legitimate.
• Germans Love David Hasselhoff:
  • Japanese audiences adore Kim Nayoung and Kim Chaewon. Megu Taniguchi from AKB48 (who has spent her live streams watching the show with her fans) has even said Chaewon is her favorite of all the contestants. Meanwhile, international fans barely knew Chaewon existed and was surprised to see her make it to the top 12.
  • Like Korean audiences, Japanese fans love Hyewon because she's the type of idol that is compatible with Japanese expectations of idols, where they debut as inexperienced but grow with the fans. International fans, on the other hand, find Hyewon untalented and some were even outraged that she made the final line-up.
  • While Korean fans feel that Gaeun, Miyu, and Miho are too "old" to be idols, international fans were more appreciative of them as talented artists and had hoped they would end up in the top 12 (no wonder they were outraged when it was revealed by court that Gaeun actually did end up there but was rigged out).
• Hilarious in Hindsight: During the mystery box games uploaded on YouTube before the show aired, the Japanese trainees were far more dramatic than the Koreans, often screaming in fear as soon as they put their hands in. While for people unfamiliar with AKB48 this just seemed overdramatic, especially with the few paired with Korean trainees, those that know the things AKB48 has been put through in this type of games (from live animals to someone's head) found it comedy gold to see the poor girls freak out over blind touching broccoli or slime.
• Narm Charm: Han Chowon's team performing "Boombayah" is, as expected, hilariously bad, especially when it comes down to Erii Chiba, who looks like she's practically given up and gives a very stilted, soulless performance. At the same time, it's given rise to many jokes about her becoming a rap god and has even endeared her to her fan base even more.
• Out of Focus: Sae Murase and Miru Shiroma, who didn't get any relevant screen time for some bizarre reason despite their talent on the show (Sae won first overall in the position evaluation, and Miru placed first in the team's votes in every evaluation until the final). It's speculated (though not proven) that NMB members were denied getting screen time on the show because their Japanese management wanted them to not join the final girl group.
• Values Dissonance:
  • International fans are not happy with underage children being sexualized in the show at all (especially 13-year old Jang Wonyoung, who chose to perform the sexually charged "Side to Side" by Ariana Grande) because the show that has been described by its own producers as "healthy porn for men." The dissatisfaction became more widespread after Wonyoung ranked 1st in the 8th week. However, South Korea and Japan haven't heard of nor cares about the controversy, mostly because of her dominating performance as center in "Very Very Very." With that said, however, South Korea and Japan did criticize the "Rumor" performance for having the girls wear garter belts in their performances, especially since most of the girls were only old enough to be in high school.
  • Korean audiences tend to prefer fresh, cute, and youthful concepts, which is why Gaeun, Miyu, or Miho weren't popular with the voting (or so it seemed). In Gaeun and Miho's case, their age was often brought up as a deterrent, especially since they're approaching Old Maid status. In Miyu's case, her style of singing being outdated caused a severe rift between her fans and her haters. On the other hand, Juri Takahashi, Miru Shiroma, and Sae Murase were relatively popular Japanese contestants who didn't exactly get the same amount of support from international fans.