27 June 2012

The Shounen Club 17 November 2002 review

I almost forgot about reviewing an episode today. I guess it will be a good thing when I can go to an episode a week next month, though it will make it longer to catch up to new episodes. Thinking about it this is something that could take a year to do... Oh well, I am enjoying it and I hope others are as well, even though these are not new episodes.

Only thing I feel worth noting from the introductions is that Hasegawa Jun is mentioned to be the leader of Four Tops, Ueda Tatsuya is listed as the captain of KAT-TUN as well. Honestly Four Tops did not seem like the kind of group that would have a leader so I found it surprising to learn that it actually had one. Though I guess it was a role as overlooked as Ueda as captain/leader of KAT-TUN.

I am really getting sick of this song. I know Ya-Ya-Yah have released their single by now so why they are not performing the two songs from that as well I do not know. I really wish they would and give this song a break now. Or just have another group perform after the introductions.

The guest this episode is Nakamaru Yuichi and Tanaka Koki, introduced as their comedy team name, Tanaka. They pretty much just answer questions sent in by fans then do one of their comedy skits, but fail worse than usual.

The Four Tops introduce themselves for the next number and there is a funny moment when three of the four are on screen and Jun lets out this little noise to remind them that he is missing from the shot. They bring him just in time for the screen to change to show the performance.

Not much to say about the performance as it is pretty much the same one they have been doing for a while now.

Club no Ousama features a young Totsuka Shota this time. He shows off his drawing skills by doing a portrait without taking the marker off the paper once. Of course as one of the younger Juniors Yamashita Tomohisa passes him as he does seem biased like that.

Especially since we get Tanaka again and them getting failed again right after. By now I will say that this is more a running joke than anything else.

KAT-TUN are up next to perform. They do a medley of songs, or more like two songs and a member introduction rap. The second song they do is titled Do Yo Thing and is more a Koki rap solo featuring Yabu Kota than anything else. Yabu is also wearing what looks like a couple of different outfits thrown together to make a new one but just comes off mismatched and pretty ugly.

The intro rap for the members is not formally introduced but easy to pick up on. Each member introduces the other with a rap and then they state that they are KAT-TUN once they are done with that.

The question board is about what you would do if you had magic powers for a day. I am amused that Akanishi Jin had written that he wanted to be a girl. The highlight for me was that Fujigaya Taisuke's answer was highlighted so that he gets his image shown. So I have now seen him, Kitayama Hirosuke, Yokoo Wataru, Miyata Toshiya and Nikaido Takashi on the program. I hope I can eventually spot Senga Kento and Tamamori Yuta, but I think they may have entered the agency later so it may still be a while.

K.K.Kity get to do the end theme this week. It is interesting to see that since the group changed their name from J-Support to K.K.Kity that Kusano Hironori has been brought up to not only the front but also the center. Before it was mainly Koyama Keiichiro and Kato Shigeaki as the leads of the group with Kusano in the back with the other three. Though I guess this can almost be seen as set up for the group getting broken up for NEWS in about a year from this episode.

Jimmy Mackey shows up and saves this end piece by bringing Domo-kun with him. They then copy Tanaka's "don!" thing they do and Yamashita Tomohisa immediately leaves Jimmy to be confused at his sudden departure.

Not a bad episode of the show but nothing really standout overall. I think it is safe to say that the show right now is running as its normal pace. I do like that we get to see more of the groups perform this time and really do miss the longer episode format where that is more a norm than with these shorter shows.

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