03 September 2012

Bakaleya6 profiles: Morimoto Shintaro

And finally we get the youngest member of the group, yet also the one of the ones that has been in Johnny's the longest.


Morimoto Shintaro (森本慎太郎)
Birthdate: 1997.07.15
Birthplace: Kanagawa
Blood type: A
Admired sempai: Takizawa Hideaki
Previous groups: Snow Prince Gasshoudan
Dramas: Juken no Kamisama (2007), Battery (2008), Koishite Akuma ~Vampire Boy~ (2009), Hataraku Gon! (2009), Hidarame Tantei EYE (2010), Shiritsu Bakaleya Koukou (2012), GTO (2012) GTO SP (2012, 2013), Kasuka no Kanojo (2013)
Movies: Snow Prince (2009), Shiritsu Bakaleya Koukou (2012)

From the December 3rd, 2006 Shounen Club episode
Shintaro is the younger brother of ex-Hey! Say! JUMP member Morimoto Ryutaro. He was what one would consider to be a Golden Junior.

The Golden Junior title is usually given to favorites of Johnny’s and there is usually always a Junior that gets a lot of pushing when they are young. Other Golden Juniors like Shintaro would be Yabu Kota and Nakajima Yuto.

Shintaro’s push did not really start in earnest until after the debut of Hey! Say! JUMP. Before then he was lumped into the group of young Juniors his brother was also in with Nakajima Yuto, Yamada Ryosuke, Chinen Yuri and Kyomoto Taiga.

Because of the pushing and the fact that Shintaro seemed to do well with the work he was given he was able to be in several dramas and even starred in a movie, Snow Prince, in 2009.

In promotion for Snow Prince he was given his own Junior group of Juniors his age and younger called Snow Prince Gasshoudan.

Shintaro was also featured in several of HSJ’s concerts in connection to his brother.

In 2011 when the underage smoking scandal about his brother Ryutaro hit Shintaro was not seen much. After a few months of laying low Shintaro began being seen more and in early 2012 he went back to the usual amount of pushing he had before his brother’s scandal. He was mainly placed with the Junior group Hip Hop Jump but was never a member during this time.

A big help in bringing Shintaro back into the spotlight was theate night NTV drama series Shiritsu Bakaleya Koukou. In February 2012 it was announced he would be a part of the cast as the male lead of the drama , Sakuragi Tatsuya. The drama was a hit and will have a movie released in October 2012, which he will keep his lead role in. The movie will be released on DVD/BD in April 2013.

Shintaro was also in the 2012 GTO drama remake playing the role of Murai Kunio. He also appeared in the two specials for the drama that aired in October 2012 and January 2013.

The six Bakaleya Johnny’s Juniors (Bakaleya6) headlined their own SUMMARY concerts at Tokyo Dome City Hall on September 8th and 9th for a total of three concerts.

On December 15th, 2012 Bakaleya6 with noonboyz and other Johnny's Juniors held concerts at Yokohama Arena.

It was announced that Shintaro will have a role in the Spring 2013 Fuji TV drama, Kasuka no Kanojo, which stars SMAP's Katori Shingo that began airing April 9th.

He participated in the Live House Johnny's Ginza concerts that took place at Theater Crea from April 28 to June 2, 2013.

He can be seen performing on Shounen Club together with other Juniors monthly.

3 comments:

Jpopwanderer said...

my comment is more on these guys as a group but as there's no post of them as a group (yet), i'll just leave my comment here.

Given that i've never been interested in juniors, i was surprised these guys got my attention almost immediately, though mostly from their performances on SC not the bakaleya drama. I'm too old for that kind of story and i have nothing to say about their current acting skill except for Hokuto (but that also more from his latest drama). I think he has the most potential in acting chop among these six. And i hope he'll keep getting drama roles and improve.

Back to the group, their biggest drawing factor for me is their current image. It seems JE is set on making them following the KAT-TUN style given all the songs they have performed, at least for the time being. and that's a refreshing alternative to all the rainbow from other juniors and also the just debuted groups. I do like rainbow stuffs but too much of the same thing and it gets boring.

I like that they can pull that image off very well, especially given their young ages. They look much more mature and dare i say 'manly' (for JE standard anyway) than what I'd expect. I hope hope hope they will get to stick together and get to show more of their personalities. while i like them being cool, i'd love to see all of who they are too. And to see them perform different kind of songs from other sempai groups too.

one thing I still have no clue about them is their group dynamic. They must got to spend quite lots of times working together now but i still don't really see anything stand out when they performed. the fact that they haven't been made an official group yet doesn't help.

i guess speaking of debut is still a bit too far in the future for them. they're popular but given their ages and the fact that JE just debut three groups last year, it'll be a few years before i start to really wish for that if they would still be together and work well as a group. they all have potential to get debut eventually though whether together or separately.

Thennary Nak said...

Honestly I am not someone who wants them to debut soon. I mean I love the group and see so much potential, but until some of that potential is realized I do not think they are ready to debut just yet.

Also if they follow in KAT-TUN's footsteps like Kis-My-Ft2 did then it means one of the things that will have to happen is that all the members will have to be 20 or older, and Shintaro as the youngest won't be until 2017. I think that is plenty of time for them to grow as a group and hone the skills that will probably come in hand with really cementing their popularity if they debut.

Still, with so few Junior groups left even though they aren't completely official they are still my favorite Junior group right now and I hope they remain a group and get to debut sometime in the future.

NK said...

Hi, they did finally debut! Their group name is SixTONES:(