The Shounen Club 16 October 2005 review

This episode gives us a bit of a break from the norm and it is a welcome change.

The episode begins in a medley of English songs with Ya-Ya-Yah and Jimmy Mackey leading it. There are some group introductions and we see that Johnny's has figured that they just need to go with the outfits they usually give the groups of Junior back dancers to have at least J.J.Express have matching outfits.

The producers for this episode are Jimmy Mackey and Yabu Kota. The theme they have for the episode is Himitsu (secret). I am so glad that they are going to have other Juniors be producers, as that should help change things up a bit for the episodes.

As expected from an episode not produced by a KAT-TUN member there is a good mix of KAT-TUN and the other Juniors, primarily Yax3, in this medley.

Jimmy and Yabu of course as producers get to take over some of the hosting duties and get an MC segment to talk about the show's theme.

This is followed by a letter exchange between Tanaka Koki and Nakamaru Yuichi. One of the more entertaining letter exchanges as from Nakamaru's reaction Koki is reading lies about him.

Yax3 then sing Yuuki 100% and thankfully they have finally updated the backing track so it actually sounds like they boys have hit puberty.

And we get a Yamada Ryosuke spotting as the song has a dance break worked in to showcase each of the members of the group.

We get a different kind of game this episode titled, Nisemono wa Dare da?! The way this works is that they have a group, in this case A.B.C., all claim something, playing instruments, and the contestants have to guess which ones are telling the truth and which one is lying.

The members get to try to prove they are telling the truth by pretending to play the instruments on the stage. And after that the contestants make their guesses and the members show if they were lying or not.

This was a fun game, though if you were familiar with A.B.C. you would have known they have played instruments before on the show so it would be pretty easy to figure out who was lying. But the guys brought a lot of energy to it and I wish they would have brought that same energy and sense of fun with their ... o abake segment they were in for the January 2013 episodes.

Yabu then reads various letters that had suggestions for episode themes, ending on the one that suggested Himitsu.

KAT-TUN then perform the song Freeze, which is one of their Junior songs that eventually found its way onto a CD release. It is a rap heavy song so a lot of Koki in it and very much in the hip-pop style that the group switched back and forth with rock-pop for their sound around their debut.

We then have Junior ni Q. Unfortunately most of the Juniors in this segment have left the agency, but we do get to see a tiny Watanabe Shota who looks adorable. The topic is of course about secrets.

We then get performances for A.B.C. and Kis-My-Ft2. Looks like there will be no official introduction of Kisumai, but I am still happy that they exist finally and to see them perform.

Interesting to note is that only the older four have roller skates for this performance. I know a couple of the younger members have used roller skates in the past so I can only assume that they were considered not up to par or they wanted all of them to be able to roller skate before they could join the older four.

And we get to see that the pairing of Kisumai and A.B.C. is continuing on for the groups, which is something that will be a standard for years to come and bring forth the Ebikisu nickname for the two groups.

Imai Tsubasa keeps rolling out the songs that seem to be a good fit for him as he performs 1DAY 1NIGHT in this episode.

Yabu and Jimmy get one final MC segment before the show goes back to the standard of having KAT-TUN get the last two performances.

It starts with KAT-TUN covering SMAP's song Yozora no Mukou, which is one of the more popular songs. It is a nice ballad and KAT-TUN do sound good covering it.

They do at least bring Yabu and Jimmy in to perform Wonderful World with them. It is nice to see non-KAT-TUN members singing the song, as I think it is safe to say that KAT-TUN have gotten bored with the song (not that I blame them about that), so having someone who genuinely looks happy singing it is a nice change.



This is the kind of episode I have been waiting for with SC this season. One where KAT-TUN does not need to be taken out of just lessened their presence so other Juniors can get seen more. And honestly with KAT-TUN's debut coming up in a few months it would be a good time to start shifting focus a bit so when they leave the program the other Juniors would actually have the chance of being able to carry it.

That said I know there are still some things to come that will affect the show but I will wait until I get to those episodes before saying more.

Overall though I am liking these season better than the last, even though it sadly has to deal with some issues beyond its control.

The Shounen Club 9 October 2005 review

This episode brings some changes with the Junior groups, one that I have been waiting some time for, so no matter how the episode plays out I will be happy about those.

This episode begins with group introductions. The full eight member group of J.J.Express are shown for their introduction but you can see that they are beginning to separate the group into two with the difference in outfits seen here.

And the change I have been waiting for is finally here, Kis-My-Ft. has become Kis-My-Ft2. This is the original eight member line up as they still have their 'i'. And like JJE there is some separation going between members with the outfits they are wearing. But now that I am thinking about it they just may not have matching outfits for eight member groups which is why this is being done for the two groups.

I was really hoping that once they were done with all the KAT-TUN members producing an episode they would move on to other Juniors, but I guess I should have known better. Kamenashi Kazuya is producing again with the theme of the episode being Kataomoi (unrequited love), which should at least be a familiar Japanese word for anyone who listens to J-pop regularly. Also since his other produced episode was rather balanced for other Juniors to appear I have hope this one will be the same.

And it looks like I will not have my hopes dashed as Toshin Yoshikazu & A.B.C. get to perform a song on their own in the Katamoi Medley.

And then to top that off Kame has them and Kis-My-Ft2 join him in singing Julia, a TOKIO song, to end the medley.

Next is a MC with Kame and Yaotome Hikaru and Inoo Kei. They read a letter from a reader that of course ties into the theme. I am mostly amazed at how much Hikaru has grown. Sure it is not the first time I have had the chance to see that he has grown but having him next to Kame seems to really drive that fact home.

This is followed up by a Ya-Ya-Yah and JJE medley and Kame is becoming my favorite KAT-TUN producer right now. Yax3 are in the outfits that I really wonder how they ended up becoming a set. Sure Yamashita Shoon and Ayukawa Taiyou's match but Hikaru and Yabu Kota's do not in the slightest.

I am really happy to see the newer members of JJE, as it means I no longer have to try to catch glimpses of them back dancing for other groups.

And then all of a sudden Question? has a song in the medley, TOKIO's Jibun no Tame ni. And Yamada Ryosuke gets to be a part of the group of dancers for the number. So I still have at least one person to search out for in the background still.

The game for this episode is Mister X wa Dare da?! and we have mostly KAT-TUN with Kawai Fumito thrown in for the contestants.

It still bugs me that while the audience at the taping gets to see who Mister X is before the big reveal the audience watching the episode does not sometimes. I guess this is to make the TV audience participants in the guessing but I prefer seeing the reactions of Mister X to the answers giving about them.

We have Akanishi Jin as the person to give hints about Mister X. And he looks happy giving out apparent lies about the person that we at least get to hear be reacted to.

I think Ueda Tatsuya's answer of "Today's guest" is my favorite and probably the most logical one, as the guests do tend to be the ones used for this. And he is right as Mister X is revealed to be Imai Tsubasa.

It becomes very apparent that Jin's dissing of Tsubasa was staged as he goes off stage with Tsubasa following him so they can stage him getting a beating and then return with the jackets of the two mixed up.

Tsubasa is able to get back at Jin easily by playing footage from when he and Kame were sent on a "vacation" for winning the first Junior Fight games from the early seasons of SC. This trip to Naha of course included the boys having to wear T-shirts with embarrassing things written on them, eat and drink things that belong in a batsu game and sleep out on the beach in a tent.

Kame talks to Tsubasa about the theme of the episode and Tsubasa gives a story about a crush he had on a teacher when he was younger. Then he gets to plug his solo concert.

He then performs his songs Slave of Love and Get Down. Both are songs are more uptempo, especially the later that is energetic. I think I much prefer these songs for Tsubasa as they help showcase his dancing and have the more interesting routines than his ballads, which I have a tendency to get bored with.

The VTR for the episode has Jimmy Mackey interviewing two members of V6, Miyake Ken and Nagano Hiroshi. He asks the two about the theme and they both give their thoughts about it. It then moves on to the real reason for the talk and that is to bring up the fact that V6 will be celebrating their 10th anniversary that year.

They get a "present" which is to see one of their early performances as a newly debuted group. Since I only knew the group as adults it is strange to see the younger three look so small compared to the older three. It makes sense as the younger ones were in their mid-teens at the time of debut so they still had some growing to do.

We go back to the filming with a MC segment with KAT-TUN. They get to pick various topics about the theme and say something about it. I could not follow it all that well but Tanaka Koki was definitely the highlight of it.

KAT-TUN then perform a song called Seiten no Hekireki, which I am surprised did not make it onto their debut album as it has the rock-pop sound they have been taking on as they have gotten closer and closer to debut.

The following performance is Question? bringing out another new song for them, Kanjite Miro. I like this song, it is thankfully not another ballad so it is something different for the group, which is nice.

We get the usual essay reading at the end with Kame talking about the theme.

Which of course leads to the next to last performance, Kame performing a song called Natsu no Owari with KAT-TUN joining in at the very end. And since he has the small Junior group back dancing more Yamada to be glimpsed at here.

Wonderful world has the next view of the full Kis-My-Ft2 group, it seems strange as they have yet to have their official introduction to let everyone know who they are yet, but I will assume that is going to be in the next episode.

At the very end we get to see Koki doing a flying kick to Taguchi Junnosuke, which is the most interesting this ending song segment has been yet this season.



As I mentioned before I think Kame may be one of my favorite producers for SC, as I think it is becoming more and more apparent that this role does give the guys a good amount of say of what goes into the episode. Sure they may have some things mandated to them but with seeing how much varies with these episodes, and the fact that Kame's second time producing has some elements of this first time, they do seem to be able to have a good amount of influence all the same. And it looks like Kame has no issue with sharing the screen time with other Juniors so it is no surprise that his episodes are not as KAT-TUN heavy as others.

It is nice to see that Jin is not coming off as lazy as he was with the last episode. Maybe it helps that Tsubasa is around so he feels more into his work when there is a sempai around. But I know this is a losing battle as his bad habits of the previous month's episodes are what he is known for these days.

But this is one of the more enjoyable episodes of the season. I have hopes that next episode we will get a proper introduction to Kis-My-Ft2, as that is a new change there to be noted of. So I believe I will have something to look forward to watching that. So these October episodes look to be well on their way to being a good set.

The Shounen Club 13 February 2005 review

On the final month of this season of Shounen Club, or at least the final month of new content as March only has one lone recap episode. I am hoping for some changes with the new season as things are feeling a bit stale on the program right now.

We get the standard introductions for groups at the start. Toshin Yoshikazu is alone this month as it looks like all of A.B.C. is missing. I can only assume they are busy with some other kind of work as it would be odd to have an entire group missing otherwise.

The theme for the episode is Try. KAT-TUN talk about it, with mainly Kamenashi Kazuya and Akanishi Jin doing the talking. Kame brings up that it is test time in schools while Jin brings up Valentine's day.

For the Try medley only KAT-TUN sings the songs with the rest of the Juniors only back dancing for them. There is really no excuse for this and even though they do cover some songs I love I cannot find myself enjoying the medley much as this seems to be a clear early sign that this is going to be a KAT-TUN heavy episode.

We get introduced to the guests of this episode, NEWS, and this time they have the full eight member roster present for a change.

Koyama Keiichiro and Yamashita Tomohisa are taken to the side of the stage by Kame for a chat. Koyama of course naturally dominates the conversation but Yamapi is able to get in and talk a bit before the stage is ready for them to do their performance of the episode.

NEWS performs one of their album tracks, Say Hello, which is a fun jazzy number. Watching these older performances it is rather interesting to see that the members that have left the group have tended to be the ones that got the most spotlight during these early years.

There is a letter reading segment between Taguchi Junnosuke and Inoo Kei. It is another fun one with Junno being mainly sweet and Inoo's letter having a couple of moments that trolls Junno, who has some great reactions to those.

Ya-Ya-Yah get to sing their song Singin' For You. And if I have noticed anything they tend to switch off with J.J.Express with performances for episodes, so I expect not to see much of them for the second episode of the month because of this.

The VTR segment gives us the return of Ikuta Toma as he supports Inoo as he interviews Imai Tsubasa. Tsubasa definitely has a lot to talk about with being in Endless Shock, having his first solo concert as well as being in the drama Haru to Natsu.

We get to see some clips from Haru to Natsu which looks to be a drama I would love to see as it also has Nakama Yukie as well as the recently departed Mori Mitsuko.

KAT-TUN perform a very un-KAT-TUN-ish song, Oh-E-Oh! Taiyou no Salsa! I honestly think of Tackey & Tsubasa or early NEWS for this type of song, so it seems off that it has been given to KAT-TUN. Worst of all it ends up bring rather boring aside of the Junno-Koki dance battle in the middle of the song.

We are introduced to another set of guests for this episode, Sankyodai, which is made up of Kanjani8 members, Yokoyama Yu, Shibutani Subaru and Yasuda Shota. They get to do an ~ o abake segment, but they are set up for a prank from the start with Uchi Hiroki and Nishikido Ryo being brought on stage after they put the eye masks on. Of course there are plenty of fun moments to this, one being Yasu falling off of his chair for no apparent reason. This is definitely a big highlight to the entire episode.

As they ready the stage for the next performance Jimmy Mackey talks to the members of Question? I am rather surprised to see Question? put up and center like this as FiVe was always stuck in the back and barely recognized in comparison. It is a pity that Q? really could not capitalize on this as much as the other Junior groups and push their way to a debut.

Sankyodai perform the song Mikan, which is Subaru on main vocals, Yasu playing the guitar and backing vocals and Yoko gets to speak some lines in the middle of the song. Or they are playing to each of their own strengths.

Inoo Kei gets to read a letter all about doing your best. I rather like these as they give the younger Juniors a way to stand out a bit.

KAT-TUN then perform the song FEEL YOUR BREEZE which is a cover of a V6 song that was the theme song for Gokusen. It is actually rather fitting as this is the time period where Kame and Jin are in Gokusen 2 the sequel to the popular drama.

For the ending the guys get to play around a bit but still overall it is a snorefest. If anything I am glad that soon I will not have to listen to this song anymore.


With NEWS showing up more and more I hope we are moving closer to when Koyama and Nakamaru Yuichi become hosts of the program. Partly because it was that era of SC that I began watching the program and I am eager to revisit it. That and I know by then KAT-TUN will have debuted and I will no longer have to see one group dominate the show so much until the current SC era begins.

Thinking about changes to the show with the start of new seasons I am gathering hope that we see some of that with the current program. I may love Hey! Say! JUMP but I do not care to see them all over SC and since we have a group like Bakaleya6 that is proving to be a hit perhaps we can see HSJ with a reduced role to make room for them and other Juniors that are rising in popularity. I guess we shall see in April 2013 if this will come to be or not.