Beginners! mid-season impressions

So after getting through half the episodes of this series (honestly I began episode 5 but quit after only a minute in) I am dropping it. I will get into the reasons why in the review but this will be the end of my reviews for this drama.

If anything I fault the writing for how badly this drama came across. It relied so heavily on common tropes that the story just was not interesting. The characters rarely showed much beyond their descriptions and felt largely one dimensional with the main characters being the worst.

Shimura Teppei comes from a mold of male protagonists that while can be really good and successful at the same time can be complete failures depending on how well they are done. Teppei is definitely this character type done wrong and instead of being fun is annoying. His character is not one that can stand on his own outside of the plot, instead it is made to fit the plot. Because of this their is no character growth that can really be followed as he acts in whatever way needs to make the next plot point be reached.

For me characters should be what drives the plot, as if they are well rounded characters they should naturally be able to do so because of the kinds of actions they would do. This series does the opposite, especially with the main characters whose actions are dictated by the plot instead making them seem unnatural and unrelatable.

From what I saw of Kitayama Hiromitsu's character, Tachibana Danji, he did well enough. There was not much that I saw that had him do much but he played the aloof character well.

I do feel like I should have stuck with it a little longer to find out his story but I just was not that interested to sit through everything else to learn about it. It did make me wish he was the main character, or just about any character that was not Teppei or Momoe as I feel they would have lead to a more interesting series.

The romance in the series was a big let down. Probably because it all had Teppei involved and again I found myself apathetic to him. Since Momoe's character seemed to suffer from more or less the same thing as Teppei's I could care less what happened with her. And seeing that staying with the drama would mean I would have to watch the characters I cared for the least go through the usual tedious romantic tropes for dramas was a big factor for dropping it. Especially as they seem to work so much better as friends than lovers, but this drama does not seem to be original enough to want to break the main male character hooks up with the main female character because they happen to get the most screen time.


Honestly this drama is a mess, and unfortunately does not stray into "so bad it's funny" territory that would have been its only saving grace without having it completely revamped.

The actions of the head of the police academy made choices that baffled since the viewer was not given hints to why he was asking what he did when it came to members of S class or specifically Shimura Teppei. I was honestly finding myself wondering why he did not have a mustache to twirl or a short beard to stroke as he was a one dimensional as you could get. And if this was going to be the big bad of the series then you know you are trouble, as the villain is a vital part of what makes a hero.

Also for a series set around a police academy there was very little about it that really made it feel like a series that had to have that location or plot point be of much importance. It would not have been difficult to change the setting to an elite high school or university and have much that played out remain the same. And by the way some of the characters acted high school would have been the better setting for this.

The Shounen Club 6 & 13 June 2004 review

So, why do these episodes get reviewed together? Quite simply it is a video issue. As in the video files I have of these are a completely different format than any of the others and do not play correctly. Or most of them as I can watch the first parts of the episodes before the not playing at all issue arises. Which is good as there is the official introduction of J.J. Express in these though if there is more of importance I cannot say. So I figured I should at least review what I have and just do it in one post because of the lengths.

One of the first big changes with this episode is that Ya-Ya-Yah now has six members. It may look like only four but that is because the two that will be dropped from the group are in the row behind the other four, which now include a returned Yaotome Hikaru.

Another major change is another return to the program. This time it is this smiley face or Taguchi Junnosuke. While he still is not healed enough to dance and thus join his group onstage for most of the show, he seems able to stand and walk on the leg enough to be a part of the introduction.

The theme of the show is dream and for the opening talk they read a letter from a Junno fan. And the letter has a picture the fan drew of Junno. Honestly I do not think I have seen him so happy as I have in these episodes. Without a doubt he is glad to be able to return to work, even if it is limited with what he can do still.

Like usual KAT-TUN lead the first medley but some of the other Juniors get to be front and center in it. Yabu Kota even gets a solo with singing the song Dream Boy, the theme of the musical of the same name the show has been promoting the past couple of months.

Jimmy Mackey seems to have been promoted to MC again for these episodes. Which is nice to see as it makes it seem like he has some kind of purpose on the show still.

KAT-TUN (or the five members that can) get to perform Le Ciel again. This time they have thankfully ditched the orange cape things though they do have black ones to replace those. But it still looks better with those than the original ones.

We get Junior Hai~! School segments for these episodes. And Professor Kamenashi seems to have a lot of energy for them as he crawls on the stage for a bit for this one.

Kitayama Hiromitsu continues to be great in the game segments as he slays the competition with the making up word bubbles for pictures by invoking Tanaka Koki's name in his.

We get a quick MC with Jimmy Mackey and Yabu to set up for the next performance.

The next medley is a combination of two, a A.B.C. medley and a Ya-Ya-Yah medley. I do like that with the A.B.C. medley it looks like the group is getting stronger with their acrobatics. Though they are still missing Tsukada Ryoichi so it is only the four of them.

Unfortunately it is in the Yax3 medley that the video dies but I could watch some of the start of it. It gives a much clearer group picture to see all six of them. And Hikaru is definitely put on par with Yabu instead of being another one of his back up singers.


So with that on to the June 13th episode.

Nothing to mention about the introduction that was not said for the episode before.

The theme of the episode is happiness so each member of KAT-TUN is asked about what makes them happy.

Of course Junno is given ample time to shine during this and I really can never get sick and tired of seeing that smile from him.

The first medley of the show is not only KAT-TUN lead but they are the only group singing the songs in it. Of course they are without Junno for this like last episode.

So with their official introduction on the program J.J. Express has already had their first line up change with the first addition to the group, Matsumoto Kohei. He also gets to be the spokesperson for the group as he explains that J.J. Express stands for Johnny's Junior Express.

They all then introduce themselves and it just amazes me that this tiny Junior here grows up to be the tall handsome young man that is a magazine model. But Nakajima Yuto has to go through an awkward growth period between the two a few years from this episode.

The group performs there song, Ken no Mai, which sounds like a refugee from the 90s. I would not be shocked if it was a reject song from one of the 90s groups like Hikaru Genji or Ninja from how dated it sounds.

As the panel walks on stage it is noticeable that Yabu has grown quite a bit at some point. Perhaps it was just hard to tell when they were pairing him up with Jimmy Mackey but having him here with Akanishi Jin shows that he really is not so little anymore.

As the segment begins the guest for it is brought out, Ishigaki Daisuke the usual keyboardist for the Juniors, as well as two others that come with him, Murakami Shingo and Yokoyama Yu. I would love to say more about the segment but this is where the video cuts out so I could not see anymore of the episode.


I am really sad that I do not have the full episodes of these. There are some major changes going on right now that I would want to see. But thankfully the video files seem to get back on track once more and I will assume that I will not run into this issue again. And these changes should carry over right into the next episodes which I have checked and know they will play all the way through.