The Shounen Club 12 September 2004 review

Figured it was time to start getting these reviews back on track. I am first aiming just to get the Saturday reviews on track and then move to focus on Wednesdays as well. Once comfortable with those schedules I will do some Monday reviews to catch up for the weeks I missed.

We start the episode with Kamenashi Kazuya and Akanishi Jin on the side of the stage before the curtain rises. We get introduced with the guest of the episode, Takizawa Hideaki, at this time as they goof off a bit right before things kick off for the episode.

Not much to say about the introductions, other than Ya-Ya-Yah are missing, which probably has something to do with them doing the Stand By Me play I would guess. Also A.B.C. Jr. are present but do not get introduced. Otherwise the usual intro followed by the usual opening talk with the theme of the episode announced to be Kizuna which translates to "bonds".

When they ask J.J. Express about something that comes to mind about the theme they talk about the bond between them and Nakamaru Yuichi and Tanaka Koki who they say are really kind to them. This embarrasses Koki but it is not the first time one of the little Juniors has brought this up so I am willing to believe that it is true and Koki's soft side is being revealed.

The Kizuna medley is actually pretty fun to watch as there is a good mix of Juniors participating and some of the performance points are just really fun to watch as the boys seem to be enjoying themselves.

Near the end of the medley we get a couple of other guests, Kanjani8's Yokoyama Yu and Murakami Shingo. They join the medley to help finish it off.

Yoko and Hina get to talk to KAT-TUN a bit, partly about the theme of the episode and their bonds with other Juniors. These leads into the introduction of the next performance though from the song introduction I would have had no idea what the song title was.

The English title that was garbled of the song J.J.Express performs is Stronger Without You, which seems to be a pretty mature theme for a song for a group of young teen and preteen boys. But they do well enough with it though I find it strange to see Arioka Daiki and Nakajima Yuto stuck in the back of a group, but I guess that will be changing up eventually.

After this we get a new segment that will become a regular segment on the program. It is lead by Taguchi Junnosuke and he has Inoo Kei and Matsumoto Kouhei as his helpers. The segment is called Dajyarebu, with dajyare being the Japanese word for pun which is the kind of Japanese comedy Junno is best known for. They read a letter and of course Junno ends it the segment with a pun.

This segment is followed by the Junior Hai School segment. Kame is still the MC for it but Junno is brought in to be the referee for this episode. They have two teams, each with either Yoko or Hina as the leader and the other four members of KAT-TUN divided between them. This episode's game is that an item category is given and they have to find something that will best fit it.

For example the first category is item that heals. Nakamaru gets handkerchiefs from the audience while Ueda grabs A.B.C.'s Totsuka Shota from the back and dumps him on the stage after carrying him all the way there. Nakamaru explains the handkerchiefs help heal things like nose bleeds while Ueda has Totsuka do a silly rhyme, that I can only assume is meant to make you feel better emotionally.

They do this a couple more times then the losing team has to do a batsu game, which this time is eating half an unsweetened lemon. While the expressions of Jin and Yoko are pretty funny I was more amused by the fact that Ueda had no reaction whatsoever and just ate his lemon half as if it was just any other piece of fruit. I guess he must have a high tolerance for bitter things.

With the game segment out of the way we get Tackey's first performance of the show. And while I am not a fan I do admire him for always putting forth a lot of effort when he performs. I do not think he could ever put on a lazy or half-hearted performance and I do admire him for that.

After that performance he gets to talk to KAT-TUN about the theme of the episode. We get to see a bit of his trollish side as he refuses to link arms with Jin then immediately does so with Kame when Jin is facing the audience.

There is another Tackey performance as he shows off his "ero" dance, which seems to mean a lot of hip rolls and pelvic thrusts.

Koki gets to sit and talk about an old friend of his that he has a strong bond with. It leads into him doing a rap followed by the rest of KAT-TUN joining him to do a group performance.

After the song ends we get a MC break with Yoko and Hina in the audience with KAT-TUN uchiwa. They talk a bit before introducing the next performances.

Jimmy Mackey gets his performance in and it is a cover of Bon Jovi's Runaway. I think this is actually one of the better songs for his voice but I still fail to be won over and most likely never will.

After a short talk segment with Taguchi Junnosuke and Matsumoto Kouhei, KAT-TUN perform the song Aki, which is an Otokogumi song. Since Jin and Ueda are on guitar for this there really is nothing in the way of dance moves for the song but since it is a rock song it is not so bad, but probably not the most entertaining of performances.

Yoko and Hina decide to join the audience for the final performance and cheer KAT-TUN on, and it looks like they found uchiwa of Jin and Kame to use this time. So the camera moves back and forth from the stage to where they are in the audience. And with that the episode ends.


Not a bad episode to get back into the swing of things with. Overall it is pretty fun and you can see the Juniors overall seem closer than in previous seasons. I think it helps that they are using more groups for performances and having the medleys that include several groups. And of course Tackey always just fits right in with the Juniors, as he has managed to keep a good connection with them post-debut.

Something I have not brought up in my reviews, even though it does get mentioned from time to time in the episodes, is the "leader" of the Juniors. I have avoided this because there seems to be no longer any leader for the Tokyo Juniors but there does now seem to be leaders for the Kansai Juniors currently so I figure I will go ahead bring it up here real quick. But the leader of the Juniors seems to be something that came from Tackey's time in the Juniors, with him having that role. It may have existed before but that is as far back as I have seen it mentioned. After Tackey debuted the title was given to the Four Tops and when Yamashita Tomohisa debuted, leading to that group breaking up, it seems to have been handed off to KAT-TUN. To my knowledge they are the last Tokyo group to hold the title though I believe it used to be argued that Ya-Ya-Yah took over from KAT-TUN but I need to get to those episodes to see if they get called leaders like those before them. Other than that the title is currently being used for B.A.D. being the leaders of the Kanjuu which can be seen in the TV program Maido Jani and IIRC the latest Osaka SC episode.

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.

Kanjani8 to be first group in 24hr. TV drama SP

It's been announced that the drama SP that Murakami Shingo will be starring in will have all seven members in it. The drama is for the upcoming NTV 24hr. program and this is the first time in the show's history that all members of a host group have appeared in the drama special.

Tokyo Graph article. (English)

On another tangent I actually decided to check out the first episode of Ikemen Desu Ne and so far I enjoy it. I'm a fan of the more lighthearted dramas and while I won't say it's amazing it's still good fun fluff. I was surprised to see the members of They Budou in it and unfortunately I'm not familiar enough with the older back dancing groups to recognize if M.A.D. or M.A.D.E. were the other back dancers shown in the drama. But if you're a fan of They Budou I would recommend watching if only for the locker room scene.

Murakami's If or... butai returns and Fujigaya & Fuma on Tensai wo Tsukuru!

A couple of updates thanks to updates on Johnny's net.

First off Kanjani8's Murakami Shingo will be doing a butai next year during the month of February and it looks like it will be some kind of continuation of his earlier If or ... butai as this new one is called, If or ... F~M. The butai begins its run in Osaka before it heads over to Tokyo to finish its run ending on March 3rd.

Then the most recent update is in relation to Kis-My-Ft2's Fujigaya Taisuke as well as B.I.Shadow's Kikuchi Fuma. Information about attending filming for an episode of Tensai wo Tsukuru! Galileo has been put up and Fujigaya and Fuma is listed for being present for the filming of that episode, which will be on December 12th.

So with Nakajima Kento and Nakamura Yuichi being guests for the first episode then I think it's safe to assume anyone from Johnny's has a chance of being a guest on this program.