The Shounen Club 20 February 2005 review

Finally on the last taped episode of this season of Shounen Club. Will do the recap episode that is the actually final episode on Monday as planned so I can get to the next season soon. Of course I am banking on the fact that usually there are some change ups with each season and with KAT-TUN nearing their debut date, only about a year to go now, the issues I am having with the current season will not all carry over.

There is no introduction this episode and it instead begins with KAT-TUN performing a song while spread out in the audience.

After the performance we get to the usual opening talk. The theme of the episode is mirai (future) so we get the discussion about that. The KAT-TUN talk is actually kinda fun to hear this time around, if just for Tanaka Koki saying that in the future he sees himself as a freeter (someone who doesn't have a steady job).

Arioka Daiki and Nakajima Yuto get the chance to talk about the theme. Kitayama Hiromitsu decides to make use of the fact that he is just there on stage by blowing on Yuto's hair when he is talking. But we get a reminder that Yuto is only eleven here and I really cannot believe it has already been about seven years since this was filmed.

While the Mirai medley is another KAT-TUN heavy one there are some cute moments in it. Like Akanishi Jin not leaving Yuto alone who tries his best to continue dancing like he should.

We also get a blink and you will miss it shot of some of the back dancing Juniors and Yamada Ryosuke happens to be the Junior in the front for it. I keep forgetting how baby faced he was when he was little.

There is one short part of the medley that is KAT-TUN free and that is when Toshin Yoshikazu sings with Kis-My-Ft. I guess they must have figured is A.B.C. was not going to be there they would use their other four member Junior group of about the same age to perform with him.

Ueda Tatsuya has his letter reading segment that he has Kamenashi Kazuya guest in. He reads a letter and Kame gives advice about what to do when anxious. Still find this segment unneeded and rather dull. I hope it gets the ax moving into the next season.

Guess I was wrong in predicting that J.J.Express would be performing this episode as we have Ya-Ya-Yah doing a medley instead. They cover a lot of their senpai songs in it and all the members get a good amount of spotlight as members Yamashita Shoon and Ayukawa Taiyo get to be leads for a couple of the songs.

Afterwards there is a letter reading segment between Shoon and Toshin. While not as fun as the more recent ones it is still nice to see the relationships of Juniors in other groups get highlighted.

KAT-TUN perform GOLD as a ballad and I never want to hear it ever again. What makes GOLD a good song is that it is more a rock song than pop and slowing it down by taking some of the rock elements away is not right. Not to mention how boring it becomes. Thankfully it goes back to its usual tempo near the end but it remains a song that does not work at a slower tempo.

Question? is back to perform their song Holy Heaven. While I like them and the song I really have little to say between the fact that the performance does not really stand out to their previous ones of the song.

When NEWS is brought out to do a talk before their performance of the episode we get to see one of my least favorite outfits of theirs. I think it is mainly because they remind me of something you would expect a little old lady would wear than anything else.

They perform a B-side song off their single TEPPEN, Yume no Kazu dake Ai ga Umareru. One things I will give NEWS is that for a group that centers around Yamapi a lot they do a rather good job distributing lines in songs so every member usually gets a solo line in them. I wish a couple other of Johnny's larger groups would do the same more often at least.

We get a game of Sakenpon between NEWS and Sankyodai. While fun you could tell Sankyodai really were not trying and instead were playing up their characters which took out some of that fun.

Kamenashi Kazuya sings Kizuna, which is his solo song that is used as the insert song for the Gokusen 2 drama series he and Jin are in. Once I remembered about the two being in that drama at this time I have been waiting for Kame to perform this song. I have always liked it and while not a big Kame fan still found myself enjoying the performance, though I wish he did something more than just stand in place during the instrumental breaks.

We do get a VTR segment for the show. We have Inoo Kei again, but without Ikuta Toma. I would guess that Toma is still around as the set has not changed from the last episode's VTR segment and you can hear someone laughing off camera that sounds like Toma's. In any case it is up to Takizawa Hideaki to help a still very nervous Inoo conduct the interview. Of course there is Yoshitsune promotion, in fact until that drama is done airing I think that will probably be the default topic when Tackey shows up on the program.

We finally get a break from the usual end song and instead have KAT-TUN with NEWS and Sankyodai singing the Tackey & Tsubasa song Sotsugyo. Now this really feels like an ending and it is nice to see more than one group singing in it.


Overall not a bad episode. There is a good mix of the groups and Juniors and finally we get an ending that is interesting to watch if just for the fact it is a different song with not just the usual performers in it.

Either way I am glad to see this season ending. It is hard to say that the next episode is really the final episode of the season being a recap episode. It really feels more like a place holder. But in any case I am excited at the prospect of change coming up in the show's format as I know the show is starting to reach the episodes I was able to find the full versions of when I first began watching (mainly 2006/2007 episodes) and they are different than what I have been watching.

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.

The Shounen Club 11 July 2004 review

Last episode before the show takes another break to give us a recap episode for the next month.

We get closer shots of the groups in the introduction, which only confuses more on what they are doing with Kis-My-Ft. as there are definitely six Juniors being introduced as the group even though the main four are the only ones that perform as a unit in the show. Then again they announce J.J. Express with A.B.C. Jr. being grouped with them while they all wear the same outfit. So who knows what was going on.

KAT-TUN with Jimmy Mackey and Yabu Kota talk about the theme of the episode, Summer.

There is of course a summer medley and I think it is probably my favorite medley so far. A good part of that is that Johnny's has plenty of good summer songs to choose from so it is hard to go wrong with this theme. Also Taguchi Junnosuke is a part of the medley, most likely because they go very light with having dance routines for this medley.

Jimmy gets to do an MC talking to Yabu Kota and Yaotome Hikaru before the guest of the episode, Imai Tsubasa, is brought out to join them.

With Tsubasa there they show old clips of him, starting way back with SC's predecessor show, Music Jump. I love seeing these clips as they are almost always of things I have not seen before. This time we get to see young Tsubasa and Takizawa Hideaki.

And what looks to be the main regulars of the program with Tackey, most of Arashi and Shibutani Subaru.

There is also a clip from the early SC episodes, which I love for the simple fact that I can see the faces of the back dancers clearly. Which is another reason I love these clips.

After the clips there is a Ya-Ya-Yah medley, though instead of their own songs they since Tackey & Tsubasa songs, which I guess ties in why they had Tsubasa there for the MC. The medley mainly features Hikaru and Yabu. And with Hikaru's solo we get a good look at some of his back dancers, which are a mix of JJE and A.B.C. Jr. with Arioka Daiki, Senga Kento and Nakajima Yuto there.

For the final song in the medley we get the full group together, but it is still the six and not the seven from the introductions.

Our game segment is again Attate Pon! and we get the debut of Fujigaya Taisuke in the game segments. He also starts with the random English as he says, "I'm very happy."

The other random English comes from Nakamaru Yuichi, who is the guest for the game, when he tells Jimmy to "shut up". Though I wonder if he realizes how rude that is to say.

There is then a KAT-TUN medley, that is only with the five as Junno sits this one out. Some of the songs have some interesting lines in them.

And I know this side profile well enough to know that this is Miyata Toshiya. I am glad to see him again and to confirm that he is a part of the group of Juniors that tend to get lumped with Kis-My-Ft. when they back dance.

Kamenashi Kazuya and Akanishi Jin get to talk to Tsubasa about summer before he goes to prepare for the next performance and then they just talk about summer between the two of them.

Tsubasa gets to perform this episode as well but this time without Juniors doing anything more than back dancing for him.

We get a Toma Scoop segment without Ikuta Toma. I could not catch why Toma was missing but they had Jimmy Mackey to be his fill in. Though it seems like a poor choice as Arashi ends up having to carry the segment for the most part.

Jimmy gets to perform a song and during it we get a caption giving the names and band positions of the members of Question? This leads me to believe that this is the first month with them after all if they are going to do something like this for them. It seems a bit off though as it probably would have fit a bit better with the first episode of the month not the second. Also to note, since this is the initial line up Igo Akun is not a part of it yet and no Ishigaki Daisuke on keyboard.

The last song before the finale goes to KAT-TUN but without Junno, even though there is not much in the way in dancing for this song.

Junno is back for the end song, which is mainly just KAT-TUN and A.B.C. singing.


Not a bad episode. I still want to move away from this era soon, but September's episodes should have something for Kanjani8 at least as they have their major debut that month. Hopefully that will bring much Kansai goodness with it and shake things up a bit for the show.