The Shounen Club 15 January 2006 review

This is the final new episode of the season, sorta, in a way. It gets a bit complicated after this and I will get into all that with the review for the next episode.

Forgot to mention it last episode by Miyata Toshiya is still M,I.A. from Kis-My-Ft2. I cannot help but wonder where he is. My only guess is that his parents wanted him to take a break from Johnny's to concentrate more on studying as it is the time of year that tests would be coming up.

Joey Tee gets his official introduction and says some things about himself in English, like he is from L.A. and came over to be on the program. Joey is a bit of a curiosity as he never really went anywhere but had decent time on the program. I guess if anything whatever management was trying to do with him let the Juniors of mixed heritage get some lasting time in the spotlight as we should be seeing some familiar faces showing up soon with him.

The producer for this episode is Tegoshi Yuya. He leads into his chosen theme by talking about how he is not a kid but also not an adult so he decided his theme will be Otona tte Nani?! (forgive me if my Japanese is off here but I believe it would translate to something like "What's an adult?!")

The theme medley is a Otona medley (Adult medley). Like the more recent medleys there is a good mix of Juniors with NEWS members performing in the medley.

I noticed that Question? looks to be down to a single guitarist. I wonder if it means they have lost their first guitarist and we will be seeing Igo Akun showing up in the near future.

For the first MC segment we get a few members of J.J.Express and Ya-Ya-Yah up to talk about what they think are signs of being an adult.

JJE then performs Yamadera no Oshousan, which is a Japanese folk song. We get the trio of Nakajima Yuto, Morimoto Ryutaro and Yamada Ryosuke leading the song at first. I kinds wonder why they did not just add Yamada to JJE at this time but I guess soon it will not matter too much when Yuto and Ryutaro get taken out from the group.

The belt-tie sewn on to the shirt of the outfits they are wearing comes loose from Yuto about halfway through the song. He does well to pay it no mind until the camera is off of him and he does not have to dance so he has the chance to retie it to finish off the song.

We then have a letter exchange between Kato Shigeaki and Ayukawa Taiyo. I actually understood a little of it, which was at the end of Shige's letter he scolds Taiyo about just calling him Shige when he is his senpai. Of course Taiyo has written his letter calling him Shige all through it.

This is followed up by Toshin Yoshikazu & A.B.C. performing the song BEAT MIND and then Kis-My-Ft2 performing Sennen no Love Song.

The Kisumai performance of course stands out to me, not just because I am a fan, but also because IIRC this is the first time the group is performing this song. The song is a carryover from K.K.Kity, the previous group of Yokoo Wataru and Iida Kyohei and is really the first one that I feel makes the group feel like a group as all the members get a good amount of screen time and the younger ones are not stuck in the back of the older ones for a change. And it is no surprise it was one of the pre-debut songs to end up on a Kis-My-Zero bonus CD for the group.

Following this there is a VTR portion with an interview of Tackey & Tsubasa by Shige. He brings up that when Takizawa Hideaki did his VTR for the episode Shige produced he failed to do one of the prompts given him, say "I love you" to the camera. Tackey protests and refuses to do it but Shige and Imai Tsubasa do it so he needs up finally doing it as well with the results seen above.

There is the usual talk about the theme followed by a plug for whatever new release T&T had out at the time, which would be their single Venus.

When we return to the filming it is for a game segment and a new game, Shokura Mania. It is a simple but fun game as it is easy to play along with. But they bring a large group of Juniors on the stage and they are given a question related to Shounen Club to try to guess the right answer to. It is a multiple choice answer and they have to get in the circle of what they think to be the right answer. If they get it right they stay, if not they have to leave the stage.

As fan of the program I found it fun to play along with. And even got to learn a couple of things along the way. Like the original logo for the program was handwritten by Ohno Satoshi.

In the end they end up with three winners after four questions. Since Kitayama Hiromitsu is the only Junior he gets the medal that the winner is supposed to get.

NEWS then get to sing a song, Towairo no Koi, another song that eventually made it onto a CD. The song is nice enough but the outfits they have on are really ugly. I am not a big fan of plaid though if done right I do not mind it but this is definitely plaid done wrong. Of course knowing my luck these outfits will resurface to be Bakaleya6 outfits or some other current/future Junior group I like.

In the following MC segment Koyama Keiichiro has Tegoshi pick between him and Nishikido Ryo for who was the most adult-like to him. Much to Ryo's joy and Koyama's heartbreak Tegoshi picks Ryo, but Tegoshi does spend a good amount of time pointing out Koyama's good points to make up for it.

Yamashita Tomohisa performs a solo song LOVE XXXX. It sounds really dated and I am glad this was never brought back for anything. But then again the song credits has Domoto Tsuyoshi so I wonder if this was just a cover.

This is followed up with Tegoshi speaking about the theme before the start of the next performance, him and Masuda Takahisa singing Sunadokei. I had no idea that Sunadokei was something that was around before Tegomass was made into an official unit so this took me by surprise. It gives me a different perspective about the song and makes me wonder if Tegomass may have happened even if NEWS did not get suspended for a year.

Then this should be the final performance of Wonderful World, barring it being shown in recap episodes. I will go ahead and mention that Yamapi seems to have been in a really good spot in his life as he has been rather energetic and happy in the past couple of months. A happy Yamapi is much more fun to watch than any other mood I have seen him in.

This is going to be the last episode we get with NEWS as a 7 member unit and the last we will see of NEWS at all for a good while as well. As NEWS gets hit by the second underage drinking scandal in the following month.

So while I liked this episode I had that bad feeling hovering over me during the watch because I know what comes next and it is not something I want to happen. But there is no stopping it as it is in the past and I guess at least there will be a lot of distraction with KAT-TUN debuting and then the usual changes that come with a new season.

The next episode does not air until March and it is an interesting episode considering what it is as it is not exactly a clip show yet is a clip show.

The Shounen Club 18 December 2005 review

And we are finally at the final episode of 2005.

The episode begins differently than usual with each group singing a bit of a song then all of them singing together at the end. This of course is much more common for a start for the program later on, but for now I believe this is one of the first times they are doing it this way.

Because it is the episode airing closest to Christmas we have the holiday as the theme for the episode. All of NEWS is credited as being the producers for the episode, though I am sure that is more because the theme was mandated so it would not be fair to have someone have it be their episode to produce.

The Johnny's Christmas medley is the usual good mix of Juniors and NEWS, even though for the Juniors it does favor Ya-Ya-Yah mainly. I think it is safe to say that Yax3 were being promoted to be the Junior group to take over from KAT-TUN when they make their debut.

It always makes me pause a bit when I notice that a certain grouping is of Juniors that will debut like this. Of course looking at things J.J.Express is probably the group that had the best percentage of its member debut without having the group itself debut. Even though eventually the group is going to go through some roster changes that will probably change that.

The first MC has Yamashita Tomohisa reading a fan letter from a Inoo Kei and Ayukawa Taiyo fan who asks them about Christmas presents. It ends with a bit of an awkward hug between the two.

There is then a random Tegoshi Yuya solo. Like the other new songs for NEWS around this time it is a new song that of course never made it onto a CD. This song is titled YOU - world is yours- and I would have much rather have had it be on the bonus disc of the NEWS best album instead of his solo version of Ai Nante. Also it is nice to hear Tegoshi sing a slow tempo song without deciding that he needs to power vocal through it all and get all shouty.

We get the return of the Mister X wa Dare da!! but there are only NEWS members as the contestants for this one.

Again they go with showing the audience at NHK Hall who the person is without letting the audience watching the show see. While I do not personally care for this way of doing it I do have to commend them for at least being a bit creative about it. It also makes some sense to why they chose this way because the guest did need to change to get out of the Santa outfit.

I guess it was no surprise that Yamapi was the one to get it right, I honestly would have been disappointed if he got it wrong as his friendship with Ikuta Toma is rather well known. I was surprised to see Toma back on the program but I guess it shows that even though he did not debut he still maintained a good amount of popularity.

Toma then is a part of the follow up MC segment were Koyama Keiichiro reads a fan letter that requests for Toma to be a guest on the program.

Toma then gets to perform on the show by kicking off and being a big part of the second Christmas medley on the show for this episode.

For Junior ni Q we have Kato Shigeaki and Tegoshi Yuya hosting the segment. For Juniors featured that are still in the agency we have a couple. I was surprised to see Morita Myuto as I did not realize that he has been with the agency for so long. He makes Tegoshi really happy by saying that he is the senpai he looks up to.

We also get Nakajima Yuto, who is still all kinds of cute at this stage, especially of his "attack" on Shige and Tegoshi after something Shige says about Yuto being the choice of a Christmas present for one of his group mates.

NEWS gets an MC segment where they are each handed a phrase that they need to say to the camera. Of course you can expect them to be pretty embarrassing to the guys, which gives us some fun reactions. Not to mention Kusano Hironori messing up and saying the action he is supposed to do with the phrase.

I do not think anything beats Masuda Takahisa's reaction to having saying his by just walking off onto the stage.

We then get the one song from the recent group of new NEWS songs to make it onto a CD, Rainbow. I rather love how this performance has the guys waving their rainbow flags here. But joking aside coming to be a NEWS fan in 2007 I do not think I really got why it was so exciting for Rainbow to have been one of the B-sides to their single weeeek. After watching these SC episodes I feel I get it now because if it was up to me all the songs they have been singing on the program would have been on a CD already.

The next MC segment is focused on Question? as a fan from the U.S. (L.A.) wrote in and the guys are asked to talk about how they feel about having fans in a place like America and also about having their own lives (concerts).

Next performance is Toshin Yoshikazu & A.B.C. doing a Christmas medley of Shounentai songs. I did not realize that Shounentai had Christmas songs, let along enough to make a medley of. I wish the song libraries of the older groups were raided more as in these times that they are there are always at least a couple of gems that come from them.

The next MC segment has a postcard that gives a tongue twister using Yamapi's name that Yabu Kota and he have to try.

We then get a cover of the J-Friends' song CAN YOU FEEL THIS CHRISTMAS? by NEWS. For me you cannot go wrong with J-Friends so I have no complaints.

The final song is Silent Night, the Japanese version which is titled Kiyoshiko no Yoru, with NEWS and the Juniors, including Toma.


I will confess as much as I am enjoying seeing more NEWS I feel like I am ready for KAT-TUN to come back. If just because it would be a focus on another group. I think with this era of episodes it just shows that this format for hosting just does not work well in the long run unless you plan on switching out the hosting group on a regular basis.

Having Toma comeback though was great. He was always a lot of fun on the show and I was sad to see him slowly get removed from the program.

The Shounen Club 20 November 2005 review

Onto the next November episode of Shounen Club and more NEWS + Juniors goodness.

J.J.Express actually all have matching outfits finally. And it seems like I miscounted as there are nine members here and not eight.

This episode is produced by Nishikido Ryo and the theme for it is pride.

The theme medley is title Otoko no Pride Medley (Man's Pride Medley) and starts with one of my all time favorite Johnny's songs, Mihari, sung as a solo by Ryo. I had such high hopes for this medley based off of this.

And honestly it did not disappoint except for one area, and the disappointment was huge. We had Jimmy Mackey and Uesato Ryota butcher Freddie Mercury's I was born to love you again. There are just some songs once you have heard the original it limits your enjoyment of covers for it, as in if they are not good then you just want them to burn. This is one of those songs.

Surprisingly enough I found Yamashita Tomohisa coming to my aide with the next song in the medley, Domoto Tsuyoshi's Hyakunen no Koi. He sounds good in this song and brings the right attitude for a rock song. It is also nice that he had Toshin Yoshikazu & A.B.C. joining him in singing it. So my hope and enjoyment was revived.

The medley ends up on a strong note then moves to have Yamapi talk about his pride before introducing the next song, over from 20th Century, which NEWS covers. It's a nice song and even has the word "pride" in the lyrics.

We then have a few of the JJE members talk about things they are proud of. Hashimoto Ryosuke already looks to be as tall as the older members of the group even though he is the same age as Nakajima Yuto.

For Nakajima Yuto he gets to show off his flexibility when it is his turn to speak.

JJE finally get to perform a song, something I do not think they have done in a while, or at least not in the past couple of episodes. They perform Love Me Baby.

And because I can here is a screen cap of Takaki Yuya, who is one of the few from the group to actually get solo lines in the song. And his voice is already sounding like it does nowadays so no surprises there.

The game segment is a versus battle between a team lead by Yamapi and one lead by Ryo. The first game is arm wrestling.

The next they bring out a device that has the contestant sit in a chair and have them press a button. Once the button is pressed it will work as a timer as the contestant has to try to guess when it hits 10 seconds.

I just want to mention that Yamapi has just been on for these episodes. He actually looks and acts like he is full of life for a change instead of just being there. I think his role as Akira in Nobuta no Produce must be rubbing off on him in a good way. This is the Yamapi we need to return.

Finally, after being told that none of the wins or loses from the earlier games matter, there is a tug-a-war. Masuda Takahisa shows an interesting anchor technique for it.

The losing team has to play a batsu game, which is that they have to say a phrase in baby talk. I will props to Ryo for trying to get out of it by pretending they were out of time. But the captain must go down with the ship.

Next we have Question? taking the stage to perform their song Precious Memories. I do not think I will stop feeling sad watching them perform seeing as they are no longer a group and most of the members have left the agency.

Ryo's pride gets tested as he is brought out by Tegoshi Yuya for a special report that shows off pictures/video of him from when he was younger and has him talk about it. We get to see one of his really early SC appearances (October 22nd, 2000).

NEWS then perform a song called Heaven and I am disappointed this was not on a CD. Even though with the rockish sound it seems like it would have been a better fit with KAT-TUN it could have fit with NEWS at this time as they had yet to really get a set style down for themselves yet. Of course the chances of it ever getting on a CD is next to nil.

Instead of Junior ni Q we get KAT-TUN ni Q, I guess they felt that they needed to find a way to get the group in the episode somehow. So they all talk about things they are proud of, except for Nakamaru Yuichi as he is the picked on member of the group right now.

Ryo talks about the theme of the episode before he performs a solo. The song is Ai Igai no Nande mo Nai, which I am not familiar with at all. It has the kind of sound I would place with Domoto Koichi's solo material if I had to. Ryo's voice is one that lends itself to enough various styles it is hard for his to go wrong with song selection so this song works for him no matter what.

This episode saves us from hearing Wonderful World again as NEWS with Ya-Ya-Yah sing SUMMARY ~Ending~ instead. Another way it seems like Yax3 is being set up to be the next big thing for the Juniors. Either way it is nice to hear another song end the show and SUMMARY is always a nice song to listen to and this mix of it has that nice finale feeling to it, plus some nice group mixing moments.


Another SC episode I really enjoyed. I cannot believe that I am almost done with 2005 already but I guess it should have been expected with the sped up schedule for reviewing these. There is so much in the near future to look forward to, a few things I would rather not as well though.

I just noticed but KAT-TUN has been ranking rather high on my blog tags list. Of course I expect other groups to eclipse them eventually the further along I get with SC episodes. So they can enjoy their time near the top for now. Soon they shall be surpassed, I am sure of it.