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 8 January 2006 review

We finally enter the 2006 episodes now and will be hitting the end of the season unexpectedly early.

NEWS is still the main hosts of the program. The introduction at the start begins like the previous episode with the Junior groups joining in on a song as they get onscreen labels of who they are with NEWS coming to join them in the end.

This episode has Kusano Hironori as the producer with the theme being "Boys Be Ambitious!", a popular quote in Japan from William S. Clark, an American that went to Japan to teach in the 19th century. So basically the theme of the episode is about ambitions, which works well for an episode airing after the New Year's. They get to show off what their ambitions are by showing a scroll that they have written them on.

The first medley is an Ambitious Medley that really does not have anything stand out about it. It is nice to think that having the Juniors, that were not KAT-TUN,  actually perform, as in both dance and sing, in these medleys has become the norm now.

The MC segment following has Ya-Ya-Yah show their ambition as a group, which they sum up in the word "cool". I can understand why they would want that as it is clear that they are no longer the group of little Juniors anymore and as teens would probably want to be seen as cool now. Yamashita Tomohisa rather fails as a host here as he completely blocks Yamashita Shoon from the camera in the group shots.

Yax3 get to perform yet another new song for them on the program, Ikujinashi. I do not like as much as the other newer songs they have been performing but it is still a solid pop song and helps give them that cool feel they want to aim for. It kinda sounds like the kind of song I would expect Tackey & Tsubasa to get as a B-side or album track actually.

The rest of NEWS then get to show what their ambitions are for the year. I wish I understood Japanese more so I would know what they all are. I know Yamashita Tomohisa was talking about wanting to be remembered, like by the Juniors if I followed that right.

Kusano then gets to perform a solo song. I really wonder how things would have been different if Kusano had not had his scandal. He was really starting to get pushed and was one of the better voices of the group so he was getting grouped with Tegoshi and Massu for songs. I think he was well on his way to becoming one of the more popular members of the group, but unfortunately we can never know what would have happened.

With Junior ni Q the Junior to note is Goto Hiromi, who is the violinist that can be seen playing at various concerts and future member of the now defunct group Question? His ambition is of course about playing the violin and says that he wants to practice it daily.

We have a new game introduced this episode. It is not too different than the previous ones but this time the focus is on the childhood of the mystery person. The segment is titled Ano Ko wa Dare de SHOW?! I could easily tell who the Junior was from the first picture, it is hard to mistake that nose.

After the contestants make their guesses and the Junior is revealed, Kitayama Hiromitsu, Kitayama gets to stay onstage to explain some of the hints that were given about him. Such as the fact that Kondo Masahiko's Midnight Shuffle was the first single that he ever bought.

The game is followed up by the second solo of the program, Nishikido Ryo's. I think I have become so used to him singing a certain kind of song for his solos I was surprised to find this song to be rather different from them.

The next MC has A.B.C. and Kis-My-Ft2 showing their ambitions with two members from each group as representatives. I find it interesting to see A.B.C. asking for their own corner on the program to show their appeal when they actually currently have something like that with the Shounen Club Spin-Off mini episodes that play with the regular SC episodes.

Of course this MC also signals that the two groups are up to perform a medley together. They are not the only ones performing in the medley though as we get some of J.J.Express singing and including Yamada Ryosuke. This marks the first time Yamada has been given the chance to sing on the show and is probably the start of JJE eventually splitting with the older (or older looking in Hashimoto Ryosuke's case) members continuing under the group name and Yuto becoming the lead of a group of young Juniors including Yamada and Morimoto Ryutaro as well as Kyomoto Taiga, Chinen Yuri and Morimoto Shintaro when they show up.

It is interesting to notice that the older four of Kis-My-Ft2 get much more attention than the younger members. Most of the time the younger members are just stuck in the back so I guess this group being divided with one grouping get more attention than another is nothing new for the group. I can only assume this is something that changes at some point though.

Kusano reads an essay for the theme but it seems someone forgot or decided to just not put the text read on the screen unlike past times they did this segment.

NEWS performs Mafuyu no Nagareboshi, which is another song that eventually made it onto a CD. It seems like the songs I really liked from these episodes have been stuck in limbo and the songs I have only thought to be more on the level of okay have managed to have CD releases. That is disappointing.

If there is anything to note about the end of the episode is the Junior in the red shirt here. He is not officially introduced this episode so why they had him in the end here dancing with Nakajima Yuto I do not know. But this is Joey Tee who I will talk about more when he does get an official introduction.


Things are plugging on towards the end of the season. We are getting a couple of signs of things to come, such as Yamada getting to finally sing on the show and the small glimpse of Joey Tee at the end of the episode. We are heading towards an unexpected gap in episodes soon though, not to mention the debut of KAT-TUN which will be in March, 2006. So there is a lot to look forward that can be seen starting here.

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.