Blog Announcement

In light of the recent inactivity of my blogs I have made the decision to consolidate them all into one. What this will mean for Never Ending Music Power is that as a stand alone blog it is ending.

Saying good-bye to the this blog is not easy. I honestly want to cry as I hate the idea of ending it. But I need to be realistic and there is no way for me to continue on in a way I will be happy with the outcome. I began this blog at the end of 2007, so to have it last as long as it has is something I feel proud of. And in a way it will continue on as a part of Thennary Speaks.

And honestly I am not as interested in Johnny's as I once was. I still love NEWS and Kis-My-Ft2, enjoy TOKIO and A.B.C-Z, and hope for the day SixTONES debuts, but outside of that my interest has waned. So it just feels like it would be more of a chore to keep this blog running than the fun it is supposed to be.

I will be moving all the posts here to Thennary Speaks when I have the free time to do so. Once they have been moved I will delete them here. So if you find a post missing that is most likely why.

Thank you to everyone who visited and commented. It encouraged me to keep going in the past when I thought about stopping before. But with where my life is now I cannot continue on the way I had in the past, which is why this time things are changing in a major way.

The Shounen Club 5 May 2009 review

And Hip Hop Jump begins its history of ever changing group members with this episode.

The introduction for this episode is the standard group and grouping introductions as each does a short dance when it is their turn. As I just mentioned Hip Hop Jump is definitely doing its member shake up as there is only Tanaka Juri and Hagiya Keigo around for this episode. HHJ will be in flux until they are officially broken up, but the group really exists so Juri can have his own Junior group.

It is Tamamori Yuta with Morimoto Shintaro up to introduce the theme of the episode, Kazoku (family). It is kinda funny to watch the two as even though he is much younger Shintaro comes off as much more comfortable and relaxed speaking on stage than Tamamori.

Of course they go straight into the theme medley afterwards. The interesting part of the medley for me is that for Tamamori's performance of Kizuna they have Masuda Ryo and Kishi Tadayoshi brought out to help sing the song with him. I believe this is the first time Masuda gets to do something to show that he is a talented singer on the program so I look forward to him getting more chances from now on.

We have another Fresh Junior corner, though it features a not so fresh Junior. I guess even though he showed up on the program about two and a half years ago Jesse is somehow being counted as a Fresh Junior here.

But he is not the only Junior shown in the corner that is still with the agency, Konno Takayuki is among them as well. The two in front get to talk a bit with the ones in the back only introducing themselves so not something that a Jesse fan would be missing by not watching this.

Butokan then performs their song Now and Forever. They are surprisingly light with the dance for this but the performance is spiced up a bit by having the PV for the song playing on the big screen in the back of the stage.

This is followed by the You no Otegami Yomitai Desu segment, which has Fujigaya Taisuke as the MC for the segment which features the three Juniors that are a part of the natto appreciation group, Kitayama Hiromitsu, Totsuka Shota and Kawai Fumito. The letter is from a fan that had tried natto because of the trio and liked it. After that the trio went over different foods to eat with natto that they thought tasted good.

The first guest of the episode is then introduced and we have the return of NEWS. They perform Koi no ABO, which is a fun song with a pretty fun performance to go with it.

Instead of the usual MC segment afterwards there is a NEWS o Abake segment instead to take the place of the usual game segment. Watching it now I think it is pretty apparent that they know, or at least if they are nest to them, who is talking. This is definitely one of the best o Abake segments with one of the highlights being Koyama Keiichiro getting out of his chair and not remembering how to get back to it. And of course the fact that it turns into just making fun of Kato Shigeaki by the end of it.

And this is an episode with two guests, with the second one being Takizawa Hideaki. He performs a medley of songs from his second solo single, Sha la la/Mugen no Hana. What is nice is that Fujigaya, Kitayama, Tottsu and Kawai sang back vocals for Mugen no Hana so they get to perform the song with Tackey in this instead of just back dancing.

Tackey then does a short MC with Koyama and Nakamaru Yuichi. It is mostly just promoting the release of the single and is one of the shortest MC segments I have seen in a while with a guest.

We get the return of the Dengonban segment and it already has had changes made to it. Instead of going from which Junior was given a message from the last one it just randomly goes to various Juniors who give a message to another Junior.

The segment still does not do much to get my interest as it is still mostly Juniors talking to a camera. Though we do get Tamamori doing a funny impression of Shimakake Ryuya with this one.

A.B.C-Z then get to sit down for an MC segment. Hashimoto Ryosuke gets to talk about his older sister who was the one that made him join Johnny's. You finally get to see that Ebi has done quite a bit in getting Hasshi out of his shell as he shines with his story about this instead of being awkward like usual.

The group then performs Vanilla. It is hard to think of something to say about the performance as it does not stand out from the other times the group has performed it. And while it is a good song it is not something I would consider outstanding. But if you are a fan of the group than you are bound to enjoy it.

The ending song is MOTHER/FATHER, and since this is the ending with the younger Juniors we have Juri doing the rap part, but thankfully with Fujigaya. While I am a fan of Juri I am not a fan of his rapping ability. It just lacks a distinct flow that it necessary for it to even begin to sound good. And it is not like he does not have a decent singing voice, but most probably have no clue about that as he rarely gets to show off his singing.


While a bit guest heavy this episode I think the Juniors got enough spotlight, if only because this is not the norm for the show anymore. And no matter who is doing it the Abake segments are usually quite fun to watch, even if you know little Japanese. Of course they are much more fun if you can understand them, especially the NEWS ones as members of the group are not afraid to make fun of each other.

Kamen Teacher, the movie

It has been announced that the Kamen Teacher drama series is getting a movie sequel. It will hit theaters in Japan on February 22, 2014. All of the main TV drama cast will return for their roles and there of course has been more Johnny's added to the cast for the film. They are Kotaki Nozomu, Miyadate Ryota, Sakuma Daisuke and Abe Ryuhei.

Oricon Style article (Japanese)


I cannot say that I am surprised with this news as the ratings for this drama have been good for the time slot with it getting into the 3% range. And it seems like with the popular series that involve delinquents it is a given there will be a movie of it.

Of course it is also becoming a regular things to get more Johnny's added to a series when it is given a movie. The members of Snow Man seem to get the most of this treatment but it looks like it is time to start expecting to see more of the Kansai Juniors, or at least 7WEST members, getting added as Nozomu is the second after Shigeoka Daichi was added to the BAD BOYS J film.

Ultimately I am curious to how this will all play out for the Juniors with this NTV late night drama block. It is nice that they, and members from some of the more recently debuted groups, are getting chances to be in dramas. But with the growing number of Juniors being in them it does not seem like a vehicle for debut so much as it did when it first started. Sure it helps up the profiles of those in the dramas, especially the more popular ones, but it is hard to look at the list of Juniors that have acted in them and know which ones may have a greater chance to debut. I think for that you do need to look at the ones that have gone on to get drama roles in other time slots for that.

Johnny's Under 100: Okamoto Keito

Okamoto Keito

Group: Hey! Say! JUMP

Birthdate: April 1, 1993

As I have always liked to support the underdog I liked Keito from the start. Even if he got a lot of hate because people thought he only debuted because his father was Johnny’s too. They were probably right, but I think Keito has worked hard to be a part of Hey! Say! JUMP and did not deserve the hate.

Even though he does not have natural talent with dancing he works hard to pull off the group choreography. And he does have his guitar playing to add to the group.

The Shounen Club 12 April 2009 review

And we are back to a good quality video again. Thankfully this should be the final year's worth of video this will be a thing with and it will be nice clear video for them all soon enough.

The introduction is the basic each group gets spotlighted as they dance with groupings of course getting each Junior introduced by name. But to note Jesse is missing for this month's episodes, I do not think they have already begun to change out members of Hip Hop Jump yet, IIRC he tends to disappear from time to time during his earlier years so this is more likely one of those times.

Like with the last episode three Juniors are called up to help introduce the theme of the episode, Akogare Hero (Admired Hero). This time it is Fujigaya Taisuke with B.I.Shadow. Nakajima Kento gets to talk and of course gets to talk about admiring Yamada Ryosuke and that is all they have time for as they start the theme medley after that.

Looking at things it seems to make a lot of sense that Morimoto Shintaro gets a new group of Juniors to perform with as everyone from his usual group is shooting up in height. I also find it disappointing that we do not have as many chances to hear his voice nowadays as we did back then.

With the Fresh Juniors we have Matsumura Hokuto getting introduced with them even though he has already been placed in a group. But he does get to wear something to place him with BIS and not the more generic outfits the others are in.

Of the rest I only recognize Kishimoto Shintaro as a Junior that is still with the agency. We should be seeing more of him in future episodes as he is a part of the Snow Prince Gasshodan group that will be put together later in 2009.

There is then an MC segment with the Fresh Juniors. Of course the focus is on with sempai they admire. Hokku gets his Junior ni Q appearance brought up as he gets to talk about his admiration of Yamashita Tomohisa. Kishimoto says that he admires Hashimoto Ryosuke.

The guests of the episode, Hey! Say! 7 then perform, they start off with an accent dance before moving on to perform their unit song GET!!, which is one of their songs that have been released on CD. It is also one of my favorite unit songs for them. And this performance really helps highlight that these kids have grown since debut as their voices are much closer to where they will be once they settle than before.

For the MC they go over the sempai that HS7 admire. They do not even have to ask Chinen Yuri about who he admires as Nakamaru Yuichi brings up Ohno Satoshi on his own to start the conversation. Nakajima Yuto says it is Takizawa Hideaki for him and for Yamada it is Domoto Koichi. Okamoto Keito actually gives a bit of a different answer than usual and names Taguchi Junnosuke instead of his usual standby of his father Okamoto Kenichi.

A.B.C-Z then perform a special medley of their songs, Ashita no Tame ni Boku ga Iru, Vanilla and  InaZuma Venus. I kinda like how they seem to be ramping up energy-wise with each song, going from a ballad to something uptempo to something even more uptempo to end on.

After that is is Junior Colosseum time. There are no teams this time around but we have the usual selection of Juniors to participate. They are given a prompt and if they want to try it they get on a platform to do so. After the time is up for the prompt Nakamaru gets to judge who did it best.

One of the rounds is about impersonations but the prompt does ban them from doing ones they have done before. But that does not stop Kawai Fumito from doing something Matsumoto Jun related as he does Sakura Sake going from Sakurai Sho to Matsujun's part.

There is then a new segment brought out, Gekkan KoyaMaru, which is a focus on the hosts of the show as one of them shows off photos of something and discusses it. Koyama Keiichiro is up for this episode and he has photos of a trip to Nagano that he took with Kato Shigeaki.

There is then a Junior special medley that lets the Juniors that were not in the earlier medley, the older ones, perform. It starts off with the odd pairing of Nozawa Yuki and Kishi Takayoshi to sing a duet.

But then the rest of Mis Snow Man show up to perform No More Wait before we return to the younger Juniors coming out to perform.

It is time for Junior ni Q and the question is about heroes. Takada Sho is called over and he listed three names, with Senga Kento being one of them. So they call Senga over and he is mostly flustered about it.

Since Senga is there they go over his answer of Sakurai Sho. He shares a story about Sho, though I could not catch all of it.

Goseki Koichi is called over next as he put Nakamaru down as his answer. From what I could follow when he was trying to think of who to write for his answer he thought of Koyama and Nakamaru and decided to just put down Nakamaru's name.

Following this is a letter exchange segment between Fujigaya Taisuke and Totsuka Shota. This is definitely one of these segments I really wish I had the subtitles for as the two have known each other long enough you can tell they are pretty comfortable about saying what they want about each other.

There is then a KAT-TUN Respect Medley, performed by Ebikisu with a little bit of Question? in the mix. In light of recent events for KAT-TUN that was actually not easy to sit through, especially since it is so easy to hear that Fujigaya's rap is strongly inspired by Tanaka Koki's.

The end song is Hero and is with the older Juniors like usual. Even though it is nice when it is the older Juniors if just because they can get some focus during the end song the stage always seems to be a bit empty. But I think that is more because they do not move much in these performances than anything else.


A solid episode that gives us some more Fresh Juniors to see, even though most are gone by now. But it is still nice to see the ones that are still around. I mean Kishimoto has grown so much it is amazing to see how he looked when he was younger and how he looks now.

And I dread going through more episodes for a while as I cannot remember if KAT-TUN returns as guests in the near future or not. I think the full weight of Koki leaving Johnny's will hit if I see the group together on this program.

From Hyakushiki to Mousorisuto

With the news from yesterday I almost forgot that I wanted to spread the news about this. But you do not get bombshells like that often.

Hyakushiki, the late night program on Fuji TV with V6's Inohara Yoshihiko, Okamoto Keito (Hey! Say! JUMP), Totsuka Shota (A.B.C-Z) and Juniors Takada Sho and Sanada Yuma, will be seeing some major changes. First off it lost the regular member Fujigaya Taisuke (Kis-My-Ft2), which honestly I thought they would have to do much sooner than this. Then it will be renamed to Mousoristo and get a new regular for the program, Morimoto Shintaro. It will also now focus on giving the guys challenges to do.

JE News Daily article (English)


I have always liked Hyakushiki, even though I can see why it does not get a lot of attention with international fans as it is not the most entertaining of programs. For me though I like it as I feel like I am able to follow along well enough and I do pick up on some Japanese here and there while watching it much easier than other programs. Plus it did not become centered around eating food which was a big plus for me. So I was rather sad to hear that it ended but getting this news has made me happy. It sounds like it may be a more interesting program to watch if it sticks to the premise.

And of course I am really happy for Shintaro. Even though I think the program should have all the debuted guys, minus Inohara of course, leave the program to replace them with Juniors this switch will be good enough for me. I just hope I can find somewhere I can watch episodes.

Some Speculation About Tanaka Koki's Firing

I have had some more time to think about the news of Tanaka Koki's firing from Johnny's & Associates so I have decided to share them. As someone not really following KAT-TUN closely I know I could be missing something but here are my thoughts about it anyway.

So from J&A's announcement Koki had been let go of back on September 30th, which means the latest scandal photos probably were not the cause, more like J&A wasn't going to cover for someone who was no longer in their agency so they did nothing to stop them from going to print. Otherwise they probably would have paid whatever price the magazine would have asked for those as they are much more damaging than the usual dating/sex rumors that get printed.

At worst they knew about the photos before his contract was terminated and let it be the straw that broke the camel's back, but this is probably going to be information that we will never know unless Koki decides to spill about it, which could get him black listed by Johnny's no matter what he decides to do in the entertainment industry.

I think then what must have gotten him in trouble with them had to have been the night club he invested in, DJ-ing at clubs without letting them know and not enforcing the "no photos" rule when he ran into fans. Perhaps there could have been more but I think those are the rumors that had the most proof behind them. There are rumors about him using drugs which if they were true could be the main reason that he was dumped as Japan in general has a zero tolerance stance with drug use and he would be far from the first Johnny's dropped from the agency because of discovered drug use.

It also seems like this was something that was an issue for a while and only recently came to a head and ended with his termination from the agency. There is no other way to explain why the members of the group would have had a final group meeting about the issue if it was not a known issue. Also back on October 5th his brother, Juri, wrote a comment on the Juniors' R no Housoku Blog that sounded like he was weighing in on the issue by saying that he would keep admiring someone even if others would question it. Only the fans were left in the dark about it until now.

It's so sad things ended the way they did, as I cannot really see KAT-TUN without him as his raps helped make their songs stand out. And I just cannot picture the group with only four members. At least with NEWS the remaining four had done things as four so fans could see how things would continue on with them. With KAT-TUN there seems to be so much uncertain, and it does not help that Kame will be releasing a special project CD without the group. But I would not be surprised if we get something from the four member KAT-TUN eventually. But until then it will probably be hard to dismiss the fears of the fans of the group.