The Shounen Club 11 November 2001 review

Onto the last episode of 2011 already. Thankfully I have more of 2002 so it will be interesting to notice the progression of the show with those, especially as with episode we have noticeable additions to the Junior groups.

Hasegawa Jun is back with doing the episode introduction with Jimmy Mackey in this episode and his voice is so squeaky. But today we get Nishikido Ryo back as a guest.

Things to note with the member introduction with this episode is that the members of A.B.C. are all getting their names listed on the screen. They were not introduced as their group but A.B.C. does exist at this point.

Also KAT-TUN finally exists and are introduced as a group. They are also wearing very familiar shirts for those who have been following the Juniors for a while.

There is even J-Support, though they are missing Yokoo Wataru for this show. But the three Ks are there, Koyama Keiichiro, Kato Shigeaki and Kusano Hironori, so I am still really excited to see them. And to note the outfits they are wearing are the same outfits that the members of KAT-TUN were wearing before their group formed, so already we have the infamous handing down of outfits with the Juniors.

We get Ikuta Toma singing the first song of the episode. It honestly seems weird to see him singing and dancing for me as I know him so much more as just an actor. Also if I am not mistaken one of the Juniors back dancing for him here is Masuda Takahisa.

There is a new segment for the studio portion and it is about dealing with issues Juniors have with each other. Today Tanaka Koki and Nakamaru Yuichi are having an issue with a text that was sent out. But after some discussion they "make up" for the end of the segment.

After they get Koki and Nakamaru to leave they introduce Ryo as their guest and have him do various requests sent in from viewers.

It is interesting to see Ryo at this stage as he is definitely leaving his chibi days behind him but still has a ways to go before he reaches the point that most will recognize him as the Ryo of today. But there are some things that do not change like his habit of having his hands around his mouth when he talks.

Ryo gets one song to perform, Angel, and has Ueda Tatsuya, Koki, Nakamaru and Taguchi Junnosuke as back up singers/dancers for the performance. His voice is beginning to sound a bit more like his adult voice but it is still very much in that in between phase.

It is now up to Junior Fight IV! and things have been revamped quite a bit from the previous versions. Yamashita Tomohisa is still the referee but there are more positions, like navigator for Kazuma Shunsuke and Jimmy Mackey and Hasegawa Jun are involved as well.

The teams that are a part of this are the Junior groups, KAT-TUN, ING Shinkoukei, A.B.C. and J-Support. This of course being the confirmation that A.B.C. is a group by this point. We do not actually get to see a game played as this seems to be the introduction to this new set up so they just go over all the rules. But it seems like these will be the four teams for this game for some time to come.

We then get a Junior medley, of two songs I do not recognize at all. But it is kinda exciting to see a medley seeing as those are such a big part of later and current Shounen Club episodes.

Domo-kun watches over all.

We then cut to the Junior question corner of the show. The question of this episode is about school subjects Juniors are good at basically. I think after seeing this segment I have gained a new appreciation for Junior ni Q, as I much prefer that over the same Juniors discussing others answers to the question.

KAT-TUN perform the final song, Heart no Energy. It feels like a strange performance from them as it is a song that is more along on the fun side and the guys act pretty goofy throughout it, and take a couple short MC breaks during it. Kamenashi Kazuya does an impersonation of Ryo singing, which thankfully the others end.I think I prefer my "cool" KAT-TUN over this, it just does not seem like them to me.


I will not lie, having the Junior groups, and even the Juniors in general, that I know has made me more interested in the program. I think it is safe to say that we are in the You&J generation now of Juniors, which is just the Juniors I mainly know from their groups after they debuted, but at least I know them. I think I will enjoy watching these Juniors to see this starting point for them and compare to where they are now.