The Shounen Club 15 September 2002 review

I have most of September's episodes so this should be interesting to see things in a more slowed down pace when it comes to changes with the Juniors. This episode is much like the one I reviewed before it except it gets cut short for a special announcement at the end.

Unfortunately the start of the show is cut off so it begins with the Four Tops, made up of Yamashita Tomohisa, Ikuta Toma, Kazama Shunsuke and Hasegawa Jun,  performing. I can only assume that the only thing missing is the usual introductions that the show begins with. The only way to know that they are finally under the group name Four Tops is because later in the show they do a group performance and are labeled as such on the screen.

Like the last episode I reviewed this one has rehearsal footage between the performances in lieu of the usual studio segments.

We then get a Four Tops medley, with a random Jimmy Mackey solo performance thrown in. With Four Tops being a group now I really wish I had the introduction part of this episode to know if J-Support had their group name changed to the unfortunate K.K.Kity yet. In any case I found it almost foreboding that the four members of the group that eventually debuted were the four here back dancing. I am sure it was coincidence as I highly doubt back then Johnny's had any plans to debut Yokoo Wataru with Kis-My-Ft2. Perhaps they had some debut plans already in sight for the other three, Koyama Keiichiro, Kato Shigeaki and Kusano Hironori, but even that would be rather iffy as it would be another year before NEWS debuts.

Pretty sure this is a little Nikaido Takashi, looking like the cute adorable child he was. I do not think anyone would imagine him as the brat he was from this.

Took a couple of viewings to confirm this was Kitayama Hiromitsu, mainly because of his scrunched face. But looking at the screen cap it really could be no other.

Four Tops end things with singing Nami. I first heard this song a few years ago as an end theme of a SC episode. It is a nice slow song and as you can see Four Tops get their group name on the screen proving that at least by then they were an official Junior group. They are also the first doomed Junior group of four that I will get into later.

Kazama does a lot of talking during these backstage clips. Not sure if that was planned or they did happen to be the more interesting clips to show that they could fit in the time for the episode.

We then get a KAT-TUN medley that ends up with the final song including Four Tops. Interestingly enough the second song that KAT-TUN sing, Massive Bomb, has all the members rapping. Interesting mainly because the group's upcoming single To the Limit is to have all the members having a rap part as well. I do hope they do better with To the Limit than they did Massive Bomb, as really only Tanaka Koki sounded like he was actually rapping and not simply talking in rhythm.

Also since there were no decent group shots the screen shot of Taguchi Junnosuke because I want to be biased like that.

What I really like about this medley performance is the use of the dual stages for the final song. It is really only something they could do in this studio that they can no longer do at NHK Hall. I am still glad for the change though as there were definite limits to this studio, like the amount of fans that could attend a shooting and the more limited camera views.

Being the dork I am I could not help but notice Toma's I ♥ Gotham T-shirt during this footage. Pretty sure he does not get the fact his shirt is a Batman reference but that is okay. It is still a mixing of two of my loves, comics and idols, so it still pleases me. Though I did notice something interesting about the shirt when he get to the final performance that we had finished watch them rehearse.

As you can see most of the guys have changed shirts by the time they perform the ending song. Which is really disappointing in Toma's case as that top is kinda ugly.

And later in the performance it looks like the T-shirt found a new home with a certain Kamenashi Kazuya. I think this is a record for recycled outfits on SC. But I guess it is probably safe to assume, street clothes outfits are just as created for the boys as all their other outfits.

And we get a special announcement after the final performance.

It is Tackey & Tsubasa debut time! They have the duo talk about the debut and show off some of their debut PV. And Imai Tsubasa had some terrible hair going for him for it all. I almost did not recognize him.

The way this is tacked on at the end and how sparse the behind the scenes footage was for this show makes me think that they probably taped these episodes a bit in advance. I do not think it is the month in advance that is the current standard but perhaps a couple of weeks at least.

It may sound dorky of me but I kinda love that these episodes were done back when Domo-kun was the active mascot of NHK. I love Domo-kun, and if I could just see this scene while Yamapi talked I honestly would enjoy this segment more. Sorry Yamapi fans, nothing personal against him, he just does not interest me that much.