Introducing… Happiness

I know this is late in the month, but better late than never. The next group should not take very long seeing at how new they are.

L to R: SAYAKA, YURINO, KAREN, MAYU, MIYUU & KAEDE

Technically Happiness is a performance group rather than an idol group, much like how EXILE is considered a performance group. Which should be no surprise given that Happiness is one of EXILE’s “little sister” groups. But most just lump them with idol groups anyway so I do not think it will make much of a difference.

Happiness caught my attention when I learned one of the members, KAREN, was the younger sister of 7 WEST’s Fujii Ryusei. Though to be honest if she was not one of the vocalists of the group I probably would not have stuck with them long enough to become a fan. Which is why I am a fan of Happiness and not Flower, the group that has Ryusei's other sister in it. As like with EXILE only two members of the group sing and the rest are just dancers.

The two vocalists of the group are KAREN and MAYU, with MAYU also being the last member to join the group. Then the other four, SAYAKA, YURINO, MIYUU and KAEDE are dancers for the group.

The forte of the group is dancing, which only makes sense when only two of the girls are vocalists. It also means that seeing them perform is essential to see their strength as a group. Thankfully under Universal they get their PVs put up on youtube so anyone can watch them.

They also appear on shows connected to their “older brother” group EXILE.

As a performance group they have a mature image compared to idol groups with members of the same age. In fact it tends to surprise people that the members of this group are either fifteen or sixteen years old.

One of the group’s members, MIMU, is currently on hiatus. The reason given was the standard to focus on studies one so there is speculation on what the reason really is. But with her inactive the group is progressing on as a six member group. Only time is going to tell if she will return or just never be spoken of ever again.

So far the group has released four singles and one album. They usually have a bit of a wait between releases so if you do not want to follow a group that will swamp you with their releases this would be a good group in that respect.

Happiness also falls under the LDH (Love Dream Happiness) grouping that EXILE has for their girl groups. It also means that they are a part of E-Girls, the super girl group that is made up of the members of other LDH groups like Dream and Flower. Recently though they have changed to a competitive selection method for who performs in E-Girls as they have added another girl group, bunny, to the LDH line up as well as let trainees be in E-Girls.

Beware Unofficial "Official" Sites

I know I made a post of this years ago but I do not feel like looking through hundreds of posts to find it. That and I think this is probably a good time to bring the topic up again as a reminder for fans.

Johnny's & Associates are strict about the online presence of their idols. While they have gotten better with their online presence in the past few years they have only done so in areas that they are mostly in control of the content. The only exception has been Akanishi Jin but that is because they were trying to support a career outside of Japan for him and even then they stuck to the basic social media companies like Twitter and Facebook. 

Not only that but the easiest way to tell if a site that is claiming to be an official site for Johnny's or any of its acts is to see if the official sites, like Johnny's net or any of the official sites for groups/acts made by their record labels, have those sites linked. If not than consider the site unofficial until proven otherwise. 

Johnny's has never and will probably never have a Tumblr account for any of their acts. In fact online blogging in general is bound to remain with their own blog system, J-Web. So for those who may be following or sharing links from heysayjumpofficial / heysayjumpnews Tumblr I ask you to stop. They are only spreading lies they made up and from past interactions have proven themselves to be racist so they are probably not the kind of person you want to be associated with in the first place.

Honestly I do not follow the Johnny's communities/blogs on Tumblr so until this came out on the Live Journal communities I was in the dark about it. But I think it is quite clear that this person does not have the best interests for Hey! Say! JUMP and the fans at heart. Like other parts of the HSJ community I implore others to please ignore this person and to not spread these rumors. It is one thing for the Japanese tabloids to make up stories, as they try to at least keep them somewhat plausible or actually have some kind of evidence, and most know that they should take those stories with a grain of salt. It is another thing for a fan to try to convince others that they have an official connection to the group and make up news, especially ones that would cause worry and concern for the fans. Also you must question to why an official site for a Johnny's group would be primarily in English and not Japanese when even the official main site for Johnny's, Johnny's net, is only in Japanese.

For those curious about more information about this please check out the endless jump LJ community post about it.

While this time it is the HSJ community that is affected by this I know they are not the first nor will be the last. Especially when it comes to groups that have attracted a large number of new fans or have fans that are young. These seem to be the greatest targets for this kind of deception because most of them are just not familiar enough with Johnny's to be able to pick up on the scam quickly. So I ask fans of all the various Johnny's to please be careful with sites or sources that claim to be official if they are not the actual official Johnny's sites.

As someone who has been a fan of Johnny's for years the fact that people are willing to spread malicious lies to fans who for various reasons may not be able to see through there deception angers me. Especially since most of the time it just looks like they are just wanting people to pay attention to them. To me fan communities should be places that you should be able to find joy in by finding fans of the group(s) you love and this kind of behavior sours the atmosphere of the whole fan community.

The Shounen Club 13 April 2003 review

When I woke up this morning I realized that I forgot that yesterday I was supposed to do my weekly review of a Shounen Club episode. So to make up for that expect two reviews this week instead of the usual one. In a way I am kinda glad for that as I really want to catch up with the more recent episodes but I guess for right now I should focus on the next big event on the program, the debut of NEWS later in this season I am on.

The show kicks off with Akiyama Jun and Yamashita Tomohisa chatting in front of the audience before the Junior introductions begin.

The only thing I felt worthy to note about the introductions is that Kanjani8 is a part of them. I am not surprised that they are in this second episode for the month as well but I did not think they would not be treated as if they were guests.

The first song kicks off with three of the Four Tops with Jimmy Mackey. I am beginning to notice that Yamapi is being separated from the group for whatever reason since the start of this season. I would not be surprised if this kept up considered the later major event of this season.

We get a rare break from song performances with Yamapi, Akiyama and Kazama Shunsuke having a talk that leads into the first medley of the show.

During the medley there is a break for the members of KAT-TUN to show up to "represent" various nations of the world. PC-friendly it is not, which is sadly not all that surprising. Akanishi Jin gets to "represent" Mexico as you can see. And there is a Kitayama Hiromitsu sighting as he is the Junior that got to accompany him for it.

Then there is a performance of Andalasia ni Akogarete by Yabu Kota, Yamashita Shoon and Yaotome Hikaru. It is a bit strange to just see these three performing a song together but Ya-Ya-Yah is still a five member unit and Hikaru has not been added to it. So if anything this is probably a sign that Johnny's is most likely planning on shuffling the unit and these three would be high on the list for who would be in it.

We get a KAT-TUN vs. Kanjani8 performance which is the two groups pretending to fight in a stylized manner. They each get to perform a song each.

Then to end the segment Akiyama shows up and begins to sing an enka song but the groups quickly depart the stage then.

This corner kicks off with a duet between Jin and Shibutani Subaru of the classic song Ookina Furudokei. I was first introduced to this song off of a Hirai Ken album and loved it then so I was nervous about how this was going to sound. I think it was alright. While Jin sounds stronger than before when put up against Subaru his lack of vocal strength really shows. So it will probably still be a while before he is singing like the Jin most recognize.

We get a song that sounds like it is a Japanese version of Yankee Doodle Dandy but from the title is something about apples instead. It is just weird for me for having grown up knowing it as one thing and now hearing it as another. The cow head Nishikido Ryo is wearing does not help much there either.

They do a cover of TOKIO's Minna de Wa ha ha! which was written by Tsunku, who is probably better known as the master mind behind the female idol group Morning Musume. The song sounds like a ho-down but in Japanese, which just sounds strange, but very much something Tsunku would write. And I am sure he would be proud of the use of the disturbing looking horses used in the performance.

I would like to know what Stand By Me ever did to Jimmy Mackey to have him butcher it so. The only highlight of the performance is that the members of FiVe get introductions and that we get to see Nakaegawa Rikiya's guitar covered in Detective Conan stickers.

We jump into a KAT-TUN medley then. It is pretty standard performance from them.

After the KAT-TUN medley we go straight into the Kanjani8 medley and they cover two SMAP songs. For the second song, Donna Ii Koto, they do it in a STOMP-esque style by starting off with a broom dance then using trash can lids as a part of the song. I rather like this arrangement for this song, which is good as this is one of my favorite SMAP songs.

The Kanjani8 medley gives way to the SMAP medley, which seems to be just an extension of the K8 medley seeing as both were nothing but SMAP songs and the only difference is that there are other Juniors performing in the latter medley.

Speaking of other Juniors performing some of the members of K.K.Kity and A.B.C. finally get to sing in a performance instead of just back dancing in this episode.

Kanjani8 and KAT-TUN get to end the medley by singing Yozora no Mukou together.

The end theme should be familiar to anyone who has watched TakiCHANnel as it is the same song that is the theme song for that, Hitomi wo Tojite. And it seems that at least one tradition that begins with these episodes is the inclusion of various groups to perform the end song of the show.


It is strange to watch these first couple of episodes as even though the set up and the location is much more familiar the flow of the episodes are still pretty different. They both are very light on talking, this episode even more than the first. I can only assume this will change at some point in the next few months as I recall there being more talking in other episodes I have seen of this season.

I do find it interesting in how much of the stage they used, as in changing set pieces out and using the curtains. I do not recall these really being used in other episodes so I think it plays into that feeling from the first episode of them really trying to show off what they could do in this location.

Of course I think then the better showing of what to expect from these episodes will come with next month's episodes, so I look forward to those.

The Great 2012 Kanjuu Shuffle

Sorry for the delay in bringing this news. I think a part of it was just hoping we would somehow manage to magically get more information about it as there is plenty unknown about what is going on currently. But it does not look like that happened.

A few days ago more information about the Shounentachi musical the Kansai Juniors are doing in Osaka came out and there has been quite a bit of shuffling between the units and new units. The most noticeable change was with 7WEST, one of the most popular Kanjuu units. 7WEST is listed now as a four member unit, down from the six it has been for years. The missing members are Takemoto Shinpei and Shingaki Yuto. Whether or not the two are still with the agency or have been moved to another group is unclear. Their profiles for their birthdays have been taken off of TakiCHANnel and their names are nowhere to be seen on the poster. But there is also a new unit name on the poster with the members not listed, Spe千 (not sure how the 千 is supposed to be read so I'm leaving it as is), that some are speculating might be the group the two were shuffled into.

But in any case this is a break down of the changed units and the new ones:
7WEST: Kotaki Nozomu, Fujii Ryuusei, Kamiyama Tomohiro & Shigeoka Daiki
King of Kansai Kin Kan: Kaneuchi Toma & Mukai Koji
Naniwa Oji: Onishi Ryusei, Nishihata Daigo (formerly Ae Shounen) & Nagase Ren (formerly Ae Shounen)
Spe千: ??

Kansai Junior LJ Community post (English)


While major unit shuffling is nothing new with the Kanjuu 7WEST has been a rather static group for some time which is partly why it is so surprising to see a change like this. The last member change was Nakayama Yuma leaving the group, yet even then Yuma gets paired with the group whenever he does something in Osaka. In the case of Takemoto and Shingaki though they are definitely gone from the group even if it is not clear if they left the agency as well and will not be returning to the unit.

It also means the chances of 7WEST debuting as a unit are not as strong as people believed as after this I do not see it as a strong possibility. I think more than ever I see the chances of what I have been hoping would happen and having groups merge have risen. I think as things stand merging 7WEST with B.A.D. then adding Hamada Takahiro is a pretty good guess of what a new Kansai group would look like. Though of course they could also pull some of the other popular Kanjuu like Kaneuchi and Mukai but this is all speculation right now.

I think if there were to be a Kanjuu unit debut it would be this year, because this is Kanjani8's year with their big anniversary and I think the debut of a new Kansai group would tread on that a bit. So we would still have a while to wait for that to happen. But we do have Kanjuu being in the Tokyo run of Shounentachi again and I think the fact that Kiriyama Akito's presence in more and more national dramas is a sign of things to come. So here's hoping 2013 will be the year of the Kanjuu.

NEWS - Chankapaana PV review

Finally got around to watching the DVD that came with NEWS' new single. I think after viewing it all it has made me wish that we had bonus DVDs with the PV and making of for previous singles as watching them work together gives off such a different dynamic compared to just watching them perform together or do an interview. But with things as they are for this group I do not think that is possible now.

While I usually do not mind spoilers I sometimes enjoy not getting spoiled for things. The fact that the long version of NEWS' Chankapaana PV had extended scenes at the start and finish is one of those times as I loved being surprised by them.

 We start the PV with our point-of-view character, random American girl of the 60s. From this point on I shall do the review from her POV, deal with it.

Guess this is the best thing on. What's with this Japanese group? They're called The Olds, what are they in their 30s or something? I don't like this host he tries too hard to be funny, but this group is trying too hard in general and are pretty cornball. Is this really the best thing on?

This dialogue is corny and awkward to the max and this guy in green looks way too smug for his own good. And what is with the guy in purple not even knowing simple English words like 'disco' and 'fever'?

While cute the guy in yellow is more nerves than anything and it shows.

Oh, and they are going to perform now? Sure why not. But what is Chankapaana and- hey! What just happened to the show?

Are these the same guys that were just on? What happened to the stage? Why are the sounding and moving better and smoother than before? And what's up with the skirt there guy?

Really, what is this?

The blond guy is all good with the singing and flashing me these signs, what are they for?

Purple guy seems to have fixed his issues with borrowed words and is looking so much better in the outfit he is currently in.

Ugh, why are we back to them? Give me the new hotness, do not care for these losers!

There we go, that's better. This guy is looking much better now that he does not look like he is emoting every thought in his head.

The guys are looking all kinds of cute with the pinky to cheek thing. Especially this guy, who I shall now dub Skirt Guy.

Why hello there bare stomach. Where is the six-pack that is supposed to be there? Is one of the other guys hiding it?

This is guy is pretty awkward but I think I love him for it. It is a better look than the smug from earlier.

This dance, I am warming up to it. I think I could do those hand movements, though it would be awkward to do it at a concert as I would probably whack the people around me.

Blondie is looking rather cute here. I've gotten used to the hair as well, but it helps that he isn't wearing the ridiculous hat.

My heart, I think it missed a beat. These guys are complete heartthrobs and I want to melt into a sparkly goo.

Can you not see the love on my face. I am even producing shoujo manga sparkles. If this isn't love than I have no clue what it could be.

What is with these moves? Are they worshiping Blondie? If so why is Skirt Guy covering his eyes? Is this something I have to be older to understand?

I guess I can't fault them for the Blondie worship. He is pretty, and he looks like he could be my age!

I'm pretty sure that isn't how you are supposed to hold a mic. But I guess it does look kinda cool.

Awkward Dude can look good at times too. That's nice to know he's not just some weird freak.

Really not sure what is going on with the end pose but it fits in with the rest of the dance so I am fine with that. Maybe they are trying to point to a sign or something.

What?! No! I don't want them! Where's my NEWS!

Oh, there they are. I wonder if mom is going to be mad at me for letting strangers into the house. Though I guess I really didn't let them in, more like the magically appeared out of the TV when I wasn't looking. Hm, I wonder if she would me keep them...

Sorry for anyone who wanted a real review of this PV. This kinda started half way through and I enjoyed writing it so much I decided to make it all like this. 

I just loved the PV. It is a good match for the song which is just fun. in fact watching it all it kinda makes sense they went with what they did. Sure it does not match the lyrics but it matches the music as well as the image of NEWS, who have had a clean image for some time even though they have had pervy songs before this one.

The scenes at the start and end of the PV do well with setting things up. And while I was unsure about the girl at first I actually really liked her in the PV as she does seem to be a reflection of the fans in a way.

If this is what we are getting with the new NEWS, you will not see me complaining. And I cannot wait for their next release.

New Bakaleya movie cast members plus more

A couple new additions to the cast of the upcoming Bakaleya movie have been announced, Tamamori Yuta and Kojima Haruna.

Tamamori's character is named Mashima Kenji and will be the older brother to Iwamoto Hikaru's character, Mashima Kaito, who is the leader of the rival group of boys. Kenji is also an old rival of Sakuragi Tatsuya's older brother.

Kojiharu will be playing a character that will be in a love triangle with the characters of Miyata Toshiya and Takaki Yuya.

Some other plot points have been revealed about the film. The Bakada school is being renovated and the boys have to go to Catteleya for a month until it is done.

Kis-My-Ft2 LJ community entry (English)


I am not surprised to see Tamamori and Kojiharu joining the cast honestly. Both are pretty recognizable names from their respective groups and are sure to bring in fans that may not have seen the TV series. So having them there will help with filling theaters.

Though now that we have two Kis-My-Ft2 members in the movie I also would not be surprised to see that they are the Johnny's group to do the theme song for it. I also would not be surprised if AKB48 get a song tied to the movie as well and it is tied to Kojiharu.

The idea of a love triangle with Miyata's and Takaki's characters sounds pretty funny and probably means that Miyata will be more in this movie then he did during the TV series.

And I think the change in setting is to make the conflict with the new group of Catteleya girls plausible. Not to mention it opens up more scenes of the guys being out of their element with all the upper class elements the girls bring with them.


On a completely different note expect at least a couple more posts if not today but tomorrow. Not only do I have to catch up with my reviews for NEWS' single but there has been a massive shake up with the Kansai Juniors that I want to talk about.

A look at NEWS' Chankapaana CD release

My computer finally decided to be nice enough for long enough to get this uploaded to youtube.

Tomorrow I plan to get through the DVD so I can do the PV review that I have wanting to do since it came out but wanted to wait for my order to come in to do so.

Yamada is a detective again.

Did not expect to be blogging again today but saw this news and I know I have to share it.

Yamada Ryosuke will be starring in a drama special based off the detective manga series Kindachi Case Files. While I do not see any mention of a network I think it is safe to say it will air on NTV as all past specials and series based on the series has aired on the station.

Yamada will be among other Johnny's such as Domoto Tsuyoshi, Matsumoto Jun and Kamenashi Kazuya who have all starred in specials and/or specials for the series.

Anime News Network article. (English)
Manten Web article. (Japanese)

I guess this means that Yamada has not escaped from given detective roles. Though it has been a while since his last one at least. Not to mention it is also a role that quite a few of his sempai have done so it has a special connection.

I also hope that this might lead to a new series so we can get a Hey! Say! JUMP theme song and new single.  But it is hard to say if it will happen as the last special did not lead to a new series, but we will have to wait and see. In any case at least Yamada is getting drama work, now only for the other members of the group to get a bit more.

My #1 Chankapaana

The weekly sales for NEWS' comeback single, Chankapaana, are in and so is my order of the release today.

I just took a quick picture of the regular edition and the limited edition with DVD. The LE surprised me as I had no idea that it would look like that. I will be making a video to go through everything there later and should have it up on this blog tomorrow, as the LE is worth taking a good look at. 

On another note the weekly Oricon sales for the single are out, kinda-ish, as the ranking website released an article about the ranking and has the rounded number listed in it. So the single sold about 245k copies in the first week of release. This is actually pretty good as the article goes on to point out the single from the group before when they were still six members, Fighting Man, sold about 150k. So they sold almost 100k more than the single that arguably had the two most popular members of the group.

Oricon article. (Japanese)

Of course having the six editions helped quite a bit though if you wanted to have all the CDs you could just buy the two versions I did and not miss out on anything. And if you are like me and have been buying both RE and LE editions of the group's singles than it is not like you are buying any more than usual. I think the group did generate interest with their new formation and they have had a pretty strong push for the release with them appearing on many various programs to promote it.

In the end the next single release for the group will be the crucial one as that will do better in showing what fan base they actually have left. But honestly if they go back to selling about 150k per single I think they will be doing just fine. 

Expect this week to be full of stuff related to this release as I make my way through it all. 

A look at Kis-My-Mint DVD

I had put this up a while ago thinking that I should probably link it here on my blog as well as it is all about Johnny's. But I have begun to actually use my youtube account to post things and as it stands now it will be mostly over things that I get that I want to share with others. On the top of the list are my CDJapan orders as I know buying the original Japanese releases of things is pretty expensive and not everyone can afford to do so.

So here is my last video looking at the packaging mainly of Kis-My-Ft2's Kis-My-Mint concert DVD.

Hopefully I should be getting my order for NEWS' latest single in to share that in the next couple of days. I really cannot wait to have that in my hands.

The Shounen Club 06 April 2003 review

The fourth season of Shounen Club begins and does so with a bang. This episode is pretty much non-stop with performances one right after another. And thankfully since the move to another station the picture quality is much better. Not the greatest, but none of the episodes from now on should be as bad as some of the older ones. The switch to HD will be the next big thing when it comes to picture quality but that will be a while.

This is going to be a pretty screen cap heavy review this time around as there was a lot more going on with the episode than I remembered that I want to point out and talk about a bit.

We start off with Four Tops and KAT-TUN singing Smoke on the water, which is just always weird for me to see/hear. I have actually heard the original version of this song and it is just odd to see it being covered by Johnny's Juniors.

Of course for those who have only watched the most recent episodes of SC the stage may not look so familiar as it has been changed over the years but the audience section is still the same.

While I spotted Masuda Takahisa right off the bat here I managed to miss that it is Fujigaya Taisuke next to him until after a few rewatches trying to get a decent screen cap. I am so happy to finally be able to see Fujigaya back dancing on the program as I had yet to do so even though I know he has been on the program for a while now.

Even though the usual suspects get their time in the spotlight there seems to be a more even focus on the other Juniors which is a nice change of pace.

I think I must have finally had enough of a break from Aikotoba wa Ya-Ya-Yah that it did not get on my nerves as it had been the past few times. It probably also helped that it was a short part of this medley.

One of the things I really like about this episode is the fact that it is not just a couple of groups that get to perform, pretty much all of them do. It is a nice change as with the older episodes you could easily have the same group do all the performances in the show while this episode reverses all of that by having all the groups present perform. And that is even with guests performances that make up a good chunk of the episode as well.

Or in short I loved that K.K.Kity was performing again on the program.

We finally reach a point where we have Juniors just talking and find out that our hosts for this episode are Akiyama Jun from Musical Academy with Yamashita Tomohisa and Kazama Shunsuke. This is after about nine and a half minutes of straight performances. They pretty much rush through things before introducing the special guests of this episode, Kinki Kids (who celebrate their 15th anniversary today coincidentally enough.).

They perform Eien no Bloods, which is one of my favorite songs of theirs. Domoto Kochi looks great like usual.

Domoto Tsuyoshi on the other hand has old lady hair. But at least he sounds as good as expected.

The host trio of the episode get to do a quick interview. They talk about the crowd and past performances at NHK Hall and Kinki pretty much show why they are such a popular duo with how well they make what they say entertaining.

After this the Juniors, or mostly the hosts, get to do a "message song" which is KAT-TUN singing one of their songs, breaking off at parts for the hosts to say stuff.

We then get Yabu Kota singing a song that is not one of the three that Yax3 have performed in the past. But it is the start of a medley that leads right into Yuuki 100% and the first surprise for the episode of me. I had remembered Kinki Kids being in this but totally forgot about Yaotome Hikaru having his first appearance in it as well.

It is easy to see that Hikaru was getting a strong push as from the start he was being paired off with Yabu. But as of now he is not a member of Yax3, instead he is the random little Junior Johnny's has decided to push. But with him around now it probably will not be much longer for the group to lose the two members it will and bring Hikaru into their ranks which will give the unit its next and final line up.

A.B.C. ends up being mainly back dancers this episode, but as it can be seen they are also nearing their next line up change with them being left as a four member unit.

They make sure to make use of NHK Hall in this episode by using just about all the areas for the guys to perform from, which includes the balcony area to the right of the stage when KAT-TUN did their member introduction rap.

At the end of the rap I got my second surprise when they started saying, "Say Kanjani8." As this episode was also the first one with Kanjani8 performing on it.

It is a bit strange to see the '8' actually written as '8' and not the infinity symbol, but there is no doubt that this is the Kanjani8 that will eventually get to debut.

Of course this also means they have all eight members that made up the original line-up with Ohkura Tadayoshi finally joining their ranks.

What is great is that I can actually recognize some of their songs performed here as they were released on CD once they debuted. Not to mention just the fact this puts the group that much closer to debut even though they still have about a year to go.

We then get the Four Tops singing Nami before being joined by the other Juniors to perform a song together.

While I have noticed this at other parts of the show but because they are changing the stage sets and not really breaking to do so it is easy to spot the stage hands. Like in this screen cap the guys in black running off the stage.

We then get a medley for songs from the debuted groups of Johnny's.

When watching K.K.Kity this time around the thought struck me that they were probably the actual start of what would later evolve into Kis-My-Ft2. I do not think that it is a coincidence that they are covering a Hikaru Genji song for this medley will using the roller shoes that they have used in the past. Not to mention two of the group will later become members of Kis-My-Ft and Kis-My-Ft2 as well as the fact their current name is made up of the last names of the members. I think there is probably enough similar to make the connection even though Kis-My-Ft is what solidifies much of what will carry over directly to Kis-My-Ft2.

A.B.C. finally get the chance to sing, and it is one of my favorite TOKIO songs, Doitsumo Koitsumo. Toshin Yoshikazu makes an appearance for this but I have the feeling that he is probably on his way out from the group around this time.

The final medley is a Kinki Kids medley that is about ten minutes long, mostly because they sing one of the songs fully. It starts off though with Hikaru and Yabu singing the start of the first song of the medley.

Once the final song is done various Juniors go on stage with Akiyama doing the usual end of episode speech. And with that the first episode of the fourth season of SC is done.


I really get the sense that this episode is more about showing what could be done with the new stage and format at least with the performances. They really went all out with the sets and what effects they could do and it really made it feel more like a concert than a TV program.