The Shounen Club 11 July 2004 review

Last episode before the show takes another break to give us a recap episode for the next month.

We get closer shots of the groups in the introduction, which only confuses more on what they are doing with Kis-My-Ft. as there are definitely six Juniors being introduced as the group even though the main four are the only ones that perform as a unit in the show. Then again they announce J.J. Express with A.B.C. Jr. being grouped with them while they all wear the same outfit. So who knows what was going on.

KAT-TUN with Jimmy Mackey and Yabu Kota talk about the theme of the episode, Summer.

There is of course a summer medley and I think it is probably my favorite medley so far. A good part of that is that Johnny's has plenty of good summer songs to choose from so it is hard to go wrong with this theme. Also Taguchi Junnosuke is a part of the medley, most likely because they go very light with having dance routines for this medley.

Jimmy gets to do an MC talking to Yabu Kota and Yaotome Hikaru before the guest of the episode, Imai Tsubasa, is brought out to join them.

With Tsubasa there they show old clips of him, starting way back with SC's predecessor show, Music Jump. I love seeing these clips as they are almost always of things I have not seen before. This time we get to see young Tsubasa and Takizawa Hideaki.

And what looks to be the main regulars of the program with Tackey, most of Arashi and Shibutani Subaru.

There is also a clip from the early SC episodes, which I love for the simple fact that I can see the faces of the back dancers clearly. Which is another reason I love these clips.

After the clips there is a Ya-Ya-Yah medley, though instead of their own songs they since Tackey & Tsubasa songs, which I guess ties in why they had Tsubasa there for the MC. The medley mainly features Hikaru and Yabu. And with Hikaru's solo we get a good look at some of his back dancers, which are a mix of JJE and A.B.C. Jr. with Arioka Daiki, Senga Kento and Nakajima Yuto there.

For the final song in the medley we get the full group together, but it is still the six and not the seven from the introductions.

Our game segment is again Attate Pon! and we get the debut of Fujigaya Taisuke in the game segments. He also starts with the random English as he says, "I'm very happy."

The other random English comes from Nakamaru Yuichi, who is the guest for the game, when he tells Jimmy to "shut up". Though I wonder if he realizes how rude that is to say.

There is then a KAT-TUN medley, that is only with the five as Junno sits this one out. Some of the songs have some interesting lines in them.

And I know this side profile well enough to know that this is Miyata Toshiya. I am glad to see him again and to confirm that he is a part of the group of Juniors that tend to get lumped with Kis-My-Ft. when they back dance.

Kamenashi Kazuya and Akanishi Jin get to talk to Tsubasa about summer before he goes to prepare for the next performance and then they just talk about summer between the two of them.

Tsubasa gets to perform this episode as well but this time without Juniors doing anything more than back dancing for him.

We get a Toma Scoop segment without Ikuta Toma. I could not catch why Toma was missing but they had Jimmy Mackey to be his fill in. Though it seems like a poor choice as Arashi ends up having to carry the segment for the most part.

Jimmy gets to perform a song and during it we get a caption giving the names and band positions of the members of Question? This leads me to believe that this is the first month with them after all if they are going to do something like this for them. It seems a bit off though as it probably would have fit a bit better with the first episode of the month not the second. Also to note, since this is the initial line up Igo Akun is not a part of it yet and no Ishigaki Daisuke on keyboard.

The last song before the finale goes to KAT-TUN but without Junno, even though there is not much in the way in dancing for this song.

Junno is back for the end song, which is mainly just KAT-TUN and A.B.C. singing.


Not a bad episode. I still want to move away from this era soon, but September's episodes should have something for Kanjani8 at least as they have their major debut that month. Hopefully that will bring much Kansai goodness with it and shake things up a bit for the show.