The Shounen Club 3 October 2004 review

I think starting next week I will be able to get back to doing two reviews of Shounen Club a week again. Or at least for that week, but I will try to finish up the year with the twice a week schedule, especially since we seem to be getting more SC than expected this year with Osaka SC episodes at the end of the month on top of the usual two Tokyo episodes right now. So I feel like I am falling behind and I know I want to get to 2005 as that is when things start looking like the SC I knew when I began watching the program.

We get an introduction to the groups and with that find that most of Ya-Ya-Yah is back. Yamashita Shoon is missing for some reason, but the other three are there for the group's return to the show after being missing for two months. Another return to note is that Toshin Yoshikazu is back and with A.B.C. once more.

After the introduction we get a talk to introduce the theme of the episode, yuuki (courage). They ask Yabu Kota and Inoo Kei about things they want more courage for. Yabu says he wants more courage to eat tomatoes, which Akanishi Jin mocks. Inoo I believe says he wants more courage to talk to girls.

We get the usual medley for the theme of the episode. Most notable thing is that Yabu's voice has gone through an obvious change since he was last on the program, as it is much deeper and you can tell he is still going through a voice change from how he sounds.

While it is late I guess it is better than never as all of Kanjani8 show up as guests this episode. The episodes for 2004 seem to be a great batch for K8 fans for how frequent members and the group appear in them. Especially since they get to take over some of the hosting duties every time they show up.

They of course perform their debut song Naniwa Iroha Bushi, which sounds better with the full group as Nishikido Ryo and Uchi Hiroki are there for their lines. And I actually do not mind Uchi's vocals in this song that much. Like the past month's performance there are a lot of Juniors used as back dancers which is great as it gives the performance a festival feel to it which goes with the song nicely.

K8 then move directly into a B-side off their debut single, Cool Magic City. Again we get to see that the main vocals of the group being used is Shibutani Subaru, Ryo and Uchi. So they more or less have a front trio for the group starting off.

We then get one of the more fun Junior Hai School! segments as we get three teams that must gain the approval of a "princess" with games. Each team consisted of three members and there were two games, so a team is eliminated with each game. The first game is a bit of an odd three legged race, as the members were tied to be in a row behind each other instead of next to each other.

The next game was that each team was given a bouquet of flowers and had to go down the rows of the audience playing a game of janken with the audience member at the end of each row. If the audience member won they would get one of the flowers. So the team with the most flowers at the end won.

The members of the two losing teams had a batsu game where they had to do one handed push ups while smiling. Some managed to do this better than others.

We get Toshin Yoshikazu & A.B.C. to do a MC segment. It is rather nice since there are members of A.B.C. that get the chance to speak and it is not just Toshin.

After that the group got to do a Shounentai medley. Interestingly enough A.B.C. get to perform some of it without Toshin. I guess you can say I am not quite sold about his return to the group. But we shall see how long this formation lasts.

Following that is the new segment featuring Taguchi Junnosuke and his puns. He reads a letter from a fan who likes A.B.C. and gets courage from watching the Juniors.

Junno then has little time to rush down to the stage to do a tap dancing routine with VTR of his figure in shadow being used as a part of it.

The rest of KAT-TUN go on stage and they perform Never Again. I recently listened to their debut album and this is definitely one of their better songs on it.

We get a Yoko and Hina MC with them wearing outfits that do not appear anywhere else in this episode. It makes me wonder if this is out of order a bit and they are wearing what will be used in the next episode for whatever reason.

Jimmy Mackey gets a performance on this episode, singing the J-Friends version of Next 100 Years. This song is a cover of a Bon Jovi song and I guess producers figured if they have a Japanese version of it they should have him sing that instead of the original English version.

After a short MC KAT-TUN sings Ai no Medley, which is a V6 song. Really nothing all that stand out about the performance. I will then like to say that I feel I must commend Tanaka Koki for being able to always have the top of his outfit undone and showing his torso. In fact it is the easiest way to figure out if KAT-TUN is performing and which one he is by simply spotting the one with the greatest amount of skin showing.

For this episode it seems like everyone from K8 actually learned the end song as they sung it with KAT-TUN. It was actually pretty fun to watch as the two groups interacted. Another reason why K8 makes everything better I guess.


This was pretty much the episode I was expecting last month honestly. But SC is not known for being having the best timing when it comes having performances to promote a release. In any case it was great to have K8 around. They really help make these episodes more enjoyable but I think it is safe to say that the other Juniors are beginning to become much better at showing their personalities and making you want to see more of them as well.

I think what surprises me the most about the episode is that even though the theme is courage Yuuki 100% is not performed once. It is actually a bit refreshing.