The Shounen Club 21 November 2004 review

Cannot believe I am already hitting the end of the 2004 episodes. 2005 should be rather interesting as there are more changes to come for certain Junior groups and KAT-TUN should be gearing up for debut as they only have a little over a year before then.

The theme of the episode is Omoi, which is a tricky word to translate into English as there is no true equivalent unless you are using it in a sentence. But the best would be thoughts & feelings for an idea of what it should be. Like the last episode it is just KAT-TUN talking about the theme with the other Juniors just standing around on stage.

Surprisingly enough KAT-TUN is not all over the medley for the theme. Instead the other Juniors make up the main parts of the medley. And I have to admit that I felt happy seeing that the members of J.J.Express and Kis-My-Ft. that go on to debut ended up being paired up together for the song they sung together.

After that medley we have Yabu Kota leading a group of Fresh Juniors in covering V6's Can Do!, Can Go! And while Takaki Yuya is in this group (stuck behind Yabu for a good portion of the song) there is another familiar Junior that I was happy to see. Sanada Yuma makes his Shounen Club debut this episode, or at his debut as a Junior with a mic and getting his name on the screen.

Another thing to not is that part way through the song Nikaido Takashi and Senga Kento come out to join Yabu being the main singers of the song. I guess this confirms those two as the leads for A.B.C. Jr. In any case it is nice to see at least a couple members of that group do more than just back dance.

The game segment for this episode is the return of Attate Pon! and it is thankfully KAT-TUN lite at least.

This time it is Ueda Tatsuya to have something about him to guess, which was what he made to learn since he was a child.

Jimmy Mackey gets to do the Shounen Club Box VTR segment and he visits old familiar faces, Ikuta Toma and Kazama Shunsuke. The two are a part of the cast for the WEST SIDE STORY production that starred Arashi's Satoshi Ohno, Sakurai Sho and Matsumoto Jun. Yamashita Shoon was also part of the cast, which probably goes to explain his absences from the program.

When we go back to the live filmed part of the show it is for KAT-TUN to perform a song. The song is called MESSENGER and I can only assume it is yet another one of their original songs that have been abandoned post-debut. Something I can understand why because there is nothing all that outstanding about it except for the guys showing off their ero-dance moves.

We get a letter reading corner between Totsuka Shota and Tanaka Koki. It always amuses me how embarrassed Koki gets when others praise him for his kindness. He truly is the biggest softie in KAT-TUN no matter how he tries to present himself.

I was happy to see Toshin Yoshikazu & A.B.C. get some good screen time with having more than one performance on the show. They got to perform the Japanese versions of Dancing Queen and I Can't My Eyes Off of You, both songs that from time to time come back for Juniors to perform.

Imai Tsubasa performed another one of his solo songs, Serenade. When I saw his mic I could not help but wonder if Sexy Zone will get ones just like it sometime in the future.

Kamenashi Kazuya gets to sit and talk about the theme of the show. Of course this segment has frequent screams from the audience in it.

KAT-TUN then sing Hoshikuzu no Spangle, and I always enjoy seeing this song performed. Though whoever was in charge of the dry ice, or whatever they use for the smoke, seemed to have gotten a bit carried away.

The ending song is the same of the usual. The back dancers (A.B.C. and Kis-My-Ft.) get some camera time at least. And while I have no idea what Totsu was trying to do here I have the feeling this was not the planned outcome.


It really frustrates me that some of the non-KAT-TUN portions of this episode could not have been mixed in with the previous one. This is a much more balanced show when it comes to showing all of the Juniors and while I am very glad to have it after such a KAT-TUN centric one I cannot help but think that they should have had more of this balance in the first episode of the month.

Of course with KAT-TUN's debut coming nearer I cannot hope that perhaps they may be too busy to do so much on SC in 2005 to keep being such a large part of the show.