The Shounen Club 5 November 2006 review

I think I can now officially say we are at my favorite time period for Shounen Club and look forward to being able to get a few years worth of episodes worth of it in the coming months.

The only thing to note about the introductions that really stuck out to me is that Kis-My-Ft2 is missing Fujigaya Taisuke for this month.

This episode is produced by Senga Kento and his chosen theme is Chance. I think I forgot how young Senga was back then and he just has that certain youthful energy to him. It is easy to tell that he is happy to finally get a chance like this.

The Chance Medley starts off with the Juniors performing Sorafune. Most of the Juniors in groups, plus Yamada Ryosuke and Nakajima Yuto, perform as duos for a line of the song each.

J.J.Express is one exception of this as they also have a larger group cover a line, probably just to make sure they do not run out of lines to sing for all the Juniors they are featuring. Either way though I think it was a great idea on how to feature so many of the Juniors all in one song and get them all decent screen time.

The first MC break has Koyama Keiichiro and Nakamaru Yuichi talking with JJE and Nakajima. As they discuss about the theme Nakamaru talks about taking up beat boxing, Nakajima talks about studying and Inoo Kei talks about love.

JJE with the little Juniors perform the song Carnival Carnival. So it looks like the group is still not completely settled with what Johnny's wants to do with them. It is clear that the little Juniors are not really meant to fit with the group with the different outfits but still they get to perform with the group.

They are not the only Juniors somewhat tacked onto the group as the other Juniors of the same age range as the JJE members are featured a bit for this performance, which means future members of Mis Snow Man sightings as they make up a good chunk of that grouping.

The following MC focuses on Kis-My-Ft2, though the conversation ends all referring to Senga. I am not too certain about what exactly is said other than Kitayama Hiromitsu bringing up that Senga tends to be an airhead so they have many stories about him.

We get to the guest of the episode after this as Taguchi Junnosuke performs his solo song Seishin. I love this song and rather love his outfit for it as it is worked in to be a part of the performance. I really wish KAT-TUN would think of releasing a good chunk of their unreleased solos at some point, as I would be willing to buy a KAT-TUN CD again for that.

After the performance Junno goes over to talk to Koyama and Nakamaru. He gets to introduce his dragon as Ryu-kun, which Koyama spends a good deal of time batting down during the MC. And talks about how he felt that the first time he was given a mic to sing in a performance was a big chance for him. And we get some VTR of him. He then of course is egged on to do a pun and he comes up with one using Ryu-kun.

It is then time for the game segment of the show. We have a new game where the Juniors are split into teams, the Domo-kun and Nanami-chan teams, and each member has a plushie of the mascot character of their team. Koyama and Junno are on a team each and what they have to do is give hints to let their teammate guess a word. If they guess right they remain to go another round and get the plushie of the opposing team.

I think I like this game just based off the fact that this was a good game for me to practice my Japanese with, even though you cannot play along so much as the word they are supposed to be guessing is shown on the screen.

Ya-Ya-Yah perform next, introducing their song Itoshii no Playgirl to the show for the first time. It is a good energetic song and it sounds fitting for them to be singing at their ages as they seem to have finally left the stage where they were a "youth" group, as Nakajima and his fellow little Juniors can cover that now.

For the Junior ni Q segment the theme is "Grabbing your chance" and only one of the Juniors that got to be featured is still with the agency, Yokoo Wataru. The chance he wanted to grab is to not be late. And that was about all I could follow so I am not sure what Nakamaru said that was so funny, though I would like to know.

This is followed by a MC with A.B.C. that get to pull strings to figure out which member will get the chance to be the group's spokesperson to tell everyone of the group's appeal. Tsukada Ryoichi gets the honor but is not allowed to do so in peace.

The performance after began with Totsuka Shota performing a solo song (Domoto Tsuyoshi's Machi) before the rest of the group showed up on stage so they can sing their usual group song.

The Senga gets to talk with Koyama and Nakamaru again and he talks about the theme of the episode. He brings up that being able to dance and sing give him a chance. He also talks about that being in Johnny's he has the chance to be supported by the other Juniors as well as the fans, if I followed that right.

Senga starts off with his solo song, EXIT. It is a bit strange to see him being so pushed for the group as I have gotten used to Tamamori Yuta getting the big push of the younger members by now.

Since Fujigaya is not there Senga gets to sing his lines for the group's performance of Inori. It is strange to see him in Fujigaya's position for this but it does make me wish he at least had more lines for the group's songs newer songs. Not that I think he should replace Fujigaya, as while I like his voice I do not think it is as strong but it blends nicely with both Fujigaya's and Kitayama's and should be able to easily carry a solo line here and there in a song, like with Inori.

It looks like they have given up on having an ending theme now as we get a medley of songs to close out the episode with.


I loved this episode. There was a great balance with the Juniors, I loved the guest, the game was fun, the songs performed were mainly the ones I like, this is something I would consider to be a near perfect SC episode for me. Everyone seemed to be on their game as it was entertaining throughout.

Of course it probably helps that one of my favorite Kisumai members and my favorite KAT-TUN member got a good amount of spotlight in the episode.