The Shounen Club 14 October 2007 review

And I am finally at the last pre-Hey! Say! JUMP episode. Though you would not think there was something major on the way from the episode.

Things start off with the Junior groups all taking turns singing Boogie Woogie Cat. It leads to introductions for all the groups as well as the Junior Boys grouping. Then all groups, and the main Juniors not introduced join in to finish the performance.

The theme of the episode is Team. For the Juniors this means the Junior units so the theme medley has the groups singing their main original songs. And we get the last performance of Ya-Ya-Yah together as a group.

This is followed by a letter exchange with the three youngest members of Hey! Say! 7, with Chinen Yuri reading a letter to Yamada Ryosuke, Yamada reading a letter to Nakajima Yuto and then Nakajima reading a letter to Chinen.

Hey! Say! 7 then perform Fatalism, one of the two songs that the group had that never had a CD release, or really even were performed post HSJ debut, to kick off a medley.

We get the final J.J.Express performance in this medley. They were one of the groups that went through massive changes over time, with Inoo Kei being the only original member of the unit left in the end. But with Hey! Say! 7 at least fans of the group had some warning that the group may be on the way out.

There is a MC segment with Question? as they talk about the group dynamic and just be the lovable goofs that they were.

The group then performs Beautiful Mind, which is one of my favorite songs for the group. It is a nice rock ballad and helps showcase the group's stronger voices.

The game segment is up next and we have the return of the intro don game, but this one is Tackey & Tsubasa centric as the duo are there as guests. So the guys have some added pressure of having their senpai there. Not that it stops Kawai Fumito being the strongest at this game.

Part way through the game Takizawa Hideaki starts picking on Senga Kento for not answering any of the prompts. So we get some hilarious tries from Senga to get Tackey off his back.

This is followed by an MC with T&T. Nakamaru Yuichi brings up how his group does not really get along then asks T&T about how their teamwork is.

T&T then perform their song, REAL DX. A part of me really wants to be a fan of the duo as I do respect them and I am grateful for them making sure Juniors are not forgotten by giving them chances to be a part of their productions, but their songs just fail to click with me.

We finally get movement with Takizawa Hideaki's Special Project as the "auditions" are finally over. Tackey meets with Yara Tomoyuki from the dance unit Musical Academy and explains to him that he is putting together a special dance unit. Tackey tells Yara that he will be the leader for the unit then drags him off to attend a press conference about it.

We then get to see the other three members of the unit that were selected, Hamanaka Bunichi, Yamamoto Ryota and Senga. (I loved how Bunichi had almost no change in facial expression for this.) And that is what we end with, and probably explains why Tackey was picking on Senga so much in the game segment.

This is followed by an MC segment with Yabu Kota, Yaotome Hikaru, Takaki Yuya and Arioka Daiki. Each duo have a board that they wrote a word to represent their group, for Yax3 is was "Almighty" and for Hey! Say! 7 "Tamago(egg)", as HS7 was a new group so they felt like they were just hatching.

Kis-My-Ft2 perform a new song for the show, Fire Beat, which for Kisumai fans from their pre-debut time will easily recognize as the song was one of the signature songs for the unit with Inori. It is a rockish song in the same vein as KAT-TUN's more rockish songs and it allows Kisumai to play up the fanservice levels. The hopping on their knees on the ground being a big part of that.

I am surprised that it was not until late 2007 that the song was debuted as even as I got into them around the time I got the sense that the song was around for longer. I guess that was more the impact the song had for fans, as it has always been a fan favorite.

The ending song is Va Ni La ~Burn it up!~ and Kisumai were still energized from their Fire Beat performance as they were easily the most lively group for this performance.


This was a good episode that balanced nicely with the previous episode for the month. We did get more from the Juniors this time around and with Tackey's project wrapping up we should go back to having more of them shown in the regular episodes again, which will be needed as Hey! Say! JUMP are going to be a big part of the show for a while after their debut as newly debuted group will be in general from then on out.

There was a good sense that the Hey! Say! 7 group though was being set up to go on for bigger things eventually, and that came much sooner than I would have guessed at the time. Looking back after going over signs for who tends to debut with the FIVB groups I would have placed them on a short list for debut, with the younger three members being the best candidates.