The Shounen Club 2 September 2007 review

Finally back to having the regular Juniors of the program being the focus again.

From the introduction it looks like both J.J.Express and Junior Hey! Say! 7 are missing a member each. For HS7 it is Chinen Yuri and JJE it is Fukusawa Tatsuya.

Nakajima Yuto and the rest of HS7 get focus in the opening talk as he gets to introduce the episode theme, Deai (meeting). This of course is to tie in to their CD release back at the start of August.

Hey, it's 8 of the 10 members of Hey! Say! JUMP...

The medley is one of the longer ones as it works in all the main Junior groups and then some. It ends off with them all on stage singing Kanjani8's Zukkoke Otokomichi. The song really works for them as it is one of K8's fun songs with some memorable dance moves mixed in.

We have the first MC corner with HS7 and Chinen has suddenly appeared. I really do not get why he was not there for the introductions but I guess at least he is there for the show after all. But they all get to give their introductions and explain the name of their group, with the Hey! Say! being a pun of Heisei, the Japanese era they are in, and the 7 standing for 2007. Of course when the group goes to perform Nakamaru Yuichi moves to join them but Koyama Keiichiro drags him back reminding him that he is Showa.

Hey! Say! 7 perform the title track of their single Hey! Say! It is a fun and energetic song and perfect for a young group like them.

We can see you still Takaki.

The performance has Takaki Yuya having to deal with the scarf he has falling off near the beginning then trying to figure out what to do with it. After shuffling it around the stage he eventually throws it back near where the band is.

Akanishi Jin is back and is the guest for the episode. He performs his solo song, Pinky, first, and it is the typical Jin song. His solos tend to be hit or miss post debut and this one is a miss for me. He at least brings a lot of energy to the performance, and I have to wonder if it is because it is a solo song.

Following that he talks to Koyama and Nakamaru. He keeps playing with his headset mic though which makes him sound a bit odd at times. But most of the talk is about Jin in America. He also talks about trying out golfing.

Following this we have the game segment and the game for this episode is a series of games, as it is about sports festival time at schools in Japan. The first game is three legged limbo.

The second game involves a cardboard roll of sorts that three guys from each team need to relay by rolling in it.

The final one is pull ups, each team has one representative and Koyama is in charge of counting so they have to go at his pace. This leads to Koyama taking breaks a couple of times to just chat with Nakamaru, leaving the two just hanging.

This is then followed by a letter exchange segment between Totsuka Shota and Fujigaya Taisuke. They bring up the fact that they have known each other a long time, Tottsu cites meeting him at a 1999 Kinki Kids concert. Tottsu also apologizes for calling Fujigaya Daisuke instead of Taisuke.

This is followed by a A.B.C. performance of the song Attraction!! It fits the group in the sense that it is light and fun and sounds like a stage song.

After this we get the return of Takizawa Hideaki's Special Project. There is a recap, which was probably needed after a two month break, before we get to see some more Juniors do their audition. Senga Kento's gets crashed by Kitayama Hiromitsu though.

When we go back to the filming it is for a KAT-TUN performance with half of the group as Tanaka Koki is there as a special guest. They perform Six Senses, which is one of the KAT-TUN songs that I like. The song leads us to near the end of the show.

The end song is Va Ni La ~Burn it up!~ and the hosts and guests remain on stage for this. Jin looks like a deer stuck in headlights for most of it as he tries to figure out what he should be doing. It makes me wonder if they went over this in rehearsals with him at any point before the filming or if it was a spur of the moment thing.


A nice episode for the return of the usual Tokyo Juniors. And we finally have the Junior Hey! Say! 7 getting their SC debut, as the VTR from last month does not seem like it should count.

There did seem to be less performances with more time given to the various segments though. But since those segments all involved the Juniors it was not as bad as it could have been. And the episode did not have my least favorite segment either, so it gets special points for that.