The Shounen Club 6 January 2008 review

Back to the regular scheduled reviews for the program as we start off with the episodes for 2008.

The introductions give us some changes as a few of the ungrouped Juniors get introduced by their individual names. The first three I will be calling the Hasshi-trio from now on, as that was what they were know as back then. This is a trio of Juniors lead by Hashimoto Ryosuke and had Sanada Yuma and for now Kamei Taku. When Kamei has his scandal Nozawa Yuki will take his place in this trio.

There is also a new grouping of little Juniors so Morimoto Shintaro and Kyomoto Taiga have some other little Juniors to perform with them. These Juniors are Anderson Casey and Kawashima Noeru for now, though Noeru for some reason did not get his name shown on screen but you can hear it being announced.

The theme of the episode is Yume (dream) and Koyama Keiichiro leads into it with talk about a common dream for Johnny's, performing a solo concert at the Tokyo Dome.

I question the inclusion of some of the songs in the medley when it comes to being about the theme of the episode but about halfway in we get the first guest of the program show up, Yasuda Shota, and it turns into a Kanjani8 medley with two more members of the group showing up, Maruyama Ryuhei and Shibutani Subaru.

The three guests are taken over to the MC area to do the usual MC segment. Each one reveals a dream they have. Maru's is about smiling then Yasuda talks about wanting to make friends with other Johnny's as he cites that he does not have many. Then Subaru talks about wanting to eat pudding. I am sure there is more to it but I do not understand enough Japanese to know what.

The three then do a special medley of what would have been their latest song at the time, It's My Soul, and Ano Kotoba ni. The first being the typical fun and high spirited K8 song and the second more laid back.

After this we get a MC segment with Hey! Say! JUMP. I think they are talking more about dreams they have had, as when they are sleeping than a certain goal they have. Or that will be the only thing that would make Nakajima Yuto's about going to do volleyball support to find the arena become an ice rink.

The group then performs Shi Gi Tai, which is one of their early concert songs. This is one of HSJ's early songs that I would love to get on CD one day. Especially since the group has not moved far enough away from this type of song that they could easily sneak it on a CD as a B-side to a single or an album track.

Following this is the game segment which has the episode's guests join in the game. Subaru though just gets to be the judge. The game this time around is a word game of sorts from the looks of it and I could not really follow it. It sounds like they are given a prompt and have to have to say something that is related to it in some certain way.

Then Kis-My-Ft2 perform a medley of their songs Kis-My-Me-Mine and Fire Beat. I really do not know what to say about the group at this point without starting to sound like a broken record. But 2008 is the year the group really starts on their journey to debut so there should be plenty to look forward with them this year.

There is then a letter exchange segment between Kamei and Sanada. Both where in the drama together, which is probably part of why they were selected to be a part of the Hasshi-trio.

And speaking of the Hasshi-trio they get to perform a song, Honey Rider, this episode right after the letter exchange. I think even back then Johnny's knew that they wanted to do something with Hasshi post-HSJ debut and it first came about with putting him in a trio.

It is then time for the Junior ni Q segment for the episode. Most of those featured are still with the agency, like Hasshi. The theme is dreams one has for the year and Hasshi wrote that he wants to be first in various things.

Next up is Tsukada Ryoichi who wrote about wanting to be in the Olympics, which Koyama and Nakamaru Yuichi joke about with him.

Then Fujigaya Taisuke crashes the segment to make sure he gets called to talk about what he wrote which was about wanting the seven members of Kisumai to become stronger.

Question? perform Mezamero! Yasei. This of course is the song the group sings with daisempai Kondo Masahiko and releases together as a one off single. It is used as an ending theme for I believe the Naruto anime series.

HSJ close out the episode with another concert only song, Tobira no Mukou. This song though I am fine with having it remain a concert only song as one of the main parts of it is that the members of the group do something of an introduction for each other with a member of Hey! Say! 7 being paired up with a member of Hey! Say! BEST. So with the group one member down now it just would not seem right at all.


While there is still quite a bit of time spent on debuted Johnny's the fact that we are already getting some Juniors being pushed with the Hasshi-trio feels like it is balanced out. Or at least we are getting Juniors that have not been featured a lot before actually getting featured and there is a sense in the way things are heading for them. Of course there is a lot that will change in between now and the next debut in 2011, but at least it seems like the Juniors that did not debut with HSJ are getting set for their chances for debut sometime later on.