The Shounen Club 9 September 2007 review

We finally have the final member of Hey! Say! JUMP to make his first Junior appearance with this episode.

The episodes kicks off with the main Juniors performing Thank You together, with a break to introduce the groups. Chinen Yuri is gone again for this so I can only assume there may have been some scheduling issues with him so he could only be a part of the Hey! Say! 7 performances. Also the other three of Little Six that are not in HS7 are getting introduced as a part of Jr. Boys now.

The opening song was actually a hint for the theme of the episode as it is Kansha (appreciation). The theme medley gives us the Shounen Club debut of Okamoto Keito, singing an Otokogumi song of course, being introduced as Okamoto Kenichi's son.

The first MC segment gives us a variety of Juniors to talk about things that they appreciate. Yaotome Hikaru talks about Takizawa Hideaki, Yabu Kota talks about his mother, Totsuka Shota's I did not quite get, and Senga Kento tells a story about after dropping his train ticket an old man picked it up and returned it to him.

This is followed by the guest of the episode coming out to perform, Tanaka Koki. He performs his solo Make U Wet, which I can only assume is one of his favorite solos as he has a sequel song for it. He has a bit of an issue with one of the necklaces he is wearing when it wraps around his the head piece he is wearing but like a true professional just does the whole performance with it stuck.

Afterwards he gets to sit down to talk with Koyama Keiichiro and Nakamaru Yuichi, and he is able to fix the issue with his necklace. He makes a joke about wanting to join Hey! Say! 7 to start things off. He then shares a story about going to a restaurant and getting a fruit plate gifted to him by some other restaurant patrons.

This is followed by Shiroyagi to Kuroyagi where they debate over which is the better school uniform, the blazer type or the gakuran type. The only entertaining part was when Nakamaru mispronounces blazer as brother.

Kis-My-Ft2 then perform Good-bye, Thank you. It is always interesting to see how different the break down of the group was during their time as a Junior unit as not only was Senga being pushed quite a bit but it was also obvious that Nikaido Takashi was getting some pushing as well.

This game segment introduces the intro don game which is a fun game to not only watch the guys play but it is also easy to play along with. The basics of the game is that the beginning of a song from one of the debuted Johnny's groups will play and then the one who knows what it is has to run over and press a button so they can make their guess. A correct guess will win them points but a wrong answer will make them loose points. It is fun to watch as the guys can get pretty fired up when trying to beat each other to the buzzer button.

For the final round things get changed up a bit so the guys have to sing the lyrics of the song, and the version of the song they have to listen to is the "sabi" which is a cell phone version for back when cell phones could not play mp3s or any of the similar formats that will let you get a CD quality version.

There is then a Hey! Say! 7 special medley, which is the group performing a medley of the songs on their CD. It was nice to see another song than Hey! Say! being performed by the group and be reminded that there was a time that Chinen's voice was actually pleasant to listen to.

This is followed by another segment of Takizawa Hideaki's Special Project. It is still in the interview stage with various Juniors going up to talk about a topic of their choice. This means it is language heavy so I found it hard to follow at times. I really wish I understood what Miyata Toshiya was saying as he had everyone in laughter a couple of times.

Returning to the stage it is Ya-Ya-Yah up next performing a new song Baby Babe. It seems odd in hindsight that the group is getting a new song so close to when they are going to be broken up. That aside I like the song, not a favorite but still enjoyable to listen to. And I am glad it is one that does not rely heavily on Yabu and Hikaru.

This takes us to the end of the show with the end song for this one being Hurricane. It is nice to see the little Juniors still be grouped together for this, though we have Chinen missing again.


Another nice solid episode of the show. Intro don is a great game to finally have for the Juniors to play for the reasons I have already listed. I did miss not having a Junior ni Q segment for the month, but hopefully we will have that return for one of the episodes next month.

Next month's episodes will seem rather bitter sweet to watch as they are the last episodes filmed before Hey! Say! JUMP has their debut announcement. So it will be the final month of Yax3 and J.J.Express.