The Shounen Club 11 May 2008 review

As I visit with family this weekend here's the next Shounen Club episode review.

For this introduction Totsuka Shota calls out the names of the main Juniors of the episode. And I will call this Junior grouping the MassuRyo quartet, as Masuda Ryo is the only Junior I know that is still with the agency out of the four of them.

The theme of the episode is Friends and unlike last episode the theme medley follows the theme introduction. There are some changes to the way the medley has been divided up among the Juniors, with the MassuRyo quartet being the only Junior grouping to perform. Then it is solo performances for the four KisuEbi members present with the MassuRyo quartet with a few other Juniors finishing the medley.

The following MC has a few of the younger Juniors talk about their friends, who are all fellow Juniors. Kyomoto Taiga and Morita Myuto both have each other as friends. Kawashima Noeru put down Anderson Casey and Takada Sho put down Nakayama Yuma.

TOP3 then perform the song Genkai Meter, which will follow Sanada Yuma and Nozawa Yuki to Mis Snow Man. I really loved this group and thought it worked well as Hashimoto Ryosuke had the voice to be lead vocals and Sanada and Nozawa's voices are better as supporting vocals than with solos lines.

The next MC segment features Sanada, Nozawa and Camu Cade. They all talk about each other with the highlight being Sanada talking about Nozawa getting scared about ghosts.

The next performance is with parts of Question?, Goto Hiromi and the two Juniors that are getting pushed for now but one definitely left the agency and I would not be surprised if the other did as well. They perform Julia, which is an old TOKIO song and I am certain they slowed it down for this performance. But Goto gets to show off his violin skills with it.

Then it is time for the game segment. To go with the theme of the episode both teams need to give the same answer to earn a point. So if two people have the same answer they earn a point and each answer that is the same after that is another point. The questions do not have definite answers so being correct is not an issue. The issues asked are what color do they think Koyama's image color should be, what animal does Nakamaru resemble and who is the most admirable in KAT-TUN.

Then they move to a charades game for the second part of the segment. This is always a fun game to watch with how creative the guys can get as well as for the joy of seeing them just doing silly things.

There is then a Kansai Junior ni Q, hosted by the members of BOYS, Nakata Daichi and Hamada Takahiro. The theme of the corner is charm points and there are quite a few Kanjuu highlighted that are still with the agency. First up is Muro Ryuta who is currently a member of Veteran. He put down something about the shape of his ear.

Next Kanjuu still with Johnny's is Backes Kento who put down his eyes. So of course we get a good look at them.

Then is Shigeoka Daiki who wrote about his dimples. This is a rather easy segment to watch with little Japanese knowledge with how they showcase each charm point.

That said I did not quite get what Fujii Ryusei wrote but in the end it came down to his height as he is only thirteen here.

Then to finish the segment is Mukai Koji who wrote about his ears as they are rather large for the size of his head. They bring over his older brother, who quit Johnny's a couple yeas back IIRC, to compare. And that finishes off the segment.

The following MC is just between Koyama and Nakamaru as they discuss the friends they have, which is Kato Shigeaki for Koyama and Masuda Takahisa for Nakamaru.

The next performance is announced as a Hey! Say! 7 medley but it is just Yamada Ryosuke singing a solo with the group coming out to sing one unit song, Wonderland Train. At this point it is clear to see that Yamada has been moved to being one of the more heavily promoted members of the group, especially of HS7.

We get the return of Heisei Post, which looks to have Nakamaru as the host to replace the members of Hey! Say! JUMP when they are not on the program. HS7 though are featured in the corner and read some letters from fans. When discussing e-mail Okamoto Keito speaks up about Nakajima Yuto's use of emoji and cute way of signing off, which leads to Yuto becoming embarrassed.

Another letter asks about which members can to back flips and of course Chinen Yuri says he can do that. He is even asked to give a demonstration, which he of course does.

Then there is a performance of A Ha Ha with the same group of little Juniors as last time, so basically Morimoto Shintaro and his group of four other Juniors. It is a bit strange to hear Kyomoto Taiga being shouty with his singing but this was probably before he began his vocal training.

This then leads us to the final song of the program, BEST FRIEND. Honestly I do not care too much for this song. It sounds like it belongs in another decade, like maybe a rejected Hikaru Genji song. But it is nice to have an ending theme that both the older and younger Juniors can perform in.


Honestly the only thing I feel that is missing from this episode are the rest of the group members of Kisumai and Ebi. This is pretty much what I would consider to be a standard episode and what I wish to see more of with the newer episodes, that is a much greater focus on the Juniors and less on the debuted acts. I do not mind having debuted Johnny's hosting the program but I expect the Juniors to be the focus and get the lion's share of the performance time. They are supposed to be the up and coming Johnny's that have the greatest potential to debut and it would make whatever group they debut in be stronger if they get a sizable fanbase built for them when they are still Juniors.