The Shounen Club 4 May 2008 review

Hey! Say! JUMP are confirmed as no longer being regulars on the program with this episode.

There are quite a few missing Juniors in this episode, in fact only two members from Kis-My-Ft2 (Fujigaya Taisuke and Kitayama Hiromitsu) and A.B.C. (Kawai Fumito and Totsuka Shota) are there for the taping. So the opening is all the main Juniors singing Hey! Minna Genki kai? with everyone just getting individual name tags on the screen.

Koyama Keiichiro and Nakamaru Yuichi then introduce the theme of the episode, Genki (energy, spirit, health, etc...). They tie the theme into some talk about concerts and how those make them energetic.

They introduce the guests of the episode, Hey! Say! 7. The group goes directly into a dance segment to highlight each member before starting their performance of Hey! Say! For the theme of the episode they picked the perfect guests.

The group then has their MC segment and they are asked about who the most genki is and they all answer with Chinen Yuri. They then ask what makes them genki and Okamoto Keito answers with a massage, as well as Nakajima Yuto. Morimoto Ryutaro answers with his hamster and I did not quite get what Yamada Ryosuke or Chinen's answers were.

We then get the usual theme medley with the same run down as the past few episodes with the fresher and younger Juniors being the ones participating. And oddly enough everyone but the ones in the Junior Boys grouping get name tags during their performances.

The following MC segment is just with Koyama and Nakamaru. They talk about things that make them genki. Nakamaru said something about taking a bath and a DVD player. Koyama talked about how eating sweet things made him feel energetic.

The quartet of Juniors that has Masuda Ryo in it get to perform a song called DANGAN - LINER. This group also has Takahata Misaki who was in the original B.I.Shadow line up but quit the agency before Kochi Yugo was added to the group. The other two Juniors I am uncertain of as I do not remember seeing them for some time on the program. The performance also features the camera doing some tricks that are more annoying than anything. I think I recall seeing something similar to it in old 90's cheap music videos.

Butokan, or the three members that are there, have an MC segment. Each get to say what makes them genki. Yara Tomoyuki answers love, Yamamoto Ryota with dance and Hamanaka Bunichi brings up the fact that he really does not change emotionally. Which if you have watched Bunichi you completely understand what he is talking about.

Butokan then perform a new song for the group, C=Normal. I have liked all of Butokan's songs, though they are not favorites but I do like to listen to them. And the performances are always fun to watch, especially with some unique choreography put in them.

Next up is the game segment which has the guys going off of prompts that ask them to react to things. Like the first one is about water in the bath and the second is finding their pudding missing from the refrigerator. Then there is the reaction to a girlfriend confessing to you.

It then moves to have two at a time get a prompt to act out. The first is that at the opening of a play it begins and the actors notice no one is in the audience. The following one is that they have to pretend that they are a couple and one of them wins for being the millionth customer.

Question? is up next to perform and they sing their song Beautiful Mind. If I have not said so already this is one of my favorite songs for the group and I will never tire of listening to it.

For the VTR segment the theme is the source of genkiness. First up is Hashimoto Ryosuke who answered with karaoke and punching machines. When asked about it he brings up that he likes to go alone for karaoke.

Next up is Morimoto Shintaro, who shows off his genkiness to start things off. His answer was simply that he was always genki. He surprises Koyama and Nakamaru when he brings up the fact that he is only ten years old.

This is a rather good Junior ni Q segment as most featured are still with Johnny's as next up is Jesse. He wrote that drinking vegetable juice (or more specifically vegetable juice made from mainly green leafy vegetables) is his source of genkiness.

There is then a letter exchange between two Juniors that one I am not familiar with and another I know has left the agency and is now in a rock band.

This is followed by performances of the members of Kisumai and Ebi that are present. It starts off with Kitayama Hiromitsu performing his solo song Chikara.

Then Fujigaya Taisuke performs his solo song, Maria. I am surprised these songs have yet to be released on a CD as the rest of their solos from their Junior days have. But there is still just enough unreleased songs for Kisumai that they could do one last Kis-My-Zero CD.

Going back to the performances Kawai Fumito and Totsuka Shota sing parts of their group song, STAR SEEKER, solo. They are then joined by Fujigaya and Kitayama to finish up the song.

This then takes us to the end song which is OH! MY DREAM for this episode. Again only the older Juniors are performing this. It is a bit strange to see Nozawa Yuki and Sanada Yuma without Hasshi for this, it is easy to forget that they are older than him.


A good Junior focused episode even though some of the more prominent Juniors are missing. I can only assume they were busy with either a concert or stage show as that is the usual reason for having so many missing. Either way we got the chance to see some more of the Juniors that are not usually pushed as much in the episodes, Nozawa and Sanada even both got to participate in the game segment instead of it just being Kisumai, Ebi and Q?.

I tend to feel that most of 2008 is an intermission year, with very little changing and Johnny's trying to figure out which Juniors they should start focusing on for the next debut. Probably closer to the end of the year things should start falling into place but until then there is still plenty to enjoy in these episodes.