The Shounen Club 5 October 2008 review

This episode not only gives us the Shounen Club first appearance of A.B.C-Z but also of Nakajima Kento.

The kicks off with an introduction/group number of the main Juniors singing Arashi's Kotoba yori Taisetsu na mono. One thing to note is that Tanaka Juri has been added to the Morimoto Shintaro grouping of little Juniors. So we should be seeing more of him from now on.

Like with the previous episode as Koyama Keiichiro and Nakamaru Yuichi go to announce the theme of the episode they have someone cut in. This time it is Fujigaya Taisuke with a postcard from a fan who has requested Taisetsu (important, worthy of care) as a theme.

The theme medley kicks off with an A.B.C-Z performance so there is no waiting around to see what the group looks like with the new member. I am not sure if my feelings for the group at the time are still clouding my judgement a bit, but there does seem to be something off. maybe its just a difference in energy level as A.B.C. usually perform with tons of it and Hashimoto Ryosuke had been going for something a bit more subdued.

The highlight of the medley though is when the Takada Sho group has a Junior added to it who proves to be a spotlight stealer from the get go. This is of course Nakajima Kento who looks like a natural on stage with that bright smile of his. I was a fan of his from this moment on. Also to note is that the three original members of B.I.Shadow are all in white jackets/shirts for this to set them apart from the others, so it looks like the group is already on its way to be officially formed.

At the end of the medley the guests of the episode, Yabu Kota and Yaotome Hikaru, come out and perform Your Seed. They just stand on boxes on stage with a horde of Juniors dancing around them until they close out the song by joining the Juniors.

They do a quick MC segment with only Yabu talking about the theme as Hikaru is up to perform a solo song right after it.

The solo is Akogare no Egoist and it starts with Hikaru showing off his juggling skills, which was one of his things he did in SUMMARY to get highlighted and he still pulls it out from time to time at concerts. The song itself has a jazzy sound to it and uses more of his lower register than usual which is nice because his voice has less of a whiny sound to it when he is singing lower.

Heisei Post this time around is just Nakamaru reading a fan letter from a fan of Butokan. He then instructed the audience to call out the group's name and after that they appeared on stage to talk about a few things brought up in the letter.

The group then performs Grateful World, which like all their songs is a good pop song and has a part for them to really show off their dance skills. But it does give Senga Kento and Hamanaka Bunichi solo lines, which is nice as I prefer their voices over Yara Tomoyuki's.

It is then time for the game segment, which uses Yara as judge. It is another competition where the guys have to act out prompts. The first is a dog and it pits Hashimoto Ryosuke against Morimoto Shintaro. It is not often that such a young Junior gets to be in the game segment so it is surprising to see Shintaro there.

The next is to say an embarrassing love line then they have Hikaru come on stage to help demonstrate the next prompt which is to make a suspicious/weird face,which he is good at. What is best about it is that the guys up to compete are Senga and Fujigaya Taisuke. And it is more for the latter as Fujigaya usually gets the prompts that deal with love confessions and such so it is nice to see him try something that takes him out of his comfort zone.

Then the final prompt is between Goseki Koichi and Kawai Fumito where they have to act as newlyweds celebrating the birthday of their spouse. Both do great in their own styles but I actually remember Kawai's from back when I watched the episode first back in 2008.

Next up is another MC segment with Yabu and Hikaru, but this time it is Hikaru's turn to talk about the theme of the episode as he did not get to do so earlier.

Yabu then performs a medley of two of his solo songs, My Everything and Angel Come to Me. For the first he has Kyomoto Taiga doing a dance for it. And I am reminded why Yabu does not have one of my favorite voices in Johnny's.

We gave Junior ni Q next and it is a food topic. Shintaro gets some more screen time as he is the first called over. He talks about uncooked ham, which I wish I could understand more what was being said as that sounds like a dangerous thing to eat.

We get to see Nakaken again as he is up next and the answer he wrote down is fish flakes. It is odd to see him looking awkward for this when he looked so comfortable performing on stage.

Kawashima Noeru is after him and a good amount of the time is spent talking about his hair. Or more specifically the way it flips up at the bottom. And I think he's the only Johnny's I have seen with braces on.

The Junior ni Q segment continues with Morita Myuto, making it one of the rare ones so far that have had Johnny's that are all still with the agency in it. Morita wrote down parsley, which I have to question as well, as I did not think you were ever really supposed to eat that.

To finish it up the trio that have formed their own natto association, Kitayama Hiromitsu, Totsuka Shota and Kawai Fumito, are brought over. And they try to explain why it is so great by saying things like it gave them perfect bodies.

There is then an MC segment with Kis-My-Ft2 where they bring up that they will be having their first concert that year. This is actually a joint concert with A.B.C-Z that they had at Yoyogi National Gymnasium, which is actually just across the street from NHK Hall.

They then get to perform Smile for the first time on Shounen Club. It is around this time that Kisumai do get a few new songs and I am certain it is mainly because they have hit the stage that they are doing their own concerts as after the joint concert they then get to do solo concerts. But this is the era that I pretty much love all the songs they get. Smile is nice as it spreads out the spotlight a bit more to the none Fujigaya and Kitayama members and Yokoo Wataru gets to show off guitar skills so he has something that comes off looking unique to him in the group.

We also get to see some interesting camera work as they use only one to get everything so you have to follow the movement of the camera on stage as it goes to get various different angles for the first half of the song. I do not think I would care too much for this if it became a common thing, but it it nice to have a break from the usual camera work from time to time.

It is then time to end the episode with the final song which is a cover of Arashi's One Love. Since it is the first episode of the month we do get all the Juniors, older and younger to join in singing this.


With Nakaken now on the program the creation of B.I.Shadow should be just around the corner as the group was created of the three Juniors that had roles in Scrap Teacher which aired in I believe the fall drama season of 2008. So I would not be surprised to see the group in next month's episodes. It will be a few years before we see any more members of Sexy Zone show up though.

We are also in the time period where most of the little/younger Juniors are now currently the older Juniors on the program. So I expect that there will be more and more to talk about as more familiar faces are seen.