The Shounen Club 7 December 2008 review

This month's episodes seem to be ones for new groups as we get to see two of them with this episode, but only get the name of one of them.

The episode opens up with the usual introduction segment as the Juniors perform Yuki ga Futtekita. B.I.Shadow are still getting introduced by their individual names but we have Jr. Boys getting introductions and the dance unit MADE is on the program, but it is probably just because some members of the group are a part of one of the new units that will be seen in this episode.

The theme of the episode is Fuyu (winter) and the show goes into the theme medley rather quickly. Probably one of the most standout things about this medley to me is that Jr. Boys actually get to sing a song in it, though they have to share with the other new group of the episode, Hip Hop Jump. HHJ though is only seen in the episode without any mention of their group name though it looks rather obvious they are meant to be a group. I assume they get a more proper introduction in the next episode.

The first MC segment is with the members of B.I.Shadow who answer the question about what they think of when it comes to winter. Nakajima Kento answers with wearing layers of clothes and Kikuchi Fuma's answer is a kind of udon.

Then there is a medley of songs with no real theme but they feature the Juniors not in groups (which the BIS members still technically are). After having Takahata Misaki as the center of the trio's performances in this we see Nakaken get into that position for at least some of the performances in the medley. I have the feeling Takahata was center at first mainly because he was a Junior the longest but it became really clear rather quickly that Nakaken was the one that was catching attention.

In the next MC segment Koyama Keiichiro and Nakamaru Yuichi start off talking about who the guest is, going so far to say that he is an "ikemen" (a good looking guy) from Kanjani8. Of course this means that the guest ends up being Maruyama Ryuhei. Because it is K8 and they love to troll.

While I appreciate Maruyama's comedic ability and the fact he seems to always bring a good deal of energy to K8, I do not care for his singing ability. He is on the low scale of things and I tend to skip his solos when listening to K8 albums. This song, Aitte, is no different and he even seems to lack energy while performing it.

After that it is time for the game segment and it is one of the prompt games where a member from each team needs to act out a prompt and the judge, this time Maruyama, decides who did it better. The first prompt is about crying, I think it is about comforting someone who is crying but not completely sure. Then there is a prompt that they have to be someone doing something, such as Kawai Fumito doing Matsumoto Jun as a  convenience store clerk. And those two prompts end up being all there is for this game segment, but they do two rounds of the second one.

The following MC just has Koyama and Nakamaru talking about SMAP, Arashi as well as A.B.C-Z and Kis-My-Ft2. This is to lead into the next set of performances where we get to see the name of one of the new groups finally.

It starts off with They Budo making their Shounen Club debut performing C=Normal. This is the group that Yamamoto Ryota ends up in and the three other members are Takahashi Ryo, Hayashi Shota and Eda Tsuyoshi. The group is still around but mainly as a dance unit.

EbiKisu then take the stage to perform Wish, so there is plenty of Kawai impersonating Matsujun in this episode for anyone who does not tire of watching that.

There is then a Junior ni Q segment up next and the topic is about food that is made in a pot. First up is Kyomoto Taiga who answered with Kyomoto nabe, which of course is a special dish made in his family.

Up next is Morimoto Shintaro who talks about tako shabu, which I believe he says he had in Hokkaido or that the region has its own version of the dish that he has had before.

Fujigaya Taisuke is called over next to talk about a kimchi pot that I believe he wrote down that his father makes starting at midnight so it is ready by the morning.

Kawashima Noeru talks next but I could not get more than that the dish he talked about had something to do with oden.

Then to finish up the segment it is Morita Myuto who talks about how various things from other dishes get added to a pot dish to somehow turn it into curry rice.

After that segment there is a Heisei Post segment featuring the trio of Juniors that make up the natto appreciation group who answer a question about eating natto.

The following performance is made up of two solo performances, one for Fujigaya who sings a song that Yamashita Tomohisa wrote the lyrics for, Let me, then Kitayama Hiromitsu performs a solo version of the SMAP song It Can't Be, with lyrics written by Katori Shingo. I really did not care for the first performance and the second was better though. I would have rather had the two sing their own original solo songs instead, as I like both of those.

The episode ends with a performance of Mafuyu no Nagareboshi by the main Juniors. And we get to have the little Juniors up on one of the balconies. I love it when they use these spaces from time to time and it does feel like it has been too long since it was last used.


It feels a bit frustrating to have BIS without having BIS, as I am remembering that it did take a while before the group became an official group.

Other than that it is nice to see some more Junior groups on the program again, though They Budo are not to become regulars on the program but Hip Hop Jump should be around to be featured. Though not as much as I would like as the members keep changing after a while.