The Shounen Club 6 September 2009 review

And we return to the usual Juniors for the program and we get a new Junior group to debut on it.

Easily the group that stands out in the introduction is Morimoto Shintaro & Snow Prince Gasshoudan. The group is far from what it will become when it releases the one off single. Probably the biggest indication of this is that Tanaka Juri is currently in the group.

Nakajima Kento gets to help introduce the theme of the episode, WORLD. It is nice to see some of the younger set of Juniors get chances like this finally without having one of the older Juniors having to be paired up with them.

There is the usual theme medley and I am so happy to see Mis Snow Man get to perform as a group as we have not had much of a chance to see them do so yet.

During the last song in the medley Jesse can be spotted as one of the back dancers and it is amazing to see how much a Juniors' status can change in the span of a few years.

For the Fresh Juniors this time around I recognize none of them. In a way I guess it is not too surprising as there are so many Juniors in general and so many seem to come and go or never get much of a chance to really be known.

There is then a B.I.Shadow medley which is just two songs, Akuma na Koi and Lalalila. Even though Kochi Yugo is still the most awkward he does show signs that he is starting to catch on, like not constantly looking at the other members of the group to make sure he is doing the right moves. He does mess up at the end of the performance and you can see him looking unhappy about it.

The guest of the episode is Uchi Hiroki. Not the guest I would think of having to match the theme of the episode.

He performs a song called Master key and its not a bad song but I really do not care for Uchi's voice so it is hard to like it. But he does have M.A.D. back dancing for him and it is always nice to see a dance unit on the program even if they are only back dancing.

It is then time for the game segment. It is the dance game where each contestant does a dance move then the next one must do that move plus add on to it. There is a good mix of Juniors as Sanada Yuma and Nakaken join in so it is not just the Juniors from the older groups competing. This is an easy game to follow and fun as the guys tend to try to get as tricky as they can to get each other out.

The following MC is with Kis-My-Ft2 who start off with Kitayama Hiromitsu reading a letter from a fan in Singapore. They talk about traveling abroad a bit and Senga Kento gets teased about an incident that happened during their travels.

The group gets to sing a new song for the program, Hair. The song has some interesting choreography to it, like this formation for the rap section Fujigaya Taisuke does in the song. I would put in in their middle tier level for songs, as something that is still good but not something I would consider a favorite.

For the Junior ni Q the topic fits the theme as the Juniors are asked about what foreign country they want to go to. First up is Masuda Ryo who put down England because his enjoyment of the Harry Potter films.

Senga Kento is called over to explain his answer of Jamaica. He brings up the runner Usain Bolt as someone he would like to see as he is amazed with how fast he can run.

Casey Anderson is up next and he had a list of several countries: England, France and Italy. He mentions that he wants to try blue cheese from all three places which surprises Koyama Keiichiro and Nakamaru Yuichi, especially when he tells them that he cannot eat natto.

Fujigaya put down Hawaii, which of course is not a country but seems to be a popular answer whenever this topic is brought up. Koyama and Nakamaru point out that he has already gone during a trip with other Juniors so he has to explain why he wants to go again.

This segment is followed by the You no Otegami Yomitai Desu! It is nice to see Kikuchi Fuma there and with this episode you really get the feeling that they are finally starting to promote the upcoming generation of Juniors instead of just sticking with the current ones.

This also seems to be the episode that Johnny's figured out that Masuda Ryo can sing as he leads a medley starting with a solo of a song called You & I ~Sono Hi no Tame ni~. He is joined by the other Juniors in his grouping, which includes Takada Sho and Kishi Tadayoshi after that song.

It is then time to wrap things up with the end song, Marui Chikara. This is pretty fun to watch as the guys are free to have some fun with it and I always love it when they get a chance to mix the groups up in a performance like this.


I am rather excited to be hitting this era of Shounen Club as I remember these episodes better. Also this is the era that Kis-My-Ft2 start getting set up for their debut, so I cannot wait to see more of them. Of course there is still a long way to go until then and I will just be happy that we have four-member B.I.Shadow and Snow Prince Gasshoudan is on its way to its more stable line up in a couple of months.

All and all it is nice to see the usual Juniors back on the program but I do hope we get more guests that I actually like with the next few episodes at least.