The Shounen Club 8 December 2009 review

Merry Christmas and Happy Holidays everyone! I know it's late but I never seem to be able to get anything out on time these days.

The episode starts off with Takaki Yuya and Nakajima Yuto leading a performance of Yuuki 100%. This pretty much confirms we will have Hey! Say! JUMP members continuing to be support hosts for the program for the rest of the year. Or at least should with this being the second month of this.

The rest of the beginning performances are short versions of singles that debut groups released that year with it ending with Kanjani8's Kyu Jyu Show with the guests of the episode, Yasuda Shota and Ohkura Tadayoshi leading that song.

The starting talk brings Koyama Keiichiro and Nakamaru Yuichi on stage so they can go over what the theme will be. Being the final month of the year the theme of the episode is 2009, so it should focus on looking back on what happened during that year.

Since they already went through the major 2009 single releases the next performance is a B.I. Shadow performance instead of a medley. BIS perform Dial Up, and while it is not bad I much prefer the 7WEST or NYC boys version as they have some stronger sounding vocals, as right now Nakajima Kento and Kikuchi Fuma do not seem to be quite there yet.

Up next is a Gekkan KoyaMaru segment with Nakamaru sharing this time. He strayed from his usual subjects and actually took a picture of his group mates. It is a bit sad to see Tanaka Koki and it also seem strange to hear them talk about Akanishi Jin as a member of the group. It has only been a few years since this yet so much has changed for KAT-TUN.

The next performance starts with Question? performing their song HOLY HEAVEN. It segues into Takaki's solo song Michishirube that Yuto joins in with the band on the drums. I really wish HSJ would release solo songs for the members of the group as I want all of Takaki's solos at CD quality one day.

After a drumming intermission A.B.C-Z then joins the band on stage to perform a song called Naked. I am glad to see Ebi back after being missing from the show last month. They bring so much fun and energy and this song is no exception.

There is a You no Otegami Yomitai Desu! segment hosted by Fujigaya Taisuke featuring BIS. Nakaken gets to show off his beat boxing skills as Fuma raps a bit. I had completely forgotten that Nakaken could beat box as he had not done any for so long. I wonder if he is still in practice or not. Kochi Yugo gets a fan letter read from a fan from Texas which makes him incredibly happy. And of course Matsumura Hokuto then gets a chance to talk so all the members are covered.

There is then a Junior special medley starting with A Ha Ha with Kyomoto Taiga and company which consists of Yasui Kentaro, Anderson Casey and Kawashima Noeru. Then Masuda Ryo gets to lead with his grouping of Juniors with Mou Tomaranai. Then it is Mis Snow Man with Genkai Meter. There is then a Seigi no Mikata wa Ateninaranai cover by Hip Hop Jump, which in this episode Tanaka Juri, Hagiya Keigo and Jesse. Then of course it is Snow Prince Gasshoudan with the usual performance of Bitter Moon, which is the performance that finishes off the medley.

Following this is the game corner which brings out Yasuda and Ohkura to be judges for a prompt battle. Basically the Juniors, plus Yuto and Takaki, are divided up in two teams and one member from each team must act out a prompt that Yasu and Ohkura judge which is better. This is one of those games where it helps to know some Japanese to help figure out what the prompts are.

There is finally an MC with the guests and of course they are asked about what they did in 2009. This leads to promotion to the drama that they were both in, ROMES.

The two then perform a medley of Kanjani8 songs together. It looks weird to just have the two of them but it is nice to be able to better match the voices with members as they really cannot hide behind other members with just the two of them.

Then it is time for the Junior ni Q segment which asks the Juniors to talk about things that happened to them in 2009. The first up is Haba Yuki, who I am pretty sure is still around, and Hashimoto Ryo, who I know is still around. Being their first time being called over they get to introduce themselves first.

Fujigaya Taisuke is up next. He starts off talking about Haba and Ryo before moving on to actually talk about his answer. Unfortunately I could not really follow what he was saying then.

Matsumura Hokuto is called over and of course he talks about joining the agency that year as well as getting his CD debut soon after.

Then it is Senga Kento and he gets to complain about being called gorilla, which was the running gag with him throughout the year. And that ends the segment.

Kis-My-Ft2 then get an MC where they get to talk about their solo concerts and thank the fans that came to see them.

It has been a long time since Kisumai has done a cover song but since it is a Hikaru Genji, Kaze no Naka no Shounen, song it seems fitting. Especially as they break out the roller skates for it. And I will always be impressed that they can do so much in the skates without falling over most of the time.

With that it is time to wrap up the episode and the closing song for it is Days, which starts off with EbiKisu leading with the vocals. They are later joined by some of the older Juniors, so the ending song with the younger Juniors will be in the next episode.


A great episode when it comes to focusing on the Juniors. I really wish the current Shounen Club episodes would move towards more of that. I mean even with the extra debuted Johnny's in this episode they did not seem to overwhelm it with their presence and it allowed a good amount of Juniors some time in the spotlight. Or basically what I expect out of the program.