Junior News Round-Up 004

Wanted to make sure I had a good deal of Junior related news to talk about for this one.

Kiriyama Akito has gotten a Tackey-bump as by recommendation of Takizawa Hideaki he will be co-starring with his senior in Tackey's upcoming NHK-BS Premium drama, Mayonaka no Panya-san. The drama will start airing in April of 2013 and will run for eight episodes.

JE News Daily (English)

I am so happy for Akito. He has been getting quite a few drama roles for a Kansai Junior and seems to be the "actor" of the group. And it is nice that this will be a national drama.

Not sure about how much attention it will get being on a premium channel and Tackey no longer being the big draw to dramas he once was but it is still a good opportunity for him and he will hopefully pick up some more fans with this.

~*

The Kansai Junior National Tour is actually national this time. Usually they just remain in the Kansai region but this time around they do have dates for other parts of the country. The Kansai Juniors listed for these concerts are B.A.D., 7WEST, Kin Kan, Naniwa Oji and Hamada Takahiro.

Concert places and dates:

4/14 Hiroshima
5/4 Sapporo
5/12 Ishikawa
5/19 Fukuoka
6/9 Nagoya
6/23 Miyagi
6/30 Tokushima
7/6 Tokyo
7/7 Tokyo

My personal hope is that this is another sign that B.A.D., 7WEST and Hamada may be edging closer to debuting, most likely in a created unit with them all. And Kin Kan and Naniwa Oji are being pushed so they can help fill the gap for the Kansai Juniors that will be created when those others debut.

~*

Kamenashi Kazuya has Juniors in his latest AOKI suits CM. The Juniors in the CM are Hagiya Keigo, Iwamoto Hikaru, Morita Myuto, Fukasawa Tatsuya and Abe Ryohei. The Official Home Page has images of the Juniors in their suits as well as the CM and a making of clip for it as well.


I am rather happy for the boys though I do not follow any of them that much. But with Snow Man more or less gone it is nice to see some of the guys from that group keep getting work. Myuto has been with Johnny's for so long it is nice seeing him get some breaks and I have liked Hagiya since Hip Hop Jump, not enough to really follow him but enough to feel happy when he gets a break like this.

Fresh Junior Concert 15 December Set List

Well in the end there was nothing announced at this concert after all. I guess I have just gotten to used to concerts being used as a way to get media attention that I cannot help but see each one as potentially having a nugget of news with it.

That aside the concerts sounded like fun and really could have been Bakaleya6 & noon boyz featuring Johnny's Junior by looking at the concert reports popping up about them.

I used two concert reports, here and here, to find information about the set list of the concerts, both are for the second concert of the day.

Set List for the Fresh Johnny's Junior in Yokohama Arena 2012:

Can do! Can go!
Daite Senorita (noon boyz)
With you
FIRE BEAT (B6)
Midnight Shuffle

Bakaleya VTR
Shake It Up (Bakaleya6)

[VS. corner ](B6 split into two groups, Orange with Tanaka Juri, Morimoto Shintaro and Jesse then Yellow with Kyomoto Taiga, Matsumura Hokuto and Kochi Yugo)
Flower (Orange group)
Sekai ni Hitotsu dake no Hana (Yellow group)
Yume Monotagari (Orange group)
HONEY BEAT (Yellow group)

[Bakaleya Corner]
Ambitious Japan
Harukana Yakusoku
SIX SENSES

At the end of the corner there is an onstage change done with four of the members of B6 with the four present members of Sexy Boyz with Juri switching with Kuramoto Kaoru, Hokuto switching with Nakamura Reia, Yugo switching with Haniuda Amu and Shintaro switching with Jinguji Yuta.

[Sexy Boyz Corner]
Theme of coming century
Don't Stop Sexy Boyz

[noon boyz Corner]
Lost my way
Over Drive (Nozawa Yuki solo)
one in a million (Sanada Yuma solo)

Rockin' Party
Strategie (Jesse solo with Hokuto dancing)
SHAKE (Yugo and Juri)

[Single Medley]
Ultra Music Power
Magic Power
Za ABC ~5stars~
Sexy Zone
Lady Diamond
Zutto LOVE
Hitomi no Screen
Dreams come true

[MC]

Bakaleya SUMMARY Corner
School Kakumei (Yugo with noon boyz and Sexy Boyz)
Back to back (Shintaro solo)
Shinku no Hana (Jesse solo)
Namida, Hitohira (Taiga and Jesse)
MOLA (Taiga solo)
I don't miss U (Juri solo)
Think u xxx (Hokuto solo)

[Christmas Corner]
Santa ga Machi ni Yattekita
Hiiragikazarou
WHITE X'mas (Taiga solo with Shintaro dancing)
Cinderella Christmas (B6)
Snow Express (noon boyz)
Bokura no Machi de (Masuda Ryo, Takada Sho group)
Another Christmas


Ai no Beat (Hagiya Keigo, Yasui Kentaro, Okamoto Kauan*)
FALL DOWN (B6)
Hair (B6)
Moment (noon boyz)
Dancing Star (noon boyz)
Rocks
JAM
KEEP ON RUNNIN'
Thank You
Let's go to Earth

[Encore]
Daybreaker
Fever to Future

[Double Encore]
Yuuki 100%


* In the reports the name is simple listed as カウアン but googling for that name with Johnny's only brings up one name, Okamoto Kauan, who is a 16 year old who was a model for the Sophia Model International company, you can see his profile here. There is also mention that he is a Nagoya Junior, which I am coming to think is just a place that Johnny's sometimes does auditions for and Kauan and Hirano both came from them. I can only hope that Kauan starts being shown on Shounen Club so it can be 100% confirmed Okamoto Kauan is him. Of course it should not be too hard to do so as I found videos of him on youtube (that are dated as rather recent, you can just search for his name to find them) of him singing and dancing so being able to match his face should not be that hard.