The Shounen Club 12 October 2003 review

And after this review I will go back to the regular schedule of reviews twice a week. I hope.

There really is not anything to say about the introductions as they are the same as the first episode of the month.

We do have a change in main MCs this episode. In fact Yamashita Tomohisa does almost no hosting this time around and instead we have these four as main hosts, Akiyama Jun, Jimmy Mackey, Kamenashi Kazuya and Akanishi Jin. They get to announce that SC will be aired in other countries in Asia.

Ya-Ya-Yah is up first this episode to do a Yax3 medley. I think I am mostly surprised that all five members of the group perform in it, though there is still a greater focus on the main three of the group.

The final song of the medley has Matsumoto Kouhei and Inoo Kei getting focus as they sing along. Inoo has the bad habit of holding his mic up so it blocks his face which is annoying. But it seems to be a typical mistake for Juniors to make when first getting to sing with the mic.

The hosts get to read letters from fans around Asia. Kame is given one from someone in Singapore but the letter is completely in English. He gets about two lines in before not being able to sound out the words and Jimmy takes over. He actually really impressed me as instead of reading it in English he just translated it all into Japanese.

KAT-TUN then get to perform their one medley. It starts off with Peaceful Days which is one of those songs that use the group's name in the lyrics so the chances of it being covered by another group is slim to none. But it is one of those songs that are best to see performed live as it is full of energy and is good for pumping up a crowd.

This episode has a guest even though the first episode did not. And how it makes me look forward to the episodes of next month where we finally get a new group so the choices of guests will no longer be with Tackey & Tsubasa or Tackey or Tsubasa.

As I have mentioned before Imai Tsubasa usually fails to interest me and this appearance did not change that. Though I was amused at the Engrish in the song he sang and hoped that he was the only one using that mic.

This episode really feels like a continuation of the first episode of the month with how often it brings out segments that were in that first episode. Like Toma still talking with TOKIO. This time though he gets to read postcards from Juniors to the members of the group.

The top 5 requests for TOKIO is pulled out again for this episode, this time with Toma, Kazama Shunsuke and Hasegawa Jun leading the medley. And while I always love how much Toma gets into his performances he is sounding pretty rough when it comes to singing for this medley.

This medley is a good one for trying to spot Juniors, especially for Kis-My-Ft2 members. For example here is Miyata Toshiya and I know Nikaido Takashi could be spotted as well with the small Juniors back dancing.

There is another letter exchange segment, this time between Koyama Keiichiro and Kusano Hironori. We get to learn that even back then Koyama lived up to his fan nickname of Koyamama.

Yamapi gets to do his one solo medley, but it is not much of a solo performance. He has A.B.C. backing him up for most of it including vocals.

There is a K.K.Kity medley right after and kicks off with Private Hearts. Unlike last episode there really is nothing that sets it apart from the usual performance from the group or those involved. But I would not be surprised if Private Hearts was picked to be a B-side on NEWS' debut single based off the fact that some of the members already knew the song.

The next song in the medley is a Hikaru Genji song so we get the usual roller skaters. And this time all the Junior Boys roller skating get to sing with mics. This makes it Fujigaya Taisuke's first time to do this on the show and someone must have realized this or something as he is the only one to get a second of solo camera time.

The end pose gives us a good view of Kitayama Hiromitsu and Masuda Takahisa, though I do feel a bit sorry for the roller skaters that have to slide into position for it.

Then it is another Detective Tomas segment, this time for the episode guest, Tsubasa. The first question is about his height that he tries to pass off to be either 170 to 180 centimeters. Akiyama tries to help with the measurement by standing up next to him.

KAT-TUN get to sing Hoshi Kuzu no Spangle. I still like the song even though it sounds quite dated. But I do not think I have ever seen the song mangled so I know when it gets performed it will be enjoyable.

We do get a separation of the group with Kame and Jin up in the front of the stage with the rest of the group banished to the back with the band. This only lasts for about half of the song but it still looks weird to have them so divided.

The separation does give us some nice camera angles though. And I would like to know what Taguchi Junnosuke has in his hair here. They look too terrible to be extensions, or if they are they have to be really cheap.

Yamapi still gets his solo segment though and he speaks about having fans around Asia.

Massu surprisingly gets highlighted in the end song. We first get an odd combo with him and Jimmy Mackey together.

Then when it is his turn to get introduced as he goes to move to the center Kazama is moving backwards and the two run into each other. Then Toma noticeably laughs at them after that.


While this episode does not hold all the hints the first for the month did there are still some signs of the change to come, such as bringing Kame and Jin as main hosts while Yamapi is seemingly dropped from that position.

Other than that a solid episode of the show. Nothing standout but nothing grating either, forgettable perhaps, but not annoying.

The Shounen Club 5 October 2003 review

As I mentioned at the end of the last review these October 2003 episodes in hindsight are full of clues about NEWS' debut. Of course I doubt anyone watching the show regularly back then could have noticed them for what they are but they do help in figuring out which Juniors are probably on the short list for the next FIVB debut as there are a few patterns that can be seen when you compare these episodes to the ones right before the debuts of the FIVB groups that debuted after NEWS, Hey! Say! JUMP and Sexy Zone.

With the introductions we get the members of the groups introduced listed, which is always nice. And with this we get to see that Junior Boys has grown by one with the addition of Tegoshi Yuya. Like always the others from this group to note are Masuda Takahisa, Kitayama Hiromitsu and Fujigaya Taisuke.

We have several familiar faces back that were missing in the previous month's episodes. So we go back to Akiyama Jun being a MC helper for Four Tops. Jimmy Mackey seems to have more of a presence now as a MC, which is to be expected as he will eventually become the main MC for the show, IIRC.

The first medley is the best five Kinki Kids songs that Ikuta Toma, Kazama Shunsuke and Hasegawa Jun perform the bulk of. 

We then get a letter read to tie into the theme of the episode, friendship. It is an interesting segment to read as while it starts off normally with the boys and crowd looking and sounding excited the moment Kazama gets to the part of the letter that brings up that this fan is hospitalized the atmosphere changes. The boys are completely subdued and it sounds so quiet you could probably hear a pin drop. But the guys do try to lighten things up a bit near the end as it is not meant to be a tearjerker, just a heartfelt letter from a fan that loves the Four Tops. Which in itself is a bit heartbreaking watching the episode knowing that the group is going to be broken up in about a month from the taping.

A Johnny's hit medley is introduced and the opening/closing song for it is actually a song that is not yet a hit. Of course it also goes under a different name than what it will be released as, Peace no Sign, but with lyrics of "to north, to east, to west, to south (We Make a Big NEWS Feel All Right)" and "1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7 It's Big NEWS!" I think it is safe to say this is NEWS Nippon without a shadow of a doubt. Of course it also helps that the music is exactly the same as well for the song.

Ya-Ya-Yah has all five members present this episode though it would be hard to believe when it is still these three that are front and foremost for the group while the other two are rarely seen.

And we get a couple of other little Juniors getting promoted to be singers. Of course Inoo Kei is the one people will probably recognize as the other left the agency I believe within a year of this episode.

Then we get the start of one of the patterns that has sprung up with FIVB units, the Junior that really has not been seen before on the program being given a seemingly random spotlight. Tegoshi starts it off by having two short duets with Massu (perhaps this can also be seen as the birth of Tegomass as well?) even though this is the first time he has been on the program.

And I have to say for a fourteen year old he has a rather mature sounding voice, even though he looks like he could be younger than his age.

After the Tegomass duets are done we get the full group back to sing more of Peace no Sign/NEWS Nippon. Which gives us 5/9ths of the original NEWS line-up having already learned at least part of the song before their debut.

Akiyama talks to Yamashita Tomohisa and we learn that the guitar Yamapi has with him here was a gift from Nagase Tomoya.

Yamapi then gets to perform his song, Love Song, solo and this time playing the guitar.

Toma has his scoop segment this episode and it is with TOKIO this time. The group of course give him a bit of a hard time about what is news worthy about them. They suggest that Joshima Shigeru's clothes are scoop worthy, and I have to confess I am curious about them myself as it looks like a fashion disaster there.

We finally get some actually news topics for the group when Matsuoka Masahiro brings up that he directed their latest PV for the song, Ambitious Japan. So we get to see some footage from that PV.

We get a rock medley, which seems to be a favorite medley theme of the program. I do wish whoever thinks Jimmy Mackey sounds good singing rock songs get their ears checked. Thankfully though he gets joined by various other Juniors throughout the medley.

Kazama introduces a new segment to the show, one that current SC watchers should be familiar with, where two Juniors get to exchange letters to each other. Most of the time they are a mixture of funny and touching and are generally great at learning more about the relationships between the Juniors, that is if you can understand what they are saying.

Nakamaru Yuichi and Tanaka Koki get to be the first pair to do the segment. And they put forth a good example of what to expect from this segment.

I know I usually do not bother with bringing up the Juniors that do not stay too long on the program but since he has been getting some massive pushing and is becoming hard to avoid I will bring up Matsumoto Kouhei. He will probably be best remembered as one of the original J.J. Express members but he has been getting pushed in these episodes mainly with Inoo. But he seems to be getting a stronger push than Inoo as he gets to sing with Yax3 here and overall is just seen more.

And with K.K.Kity showing up for the medley they bring with them another song that will eventually become a NEWS song. This time the title is the same, STAND UP, but the lyrics a bit different as they are all in English. But again there is no doubt that this is the B-side to NEWS' single Kibou ~Yell~.

After that we get Sennen no Love Song that I bring up as the roller skate boys have been changed this episode. They only have two members of ity this month and are only using two Junior Boys for skating. And that gives us Iida Kyohei, Yokoo Wataru, Kitayama and Fujigaya, or what will be the stable member line-up of Kis-My-Ft and the ones that will go on to be a part of Kis-My-Ft2's original line-up.

We get a return of the Detective Tomas segment with the return of Ikuta Toma. This time it is Four Tops up for being questioned by the audience. Toma finds a father who asked Yamapi a question on behalf of his daughter and generally impressed the guys for supporting his daughter.

We get a KAT-TUN medley with some questionable outfits. I know this is supposed to look sexy but all I can think is that their pants look like they were made of the same material as rain slickers, which destroys any sex appeal any of them have to me.

Yamapi gets his Pchan no hitorigoto segment that leads directly to Yabu getting a short solo. That leads to the cuteness that is the screen shot above. As well as the end of the program.

Sadly we do not get Tegoshi and Massu in the end theme but the little Juniors highlighted in the episode do get to join in. So yay for little Inoo.


It is interesting to see all the set up being done for NEWS' debut without anyone really expecting for the debut or which Juniors would get to debut. It is easy to see after the fact what is being done but I can understand why it would take fans by surprise. Especially Four Tops fans, as there does seem to be a bit of a focus back on them as a group this episode.

Also there are some things that can be seen with the episode that showed up with the pre-debut episodes of other FIVB groups. Like the random new Junior spotlight of Tegoshi has been repeated with Hey! Say! JUMP's Okamoto Keito. And the song(s) of the debuted group being first performed by a mix of Juniors that will be in the group and those who will not was repeated with Sexy Zone and With You.

It is definitely an episode worth seeing, as well as the next one, to try to spot similarities between them and the episodes right before the other FIVB groups are debuted. Which will probably be useful in 2015 when the next group will be due.

The Shounen Club 14 September 2003 review

Since I have fallen behind quite a bit with taking so long with reviewing this I figure I will make up for that by doing a review each day this weekend which will get me through all the pre-NEWS debut episodes. And honestly with a new episode this week as well as the September episodes keeping their usual schedule of the first two weeks of the month I feel like I am falling behind, even though I know at the pace I am going I am really not.

KAT-TUN has some interesting moves during the beginning introductions for this episode.

And we get the group of regular Junior back dancers introduced as Junior Boys. Junior Boys is not so much a group but a grouping of Juniors that probably are going to be more prominent in the near future. For instance from this group of Junior Boys we have Masuda Takahisa only a couple of months from debuting with NEWS as well as Kitayama Hiromitsu and Fujigaya Taisuke who will be getting a group in the near future. So whenever you have a Junior Boys group it is a sign that they should be the Juniors to keep an eye on as they potentially be grouped into a more stable group.

Yamashita Tomohisa is the main MC for this episode as he was with the first one of the month.

The first medley of the show is a rock medley. We start off with A.B.C. actually singing for a change. They perform TOKIO's Doitsumo Koitsumo, which is one of my favorite TOKIO songs so the medley gets off with a good start, IMHO.

K.K.Kity join them during the medley before doing a song on their own for it. Watching it I could not help but notice how awkward Kato Shigeaki looked performing. I guess more than anything he seemed stiff and you would think for someone who has been a Junior for as long as he has he would have ironed some of that out. But on the other hand it is nice to see how much he has improved since then.

While Yokoyama Yu and Murakami Shingo are not his main helper MCs for this episode they do get to help out with one talk segment with Yamapi. Though the most interesting thing about this talk is that Yoko did not get his shirt buttoned up in time so he attempts to do so a couple of times but mainly tries to pretend to close it by trying to hold it closed with his free arm.

The next medley features Yax3 and their magically changing group size. If anything it just shows which members are going to stay with the group and which one is not.

K.K.Kity seems to have thing about joining in on medleys this episode as they show up for this one as well to perform Sennen no Love Song. What is nice with this performance is that the roller skaters just back dance for the first part of it so it is easier to see them. Though I am laughing at Fujigaya's hair as it just looks funny on him and I think I will be glad when he decides to finally let it grow out.

After that Yamapi talks a bit to Yax3 and they are back to being four members again for it.

Moriuchi Takahiro gets another solo performance. It is surprising to see how much he was pushed, though mainly because it ended up going nowhere when he dropped out of Johnny's so quickly after his debut. It would have been interesting to see what NEWS would have been like if he remained but one can really only speculate.

We have a "Yellow Card" segment where a few of the Juniors are called up to have another Junior tell them about something that they find annoying and want them to stop. Shige gets called up by Kusano Hironori and Kusano uses Hina to show how Shige fell asleep on him, which was his complaint.

Up next is a KAT-TUN medley which comes with a special introduction of each member. As their names are called out they go on the stage solo and do some moves with a couple of back dancers and their names are shown on the screen. The first letter of their last names are colored in the color that is assigned to them.

They then do the medley and I cannot help but think that it is rather a pity that it seems like a good deal of their Junior songs never made it on a CD. And with the group minus a member nowadays I think the chances of them being put on a CD are slim to none.

After the KAT-TUN medley we move into a Shounentai medley that A.B.C. perform. It is surprising to see A.B.C. so much as they have been mostly stuck as back dancers but hopefully this is a sign that things are shifting in their favor and they will be able to perform more and maybe even finally get their own group song.

We get a talk corner without Yamapi and instead have Jimmy Mackey, Kamenashi Kazuya and Akanishi Jin MCing. It is a bit strange to see Jimmy this episode as it feels like someone just remembered he was there as he was almost absent for all of last episode.

We had Yamapi missing there though because he was up for a performance next. It is strange to see Yamapi perform his songs as he gets mostly Juniors from groups, which include KAT-TUN, as his back dancers. It is if he is getting debuted guest status instead of Junior status when that happens. But I guess it will not be long before he will have the status for this kind of treatment.

K8 do a medley of, I guess English songs. Most of them have Japanese translations but they also all sound like they came from the 70s.

I am familiar with a couple of them, one of them, September, I know because a Japanese artist covered the English version of it so it was a bit weird to hear the Japanese version.

They do the letter segment they did in the last episodes that K8 were guests, where a letter is pulled out of a box and the writer has to read it out loud for the recipient. With this Ueda Tatsuya gets to write a letter to Nishikido Ryo to ask about what he was trying to say to him.

Ryo though decides to troll and asks him who he is. He keeps it up to the amusement of his group mates as Yoko tries to help him out. Ueda ends up telling him that he likes him and eventually Ryo says he likes him too.

After that Nishikido Ryo gets to perform a solo medley with songs he has sung in the past. The first song, Secret Agent Man, sounds strange to me as the last time I heard him sing it was back when he was a tiny thing that puberty was avoiding like the plague.

He finishes off the medley with fellow K8 members, Maruyama Ryuhei and Yasuda Shota joining him for the final song.

KAT-TUN get to perform again. This time one of their original songs in full, LOVE or LIKE. This is one of their songs that did make it onto a CD and it is one of the ones I actually liked. Not a favorite but something I have no problem having in my playlist from time to time.

Kanjani8 then get to sing an original song of their own, Eden. It starts off with Maruyama and Yasuda saying a haiku each before the performance begins.

I have to say I completely understand why this is a fan favorite for long time fans of the group. The song sounds really beautiful and it really fits the group's voices. I mean Shibutani Subaru sounds amazing in this song.

But then everyone sounds good. It is a wonderful ballad and seems to be a true hidden gem in K8's song discography. But at least it made in onto a CD with the group's first mini album that was released after their debut single.

As with the episode before the end song has Massu and Kitayama singing with mics being grouped with Yamapi.


I think it is clear now that they found a flow to these episodes now. There are finally more talk segments between performances and there are breaks from all that for segments that feature the Juniors doing things that gives you the chance to learn more about them.

Of course now is not the time to get too comfortable with things as after next month's episodes we get the first debut since moving to NHK Hall and probably more importantly the debut of Juniors that have been regulars on SC since the start of the program. So it will be interesting to see how that will play out.

But this weekend I will be looking at the episodes that with 20/20 hindsight were filled with signs of things to come.