The Shounen Club 9 January 2005 review

As happy as I am to finally be on 2005 episodes now I still really feel like I want to catch up soon so I can comment on the more recent episodes. I guess I should at least feel good about getting back to two reviews a week as that should help with catching up though I still probably have months to go still.

We start off the episode with KAT-TUN on the stage before the curtain is raised. They give teases about what will be seen in the episode before it begins. There is nothing to really note of the introductions as there has been no group changes and everyone is accounted for.

The guests of the month is Kanjani8 which helps sets the bar for these episodes to have some pretty fun moments. The theme of the episode is Kibou (Hope) and the various Junior groups are asked about hopes they have while Yokoyama Yu camera bombs them all.

The first medley is one of the more KAT-TUN heavy ones with only the younger Junior groups, mostly Ya-Ya-Yah, getting some decent time even if most of it is shared.

There are two Juniors that are important to note that can be seen in this performance. The first being Hashimoto Ryosuke, who is going to eventually be joining J.J.Express and post-Hey! Say! JUMP debut be added to A.B.C. to form A.B.C-Z.

The next is another future JJE member, but he will debut with HSJ, Morimoto Ryutaro. Of course one of the important things to note about Ryutaro's appearance is the fact that he joined Johnny's with a group of Juniors that had their audition filmed for Yax3's TV program and that group also included Yamada Ryosuke. So if Ryutaro is around it should mean so is Yamada.

We get a dajyare (pun) segment with Taguchi Junnosuke who reads a postcard from a little girl that works in a pun about Ueda Tatsuya riding a bicycle in it.

With the segment over Ueda shows up on the stage riding a bicycle, and I can imagine making a little girl so very happy.

JJE peform Kibou ~Yell~ with A.B.C. Jr. backing them up for parts of the song. I rather like the performance as it has a lot of my favorites in it and Arioka Daiki actually does not look like he hates life while performing here, just kinda bored.

Yamada is so small and blurry.

And while I almost missed it there is a small glimpse of Yamada in this. It is sometimes hard to remember that Yamada did not start off as being promoted as one of the more promising Juniors. Ryutaro was the one that got the attention from his group and it took a while before Yamada started getting the breaks he needed to eventually break out. So I look forward to seeing him go through all this in the coming episodes.

Tanaka Koki and Yasuda Shota talk about traveling on the shinkensen (bullet train), as K8 has to do that when they come to Tokyo for work. It is rather nice to see other members other than Murakami Shingo and Yoko get to do these MC segments for a change.

The game segment of the episode is Junior Hai School with members of KAT-TUN and K8 competing in it. We also get some Junior helpers which include Takaki Yuya and Sanada Yuma.

They play a couple of word games, the first is giving reasons why they do not want to become adults. The second is that they have to come up with a phrase that is three lines long and use a character of the word kibou to begin each line. Needless to say this is the highlight of the episode as they all just try to out goofy each other with the answers, especially with the second game and using Ueda's name to begin the final line.

Junno leads a talk with a few of the members of K8 about their concert tour. It is nice to see Ohkura Tadayoshi be highlighted in something as at this point he seems to be one of the neglected members of the group.

K8 then perform a medley of their songs. I really do like the pants they have for this outfit. The "fins" on the outside leg of them just looks silly and out of place. Not to mention the fur lining on the tops really do not go with them.

Afterwards KAT-TUN does a rock medley. While I enjoy rock songs I am disappointed that this ends up being KAT-TUN performance without any real choreography. The songs lose some energy with the group mainly just standing around and it is the Juniors back dancing that have to make up for that.

Kis-My-Ft. get to have a MC segment to themselves as they talk about things they hope to do. This leads into a joint performance with the members of A.B.C. in what they call a "dance battle".

A.B.C. perform first and I find it quite hard to find a way to find a screen cap that can really give an idea of the performance. They are hitting the point that their acrobatics are looking impressive so their performances are fun to watch if just for that.

Kis-My-Ft. trade off with them and perform Midnight Shuffle, which seems to be their assigned song for now. The group remains energetic and you start to get the feeling that they are really starting to mesh now as a group.

Jimmy Mackey gets to give a riddle for KAT-TUN to solve before being able to go on stage. Junno ends up being the only member to get it without Jimmy practically giving the answer away.

The group then sings a song named FLY, and it is yet another forgettable song. It also does not help that it is yet another KAT-TUN performance with very little choreography.

We get to the end theme and I am just so ready for the new season of this show to start. It would be one thing if other groups than KAT-TUN performed it but since it is not it is getting pretty boring to watch. The only thing that caught any bit of my attention this time was that Akanishi Jin let Junno go through his legs this time around.


Even though it is a new year it is not a new season of the program so very little has changed. While being rather KAT-TUN heavy it was not so bad as there were a good amount of times to see some of the other Juniors and Kanjani8 always helps make things more enjoyable with their great sense of comedy. So overall a good episode and it is always nice to see more Juniors that go on to debut show up.

In any case only three more episodes before the end of season recap episode. I will probably go ahead and make that recap episode a Monday review so I can get to the new season, which will hopefully bring around some of the changes I have been waiting for.

The Shounen Club 5 December 2004 review

Final episode of the year of 2004 and hopefully things will be more inline with this episode from here on out. But I guess I will not talk too soon as I do have another episode for this month to still watch.

The only change to the introductions is Ya-Ya-Yah finally back to the group's full roster again.

The theme is Egao (Smile) and the guest of the month is NEWS (sans Nishikido Ryo and Uchi Hiroki who are probably off doing something with Kanjani8). With NEWS there they decide to have the member of the two groups do a bit of a smile off so no surprise it is Taguchi Junnosuke and Masuda Takahisa picked for it.

The opening medley has a good mix of Juniors, especially of Toshin Yoshikazu & A.B.C. This is much more in line with the kind of opening medleys I have enjoyed in these episodes, where while there is KAT-TUN in it, the other Juniors groups also get a good amount of spotlight.

We get the Ueda no Heya segment again and this time Kamenashi Kazuya is there to help talk about the postcard they read. Still find this to be a rather pointless segment since there is no difference than other times they do this for an MC segment.

We get a Yax3 medley and it is undeniable that they are lip syncing the entire thing. I say this because they sing most of their older songs and sound exactly like they did before Yabu Kota's voice began to drop. In fact in one of the songs you hear his lines but looking at his mouth he is not singing them. I can understand why they lip sync but I would think they would at least re-record once voice begin to change to avoid this.

We get the first ... o abake segment even though they have done a similar segment before, but under a different name. But basically each participate puts on an eye mask to block their vision and their mics distort their voices to make them sound like they just took in a bunch of helium. They then answer questions about other members. These segments are always a blast to watch and thankfully most, if not all have subs out for them in various corners of the internet.

Thankfully someone had the foresight to let Koyama Keiichiro do one of the MC segments where he got to talk about the song that the group would perform. As throughout the episode it is clear that if he has a mic he will use it, even if he is not the one doing the talking.

NEWS then performs one of their B-sides, Devil or Angel. I have never cared for the song but I do like that each member gets a solo line in it. In fact one nice thing about NEWS is that even though they were a large group they still had some songs like these to have everyone have at least a line to sing solo.

The VTR segment is being called Ano Toki, Kimi wa Wakkata! (That time, you were young!) and has Kamenashi Kazuya and Nakajima Yuto interviewing Kinki Kids. This is of course means we get clips from the show Music Jump replaced before it was replaced by Shounen Club, Idol on Stage. We get to see the time frame it ran for, October 1993 to March 1997, which of course covers a good portion of the time that Kinki Kids were Juniors.

We get to see some clips from then, one that even includes a young Nakai Masahiro. Also to note is that one of the clips has Kinki Kids singing Hoshikuzu no Spangle, so apparently this song has been around for a while. It makes me wonder where exactly it came from.

We have exchange letters this episode and it is between Kitayama Hiromitsu and Fujigaya Taisuke. I do not think I have seen a letter exchange that the participants had so much fun as both teased each other with stories about each other. I think it is easy to see how well the two work together even back then and Johnny's was right on with making them dual leads for their groups.

One of the songs is Can Do!, Can Go! and here Yabu actually sounds like he has been in the past couple of months which makes it even more apparent that they were using old recordings for the Yax3 medley. But hey, here is a cute little Takaki Yuya who gets to be lumped with the five/six Fresh Juniors used a bit in this episode.

This episode introduces the KAT-TUN song GOLD, which is honestly one of my favorite songs from them as it is on their debut album. Of course I never noticed how odd some of the English lines are but still I love the song and it is the usual strong performance from the group.

We get an MC break that Jimmy Mackey gets to talk about Christmas and what he usually does for it.

Nakajima Yuto gets to read a letter that has the test for it show up on the screen. Again it is getting obvious he has been put on the track to get promoted as the next golden Junior after Yabu Kota.

Afterwards JJE and KAT-TUN sing a song together with the grouping of six Fresh Juniors hanging around to look cute basically.

They seem to need to kill time and KAT-TUN chat a bit. They try to get Junno to do a pun but he cannot think of one on the spot to do and Akanishi Jin ends up pulling one out for him eventually.

I guess someone else must be realizing how stale the end number is getting as they try to make it a bit more interesting with the choreography. Jin does not let Junno in between his legs though, I guess there is no accounting for good taste.


So glad that this first episode of the month was much more balanced than last month's. In fact I did not feel so sick and tired of KAT-TUN this episode. Though it probably helped that they performed one of my favorite songs of theirs. But even then having NEWS around was a bit like have K8 around in the sense that the guests got featured enough that it broke up the usual KAT-TUN monopoly.

This is probably one of my favorite episodes in a while and I have hopes for the next as NEWS should stay around for that one as well, and there will be no stopping Koyama from getting a word in if given a mic.

The Shounen Club 21 November 2004 review

Cannot believe I am already hitting the end of the 2004 episodes. 2005 should be rather interesting as there are more changes to come for certain Junior groups and KAT-TUN should be gearing up for debut as they only have a little over a year before then.

The theme of the episode is Omoi, which is a tricky word to translate into English as there is no true equivalent unless you are using it in a sentence. But the best would be thoughts & feelings for an idea of what it should be. Like the last episode it is just KAT-TUN talking about the theme with the other Juniors just standing around on stage.

Surprisingly enough KAT-TUN is not all over the medley for the theme. Instead the other Juniors make up the main parts of the medley. And I have to admit that I felt happy seeing that the members of J.J.Express and Kis-My-Ft. that go on to debut ended up being paired up together for the song they sung together.

After that medley we have Yabu Kota leading a group of Fresh Juniors in covering V6's Can Do!, Can Go! And while Takaki Yuya is in this group (stuck behind Yabu for a good portion of the song) there is another familiar Junior that I was happy to see. Sanada Yuma makes his Shounen Club debut this episode, or at his debut as a Junior with a mic and getting his name on the screen.

Another thing to not is that part way through the song Nikaido Takashi and Senga Kento come out to join Yabu being the main singers of the song. I guess this confirms those two as the leads for A.B.C. Jr. In any case it is nice to see at least a couple members of that group do more than just back dance.

The game segment for this episode is the return of Attate Pon! and it is thankfully KAT-TUN lite at least.

This time it is Ueda Tatsuya to have something about him to guess, which was what he made to learn since he was a child.

Jimmy Mackey gets to do the Shounen Club Box VTR segment and he visits old familiar faces, Ikuta Toma and Kazama Shunsuke. The two are a part of the cast for the WEST SIDE STORY production that starred Arashi's Satoshi Ohno, Sakurai Sho and Matsumoto Jun. Yamashita Shoon was also part of the cast, which probably goes to explain his absences from the program.

When we go back to the live filmed part of the show it is for KAT-TUN to perform a song. The song is called MESSENGER and I can only assume it is yet another one of their original songs that have been abandoned post-debut. Something I can understand why because there is nothing all that outstanding about it except for the guys showing off their ero-dance moves.

We get a letter reading corner between Totsuka Shota and Tanaka Koki. It always amuses me how embarrassed Koki gets when others praise him for his kindness. He truly is the biggest softie in KAT-TUN no matter how he tries to present himself.

I was happy to see Toshin Yoshikazu & A.B.C. get some good screen time with having more than one performance on the show. They got to perform the Japanese versions of Dancing Queen and I Can't My Eyes Off of You, both songs that from time to time come back for Juniors to perform.

Imai Tsubasa performed another one of his solo songs, Serenade. When I saw his mic I could not help but wonder if Sexy Zone will get ones just like it sometime in the future.

Kamenashi Kazuya gets to sit and talk about the theme of the show. Of course this segment has frequent screams from the audience in it.

KAT-TUN then sing Hoshikuzu no Spangle, and I always enjoy seeing this song performed. Though whoever was in charge of the dry ice, or whatever they use for the smoke, seemed to have gotten a bit carried away.

The ending song is the same of the usual. The back dancers (A.B.C. and Kis-My-Ft.) get some camera time at least. And while I have no idea what Totsu was trying to do here I have the feeling this was not the planned outcome.


It really frustrates me that some of the non-KAT-TUN portions of this episode could not have been mixed in with the previous one. This is a much more balanced show when it comes to showing all of the Juniors and while I am very glad to have it after such a KAT-TUN centric one I cannot help but think that they should have had more of this balance in the first episode of the month.

Of course with KAT-TUN's debut coming nearer I cannot hope that perhaps they may be too busy to do so much on SC in 2005 to keep being such a large part of the show.