The Shounen Club 16 October 2005 review

This episode gives us a bit of a break from the norm and it is a welcome change.

The episode begins in a medley of English songs with Ya-Ya-Yah and Jimmy Mackey leading it. There are some group introductions and we see that Johnny's has figured that they just need to go with the outfits they usually give the groups of Junior back dancers to have at least J.J.Express have matching outfits.

The producers for this episode are Jimmy Mackey and Yabu Kota. The theme they have for the episode is Himitsu (secret). I am so glad that they are going to have other Juniors be producers, as that should help change things up a bit for the episodes.

As expected from an episode not produced by a KAT-TUN member there is a good mix of KAT-TUN and the other Juniors, primarily Yax3, in this medley.

Jimmy and Yabu of course as producers get to take over some of the hosting duties and get an MC segment to talk about the show's theme.

This is followed by a letter exchange between Tanaka Koki and Nakamaru Yuichi. One of the more entertaining letter exchanges as from Nakamaru's reaction Koki is reading lies about him.

Yax3 then sing Yuuki 100% and thankfully they have finally updated the backing track so it actually sounds like they boys have hit puberty.

And we get a Yamada Ryosuke spotting as the song has a dance break worked in to showcase each of the members of the group.

We get a different kind of game this episode titled, Nisemono wa Dare da?! The way this works is that they have a group, in this case A.B.C., all claim something, playing instruments, and the contestants have to guess which ones are telling the truth and which one is lying.

The members get to try to prove they are telling the truth by pretending to play the instruments on the stage. And after that the contestants make their guesses and the members show if they were lying or not.

This was a fun game, though if you were familiar with A.B.C. you would have known they have played instruments before on the show so it would be pretty easy to figure out who was lying. But the guys brought a lot of energy to it and I wish they would have brought that same energy and sense of fun with their ... o abake segment they were in for the January 2013 episodes.

Yabu then reads various letters that had suggestions for episode themes, ending on the one that suggested Himitsu.

KAT-TUN then perform the song Freeze, which is one of their Junior songs that eventually found its way onto a CD release. It is a rap heavy song so a lot of Koki in it and very much in the hip-pop style that the group switched back and forth with rock-pop for their sound around their debut.

We then have Junior ni Q. Unfortunately most of the Juniors in this segment have left the agency, but we do get to see a tiny Watanabe Shota who looks adorable. The topic is of course about secrets.

We then get performances for A.B.C. and Kis-My-Ft2. Looks like there will be no official introduction of Kisumai, but I am still happy that they exist finally and to see them perform.

Interesting to note is that only the older four have roller skates for this performance. I know a couple of the younger members have used roller skates in the past so I can only assume that they were considered not up to par or they wanted all of them to be able to roller skate before they could join the older four.

And we get to see that the pairing of Kisumai and A.B.C. is continuing on for the groups, which is something that will be a standard for years to come and bring forth the Ebikisu nickname for the two groups.

Imai Tsubasa keeps rolling out the songs that seem to be a good fit for him as he performs 1DAY 1NIGHT in this episode.

Yabu and Jimmy get one final MC segment before the show goes back to the standard of having KAT-TUN get the last two performances.

It starts with KAT-TUN covering SMAP's song Yozora no Mukou, which is one of the more popular songs. It is a nice ballad and KAT-TUN do sound good covering it.

They do at least bring Yabu and Jimmy in to perform Wonderful World with them. It is nice to see non-KAT-TUN members singing the song, as I think it is safe to say that KAT-TUN have gotten bored with the song (not that I blame them about that), so having someone who genuinely looks happy singing it is a nice change.



This is the kind of episode I have been waiting for with SC this season. One where KAT-TUN does not need to be taken out of just lessened their presence so other Juniors can get seen more. And honestly with KAT-TUN's debut coming up in a few months it would be a good time to start shifting focus a bit so when they leave the program the other Juniors would actually have the chance of being able to carry it.

That said I know there are still some things to come that will affect the show but I will wait until I get to those episodes before saying more.

Overall though I am liking these season better than the last, even though it sadly has to deal with some issues beyond its control.

Piece Ep. 9 first impressions

At this point in the drama I am getting rather lost at times with what is being said and going on exactly. The only solace I find is the fact that I have been pretty much on so far when watching the subs, which are now up to episode 6. So hopefully by the end of the year it will be done and these pieces I am missing from the language barrier gets filled in.

While the house Mizuho has found looks like the one Narumi lives in she notices that the name placard is different. She meets with one of the occupants and learns that Narumi's brother Hiro had moved from the place at some point.

We get the first flashback with Narumi and Origuchi. She has the painting with her, as Narumi notices the initials on it. They discuss things I could not follow but near the end Origuchi tells him that she thinks he is a kind person but he does not seem to really believe it.

She ends up meeting with Yanai and Matsuura after visiting the house and discuss things with them. Really could not follow the conversation but I believe that Mizuho is stubbornly clinging to the idea that her lead is the one she needs to follow to get to the heart of the matter.

Matsuura eventually reveals that he did talk to Origuchi before. During an art class he noticed her painting because of her color use but his enthusiasm apparently freaked her out as she ended up running off.

We get the next flashback with Narumi and Origuchi which confirms without a doubt that he knows much more than he has let on as he is visiting her in the hospital. It is clear that she is suffering from cancer and more than likely supposed to be getting chemo therapy. Could not really follow much of what was said but lots of silent but grumpy looks from Narumi.

Mizuho goes to visit Narumi again to get some answers but he is not home. Thankfully Nanao shows up and lets her in and they confirm that he really is not in the house.

When Mizuho enters the living room she notices that Narumi broke the painting, and we see in flashback that he kicked it in. Mizuho is worried about Narumi not getting what could have upset him so. She and Nanao talk a bit then.

Mizuho decides to ask Nanao about meeting with his mother. The next scenes we get are Narumi and Mizuho walking around but we only get to see where Mizuho ends up as she meets with Yanai at Narumi Clinic where Narumi's mother works. And it is with her showing up that the episode ends.


Next episode should be the finale of the series, because I cannot see this being dragged out any longer without beginning to feel tedious now that we should be getting a chunk of Narumi's back story with the meeting with his mother. Or we better, because I would feel cheated if we get a cop out instead.

I think this episode just frustrates me because I could not follow it as easily as the others and I know there are things being said that I needed to catch to have things make much more sense. So I feel like I cannot comment too much about it until I find out what was said and what I missed. And thankfully it does not seem like I will have to wait too long hopefully.

Piece Ep. 8 first impressions

Ended up doing this much later than planned, sorry about that.

Things are reaching the point where even though I can follow the main points of the episodes I know I am missing some key things as well that is in the dialogue. Hopefully the subs will be able to catch up soon, though I am happy to see they have completed episode 5 now, which should be a big help in figuring out Yanai's character more at least.

So Mizuho follows Narumi into the house and notices that everything looks exactly how it did three years ago. She shows him the painting and the initials, pointing out that they are the same as his. He laughs it off commenting that there are a lot of people with those initials.

With that past he leads her into his living room which is a pigsty, like usual, and tries to get her to help clean it up with him. She does a lot of thinking about things I could not catch that ultimately end with her leaving him.

Mizuho meets with Yanai and Madoka to try to figure where to go next to find a lead since they now seem to have all dried up. In the middle of it Mizuho gets a call from Narumi who asks her to come back over. I believe he promises to help her somehow if she brings some stuff with her for him, like toilet paper.

Mizuho goes back with the stuff Narumi asked for her to bring, or at least most of it, and after some bickering seem to fall back into how they were back when they were going out. In better spirits Mizuho ends up helping Narumi clean and everything and the end up napping on the floor. I do not quite care for this turn in their relationship honestly. It would be one thing if Narumi showed any signs of having matured in any way since high school but he still comes off as the same asshole he was back then. So for now I am side-eyeing this romantic plot in the series, hard.

When she leaves the house she runs into Nanao who is pleased to see her. The two go off to talk and Mizuho learns some key details, like it was Nanao that left the room unlocked back then. Also the big piece of information that gets her a big step in the right direction to solve the mystery is the fact that Narumi has an older brother called Hiro. So of course the initials on the painting could be his as well. When Mizuho asks about going to see Hiro she is given directions to the house he lives in by Nanao.

As Mizuho travels to the house she recognizes that the route is the same that she and Narumi took that day they had their impromptu date three years ago. She wonders if Narumi was not partly wanting to go to the other house that day on that day.

Meanwhile Yanai meets with an artist, that I believe is named Matsuura and is played by Watanabe Shota of the Junior group Snow Man. Yanai looks at his sketches and finds some of Origuchi. Unfortunately I could not catch all the conversation but I believe there was a mention of Origuchi frequently using a bus stop near where he sketched people.

Yanai calls Mizuho and I believe it is to tell her that he figured things out about the painting or found a solid lead he wants her to see but Mizuho is sure that the lead she is following is important and continues on her journey. She ends up reaching the house of Narumi's brother and is shocked to see that it is identical to the house Narumi lives in.

And that is where things end for this episode. The preview shows that it looks like we are going to find out more about Origuchi and Narumi's relationship and that is about all I could glean as it seems to be making sure that nothing major is given away. With only two episodes left in the series I can understand that as we are hitting the final stretch so things should finally all start falling into place.


Not sure how much I care for the secret older brother plot here, but I guess it does work considering that Narumi does not seem like the type to talk about himself much at all to anyone. I think it is going to depend how it plays out. Though it does seem like it is going to work well as the way to bring the two main plots of the drama together for the ending.