The Shounen Club 20 November 2005 review

Onto the next November episode of Shounen Club and more NEWS + Juniors goodness.

J.J.Express actually all have matching outfits finally. And it seems like I miscounted as there are nine members here and not eight.

This episode is produced by Nishikido Ryo and the theme for it is pride.

The theme medley is title Otoko no Pride Medley (Man's Pride Medley) and starts with one of my all time favorite Johnny's songs, Mihari, sung as a solo by Ryo. I had such high hopes for this medley based off of this.

And honestly it did not disappoint except for one area, and the disappointment was huge. We had Jimmy Mackey and Uesato Ryota butcher Freddie Mercury's I was born to love you again. There are just some songs once you have heard the original it limits your enjoyment of covers for it, as in if they are not good then you just want them to burn. This is one of those songs.

Surprisingly enough I found Yamashita Tomohisa coming to my aide with the next song in the medley, Domoto Tsuyoshi's Hyakunen no Koi. He sounds good in this song and brings the right attitude for a rock song. It is also nice that he had Toshin Yoshikazu & A.B.C. joining him in singing it. So my hope and enjoyment was revived.

The medley ends up on a strong note then moves to have Yamapi talk about his pride before introducing the next song, over from 20th Century, which NEWS covers. It's a nice song and even has the word "pride" in the lyrics.

We then have a few of the JJE members talk about things they are proud of. Hashimoto Ryosuke already looks to be as tall as the older members of the group even though he is the same age as Nakajima Yuto.

For Nakajima Yuto he gets to show off his flexibility when it is his turn to speak.

JJE finally get to perform a song, something I do not think they have done in a while, or at least not in the past couple of episodes. They perform Love Me Baby.

And because I can here is a screen cap of Takaki Yuya, who is one of the few from the group to actually get solo lines in the song. And his voice is already sounding like it does nowadays so no surprises there.

The game segment is a versus battle between a team lead by Yamapi and one lead by Ryo. The first game is arm wrestling.

The next they bring out a device that has the contestant sit in a chair and have them press a button. Once the button is pressed it will work as a timer as the contestant has to try to guess when it hits 10 seconds.

I just want to mention that Yamapi has just been on for these episodes. He actually looks and acts like he is full of life for a change instead of just being there. I think his role as Akira in Nobuta no Produce must be rubbing off on him in a good way. This is the Yamapi we need to return.

Finally, after being told that none of the wins or loses from the earlier games matter, there is a tug-a-war. Masuda Takahisa shows an interesting anchor technique for it.

The losing team has to play a batsu game, which is that they have to say a phrase in baby talk. I will props to Ryo for trying to get out of it by pretending they were out of time. But the captain must go down with the ship.

Next we have Question? taking the stage to perform their song Precious Memories. I do not think I will stop feeling sad watching them perform seeing as they are no longer a group and most of the members have left the agency.

Ryo's pride gets tested as he is brought out by Tegoshi Yuya for a special report that shows off pictures/video of him from when he was younger and has him talk about it. We get to see one of his really early SC appearances (October 22nd, 2000).

NEWS then perform a song called Heaven and I am disappointed this was not on a CD. Even though with the rockish sound it seems like it would have been a better fit with KAT-TUN it could have fit with NEWS at this time as they had yet to really get a set style down for themselves yet. Of course the chances of it ever getting on a CD is next to nil.

Instead of Junior ni Q we get KAT-TUN ni Q, I guess they felt that they needed to find a way to get the group in the episode somehow. So they all talk about things they are proud of, except for Nakamaru Yuichi as he is the picked on member of the group right now.

Ryo talks about the theme of the episode before he performs a solo. The song is Ai Igai no Nande mo Nai, which I am not familiar with at all. It has the kind of sound I would place with Domoto Koichi's solo material if I had to. Ryo's voice is one that lends itself to enough various styles it is hard for his to go wrong with song selection so this song works for him no matter what.

This episode saves us from hearing Wonderful World again as NEWS with Ya-Ya-Yah sing SUMMARY ~Ending~ instead. Another way it seems like Yax3 is being set up to be the next big thing for the Juniors. Either way it is nice to hear another song end the show and SUMMARY is always a nice song to listen to and this mix of it has that nice finale feeling to it, plus some nice group mixing moments.


Another SC episode I really enjoyed. I cannot believe that I am almost done with 2005 already but I guess it should have been expected with the sped up schedule for reviewing these. There is so much in the near future to look forward to, a few things I would rather not as well though.

I just noticed but KAT-TUN has been ranking rather high on my blog tags list. Of course I expect other groups to eclipse them eventually the further along I get with SC episodes. So they can enjoy their time near the top for now. Soon they shall be surpassed, I am sure of it.

Sayonara Tegomass, or not

Tegomass will be releasing a new single on March 6th. It is titled Sayonara ni Sayonara and will be an R&B song. It will come in two versions.

The limited version will have the title track, the karaoke track version of the title track and a DVD that will have the PV and making of for it.

Sayonara ni Sayonara [w/ DVD, Limited Edition] / Tegomass (Tegomasu)

The regular edition has the title track two B-sides not on the LE and a Tego karaoke and Massu karaoke version of the title track. I can only assume those karaoke versions will have only one of them doing their parts so I guess if you want to sing with one of them for karaoke you can.

Sayonara ni Sayonara [Regular Edition] / Tegomass (Tegomasu)

I am of two minds for this release. I do like Tegomass but I am first off a NEWS fan and of course would rather see something from them. But as long as the huge gaps in releases do not happen for NEWS in favor of Tegomass' activities I will be fine.

In a way I cannot help but think that maybe this is a bit of a way to test the sales potential of Tegomass compared to NEWS after everything. I think it will be interesting to see how this single does sales wise, especially as it will only have two versions.

Let's Speculate.... Johnny Kitagawa's Legacy & Hey! Say! JUMP

With the flair up of the rivalry between Julie Kitagama and Iijima Michi as they battle it out to be selected as Johnny Kitagawa's successor which group falls under whom has been brought up. In this it is rumored that Johnny himself is still managing some groups, namely the younger ones like Hey! Say! JUMP, Sexy Zone and A.B.C-Z. This makes some sense as they are the three groups being mainly featured in his ambitious musical extravaganza Johnny's World.

If this is the case then I cannot help but worry about the future for HSJ. They have already been mis-managed before by not releasing a CD in over a year back around 2009 and never seem to have the promise that they have had since debut utilized well. And some of the more recent decisions by Johnny has me worried that they never will be a well utilized group.

While Johnny has gone after records before in the past year he seems to becoming more and more obsessed with them. I feel this is a part of his desire to make sure he is leaving a strong legacy behind him before he decides to retire, which he would have to be seriously considering for the current rivalry to be as heated as it has seemly gotten.

He also is eyeing international markets, which is nice for international fans in a way, but whether or not he has the savvy to get his acts to successfully enter them is another matter. Naming a group of teens and younger Sexy Zone is far from a vote of confidence in that area, as nowhere in the West would that go down well at all. But then again he did allow Akanishi Jin to start using the standard internet media outlets, Youtube, Twitter, Facebook, etc fro his U.S. venture so perhaps he might be able to make the needed adjustments for that, or at least trust in people from those markets in knowing how an artist needs to be handled.

So what does this mean for HSJ? Out of the three groups that are rumored to be under his management HSJ is the only one that has a proven success sales record and is already established and stable in Japan. They are also now all out of high school and will be turning 20, the legal age of adulthood in Japan this year, 2013. This makes them the best group to use for his aims with going international and establishing whatever records he can with them. In fact I suspect part of why it was decided for Yamada Ryosuke to release a solo single was so he could get that record of highest male teen solo debut since Kondo Masahiko record.

Also there is no denying that HSJ has been hindered from doing much else than Johnny's World these past couple of months, being the main feature in it. And every time it seems to be coming to an end there is an announcement that it will be extended in some way. Hopefully it will be over after the Dome performances and HSJ can do something like finally release another single. Because if they do not continue to release new CDs they will be surpassed by SZ easily within a year or so if they keep their pace up.

Johnny keeps talking about wanting to expand internationally and wanting to do shows in the U.S. but I feel he is hindering the popularity of his groups, like in this case HSJ, in Japan to try to make this happen. I think it would fare much better if he created a new group specifically for his international ambitions, because really in the U.S. very few are going to care if they are the biggest thing in Japan or nobodies so it would be wiser to not hinder an established artist for a project like that.

The Shounen Club 13 November 2005 review

Well if there is any sure sign that this is the year KAT-TUN will be debuting the fact that they are missing from several tapings this season would be it. We enter another month with NEWS taking over in their stead as the hosts of the program.

We start off with the usual introduction of the Juniors with a familiar starting track in the back with the lyrics "to North, to East, go West, go South" in the background.

So there is not surprise that NEWS shows up to kick the show off with singing their debut song, NEWS Nippon.

Masuda Takahisa is the producer of the episode and his theme is Smile, which of course is incredibly fitting for him being the happy-go-lucky type.

We get the usual theme medley which has a good mix of NEWS members and Juniors. Like some of the groups getting to sing on their own, like Ya-Ya-Yah singing their song Stompin' as a part of it.

And Toshin Yoshikazu & A.B.C. and Kis-My-Ft2 get to join Yamashita Tomohisa in singing V6's Believe Your Smile.

Near the end of the medley Massu reads some letters quickly that mention him and his smile before starting the final song of Kimi wa Kimi da yo, a SMAP song, that he is joined by the rest of NEWS for part way through.

Ya-Ya-Yah get to be in the first MC talk where they talk about the various things that make them smile.

They then get to sing a new song, Himawari no Melody. It is a very Broadway sounding song that has this great build of momentum as the song goes on that makes it sound more and more energetic and dynamic than from how it starts.

Massu then talks to Inoo Kei and Nakajima Yuto about how joining the agency made them smile.

We then get the game segment of the show Mister X wa Dare da?! with a good mix of contestants. While we do get to see who Mister X is with the audience we do not get the small screen of him, which defeats the purpose of that IMHO.

Kamenashi Kazuya does a VTR for the game and the contestants have some fun with that.

They introduce something new by bringing Mister X out in a box that has holes that the contestants can put their hands through to touch who is inside. (I don't think Yuto was overly happy with that.) Yamapi must have thought the box had a front to it as he ends up looking in and of course is caught. He swore he saw nothing but even if he did he pretty much had to guess wrong or have everyone accuse him of having cheated.

Kato Shigeaki and Kusano Hironori do the next MC segment. Kusano reads a letter that brings up how Shige was called a smile genius, so he is prompted to give one of his smiles.

Yamapi then sings his solo song Colorful, which is the solo of his that ended up on the Seishun Amigo CD release that will be released the following month. I wonder if this means we will get a Seishun Amigo performance next month.

Next up is a Junior ni Q segment with Nakamaru Yuichi and Tanaka Koki hosting. I wonder when they actually filmed this one as it is the usual rehearsal room setting as the past ones. Again most of who is talked to have left the agency, but we do get the full Kis-My-Ft2 group called up.

They manage this by having several members write that their last special smile came from gags from other members of the group. And of course we get to see what those gags were. I think they are the type that you just needed to be there at the moment to appreciate them as I feel like there is an atmosphere or something else missing to make these gags actually funny.

We then get a MC that focuses on Massu, Kawai Fumito and Kitayama Hiromitsu, as all three love dancing. Oddly enough Kitayama is listed as being in Kis-My-Ft. instead of Kis-My-Ft2, so I can only assume this is just a transition thing.

The next performance is a medley and again there is Kis-My-Ft. being listed as the group the older four are in. But the younger four are nowhere to be seen so it probably was not a big issue, again most likely coming from the fact that the Kis-My-Ft2 formation is still pretty new.

After they and Toshin & A.B.C. have their performances Massu comes out to perform his solo It's BAD. I forgot he had this solo, but honestly it is not a very good song and is easily forgettable. The dance is the only thing that really saves it with all the hip swaying and thrusts.

Afterwards NEWS comes out and Massu plays up being winded from the performance so if you want to hear him breath heavily you can have it here.

NEWS then performs Fiesta. Not one of my favorite songs from them but still a fun song as it has good energy at least.

I honestly thought Fiesta was going to be used as the end song for the performance so I was surprised that it ended minutes shy of the end of the show. So there is to be no escape of Wonderful World this episode. But NEWS keeps up the spirit of silly antics for the song.

Double Yamashita!

And midway through Yabu Kota and Yamashita Shoon show up to join in singing with them for whatever reason.


Another good episode when it comes to balancing out the Juniors. I think I could deal with a couple of KAT-TUN heavy episodes without much issue after this. Because it was the month after month of KAT-TUN heavy episodes that got on my nerves more than just having episodes that focused heavily on KAT-TUN.

With Yax3 being included in more and getting a steady amount of screen time it is beginning to feel like they are being set up to take over from KAT-TUN when they leave. Of course it does seem a bit early to be saying that but still looking at the Junior groups as they were then Yax3 easily was the more popular group after KAT-TUN, especially as they did have their own variety program at the time as well. Plus it would be fitting in a way seeing as they will eventually meet the same fate as Four Tops, who KAT-TUN took over for.

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.