A while back I decided I did not want to do the usual anniversary post of just talking about how I got hooked into this fandom that is becoming such a big part of my life. Mainly because the above paragraph has just done that and it would kinda lame to just leave it like that. So what I chose to do was do a bit of a look back for me from about a year ago when I bought my first JE magazine, the August issue of Duet. To help with this I made sure to pick up this year's August Duet. The scanner I used isn't the usual scanner I like to use so the scans are of poorer quality than usual.
As you can tell from the cover of the 2007 Duet I've thumbed through it numerous times. It was my aid in learning who was who in Johnny's and put names to faces for me. It was also the first JE related magazine that I was able to find, and I'm glad it was as Duet is still one of my favorite JE magazines.
Now moving on to some of the photo shoots that I want to talk about. It's in a semi-order in how things show up in the 2007 Duet.
I really have nothing to say about Kanjani8, the first group featured, as I could never really get into them. Their music isn't to my taste though I do like a couple of their songs. I do admit as a brand new fan to JE it confused me for a while to why Ryo was with Kanjani8 as I really only knew NEWS at first.
I still honestly can't say I'm a KAT-TUN fan, I do find some of their songs very catchy but honestly my main interest in the group is Taguchi Junnosuke. He was the sole reason I liked KAT-TUN for quite some time as I love dorks, probably because I can relate to them the most. That and he has a great smile, and I'm a sucker for smiles. I do like some of the other members of the group now, Nakamaru and Tanaka, sometimes Kamenashi, but Junno is still my favorite member by far, hence why I only scanned pictures from his photo shoots.
Next group featured was the temporary Hey! Say! 7 unit. I chose the picture that I scanned mainly because I kinda miss the days when Nakajima Yuto wasn't a giant yet. Of course a few months after this Hey! Say! 7 became Hey! Say! JUMP, adding five more members to the group to make it Johnny's largest and youngest to debut. It's a bit strange to think that it will be HSJ's 1-year anniversary soon. The boys have done quite a bit of growing over the past year, some more than others, and I'm interested in seeing what they'll look like in another year's time.
And while we're talking about growing after the HS7 pages, there was one for the then newly joined Uekusa Yuta, son of Shounentai's Uekusa Katsuhide. I'm normally not that interested in the younger Juniors, except I couldn't help but notice the difference a year made as Yuta looks much older in the 2008 Duet. I think a part of that is that he looks so much more comfortable and confident in 2008 than he did in 2007, where he looks nervous.
After the small Junior segment it goes back to debuted groups. I think this is still one of my favorite NEWS photo shoots. Maybe because it was the first one I saw but I just really like the background images and I'm a fan of the close up paired with a full body shot kind of photo sets. I don't really like the 2008 Duet photo shoot as it just seems odd to has Shigeaki being the odd man out. I mean either do group shots or individual shots for everyone or it just seems off to me.
It goes back to Juniors and Yara scares me. Seriously. He looks like he's ready to kill in the 2007 Duet. Thankfully he doesn't look nearly so sever in 2008, so I can look at his picture without wanting to run and hide.
Being Kinki Kids' 10th anniversary in 2007, the magazine has a fairly large section dedicated to it. I can't really call myself a Kinki Kids fan, but as I get to know more about the older Johnny's groups I'm beginning to like them more and more. Just not enough to take the time to scan anything. XD;;
Tsubasa's photo shoot for 2007 proves to me that he should never have long hair. He really needs to leave that to Tackey who can pull it off much better. I think I would have been more interested in Tackey & Tsubasa earlier if Tsubasa smiled more in the 2007 Duet, as I love his smile in the 2008 Duet. There's just something so charming about it, and like I mentioned before I'm a sucker for a nice smile.
When I first began getting interested in the Juniors the first group that I got interested in was Kis-My-Ft2. I just liked their songs and costumes the best. I still have a soft spot for them and have grown to really like some of the members of the group (Fujigaya, Yokoo, Nikaido & Senga). The younger members of the group look a bit more mature after a year, IMO. I'm amused that the page set up for both issues are very similar to each other. And yes, I am amused easily. XD
The Hashimoto-trio didn't exist in 2007, as J.J.Express was still in existence. But I'll cover them here anyway. Of course Hashimoto still did not look his age at all. I guess perhaps I should be thankful he doesn't seemed to have aged much at all in a years time so maybe one day his age will match his looks. Sanada is not in the 2007 Duet at all, though Nozawa is mixed in with other Juniors that got placed in a proto-unit, and if I'm not mistaken are currently a part of M.A.D.E. I think it's safe to say that the Hashimoto-trio have come up in the JE world, as Hashimoto is getting an entire page to himself and Sanada and Nozawa are now regulars in the JE magazines.
Next Juniors are the old chibiko-trio, Kyomoto and the Morimoto brothers. I don't think I would have ever imagined that Ryutarou would debut in only a couple of months back then. Of course with him debuting with HSJ, JE had to change things up a bit and brought in Casey Anderson to replace Ryutarou. Though it looks like JE isn't keeping things a trio anymore with the chibikos but that's fine with me as I don't think any of them will be getting the chance to debut soon.
Then after most of all the other Juniors are the Kansai Juniors. The 2008 Duet has a big change up for them as they are in the place the original Hey! Say! 7 where in the 2007 Duet. B.A.D. are definitely a couple of the currently more prominent Kansai Juniors, as the went from a single page to share to each member of the duo have their own page. Gokusen 3 has helped them out tremendously. It's a bit odd to see Nakayama Yuma not dominant the Kansai Junior section like he does nowadays though.
Of course I'm not going to skip mentioning Yamashita Shoon. Of course in August of 2007 Ya-Ya-Yah was still together. I honestly could not get into Yax3 when they were a group, though I instantly took a liking to Shoon. As a fan of HSJ I've come to love Yaotome Hikaru, I've still have a way to go to like Yabu. But going back to Shoon, it's a bit sad to see him on his own now after being part of a group he seemed happy to be in. But I'm glad he's hung in there and I hope I can see him in next year's August issue.
Last but not least is Takizawa Hideaki, or Tackey/Takki for short. I swear the man has to be one of the most photogenic people on the planet. I don't think I have ever seen a picture of him that looks bad, goofy maybe, but never honestly bad. And there is always at least one picture in his photo shoots that I am in love with for various reasons. These two are my favorites from the two issues.
And that will be all I wanted to ramble on about. I'm not sure how much people enjoy reading this but I know I enjoyed writing it up and will most likely do something similar to this next year.
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