Shounen Club July Filming Report

I'm back from going to see the Shounen Club tapings for July's episodes. Honestly with the huge lack of Juniors, most were at the KAT-TUN concert tonight, and the amount of stage time Hey! Say! JUMP had I think it's better to think of next month's episodes as the Hey! Say! JUMP Club instead.

I was able to get a seat on the second floor, but a ways back. Though thankfully the hall isn't too big so I could see everyone, though the binoculars I used were rather helpful at some parts. Of course things seemed to zip by and I know I'm not great at catching song names unless they're written down somewhere I can see, so I'm probably missing some thngs here and there. But I will try my best to report everything I can remember.

The taping was definitely not set up to be one episode after the other, as the game segments were all done in the second half. Also all the older performers had the focus of the second segment, with the younger boys doing all their performing in the first half.

I believe it's just Hey! Say! JUMP showing up on stage at the beginning and then Yuma w/ B.I.Shadow following after. Hey! Say! JUMP are all wearing various costumes, none really matching each other. Yuma has a nice white and red costume while B.I. Shadow have similiar costumes but their's is mainly yellow, which doesn't look good IMHO. Then Koyama comes on stage. IIRC, Koyama explains where the usual Juniors are and mentions that Yabu and Hikaru will be helping him host. Though Hikaru seemed to have problems saying his lines all through the recording.

The first talk segment was with Okamoto, Ryutarou and Yuto. Okamoto got to be the lead for the talk segment. I was so amazed with how completely comfortable Okamoto was talking and cracking jokes. The boy really has come a long way since his debut.

There was a HSJ medley, which began with a Yamada solo, with the rest of Hey! Say! 7 being his back up dancers, followed by a Chinen solo. Then Takaki does his solo, Kumo no Ito, then it's Yuto with his own solo. I believe it then moves on to NYC boys singing NYC, which sounds better when it's more than just the chorus. Though I had to laugh when in the lyrics they do call themselves 'New York City boys'.

Then it's another talk segment with Nakayama Yuma, with Yabu and Hikaru there to read a letter. Hikaru messes up the introduction to the segment and he gets teased a bit for it. After the talk YuBIS perform Akuma na Koi, without Shintarou which makes it sounds a bit strange without anyone singing his parts.

For the HSJ single hit medley the only time the full group was on stage was for the beginning and end segments when they sang Ultra Music Power. Dreams Come True was sung by the bleach brown trio, Yabu, Hikaru and Takaki. Your Seed was Yuto, Inoo and Ryutarou, and Mayonaka no Shadow Boy was Chinen, Yamada and Daiki. Okamoto got to play the guitar for the end part with UMP. I believe it was with this song they had a costume change into orange costumes, with Hey! Say! 7 with red scarves and Hey! Say! BEST with blue.

I think there was another MC segemnt here. There were a few of them so they're kinda getting meshed together in my mind. But this one was Yamada, I think Chinen, and Yabu and Hikaru. Yamada got to read the postcard this time. Then he got to show off his recent impressions, I think. Though I'm not sure what/who they were impressions of. The first looked like he was sitting on a chair in mid-air then the second he struck a pose and Koyama then stepped out in front of him to block people's view.

And I think it was after this that B.I.Shadow came out and sang their song. Don't remember a name but it had a lot of 'lala's and 'lucky's in it.

HSJ also get to sing a song that I don't believe I've heard before. I rather like it, and just about everyone has a solo line. I think this was the song they made another costume change into costumes that looked like track suits, with an orange top and black bottoms. Each member having their own different t-shirt on.

The first final song is Bouken Rider sung by HSJ, who are joined by YuBIS during the middle. Yuugo was flanked by Daiki, and I believe it was Inoo or Hikaru, can't remember clearly. But they both decided to show Yuugo how to act during these songs by taking his arm and slinging it around Daiki as the other slung his arm around Yuugo. Yuugo looked like he had no idea what to do but to go along.

After the long break Koyama came back on and introduced Tegomass. The yukata the duo were wearing looked like Massu picked them out. His was part black with a red/pink sash, part white with white and black stars and Tegoshi's was red with white stars with a white and blue zebra striped sash. Both had big sparkly stars on the top half.

They gave Koyama a couple of group hugs when they came on stage. Then Koyama revealed a photo of all three of them plus Kato Shigeaki. It looked like a pretty terrible photo as Shige had a bizarre look on his face, almost like he was in pain, and Massu was all but hidden in it.

After the talk Tegomass performed their upcoming single song, Tanabata Matsuri. It was a nice simple performance, with no Juniors on stage at all.

Yuto appeared by himself in the seating area and read a letter requesting that Hey! Say! BEST get an abake segment, ala NEWS. He also holds up a stack of postcards that request the same thing so the next segment is Hey! Say! BEST wo Abake. Like with the NEWS wo Abake the boys all put on blind folds and have their voices modified when they talk. This was really fun to watch, though I really wish I knew Japanese better to get more of what was said, but I did pick up a few things here and there. But the boys all easily got riled up as the others talked about them, so it was funny to see them try to defend themselves.

Right after putting the blind folds on Yabu uses his hands to search out his neighbors and ends up putting his hands all over Takaki at one point. The first question is about who is the biggest scaredy cat of the group. Everyone puts their hands up to respond and Koyama picks Yabu to go first but Takaki gets confused and thinks he was the one picked instead so there's a small exchange to clear that up. Takaki, Yabu, Daiki and Inoo all get picked as the biggest scaredy cat. Hikaru is the one that nominates Yabu and tells a story of how on an amusement ride Yabu was so scared he was hugging him. He is also the one to say Daiki is a scaredy cat but I couldn't follow the story about him.

I believe the next topic was to just say anything you want to say to someone else in the group. Takaki began this one by scolding Inoo for his habit of lying. I can't remember who went next after that, but after a bit Koyama began making motions of 'come here' to someone off stage. Then Tegomass came on stage. They of course didn't have blindfolds but their microphones had the distorted voices so Koyama had them have turns, and they picked on Yabu and Hikaru. None of HSB could tell it was Tegomass talking so Yabu and Hikaru kept trying to figure out who were saying things about them. Also Tegoshi took to pinching Yabu's side, which looked like it really confused Yabu, as he probably thought it was Koyama doing it.

Koyama eventually told HSB to take off their blind folds and they were all surprised to see Tegomass there. Yabu and Hikaru got to then say their peace about their senpai, with Yabu jokingly complaining about what a bad senpai Tegoshi is. HSB then leave the stage and Tegoshi begins to pinch Koyama's side at random before being made to leave the stage.

After they were done, Hey! Say! BEST came on stage and performed a song, which I'm assuming is new as I haven't heard it anywhere before. From what I could catch from the lyrics I'm guessing the title is My Angel.

Even though there are almost no Juniors there is a Junior Colliseum segment. There is a HSJ team of, Chinen, Yamada and Takaki. When things are getting set up the three do a group hug. And then to represent the Juniors there is Nakajima Kento, Yuma and Akun, who is appearing for the first time for the filming. In fact Koyama even asks what Akun is doing there and Akun replies it's because he is a Junior.

The game is the one where the boys have a box they stick their hands in and have to guess the thing that is in the box. It is the most amusing thing to watch these boys freak out at the slightest touch of anything when they have their hand in their.

The first match up is Chinen versus Nakaken. Nakaken made the best freak out faces I have seen for this. But it was Chinen that ended up winning, though I couldn't tell what the thing was, it kinda looked like some sort of cucumber.

Second match is Yamada versus Yuma. Both at different points had to have help from someone to actually find the thing to touch, as it was a stag beetle. Yuma screamed like a girl so many times even though he rarely touched anything. Yamada was not much better though with freaking out and screaming at the slightest touch of anything. Yamada had to be asked to stop blindly patting in the box by Koyama, as I'm sure he was afraid Yamada would crush the bug. Yuma took forever to actually touch it, and when he did it was with help. But after that he was able to guess the answer correctly after Yamada guessed incorrectly twice.

The last was Takaki versus Akun. Both looked terrified at the idea of what on earth they would get. What they get is a fake head of a Japanese ghost, which means it has a white triangular piece of cloth on it's head. Both the boys are no better than their younger teammates at first. After a few touches they don't seem to mind too much. In fact Akun gets the cloth off the head and guesses "panties," near the end. They take a long time and the countdown for time's up begins. Before it reaches the end Takaki finally guesses the correct answer. So HSJ team wins the game.

I believe it's after this that Yara Tomoyuki shows up for a talk. Yabu gets to read a postcard and adds in sound effects to the reading. Then Yara performs a song with the members of They Budou.

Then there's one final talk segment as the stage is set up with aucostic guitars and a drum set. It's Daiki, Inoo, Yabu and Hikaru talking with Koyama. They bring up the new song Hikaru and Yabu wrote together. Then Yabu and Hikaru leave to take their places on stage with four out five members of Question?, as Ishigaki is at the KAT-TUN concert with the rest of FiVe. They all sing Star Time together.

Koyama afterwards comes on stage and announces that they're at the end. Hikaru ends up patting his head telling him to do a good job. The final end song is Nami, IIRC. Koyama sings it solo at first but by the end everyone who performed, minus Ryutarou, BIS and Tegomass sing it with him.

The recording ends then after the boys take their time waving to the audience.

I'm really happy I decided to go. Even though it was disappointing that I couldn't see so many of my favorite Juniors it was a lot of fun to watch as a Hey! Say! JUMP fan. Especially since Hey! Say! BEST got a lot of stage time for a change. But I think they just had Japanese child labor laws working on their side for this. In any case, I can't wait to see the episodes to see what they kept and hopefully someone will sub the episodes, or at least the abake segment.