The Shounen Club 14 June 2010 review

Another solid episode of the program with a good balance between Juniors and debuted Johnny's.

The episode starts off with a performance of Sora no Screen -rainbow in my soul- by the younger Juniors, with Morimoto Shintaro and B.I. Shadow getting a good share of the focus.

The theme of the episode is Sora (Sky) and we have the usual Hey! Say! JUMP trio around to be the supporters for the episode, Nakajima Yuto, Takaki Yuya and Arioka Daiki.

The Kis-My-Ft2 performance for the episode is taken care of early in this episode as they perform a medley of Brand New Season and SHOOTING STARS. Really not feeling these red outfits that the group got recently. I honestly could not remember them until seeing them again which just cements in my mind how lackluster they are.

Gekkan Koyamaru with it being Nakamaru Yuichi's turn and he gives the theme of tour behind the scenes, so these are photos taken when KAT-TUN was on tour. So if you are a KAT-TUN fan this would probably interest you, even though there is nothing all too special about the photos, except perhaps the fact there is commentary from Nakamaru.

Following this is theme medley that starts off with the HSJ members singing BON BON, which is a B-side on the original Hey! Say! 7 single. Overall the medley features the younger Juniors, like Hip Hop Jump, who have been gaining a bigger presence on the program of late.

Takaki and Arioka get to have an MC talk with Koyama Keiichiro and Nakamaru next. They both have pictures of the sky that they took and they get to talk about them and what they liked about their photos.

A.B.C-Z then get to perform and start off with a long dance intro to show off their acrobatics. They then perform Crush, which is a carryover from back when the group was just A.B.C. They have added some new moves from the last time they performed the song.

It is then time for the game segment and this time HSJ are nowhere in sight. We finally get to see the guest of the episode and it is the guest from the last episode, Kamenashi Kazuya. He gets to be the judge as the Juniors compete on saying things to make one's heart race. Because of the type of conversation it may be hard to follow if you do not know Japanese, though it looks like it had some fun highlights going from reactions.

There is then an MC segment with Kame and he talks about things that make his heart race to tie-in to the game segment before moving on to talk about the theme of the episode.

He then performs his solo song Ashiteru kara, which he had a hand in writing the lyrics for. Why anyone let Kame wear those sunglasses for this performance is beyond me. Especially since he keeps them on for a large portion of it and they are distracting with how much of his they cover.

We have the regular Junior ni Q segment this episode. It is a rather simple topic which just asks what food the Juniors like. Morimoto Shintaro is up first and I am not familiar with what food item he wrote, other than it had something to do with caviar.

There is a little Inoue Mizuki that gets called over next. He is so tiny here, though I guess he is not too much bigger these days as he still is one of the younger Juniors.

Nakajima Kento is next and he talks about the different types of beef that he likes.

Then it is Tanaka Juri whose food involves octopus from what I could pick up. Of course they end up bringing up his older brother as a talking point before ending with him.

Kikuchi Fuma has a turn then and I believe he listed fried tuna for his answer. And then the segment wraps up.

There is a final MC segment, this time with Yuto showing off a picture of the sky that he took.

This is followed by a performance by a few of the dance umbrella Juniors, Yara Tomoyuki, Yamamoto Ryota and Takahashi Ryu. Of course with that line up the performance is dance focused and does not fail to deliver with that.

Being the second episode of the month this ending is just with the older Juniors as they perform SMAP's song Yozora no Mukou. It is a nice slow song and the kind that fits in well as a final song for an episode. And it is interesting to see which of the younger Juniors are being counted as older Juniors now, like most of B.I. Shadow and Kyomoto Taiga with some of the Juniors he gets grouped with.


I seem to be on a string of good Shounen Club episodes when it comes to a good amount of balance between the Juniors and the debuted acts. I did miss having the groups get MC segments before they performed, but since it should not be the norm for future episodes then that can get a pass.

At this point the show really is not doing much different than it has in the past, and honestly there is little need to shake things up. Kisumai keep getting their pushes to help ready them for debut in about a year and B.I. Shadow are getting a fair amount of spotlight as Johnny's is probably already thinking about the 2011 debut for the next FIVB debut, though I doubt anything is quite written in stone yet as over half of that group have yet to join the agency.