The Shounen Club 13 August 2010 review

Another episode full of guests and with a recycled theme.

The show opens up with the Junior grouping with Masuda Ryo, Takada Sho, Yasui Kentaro, Anderson Casey, and Kyomoto Taiga singing Kimi no Hitomi ni Koishiteru (or as it is known in English, I Can't Take My Eyes Off You). The other Junior groups come on stage just to dance as that grouping sings the song. And it seems that Kikuchi Fuma misses the timing as he lags behind the rest of his group as they make way for Mis Snow Man.

Hey! Say! JUMP appears at the end to perform SUMMARY, which is the theme song for the SUMMARY concerts since they started.

The theme of the episode is Natsu (summer). This may sound very familiar as this was the theme of an episode from the previous month. Nakamaru Yuichi does make mention of that as he tells us that this is 'part 2' of that episode.

There is a theme medley, though really it could be a Morimoto Shintaro medley as he is in all the songs and leads them all as well. It does make me happy when he performs with Hip Hop Jump though, as it means he is performing with Tanaka Juri, Jesse and Hagiya Keigo, or basically the Juniors he performs with the most these days.

Hey! Say! JUMP then have an MC segment where they are asked to tell some stories about the group. This is a good topic in a way as it gets more than just the usual members to speak up, like Okamoto Keito got quite a bit to say.

The group of course then gets to perform. Like in previous recent episodes they perform a song off their debut album and this time it is Smile Song. The song has lyrics written by Chinen Yuri and he gets a lot of focus with the choreography they do for it.

It is then time for Gekkan Koyamaru and Nakamaru has his turn. He shows off photos from the backstage rehearsals he has had with KAT-TUN for their upcoming concert tour.

The next performance is the combination of two, the first being Yara Tomoyuki performing Jealous Train. The second half is with A.B.C-Z performing their group songs Sayonara Box and STAR SEEKER. Both put a focus on dance, which is perfect for both acts.

The next segment is the game segment and we see that Takizawa Hideaki is back as a guest this episode. Yet for any of the debuted guests I am willing to be more lenient when it comes to Tackey appearing a lot as this program was so closely tied to him back when it started out. He gets to the judge for the games which is the love confession match they have done before. The first round though has them pulling prompts from a box while the second has them coming up with the scenario themselves.

Tackey then gets an MC segment and Nakamaru pulls out a note to give Tackey to read that he says ties in to the love confession theme of the game segment. Tackey complains that the program is called the Shounen Club (Boys Club) and not the Seinen Club (Young Men's Club) but is goaded into reading it anyway.

He then gets to perform and sings Words Of Love, which is one of his older songs. I rather like the song even though it sounds a bit dated. But it is a solid performance and we get Mis Snow Man as back dancers for it. This is about the time that they do start becoming his main back dancers to replace Kis-My-Ft2 and Ebi as those groups start doing more on their own.

Kansai Junior ni Q follows this. The Kanjuu now get to talk about what things the equate to summer. Shigeoka Daiki is up first. His answer is onsen, which he does mention most associate with winter but for him it is the summer.

Fujii Ryusei gets called up and his answer is nazokake, which is a type of riddle. He of course is asked to give examples.

The bring Hamanaka Bunichi over and he explains why he put down Kansai Jr. He talks about the "era" of the Kanjuu is coming and fires up the group. It seems a bit sad looking back as while the Kanjuu have definitely risen in prominence Bunichi did not really gain as much as some of his fellow Kanjuu.

There is a quick MC segment with Fujigaya Taisuke and Kitayama Hiromitsu. They both talk things that remind them of summer. I could not really follow what Fujigaya went all about but Kitayama talked about going to his grandfather's house during the summer when he was younger.

Kis-My-Ft2 then get their performance in and do Fire Beat. They have added some new choreography to the performance which is a nice addition. It is good to hear them sing this song again, seeing as it was one of the group's signature songs from their Junior days.

The episode ends with Koyama Keiichiro and Nakamaru leading a performance of Nami with the older Juniors. I am fond of the song so I am happy when it gets pulled out from time to time like this. And overall ending the show on a softer note with a slow and relaxed song like this works for me.

I am looking forward to the episodes for next month for the change of pace they will give being the Osaka episodes for 2010.

I am also looking forward to having my laptop back finally with all the episodes I am missing on it for these reviews. Hopefully I will be getting that either late Sunday or Monday and it all can go back on track once more.