The Shounen Club 8 October 2010 review

And we return to Tokyo and find that not much has changed, as usual.

We get the theme of the episode announced right off the bat for this episode as the Hey! Say! JUMP supporters, Arioka Daiki, Nakajima Yuto and Takaki Yuya. introduce the main Juniors of the episode. The theme is Takaramono (treasure). Most just get a quick dance until the two main groups get their introduction, Kis-My-Ft2 and A.B.C-Z. They sing Sayaendo with Koyama Keiichiro.

While it is uncommon for the hosts to be in the opening performance the why is made clear quickly as the guest for the episode, Ueda Tatsuya, shows up at the end. He performs GOLD and of course has Nakamaru Yuichi join him for it.

The opening talk has them go over the theme of the episode. In another small change from the usual they actually have a Junior to discuss it briefly, Morimoto Shintaro. He talks about something he treasures that he got from his mother when he joined Johnny's.

The following medley is really only for the younger Juniors with Hip Hop Jump performing Lucky Man then Shintaro with Snow Prince Gasshodan performing two songs afterwards. The transition between Lucky Man and Miagete Goran Yoru no Hoshi o is harsh as they are completely different genres, with the former having a rock-y edge to it and the latter being more of a slow tempo folksy kind of song. Still it is nice seeing HHJ performing something as a group solo, as they are one of the Junior groups that never seem to get much screen time on their own.

B.I.Shadow is up for the first MC segment of the episode. Each member gets to talk about something that they treasure. Kikuchi Fuma gets vague with "everyone who has influenced him", Nakajima Kento lists Music and Matsumura Hokuto goes with the safe answer of family. Kochi Yugo's I did not fully understand but it seemed to be about a family photo with his grandparents from what I could understand.

I will not lie but I was disappointed that BIS did not perform on their own next but instead performed with Nakajima Yuto for Mayonaka no Shadow Boy. The BIS members do get a good amount of camera time, but there is no reason why they could not have performed the song on their own.

We get Jumping Paradise as a talk segment this episode. They talk about which breed of dog each member of Hey! Say! 7 resembles and give the reasons as to why.

Yara Tomoyuki is still getting somewhat regular screen time on the program as he has a performance this episode, Next Dream. This is performed with They Budo, so the dance like usual is the highlight of it.

Next is the guest MC with Ueda. With the amount of necklaces he has on he kinda looks like a six year old that got into their mother's jewelry case. The fake jewels on his outfit do not help shake that image either. The conversation mainly focuses on the concert tour KAT-TUN had.

Of course we get a solo performance from Ueda. Thankfully his choice in music is better than his choice in costumes. He performs RABBIT OR WOLF? which is a song he wrote both the music and lyrics for. He really looks like he would have no trouble fronting a visual kei band.

This is followed by a Gekkan Koyamaru segment with Nakamaru getting to share photos. Of course this means photos of KAT-TUN so he can talk about them. Like the talk with Ueda this was also mostly focused on the group's then recent tour.

Speaking of Junior groups that fail to get much screen time on their own, Mis Snow Man falls into that category easily. While they are part of the REAL DX performance with KisuEbi they are mostly stuck in the back for the whole thing. That is when they are on stage as they join in after the song has started and really just felt they were tacked onto this when comparing their part of the performance to the members of KisuEbi.

It is then time for for the Junior ni Q. Not straying far from previous topics this one is about what the Juniors thought of when they think of autumn. Hashimoto Ryo and Haba Yuki are brought over together first as their answers were acorns and pinecones.

Casey Anderson gets to talk about Halloween, which anyone familiar with Western culture would also probably list as something they think of for the autumn. Of course the holiday is just a novelty in Japan so Casey gets to explain some of the traditions that come with it.

Then Tanaka Juri gets to explain why he answered with studying. Koyama has him show about where he falls in his class when it comes to his grades as well.

Fujigaya Taisuke finishes the segment up with his discussion of why clothing with checkered patterns made him think of autumn. It does move a bit to talk about fashion in general though.

The HSJ three get to then get an MC segment where they talk about things that are treasures to them. Yuto of course picks drums, Arioka went with an autograph he received from Kimura Takuya and Takaki's I could not completely get other than it had something to do with a photo.

The HSJ supporters then perform the single medley off of their debut album. I rather love how they remixed the songs for this medley so it was nice to see it being performed. And they did at least use a lot of younger Juniors as back dancers for it.

It is then time to wrap up the program and we get the Juniors performing PRECIOUS ONE. We do get a good mix of them in this performance and since it is a KAT-TUN song eventually Ueda and Nakamaru show up to perform with them.


It is starting to become clear to me that the change of having the most recently debuted groups be included in the program was actually something that started with this season. Back when the whole HSJ as supporters started I just assumed that it was something in the way of making the transition of hosts for the show go more smoothly, especially as no one from HSJ was known for their MC ability. But seeing how much screen time they have had since it started and knowing it is only going to increase as the years go by have made me realize that this is when the program started to be less a Junior program to a Junior and younger debuted groups program.

Of course back then it was easier to take having HSJ on the show, they were only one group and we had prominent Junior groups like Kisumai and Ebi that were too popular to just shove into the background. But now that there are three debut groups to also be featured it is hard to ignore. Thankfully there are the Gamushara shows now so the Juniors do still have something to mostly feature them, as Shounen Club is no longer that program.