The Shounen Club 10 December 2010 review

Being the final episode of the year we get a Christmas themed episode. Perfect for the summer.

Things start off with the younger groups and Juniors getting introductions. It has been a while since they have done this so it was nice to see this change up. Especially for the ungrouped Juniors as they do tend to get shuffled around a bit.

It ends with the guest of the episode, Kamenashi Kazuya, getting introduced so he can perform the song White Christmas as a solo.

The usual hosts and supporters run out then to the stage so they can do the usual opening talk. It is no surprise that the theme for the episode is Christmas.

Of course we get a Christmas medley to follow that. There is a mix of Christmas themed Johnny's songs and translated Western Christmas carols used for it, and most of the Juniors in the introduction perform in the medley.

This is followed by a Gekkan Koyamaru segment. It is Nakamaru Yuichi's turn and he has tried to get photos related to the holiday.He does look to have put in some extra effort with his Tonakai (reindeer) picture as he has those whose first kanji of their last names correlate to spell the word.

B.I.Shadow with Mis Snow Man get the next performance as they sing Cinderella Christmas together. It is nice to see MSM do more than just back dance and they seem to be gaining more of a presence on the program. Unfortunately it is not as lasting as it could have been.

Then Kame gets the usual guest MC segment with the hosts. The topic is of course what Kame usually does for Christmas.

He then performs what was a new song at the time, his solo song Plastic Tears. After all the Christmas themed performances this sticks out like a sore thumb being nothing close to the theme. But on the other hand it would be ridiculous to not have a guest perform one of their own songs when on the program.

The game segment is next up, and is a Christmas special version. It seems strange that this is the first time we are seeing any member of Kis-My-Ft2 or A.B.C-Z on stage. I had almost forgotten that they were there for the filming of these December episodes. Kame is brought out to be the guest judge for the segment as it is the game series about love confessions.

Kame is not the only one with a performance that breaks the theme, as Kisumai perform FIRE BEAT. It does make sense as I am certain this was the time they had a tie-in with a song download service for cell phones which used this song and Inori. Though Inori would probably fit the theme a bit more FIRE BEAT helped energize the program again after the lull with the game.

There is then a Junior ni Q segment to bring things back on track with the theme of the episode. The Juniors get to talk about the kind of Christmas that they want, starting with Nakajima Kento wanting a romantic Christmas that involves a Christmas tree.

We get most of Snow Prince Gasshoudan brought over as they all wrote that they want it to snow for Christmas. Apparently only two of the five had actually seen snow in person.

Kyomoto Taiga wanted a Christmas like the one in picture books and then had a message saying that he wanted to talk to Koyama Keiichiro and Nakamaru. Not sure if I got it right but I think Kyomoto brings up that Koyama and Nakamaru were the ones that spoiled him on the fact that Santa was not real and the two try to put the blame on the other for that.

Up next is Fujigaya Taisuke who wrote down something about a theme park but ends up talking about various Christmas day scenarios.

Miyata Toshiya goes with a more standard home party, but talks about eating something that sounds like tiken, or a badly mispronounced chicken. Going by Koyama and Nakamaru's reaction to the word it sounds like it is an intentionally mispronounced chicken. And that wraps up the segment.

There is then a second Christmas medley, but this one has Koyama and Nakamaru performing in it as they do group songs from their respective groups with Juniors performing with them. Then they cover a Kinki Kids song, Another Christmas together.

The closing song is White X'mas, KAT-TUN's Christmas song. While it starts off lead by Kame he is joined by the hosts, supporters and the older Juniors as the song goes along. It works very well as a closing song for the episode, but very few Johnny's Christmas songs would not have worked.


It is odd that they dropped the Christmas special episodes for a couple years for Shounen Club. I think this year though they at least had the excuse that they were doing a special end of year program instead. I remember that clearly as that program was the introduction of JaPAnese Hi! and thus Sato Shori. And that will mark the start of the rest of the final Sexy Zone members showing up on the program pre-debut.

2010 was not a bad year but with so much happening in 2011 it is an easy year to forget, outside of being the last full year Koyama and Nakamaru hosted the program. Especially with the supporters trio dressed for the holiday.