The Shounen Club 9 April 2010 review

So after plenty of delays here is the review for this episode.

Hey! Say! JUMP are front and center as this episode starts off as they start the theme medley. The theme will be Story, so they can play rather loose with what songs fit it. Like having HSJ's song being Dreams come true.

And it looks like M.A.D. (they are introduced by individual names and not the group name but I am pretty sure they are in that group) pop up to do a performance in the medley. It is rare to get the dance umbrella groups on and not just back dancing.

During the following opening talk HSJ go over the fact that they will be joining the program as regulars in the position of special supporters. This will basically mean that they will take over some of the hosting bits from Koyama Keiichiro and Nakamaru Yuichi, though those two will remain as the main hosts.

Since the theme medley has already been done this segment is followed up with a performance by B.I. Shadow or their group song Ima Sugu ni. They are still doing the split thing that Ya-Ya-Yah did quite a bit when they went down to four members where the two main start the song with the other two joining in later. And I wonder how in the world I missed all the strange faces Kikuchi Fuma makes when singing. Or maybe I was just not paying attention as Nakajima Kento and Matsumura Hokuto were my favorites of the group and I could have just been focusing on them more.

There is then a surprise guest for this episode, Nakayama Yuma, who is there to perform Yuuki 100% with the rest of the then newly minted NYC. And this shall begin the over performance of this song that I already feel like I am getting tired of already. And it is not like the performance is bad, all the members of the group are quite capable, or the song but it just was performed far too often around this time frame that it got tedious to listen to.

Koyama and Nakamaru come on stage to talk to the group quickly, mainly to allow them to plug the song as it was used as the theme song for a long running anime series.

Then there is a full MC segment but with Yara Tomoyuki. He is asked to tell some stories and he does mainly about Takizawa Hideaki, as at the time he was working with him in a musical. He brings up that they do a love scene in said musical as Tackey plays a female role for a part of it. He then talks about working with Tackey on a PV.

While Butokan was missing from the intro at the start of the episode, yet were in the one for the previous episode, they actually get a turn on stage. Or at least the ones that are present as Hamanaka Bunichi is missing from the line-up. The group performs Now and forever.

The game segment is next and sadly does not involve any of the Juniors. Instead it is just HSJ participating as they play musical chairs. While it is still fun to watch I was bothered that the Juniors were excluded from this segment as I saw no need for it. Plus with the Juniors they start out with a larger number which adds some excitement to the first round that I found lacking with this as going from ten to six is not very drastic.

Koyama and Nakamaru have a talk between themselves which leads to Koyama plugging the latest NEWS single release of the time, Sakura Girl.

Of course we have not seen the last of HSJ as they are then up next to do a "mini live" performance. It is basically a medley based off their SUMMARY concerts the year before. In a way this is beginning to feel like a taste of things to come when the group takes over hosting the program and get a good amount of screen time instead of the Juniors or newly debuted groups.

It is then time for a Gekkan Koyamaru segment. It is Nakamaru's turn to show off pictures and it looks like at this point he has followed Koyama's lead in taking pictures of his group mates. He says that his photos can be titled KAT-TUN Story and shows them off.

Finally we get to see Juniors again as A.B.C-Z and Question? perform the song Shelter. It is especially nice to see Question? as their presence on the programs seems to be slowly diminishing.

The Junior ni Q segment of course in no way matches the theme as it asks about the No. 1 School Lunch for the Juniors. But at least it showcases the Juniors and not the members of HSJ. First up is Morimoto Shintaro who talks about curry and naan.

Then they pull over a couple of the younger Juniors, Miura Wataru and Tanimura Ryuichi. Wataru talks about coffee and milk while Ryuichi talks about ramen.

There is then even younger Juniors brought over to talk, basically the ones that are in Snow Prince Gasshoudan. I definitely recognize Kurita Kei, Haba Yuki, Hashimoto Ryo and Inoue Mizuki as those who are still with the agency featured here.

Matsumura Hokuto then gets a turn as he explains what sakuragohan is. And there is even an information box on the screen to help explain it to a viewer as well.

It is time for Kis-My-Ft2 to get their turn to be featured in the episode. They first get an MC segment where they share some stories, the first from one of their concerts.

They then perform a medley of KAT-TUN songs which Nakamaru joins them in. He is not the only KAT-TUN member to join in as Kamenashi Kazuya shows up to join in on the medley as well.

I guess to try to make sure Koyama is not left out the final songs of the episode are Cherish and Sakura Girl that he gets to lead the older Juniors in performing.


This is a rather guest heavy episode of the show and I really wish they would not have had so much HSJ. I guess I have not quite recovered from the episodes where HSJ are pushed before the Juniors as this episode reminds me of those. But at least with Kisumai's rise in popularity it ensures that they will have their usual MC and performance each episode and A.B.C-Z does well on that front. Plus things should get a little better when JaPAnese Hi!! is introduced as those Juniors should get their push, though that will not happen until the end of 2010.

And the next review will not be for a while as the laptop that has all my Shounen Club episodes is elsewhere, hopefully getting fixed so I can use it again.