The Shounen Club 2 November 2008 review

And with this episode we sorta have B.I.Shadow now.

From the introduction at the start of the program the three original members of B.I.Shadow have definitely been grouped together as a trio but they are introduced with their individual names instead of a group name like Kis-My-Ft2 and A.B.C-Z were before them.

In the introduction we get to see the guests of the episodes, Kansai Juniors Nakata Daichi (ex-Johnny's) and Hamada Takahiro, who form the now duo of BOYS.

Koyama Keiichiro and Nakamaru Yuichi then properly introduce the two as the guests of the episode and talk about who they get a lot of fan letters letters asking for more Kanjuu on the program. The theme is then announced, DANCE.

We get the usual medley to follow that and it is a mix of the Juniors in groups and grouped Juniors performing the songs. And of course when they do a KAT-TUN song they have Tanaka Juri do the rap for it as he gets consistently pushed as a mini-version of his older brother, Tanaka Koki.

And even though they are still not being called B.I.Shadow I will be calling the Nakajima Kento, Kikuchi Fuma and Takahata Misaki trio that, as that is what they should become shortly. But BIS perform Mayonaka no Shadow Boy in this medley, beating Hey! Say! JUMP to perform the song themselves on the program first. Though they do have Yabu Kota show up as he seems to have nothing to do but be a guest on the show at this point.

The following MC segment has the four, Yabu and BIS, talking to the program's hosts. Yabu gets to talk first and is asked about dancing and then we get some basic introduction information from BIS, which is what sempai they admire. Nakaken of course says Yamada Ryosuke and Fuma gets to spare Yabu's feelings by telling him that he is his admired sempai.

The four of them then perform School Kakumei, which is a song Yabu wrote the lyrics to. It seems like BIS is being used as a replacement HSJ for this episode, but at least there is a new group of Juniors to focus on post-HSJ debut.

Up next is an MC segment with BOYS. They talk about dancing for their sempai as well as songs they like the dance of.

They then perform first for a divided performance. They perform the song Battle, which I hope is still being used by the Kanjuu as I like it. Perhaps not so much as a CD track but more for a performance song.

The second part has three of the five members of Butokan perform Grateful world before joining BOYS in performing Battle.

It is then the game segment of the episode and it is a dance quiz. These are fun as it is easy to follow along even if you do not know much Japanese and it is interesting to see who knows which songs. Though the best is when they have them do something really challenging with it, like do the dance with dumbbells.

And the final round where they have to sum up a dance with a single dance move is pretty fun to watch, especially since Kawai Fumito is up for his team.

Following this is a special stage with a Kis-My-Ft2 vs A.B.C-Z performance. This is basically each group performing one of their group songs in a mash-up, Kisumai with Kaizoku and Ebi with CRUSH. At the end they are performing both at the same time and while it actually works when they are switching off it does not seem to be so seamless with both songs being sung at the same time.

There is then Junior ni Q with the topic being something you want to boast about. First up is Nakaken who does not look as nervous as the last time he was on the segment, and he shows off being able to sound like a window being wiped.

Then it is Morimoto Shintaro, unfortunately I could not really follow what he was talking about outside that it had something to do with his father.

Kyomoto Taiga gets called over and he shows off some of his impersonation skills, starting with Totsuka Shota.

They then go to end the segment but Miyata Toshiya rushes over to stop them so he can get a turn. He tells a story about the door at a convenience store near his house, I could not get exactly what he was saying about it though.

Hamada and Nakata get to do a letter exchange segment, and as expected from Kanjuu they get the audience laughing. I was able to catch Hamada talking about the fact that they have known each other since they went to the same audition and Nakata brought up that it has been six years since they have known each other.

The duo then perform a song, Give Me. It sounds familiar enough that I want to say that it still gets performed by the Kanjuu. Either that or I just remember it well from this performance, as I do like the song even though it does sound a bit dated by today's standards.

It is then time to wrap up the episode with an ending theme. This time the song performed is REAL DX, which starts with just Kisumai and Ebi but eventually BOYS come back on stage to perform the song with them.


If I had to pinpoint the turning point for when the Kansai Juniors began to have their rise I would pick 2008 to be the year. Back then I was not really into them back as a current fan I am finding it interesting to see how they really start to build a presence on Shounen Club with this year with not only being guests on the show for the Tokyo episodes but also having the Kansai Junior ni Q segment. It is hard to believe a couple of years ago the Kansai side of things was mainly just Kanjani8 with little focus on the Kanjuu. They have come a long way and I really hope it all builds up for a debut for the older ones soon.

Johnny's Under 100: Ueda Tatsuya

Ueda Tatsuya

Group: KAT-TUN

Birthdate: October 4, 1983

There is a brightness to Ueda that does not get to shine a lot with the image he portrays as a member of KAT-TUN. Being the “cool” group being full of smiles is not the way to go with the group, which is a pity as Ueda has a great one.

I have always admired his hobby of boxing. It comes off as such an unusual one to have for an idol, which is probably why I like him for it. But his songwriting seems to be a better fit. Wish we could get a Mousepeace album from him.

The Shounen Club 12 October 2008 review

And we have an episode that Yabu Kota is not one of the guests in.

Did not mention it with the last episode but Sanada Yuma and Nozawa Yuki still are treated as prominent Juniors and get individual introductions. Eventually they will be put in a group, which is made of a few of the Juniors from the Jr. Boys group that gets introduced in this episode, but until then they just float as a duo.

At the end of the introductions the guest of the episode comes on stage, Taguchi Junnosuke. He performs a snippet of his solo song, Samurai Love Attack, to end the starting segment.

After that Nakamaru Yuichi reads a fan postcard asking for the theme of Himitsu (secret) and is a Yamashita Shoon fan. They have Shoon come over to say a few words before the theme medley is kicked off.

The medley takes a bit of a break from the usual pattern it has had in the past few months and has the more prominent Junior groups', Kis-My-Ft2 and A.B.C-Z, members lead the songs in the medley with the other Juniors backing them up or singing with them.

After that the first MC segment has Koyama Keiichiro and Nakamaru talking to some of the little Juniors. Out of the three that had turns talking Kyomoto Taiga and Morimoto Shintaro are of course still with Johnny's. They had to tell a secret and Kyomoto talked about something related to sleeping while Shintaro claimed to be a genius a coin games, which is a kind of arcade game.

Of course whenever there are little Juniors in black suits it usually means that there will be a performance of Secret Agent Man, and for this episode it holds true.

The little ones are not the only ones performing the song as about half way through they are joined by four other Juniors, Takada Sho, Nakajima Kento, Kikuchi Fuma and Takahata Misaki, the last one being the only one not with Johnny's anymore. But all four are involved in dramas in 2008, which is why I am assuming they were placed to perform in this song.

Next is an MC segment with Junno. When asked about a secret he just says something goofy, which is nothing new for him. He then talks about playing an internet game and teases about the name he uses to play it.

He performs his solo song Natsu no Basho, which is a nice summer pop song. Listening to it I am amazed at how much he has improved his vocals over the years as he sounds so much better in his latest solo, FLASH. But what Junno lacks in vocal skills he always tried to make up with energy and he has a dance break in the middle of the song where he shows off his dance moves as well as acrobatics.

The game segment portion of the show comes after that and this time there is quite a change up to it. Though it is more going back to some of their old games. This one has each team captain, Fujigaya Taisuke for Dream Bombers and Kawai Fumito for Jonetsu Rainbows, call out a Junior to showcase a talent. Junno then as judge has to pick which one did better. What is great with this is that they make sure to use some of the Fresh Juniors, which includes Nakaken, who does an impersonation. 

Another Fresh Junior showcased is Tanaka Juri, who with Nakamaru revive the TaNaka comedy duo that Nakamaru used to do with Juri's older brother, Tanaka Koki. They even make it a point to point out Juri and Koki are brothers in one of their routines.

Next performance is Kis-My-Ft2 performing Smile again. There is not much different from their previous performance of the song but it is still miles better than what comes after it...

This episode has what to my knowledge is the first and only foreign guest act on the program. It is a boy band from Europe called US 5 and I was not impressed watching them perform back in 2008 and less so watching them in 2013. I have no clue why they were on the program but I am not sad that we never see or hear from them again.

Thankfully there is Kansai Junior ni Q next to bring us back to what the show is really about. The theme seems to be exposing others' secrets. While the first Kanjuu up, Muro Tatsuki, is no longer with Johnny's his brothers, which include Muro Ryuta, are and as Tatsuki's secret includes his brother Ryuta gets called over.

A familiar face camera bombs them though and focus shifts to the culprit, Mukai Koji, for a bit before moving back to the brothers.

Nakayama Yuma is called up next, as there was indeed a time he was with the other Kansai Juniors, and his secret is about Fujii Ryusei. So when they have Fujii up there they talk about his answer which involves Yuma and another Kanjuu.

Then it is Shigeoka Daiki up next and he talks about Fugal Shawn Goku and how he listed something wrong in his profile. And the final Kanjuu they bring up is about those not with the agency anymore.

There is then an MC with A.B.C-Z and they talk about a secret and Kawai brings up Hashimoto Ryosuke as the topic bringing up that even though Hasshi looks like the cool type his personality does not match up at all. They also help correct Koyama's pronunciation of their group name at the end as 'z' tends to be pronounced as 'zed' in Japan instead of the American variation of 'zee'. 

They perform their first group song as this unit, Ashita no Tame ni Boku ga Iru. The song is a ballad, which at this point for the group is probably the best thing as Hasshi really has no acrobatic experience that I can recall at this point so he would stick out quite a bit if the group do their usual song types.

And we get a rare performance of the season's ending song, OH! MY DREAM. I think by now it is safe to say having assigned ending songs for the show is on its way out. Which is a bit of a pity as they have been ensuring that Juniors are a part of the final performance and tend to give us cute moments like this.

A Shounen Club episode with Junno as a guest will always be a joy for me. The biggest downside to the episode is the US 5 appearance, as there seems to be little point to having them there as they are not Johnny's and do not really interact with the Juniors, just do their performance and leave. If I take that oddness out though I easily rate this episode rather highly as it has a good mix of everything I like from the program.

JWeb is now international

The official Johnny's phone app, J-Web, has followed suit after Johnny's net went multi-lingual and supports English, Chinese (Mandarin and Cantonese) and Korean for their paid J-Web services. You have to muddle through the Japanese version to get to where you can sign up to subscribe to the service, but when you make it there it will prompt you to pick a language and you can sign up. (With a valid credit card and provided that you have a smart phone in the first place of course.) The fee is 315 yen per month but you not only get access to the mobile app in your language of choice but the blogs, which are one of J-Web's exclusives, are translated.


It is nice to see Johnny's continue to branch out internationally as an international fan. I went ahead and subscribed to the service and I am still exploring it. I have already checked out some of the blog entries and while they did not go back and translate everything I think they did well with how far back they did go and it is not like the Japanese version has all of them either.

I know there has been some complaints from parts of fandom about people deciding to no longer translate and share the J-Web blog entries. Personally I think it is better to no longer share them as fan translations to me are to help spread the fandom by sharing something that is not officially available in the language it is being translated into. So if there are groups translating it into languages such as French, Spanish, Thai, etc, then I see no problem with those. But the English translations should stop as it is available. Of course not everyone can afford it, I can understand that, but Johnny's is known to be very protective and I want to see them expand more overseas so we can better things, like concerts (no harm in dreaming, right?), but that will not happen unless ventures like this prove profitable. Besides blog translations are hardly the only way to enjoy the fandom if money is an issue.

Of course I am still hoping that Johnny's may make the leap and create an official Youtube channel. Even if all they put up are the short versions of PVs it would at least be a source of video streams that can be shared. I know I would not have been able to get into Johnny's if it were not for all the videos that used to be on Youtube and I think it would help get more people into the groups if they had such access.

The Shounen Club 5 October 2008 review

This episode not only gives us the Shounen Club first appearance of A.B.C-Z but also of Nakajima Kento.

The kicks off with an introduction/group number of the main Juniors singing Arashi's Kotoba yori Taisetsu na mono. One thing to note is that Tanaka Juri has been added to the Morimoto Shintaro grouping of little Juniors. So we should be seeing more of him from now on.

Like with the previous episode as Koyama Keiichiro and Nakamaru Yuichi go to announce the theme of the episode they have someone cut in. This time it is Fujigaya Taisuke with a postcard from a fan who has requested Taisetsu (important, worthy of care) as a theme.

The theme medley kicks off with an A.B.C-Z performance so there is no waiting around to see what the group looks like with the new member. I am not sure if my feelings for the group at the time are still clouding my judgement a bit, but there does seem to be something off. maybe its just a difference in energy level as A.B.C. usually perform with tons of it and Hashimoto Ryosuke had been going for something a bit more subdued.

The highlight of the medley though is when the Takada Sho group has a Junior added to it who proves to be a spotlight stealer from the get go. This is of course Nakajima Kento who looks like a natural on stage with that bright smile of his. I was a fan of his from this moment on. Also to note is that the three original members of B.I.Shadow are all in white jackets/shirts for this to set them apart from the others, so it looks like the group is already on its way to be officially formed.

At the end of the medley the guests of the episode, Yabu Kota and Yaotome Hikaru, come out and perform Your Seed. They just stand on boxes on stage with a horde of Juniors dancing around them until they close out the song by joining the Juniors.

They do a quick MC segment with only Yabu talking about the theme as Hikaru is up to perform a solo song right after it.

The solo is Akogare no Egoist and it starts with Hikaru showing off his juggling skills, which was one of his things he did in SUMMARY to get highlighted and he still pulls it out from time to time at concerts. The song itself has a jazzy sound to it and uses more of his lower register than usual which is nice because his voice has less of a whiny sound to it when he is singing lower.

Heisei Post this time around is just Nakamaru reading a fan letter from a fan of Butokan. He then instructed the audience to call out the group's name and after that they appeared on stage to talk about a few things brought up in the letter.

The group then performs Grateful World, which like all their songs is a good pop song and has a part for them to really show off their dance skills. But it does give Senga Kento and Hamanaka Bunichi solo lines, which is nice as I prefer their voices over Yara Tomoyuki's.

It is then time for the game segment, which uses Yara as judge. It is another competition where the guys have to act out prompts. The first is a dog and it pits Hashimoto Ryosuke against Morimoto Shintaro. It is not often that such a young Junior gets to be in the game segment so it is surprising to see Shintaro there.

The next is to say an embarrassing love line then they have Hikaru come on stage to help demonstrate the next prompt which is to make a suspicious/weird face,which he is good at. What is best about it is that the guys up to compete are Senga and Fujigaya Taisuke. And it is more for the latter as Fujigaya usually gets the prompts that deal with love confessions and such so it is nice to see him try something that takes him out of his comfort zone.

Then the final prompt is between Goseki Koichi and Kawai Fumito where they have to act as newlyweds celebrating the birthday of their spouse. Both do great in their own styles but I actually remember Kawai's from back when I watched the episode first back in 2008.

Next up is another MC segment with Yabu and Hikaru, but this time it is Hikaru's turn to talk about the theme of the episode as he did not get to do so earlier.

Yabu then performs a medley of two of his solo songs, My Everything and Angel Come to Me. For the first he has Kyomoto Taiga doing a dance for it. And I am reminded why Yabu does not have one of my favorite voices in Johnny's.

We gave Junior ni Q next and it is a food topic. Shintaro gets some more screen time as he is the first called over. He talks about uncooked ham, which I wish I could understand more what was being said as that sounds like a dangerous thing to eat.

We get to see Nakaken again as he is up next and the answer he wrote down is fish flakes. It is odd to see him looking awkward for this when he looked so comfortable performing on stage.

Kawashima Noeru is after him and a good amount of the time is spent talking about his hair. Or more specifically the way it flips up at the bottom. And I think he's the only Johnny's I have seen with braces on.

The Junior ni Q segment continues with Morita Myuto, making it one of the rare ones so far that have had Johnny's that are all still with the agency in it. Morita wrote down parsley, which I have to question as well, as I did not think you were ever really supposed to eat that.

To finish it up the trio that have formed their own natto association, Kitayama Hiromitsu, Totsuka Shota and Kawai Fumito, are brought over. And they try to explain why it is so great by saying things like it gave them perfect bodies.

There is then an MC segment with Kis-My-Ft2 where they bring up that they will be having their first concert that year. This is actually a joint concert with A.B.C-Z that they had at Yoyogi National Gymnasium, which is actually just across the street from NHK Hall.

They then get to perform Smile for the first time on Shounen Club. It is around this time that Kisumai do get a few new songs and I am certain it is mainly because they have hit the stage that they are doing their own concerts as after the joint concert they then get to do solo concerts. But this is the era that I pretty much love all the songs they get. Smile is nice as it spreads out the spotlight a bit more to the none Fujigaya and Kitayama members and Yokoo Wataru gets to show off guitar skills so he has something that comes off looking unique to him in the group.

We also get to see some interesting camera work as they use only one to get everything so you have to follow the movement of the camera on stage as it goes to get various different angles for the first half of the song. I do not think I would care too much for this if it became a common thing, but it it nice to have a break from the usual camera work from time to time.

It is then time to end the episode with the final song which is a cover of Arashi's One Love. Since it is the first episode of the month we do get all the Juniors, older and younger to join in singing this.


With Nakaken now on the program the creation of B.I.Shadow should be just around the corner as the group was created of the three Juniors that had roles in Scrap Teacher which aired in I believe the fall drama season of 2008. So I would not be surprised to see the group in next month's episodes. It will be a few years before we see any more members of Sexy Zone show up though.

We are also in the time period where most of the little/younger Juniors are now currently the older Juniors on the program. So I expect that there will be more and more to talk about as more familiar faces are seen.

Bye Bye Sexy Zone Bye

Sexy Zone is set to release another single this year, the release date is October 9 and the single will be a double A-side. The song that currently has a titled announced is Bye Bye Du Bye -See you again-, and the other A-side is still untitled.

The single will come with three limited editions, K, F and S, and a regular edition. There is also a a fifth version that can only be purchased for those with a Japanese address.

Limited version K has a solo for Nakajima Kento on it, Candy ~Can U be my BABY~, in addition to the two title tracks. It also has the DVD with the PV on it. It will also have front and back jacket image with Nakaken on it, with the front jacket coming in three different versions, and the first press bonus is a solo poster for Nakaken.

Bye Bye Du Bye - See you again - / Title is to be announced [w/ DVD, Limited Edition / Type K] / Sexy Zone

Limited version F has a solo for Kikuchi Fuma on it, FaKe, in addition to the two title tracks.  It also has the DVD with the making of the jacket photo shoot and PV on it. It will also have front and back jacket image with Fuma on it, with the front jacket coming in three different versions, and the first press bonus is a solo poster for Fuma.

Bye Bye Du Bye - See you again - / Title is to be announced [w/ DVD, Limited Edition / Type F] / Sexy Zone

Limited version S has a solo for Sato Shori on it, Onaji Sora no Shitain addition to the two title tracks.  There is also a fourth track, Bye Bye Du Bye -See you again- (Friendship version) on it. It also has the DVD with a dance lesson for a song, Friendship that is somehow connected to the title track, on it. (I will assume this is the Friendship version that is on the CD for this.) It will also have front and back jacket image with Shori on it, with the front jacket coming in three different versions, and the first press bonus is a solo poster for Shori.

Bye Bye Du Bye - See you again - / Title is to be announced [w/ DVD, Limited Edition / Type S] / Sexy Zone

Then there is the regular version of the single that has four tracks as well as karaoke tracks for all four songs. It will be the two title tracks, their latest volleyball support song, Young & Beautiful! and the movie remix of BAD BOYS. It will come with one out of five trading cards and a poster of the group.

Bye Bye Du Bye - See you again - / Title is to be announced [Regular Edition] / Sexy Zone

It has taken me a good while to figure out the title of the single. Of course until the boys explain it this is just a guess on my part but to me it seems the most reasonable. I believe the "du" is actually German, as it is one of the words used for "you" with the meaning that you are talking to someone who is dear to you. Considering the English in the title is "see you again" it would imply that the song is probably having to deal with parting from someone close but hoping to see them again someday. Plus this would not be the first time SZ has used German in a song. Because otherwise all I can come up with is Dubai, and having the name of a Middle Eastern city-state in a song title of a Japanese boy band makes little sense.

If I am right about it being German than I have some hope that Yo Marius and Matsushima So may be a bit more prominent in this single, as Marius is the excuse for using German in their releases in the first place. So I hope I am right, I would actually pick up a copy of the single if I am. (RE only though as I would hope to be able to send some kind of signal I want the group to be about all five members and not just the older three.)

That said I did find a clip of Young & Beautiful! to listen to (and if I listened hard enough I could hear Marius and So) and my first impression was that it sounded like a Kis-My-Ft2 song. But something a bit more like their Junior songs, not so much their current style. I am not totally against this, as I liked Kisumai's Junior songs, but it is a bit weird to hear coming from SZ.

Johnny's Under 100: Hashimoto Ryosuke

Hashimoto Ryosuke

Group: A.B.C-Z

Birthdate: July 15, 1993

I only took notice of Hasshi after Hey! Say! JUMP debuted and he was made center of a trio of Juniors. I was surprised to learn that he was the same age as most of the younger members of HSJ as he looked at least two years older.

I was unsure of having him join A.B.C. to become A.B.C-Z. He certainly had a good enough voice and could dance but acrobatics was not something I would think he could do. But it turned out well for him as he has learned a lot from the other members.