My Jr. Story
a bit late, but i finally found time to write about this haha, so better late than never, and i did say it would be long, so that's why i'm writing it in my own personal journal haha.
okay so...i'm actually not quite sure where my Jr. journey started haha. i just became aware that i was into Jrs like probably the past year or so, because of Sexy Zone and Johnny's Jr. Land lol.
but as i read everyone's stories in the post, some people mentioned TakiCHANnel, and Shintaro and Juri and them backdancing for JUMP, and that just made me think back...oh, i've been exposed to Jrs for much earlier than i had thought! xD but i guess being aware of them and actually becoming a fan are two different stories. but i want to say that it probably started with TakiCHANnel back when it was EbiKisu's era on the show, so it was probably around the time i got into JUMP, or maybe even before then. i don't quite remember when TakiCHANnel started, but i had been watching it since pretty early on, before i even called myself a Jr. fan. it was around the time when i thought i wanted to become a more well-rounded Johnny's fan, and get to know some other groups, and maybe even learn more about the Jrs. EbiKisu were the most popular Jr. groups at the time. i never became die hard fans, but i guess TakiCHANnel did help in making me a casual fan of them, and i still am a casual fan of both groups and i'm really happy that they finally got to debut after persisting for so many years as Jrs.
there came a time when i got kind of lazy though, so i stopped watching TakiCHANnel for a while. so when i got into Hey! Say! JUMP, i started to remember quite a lot of their main back dancers, mainly boys like Shintaro, Juri, Kyomocchan, B.I. Shadow etc. the really frequent faces of Jrs that we always saw at the time before all the new kids came in. and grew casually fond of some of them.
in 2011, right after the Touhoku Earthquake, Hey! Say! JUMP began to host Shounen Club, so that's when i started to watch Shounen Club regularly. at first i just wanted to watch for Hey! Say! JUMP members, but i remember on the very first episode that they hosted, they filmed in a studio rather than at NHK, and for the Jr. ni Q segment, a bunch of new Jrs who just came in sat down PE style in PE uniforms. and i can remember very clearly the one kid that i took a liking to right away, and that was Sato Shori. i had a gut feeling that he was going to become something great, just because, well...his name is Shori xD it means victory in Japanese and i remember i was just like omg that's such a cool name!! so i remembered him right away. and then right that very year, in November, the new group for volleyball supporters was announced and i was so happy to see Shori was selected as the center of the group! of course, i was sad about the breakup of B.I. Shadow, because it was like Ya-ya-yah happening all over again, and even though i wasn't in the fandom during Ya-ya-yah, i still grew to like Taiyou and Shoon quite a lot when i found out about them. but good thing it's not a repeat of Ya-ya-yah, because Yugo and Hokuto are still persisting and they're both pretty active Jrs, Yugo in School Kakumei and Hokuto in dramas and concerts.
oh! speaking of School Kakumei!! oh my gosh! i watched it live time on keyhole!! that one episode when they held the audition!! i remember i was kind of disappointed that Yugo got chosen lol, because i was rooting for Yoshino Shota haha. i later found out that Yoshino Shota did stay as a Jr for a bit, but i think he had since left Johnny's already, but i absolutely adore Yugo now, he's just grown in so many aspects, not just physically, but overall as an entertainer. but yeah, i just remembered about that audition lol. that was probably the first Jr. audition i've seen since entering the fandom, so i guess that makes Yugo a special one haha, although he's not one of my top favorites.
anyway, back to the debut of Sexy Zone. it was just the most amazing feeling when i saw that a Jr. that i liked got selected to debut! and alongside him was Marius and Sou, and i remembered them too, vaguely. everyone was all over Marius but i was just like yes!! Shori!! although Shori's time as a Jr. wasn't too long, i got a little taste of how it feels like to have a Jr. that you like debut.
and then later came the Bakaleya boom, which started off the whole Johnny's monopolizing the Saturday late-night time slot on NTV, and i had already known those Jrs before i became a fan of them and it was exciting because it was a collaboration with AKB members, which you don't see often. i don't particularly like AKB, but i still thought it was cool that two big agencies were joining together.
so then it was later announced that Sexy Zone would be regulars on Johnny's Jr. Land. i initially just wanted to get to know Sexy Zone members more, but then i didn't mind having Jrs on there, because i started to become more interested in them. i wanted to get that feeling again like when Shori got to debut. i would get to say "i knew that kid since he was a Jr!" and be super happy for him. and even after Sexy Zone graduated from the show, i continued to watch Johnny's Jr. Land, from the very first episode, all the way to the last one, the 101st episode. and through that show, i have come across so many Jrs, and each and every single one of them just have their charms. of course i have some that i am more biased towards, but i seriously am fond of every single one of them. sadly a few of them have left Johnny's (but i follow some of them on twitter xD) but i still love them a lot.
and because of Sexy Zone and Johnny's Jr. Land, somehow, i don't even know when it happened, but my first ever hardcore Jr. bias was Kishi Yuta. i really don't know when it happened, it just did. i didn't choose to lol. just one day out of nowhere it happened lol. i didn't even think it was possible for me to have a Jr. bias because there's literally hundreds of Jrs in Johnny's and i love all the ones that appeared in Johnny's Jr. Land, and just in that one show there was at least 60 Jrs that have appeared on it before lol. and as time went by and i got to know more Jrs, the same thing happened with Kobayashi Mizuki. like seriously, what the heck!? xD i was always fond of Mizuki though, because i always thought he had a really nice smile, but feels just went bam after a while of not seeing him and then i realized i really really like him a lot lol. as for Shizuya, i actually remember when i started to like him, and i made a vlog on this so some of you might remember the story of how i fell in love with Shizuya xD to tell the truth...okay, i didn't dislike Shizuya, but i thought he was kind of boring because he just always had that cool image when he was on the show. but then there was an episode when Mogi-san showed footage and photos that were never aired, and there was that one episode when Aran was trying to overcome his fear of heights by riding the ferris wheel. and after the shooting for that episode, they went on a rollercoaster, and Shizuya came back looking like he was going to cry. that was a huge munekyun moment for me. i was just like, "oh my gosh, he does have a cute side to him!" and that was how it all started with Shizuya haha.
and at some point i learned of the formation of Travis Japan. i knew all the members from JJL, aside from Buta-chan (Nakamura Kaito). i always saw him in the magazines, but he wasn't on JJL with them and i think he only appeared in two episodes of JJL. and i probably wanted to know more about Shizuya, i don't remember lol, but i was reading interviews of Travis Japan in magazines, and the crosstalks are always soooo hilarious! xD they're just so random! and i saw a chemistry between the members there, and somewhere along the way i just started to like them a lot, and they just became my favorite Jr. group, and because of Playzone, i'm starting to like the ani-gumi of Travis Japan as well :D and i wish JE would stop throwing members around *cough AraChika, Myuto*
aaannnndd, i can probably go on forever and discuss more thoughts about the whole Jr. thing lol, but this is pretty much how i got to where i am now as a Jr. fan, and i am really excited to see who will get chosen next year in November as members of the 6th generation World Cup Volleyball supporters. seeing the patterns though, most likely i will probably have to prepare for heartbreaks. i hope they don't take anyone from Travis Japan, because what they seem to tend to do, ever since Hey! Say! JUMP, was take some younger Jrs, and then debut them with some slightly older Jrs to kind of keep everyone together. but debuts are still exciting. Sexy Zone was my first debut in this fandom. or well, first debut filled with younger, fresher Jrs anyway, and that was pretty exciting. the next debut will probably be a bit more exciting because i now know so many Jrs, that i most likely will probably know most of the Jrs that get debuted, and i cannot wait to see who will get selected.
and that's my Jr story. sorry it's so long haha, but this is a lot of history here! xD
okay so...i'm actually not quite sure where my Jr. journey started haha. i just became aware that i was into Jrs like probably the past year or so, because of Sexy Zone and Johnny's Jr. Land lol.
but as i read everyone's stories in the post, some people mentioned TakiCHANnel, and Shintaro and Juri and them backdancing for JUMP, and that just made me think back...oh, i've been exposed to Jrs for much earlier than i had thought! xD but i guess being aware of them and actually becoming a fan are two different stories. but i want to say that it probably started with TakiCHANnel back when it was EbiKisu's era on the show, so it was probably around the time i got into JUMP, or maybe even before then. i don't quite remember when TakiCHANnel started, but i had been watching it since pretty early on, before i even called myself a Jr. fan. it was around the time when i thought i wanted to become a more well-rounded Johnny's fan, and get to know some other groups, and maybe even learn more about the Jrs. EbiKisu were the most popular Jr. groups at the time. i never became die hard fans, but i guess TakiCHANnel did help in making me a casual fan of them, and i still am a casual fan of both groups and i'm really happy that they finally got to debut after persisting for so many years as Jrs.
there came a time when i got kind of lazy though, so i stopped watching TakiCHANnel for a while. so when i got into Hey! Say! JUMP, i started to remember quite a lot of their main back dancers, mainly boys like Shintaro, Juri, Kyomocchan, B.I. Shadow etc. the really frequent faces of Jrs that we always saw at the time before all the new kids came in. and grew casually fond of some of them.
in 2011, right after the Touhoku Earthquake, Hey! Say! JUMP began to host Shounen Club, so that's when i started to watch Shounen Club regularly. at first i just wanted to watch for Hey! Say! JUMP members, but i remember on the very first episode that they hosted, they filmed in a studio rather than at NHK, and for the Jr. ni Q segment, a bunch of new Jrs who just came in sat down PE style in PE uniforms. and i can remember very clearly the one kid that i took a liking to right away, and that was Sato Shori. i had a gut feeling that he was going to become something great, just because, well...his name is Shori xD it means victory in Japanese and i remember i was just like omg that's such a cool name!! so i remembered him right away. and then right that very year, in November, the new group for volleyball supporters was announced and i was so happy to see Shori was selected as the center of the group! of course, i was sad about the breakup of B.I. Shadow, because it was like Ya-ya-yah happening all over again, and even though i wasn't in the fandom during Ya-ya-yah, i still grew to like Taiyou and Shoon quite a lot when i found out about them. but good thing it's not a repeat of Ya-ya-yah, because Yugo and Hokuto are still persisting and they're both pretty active Jrs, Yugo in School Kakumei and Hokuto in dramas and concerts.
oh! speaking of School Kakumei!! oh my gosh! i watched it live time on keyhole!! that one episode when they held the audition!! i remember i was kind of disappointed that Yugo got chosen lol, because i was rooting for Yoshino Shota haha. i later found out that Yoshino Shota did stay as a Jr for a bit, but i think he had since left Johnny's already, but i absolutely adore Yugo now, he's just grown in so many aspects, not just physically, but overall as an entertainer. but yeah, i just remembered about that audition lol. that was probably the first Jr. audition i've seen since entering the fandom, so i guess that makes Yugo a special one haha, although he's not one of my top favorites.
anyway, back to the debut of Sexy Zone. it was just the most amazing feeling when i saw that a Jr. that i liked got selected to debut! and alongside him was Marius and Sou, and i remembered them too, vaguely. everyone was all over Marius but i was just like yes!! Shori!! although Shori's time as a Jr. wasn't too long, i got a little taste of how it feels like to have a Jr. that you like debut.
and then later came the Bakaleya boom, which started off the whole Johnny's monopolizing the Saturday late-night time slot on NTV, and i had already known those Jrs before i became a fan of them and it was exciting because it was a collaboration with AKB members, which you don't see often. i don't particularly like AKB, but i still thought it was cool that two big agencies were joining together.
so then it was later announced that Sexy Zone would be regulars on Johnny's Jr. Land. i initially just wanted to get to know Sexy Zone members more, but then i didn't mind having Jrs on there, because i started to become more interested in them. i wanted to get that feeling again like when Shori got to debut. i would get to say "i knew that kid since he was a Jr!" and be super happy for him. and even after Sexy Zone graduated from the show, i continued to watch Johnny's Jr. Land, from the very first episode, all the way to the last one, the 101st episode. and through that show, i have come across so many Jrs, and each and every single one of them just have their charms. of course i have some that i am more biased towards, but i seriously am fond of every single one of them. sadly a few of them have left Johnny's (but i follow some of them on twitter xD) but i still love them a lot.
and because of Sexy Zone and Johnny's Jr. Land, somehow, i don't even know when it happened, but my first ever hardcore Jr. bias was Kishi Yuta. i really don't know when it happened, it just did. i didn't choose to lol. just one day out of nowhere it happened lol. i didn't even think it was possible for me to have a Jr. bias because there's literally hundreds of Jrs in Johnny's and i love all the ones that appeared in Johnny's Jr. Land, and just in that one show there was at least 60 Jrs that have appeared on it before lol. and as time went by and i got to know more Jrs, the same thing happened with Kobayashi Mizuki. like seriously, what the heck!? xD i was always fond of Mizuki though, because i always thought he had a really nice smile, but feels just went bam after a while of not seeing him and then i realized i really really like him a lot lol. as for Shizuya, i actually remember when i started to like him, and i made a vlog on this so some of you might remember the story of how i fell in love with Shizuya xD to tell the truth...okay, i didn't dislike Shizuya, but i thought he was kind of boring because he just always had that cool image when he was on the show. but then there was an episode when Mogi-san showed footage and photos that were never aired, and there was that one episode when Aran was trying to overcome his fear of heights by riding the ferris wheel. and after the shooting for that episode, they went on a rollercoaster, and Shizuya came back looking like he was going to cry. that was a huge munekyun moment for me. i was just like, "oh my gosh, he does have a cute side to him!" and that was how it all started with Shizuya haha.
and at some point i learned of the formation of Travis Japan. i knew all the members from JJL, aside from Buta-chan (Nakamura Kaito). i always saw him in the magazines, but he wasn't on JJL with them and i think he only appeared in two episodes of JJL. and i probably wanted to know more about Shizuya, i don't remember lol, but i was reading interviews of Travis Japan in magazines, and the crosstalks are always soooo hilarious! xD they're just so random! and i saw a chemistry between the members there, and somewhere along the way i just started to like them a lot, and they just became my favorite Jr. group, and because of Playzone, i'm starting to like the ani-gumi of Travis Japan as well :D and i wish JE would stop throwing members around *cough AraChika, Myuto*
aaannnndd, i can probably go on forever and discuss more thoughts about the whole Jr. thing lol, but this is pretty much how i got to where i am now as a Jr. fan, and i am really excited to see who will get chosen next year in November as members of the 6th generation World Cup Volleyball supporters. seeing the patterns though, most likely i will probably have to prepare for heartbreaks. i hope they don't take anyone from Travis Japan, because what they seem to tend to do, ever since Hey! Say! JUMP, was take some younger Jrs, and then debut them with some slightly older Jrs to kind of keep everyone together. but debuts are still exciting. Sexy Zone was my first debut in this fandom. or well, first debut filled with younger, fresher Jrs anyway, and that was pretty exciting. the next debut will probably be a bit more exciting because i now know so many Jrs, that i most likely will probably know most of the Jrs that get debuted, and i cannot wait to see who will get selected.
and that's my Jr story. sorry it's so long haha, but this is a lot of history here! xD