SHOUNEN CLUB 2016.01.06
I decided to post commentaries on Shounen Club episodes starting 2016 (I think I have time for it, or I'd like to believe so hahaha). Hopefully, I'll be able to do the other 3 episodes before the March episodes air. I still keep up with Shounen Club even if most of my top favorites aren't regurlarly seen there nowadays. Anyway, even if they aren't often seen there, I like a lot of other jrs so I still enjoy watching the episodes so far. I'm not going to claim my Shounen Club commentaries are like detailed reviews or anything, because I am biased towards my favored persons of course, and my eyes are usually glued to them. My commentaries under the cut is quite text-heavy but I might consider putting in a few screencaps sometime in the future, well let's see. XD
The episode started with most of the featured people from JOHNNYS World 2015-2016. We get a Let’s Go to Earth performance which is a usual for the 1st episode of the year. I’m wondering why the first parts of the song was given to Mr.KING when Sexy Zone's Nakajima Kento and Sato Shori were both there, they even did the greetings. I don’t have anything against Mr.KING, I even like Nagase Ren a lot, but I’m still wondering just how hot they are right now as a unit, because publications have been writing about how “hot” they are. Anyway, I’m glad Snow Man and SixTONES members were also given time to be at the front during the song. Sadly, SixTONES's Matsumura Hokuto wasn’t there, I think the recording took place around the time he was injured? Please correct me if I’m wrong. Well, Kento and Shori came in again to finish the song.
For the opening talk, the MCs, A.B.C-Z's Kawai Fumito (Fumito) and Johnnys WEST's Kiriyama Akito (Akito) asked for the patronage of the people for this New Year. They then asked Shori what the theme for the episode is, and Shori and Kento, said “WORLD” in sync. Fumito was teasing them, saying they were cute. But they were really cute anyway, especially Shori with his very shy smile. Fumito even added that he had always wanted to see it like that, and Akito laughed and said what Fumito just said was something like grandmas and grandpas would say.
They then proceeded with the Fresh Johnnys Jr. Medley. The group of Muraki Ryota, Motodaka Katsuki, and Sugeta Rinne (they are called Tensai Genius but their unit name wasn’t flashed on the screened yet in this episode, but anyway I’ll refer to them like that). Tensai Genius started with a more upbeat version of Hey! Say! JUMP’s Ultra Music Power and Kinki Kids’ Garasu no Shounen. Next, is another group of young juniors, there are 4 of them as main singers but among the four I honestly only know Takahashi Yuto who has been getting my attention lately. I’m pretty sure they are trying to feature the other new unit made for JOHNNYS World with this performance, which is Classmate J. This unit has 6 members, the other two actually appeared in the latter part with their waveboards. I can’t leave this off, Nakamura Reia was also in the performance though he was only skateboarding. I can’t tell you enough how much disheartened I was with this, Reia deserves more spotlight than that. He wasn’t even given a microphone, while juniors who are younger than him are given the chance to sing. Anyway, Classmate J sang Kis-My-Ft2’s Everybody Go. Next is HiHi Jet singing A.Ra.Shi. HiHi Jet is Inoue Mizuki, Hashimoto Ryo, and Haba Yuki (with Igari Soya and I think 1 other young jr whenever the management feel like having him join lol). They were featured in magazines with 5 members but for some reason, there are usually only 3 of them, but maybe it’s because the other members are busy with school or something. Anyway, it was a pretty ordinary medley. Positive thing, there were a lot of young jrs featured.
Next corner is Johnnys WEST WORLD. I’m not delving into this much because I can hardly understand anything and I don’t follow Johnnys WEST that much. Yet again, Shigeoka Daiki (Shige) is not around. I have to say Kamiyama Tomohiro (Kami-chan) looks a little awkward in black hair and why is he like sporting a wet look during this part? Lol. Idk, maybe I just got so used to him having blonde, red, blue… whatever hair color, that black doesn’t feel right on him anymore. XD
Johnnys WEST went on to have their own medley too. The songs were Ee Janai ka, Zippangu Ookini Daisakusen, Zundoko Paradise, and Bari Hapi. Even when I said I don’t follow Johnnys WEST that much, I like their songs as I have become familiar with them by watching Shounen Club. This was a usual lively and fun Johnnys WEST performance.
Next segment is Shokura Blog and the featured person this time is Mr.KING’s Nagase Ren. Well, I’ve said earlier that I like him a lot but he’s not really one of my top favorites, I just like him a lot but there are even more jrs I like a lot more than him. XD Anyway, instead of showing a photo which is the usual in Shokura Blog, he showed some of his drawings instead. You be the judge if he’s good. Personally, I’m really hopeless at drawing so his drawings are fine with me hahaha.
Next is Nagase Ren’s performance of CRAZY MY DREAM. I am somehow pissed with this performance because of the injustice for the 4 backdancers though. They are wearing red, and the lights are red. So what is the director/lighting director or whoever is responsible trying to accomplish?! I understand the desire to put the spotlight on Ren but I feel really sorry for the backdancers. I’ve watched the performance several times for the sake of naming them but my eyes were already hurting and I still couldn’t be sure who they were. I want to laud them because they really did a good job. I appreciate good dancing. I think 3 of them are three of Tensai Genius (Muraki, Motodaka, and Rinne) but I’m not really sure, the other one I really have no idea.
Next is Kikuchi Fuma’s solo which is really plausible. Fuma has powerful voice and the backdancers (Yasui Kentaro, Sanada Yuma, Masuda Ryo, Hanzawa Akatsuki, Morita Myuto and Hagiya Keigo) complemented it with their powerful dancing. Have to point out that Yasui Kentaro looks so appealing in this performance. XD
Johnnys WEST no Sekai Mukashibanashi comes next. I don’t really understand everything that’s going on but it’s already funny just looking at their actions. However, I’m not too keen with this because Johnnys WEST already had a long talk earlier in the episode, it just seems so wrong that debuted groups are getting more amount of screen time on a show that is supposed to showcase Johnnys Jr. Now, I don’t mean the debuted groups should leave Shounen Club (but having 3 debuted groups there sure isn’t necessary), there’s what we call fair distribution which is obviously not in the management’s dictionary. Yes I know, it might be because they are senpais that’s why they should be given priority but they have their other shows and are obviously getting more opportunities than the jrs. On another note, Kami-chan's hair looks a little better by this time, I guess it's not as wet look anymore. XD
Next is A.B.C-Z with ABZ Za ~5 stars~ for the nth time. Lol. I like the song, but A.B.C-Z has other songs, right? I think this was already sang too much. But don’t worry, they also sang Moonlight Walker and it turned out to be a pretty cool performance.
We get a talk segment with Fumito and Akito interviewing Kento and Totsuka Shota (Tottsu). Then, Kentottsu (combined named of Kento and Tottsu) introduced the next song which is Family ~Hitotsu ni Naru Koto~.
Family ~Hitotsu ni Naru Koto~ was performed by Jesse, Kyomoto Taiga, Masuda Ryo, and Hanzawa Akatsuki. I have no words for the voices of these four, I’d love to hear them sing more ballads on this show. I don’t know about voice blending, but their voices are really great individually and I always enjoy these ballad collaborations.
Next is Jr ni Q. The theme is “the feeling I love.” I think it’s something like what kind of feeling is it when you say to yourself that “Ah, I love this feeling!” Lol. I’m not sure but that’s how I understand it. The jrs featured are Morimoto Shintaro, Takahashi Kaito, Abe Ryohei, Hirano Sho and Matsumura Hokuto. Im not sure why Hokuto is in here when he wasn’t there during the opening. XD
Next is Prince's stage. I don’t know why they’ve been getting Prince to sing Arashi’s songs, this time it’s Love So Sweet. To be honest I don’t think they sound good singing Arashi’s songs, I didn’t quite like their version of Monster last year. I like their version of Yamashita Tomohisa’s Yours Baby from last year so it's not that I don't like their voices. The next song after Love So Sweet is KAT-TUN’s Birth, I think this is a better song choice. Why didn’t they get at least around 4 backdancers for this though? I mean, there’s too much space on stage, it’s not like the performance require too much space for just the three of them. We haven’t even seen much jrs and the episode is almost ending.
Fumito and Akito went on to do the ending talk then introduced Sexy Zone with their latest single Colorful Eyes. Now, we get a bunch of jr backdancers here who can barely dance with the space they were given. I don't think the performance has anything nw comared to the previous performances they had of this song, but at least we finally get to see Sexy Zone's Matsushima Sou and Yo MArius in this episode.
Fujii Ryusei came as guest on Shori’s omake segment. They did kendama, I have nothing much to say about this.
Now to wrap this up, my favourite part of the episode would be Kikuchi Fuma’s FaKe performance (mainly because of the backdancers but I like Fuma’s performance as well) and the Family ~Hitotsu ni Naru Koto~ performance!
If anyone would like to share their favorite performances/segments from this episode, I'm all ears! XD