SHOUNEN CLUB 2016.01.13
Here goes my commentary for the 2nd Shounen Club episode of 2016. Before anything else, I'd like to express my happiness because schedules and performers for Johnnys Ginza 2016 or CREA 2016 was announced and Travis Japan shall be having their performances with complete members! Yes, they are not separated this time! They're doing it as 9 for the first time, finally! And also for the first time in several months, the management finally does something which really satisfies me lol. Not like I'll be able to watch the Crea shows live though and we don't even have Takichannel anymore :( But, I'm just really glad Travis Japan will be doing it as 9. At least, I can hope they will show some of their performances on Shounen Club, right? Anyway, sorry for going off topic but I didn't want to make a separate post for that because I'm quite at a lost for words, I'm just really happy. XD Now on to my commentary, which is still lacking with screencaps to compensate for the heavy-text. Lol.
The episode starts with Sexy Zone singing King & Queen & Joker. Kinda perplexing why they are singing this now when it was released a few years back. This is one of my favorite songs from Sexy Zone, and I never knew that after just a few months(yes months, because I just watched 2013-2014 episodes of Shounen Club a few months ago tbh) it would strike me with a "times have changed" aura. The backdancers for this often used to be 96-98line jrs (and if you don't know, most of my favorites are from 97line), now most of them are not even regularly seen at Shokura. So yeah, it's quite hard to watch this performance without feeling a little melancholic. The backdancers this time are the younger jrs, around 98 to 00liners (HiHi Jet, Tensai Genius, Classmate J and some others).
The episode theme is "Message" and now I'm even more perplexed why they chose King & Queen & Joker for the opening. XD They went on to have a talk mostly centering on Sexy Zone's Nakajima Kento. Next, the MCs, A.B.C-Z's Kawai Fumito and Johnnys WEST's Kiriyama Akito called on Mr.KING (who were carrying batons), talked with them for a bit, then let them stand by. Sexy Zone's Yo Marius did the introduction for the song in English, but I honestly couldn't understand some parts of what he said. XD
Mr.KING performed Jounetsu no Iro with rollerskates and with batons. Is this also a thing in JOHNNYS World? Practicing them must be hard so I'll give them credits for it, but it was a rather so-so performance. Also, I think I've seen too much rollerskating lately lol.
Next is Shokura NEWS. The VTR is about JOHNNYS World. It has been 4 years that Kento and Sato Shori has been leading this it seems, and Fumito jokingly said something like isn't it about time they step down from being JOHNNYS World leads. XD I didn't pay attention for most of what they're saying after that. I know flying is normal in Johnnys but a piano flying is so... lol. The VTR showed some performances which is pretty impressive but I'm not talking about them in detail here.
HiHi Jet is next with their own song "Hi Hi JET", there are only 3 of them as main in this performance. There are 5 other jrs rollerskating with them, and 10 jrs backdancing on the stairs. I'm glad this song is finally getting into me. XD I didn't quite like it the first time I heard it because I can't understand "Hi Hi JET to be with you" Hahaha, I don't know why I'm still not used to all these awkward English in Japanese songs after all this time, but at least after some time I'm learning to like the songs. Anyway, Inoue Mizuki has been really maturing and growing to my liking!
Next is talk part with A.B.C-Z, it was quite a long talk but I didn't even try to understand what they were talking about. XD The group then stand by for their song.
A.B.C-Z performed Suna no Glass. Finally, we're getting something new. XD Not really new, but at least not ABC Za ~5 stars~. I didn't even know this was an A.B.C-Z song before this but I'm familiar with the song. I like the performance mainly because the song is quite rare.
Shokura Blog is next, Marius is featured and he shows a letter sent by his grandmother from Germany, there's another photo but I couldn't catch what he's saying about that.
Then, Marius got his own stage and performed YOUR STEP. Whose song is this? Lol. It's an English song. Marius is lip-syncing, right? Now, I don't have anything against lip-syncs because it's still their voices anyway, but I think Marius is one of the worsts in doing it when trying to synchronize. XD The song was quite fun. And the backdancers seem to be having fun too. The backdancers were Yamakura Sharufu, Okamoto Kauan, Nagatsuma Reo, and Tanimura Ryuichi.
Next is Munekyun Legend ~2nd Season~ hosted by Munekyun Legends Johnnys WEST's Kotaki Nozomu and Sexy Zone's Kento. The contestants are Iwahashi Genki, Kishi Yuta, and Matsumura Hokuto. I'm cheering for Hokuto on this! XD :) Genki's situation is it has started raining but the girl has forgotten to bring her umbrella. Kishi's situation is th girl is talking about another guy? (I'm not sure, please tell me if I got this tottaly wrong). Hokuto's situation is the girl was sleeping and he tries to wake her up? I'm not going to be a spoiler and say who won, but I have to say Hokuto's comments/side comments are the highlights of this part for me. XD Things like "It's hard to act cute when you've reached 20." or "Eh? Was it normal?" (His attempt) and "Did I do something bad?" I love this guy! Just watch it and you'll understand what I'm saying. XD
Next is SixTONES with their song BE CRAZY. How many times have they performed this in Shokura already? XD But nevermind, I love this song and SixTONES is still as cool as ever!
The segment Anata ni o Tegami Kakimashou is next, it has appeared again after quite a long time! And the two who wrote their letters to each other is Fumito and Sexy Zone's Kikuchi Fuma. Well, this is hilarious because Fumito and Fuma's interactions are usually funny with all the teasing and stuff, but I hope jrs can do more of these segments. XD :)
Next stage is Johnnys WEST with Can't Stop. Like the last episode, member Shigeoka Daiki is not around so there are only 6 of them. I'm not too familiar with the song, but it's a good one. Not quite Johnnys WEST-like, but this variation is good!
Jr ni Q comes next with the theme like last time "the feeling I love" or that's how I understand it lol. The featured jrs were Jesse, Tanaka Juri, Sanada Yuma, and Yasui Kentaro.
Next performance is ZIG ZAG LOVE by Snow Man. Like SixTONES's BE CRAZY, this has been performed for many times since Shounentachi days. XD Still, Snow Man is always impressive to watch with their acrobats and this is a good song too!
Fumito and Akito were about to have the ending talk but their attention was taken by A.B.C-Z's Tsukada Ryoichi who was shown to be standing alone on stage. They laughed and said to the audience that "It's not like he will be singing alone" Hahaha. Fumito then went to stand by.
For the ending song, it's Dream~5 tsu no Negai by A.B.C-Z. They were joined by Snow Man, SixTONES, and Yasui Kentaro, Sanada Yuma, Masuda Ryo, and Hanzawa Akatsuki around the latter part of the song.
For Shori's omake segment, the guest is SixTONES's Kyomoto Taiga. They mentioned how a 2-shot of them two is rare, and this might even be the first one. XD Now that I think about it, it's true. XD Well, SixTONES members doesn't really backdance for Sexy Zone either, except maybe Jesse because he was part of the Sexy Family before, right? Anyway, good to see two persons I favor together. XD :)
My favorite part of the episode would be Munekyun Legend, Snow Man's ZIG ZAG LOVE and Omake by Shori. XD Munekyun Legend because of Hokuto! His remarks were really funny. XD Snow Man's ZIG ZAG LOVE because their acrobats really put me in awe! And Omake by Shori just because I appreciate a 2-shot of my favorite persons. :)
That's it for my commentaries for this episode! Bye for now!