np. Kagrra, – 運命の糸
Excuse the lateness.
What we have here is again the four Enbujou-boys (Kawai, Totsu, Fujigaya and Kitayama) representing ABC and Kis-My-Ft2 and Shoon in red as front juniors, more of HSW, a fun Jr. League and a special performance, where members of different units work together on a song.
The theme for this episode is 「Friend」 (Kawai and Fujigaya in their own world, ignoring the MCs, at the back), and the Friend-medley includes the following songs: 「Step and Go」 of 嵐, 「Sayaendo」 of NEWS by Totsu who has a nice edge to his voice and makes it differ from the original version, 「オレじゃなきゃ、キミじゃなきゃ」 of 20th Century by Fujigaya, 「絆」 of Kamenashi by Kitayama, 「AMBITIOUS JAPAN」 of TOKIO by Kawai who shows his steady voice here, and the closing song of the medley is SMAP’s 「友だちへ～Say What You Will～」, and Shoon in the center there.
Koyama and Nakamaru talk to a few juniors about friends and friendship.
The trio (that has still to be named, probably going to be soon) of 橋本良亮 [Hashimoto Ryosuke], 真田佑馬 [Sanada Yuuma] and 野澤祐樹 [Nozawa Yuuki] present the new song 「限界-meter」.
Hashimoto with that haircut strongly resembles Akanishi from KAT-TUN (and that’s the point of it, of course).
Poprock-type of song. You like KAT-TUN, you like this.
More friend-talk, with different juniors.
At this stage it’s still alright to hang out with other juniors. Then after some years they get tired of each other 
And the promised collaboration of different groups.
The song is TOKIO’s 1997-hit 「Julia」 and is done by Ishigaki (Question?), 小坂真郷 [Kosaka Masato] whose voice I have recently really begun to like, 後藤泰観 [Gotou Hiromi] (who does very well playing violin, but honestly I think he should stick to that.. His voice has no range and he just can’t seem to breathe at all), Yodogawa (Question?) who has a rather nice voice and rarely gets to show it off, 福士申樹 [Fukushi.. Nobuki, if I got that right].
Junior League. Teamwork is the theme of the challenge. Shoon makes a fool of himself already in the intro. Promises good.
Basically they’re supposed to write the answers on the boards and the more same answers they have within the team, the more points they will get.
First we’ll determine Koyama’s image-color, and then what animal Nakamaru resembles. Let’s just say that.. there is a camel, sloth (x2, but in different teams 
), giraffe, horse, hippo.. yeah. Everything that has a big nose.
..who do they admire in KAT-TUN? dum-dum.
Then they play the “guess-the-word”-game. Kawai wins because it’s so real. Shoon, I don’t have enough word for Shoon. Watch it
Also, Fujigaya deserves to be mentioned by his Kamenashi-imitation.
Kansai Jr.Q.
Koyama and Nakamaru talk about outings with the band-members (Nakamaru mentions Ueda and Masuda, Koyama of course Shige).
HSW do a special medley.
Yamada does 「Asiaの夜」, the whole group 「Wonderland Train」.
HeySayPost. Kids get cellphones so early these days…
And I’m really starting to like Okamoto. And it’s not because I adore his dad, but also because he’s been really really hilarious on TV recently 
「A Ha Ha」 by Anderson Casey, 京本大我 [Kyomoto Taiga]、森田美勇人 [Morita Myuto], 川島如恵留 [Kawashima Noeru] 森本慎太郎 [Morimoto Shintaro].
Just thought to list the kanjis up for myself, because I’m going to need them later anyway.
The closing song is, of course, SMAP’s memorable 「Best Friend」.
.
In June-SCs we have first the complete Butoukan (wonderful!) with the new song and then one of the K8-members.
Maybe then we’ll also have a group-name for the trio.
And I can further discuss teaming Kosaka and Shoon up for a new unit out?
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Thanks for the recap! I just recently found your site, and I love it! I’ve read almost all your SC recaps. I always download them, but without subtitles. I do not know Japanese at all, so your recaps are such a big help! I read ur comments while I watch SC. THanks!
Comment by Sarah May 20, 2008 @ 6:14 amI’m glad it’s a bit helpful.
I have issues of translating literally, so I just choose to make short summaries
If there’s something that really bothers you and I haven’t included it, feel free to ask. If I recorded the episode or just happen to remember it, I’ll try to answer.
Comment by aleyna333 May 20, 2008 @ 6:23 pmAaaahhh, I finally got to see the show today! I hate to say it, but although I miss the rest of ABC and Kisumai, I love all of the extra air time and attention that Fujigaya, Kitayama, Kawai, & Tottsu have been getting. The intoductions at the beginning of this ep really showed that those 4 (& Shoon) can “own the show.” Tottsu had always been my 4th favorite ABCer, but now, I’m starting to really like him! Great voice!
Kawai can sure command an audience. He really has such stage presence!
I also am enjoying all of the emerging new faces that are being featured this season.
Thanks for explaining Jr. League’s categories. I would have been lost otherwise. In fact, I’m still a little lost…..what in the world was Shoon doing with his little cyclone spins? Shot-put? Maa, hayai ne?
Also in the last word guessing phase….why was Koyama asking only Fukushin for the answer? That ate up a good amount of the team’s time. Tottsu’s team really blew away Kawai’s team…..they were really in sync!
“Julia” was such a surprise for me…..I was amazed at the vocal abilities of Kosaka and Ishigaki. Yes, the violin-guy CAN play but can’t sing and was very nervous. I felt his pain!
All in all, a very good show, lots of new concepts and faces!
Thanks so much for your translations and summaries as usual. I hope to see more from you next month!
Comment by SteffiPi May 23, 2008 @ 3:16 pmOh, I forgot to mention…..kinda funny, actually ironic…..at the beginning of the closing number, “best friends,” check out the chibi juniors in red tops & black pants who are NOT exhibiting “best friend” behavior as they push and shove! Hilarious!:P
Comment by SteffiPi May 26, 2008 @ 10:51 amWell, the thing now that HSW are (almost!) out, is that some have to step up as leading juniors, and they’re strongly hinting that they would be the tro from ABC and the two from Kis-My-Ft2.
Shoon’s place.. no idea. I would like to see him paired up in a duo with Kosaka.
Kawai’s been really “coming out” during 2007 and 2008. I hope they’ll get the guy something to do, since it’s shame that he’s still kind of left in the shadows.
Kosaka’s been seriously improving during the winter and spring. A lot of vocal training, and it’s paid off. He has the voice earlier, but no technique to use it (last autumn he _tried_ to do Akanishi’s “Care” and failed, rather miserably).
Shoon’s word was actually ‘ハンマ一投げ’ [Hammaa-nage], more clearly in English it’s “Hammer throw”
Comment by aleyna333 May 29, 2008 @ 5:02 pm同感, 小山. 可笑しいです.
Hi again,
I always laugh at the HS”W” reference that you make, but I was wondering,
1. when and why were Yabu and Hikaru made Jr. leaders?
2. Who were the leaders after Yamapi? Were they Jin & Kame?
3.Yabu & Hikaru are kinda cute and all but, did they deserve to be such young leaders when there were already so many older and (in my opinion) more talented Juniors (like Kitayama, Fujigaya, or ABC)?
4. Were Shoon & Taiyo dumped simply because they were not born in the “Heysay” heisei period?
5. Is Johnny really that un-predictable as it seems? Did anyone anticipate HSW debuting before any of the other junior groups?
Phew, hope you have some time to answer my inquiries! Thanks!
Comment by SteffiPi June 4, 2008 @ 10:18 amHSW is.. HSW
Just to make this as messy as possible, I’m going to start from the beginning.
The first (and, well, for a huge bunch of people, including me and the majority of the JE-boys thenmselves, the only real) Junior Leader was Tackey, who was asked to take the charge of the unorganized Juniors.
After he got the agency persuaded that he could debut with Tsubasa as a duo (and not two solo acts as originally planned) in 2002, he “passed on” his duties to four popular and upcoming juniors.
They were called “Four Tops” and included 山下智久 [Yamashita], 長谷川純 [Hasegawa Jun], 生田斗真, [Ikuta Toma] and 風間俊介 [Kazama Shunsuke]. Taking after Tackey and grabbing a hold of the Jr-program Shounen Club (with MA’s Akiyama), they were really popular and were expected to debut together sooner or later.
However, when NEWS was formed as a “temporary” group in the later half of 2003, and then ended up debuting, the Four Tops was “coldly” abandoned.
NEWS debuted officially in 2004, and KAT-TUN took over the SC and became the front juniors.
Then there was the story of Jimmy Mackey and the remains of 4T alongside, and after, KAT-TUN.
Ya-Ya-Yah began to gain popularity slow but steady, a huge thanks of that to their completely random TV-show (with some member of NEWS) that followed SMAP’s example (hi, 90% of the J-variety of today..) plus the fact that they were the only actually popular undebuted “little jrs” for teenage girls to squee for.
I don’t actually see Yabu and Yaotome as “leaders” since, as we know, there have been a lot more experienced jrs around.
Though, so it was with Yamashita etc too, but his and the 4T popularity was skyrocketing after Tackey “made him”, so.
Yabu and Yaotome just got the spotlight and were very much in the front, gaining popularity.
Besides, when is it (a few examples I can give, yes) that you get what you deserve, when it comes to JE?
The kids were/are popular, and that’s why they were in front.
As for the questions 4 & 5, I have to admit that I have no “official answer”
But to dig into the matter, the agency had been pushing Yabu and Yaotome forwards way more than Shoon and Taiyou, so I had expected something to happen.
However, the permanent group -status of HSW came totally behind the tree. It’s like NEWS all over again, breaking up existing, quite popular groups (4T and KKK broke up for NEWS, YYY and JJE were torn apart for HSW) and bringing people up front from total “nobodyness” (Tegoshi Yuya vs. Okamoto Keito).
If JE’d had plans for YYY, they wouldn’t have broken them up.
Showbusiness is not an easy business.
And to the last question’s first part.
Johnny Kitagawa himself hasn’t been directly in charge in a while already. For an agency as large as JE, there’s been a big board of management. He is still the president of the directors’ board, but his sister Mary has the title of leading the JE as agency. Mary’s daughter is Johnny’s vice in the directors’ board.
People (mostly fangirls) say absurd things about the agency everywhere in the English fandom, so I’d say not to believe anything you don’t have back-up for.
But whatever is said, they sure know how to do their job and market their products.
You do not lead a company like this with sudden decisions and half-heartedness.
Has to be some kind of a record-long reply. Sorry
Comment by aleyna333 June 4, 2008 @ 6:42 pmJust so you know. That’s not “the whole group” singing Wonderland Train, but just HS7.
And, 森本慎太郎 =/= Morimoto Ryutaro, but Morimoto Shintaro.
Comment by aizaz June 10, 2008 @ 10:47 amThanks for your insightful reply! I didn’t know that you had already responded so quickly to ALL of my questions…..I assumed you were still taking your exams! Hope those went well……I look forward to reading more stuff from you in the future!
Comment by SteffiPi June 22, 2008 @ 4:38 am- aizaz, I’ve shortened all of the HS-groups to HSW (HeySayWhatever, because there just are too many), so technically it’s right.
My bad for the false romanization, fixed.
- Steffipi, no problem. I don’t normally drop my spoon in the English JE-talks but first time there too. Any other questions though, and I’d prefer mail.
Comment by aleyna333 June 25, 2008 @ 10:07 pmPublic writing in terms of (criticising/talking about) a fandom that some take way too seriously has proven itself not to be my thing 24/7