I’m so dying to find out the TV ratings for the 1st Scrap Teacher episode, but they don’t seem to be available yet. Tantei Gakuen Q opened with a 14.4% audience share last year and ended up with an 11.18% average. Gokusen 3 this year opened with 26.4% and averaged 22.81%, which was considerably lower than the 28% of Gokusen 2 three years earlier, but still very good considering that a drama like 1-Pound Gospel was struggling to get a 10.67% share, despite its good cast (Kame, Yamada). So for Scrap Teacher a 2-digit share would be really nice, and everything above 12% would be a great success. I see a lot of potential in the premise of the show, but I don’t know if that alone makes the Japanese watch it. And if the story doesn’t attract viewers, will the cast? I mean, it is a great cast. I like that guy who used to do Trivia no Izumi. 八嶋智人. Did anyone notice that in his name there’s the kanji 嶋 which is made up of 山 and 島? Logic says it should be read Yamajima, but for some reason it’s just shima. Also there’s the 智. That one looks like Chinen’s 知 standing on a box because he’s so small. But where’s Daiki in that man’s name? I sense a conspiracy. D: But I digress…

I came across a blog the other day of a guy who’s working for the JET program, i.e. he’s teaching English to Japanese kids in some small town in Japan, and he had posted the Mayonaka no Shadow Boy PV on his blog for some of his students because apparently Hey!Say!JUMP is very popular with them. Sensei wa erai, ne? So if that’s true and JUMP are more popular with Japanese kids than not, then Scrap Teacher might do well in the ratings even if turns out that it sucks as a drama. Somebody should do a survey among all JET teachers to find out if their students love HSJ too.

I wonder how well Shadow Boy will sell. I’m at a point where I can totally not assess Hey!Say!JUMP’s popularity among the general public in Japan. I mean beyond Junior High School. 12- to 15-year-old girls love them, no doubt. But these are only a small part of the Japanese music market, and if JUMP want to succeed in that market they will need to find some 20+ fans, and find them now, not wait until the now 15-year-olds turn 20. You can’t conquer an aging society with a fan-army of schoolkids alone, because compared with the older generations there simply aren’t enough of them.

I thought because of the matureness of the song and the PV Your Seed would do really well with a more mature audience, and it didn’t. I think Shadow Boy will do really well, and maybe it won’t. However, I do believe that there are quite a number of older Johnny’s fans, people who are usually into the senpai groups from SMAP to Kanjani8, who are actually somewhat impressed/surprised how good Shadow Boy is and how much they like it. Whether they admit it in public or not is a whole different issue, but there will be some who will secretly buy the CD and enjoy that tickling sensation of pedo-guilt in the privacy of their home. And they’re probably gonna love it.

Hey!Say!JUMP need some of the pedolarity that lets ojisans flock to Morning Musume and AKB48 concerts. If school uniforms don’t do the trick, try black leather

Shokura was okay I guess. Pretty much like last week. Entertaining and never losing me to boredom, but no real show stopping performances either. But I have a few personal highlights.

First, the Himitsu Medley. Not my favourite medley of all time, but at least Shoon got more attention in it than in 5 years of Ya-Ya-yah. Also, a short glimpse of Nozawa. I love this kid, and I think it’s just because of his name. Yuuki. Such a cute name. ♥ Just saying it is a lot of fun. Yuuki. I could say it all day long. Yuuki, Yuuki, Yuuki. Okay, I’ll stop now, this is silly.

Download: SC 2008-10-12 Himitsu Medley.avi
SC 2008-10-12 Himitsu Medley.mp3

Speaking of cute, Uekusa, Shintaro, Taiga and the other chibikos did Secret Agent Man. At first I thought they’d do the whole song in that boys choir version, but they didn’t. Is that good or bad? You decide.

Download: SC 2008-10-12 Secret Agent Man.avi
SC 2008-10-12 Secret Agent Man.mp3

Next was Nekketsu Jr. League, and there were two fresh Juniors that were pretty cute, Nakajima Kento and Watanabe Haruki. They were doing impersonations, but unfortunately I had problems recording this segment. But anyway, I found Watanabe-kun and his whip rather intriguing. And he taught me some more Japanese because I found out that どこのどいつだ doesn’t mean “where is Germany” but “who on Earth are you?” What’sですよ！ (EDIT: Thanks to the wonderful Irea, here’s the video.)

Speaking of what’sですよ, US5, WHAT‘Sですよ！！！Now this surely has to mean something, no? I mean, why would Johnny give up precious screentime of his own boys in order to pimp US5? Maybe we’re in for a bigger collaboration soon. I don’t know, maybe Kis-My-Ft2 or other Juniors opening for US5 on their next concert tour or something. Hey, a boy can dream, right?

Download: SC 2008-10-12 KMF2 & US5.avi
SC 2008-10-12 KMF2 & US5.mp3

Weird though.

And speaking of weird, A.B.C.-Z are now pronounced A.B.C.-Zee after all. What the hell happened to Zetto? I liked Zetto. Easier to type than A.B.C.-Z. Oh well.

So yeah, that was Shokura.

Scrap Teacher premiered yesterday and it was… jeez, I don’t even kow what to think of it. If I’d never heard of Hey!Say!JUMP before the synopsis “4 students turn their crappy teachers into better ones” would surely spark my interest and I’d watch it just to see if they turn a good idea into something great or into something awful. Kicking your teacher out of a helicopter while your buddies down below are sitting on lawnmowers to clear a patch for the guy to land on is a whacky and somewhat far-fetched idea, but I actually really really liked it. Up to that point I was following the story trying not to get bored and I wasn’t really all that excited about what I’d seen, although Yuto being bullied is very sexy, and I liked the atmosphere that Ryosuke, Daiki and Yuri are creating with those stern looks on their faces and their kinda-coolness. Did they smile at least once? I don’t remember. Everybody usually smiles too much. I find people who never (or almost never) smile very intriguing. But anyway, it wasn’t until the helicopter scene that I thought this series might turn into something very nice.

And in other news, I’ve been too busylazy in the last couple of  days to reply to people’s comments. Sorry ’bout that, but thank you all for your thoughts.

Yuto is quoted as saying: “Although we’ve seen the billboard before, coming back here and standing in front of it to have our picture taken it’s surprising to see how big it really is. Starring in our first TV drama leading roles is a lot of pressure, but with our combined powers we’ll do our very best. Knowing how many people are going to see this billboard is a very gratifying feeling.”




see that?!
they are so popular!
i wish i can see it!