Sexy Zone Channel 2014.09.10 Review

In the midst of all sorts of uncertainty about the future of the group, at least we can still turn to Sexy Zone Channel to see all five members together. So, what are the guys going to do this time?

Whatever it is, they were asked to assemble by 7:45 a.m., which means they are going to some place that would be open to the public during regular hours, and they need to go there early so that they don’t disrupt business.

The staff guy noted that he came to Shori-kun’s Solo Concert, but struggles to say much about it. He also asked Fuma-kun about GTO, which was ending the next day (I assume it is the recording that was concluding, and that ‘tomorrow’ was based on when this was recorded in August).

The staff guy was unusually bad about the opening conversation this time – perhaps because of the early hour. Kento-kun called him out on it.

Sexy Zone Channel 2014.08.27 Review

On the official Sexy Zone Channel website they give hints as the title for the next episode, and the hint for this one was “Eh! (blank) for one hour!”. Intriguing, but also a little worrying. After spending one hour fishing in an episode, and eating in multiple episode, what could be even less likely to fill an hour of program time? Is the staff trying to find the limit of what Sexy Zone can make entertaining?

The show begins with the usual banter between the guys and the staff, which still feels like a unique way to begin a program. Does any other show have this sort of opening?

The staff guy asks if the boys have watched Stand & Run – the concert backstage documentary about them. They have, of course, and Marius-kun noted that he watched it with his mother (and I would love to have her commentary on a secondary audio track to the documentary).

The staff guy brought up the fact that Kento-kun drank a lot of water during the documentary, and he really seemed to be trying to drag this segment out. I think Fuma-kun pointed that out, but the staff just continued with the odd topics – eventually asking them the temperature that they set when going to sleep. They’re a lot more tolerant to heat than I am, from what they said, but it’s all in the name of conserving electricity in the post-Fukushima power situation in Japan. In spite of the heat, Fuma-kun turns off all cooling when he goes to sleep, and dubs himself an (or the) Eco-idol.

Sexy Zone Channel 2014.08.13 Review

Having spent the July episodes completing an epic athletic event, the members of Sexy Zone reflect with the staff of Sexy Zone Channel on their physical progress. In particular, it was pointed out that the three elder members had scored some success in one episode or another, but the two younger members – Matsushima Sou-kun and Marius Yo-kun – haven’t. This seems pretty obvious to me, since if they set up tasks meant to be challenging to the more physically developed older members, the younger members will inevitably struggle to keep up, but it’s always worth prodding people to shape up, I guess.

The staff asks them to come up with activities where they might be the best in the group. Sou-kun proposes archery but accidentally pronounces it “archury”. Everyone seems to want to do bowling and Marius-kun says he’s the best in his family, but when Fuma-kun asks what score he gets, he seems to have some trouble.

Either he says he gets above 100 points in two games, but he seems to think that the top score in one game is 100 points (the others know it’s more than that, but I don’t think any of them actually says it’s 300 points). In the old days, when we all kept score on sheets, it would be conceivable that his family simply kept the score wrong. In the age of automatic scoring systems, though, that’s not quite as likely, and this is probably a case of Marius-kun just being a bit young.

Sexy Zone Channel 2014.07.30 Review

This Sexy Zone Channel episode is the second half of the physical aptitude test challenge, in which the guys had to pick six tests of fitness and try to beat the average for seventeen year-olds (the average age of the group).

They’ve already done three tests – grip strength, the cobra (I have no idea what to call it otherwise), and the standing long jump . . .

. . . and after the (very long) recap in which we saw everything from the first episode, we continued with test number four – shuffling, as Matsushima-kun demonstrates here:

 

The average for seventeen year-olds is 58 times in 20 seconds. One thing we found out from the last episode is that while Sou-kun is flexible, there are definitely some areas in which he could improve. Will he be able to beat the average here?

Sexy Zone Channel 2014.07.16 Review

Right away in this Sexy Zone Channel episode, we notice that they’re wearing their warm-ups instead of the recently introduced overalls . . .

. . . and that means exactly what you think it means: they’re going to get some exercise this time after a food episode, fishing episode, and safari episode. It had been two months since we saw these guys getting a proper workout, and that time it was squash.

But before we get to what exactly they’re going to be doing, we have the usual start-of-episode silliness with the staff. Fuma-kun was not present for the opening because of drama-related commitments, but will be in the rest of the episode. As usual, the SZ members lament the sloppiness of the opening.

Marius-kun shared some thoughts from his mother about their performance (especially in the squash episode), telling them to step up their seriousness (especially critiquing Marius-kun himself, of course).

Shori-kun verifies that they are going to be doing sports this time, and the staff guy brings up the World Cup. Kento-kun starts talking about Germany doing well in the game against Ghana and Marius-kun gets antsy.