Honjani!

Kanjani8′s show that airs once a week. It has been running for four years. The members learn different kinds of stuff. Most of the episodes feature them learning how to play sports. Some episodes involve food. And the rests feature other things that you can learn about.

Sugimoto Natsumi is the hostess of the show. Murakami hosts with her as well as participates in sports.

Sports

Baseball, soccer, basketball, tennis, volleyball, golf, billiards, bowling, table tennis, swimming, badminton, remote car racing, snowboarding, darts, flying disk, gymnastics, track and field, wall climbing, rugby…

The sports episodes usually take two episodes. Each sports is divided into six lessons. Sometimes, they have Lesson 0 (warm-ups and general information) and/or Extra Lesson (games). The members play the same sports in some episodes.

There are times where the members play mini-games to enhance the skills they just learned. Each member hits the ball without fail in tennis, get a certain point in table tennis, try to clear stages in billiards, etc.

The second episode usually feature them playing a real or a mini game with the professionals, with a bit of handicap. The announcer, Wakatabe Katsuhiko, appears in the real games. At the end of the match, the coach picks the MVP if there is one.

The most interesting game is the first ice hockey game, where the members play against each other as two teams. I guess they’re not good enough to play a real game yet. It’s kinda fun because watching “professional” games can get tiring.

One of the good matches is the latest soccer match. The group’s defense really improved. This was the first time for Maruyama to play a goal keeper, and he did well in the game.

Maruyama earns the nickname, Mr. Unbalance XD He sometimes screwed up the practice drills and has tripped over a few times.. But he’s hard working. You can sometimes see him practicing at the back when each member takes a turn at doing the task. In contrast, Yasu earns the nickname, “Yasu, Who Can Do Anything.” Pretty self-explanatory.

Special for Murakami: In the wall climbing episode, each member gets a chance to climb a wall on his own and touch the flag at the end. When it was Murakami’s turn (the last one), they hooked his wallet next to the flag XD His objective was to get his wallet back, ROFL. He was funny! *pats him*

Food

A chef teaches them how to make certain dishes. The members sometimes help him, or the chef only instructs them. Sometimes, the members split into three groups and make their own dishes.. The chef comments on their cooking methods. The members who aren’t making it try out the dish.

In one episode, Subaru was holding the wok while cooking. The chef put something in the wok to create a fire. After the fire was gone, Subaru shouted, “FIRE!!!” XD Then, Murakami tsukkomi’d him, LOL.

Another time, Yasu cried because Subaru ate his strawberry XD XD Murakami hit Yasu on the head for crying XD

The later episodes have three chefs competing against each other using cooking styles from different countries: Japanese, Chinese, and Italian. The members watch them cook. After tasting the food, they give points on a list of categories for each chef. The chef who gets highest score is the winner.

There are times where questions are asked and they have to guess the right answer in order to get to eat the dish. My favorite is the one where one member couldn’t guess the right answer. Last question. All the members but him chose the same answer! However, he got the answer right!! Made me wonder if there’s a setup..

Fishing

Usually expands to two episodes. The members split up into three groups and fish as much as they can within a certain amount of time. They compete sometimes. There’s one episode where each group try to complete a goal, like getting a certain weight of fish and getting different types of fish.

Outdoor/Barbecue

The episodes take place in towns outside Osaka. They explore plantations and other unique places. There are a couple of episodes where they perform in festivals. They hang out in the town’s special places. Parts of their performance and the backstage are shown at the end.

During the barbecue episodes, he members split into groups to work on different things, like preparing and cooking different food. An expert comes to the show to teach them various ways of barbecuing the food.

Lectures

Murakami nad Sugimoto play the role of teachers while the rests sit at the desks. The first lecture episodes talk about women’s minds; what the majority of women is thinking. Questions are asked and the seven members try to guess the correct answer.

The later half episodes are about palm reading. A professor comes to the show and discuss some basic information about what the lines represent. He also analyzes each members hand.

These episodes are ok. They can be quite boring if you don’t understand the language. The talk about women is more boring than the palm reading though..

Magic

Episodes with the magicians are my most favorite ones. Seeing magic tricks are fun. And I love the members expressions! It’s interesting to see magicians work together to perform magic tricks. My favorite one is the one where the four magicians guess/pick Murakami’s card with their swords. So cool!

Murakami’s wallet has been a victim for using to do magic, ROFL! Happened few times. Actually, they were all Yoko’s fault. He stole the wallet before the show starts and took it out when the magician needed a paper bill (or one’s personal item) to demonstrate a magic trick XD

Electronics Ranking

There are like two episodes of this. The members mark down their favorite electronics and the results are revealed. These episodes are set in an electronics store where they can show the products. The members list a few reasons why they like that particular one.

Miscellenous

There’s one episode where two groups make a piece of furniture out of wood. Came out pretty good! There are others where they learn about general products.

There’s a New Year special one where they do other stuff people do during the New Year’s. I like the part where they pound mochi. When it was Maruyama’s turn, other members chanted, “Kimochi ga..” and he finished, “Pa~n!” ^__^

The calligraphy episode is cool. It shows each member’s creativity. Ookura showed amazing skills XD

Rank Up Information

A small section in the middle of the episode. Shows mainly in the earlier episodes. Suggests the viwers on good equipments and outfits to buy. Mostly shows in the sports and fishing episodes. Kinda boring if you’re not interested.

Seven Middle-Aged Ladies

This is a small section played at the middle of the episode. This section starts at the much later episodes. This is the most funniest part in the episode!

The members dress up as middle-aged ladies. (Look pretty good XD) The first part features them doing a little skit. The six members hang out at a table in a cafe doing various things and chatting. Yoko always cling to his little cat XD Next, Subaru bursts in to their table, holding something. The thing he brings and his conversation topic lead to the next part.

This part has them playing a game. When a member fails/loses (or the whole group), a penalty is given. Pretty amusing..

There’s an episode special of this. A competition against a group of comedians. The comedians also dress up o.o Pretty hilarious!!

I don’t really understand the connection between the ladies and the games..

Ending

Performances of a song are shown at the end of each episode. Their first songs are STANCE and Do You Agree?. Then, Naniwa Iroha Bushi is added until their CD debut. There are a few episodes where they teach you the dance to that song. They perform songs from their upcoming singles and albums. They also advertise their concert DVD’s.

There was a few times where they show a video of Eden. Each members throwing the same paper airplane to one another and then gathered at one place. I wished it was a music video. The scenes and the song fit so perfectly!!!

In the last few episodes, Kanjani8 introduces the Kansai juniors. The juniors perform a few songs after Kanjani8 does their medley. I think a junior group has performed before these episodes..

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It’s interesting to see the changes of Kanjani8 during the four years, how they become what they are now. This show has aired before their CD debut. You get to see Subaru’s tattoo. I don’t know what exactly happened to him but I’m glad he decides to stay. There are times when Nishikido and Uchi aren’t there. Makes you wonder what NEWS was doing at that time.

I think in a few episodes, they played Pokemon music in the background… Was played in a couple of the fishing episodes.. I had wondered why that music sounds so familiar, like I had always hear it before.

It’s fun to see them do stuff. They gain a lot of experience and knowledge. It can be a bit boring though. I’m not a big fan of sports so I don’t really like watching real matches that much. Some parts of this show can be easy to understand. There isn’t a lot of talking parts. This show is pretty interesting to watch.

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