The youngest male on the panel is the only position which has changed since the last four panelists were introduced at the end of episode 26 of B&GND. In this entry, I will discuss the guys who have filled that role in the order that they appeared.
Hiroomi Tosaka (b. March 12, 1987) is actually one of the biggest names to appear on the panel. He is a singer in a popular boy-band the Sandaime J Soul Brothers (the third J Soul Brothers). Their last four albums have gone to number 1 in Japan, and they topped this year's list of concert attendance with 1.8 million tickets sold to their 37 shows this year. By comparison the most successful idol group this year, Nogizaka46, sold 488,000 tickets for 38 shows. His run lasted throughout B&GND.
Mochizuki Ayumu (b. September 28, 2000) is the actor who was given the nickname "Boy Prince" by the Rose Buddies podcast (now called the Wonderful! podcast). He has had good start to his career as a child actor having been in five features and five j-dramas in the past two years. We almost certainly heard from him the least of all the panelists
Kentaro (b. June 30, 1997) replaced Mochizuki Ayumu somewhere around episode 25 of B&GITC and lasted through the entirety of AS. He is also an actor, but his career is a bit further along. His first leading role in a feature film is in Demekin which was just released. Like his predecessor we rarely heard from him unless explicitly prompted by Yama Chan.
Shono Hayama (b. December 19, 1995) will be taking the boy prince slot in OND. He is yet another actor with an even more extensive filmography than the prior two though, as far as I can tell he has not yet had a lead in a film (but he's also two years older than Kentaro).
Omichan is five years older than Torichan, and so he was a bit more apt to speak out than the other members in the boy prince slot. I believe that the move to a younger panelist was an expression of the production's desire for an even wider audience demographic. The casting of the panel as audience surrogates makes it clear that the production sees their show as being for all ages interested in real romance (which might exclude tweens and younger, but then again...).
But being the youngest member of the panel is a harder role to fill in Japanese culture in particular. Torichan has the advantage on the show of having been the second panelist, and so the newer members do defer to her a bit, but there's no such advantage for the youngest guy now. His best chance to get a word in is after all the rest have had their say, and that can be particularly hard when Tokui and You begin riffing. And so, while I'm sure Shono Hayama will be personable, I have little expectation that he will shake up to role all that much when OND begins next week.
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