Name: Nobuta wo Produce
Genre: Drama
Year: 2005
Rating: Recommended
Kiritani Shuji is a high school student who is popular amongst everyone. He does whatever he can to please everyone he meets. Everyone can count on Shuji. You can count on him when you need a favor, need some one to liven up the party or simply just want some one to hang out with. However being popular isn’t easy, much of the time Shuji ends up hiding his true feelings and even has to resort to distorting the truth. Kusano Akira on the other hand is a flamboyant student who doesn’t hesitate express his feelings and personality. Though Shuji finds Akira to be annoying much of the time, it is soon clear that its only when he is around him he is able to be himself. One day a new student transfers into their class. Kotani Nobuko is a girl with no self confidence of which always leads to her being the unpopular student that gets picked on. Shuji considers life to be a game and soon decides to work together with Akira in an attempt to transform Nobuko into a popular girl. However its not easy to produce a popular girl, especially when the candidate stutters when talking to others. To make things even harder Shuji and Akira must conceal their involvement with Nobuko. Nobuta wo Produce is a story about change. Though Nobuko lacks social skills, it is apparent that Akira and especially Shuji learn much from the person they are trying to change.
Nobuta wo Produce is a high school drama focused around the theme of bullying. It’s quite interesting watching Akira and Shuji do their best in changing Nobuta, however what I found in the end was she didn’t really change much at all. In fact despite a small change in appearance, and a little more self confidence Nobuta didn’t really change at all. Rather it was the people around her that changed and grew to accept her for who she was. Also for fans of Yamashita Tomohisa who plays Akira you really get to see a different side to him. I guess he does act girlish in allot of his dramas but in this one he is really into it, though thats probably a good thing as I’m sure there are many fans out there who love that side of him. Horikita Maki plays Nobuta quite well, but I found that although she is trying her best to act like the unpopular kid at school it doesn’t look too natural. However you do get used to her hunching after a while. It was probably quite painful to always hunch like that. The drama does deal with the growing relationship between the three. Though there is a love triangle there isn’t really much development. Nobuta wo Produce isn’t a romance drama and I think its good that way. It stays close to its plot and doesn’t diverge from following Akira and Shuji’s task in making Nobuta popular. It’s a nice series that I would recommend to all those school drama fans out there.
