[REVIEW] Nobuta wo Produce
Jul. 4th, 2009 07:06 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
mecTitle: Nobuta wo Produce
Genre: High school (student focus)
Episodes: 10
Cast: Kamenashi Kazuya (KAT-TUN), Yamashita Tomohisa (NEWS), Horikita Maki, Toda Erika
Plot: Mr. Fake Popularity teams up with Mr. Genuine Weirdness to make Ms. Even Weirder into the most popular girl in school.
Social success Kiritani Shuuji (Kame) teams up with kooky Kusano Akira (Yamapi) to turn the even kookier Kotani Nobuko (Maki) into the most popular girl in school. But to Shuuji, school - and indeed life - is all a game in the first place, and maintaining his image is everything. Perfect girlfriend Mariko (Erika), good grades, always up for a laugh and can be relied upon to lead the class. That image doesn't allow for a self-appointed best friend who isn't on speaking terms with normality, much less a blunt, anti-social misfit who walks through life as a ghost.
Shuuji doesn't know a thing about real relationships - only how to play the game and manipulate people into thinking he's their friend. But this series is all about friendship, isn't it? Akira and Nobuta (Shuuji and Akira's secret name for Nobuko - pigs (buta) are a running theme in this show) don't have the natural talents for artifice and deception that Shuuji possesses. If they did, they'd be more popular. Faced with people who are unashamedly themselves, Shuuji slowly finds it easier to be himself (with people who aren't his adorable family, anyway). His real self doesn't know how to make friends either - but he's willing to try.
For all the heavy-duty angst and some pretty serious bullying in this series, it's also very funny. Shuuji and Akira pretending to be on a date to show Nobuta how it's done is a classic, particularly when one of their teachers catches them. (They were obviously the only high-school students who went up to the roof for something other than a nap/cigarette.)
The end theme is a treat in itself: an adorable video about the adventures of two CGI pigs to the sound of 'Seishun Amigo', as sung by the special unit, 'Shuuji to Akira'. The pigs are obviously very close, and by the end of the series, so are Shuuji and Akira. Let's just say if you're watching the series for "male bonding" reasons, you will not be disappointed.
That's not to leave Nobuta out of the equation. Her transformation over the course of the series is nothing short of miraculous and every tiny step she takes, you want to cheer her on. Her deepening friendship with Shuuji and Akira is a joy to watch, and some of the best moments are when it's simply the three of them together - at Christmas, for example. This show might break your heart in places, but it'll mend it too.
Genre: High school (student focus)
Episodes: 10
Cast: Kamenashi Kazuya (KAT-TUN), Yamashita Tomohisa (NEWS), Horikita Maki, Toda Erika
Plot: Mr. Fake Popularity teams up with Mr. Genuine Weirdness to make Ms. Even Weirder into the most popular girl in school.
Social success Kiritani Shuuji (Kame) teams up with kooky Kusano Akira (Yamapi) to turn the even kookier Kotani Nobuko (Maki) into the most popular girl in school. But to Shuuji, school - and indeed life - is all a game in the first place, and maintaining his image is everything. Perfect girlfriend Mariko (Erika), good grades, always up for a laugh and can be relied upon to lead the class. That image doesn't allow for a self-appointed best friend who isn't on speaking terms with normality, much less a blunt, anti-social misfit who walks through life as a ghost.
Shuuji doesn't know a thing about real relationships - only how to play the game and manipulate people into thinking he's their friend. But this series is all about friendship, isn't it? Akira and Nobuta (Shuuji and Akira's secret name for Nobuko - pigs (buta) are a running theme in this show) don't have the natural talents for artifice and deception that Shuuji possesses. If they did, they'd be more popular. Faced with people who are unashamedly themselves, Shuuji slowly finds it easier to be himself (with people who aren't his adorable family, anyway). His real self doesn't know how to make friends either - but he's willing to try.
For all the heavy-duty angst and some pretty serious bullying in this series, it's also very funny. Shuuji and Akira pretending to be on a date to show Nobuta how it's done is a classic, particularly when one of their teachers catches them. (They were obviously the only high-school students who went up to the roof for something other than a nap/cigarette.)
The end theme is a treat in itself: an adorable video about the adventures of two CGI pigs to the sound of 'Seishun Amigo', as sung by the special unit, 'Shuuji to Akira'. The pigs are obviously very close, and by the end of the series, so are Shuuji and Akira. Let's just say if you're watching the series for "male bonding" reasons, you will not be disappointed.
That's not to leave Nobuta out of the equation. Her transformation over the course of the series is nothing short of miraculous and every tiny step she takes, you want to cheer her on. Her deepening friendship with Shuuji and Akira is a joy to watch, and some of the best moments are when it's simply the three of them together - at Christmas, for example. This show might break your heart in places, but it'll mend it too.