Nobuta Wo Produce Review

Nobuta Wo Produce (2005) 

If you are expecting a classic Cinderella story with a prince charming love at the end, you will be left waiting. Instead, this Cinderella gets two awesome friends and a life changing high school experience. What can be more important than friendship? This story will have you gear up the cute and random side of you, as well as leave you with a “really?!” afterthought at the end.

Nobuta Wo Produce is a Japanese drama based on the manga of the same name. It follows the life of high school popular boy Shuji Kiritani (Kazuya Kamenashi) as he learns to be himself, while helping Akira Kusano (Yamashita Tomohisa) transform new and dark student Nobuta Kotani (Maki Horikita) into a popular girl.  The story is similar to that of Cinderella in that Nobuta is transformed and goes from being an outcast to being popular, yet instead of a romantic relationship being developed, a friendship between the three is created -specially between Shuji and Akira. This is because Shuji has made an effort to create his reputation, but he is not truly happy or being himself. That is until eccentric classmate Akira starts observing him and following around. This drama is a fine depiction of a Japanese high school social life; the bullying, social and emotional pressure, busy school and activities, among others. I was surprise by the ending, because although the drama reflects the character’s high school life, it being a drama I was expecting the “happy ending”. Don’t get me wrong, it was happy, but in a different way.

I consider Akira’s character to be the most important since he’s the link between his and Shuji’s friendship, even if the story follows Shuji’s character. Akira is the friend I would like to have for many reasons: he is thoughtful, loyal, silly, random, cute, outspoken and sincere. Nobuta’s role, on the other hand, didn’t attract me as much, but she still had her moments. She was adorable at doing the poses Akira showed her, and the bullying scenes really got to me. Sometime even I wanted to scream at the girl to defend herself. I’m not sure if love not being a big focus for this story was good or bad, but the undeveloped love triangle was cute -thanks to Akira. That aside, Shuji and Akira’s bickering moments were adorable.

In my opinion, Shuji and Akira’s relationship is what stands out and the real story; and transforming Nobuta is just the means for them to come together -the mere end of the drama tells us that much. Although a bit old, Nobuta Wo Produce is drama perfect for lighting up the mood and a bit of fun.

My rating for this drama is: ♥♥