thesuitelife547: 2012

Welcome, if welcome would be the word, to my recapping of the Japanese drama Nobuta Wo Produce, or Producing Nobuta. I know that this drama is kind of old, it came out in 2005 in the later half, right around Hana Yori Dango, the first season. Yes, these were out at the same time, but this drama was a Saturday night drama compared to Hana Yori Dango, which was a Friday night drama. Nobuta Wo Produce, however, premiered a week earlier than Hana Yori Dango.

Moving on from comparing drama timeslots, this is actually my first recap, summary, whatever you feel like calling it, so I’m not exactly sure how this is going to go. I’ll have screen caps, yes, because everything is better with pictures. However, I’m not entirely sure how clear they are going to be, they may also have subtitles on them. But, they will be given.

In general, I will be recapping a lot of things. Things from Korean dramas, Japanese dramas, and even some Taiwanese dramas, but there is a chance that they might be biased, as in like biased in what I actually choose to do and what I write because…it’s difficult not to be. Movies might also be included, and Korean sitcoms, I like those. Perhaps even some variety shows from Japan, I like those, too. Anyway, let’s get on with it.

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Nobuta Wo Produce stars out with our main character, Kiritani Shuji (played by the K in KAT-TUN Kamenashi Kazuya, or Kame) brushing his teeth on the roof of his apartment with his bangs up in a hair tie. He then exits his house and fixes his hair off of the mirror from the telephone pole and rides his bike to somewhere by the sea, or like a port, I guess, where construction is taking place. Shuji runs though the construction site and through voiceover, he states that he has to touch the willow tree before he goes to school, that that’s something that he decided himself. Strangely, he touches it as he goes to school, and after he’s done, he just runs out of the site and goes on his way to school.

Through more voiceover, Shuji tells about how he thinks everything is a game and treats it that way while going through his everyday schedule. He also talks about the true things that he wants to say to people, like when he’s holding a meaningless conversation, but he can’t. As some friends invite him to go to karaoke, he talks in his head about how stupid it is and how he would never go, but his school personality tells them that he’ll be there.

Suddenly, we’re seen with what seems to be a guy that might be on some sort of drugs that’s flapping his arms coming down the stairway and drinking soy milk. That’s none other than the other male lead, Kusano Akira (played by Yamashita Tomohisa, or Yamapi).

Shuji regards Akira as his natural enemy because Shuji is serious and Akira is…well…an idiot, yet Akira calls himself Shuji’s best friend, or at least everyone’s best friend. Akira tells Shuji that he hears that God died from a philosopher but it sounds weird. Akira calls Shuji his friend, but Shuji tries to tell him that they’re not friends. However, Shuji asks if he could say something as a friend to which Akira thinks is great. Shuji tells Akira to stop flapping his arms when going down the stairs, but Akira thinks that he doesn’t do that. Akira gives his empty carton to Shuji to throw out while continuing to flap his arms while going down the stairs.

The next day, Shuji goes throught he same process and on the way to see his willow tree, he discovers that it’s no longer there and starts to freak out. He bikes over to the big empty space that was once the home of his willow tree and starts going crazy, even yelling at the fish in the ocean asking where it went.

This is the place where he meets the female lead, Kotani Nobuko (played by Horikita Maki), who tells him that his willow tree is no longer there and that it was pulled up and going somewhere else. Nobuko assumed that Shuji was going to commit suicide by telling him that it wasn’t a good place to hang himself. Nobuko then says that it looked as though it wasn’t something from this world and smiles, but Shuji thought that that face meant that she had a stomachache, but Nobuko clairifies that she smiled. Shuji, then freaked out, heads to school on his bike.

At home, Nobuko is seen putting marker on a lot of newspaper pictures of other girls, Akira is seen sitting on the rooftop of his own house drinking milk, and Shuji is seen going through the same routine the next day with fixing his hair in the mirror on the lamppost and visiting where his willow tree was. In voiceover, Shuji says that everything changed from the day the willow tree was taken, and also that he doesn’t want to speak of his life after that point. The title card then comes J

The next day at school, there are the Destiny duo, which is a comedy group within the school. They begin telling a story about a bookstore where only good-looking men and women are allowed to read the material before they can buy. They tell the story about a teacher and a couple of girls who attempted to read before buying, but they all failed by the man who runs the store and kicks out the people that don’t meet the guidelines. Apparently, the only person who has read before buying is Uehara Mariko (played by Toda Erika), who is a girl that everyone admires and that everyone practically wants.

As Shuji enters the classroom in the morning, everyone is worked up about the new transfer student that they are getting. They even sent one of their classmates to go spy. He comes back saying that the girl is extremely good looking with others saying that her looks might even beat that of Mariko’s.

Akira then enters the classroom with the same story about their teacher, Sebastian (played by Kimura Yuichi), trying to read at the bookstore and getting kicked out, but no one listens to him. That doesn’t stop Akira, though, he just continues until he starts to get chased by a girl, Bando (played by Mizuta Fumiko).

Their teacher, Yokoyama Takeshi (played by Okada Yoshinori) and the new transfer student then enter the 2-B classroom. The transfer student is none other than Kotani Nobuko. Upon seeing her, the student remark that she’s not what they expected, and Shuji recognizes her from the willow tree that day. The teacher tries to get Nobuko to answer some questions so the class will get to know her better, but she just answers no to everything.

Bando then picks on Nobuko because she wiped off the desk after Bando sat there, so the teacher calls up Destiny to fix the problem, but their joke doesn’t really go as planned until Shuji steps in and helps creating a somewhat friendlier atmosphere within the classroom.

Later during class, however, Bando and her friends begin passing notes about Nobuko, which Shuji watches.

During lunchtime, Mariko visits Shuji for their daily lunch together, to which his friends point out, and the two head off. The kids in their class then talk about Mariko and Shuji eating lunch together.

While he’s eating, Shuji makes some reactions to the food, which are all good, but they all seem to be overreactions, which are funny.

Meanwhile in the classroom during lunch, Bando and her friends go up to Nobuko asking her to move her seat since that’s where they sit during lunch. They then begin to make fun of her, even pushing her lunch off of the desk. While Nobuko is picking up her lunch off of the ground, a girl attempts to help her, but her friend stops saying that Bando and her friends would then pick on them for helping Nobuko out. Akira then watches Nobuko leave the classroom.

Mariko asks Shuji what time they are going to get together since Shuji promised, but Shuji states that he has to go to a funeral and cannot make it. Mariko asks for another time and while Shuji is trying to think of another lie, Nobuko stumbles into the science room where they are eating lunch asking where she could throw out her bento. Seeing an escape route, Shuji offers to show her where she can throw it out since she’s new.

Nobuko asks about the funeral and Shuji says that it’s a lie and that he found the black tie on his way to school hoping to use it as a way to get out of the promise. Nobuko tells him that he shouldn’t have made the promise in the first place. Another teacher, Catherine (played by Mari Natsuki) then appears on the roof of the building that’s used for trash and says that lying won’t always get him out of things.

Shuji asks her why she’s on the roof. She then jumps down saying that it’s faster then going through the front gate. She then looks back and tells Nobuko to teach Shuji how to become a respectable person. Nobuko asks who the woman is and Shuji responds by saying that she’s the vice principal. Nobuko thought she was a crow spirit.

In the teachers office, Shuji delivers some papers while the teachers are talking about someone climbing over the roof to get into the school. Shuji almost spills the beans about the vice principal but says that everyone says that it’s a crow spirit.

We are then faced with Akira sitting on the ground going through his bag trying to find his bike key, which he lost. He spots Shuji and asks him for a ride, well more like just sitting on the back of his bike and demanding a ride in his Akira ways. Shuji wonders why he just sat on, but Akira ignores him and starts to joke around.

Reluctantly, and seeing that he probably won’t get off, Shuji gives Akira a ride to his house. They arrive at the tofu shop where Akira gets Shuji what he calls “bean milk” when he actually reads it wrong and it’s actually soy milk. They both head up to the roof of the building where Shuji asks Akira if they’re at his house, but Akira says that he’s just boarding there. It turns out that Akira is actually rich and his parents live in fancy apartments across town and his father is the president of a company, to which Shuji can’t believe.

Akira explains to him that his father told him to enjoy his youth since he’s going to take over the company one day in the future, but Akira doesn’t know what youth really is. Shuji then explains to Akira what he thinks youth is while Akira is trying to pick out a piece of cake to eat, but unable to pick one, Shuji just leaves.

At home, Shuji’s brother, Kiritani Koji (played by Nakajima Yuto) drags him into the house where his father, Kiritani Satoru (played by Ukaji Takashi) is sitting in front of the television unable to say a word. His family believes that his mother might have been killed in an airplane crash that was reported on television. Shuji tells his father and brother to try her cell phone, but eventually takes the phone away from the both of them and dials it himself. He imagines the worst as he waits for her to pick up, but she doesn’t.

They are now all in shock when the phone suddenly rings and their mother, Kiritani Nobuko (played by Fukaura Kanako) is on the other line in Nigeria. Nerve wracked, they are unable to hold a full conversation with her as she asks what’s for dinner and keeps repeating “gyouza.”

The next day for school, the same routine happens with Shuji. As he enters the classroom, he sees Bando and her friends putting flowers on Nobuko’s desk, to which he asks if that’s going too far and tells them to take them elsewhere.

While Shuji and Mariko are playing basketball in the gym, Shuji spots Nobuko in the stairway eating lunch by herself.

In the hallway, Shuji tries to avoid Akira, but Akira sees him and follows him to the roof where he gives Shuji a contact and says that it’s a scale because Shuji opened his eyes to make him realize that he’s a guy that wants nothing.

Akira follows Shuji inside where they come across Nobuko being bullied in the bathroom by Bando and her crew once again. This time, they use a hose and pour water all over her and push her to the ground. Akira stands in the doorway and makes a remark for them to all get along causing him to get water poured all over him, too. Shuji comes to the rescue by saying that Sebastian is coming so they run away in fear of getting caught.

The three go to the roof while Akira and Nobuko’s clothes dry. Shuji tells Nobuko to try to fit in with other people, but Nobuko says that she can’t change anything about herself.

Akira tells her not to give up in the very beginning, but Nobuko just turns away and says that she’s thought about changing herself and tells a story about how she attempted to call her step-father Dad for the first time because she thought it wrong not to do so, but when she called him Dad, he rejected it by saying that he’s not actually her father, which crushed her spirits. She explains how she doesn’t believe in really anything anymore and has gotten used to getting picked on.

Shuji then begins to lecture on how everyone has to get through life and the school and how Nobuko shouldn’t decide that she’s just not going to change.

The three are walking together and Nobuko says that Bando told her to go to the bookstore and read before buying, to which Akira says is impossible, but Shuji has a plan and they should go.

Shuji enters the bookstore and tells the Goyokudou Owner (played by Imawano Kiyoshiro) that he needs a book from within the range of one side of the shelf to the other and says that he needs to read the books there in order to figure out which one he needs. Shuji then runs out and brings Nobuko and Akira inside saying that Nobuko will read the books and figure out which ones, while Akira will pay for them. Shuji is impressed by his gold credit card.

The next day, the Destiny comedy duo talk about how Nobuko was allowed to read inside of the bookstore for two hours and ten minutes, setting a new record. Also, since Nobuko was allowed to read it, Sebastian went again to try, but was rejected once again.

During the following days, the outside of the classroom gets flooded with people that want to see Nobuko. Her picture even gets taken for the school paper along with Mariko, to which Bando sees and rips down.

Akira and Shuji are talking as they come up the stairwell, but when Akira begins to say something about them getting Nobuko inside of the bookstore, Shuji covers his mouth as he sees some girls starting to walk past in the hallway. Shuji then explains that Nobuko’s still going to get picked on and that unless she gets to the top level, she’s always going to be treated the same way. Akira votes to get her to the top level.

Shuji explains that the more people that want it, the more that it will become popular, even though it might not be good and has different references. Akira says that it sounds interesting and that they should make Nobuko the most popular girl in school and suggest producing Nobuko. Shuji is hesitant to join forces with Akira to produce Nobuko, but Akira gives him no choice saying that he’s going to count on him.

The two bring Nobuko up to the roof to ask her about producing her, but Nobuko rejects saying that she doesn’t want to lie and says that she’s not beautiful. Akira tells her that she can be and that it’s alright trying to convince her. Shuji then steps in saying that it’s her chance to change herself and become popular. Nobuko, however, believes that the world isn’t going to change, she can’t live in it, and that she should just be truthful to herself and to the others around her.

The vice principal catches Shuji in the hallway and asks him to help her get a box, which he ends up toppling over all of the boxes on top of himself. She then opens a box and finds a money’s hand believing it to grant three wishes and then finds another one, tossing it to Shuji to use.

Shuji sits outside of the school and uses the money’s hand to wish that his willow tree is happy and will do well somewhere else when Akira pops up and asks him what he’s doing. Shuji gives Akira’s the money hand and tells him that it grants three wishes, but he already used up one, so there’s two left.

Nobuko is coming out of school when Bando and her friends confront her and start to push her around. One of Shuji’s friends tell him that Nobuko is getting bullied, which makes Shuji worry, so he heads off to find her. Meanwhile, Nobuko is being chased throughout the school and the town by Bando and her friends. Shuji is also on a mission to find Nobuko by going through every part of the school where she might possibly be.

Bando and her friends catch Nobuko for a short while outside of the school before Nobuko throws sand at them and starts to run again finally finding safe haven in the bookstore that she was at before. Bando and her friends get thrown out of the bookstore. At the school, Shuji finds Nobuko’s tie that was left in the sand.

The bookstore owner makes tea for Nobuko and sits her at the desk. Nobuko says that it feels as though she’s come into a different world when she enters the bookstore. The owner comments that it’s a world that he’s made.

As she goes home, she comes across the vice principal using the money’s hand to wish for the principal to be bald. She realizes that Nobuko saw that and gives the hand to Nobuko to use with two wishes left on it that she would be able to use. Nobuko says that just wishing for people to be bald isn’t good enough and the vice principal tells her that people are allowed to think whatever they want and that she too has thought the same kinds of thoughts before. She then leaves Nobuko standing there with the money’s hand.

Nobuko goes to the place where the willow tree once was and wishes for Bando to disappear from the world.

The next day, or same day, Shuji is seen on his bike and he spots his willow tree on the back of a ship on the ocean and wonders if his wish came true. He sees Nobuko kneeling at the old place of the willow tree and takes her on the back of his bike after some difficulty. They both then follow the ship and the willow tree all around.

They both stop and watch the willow tree and talk about living life anew. Nobuko wonders if she could be like the tree and become something that no one can uproot. Shuji tells her that it’s all that she can do and gives her back the tie that she dropped, to which he sewed a pig onto the back of it because it had a rip.

They both stand there and watch the ship with the willow tree in silence.

That night, Notuba is on her way home and looks at the tie and the pig that Shuji sewed on once again. She takes out the monkey’s hand from her school bag and wishes for her last wish about Bando disappearing from the world to be canceled and that she will live her own life in a world that Bando is in. She throws the monkey’s hand into the garbage from the bridge, even cheering a little when she made it in.

Akira is outside of the place where he stays playing with the monkey’s hand when the owner, Hirayama Ippei (played by Takahashi Katsumi) comes out and tells him that dinner is ready and asks him what he’s doing. Akira explains that it’s a monkey’s hand and grants three wishes. Akira then waves it around and wishes for the world peace.

Akira sits down and turns on the television wondering if his wish came true by looking for fighting on the television. He hands over the monkey’s hand saying that there’s a wish left for the owner to use, to which he cancels Akira’s wish. Akira asks him what he’s doing since he had a nice wish and the owner says that it might have happened, that there would’ve been world peace for three seconds and Akira claims him of not believing, to which they both just laugh.

Shuji is once again on top of his rooftop, like the beginning scene. In a voiceover he explains that he then agreed with produce Nobuko with Akira.

The three are then on the rooftop with Akira all happy and excited about producing her and asking if they should come up with a nickname instead of calling her Nobuko all of the time, so they come up with Nobuta. Nobuko especially likes the nickname because of the pig that Shuji sewed onto the back of her tie.

Through voiceover, Shuji tells how he thinks everything is a game and he should have fun with it while he explains that they didn’t understand it at that moment, but they would have to deal with more difficult things and fight against other people’s evils against Nobuko. Intertwined are scenes of someone in their classroom who wrote the word ‘Die’ on her desk.

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And that is where the drama goes into its ending credits of “Seishun Amigo” sung by the Shuji and Akira duo of Kame and Yamapi. It was apparently really popular. In the ending credits, there are CG pigs that were apparently produced three months before the drama aired, so they were very detailed and put into place before the premiere. One is purple and one is green and they are made to represent Shuji and Akira and probably the meaning of the song since one is beaten up in the beginning, going along with the lyrics.

Anyway, I hope you liked the first recap, but you don’t really have to like it. It’s probably not that good, but it helps people who are debating about whether or not to watch the drama. I say that if you like watching a teenage drama with three unlikely people forming a friendship, then you’d like to watch this. If you find people who just act crazy, and really just drunk, all of the time annoying, then you probably won’t like Akira. If you don’t like people who lie to themselves and just want popularity, even know they know what they’re doing is wrong and that’s now the way that they actually are, then you might not like Shuji. You might not like Nobuta if you don’t like people who are kind of stubborn, yet they are real about the world and know themselves very well.

I highly recommend watching this drama if it sounds interesting. I remember that I was totally against this drama when I first read about it, but I slowly began to watch it and fall in love with it. I especially love Akira. He’s like the idiot best friend that everyone has and the weird personality that we all have inside, yet he just expresses his outside.

This is the first episode of Nobuta Wo Produce. I may do the rest of the episodes during my free time, and others, of course. Well, until next time…

thesuitelife547

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Nobuta Wo Produce Episode 1

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