In which I ponder Nobuta Wo Produce

[dangermousie]

I know I have a lot of Nobuta Wo Produce fans on my LJ (I especially remember winterspel's lovely posts), so I thought I would ask:

What is it that appeals to you all so strongly about it? (Or if you don't love it to pieces, why not).

The reason I am so interested is because it's a highly-loved drama that evokes such strong emotions in people but I find myself, while admiring the acting and the script, while being enormously moved by certain scenes, and incredibly impressed by Yamapi, still fast-forwarding through scenes and never really falling for it as a drama. It never truly clicks in that magical way. Seven episodes in, I don't think it will. I really doubt I'd rewatch it once I am done. It's a drama I admire and respect more than I love.

I've been wondering why. It's not a simple 'a lead actor/character just not working for me' situation as it is with Long Vacation or Boku Dake No Madoona (where the female lead just keeps irritating me). I love Yamapi, and Kame, and Horihita Maki and their characters. I kept thinking it's because of a lack of narrative drive, but it has as much of an overall arc as maintained by smaller arcs as does Kurosagi which I adore to pieces. But I suppose the mini-arcs in Kurosagi are a lot more dramatic. I kept thinking it's because there is no romance, and I am sure that's a huge part of it (all my Top Dramas are romance dramas, except for Kurosagi which has the best case of UST ever), but still. I adored Gokusen, and while I am a Shin/Yankumi shipper there, until the end it's not any more overt or shippable than e.g. Akira/Nobuko. I suppose Gokusen was cracktastically funny, but that can't just be it (and while Shin is a mystery so it's interesting to try to figure out his reactions, I adore Akira even more so...). Is it the lack of angst or because the lead characters aren't interestingly messed up? But once again, see Gokusen. I'd say it's a combo of all of those, but once again, am left with Gokusen which: a. doesn't have a strong narrative drive, is not a romance drama, and is not particularly angsty, and yet I adore it. So why? I've been trying to figure it out for days. It can't be my thing for MatsuJun because my thing for Yamapi is 15 times as big.

So yes. If you've seen NwP. Why do you adore it? Or why don't you?

In other news, I am reading Twighlight by Stephenie Myer. I wouldn't normally read a novel about a girl in love with a vampire named Edward, but it is entirely too delicious a book. And I still have The Vampire Knight hangover.

Comments

[winterspel.livejournal.com]

What is it that appeals to you all so strongly about it?

I doubt I could do your question justice in a comment, so I'll have to go away and think and write, and at the end of it, finish my NwP series review, since I ended up losing my head over the first episode and didn't make time to finish up. For me, the drama was like a slowly unfolding flower that revealed the characters and their journey to me tantalizingly and hauntingly, and very deeply. It's been over six months since I first saw it, and I'm still in love. I know that you and others are going nuts over Yamapi's Akira, who I adore as well (and if you remember when you first had such a bad reaction to him, I tried to explain how wonderful he would end up becoming)....but for me, the drama is Shuji's journey from someone who has never loved and has no friends, and yet pretends constantly (except when he is at home) and tries to be what he thinks is a friend, without ever thinking about himself for himself. Through their mutual mission to remake Nobuta, he remakes himself through their love and friendship for him. Akira is the sanest and most grounded of the three and it's his influence that pushes both of Shuji and Nobuta to grow, his faith is what is so beautiful. And watching Nobuta blossom is also something very wonderful.

Those are just some of my quick, dirty, and extremely abbreviated thoughts. I'll throw your question out to my flist because I'm sure there are other NwP fans who might be able to take a better stab at it.

[dangermousie.livejournal.com]

That's a great post.

Thank you.

It is a very unusual story for a drama.

[alexandral.livejournal.com]

I think I have different types of loves. :D I love watching independent and thought-provoking films and I love watching dramas. Where I love love love interesting films which could be very difficult at times (like one of my favourites "Battle Royale"), they don't evoke obsessive feelings in me. They make me think, introduce new ideas and concepts. This is what I love.

For dramas, I really see all their shortcomings and common-places, but I don't really care because they feed my emotional world. (Hee! This is very flowery, but serves the purpose). I obsess with characters endlessly because when I watch I somehow imagine myself living through them. (He!! This is flowery too, sorry!)

About Nobuta - it comes under the category of what I like in films. Great script and dialog, original plot developments. It stands different from all the rest of dramas for me and I love it for that, but I don't obsess. I wish I knew Japanese because I could feel that dialog is really good.

[dangermousie.livejournal.com]

Oh, I am so there, on different types of loves. I have things that I love because they make me think or because (if it's a book) the writing style is ravishing. And I have things like dramas, which are a pure emotional high, a shot of feeling straight to the brain. (Btw, I haven't seen the movie of Battle Royale, but the book is amazing and one of the most haunting things I've ever read. It gave me nightmares and I couldn't put it down. I'll never forget it and don't think I could ever reread it).

[hope-fuleigh.livejournal.com]

I'm very much in the same predicament as you are. While I enjoyed the overall series, and the characters, and the actors, I found it hard to get into the drama and in fact, I never finished it all the way through - I only skimmed the last ep to see how it would end.

For me, it really was Akira that was my main focus. I found scenes without him almost painful to watch and I loved how he was the one character who seemed the most out there, the most zany, yet he was so mature and idealistic and innocent, a total dreamer and completely loyal. He was the one who knew the most about friendship, and he's the one that Shuuji and Nobuta really learn from.

I think for me, part of the problem with the lack of an overall narrative voice is the pacing. I found it very slow at points, but at others, it was very quick, while all the time, things didn't really change all that much - until they did. Also, I had a lot of issues with Shuuji's character - it took me quite awhile to figure out what he was really all about, but when I finally did, it was easier to related/empathize with him. Also, the lack of romance. I find it hard to watch ANYTHING without some kind of romance in it.

I think I *wanted* to like it a lot more than I did. I look back on it fondly as that Series that Introduced Me To Akira, My Dorama Boyfriend, as well as prompted me to become rabidly excited for Kurosagi.

[dangermousie.livejournal.com]

Yeah, I am glad I am not the only one (we actually seem to have a fairly similar taste in dramas from what I can see, and this confirms it :D)

I find it hard to watch ANYTHING without some kind of romance in it.

Me too. And you are right about the pacing. I don't mind leisurely pacing (I am mad about kdramas, after all) but there isn't much happening here, no huge emo payoff a la a kdrama.

Basically, I am looking at this vis-a-vis Hanadan. Are you likely to run into Hanadan characters? Unlikely (they aren't unrealistic as people, but they aren't exactly 'normal'). You are extremely likely to know some version of the Nobuta characters. But it's like a documentary versus a gorgeous epic. One's real and the other one grabs you. Because there is romance, and angst, and fast pace and all sorts of exciting things. Which makes it less realistic, more fiction, and yet more interesting.

[hope-fuleigh.livejournal.com]

When it comes to doramas, there are usually two categories that I tend to go for: the ones that are completely escapist - pure fun, no real substance beyond the fun and the enjoyment I derive from watching these endearing characters get themselves into whacky situations while hilarity ensues, or there is lots of fluff (ISWAK falls into this category). Then there's the other category, that of the Deliciously Painful Angst and Squee-Fest, the ones where there are amazing characters that you can meta on and on about, that have you crying, that have you screaming in outrage, that seem so very realistic, that just leave an impact (still not over Mars and it's been over a year since I first watched it). Some can fit into BOTH catageories, and those are the ones that I seem to love and rewatch all the time...

NwP just doesn't seem to fit either of them, for me. There are great characters that can make you think, but they don't go far enough down that road to insquire a Squee-Fest, and there are definitely whacky situations and pure fun moments, but they are tempered by all the seriousness and so it's not completely fun and whacky but the other aspects don't go FAR enough for me...

Actually, NwP is kinda pretentious in it's more serious moments. Like it KNOWS that it's being deep and meaningful, so THAT may be why I'm not 100% in love with it. I WANT to be, because I love Akira, but because I'm so biased in his favour, everything else - in my perception - just comes across as filler until his next scene.

[ilanala]

What I find interesting when reading your posts on NwP is that even though you flail at some of the same parts I did, we obviously interpreted it quite differently. I look at the characters and see that they are messed up, if not nearly as overtly (or badly) as, say, Kurosaki. Akira maybe not so much, but Nobuta obviously has issues, and even though he hides them well most of the time, Shuuji does too. I think it may not really come out until almost the end, but he's absolutely terrified of being disliked. He doesn't care about being popular; he just doesn't want people to hate him, so he has to put on an act all the time. And I really like that, that the characters do have issues, but they're not the kind you usually find drama characters having where they've had all kinds of major trauma, just the kind of issues normal people who have led mostly normal lives could have.

But the real reason I love NwP so much is that I'm not all that big on romantic dramas. What I love is well-developed platonic relationships being as important, if not more, than whatever romance there is. And Nobuta is perfect for that because it's about people who haven't ever had real friends finally finding them and realizing just how important that is. That emphasis on friendship is something you don't see all that often on TV, so it makes me really happy. And it's also about trying to find your place in the world, which I suspect resonates with a lot of people, but it might not work is well if you're past the "Who am I and what am I doing?" phase of life.

I don't know. I'd say watch until the end and see what you think. You may still feel the same way, but I know when I showed it to other people, they didn't really, truly get hooked until almost the end. There's still time to change your mind.

[dangermousie.livejournal.com]

it might not work is well if you're past the "Who am I and what am I doing?" phase of life.


You know, this might be it. I am as certain of what I am and what is happening to me as anyone can really be at any stage (which is of course not all that much, but that's another topic :D). I might not like certain things about myself and want to change them, but I am pretty sure of my identity, good bad or indifferent.

I am 28 *gasp* and am married for a couple of years (to someone who I've been together with for almost seven years) and I also haven't been shy or painfully vulnerable to the world for a long time (as it's been a long time since high school). I've lived in the city for over 6 years, and I even freaking own a house. That's pretty boringly grown-up :)

In a way, what I can empasize with most is Shuji's wanting to be liked (and I got that sense from him, that this is what it stems from. Is it because he had to be the 'good' kid with Mom rarely around and a younger sibling?) because I am prone to that (I think a lot of women are, it's a societal thing).

But it doesn't really resonate, NwP doesn't. I can appreciate it but emotionally it doesn't overall 'hit' it, there. I think part of the reason I am so big on romantic dramas is because romance=possibility for huge angst and conflict, but also because I've always been a romantic. And because I am embarassingly in love with my husband and watching other people romance is like reliving it, a little, faintly. And this is getting way too personal, so I better stop. I love friendship stories, but only when there is a huge degree of tension and there isn't, in Nobuta. Perhaps because all the characters are realistically young and not horribly screwed up. They have normal teenage issues.

I do plan to finish it. I like it. Not love it in the way Hanadan seems to have taken over my brain and heart, but I do like it, a lot.

[catdecember.livejournal.com]

i cant even begin to explain it, because possibly the explanation is somehow tucked in a very special place in my heart. its quite complicated - i just say that i love the nostalgia involved and of the friendship involved between the characters. that sometimes, in the most strangest people you discover so much beauty in them.

[dangermousie.livejournal.com]

Oh I can understand. I love all sorts of things for reasons I sometimes find too complicated to explain.

[ginzarhapsody.livejournal.com]

I am in the same boat as winterspel, which doesn't surprise me in the least as we tend to have similar reactions to dramas and what not.

I was actually in Tokyo when Nobuta o Produce aired and I didn't watch in on television because I didn't get what the big deal was about and it seemed like another high school drama. Cut to a month after it finished airing and I watched the entire series in a matter of like three or four days (the only thing from holding me back from finishing it faster was my ability to download it all *grin*). I fell head over heels in love with both Yamashita and Kamenashi as actors. Kamenashi more so because it was the first thing I saw him in ever. Shuuji was my favorite character of the three because while Nobuta was the title character and Akira was the insane one you couldn't help but watch very second, I loved watching Shuuji grow from this somewhat "superficial" character to a person with depth, emotion and friends. All of my friends love YamaPi's Akira, but as much as I enjoy Akira, I love Shuuji much more.

Nobuta o Produce may seem like this high school drama on the surface, but I feel it has amazing depth as you watch it more and more. The one scene that had me quietly crying and probably sold me on the entirety of the drama following was the scene in the second episode when Nobuta freaks out when seeing her old elementary school PE shirt on an African child in a magazine and then explains why she'll waer her marred uniform to school to Akira and Shuuji. To me, that scene was way much more profound and moving than anything I was expecting of the drama and I was sold. :)

If it helps you make sense of the flow of the drama, Nobuta o Produce is based on a book of the same name. One of my friends owns the book and she found that some of the drama points that are not emphasized made more sense when she started reading the book.

I think it's also interesting that you mention that you love Kurosagi's flow in comparison to Nobuta o Produce's. I enjoyed the acting in Kurosagi and some episodes were really good (episode five with Tsurara's father and episode two with Satoshi), but overall, I did not like the way Kurosagi flowed because it felt kind of cookie-cutter!like. Every episode, Kurosaki disposed of the bad guy without fail. Nobuta o Produce had a much more natural flow, despite having a "moral" at the end of almost every episode.

And yes, Nobuta o Produce is one of my favorite Japanese dramas. I often find myself rewatching an episode and then wanting to marathon the entire drama, but never really getting the time to. :)

[dangermousie.livejournal.com]

Thank you for replying.

I don't really think it's the speed of NwP (I adore kdramas, and they are usually fairly leisurely in their pace) but the lack of huge emotional moments and the structure of the story. While I like Kurosagi's pacing just fine (it reminded me of something like Veronica Mars, where each ep has its own mystery but there is an overarching season-long arc), I picked it for comparison as most dramas where I really like the pacing are the ones which have one story arc which flows from one ep to the next with no real logical places for ep breaks except for the fact that there are length limits. I am thinking of kdramas like Goong or A Love to Kill, where I have trouble remembering which ep anything is from because it's one big story and each ep doesn't have its own plot, or something like twdrama Mars which has 3-4 arcs for the whole 20 ep run and the arcs flow into each other, or even jdramas like Kamisama Mou Sukoshi Dake or Forbidden Love which like the kdramas I mentioned are purely one story, with no real internal one-ep arcs. Even something like Pride, which has a number of eps devoted just to a particular problem, by the end becomes one uninterrupted Halu/Aki story.

I think I am rambling and I am not sure if I am expressing it well...

[winterspel.livejournal.com]

Wow. Reading this made me realize all over again that we really DO have many similar reactions. I could catalog all the points I agree with but I won't because it's pretty much everything. And you know, this was the first I saw of Kame, too, and what an intro to him as an actor! His later work solidified my love of course, but it's amazing to think that a 19 year old was able to do what he did with Shuji.

[kitsune714.livejournal.com]

You and I share very similar drama tastes, in that the vast majority of the dramas that I watch are romances. Whether they be comedies or tragidramas, I am usually in it for the OTP. However, there are a few dramas that are non-romance that I love, although not in the "I will marathon this whole thing and rewatch parts over and over again" sense. Nobuta wo Produce falls into this category for me--it's a show that I love, but not one that I revisit very often. I enjoy it on multiple levels: the OT3 level (hey, I'm a 'shipper!), the school drama level, and what nihongofrancais refers to as the seishun (youth) level. I love the friendship between Nobuta, Shuji, and Akira because it seems very real and true to the heart of what a real friendship between characters like that would be. They all seem to be characters who could actually exist: the weird kid, the outcast, and Mr. Popular, and the idea that they'd all come together and become friends? I just love that. Seishun dramas are a subgenre of the jdrama and focus on these youthful characters who are in that stage between childhood and adulthood (TattaKoi is an example of a seishun romance jdrama), and I have such a soft spot for these dramas because I relate to the sentiment so strongly. NwP is interesting in that it's not as episodic as say, Gokusen, which shifts from one character to the other, in the sense that each episode could kind of stand alone, and it's not as totally dramatic as Kurosagi (which also had the benefit of Yamapi being SUPER ANGSTY IN ALL BLACK and lots and lots of UST). It's got a much slower pace and I think the biggest reason why I love it so much is because of the characters. Akira, Shuji, and Nobuta (though especially Akira) are what kept me watching; I loved watching them interact with each other and other people, and that's probably why I love it so much.

...and hopefully, I was able to make enough sense for you to figure out what I was trying to say in that one paragraph. XD

[dangermousie.livejournal.com]

Thanks.

No, that makes sense.

I think part of the reason it's taken me to emotionally fall for NwP is a weird contradictory combo:

a. I love overdramatic, emotionally loud stories (see Hanadan) and
b. because they are so realistic, I find emotions in this one so real I want to look away because it hurts. I can't just revel in the angst the way I do in Kamisama...

Does it make sense?

[kitsune714.livejournal.com]

No, it totally does! Sometimes it's hard to watch things that hit a little too close to home. The angst in things like KMSD and a kdrama like "Sorry, I Love You" (I know you haven't seen it, but ZOMG, these people have like, the worst luck ever in life) is so ridiculously over the top, it's entertaining. With something like NwP, I know I remember all too clearly what it was like to be that age and to worry about whether people liked you or not, and how important that was to your overall perception of yourself.

[miss-dian.livejournal.com]

What appeals to me:
1. I love all the lead cast. They delivered very strong performances. I was pretty much immersed in all their characters :)
2. The pacing is good. Not too slow and not too fast (I find this one of the plus of most j-dramas)
3. I love Horikita Maki, haha ^^
4. I loved the plot, how it was very friendship-centric, and I think the youthful passion that Akira shows in NwP is wonderful.

In addition to that, I love listening to Japanese being spoken, and 'cause I have been exposed to Japanese students etc before, I also feel I can understand/relate to many of the things presented in the drama :)

[dangermousie.livejournal.com]

Horihita Maki is wonderful! She is probably my favorite jdrama actress.

[nuhiep.livejournal.com]

Hi. I read winterspel's journal sometimes, which is how I found my way to this thread. I'd like to add my two cents.

My personal theory is that viewers, of any media, are seeking in it reflections of themselves - specifically, personal values, world views, modes of behavior, etc. The stories that most often resonate with me are the ones that have the greatest bearing on me and either validate or add perspective to my personal experiences.

Nobuta is one of my favorite dramas because it features, privileges, and develops platonic friendships. In my life, the relationships that have had the most profound, lasting effect on me have been my friendships. To see friendship meaningfully portrayed, to see how much it can change Shuji, Nobuta, and Akira, is to have my understanding and experience of pure love validated in a profoundly moving way. It is my own heart writ large and made beautiful, poetic even.

Perhaps what determines whether a person loves Nobuta has nothing to do with the mechanics or storytelling of the series. Perhaps Nobuta simply does not reflect everyone's most important values or experience of the world, which is an absolutely valid reaction. I've certainly been indifferent to great dramas for various reasons, mostly leading back to my inability to relate them to own understanding of the world.

[dangermousie.livejournal.com]

Thank you for replying!

In my life, the relationships that have had the most profound, lasting effect on me have been my friendships

This makes excellent sense. And would explain things. In my life, emotionally the most important relationship for me has been the one with my husband. And then my family, which is very loud and close (which is why I am a sucker for Indian Bollywood films which show loud extended families and privilege this narrative. A lot of people find Hum Saath Saath Hain a boring movie, but to me it's 3 hours of watching neat family hijinks). Friendships are important but not as much as those two. So that might explain it.

[anamuan.livejournal.com]

Judging from the number of comments you've gotten since this morning (when I opened the page, noticed the time, and went to class), I'm sure someone's said this already. On the off-chance that no one has, my opinion.

Basically, I like Nobuta wo Produce because it helps me understand people better.
It's a very simple story which allows the characters to experience all the ways life with other people isn't all that simple. Shuuji, Akira, and Nobuta are three very different people all looking for the same thing. They have vastly different perspectives and personalities, but because of that I'm relating to at least one of them most of the time. Since they're moving towards the same ultimate goal (but need different ways to get there), the dramas allows me to see how other people might approach the same issue differently than I (or whichever character I'm relating to at the time) would. In the end, I know more about how people think.
Also, in real life, it's hard to step back and just watch how relationships unfold and interact, the things people do to keep up appearances, and whether or not it's worth all the effort. Dramas like this let me examine my take on life (and relationships with other people) without necessarily making all the mistakes myself.