View topic - Nobuta wo Produce

I finished this drama like 6 weeks ago, but haven't had time to post about it cause i've been out of the country. I really enjoyed the show and loved the characters. It was only the 2nd dorama i've seen (im gonna start GTO tomorrow) and, to me, it didn't compare to One Litre of Tears, the first one I watched. Still, I thought it was a fun and cute show. I didn't cry NEARLY as much or feel as moved as with One Litre of Tears, but I still felt an attachment to the characters and got really into the show.

That being said, in my analysis of the show, there are a few significant flaws that set its bar lower and make it less substantial than One Litre of Tears in addition to the lighter-hearted, less heavy subject matter. (Sorry to keep comparing them even thought they're nothing alike, but they're the only 2 doramas i've seen.)

1) The character of Aoi was not sufficiently developed or explained. At the end of episode 10, I felt disappointed and looking back it seemed that the ending lines of episode 1, mentioning that "we would have to face real evil," or words to that effect, overpromising. I was hoping to get more background on Aoi to understand why she really hated Nobuta; the reasons provided in the show simply seemed unrealistic to me and didn't fully explain her hostility, and it seems rather contrived. It's too bad because it seemed like she had potential to be a really fascinating character.
NOW, that being said, I felt like I missed something with the whole suicide dream that all four of them had. There is certainly something missed by wathcing these shows with subtitles and lacking real understanding of Japanese culture, so I may be missing something.

If I did miss or misinterpret something about Aoi and the whole suicide plot element, PLEASE tell me.

2) The plotline of Akira's hopeless crush on Nobuta and the inklings of romance between Nobuta and Shuji seemed to diminish with proper exploration. There were too many moments; Akira not fearing the man's germs when Nobuta's date won't touch him after the man's heart attack, and then, later Nobuta's punching him and deriding his video, and her hug of Shuji ALL filled me with excitement and anticipation over what would come of their 3-way friendship and how romance might play a part. However, these kind of seemed like dead hooks after Nobuta's insistence that she does not favor either one as a friend more than the other (I think this is the last episode, with the good luck charm she doesn't want to chop in half.)

Again, people who speak Japanese, etc., please tell me if there's something I'm missing or getting wrong. I just got the impression that she clearly liked (or even loved) Shuji more than Akira, and her rejection of Akira as a romance interest seemed a little abrupt. I'm not arguing for a romance happily-ever-after, but I just wish it had been definitively addressed as it was in One Litre of Tears (Love Letter) which was brilliantly written and acted, and accordingly, was one of the most painful parts of the show. (I cried QUITE a bit over that.)

3) This is pretty minor, but just as I felt overpromised by the foreboding remarks about evil in the first episode that weren't REALLY explored, I also felt overpromised by the early flashback to Nobuta's childhood. I don't even remember the significance of it because it was NEVER revisisted and never became an issue. Maybe I'm forgetting something, but I just thought that was a little disappointing.
All throughout the show, I thought we would learn some dark secret about Nobuta's past (she did, after all, contemplate suicide); all it turned out to be was that she was a depressed, socially awkward girl.
Maybe my perception has to do with differring views of suicide in America and Japan, maybe not.