Nobuta wo Produce, ep. 06-10

[oyceter]

Wooooe! They got the ending wrong! Just... they can't leave Nobuta alone!

I am somewhat mollified by the very cute Nobuta and Mariko fic I read in Yuletide, but I do not care! It is wrong!

Anyway. The series ended up making a few missteps, but I still like it a lot. The parts I didn't like largely concerned Aoi; some day I would like to not have a manipulative girl, please. I didn't get annoyed as I might have, just because of that scene where Mariko comes in and sees Aoi making Nobuta cry. I really, really, really like Mariko.

I did like how they resolved Akira liking Nobuta; part of me still wishes Akira and Nobuta had gotten together, but oh well. I'm just glad they didn't go with Nobuta/Shuuji, because that feels wrong and expected and boring. And I am sad that we didn't get more of Nobuta and that the story ended up being about Shuuji. Sigh. It was a good story about Shuuji, but the meta part of my brain is tired of shoujo that is all about the guys.

I also liked Shuuji's fall from grace, and when he got up in front of the class to ask them to make a film for Nobuta, I could not have loved him more. I also nearly cried when they played the video for Nobuta. Oh Nobuta! I love you so much! And Shuuji sometimes made me want to smack him on the head -- don't doubt Akira and Nobuta! They're the kind of people who will stand by someone no matter what, Mariko too, and I love them for it.

That said, a lot of what I loved about the show was tainted a bit by the ending. I didn't mind Shuuji going off, and I think him entering a new school by himself would have been bittersweet and sad, but also perfect, but I just hate that they left Nobuta by herself! Woe!

Comments

[meganbmoore.livejournal.com]

I actually never minded Nobuta being left alone(except really, she wasn't...she still had Mariko) because she wanted to know if she could stand on her own feet, and she never would have been able to find out if either boy was there, because neither would have ever been able to not try to help, openly or secretly. mariko, of course, is much smarter than either boy and can stand by.

Besides, in my world, they all go to college together. The problem with any jdrama that stars a JE boy isz that in the end, no matter what, it'll always be about whatever JE boy in it is the most popular at the time.

But I agree...far too much shojo ends up being all about the boys. Sometimes it's ok, but really...I'm a girl. I like the boys, but can't they at least be equally important?

[oyceter]

Yeah... I mean, I see the meta reason why they do it, but I am still mad that it's about the JE boy and that the actresses aren't as popular. And I think I would have been better with Nobuta alone had it not been an ending with Shuuji and Akira together. That just feels off and unbalanced, as opposed to all three of them going in separate directions.

Sigh. More girls!

[meganbmoore.livejournal.com]

Yeah. On the whole, I prefer jdramas to kdramas and twdramas because they don't use a fraction as many crutches, but the JE Boy focus in anything I can get subbed is really, really aggravating. And you know? Fond as I am of Kame and Yamapi, I'm a lot more likely to watch something on the basis of Hirokita Maki being in it than anyone else.

(btw, if you ever feel like drawing more drama people in, dorama_chat is a nice, sane place to crosspost)

[shewhohashope.livejournal.com]

The ending made me cry like a baby. Not just because of the sadness, but because it turned out to be all about Shuji and Akira. I console myself my imagining the awesome adventures of Nobuta and Mariko (and Bando) or pretending that the last five minutes do not exist.

I was glad that Shuji decided to stay with his family. They are like the cutest tv family ever! And none of them seem to resent their mother for always being away.

[oyceter]

I know! I would have been ok if they had all gone off by themselves, but I did not want it to be all about Shuuji and Akira! I consoled myself with reading a Mariko-Nobuta fic in Yuletide this year.

OMG! I love that Shuuji's mom is out and about all the time and the dad is in charge of cooking and none of them seem to think it's odd or anything!

[poilass.livejournal.com]

I have just finished watching Nobuta too! (about ten minutes ago! I watched the first episode a few days ago and wasn't that taken, and then I watched seven episodes in a row, and then I got up early to finish it this morning and I LOVE IT SO MUCH.)

I was completely horrified when it turned out to be Aoi, though they saved that a bit for me in the end, and, god, I adored that scene where Shuuji is telling them they shouldn't talk to him anymore, and walks tragically away to be ALL ALONE and they get up and follow him like a pair of ducklings, clearly thinking: wow, you're a total idiot!

I think I disagree about the ending a bit. At first when Akira showed up I was all NO NO WHAT ABOUT NOBUTA!, but the fact that it was her idea mostly reconciles me to it. I trust her judgment; if she thinks she will be fine on her own, I think she will be fine on her own too. And I am less sure that Shuuji would be fine on his own, so she might have a point. But I do wish we had seen the scene where she convinces Akira he should go.

[oyceter]

Eeeee! yes! I fully sympathize with the brain-eating powers of dramas!

Bwahaha, I love Nobuta and Akira rolling their eyes at Shuuji's emo.

I think I would have been better with the ending if, like you said, we got to see her talking with Akira, and I do like that she's fine without them. It was just... I dunno. The feeling that Shuuji and Akira get to stick together bugs me, particularly because it's informed by how so many slash pairings in fandom end up with the two guys and ignore the girl.

[meganbmoore.livejournal.com]

particularly because it's informed by how so many slash pairings in fandom end up with the two guys and ignore the girl.

I think that's pretty much any fandom...Except for chunk of the drama-at-large fandom, I've never found a fandom where being a gen and het fan didn't leave me in the vast minority.

[oyceter]

*nods* I also bemoan how femslash is even rarer than gen and het, siiigh. I don't know -- I am always of two minds when it comes to slash, as I am pro overturning heteronormativity but not happy with how often it means no women at all.

[meganbmoore.livejournal.com]

*sigh*

Yes...I'd be much more forgiving of "OMG! TWO HOT GUYS! SLASH" if the same people were equally willing to go "OMG! TWO HOT GIRLS! SLASH!" As it is, it's "OMG! TWO HOT GUYS! SLASH! WAIT! One of them likes this girl in canon? Oh, she SO MASSIVELY SUCKS!"

Then there's something like Himawari/Watanuki/Domeki, which is so blatantly poking fun at the standard shojo triangle of the hyper and excitable girl crushing on the perfect boy while being oblivious to the much better suited for her less pleasant guy that I have to love it. I don't know that I ship domeki/Watanuki yet, but I love reading it. (I feel the same way about Kyo Kara Maoh, which takes such joy in parodying yaoi and magical girl shojo that I could never take it seriously...and it has awesome female characters)

[poilass.livejournal.com]

The whole way through I was sort of wondering where the slash came from, because yes they are pretty, but it wasn't really there. And then the last five minutes, I thought: oh, *that's where*.

I agree the ending is not what it should be, but I am bent on justifying the hell out of it so it doesn't taint my love for the series as a whole ;}.

[oyceter]

I fully understand the necessity of the handwave ;). Ooo, did you read the Nobuta-Mariko story in Yuletide this year? It made me happy.

[poilass.livejournal.com]

I did! It was the very first Nobuta story I read in fact.

[jain]

Oh, this comment reminded me that I'd meant to point out some other Nobuta stories that you might like. They're mostly gen and het and femslash, as well as a few Shuuji/Akira stories that I think include Nobuta in interesting and good ways:

Pattern Recognition by asinful (Akira/Nobuta)
Ugly Ducklings by bookshop (Shuuji/Akira)
Five Things That Changed Since The Last Time Nobuta Saw Shuuji and Akira by ilanabean42 (Shuuji/Akira)
How to Keep a Friend by ilanabean42 (Akira/Nobuta)
Untitled by ilanabean42
Sweets to the Sweet by Mayhap
Stars by mindlint
Untitled Nobuta/Mariko by one_if_by_land
Speed of Light by Pero
Confession Version 2.0//Akira SHOCK(ed)!//Summertime by saxon_dogs (Shittaka/Nobuta) -- You haven't mentioned Shittaka that I've seen, but I think he's adorable, and Nobuta's great in this.
Dear Shuuji by Shay (Shuuji/Akira and Nobuta/Mariko)
Good Luck Pig by shrift (Shuuji/Akira)
Untitled One-Sentence Set by sivullinen (Shittaka/Nobuta)
For a Season by the_suit_case
It's Gonna Rain Tomorrow by walkwithheroes (Akira/Nobuta)
Modern Courtship by walkwithheroes (Akira/Nobuta)
Nobuta in Blue by walkwithheroes (Akira/Nobuta)
Separately, Together Part 1 and Part 2 by walkwithheroes (Akira/Nobuta, Shuuji/Mariko)
Eye of the Storm by waxrose (Shuuji/Akira)
Guilt Free at Three AM, Warmer Together, and The Morning After by wintersjuly (Shuuji/Akira/Nobuta) -- I can't remember how you feel about threesomes, but regardless, I think you'd like these stories. They have very much the feeling of the series to me: romantic friendship might be the best way to describe their relationship here.
Untitled Akira/Nobuta by wintersjuly
Untitled Nobuta/Bando by yamapea

[oyceter]

Thanks for the links!

[jain]

This comment expresses almost exactly how I feel about the ending of the series. I was less horrified by it being Aoi, mostly because I'd been suspecting Mariko and I adored Mariko; I was so relieved that she really was as awesome as she'd seemed in the previous episodes that I was less distressed over the Aoi angle. But, yeah, I also have my doubts that Shuuji would have been all right without one of them to ground him. And, like you say, the fact that it was Nobuta's idea goes pretty far towards reconciling me to the idea of Nobuta being left behind.

[oyceter]

I do like that it was Nobuta's idea, but the part that bugs me most is ... I dunno. It's the focus on Shuuji. A lot of it is also because I wanted to know more about Nobuta and her family and her life, and we never got any of that -- we get views into Shuuji and Akira's personal lives outside of school, but never into the girls'. YMMV though.