Shuji Kiritani (Kazuya Kamenashi) is a very popular high school boy whose girlfriend is Mariko Uehara (Erika Toda), the most popular girl in school. Despite his popularity among other students, he is relatively alone with Akira Kusano (Tomohisa Yamashita) as the only person he hangs out with, despite constantly claiming that he can’t stand the other boy. One day, a very shy girl, Nobuko Kotani (Maki Horikita) comes to school and she instantly gets picked on by a few other girls for her shyness. Shuji and Akira then decide to “produce” her, or make her popular. They nickname her “Nobuta”.

Of course, producing Nobuta is not an easy task, especially when a mysterious person is trying to ruin all of Shuji and Akira’s efforts. In the end, the person turns out to be Aoi, Nobuta’s “friend”, who later on attempts suicide in a dream shared by Aoi, Nobuta, Akira, and Shuji.

In the final episode Shuji discovers that he and his family must move out of Tokyo because of his father’s job and leave Nobuta to cope by herself with Akira. However, Akira follows Shuji to his new home town and surprises him by showing up at his new school. Nobuta is left alone in Tokyo, but she is not shy anymore, and is able to smile, and she also becomes somewhat popular among the other students.

Credits

Cast

Cover of the novel Nobuta o Produce by Gen ShiraiwaKazuya Kamenashi – Shuji Kiritani (桐谷 修二, Kiritani Shuji?)
Tomohisa Yamashita – Akira Kusano (草野 彰, Kusano Akira?)
Maki Horikita – Nobuko Kotani (小谷 信子, Kotani Nobuko?) (aka Nobuta)
Erika Toda – Mariko Uehara (上原 まり子, Uehara Mariko?)
Takashi Ukaji – Satoru Kiritani (桐谷 悟, Kiritani Satoru?)
Yuto Nakajima – Koji Kiritani (桐谷 浩二, Kiritani Kōji?)
Yoshinori Okada – Takeshi Yokoyama (横山 武士, Yokoyama Takeshi?)
Tomoya Ishii – Yoshida (吉田 浩, Yoshida?)
Katsumi Takahashi – Ippei Hirayama (平山 一平, Hirayama Ippei?)
Mari Natsuki – Yoko Sada (Katherine) (佐田 杳子（キャサリン）, Sada Youkou (Kyasarin)?)
Fumiko Mizuta – Kozue Bando (坂東 梢, Bandō Kozue?)
Shunsuke Daito – Taniguchi
Honami Tajima – Misa Inoue (井上 美咲, Inoue Misa?)
Akiko – Nami (佐伯 奈美, Nami?)
Tomu Suetaka – Kondo (近藤 利晃（ボケ担当）, Kondo?)