Nobuta wo Produce

Kiritani Shuji is the popular guy who gets along with everyone, from the jerks to the nerds to the just plain weird. He's the one that everyone can count on. However, what they don't know is that Shuji knows how predictable his classmates are and he plays off their predictability to his advantage. His day-to-day existence as "Shuji-kun" is just a facade he uses to play in the school popularity game. Truth be told, Shuji is bored.

The one person Shuji cannot stand is Kusano Akira. Unlike Shuji, Akira is just plain annoying. Akira loves his soy milk so much, he gets drunk from it. He laughs funny, he talks funny, and he acts funny. Nobody in class takes Akira seriously. Shuji can't stand the sight of Akira and it drives him nuts that Akira does whatever he wants despite Shuji's expressed dislike of him.

Shuji has a daily ritual of touching a certain willow tree for good luck. One day, he is startled to find out that his willow tree was uprooted and in its place, a freaky-looking girl telling him that some people took the tree somewhere else to be spotted. She joked that she was planning to hang herself from that tree. Scared, Shuji runs away.

Things heat up when a new student comes to school. Shuji is shocked to find out that the new student was the freaky girl he saw the day his willow tree disappeared. Her name is Kotani Nobuko, a girl who has no self confidence at all and is content at being made fun of and bullied in school.

Shuji and Akira come to an accord that in order to make use of their "youth" they will "produce" Nobuko as the next popular girl. One of the conditions, however, is that nobody should find out that they are working together as a team to make this concept possible.

Of course, there can be no protagonist without an antagonist. There is a mysterious girl in school jeopardizing the duo's plan to make Nobuko popular. The mystery continues to unfold.

Unveiled here is the story of true friendship between three unlikely candidates who would not have been friends if not given the special circumstances!

* Kamenashi Kazuya as Kiritani Shuji (桐谷修二)
* Yamashita Tomohisa as Kusano Akira (草野彰)
* Horikita Maki as Kotani Nobuko (小谷信子)
* Toda Erika as Uehara Mariko (上原真理子)
* Ukaji Takashi as Kiritani Satoru (桐谷悟)
* Fukaura Kanako as Kiritani Nobuko (桐谷信子)
* Nakajima Yuto as Kiritani Koji (桐谷浩二)
* Okada Yoshinori as Yokoyama Takeshi (横山武士)
* Kimura Yuuichi (木村祐一) as Sebastian
* Fuwa Mansaku as Iehara Yasuo
* Takuma Seiko (たくませいこ) as Kuroki Hiroko
* Imawano Kiyoshiro as owner of the Gooyoku diner
* Takahashi Katsumi as Hirayama Ippei
* Natsuki Mari as Catherine