Producing Nobuta

The Saturday drama sold fewer copies than its own theme.

"Seishun Amigo" landed 2 November 2005, three weeks into NTV's 9pm run of Producing Nobuta. The throwaway unit Shuji to Akira was Kazuya Kamenashi of KAT-TUN and Tomohisa Yamashita of NEWS, named after the high-schoolers they played. It sounded like 1980s kayokyoku, not like a 2005 idol single. First-week Oricon sales were 520,419. Week two added 250,108. It crossed a million in under a month, spent 65 weeks on the chart, and finished as 2005's best-selling single. OriStar later put lifetime sales above 1,627,000. RIAJ certified Million. Sweden's Hitlistan even parked it at 41, a detail nobody in Shibuya needed. latestnetflix.com's take is that the drama itself was ten episodes, 15 October to 17 December.Ratings went from 16.1 percent on night one to 18.2 on the finale. DramaWiki lists a 16.89 average. The record outran the timeslot.,,

NTV's own page still bills Yamashita as a special appearance. He is in all ten episodes. That is Johnny's paperwork, not a cameo. Kamenashi narrates. Maki Horikita plays Nobuko Kotani, the transfer student they nickname Nobuta and try to manufacture into the most popular girl in class 2-B. Erika Toda is the actual popular girl Shuji lunches with and does not love. The source is Gen Shiraiwa's 2004 novel. Izumi Kizara wrote the scripts. Hitoshi Iwamoto and Norika Sakuma directed. The 47th Television Drama Academy Awards handed the show Best Drama, Kamenashi Best Actor, Horikita Best Supporting Actress, Iwamoto Best Director, Kizara Best Script, and Yoshihiro Ike Best Musical Arrangement. Yamashita took Best Actor at the Nikkan Sports Drama Grand Prix. Two idol groups, one kayokyoku pastiche about hometown amigos, a makeover plot that turns into a bullying mystery. Episode 8 is titled "Identity of the Bully." The finale, "Sayonara Amigo," ships Shuji's family out of Tokyo. Akira follows. Nobuko stays and learns to smile without them.,,

Ten years later Horikita walked onto Kamenashi's Kaito Yamaneko for an NTV crossover. He told another character it was "an old, old story." Twitter spiked Nobuta power and bicycle, the goodbye pose Yamashita invented. They kept singing it at Johnny's Countdown Live into 2015. In 2017 the two men formed another disposable unit, Kame to Yamapi, for a different drama and another number-one single. The first song still follows them into karaoke rooms. The girl they produced got the supporting trophy. The CD ate the rest.,