User Profile
Add Friend
Add Note
Track User
Send Message
Send V-Gift
ican_smile's Journal
Created on 2009-01-13 19:30:03 (#18033638), last updated 2009-04-01
207 comments received, 169 comments posted
Plus Account [Gift]
5 Journal Entries, 24 Tags, 0 Memories, 0 Virtual Gifts, 13 Userpics
Basic Info BioCharacter Name: Nobuko Kotani (nickname: "Nobuta")
Character Series: Nobuta wo Produce (j-drama) ("Producing Nobuta")
Age: about 17
Background:
The series takes place in an average high school in an average town in Tokyo with average students who think that this school is their world. Nobuko has been bullied all her life because she was bad at socializing and was strange. When she was a child, her mother remarried, and she had a hard time adjusting to things with her new stepdad. One day, she decided to work up the courage to call him "daddy", but he replied, "I'm sorry; I married your mother, but I'm not your father." She was so embarrassed, that she was convinced that opening up her heart to anyone would only cause her pain. She carried a doll around with her throughout her entire childhood, and confided in it as her only friend whenever she was bullied.
Nobuko continued to stay very closed-in until high school, when she transfered to the high school that Shuji Kiritani and AKira Kusano go to. The day before transfering, Nobuko is thinking of killing herself by hanging from the willow tree near the bay, but they take the tree away before she could do it. That is where she first met Shuji, who just ran away because he thought Nobuko was creepy. At first things look the same for Nobuko as any other school; she's bullied right off the bat, especially after accidentally making enemies with the class's bully, a tomboy girl named Bando, and her crew. The Bando girls torment Nobuko day in and day out, but no one in the class does anything because they're afraid that Nobuko will latch onto them. One time when the Bando girls are bullying Nobuko and hosing her with water in the girls' bathroom, Akira and Shuji overhear the commotion and rescue her, Shuji of course just trying to make it look like he's there to warn them that the teacher was coming. The Bando girls leave, and Shuji and Akira help Nobuko to her feet. "Don't you ever think of actually trying to fit in? You'll just keep getting bullied," Shuji asks. Nobuko says there's no point, there's nothing she can change about herself. She's always been like this, and it'll be like this forever.
Shuji can't take it, and Akira agrees. The two decide to start a secret project to "produce" Nobuko, or make her the most popular girl in school. The rules for producing are as follows:
"One, the producing thing is totally secret.
One, you can't refuse the producer's orders.
One, don't act on your own.
One, the contract ends when you become popular, and retiring before then is forbidden."
At first Nobuko refuses, saying that Akira and Shuji don't understand what a big deal this is to change herself, but they show her (by wearing ridiculously ugly clothes that she ordered that they wear to show their conviction) that they are determined and know how huge this is to her. The first "producing" they do is getting Nobuko's long, in-her-face hair cut. Nobuko comes to school with a new hairstyle and new clothes because someone painted "UGLY" in large yellow letters on her uniform (a crime that the Bando girls swear they didn't do; who could've done it...?). The class goes wild, saying how cute she is, but things backfire when some students complain that it isn't fair. Nobuko then comes to school with her painted uniform, but this time with confidence, saying "good morning" in her shaky, quiet voice to everyone. Shuji and Akira's answer is to come to school with "SHOW-OFF" and "IDIOT" painted on their pants' butts, and they end up starting a new trend, one that finally dies off after a few days. Nobuko sees how much Shuji and Akira want to help her, and her confidence grows.
Their producing projects continue throughout the year, in secret. Every time they're so close to succeeding in making Nobuko popular, though, some anonymous bullier ruins it all for them. At the last second, though, the three of them somehow pull through, each time. Their class's haunted house at the cultural festival is completely torn down the night before, but the three stay up all night putting it back together again, and it's a hit with the school. They start making "Nobuta good luck keychains" and selling them, but someone pours paint on the box containing them. Nobuta starts her own show with the Broadcast Club at school, but the tape is destroyed and the film cut into pieces. Who's behind all this? Whoever it is, Producers Shuji and Akira aren't going to loose to them.
Nobuko's popularity is slowly climbing as the days go by, and one day, Nobuko makes a friend in Aoi, a friendly girl in the same class. Things are looking great, and it seems like the "Produce Nobuta" project is succeeding. However, Shuji finds out one day that it was Aoi herself who was responsible for all the bad things that had been happening. She's been taking video of the three of them and "changing lives", just like Shuji is, she claims. "I want to become close, close friends with Nobuko, and then tell her. I want her as shocked and heartbroken that she'd want to commit suicide," she says all this with a smile. She's doing all this just because it's fun. Shuji can't say anything about it, because if Nobuko found out that the first friend that she made on her own was a traitor, she might go back into her shell and never, ever come back into the world again. He's trapped, and simply watches Aoi and Nobuko, waiting for something to happen. Eventually, Nobuko finally figures it out, and her world is shattered...she stops going to school. Shuji tells the class to take a video, and they send it to Nobuko's apartment, and she watches it. The class and everyone in it send their messages of friendship through it, and plead for her to come back to school. She does, and the class goes wild.
Aoi calls Nobuko to the roof and tells her that if Nobuko doesn't forgive her, she'll jump off the roof. Nobuko says she can't, but asks her not to jump. Aoi jumps, and then Nobuko wakes up; it was a dream, and a dream that she, Shuji, Akira, AND Aoi all saw. The four of them rush to the school, and they see an imprint of a body on the ground below where Aoi jumped in the dream. Nobuko cries, saying "I'm so glad..." Aoi is confused why Nobuko would care, and leaves the three of them, feeling disconnected and perhaps finally real guilt about the bullying she did.
When Shuji has to transfer to another school, Nobuko can barely find the words to describe how grateful she is to him and Akira for all they've done. Now at school, people are even asking for Nobuko's autograph, and she hasn't been bullied at all. She's never been good at smiling, but she feels like she almost can. She tells Akira to go with Shuji, and the two boys leave the school. Nobuko misses them terribly, but she knows she'll be all right. She finally is able to smile, and she runs to the school roof, staring up at the sky. "I can smile now...!"
This is the point where I will be taking Nobuta-chan from~<3
Personality:
Much of this was already described in the background section, but I'll do my best to keep talking anyway. Nobuko is very awkward and shy in everything she does. She walks around with her arms stuck close to her sides, and her head down. If she has a bag, she grasps it tightly against her chest so that no one tries to take it. At one point in the series Akira and Shuji follow her home, and see that this is her daily routine:
- Practicing her smile with the neighborhood dog (still needs work)
- Going to the temple and praying
- Looking at all the fruit at the market but not buying anything
- Talking to the flower store lady
- Sitting on the slide in the park and singing quietly to herself
She has many other small quirky habits, most of them extremely cute if you look past how odd it is. She made a little flip-book out of the corners of the pages in her schedule. She's actually pretty creative and can draw better than the average person, but not Monet level or anything.
Because of her rough childhood, she always used to hold grudges towards everyone, but that changed as the series progressed. She simply closed herself off to the world, and assumed that that was the right thing to do. She never cared what other people thought of her, before meeting Shuji and Akira.
There is a subtle superstitious vibe that exists in the world of Nobuta wo Produce, and Nobuko participates in that general fear and respect of the weird and spooky. She's rather superstitious, and when she breaks a twig off of a sacred tree at the shrine, rushes to Shuji and Akira to see if they were all right; she was told that breaking that twig would cause punishment to happen to her most precious person. She's afraid at first to cut her hair, because she has to stay the same as her doll (Shuji and Akira solve this by having the doll get a hair-do along with Nobuko). In her very first appearance in the show, she says she wanted to hang herself from the willow tree because "of the way it swayed like that, it looked like it was something from another world, and I thought it looked nice."
By the end of the series, Nobuko is an extremely caring girl, and will do anything to make those she loves happy. Shuji and Akira mention randomly "I wonder how Nobuta would look in a miko-san outfit", and she bolts out the door to secure one. She trusts people, which is why she didn't realize Aoi's ploy right away. The theme of the story is whether or not that trust is a strength, or a weakness.
Item Lost: The ability to completely, really smile with all her happiness. (She can manage only a crooked, awkward smile at ME because of this)
Character Series: Nobuta wo Produce (j-drama) ("Producing Nobuta")
Age: about 17
Background:
The series takes place in an average high school in an average town in Tokyo with average students who think that this school is their world. Nobuko has been bullied all her life because she was bad at socializing and was strange. When she was a child, her mother remarried, and she had a hard time adjusting to things with her new stepdad. One day, she decided to work up the courage to call him "daddy", but he replied, "I'm sorry; I married your mother, but I'm not your father." She was so embarrassed, that she was convinced that opening up her heart to anyone would only cause her pain. She carried a doll around with her throughout her entire childhood, and confided in it as her only friend whenever she was bullied.
Nobuko continued to stay very closed-in until high school, when she transfered to the high school that Shuji Kiritani and AKira Kusano go to. The day before transfering, Nobuko is thinking of killing herself by hanging from the willow tree near the bay, but they take the tree away before she could do it. That is where she first met Shuji, who just ran away because he thought Nobuko was creepy. At first things look the same for Nobuko as any other school; she's bullied right off the bat, especially after accidentally making enemies with the class's bully, a tomboy girl named Bando, and her crew. The Bando girls torment Nobuko day in and day out, but no one in the class does anything because they're afraid that Nobuko will latch onto them. One time when the Bando girls are bullying Nobuko and hosing her with water in the girls' bathroom, Akira and Shuji overhear the commotion and rescue her, Shuji of course just trying to make it look like he's there to warn them that the teacher was coming. The Bando girls leave, and Shuji and Akira help Nobuko to her feet. "Don't you ever think of actually trying to fit in? You'll just keep getting bullied," Shuji asks. Nobuko says there's no point, there's nothing she can change about herself. She's always been like this, and it'll be like this forever.
Shuji can't take it, and Akira agrees. The two decide to start a secret project to "produce" Nobuko, or make her the most popular girl in school. The rules for producing are as follows:
"One, the producing thing is totally secret.
One, you can't refuse the producer's orders.
One, don't act on your own.
One, the contract ends when you become popular, and retiring before then is forbidden."
At first Nobuko refuses, saying that Akira and Shuji don't understand what a big deal this is to change herself, but they show her (by wearing ridiculously ugly clothes that she ordered that they wear to show their conviction) that they are determined and know how huge this is to her. The first "producing" they do is getting Nobuko's long, in-her-face hair cut. Nobuko comes to school with a new hairstyle and new clothes because someone painted "UGLY" in large yellow letters on her uniform (a crime that the Bando girls swear they didn't do; who could've done it...?). The class goes wild, saying how cute she is, but things backfire when some students complain that it isn't fair. Nobuko then comes to school with her painted uniform, but this time with confidence, saying "good morning" in her shaky, quiet voice to everyone. Shuji and Akira's answer is to come to school with "SHOW-OFF" and "IDIOT" painted on their pants' butts, and they end up starting a new trend, one that finally dies off after a few days. Nobuko sees how much Shuji and Akira want to help her, and her confidence grows.
Their producing projects continue throughout the year, in secret. Every time they're so close to succeeding in making Nobuko popular, though, some anonymous bullier ruins it all for them. At the last second, though, the three of them somehow pull through, each time. Their class's haunted house at the cultural festival is completely torn down the night before, but the three stay up all night putting it back together again, and it's a hit with the school. They start making "Nobuta good luck keychains" and selling them, but someone pours paint on the box containing them. Nobuta starts her own show with the Broadcast Club at school, but the tape is destroyed and the film cut into pieces. Who's behind all this? Whoever it is, Producers Shuji and Akira aren't going to loose to them.
Nobuko's popularity is slowly climbing as the days go by, and one day, Nobuko makes a friend in Aoi, a friendly girl in the same class. Things are looking great, and it seems like the "Produce Nobuta" project is succeeding. However, Shuji finds out one day that it was Aoi herself who was responsible for all the bad things that had been happening. She's been taking video of the three of them and "changing lives", just like Shuji is, she claims. "I want to become close, close friends with Nobuko, and then tell her. I want her as shocked and heartbroken that she'd want to commit suicide," she says all this with a smile. She's doing all this just because it's fun. Shuji can't say anything about it, because if Nobuko found out that the first friend that she made on her own was a traitor, she might go back into her shell and never, ever come back into the world again. He's trapped, and simply watches Aoi and Nobuko, waiting for something to happen. Eventually, Nobuko finally figures it out, and her world is shattered...she stops going to school. Shuji tells the class to take a video, and they send it to Nobuko's apartment, and she watches it. The class and everyone in it send their messages of friendship through it, and plead for her to come back to school. She does, and the class goes wild.
Aoi calls Nobuko to the roof and tells her that if Nobuko doesn't forgive her, she'll jump off the roof. Nobuko says she can't, but asks her not to jump. Aoi jumps, and then Nobuko wakes up; it was a dream, and a dream that she, Shuji, Akira, AND Aoi all saw. The four of them rush to the school, and they see an imprint of a body on the ground below where Aoi jumped in the dream. Nobuko cries, saying "I'm so glad..." Aoi is confused why Nobuko would care, and leaves the three of them, feeling disconnected and perhaps finally real guilt about the bullying she did.
When Shuji has to transfer to another school, Nobuko can barely find the words to describe how grateful she is to him and Akira for all they've done. Now at school, people are even asking for Nobuko's autograph, and she hasn't been bullied at all. She's never been good at smiling, but she feels like she almost can. She tells Akira to go with Shuji, and the two boys leave the school. Nobuko misses them terribly, but she knows she'll be all right. She finally is able to smile, and she runs to the school roof, staring up at the sky. "I can smile now...!"
This is the point where I will be taking Nobuta-chan from~<3
Personality:
Much of this was already described in the background section, but I'll do my best to keep talking anyway. Nobuko is very awkward and shy in everything she does. She walks around with her arms stuck close to her sides, and her head down. If she has a bag, she grasps it tightly against her chest so that no one tries to take it. At one point in the series Akira and Shuji follow her home, and see that this is her daily routine:
- Practicing her smile with the neighborhood dog (still needs work)
- Going to the temple and praying
- Looking at all the fruit at the market but not buying anything
- Talking to the flower store lady
- Sitting on the slide in the park and singing quietly to herself
She has many other small quirky habits, most of them extremely cute if you look past how odd it is. She made a little flip-book out of the corners of the pages in her schedule. She's actually pretty creative and can draw better than the average person, but not Monet level or anything.
Because of her rough childhood, she always used to hold grudges towards everyone, but that changed as the series progressed. She simply closed herself off to the world, and assumed that that was the right thing to do. She never cared what other people thought of her, before meeting Shuji and Akira.
There is a subtle superstitious vibe that exists in the world of Nobuta wo Produce, and Nobuko participates in that general fear and respect of the weird and spooky. She's rather superstitious, and when she breaks a twig off of a sacred tree at the shrine, rushes to Shuji and Akira to see if they were all right; she was told that breaking that twig would cause punishment to happen to her most precious person. She's afraid at first to cut her hair, because she has to stay the same as her doll (Shuji and Akira solve this by having the doll get a hair-do along with Nobuko). In her very first appearance in the show, she says she wanted to hang herself from the willow tree because "of the way it swayed like that, it looked like it was something from another world, and I thought it looked nice."
By the end of the series, Nobuko is an extremely caring girl, and will do anything to make those she loves happy. Shuji and Akira mention randomly "I wonder how Nobuta would look in a miko-san outfit", and she bolts out the door to secure one. She trusts people, which is why she didn't realize Aoi's ploy right away. The theme of the story is whether or not that trust is a strength, or a weakness.
Item Lost: The ability to completely, really smile with all her happiness. (She can manage only a crooked, awkward smile at ME because of this)
ConnectExternal Services:
 | ican_smile@livejournal.com |
Friends [View Entries] Friends (197):
1000marshmellos, 1_electronic, a_mischief_grin, a_normal_human, a_scented_blade, a_severed_fate, aberrantworld, aboveheaven, ace_of_11s, addedtoyourdebt, airgeargaigar, allnaturalmagic, alluring_rogue, angel_crow, angelicarrow, anna_no_itako, aperfectcycle, apurposetolive, asu_e_no_basho, atonerofsins, bakahatsu_da, bamf_with_wings, baronofbeauty, befuddledmage, bestgameever, bigsis_deathgun, blackmagicangel, blazing_style, bookman_jr_lavi, britishlionking, bulletserenade, cadaceus_bitch, captain_six, captured_maiden, captureherheart, catslooklikeme, chalk_witch, cherrygloves, chop_meister, chronoslip, coolestsoul, crimeas_hero, ctarlicious, da_beat_is_on, darkdemonrose, darkenedred, dashing_emerald, dawnawakens, deadly_lance, death_the_dad, deathly_origami, deaththechick, deserterspride, dialwforwizard, discoverthekey, dontloseyerhat, dr_dancingqueen, dreaming_glory, emperor_llama, epicdigger, explosion_array, fadetonigredo, fairytalesmile, fangirlizm, fearcutsdeeper, fluorite_flux, fontaku, for_myworld, for_the_queen, forgotten_omega, forhisqueen, frenchaffair, freudian_fire, frumpyface, future_defender, future_is_gold, garbage_phoenix, ghostly_doll, gloomyrobot, godot_107, hailbeautyqueen, handsforhealing, hastwostrikers, herestothebard, herlittledogtoo, heroic_commoner, holy_bitch, hunterxofxrare, ican_smile, idkmybfffate, im_in_despair, infusedbymagic, itsjustgel, junctioning, kamikorosu_yo, kickspuppies, kihaku_madou, king_of_thunder, kittycatpillow, knight_of_7, kurimuse, kurokurowanwan, laconicshadow, lawful_maiden, leadsneverdie, lillovefreak, lilsis_deathgun, liveforthem, lme_leadingman, love_and_donuts, lovelyvenus, mafia_geek, mafiaissrsbsns, magicbloomers, mcninja_md, meitori, memento_mods, mistedreading, mistshine, mokomanjuu, mrkishidou, mybloodis_black, mystichamburger, nagatodotexe, nickandmaya4eva, nihao_shan_pu, no_good_tsuna, noblesinner, not_4oclock, notsandman, novolumecontrol, numberonestar, oh_snapplecakes, ossesso, pastoralpeach, penitentsoul, picturesfirst, pk_tomboy, playmyadvocate, prayfortomorrow, prince_zer0, princeofknives, protectoroflove, protectthedawn, ranking_prince, rebel_wo_a_clue, regina_incendia, rob_everybody, rolands_heir, roseofcaerleon, royal_puppet, ryukas, sapphire_prince, scoop_tengu, sea_of_writings, seal_released, sealed_rose, semper_fi_bitch, sexy_swordsman, shadesofevil, shitsuji_sorewa, sho_stopper, shoukanjutsu, singlemindedly, slammuraiblue, sonofabat, sore_feet_man, speakswithbirds, taiyakidreamer, the_second_kira, their_guardian, thelostseraph, thesteelphoenix, thetankisalie, thetrickstergod, thisflowergirl, thunder_striker, to_ler_ate, totallynotaspaz, trashcanking, tria_prima, trueasakuraking, twilightsmile, u_got_pyowned, unlocking_paths, unnatural_20s, unstringed, versicolored, vespa_alien, vigilante_miko, voiceful, vonperfect, whispersinspace, worstnunevar, xiii_kitty, yournewoverlord, yoursizmine
Friend of (77):
1000marshmellos, 1_electronic, a_mischief_grin, a_normal_human, alluring_rogue, angel_crow, angelicarrow, aperfectcycle, baronofbeauty, britishlionking, cadaceus_bitch, catslooklikeme, chronoslip, coolestsoul, ctarlicious, da_beat_is_on, dawnawakens, death_the_dad, deathly_origami, deaththechick, dialwforwizard, discoverthekey, dontloseyerhat, dr_dancingqueen, emperor_llama, for_myworld, for_the_queen, forgotten_omega, forhisqueen, freudian_fire, godot_107, handsforhealing, heroic_commoner, ican_smile, ilutoilet, infusedbymagic, itsjustgel, junctioning, kamikorosu_yo, kickspuppies, kurokurowanwan, leadsneverdie, lilsis_deathgun, liveforthem, love_and_donuts, mcninja_md, nagatodotexe, notsandman, ossesso, playmyadvocate, prince_zer0, protectoroflove, regina_incendia, ryukas, sapphire_prince, scoop_tengu, seal_released, sexy_swordsman, shadesofevil, shitsuji_sorewa, shoukanjutsu, singlemindedly, slammuraiblue, sore_feet_man, speakswithbirds, the_second_kira, thetankisalie, thisflowergirl, trashcanking, trueasakuraking, unlocking_paths, unnatural_20s, versicolored, vespa_alien, whispersinspace, worstnunevar, xiii_kitty
Communities [View Entries] Watching (8):
Member of (1):
Feeds [View Entries] Watching (0)
