Review: Nodame Cantabile (anime)

[WARNING: May contain spoilers!!]

Author: Tomoko Ninomiya

Studio: J.C. Staff

Demographic: Josei

Before I start, allow me to tell you that I watched the Jdrama first before the anime. And after finished watching this, honestly, I prefer the drama version. So you will have to expect me comparing the anime with the drama.

Nevertheless, both versions had given birth to my love for classical music.

Summary: This story revolves around two completely different students at Momogaoka College of Music. Yes, a school where you're trained to become professional musicians, especially for orchestra. Nodame and Chiaki meet by accident, and indirectly they depend on each other to grow mentally and improve their musical skills. Nodame is a naturally talented pianist who at first didn't really have a high goal, while Chiaki is prioritize perfection in playing music due to his musical family background.

Protagonists

Noda Megumi - Also known as Nodame. She's an extremely talented pianist, but the way she plays is rather sloppy in inaccurate as she depended on her hearing (instrad of reading the score) and used the piano as a medium to express herself. Other than being messy and disorganized, she's completely useless and irritating. But as a friend (or a lover) she's a fun person to be with. In spite of her love in music and composing songs, she doesn't really have a high ambition (she wants to become a pre-school teacher!). She fell in love with Chiaki after they played Mozart's "Sonata for Two Pianos in D Major" together. Another thing about her is she's actually an Otaku, and a huge fangirl to Puri Gorota (Even comparing one of the characters with Chiaki).

Chiaki Shinichi - aka Chiaki-senpai~! He grew up in a musical family (specifically in classical music, 'kay) and studies in the same college as Nodame but one year her senior. He's the top student, and although he is very arrogant he's extremely popular among girls and boys (including those who are jealous of him). However, he looks down on those who play music badly or inaccurately. Yet he is attracted to Nodame's unorthodox way of piano playing, but would still rather see her play properly. Even so, he doesn't hesitate to hit Nodame for being annoyingly delusional. Ironically, for being a brat from a rich family, he's more organized than Nodame and is quite a cook. He secretly wishes to become a conductor, but his fear of flying is stopping him from going abroad to meet his mentor in Prague.

I'm a little lazy to talk about other characters, but I have to say that they do play a part in their development and orchestra. One character that I can relate to is Ryoutaro Mine, who's the type who likes to express himself through music, but is under pressure of lagging behind by those better than him. I like to express myself through drawing, but I never really had the motivation to improve D:.

Anyways, the anime has more details than the drama, and probably follows the original manga most of the time. The drama had to cut out a few scenes or insert this or that in earlier episodes. Since it's an animation, and it is Josei (not shonen or mahou shojo), action scenes are limited. There are many sequences where the images are frozen and there are only a few scenes where you can see moving fingers, moving fiddle etc. In the drama adaptation, everything is moving; the 'Jimmy Hendrix' performance by the S-Oke is EPIC WIN.

[S-Oke doing JimiHen]

I'm quite glad the story started of with a fun-orchestra performance to keep me following. But in the later episodes, the childishness is toned down and the musicians become more and more serious. But the main reason why I came to realize the beauty of classical music is because of the awesome drama adaptation, since the progress in the anime is rather vague.

Another reason why I prefer the drama is the character appearence. Now, I know that the anime adaptation's character designs are more accurate with the original manga, but the drama improvised their looks even more. Chiaki is totally handsome (ilovehiroshitamakikthxbai), Mine's rock image is more convincing, Takahashi Noriyuki's gayness is more apparent and Yasunori Kuroki's attitude is more like a samurai. Even the drama's Maestro Franz von Stressman (in spite of not looking like a true foreigner) is more memorable because of his weird gaijin speech!

The benefit of watching this anime (or reading the manga) is that you get to learn what is the story, mood or meaning behind each classical scores - which is something you can barely find in the internet. Basically, this is how I started to appreciate classics (i used to think that they're boring~)

What I love about Nodame Cantabile, is that it's not a straight-foward love story. The main plot is about how Chiaki reaches his dreams to become a conductor, and how Nodame evolved from a half-hearted student to a musician worth acknowledged by her love interest. Many obstacles are in their way, so we can see that being a conductor does not mean you just have to mindlessly swing your baton, and we can see that there's actually a difference in between playing an instrument individually or in groups. The romance part is like a secondary or tertiary element, and I like the way it grew throughout the challenges.

[random scenes]

I'll roughly rate this 3.5 out of 5.

Will review the second season next~



Side note: My family bought two albums of modernized classical music (ADYA). My parents previewed it first, but only decided to buy it when I said I wanted it lol.