Nodame Cantabile (JDrama)

[Talon87]

Chiaki is a fourth-year college student mastering in Piano at a music school for Japan's musical prodigies. His dream is actually to become a Conductor, but he held off transferring from the Piano department to the Conducting department up until now, and is afraid it may be too late to change. His entire life has been defined by music, and while he deeply and sincerely loves it, his top goal right now is to become a great conductor worthy of studying under his childhood hero, Maestro Vieira, a Czech composer and conductor who took Chiaki under his wing ten years ago during a summer trip to Europe. There's just one problem: Chiaki is afraid of planes. Actually, he's afraid of boats, too. It's because, on his way home from that wonderful trip to Prague, he was in a horrible plane crash and nearly drowned in the ocean. Traumatized, he can't set foot on an airplane or boat -- even thinking about it causes him to lose his cool.

Nodame is an odd girl. She talks like a child, runs like a retard, doesn't clean, can't cook, and is weak at reading sheet music. In spite of this, she is a musical genius, one who few recognize. Chiaki is one of them, and he decides to assume the challenge of "breaking Nodame" and transforming her from a rock into a pure, carved diamond that all the world will recognize and respect. Little does Chiaki realize that, by forcing himself to play piano in accompaniment to Nodame, he is slowly learning what it really means to be a great conductor ...

There are others, too. Like the effeminitely gay tympani drummer who has the hots for Chiaki and flamboyantly hammers the drums when the two share the same breathing space; or the punk rocker who plays the violin in a manner that would make Van Halen proud; or the shy celloist who doesn't have time to practice because of her part-time job. Chiaki must learn to conduct music around all of these eccentric, misfit geniuses. Only then can he prove to the world -- and to himself -- that he is cut out to be a conductor.

[/initial character summary after two episodes of eleven total]

[Doppleganger]

Nodame Cantabile the anime and I are bitter enemies - I dislike the "faux musical culture" depicted in the series in the same manner that the French laugh at how France is depicted in shoujo manga. This ill will is not for superficiality, but the people who seem to "believe", or rather stereotype, musicians as conforming to this illustration. It's annoying if anything else.

Follow this with the anime's ugly look, "poor performing" actors (great actors with rather dull performances) and poor sound quality - NC is overhyped "seinen drama" if there ever was one.

...

On the other hand, I've heard wonderful reviews of the J-Drama and the actors aren't nearly as ugly as their anime counterparts - heck, Chiaki looks pretty cute, which almost makes her dysfunctional secret life seem unbelievable. I'd like to watch it someday but it's not high on my priority list - I still have to get through Hana Dan. =_=

[Talon87]

Originally Posted by Doppleganger

heck, Chiaki looks pretty cute, which almost makes her dysfunctional secret life seem unbelievable.

Chiaki is indeed quite the prettyboy irl, but ... he's still a guy. ^_^; Nodame's the girl.

Originally Posted by Doppelganger

I'd like to watch it someday but it's not high on my priority list - I still have to get through Hana Dan. =_=

As you know, I loved Hana Yori Dango the first season (which I watched last fall), but as for the second season (the one made up by the drama team, NOT by the manga author, and completely created just to milk the cash cow of success -_-; ), I thought it was so bad I put it down by Episode 3. They start off the show by severing all the relationships any of the characters built up, and break them down back to their "Season 1 Episode 2" selves. Then they throw in a Tsukushi clone who has been promised to Doumyouji in marriage to make the odds of Tsukushi's success even less likely. BOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO URNS!

[Doppleganger]

>>Nodame's the girl.

[Talon87]

Here is the piece, as performed by the Columbia University orchestra. It is (needless to say, perhaps?) imperfect as compared to the impeccable performance shown in the J-drama, but judging from the background sounds, I'd have to guess that this was the actual live performance the Columbia kids did, unlike a TV show which can do, do, and redo a performance as many times as necessary before getting that perfect one down on camera.

Anyway, the first 2 minutes of the piece are done in the episode, with some talking over them. Then, a lot of the next segment is shortened/omitted with talking taking its place, and then the part that begins around 3:52 is the epic "intro theme" to the show. So if you want to know what the intro theme song to Nodame Cantabile is ... there you go. *gets misty-eyed* So awesome, once you connect the music with the scenes they depict in the J-drama alongside it. ^_^; My personal opinion, feel free to disagree, Classicists who can enjoy this piece for its own merits. ^_^;

http://www.columbia.edu/cu/cuo/F2001-6.mp3 - PROVIDED W/ PERMISSION FROM COLUMBIA, as is clear by (a) they're placing it on a public site for all to find and (b) the fact that Wikipedia is where I got it, and they're always sticklers about not violating copyright laws.

[Talon87]

Through episode 6, and I've found my first complaint: it's going to be over so soon. Always a great sign of a successful television series, even if it is regrettable in its own (intrinsic) way. ^_^; I can see why one might have an incentive to watch the anime -- even though the J-drama and anime are technically the same length (11 episodes of 45 minutes [with the first one being 55] approx. equals 23 episodes of 25 minutes), one still must admit that by dividing the anime into 23 chunks, it becomes easier to convince the audience at home "we're showing you one contained story". When you try to tell the audience at home watching the J-drama "the episode you're watching really has the merit of two," that argument falls apart when the entire episode begins, rises, and ends with the same plot. I dunno, maybe my brain's the only one that works that way, but for me, the economy I just explained means that the anime (psychologically) will feel longer than the corresponding J-drama.

Okay. That spat out, the show is very good, but needs more student orchestrals! There have only been two so far, and I'm already halfway done. I would have liked to see the students do more orchestra recitals by this point. Small spoiler (highlight small text), the S-Orchestra that Shiaki is put in charge of has just disbanded, and a third or so of its members have graduated from college. Shiaki is now forming a new orchestra. So my point is, we only got to see the S-Oke do two performances in six 45-minute episodes. I would have liked to have seen at least one more.

[Talon87]

Alright, finished it earlier today.

Plot: 8/10. I would have liked to have seen more concert hall performances before Chiaki "accomplished his dreams" and "finished his growth" by the end of the show. It all felt so rushed. I don't think people tend to change that easily that quickly. I was confused as to why Vieira-sensei never showed up again (small spoiler); if Chiaki truly became so world-renowned for being "the boy genius conductor" through S-Oke and RS-Oke, you'd think Vieira would have flown out to Tokyo to greet his favorite pupil. Maybe it's all in Chiaki's head and Vieira doesn't give a shit about Chiaki. ;) Complaints aside, they presented a good, solid story for Chiaki and Nodame, making this [strike:123ae]an anime[/strike:123ae] a J-drama with two fun plots to follow. Sub-plots abounded and weren't too bad.

Characters: 8/10. Nodame is interesting, but I am disappointed with the angle they went for in order to explain her lack of desire to compete professionally. (Why can't she just be a carefree spirit? Why'd they have to go and invent that story?) Chiaki is interesting, but his growth is difficult to follow. Other characters are not as entertaining as the writers seem to think they are, constantly shoving their same antics in our face over and over and over.

Music: 9/10. I say this because (a) I wanted more, and (b) I wanted less repeats. A lot of the bg music was repeated over and over and over, and as for the concert hall pieces, they play the same piece several times (Beethoven's 7th), making it impossible for us to get to enjoy how Chiaki would approach other pieces. Otherwise, absolutely fantastic. The combination of music and scenes is perfect -- sad with sad, happy with happy, powerful with powerful. No music is mismatched to its scene, and all music gets the job done. Scenes also help in their own way to get music commoners (like me) appreciate classical pieces' heart.

Cinematography: 10/10. Good job. A lot of well-placed cameras at the right times. Very crisp and lucid. From the people who brought you Densha Otoko if that helps you to picture the nature and quality of the recording and video editing.

Replay Value: 6/10. Not too enthused about re-watching this. A lot of the story's merit is the mystery factor. Answers to questions like, "Will Chiaki leave Japan or won't he?", "Will Chiaki and Nodame wind up together or will it remain one-sided to the end?", "Who will win the piano competition?", "What is Stresemann planning?", and other such questions. Once you have the answers, the mystery is sort of dead, and there's not enough pull (for me) to rewatch. This is how it usually goes with romantic dramas, though. Great for the first viewing, sort of bland for all subsequent ones. (Great example, Hana Yori Dango. I love that show, but you can never have the first viewing back, that viewing when you don't know how it will end.)

Overall: 8/10. Not bad for a J-drama. I've seen better (Densha Otoko, Hana Yori Dango) and I've seen much, much worse (Nobuta wo Produce, GTO, bits and pieces of Gokusen). Not bad for a story, either. Recommended only to those interested in romantic drama sprinkled with comedy. Unlike its predecessor Densha Otoko, this series is NOT a comedy per se, so don't elect to watch it if you're looking for laughs. Watch it if you're looking for a romantic drama that is light-hearted occasionally and doesn't seek to make you cry 100% of the time.