It may just be my lack of experience in the dorama world speaking, but the live action adaptation of Nodame Cantabile was absolutely amazing. For the record the only other doramas I’ve seen are 1 Litre of Tears, Tokyo Friends a few episodes of Hanbun no Tsuki ga Noboru Sora and the live action movies for Death Note, Saikano, and Honey and Clover. However, I’m willing to bet that even to veterans in the dorama world, Nodame Cantabile is certainly a worthwhile watch.

I watched the first episode of Nodame Cantabile on Friday and I had originally planned to watch an episode or two a week and blog it episode by episode. However, the combination of very weak will power, a great dorama and a boring Saturday led me to marathon episodes 2-13 in one sitting. If you want individual episode posts, head over to Butterfly Dreams where Whispered.Hope is covering the series episode by episode, complete with rabid Chiaki fangirling ^^

As usual, possible spoilers ahead, while I’m not going to thoroughly outline the plot, I will allude to certain events (especially in the characters section) that are related to a point I’m trying to make.

Plot

The story revolves around two central characters, Chiaki Shinichi and Noda Megumi (Nodame), both attending Momogaoka College of Music. The plot deals with their struggles in the professional music world. Although Chiaki is majoring in the piano department, his true ambition is to be a orchestra conductor, however he has a fear of flying which keeps him from studying abroad, despite having the talent to do so. As for Nodame, she’s an extremely talented pianist, however her sloppy technique and lack of motivation hold her back from what would almost certainly be a successful career as a soloist.

NodameXChiaki, the fated first meeting

As the story progresses the two face their respective demons while making numerous friends and nurturing an awkward, but loving relationship between themselves. Chiaki slowly progresses in the world of conducting, learning from his peers and his new conducting master Franz Stresemann. Nodame also progresses, charging head on into the world of professional music in an attempt to keep up with Chiaki.

There are many other subplots pertaining to the other characters, the evolution of the orchestras that Chiaki conducts, professional concours, et cetera. However, rather than having me half-heartedly summarize them, go and experience the greatness for yourself! XD

The plot of Nodame Cantabile is character based, another reason why I love it to death. The show is not so much about how the characters progress through the world of professional music, rather, the show focuses on the internal evolution in personality of the individual characters. Each character starts off with an inherent flaw and as the show progresses we see them struggle against it and finally gather the courage and determination to overcome it.

Characters

Name: Chiaki Shinichi
Instrument(s): Violin, Piano, Conducting
Actor: Tamaki Hiroshi

Chiaki is the prince of the Momogaoka, he is recognized as the best pianist attending the college, if not the best overall musician. This causes him to be a really cocky bastard at the beginning of the series, as he critiques everyone around him, and praises almost no one.

However, when Chiaki begins to chase his ambition of being a conductor he soon begins to realize that music is not all technique. As he works with the members of various orchestras he starts to understand that everyone conveys music with their own touch of personality, and his job as a conductor is to bring it all together to produce a beautiful harmony. This forces him to stop thinking like soloist, concerned only about his well being and success, and to start thinking like a conductor, understanding and sympathizing with each member of the orchestra.

Despite his reputation within Momogaoka, Chiaki knows that to live out his dream, he needs to study and perform in grander venues, most of which are in Europe. However, due to bad childhood experiences with planes and boats, Chiaki is constricted by fear and unable to travel abroad. This is eventually cured by Nodame, who through hypnosis and constant reassurance, helps him overcome his fear.

Chiaki is definitely my favourite character of the bunch. Though initially harsh and seemingly uncaring, his judgments are accurate and fair and once the cast befriends him we see that deep down he’s a nice guy with the determination to succeed in his own aspirations AND the willingness to help others when it’s in his power. Plus he’s got awesome hair @_@

Name: Noda Megumi
Instrument(s): Piano
Actress: Ueno Juri

Known as Nodame, she’s an underachiever on the surface, but in reality she’s an extremely talented pianist who is held back only by a sloppy technique and lack of motivation. Her personality is described by others as “hentai” (no, not THAT hentai) in other words, weird. She’s extremely lazy, has horrible hygene, never cleans her house, has very idiosyncratic behavior and speech and despite her talent, has no ambition to become a professional piano soloist. She’s an airheaded girl who usually only has two things on her mind: food and Chiaki.

Nodame is an interesting character, she’s always cheerful and energetic, but it’s evident that, like everyone else in life, she has problems of her own. Although she’s a talented pianist, her true goal in life is to become a kindergarten teacher (and marry Chiaki). This frustrates her instructors and Chiaki, as they realize how much potential she has.

Until meeting Chiaki, Nodame has stumbled through life, doing things carefree and half-heartedly. We learn later on that her talent on the piano stretches back to childhood, however, a traumatic experience with a harsh teacher led her to hate playing strictly on technique and so her sloppy technique persisted.

After meeting and falling for Chiaki, Nodame continues to laze around in life, that is until she realizes that Chiaki is seriously pursuing his dream and if she doesn’t keep up, she’ll lose him forever. With that in mind, she thrusts herself into the professional world, working hard to play in a manner that would be fit for judgment in a concours. And although she ends up not placing in her first competition, she is offered an opportunity to study abroad with Chiaki.

Nodame’s eccentricities are the source for much of the comedy in Nodame Cantabile, but her purpose stretches far beyond just comedic relief. Under her cheerful exterior lies a girl with as many problems as the rest of us, and watching her gather up the courage to overcome her past and forge her own dreams and future was an uplifting experience.

Name: Franz Stresemann
Instrument(s): Conductor
Actor: Takenaka Naoto

Stresemann is a famous conductor from Germany who disappears from the world stage to teach at Momogaoka. He’s really an ero-jiji (lecherous old man) with a love for alcohol, cigarettes and women. He first meets Chiaki when Nodame brings him home for dinner after he hits on her, however, Chiaki cockblocks him. Soon after Chiaki learns his true identity and wants to learn from him, but Stresemann holds a grudge and denies him as his pupil.

The two eventually make up and Stresemann takes Chiaki in as his apprentice. For his first lesson, Stresemann builds an orchestra with the underachievers of the school and hands the conducting over to Chiaki, who is responsible for molding them into a real orchestra. Although his methods of instructing are unorthodox, Chiaki learns a lot from him and accepts him as his true master.

I didn’t really like Stresemann, but not because of his personality, which I found to be really funny. What I didn’t really understand or like was the need to bring a third party conductor into Chiaki’s life. Why couldn’t it have been Viera himself that happened to come to Japan, wouldn’t that have made more sense? Then Chiaki’s love for conducting really would have bloomed, and when the time came for the maestro to return to Europe, the urgency for Chiaki to overcome his fear would have been that much more real.

But meh, I’ll take what I can get, and indeed Stresemann was much better suited for the comedic overtone of the series. (And I bet Viera’s Japanese would have been infinitely worse)

Name: Mine Ryutaro
Instrument(s): Violin
Actor: Nagayama Eita

Mine is Chiaki’s self proclaimed best friend, the two performed together for Mine’s violin exam at the college, despite Chiaki initially having said he was terrible.

Mine initially did not like classical music, shunning it because it was too particular about technique and accuracy. He instead favoured rock, which was more suited for his expressive and sloppy playing style. However, after playing his exam with Chiaki and realizing how wonderful classical music can be while still being expressive, he gives up rock and vows to live life with classical.

After becoming good friends with Chiaki, the two end up in the same orchestra, with Chiaki as the conductor and Mine as lead violin and concert master. Mine struggles at first, having been an underachiever for most of his life, however with lots of practice, guidance and support, eventually becomes a violinist who Chiaki is proud to have in his orchestra.

In addition to Chiaki, Mine gets a lot of support from Kiyora, concert master and lead violin for the A-orchestra at Momogaoka. Kiyora offers him advice on how he can become a better concert master and Mine supports her throughout her concours, and after some oddly placed pity sexors, the two become a couple. It was really weird, unexpected and unnecessary to the dorama, but it somehow worked out.

Mine is another case of a musician without the drive to succeed. But, like Nodame, after meeting Chiaki, he realizes that he loves the world of classical music and from there his determination grows exponentially. By the end he becomes the support holding together the orchestra, one which he hopes to lead into the professional world. He’s your typical delinquent turned serious A-student archetype, but nevertheless it was still entertaining to see him stumble along, picking up some skill and a cute girlfriend along the way.

Name: Miki Kiyora
Instrument(s): Violin
Actress: Mizukawa Asami

Kiyora blindsided me, I thought she would be a really minor character, just standing around doing a whole bunch of nothing while looking pretty. It was a pleasant surprise when she became more involved in the plot, even being the founder of the Rising Stars orchestra, the last orchestra Chiaki conducts before leaving for Europe.

The lead violinist and concert master for the A-orchestra, Kiyora is one of the most talented of the bunch, much better than her hubby Mine. Her goal in life is to become a professional soloist, and for this purpose she plans on going to Vienna to study from her master Kai Dun, a renowned violinist. However, due to a neck cramp, she places a mere second in the professional concours, to which her master is displeased. This furthers her passion and determination to perform in Rising Stars, which she makes no mistake in and is then praised by her master, promising to instruct her further when goes abroad.

Kiyora is an outwardly strong willed character, the type who looks like they have everything under control, until one thing goes wrong and their world of ideals comes crashing down around them. But I guess it wasn’t all bad, it was that momentary lapse in judgment and chink in her armor that led to Mine bedding her, which surprisingly led to a meaningful relationship. She also looked killer in that red dress she wore for the violin concerto.

Name: Okuyama Masumi
Instrument(s): Timpani
Actor: Koide Keisuke

Holy crap the actor looks really different than what I expected.

Masumi-chan is gender confused, claustrophobic and gay for Chiaki. But apart from that, there’s not much to say about Masumi-chan, what you see is what you get. He seems to be purely comic relief character as we’re not really given much in terms of background or insight to his past. Actually…the only thing we are given is a flashback to the day when he met and fell in love with Chiaki.

Masumi was formerly the timpanist for the A-orchestra, but in an attempt to impress Chiaki he puts on an act in one of their practices and gets canned. From here he joins the orchestra that Stresemann compiles and hands to Chiaki, and from there on he becomes a regular in the orchestras Chiaki conducts. However, his true ambition is to be in a professional orchestra, which he applies and is accepted into, forcing him to part with Chiaki who leaves Rising Star to study abroad.

As a comedic relief character, Masumi is an excellent addition, although his homosexual tendencies towards Chiaki did get old really REALLY fast.

Name: Tagaya Saiko
Instrument(s): Vocals
Actress: Uehara Misa

Saiko is supposedly the Madonna of the campus, with a beautiful voice, stunning beauty and a sure path to success.

…but it all hits the fan, inversely proportional to Chiaki’s success. She loses him as a prospective boyfriend, she loses the lead role in the upcoming opera to a really ugly rival and everything just goes downhill from there.

She did give Chiaki a nudge in the right direction with her “I hate quitters” speech, but overall she was a minor character who got the shaft in every way possible. She didn’t get enough screentime for angst, so I can’t really say I sympathize with her, but I guess she serves as a lesson that sacrifices must be made to emphasize the happiness of others.

Name: Saku Sakura
Instrument(s): Contrabass
Actress: Dokyu Saeko

[fanboyism]So damn cute! She has that whole innocent and naive girl thing going for her. Her voice is a little annoying, but I expect that her voice outside of the dorama isn’t really like that. But yea, back on topic, she’s really cute, I wanted to hug her the first time she appeared on screen. [/fanboyism]

Oook, now that we’ve cleared that up, back to the topic at hand. Sakura is one of the contrabass players selected for Stresemann’s orchestra. Although she appears to be an underachiever, the truth is that she just doesn’t have the time to practice. Her family is poor so she’s forced to work a part time job to pay for tuition, this results in a lack of time for studying…and apparently a lack of proper nutrition.

Chiaki scolds her for not making time to practice, telling her that if she can’t make the time, she should just quit. After realizing that it’s easier said than done to someone who has never had to worry about finance for his whole life, he goes with Nodame, Mine and Masumi to apologize. It turns out that Sakura’s family isn’t doing that badly, it’s just that they’re in a bit of debt from unsuccessful sales caused by a cursed violin (long story, watch the dorama and you’ll understand).

After her financial situation stabilizes and she gets the time to practice, we see that she’s actually a pretty good musician and works her way up, eventually landing a spot in the Rising Stars orchestra.

Did i mention that she’s extremely cute @_@?

- – -

Alright, I think I’ll stop there for the characters, the others were mostly minor characters, acting solely as members of the orchestra.

The acting in this dorama was surprisingly fitting. From my limited experience I notice that most Japanese dramas are extremely overacted, the angst is dialed up to the max. It may be the result of being a light hearted comedy, but the over the top acting really fit Nodame Cantabile’s style. Each character had distinct eccentricities that distinguished them from the rest of the cast, and had me laughing out loud on several occasions. And even in the angsty, depressing scenes, the acting didn’t fall apart, the cast managed to keep it in moderation and not suddenly go suicidal because they didn’t place first in their concours.

However, where the emotion was really conveyed, was in their musical performances. In my opinion, the actors fully conveyed the reality of their situation, that after years of mediocrity, they finally got a break and are giving it their all playing in the orchestra. Watching them “perform” made me feel genuinely happy for them, especially the orchestra for the final performance, that was brilliant.

Speaking of the music, their choice of soundtrack was great. I’m not too familiar with the specifics of music academia so I can’t comment on whether all the terms were properly used, or if the actors’ portrayals of playing their respective instruments were accurate, but for the average person, it seemed very believable. For the full list of songs that were used in the series, go here and scroll to the bottom.

Thoughts

A truly great dorama, captivating from beginning to end. I suppose it had something to do with the fact that it wasn’t about:

i. A post-car accident comatose victim and her family
ii. An otherwise normal person suddenly inflicted with a fatal and debilitating disease
iii. Amnesia
iv. Against all odds romance
v. All of the above

Not to say that I don’t enjoy those from time to time, but when there’s nothing but angst in a dorama, it gets old really fast.

The comedy elements of Nodame Cantabile were genious, in the anime you get a lot of those random animations, but because it’s an anime they seem commonplace. But throw those same animations into a live action adaptation and you get some serious WTF? LOL! reaction. Well…from me at least =\ Much of this comedy revolved around Nodame, who’s personality is pretty much the same as it’s been conveyed in the anime thus far, complete with “gyabo” moe sound byte.

Well, I can sit here and type out my thoughts until my wrist cramps up (which is not too far off) but as with any anime, drama, movie, book, et al. you have to experience it to appreciate it. So what are you waiting for, go watch it, nao! Screw waiting for the anime to finish, I couldn’t resist for more than a day, I don’t understand how anyone could hold off until the end of summer. Give in now! ^^

If I have one complaint about the NodameXChiaki relationship, it’s the lack of final closure through dramatic kiss scene =(

And we end with random sexors, Mine ftw!

Damn that was long, excuse me while I go ice down my hand T_T

~ Shirukii ~