Nodame Cantabile

[blkmage]

This is a thread about how awesome Nodame Cantabile is. This was motivated by the news that Nodame Cantabile will be getting a third season in Fall 2009. The second season of Nodame Cantabile, Nodame Cantabile Paris Chapter, is currently airing and runs for 11 episodes.

Nodame Cantabile is a romantic comedy that follows the lives of two talented conservatory students. It began as a manga by Ninomiya Tomoko. It is currently on hiatus and is being serialized in Kiss. It got adapted into a TV drama, which apparently was very well received. Soon after, it was adapted into an anime, which ran for 23 episodes in Winter 2007.

Noda Megumi (Nodame) is a piano student who is an unmotivated slob. However, she has ridiculously good ears and can play something just by listening to it and when she's in her element, she's amazing at it. Shinichi Chiaki is a piano student who's an arrogant, perfectionist prodigy and dreams of becoming a conductor. The first season takes us along as they meet and intrude on each others' lives, helping each other overcome their own challenges to live our their dreams, all the while meeting new friends and performing some lovely classical music along the way. Nodame Cantabile Paris Chapter is a direct sequel after the events of the first season, in which we arrive in Paris, France, where Chiaki and Nodame have come to study in conservatories much better than those in Japan.

I have heard very little talk about how awesome this anime is. That makes me sad. Surely, someone has seen the first season or is following the Paris chapter. I hope so, because everything about this series is excellent.

Also, as I tend to watch series as they air, I do not rely heavily or care that much about localizations, but I am genuinely surprised that this has not been licensed yet. It is one of those rare anime that isn't weirdly Japanese. I mean, the prerequisite cultural knowledge required to enjoy this is far less than something like Ouran or Lucky Star. The manga has been localized and is available from Del Rey, but the anime has something very critical to the enjoyment of a series that revolves around music that the manga does not: music.

If you're looking for something romantic that's outside of the usual visual novel adaptation or high school setting and something that's closer to, say, Honey and Clover, and you enjoy classical music or music academia, then this is for you.

[Cap'n Nick]

I just finished the first season yesterday and am still riding the wave of awesomeness, and here you tell me there's more?! Life is good.

[Sheol777]

Yeah as much as I hate to admit it this anime is a guilty pleasure of mine. It's goofy at times and the title character is quirky (read as 'has many wild takes'), but at the end of the day the main reason I come back to this is because of Shinichi Chiaki. I like the know it all character that actually...knows it all.

As far as the first season goes, the animation quality noticeably descends. For example in the first few episodes there are close ups of individual notes being played on instruments in detailed CG...by the end of the series this is replaced by panning the camera over still frame shots of musicians as the music plays.

IMHO this is a decent anime. Not a must see, but amusing. I have seen the whole first season and intend on watching the second.

[mechana2015]

I have actually seen the live action for this show, which, I believe, follows the first arc of the anime. Its good and I recommend it as an anime instead since the physical comedy is rather bizarre in live action and several of the characters (Nodame and the Director/Mentor are rather creepy in live action).

[ChristianKitsune]

oooh sounds like this is something right up my alley... thanks

[minakichan]

This is pretty much the best jousei manga ever. It's not totally sex laden at all and the characters are really charming, and it's squeeworthy too ^_^

If only there were more such jousei.

[blkmage]

So following the announcement of the third season yesterday, news of two theatrical films has surfaced, with one being slated for New Year's Day 2010 and the following one in Spring 2010.

http://www.moetron.com/2008/12/09/two-nodame-cantabile-films-in-the-works/

Never mind if you are not interested about live-action, because these films are just that.

[EKmisao]

It's just nice and sweet and has lots of good classical music. Nothing to complain about here! (Well one lecherous conductor, but he doesn't get away with it...)

[Sheol777]

Well I just finished season 2....

It was ok..I guess.

It really meandered a lot and had a hard time nailing down what it wanted to cover. Now I didn't read the manga, but it felt to me that they aried to cram many manga issues into 11 episodes. Until the last two episodes I wasn't even sure what the big 'resolution' was going to be in the story.

I mean they kept introducing characters and I really didn't know which ones would be that relevant later. They should just stick with Chiaki and his story in my opinion. His resolution and his plot was the most interesting.

Is there anyone here has read the manga and seen this season? If so...what is your opinion on what happened?

[blkmage]

Basically, it's exactly what you described. They cut too much and put too many chapters into each episode. Because of this, the characters that were introduced seemed to be there for an episode or two and disappear forever. In the manga, they're much more important and much more developed. The two biggest hits to character development were Jean Donnadieu and Rui.

I'd say that Paris Chapter should have been twice as long while covering the same amount of content. Since I am reading the manga, I wasn't sure just how bad the cramming was. Now, I've had several accounts of people who don't read the manga noticing the terrible pacing, so I'd conclude that it was pretty bad. Personally, I felt that it was especially bad up until Nodame's recital.

[blkmage]

Bad news on the manga front: http://www.animenewsnetwork.com/news/2009-01-21/nodame-nimoniya-says-she-has-carpal-tunnel-syndrome

As you may have heard, the manga's been on hiatus when the manga-ka, Ninomiya Tomoko, took a leave of absence to have her baby. Unfortunately, Nodame Cantabile's still going to be on hold since she now has carpal tunnel syndrome.

So yeah, pretty terrible.