Nodame
Cantabile : Review
Title: Nodame
Cantabile
Genre: Comedy/Drama
Company: J.C.Staff/GENCO/Nodame
Cantabile Production Team
Format: 23
episodes
Dates: 12 Jan
2007 – 29 Jun 2007
Synopsis: Chiaki
Shinichi is one of the most talented musicians at the musical college he
attends. However, his ambition to become a conductor and study under the
renowned Sebastiano Viera puts him at odds with his piano teacher, Etou.
Chiaki’s fear of flying prevents him from leaving Japan to become Viera’s
student. After being dropped from Etou’s class, which leads to Chiaki also
being dumped by his girlfriend, Tagaya Saiko, Chiaki meets a bizarre, messy
girl, Noda Megumi (who insists on being called “Nodame”), a piano student under
Chiaki’s new teacher. Chiaki doesn’t like Nodame, but is strangely drawn to
her; on the other hand, Nodame almost instantly falls in love with Chiaki.
The
Highlights
Characters: Some of
the best characters in the josei genre.
Music: Soundtrack
packed with classical gems.
Seiyuu: Kawasumi
Ayako is a superstar.
CG: Hit and
miss.
Side
characters: Too numerous; some steal more limelight than
they deserve.
Ending: Satisfying.
Characters
make or break an anime like Nodame
Cantabile, and it has some of the most likable and
well-developed characters in this genre. This is one of those premises that
demands character development, but there’s a big difference between potential
and actual execution. However, at the end of the day, there’s no point in
understating just how incredible the character development and chemistry is in
this series; “phenomenal” is one of few fair words one may use to describe it.
An
anime about a music school must have good music, and Nodame Cantabile certainly
doesn’t fall short here. Its soundtrack includes some absolute classics, with
works from a list of who’s who of classical and romantic music,
including Rachmaninoff, Mozart,Schubert, Debussy, Beethoven, Bach and
many others. No doubt, Nodame
Cantabile’s highlight reel prominently features its on-stage
orchestral and piano performances, which not only feature some outstanding
music, but manage to show just how the music impacts the characters and
relationships in the series.
Honey and Clover’s director, Kasai
Ken’ichi takes the reigns of this project, and I’d strongly argue that
his style is better suited to this type of series. While in Honey and Clover, there
were a few occasions in which comedy would interfere with drama in a fashion
that was at least jarring, almost bordering on inappropriate, Kasai can
get away with doing it here since Nodame
Cantabile is only very rarely totally serious. The characters
grow through music and through each other, but they do so because they enjoy it
and have fun with it, meaning that a “fun”, playful tone is very much
appropriate here, where arguably it wasn’t at times in Honey and Clover.
Another similarity to Honey
and Clover is Nodame
Cantabile’s visuals and art style, but the most noticeable aspect
of that is the way CG is used to animate hands and musical instruments while
characters are performing. The result is a mixed bag; sometimes it looks
seamless, while others it’s jarring. While I’m discussing technical merit, the
voice acting in Nodame
Cantabile is exquisite. Seki Tomokazu fits
effortlessly into the role of Chiaki, but the star is Kawasumi Ayako,
who brings the title character to life magnificently. When I hear performances
like this from Kawasumi, it compels me to say that she is easily
the most underrated seiyuu in the business at the moment… and arguably the best.
There are few flaws in a series of this caliber, but I felt
that, while the main characters were given a wonderful amount of focus and
development, there were too many side characters that contributed nothing and
fell by the wayside. I didn’t understand why, every now and then, the show
decided it wanted to momentarily tell the story from their point of view, when
they were just going to completely disappear in the next episode. I’m
nitpicking here, but the impact of the orchestral performances waned slightly
in the latter part of the series, and Chiaki’s main character flaw was “cured”
a little too neatly for my liking.
Despite these minor flaws, Nodame Cantabile is an excellent anime,
and one of the recent pinnacles of the josei genre. Even though the year is not
over yet, I can already say with certainty that Nodame Cantabile is
going to be among the best anime of 2007. I knew from the first episode that
this was going to be a good series. I never could have predicted it’d be this good.
