Review: Nodame Cantabile

Licensed by: Del Rey Manga

Synopsis: Chiaki Shinichi, a brilliantly talented but arrogant piano student is going through a pretty bad phase in life. His on again-off again girlfriend Tagaya Saiko has just dumped him again, he has an altercation with the best professor the school has, he can't go overseas as he is mortally afraid of the ocean as well as air travel, and to top it all- he is nowhere near achieving his true goal of becoming a conductor. Watching lesser classmates achieve things he could have, but can't because of his many complexes, he is just about ready to give everything up. After a pretty drunken night, he finds himself in what appears to be a garbage heap- only there is a girl sitting in the middle of it all, playing Beethoven on her piano.

Freaking out at the state of her apartment, he runs away- to discover that she lives next door. Heading off to the academy, he finds that his new teacher is known as the 'delinquent' professor- specializing in the wackiest students. With a heavy heart he goes to his lesson, and is told to practice and play a two-piano piece with his fellow-student aka the girl next door, who introduces herself as Noda Megumi or Nodame for short. Chiaki discovers that she has an extremely freehand way of playing, in his own words-

Cantabile. She plays like she was singing.

After scolding her multiple times, Chiaki finally makes her play the way she's supposed to- only then, their playing has no life. It is then that he realizes that there's more to music than just technique- your heart has to be in it as well.

In my opinion: Just marvelous. It's one of the sweetest and most engaging series I'd come across in a long while. The characters are wonderful and Nodame in particular is so cute and adorable that she easily takes first place on my favorite female character list. It's quite a relief watching this series, especially after long, drawn out plot-centric series like Bleach. Humorous, light and sometimes startlingly melancholy, this series is sure to capture your heart.

The Nodame anime has one complete season currently. The anime is wonderful in my opinion and very well-made, with lots of attention to detail. Even if you were never a big classical music lover, this series will surely spur you into becoming one. The opening and ending themes are simply marvelous- "Konna ni chikaku" by Crystal Kay has to be the happiest love song I've heard in a while.

There is also a live action series featuring Ueno Juri as Nodame and Tamaki Hiroshi as Chiaki. It is a wonderful interpretation of the manga, and one of the best doramas I've ever seen.

The Nodame manga is ongoing, and updates very regularly. NCIS scans does a great job scanlating them and in general spreading the Nodame goodness, so please go over there and support them if you like the manga. It is licensed in the US, so you can just buy a copy if you can.

As always, you can download this manga here-

www.mangatraders.com/manga/series/482

Overall, it is a superb series- go for it!

Artwork: 8/10

Characters: 10/10

Story: 9/10

Music: 10/10