Summary:

Shinichi returns a shockingly clean apartment and a Grave of the Fireflies Nodame; she is miserable after her terrible sightreading class, being laughed at by a French shota and being asked why is she here by Charles. Shinichi realizes Nodame is jealous of Rui when she plays Etudes and tries to kiss her but gets kicked out of her apartment instead. But she feels better after hearing Shinichi prepare ‘Beauty and the Beast’ for his Paris debut concert.

At the Conservatoire, Nodame is run over by a whiteboard driven by aforesaid laughing shota, she realizes that he wasn’t laughing at her music but at her (-3-) expression. She gets Charles, now dubbed Master Yoda, to play her Moja Moja suite and she reprises her Schubert that brought her to his attention at the Maradona competition. Shinichi’s concert goes swimmingly (attracting the attention of a mystery man in wheelchair) and he hugs Nodame when she’s the first to come see him backstage. Later Shinichi gets Nodame to explain the way she plays Beethoven’s Pathétique (the piece that announced her to him) and is astounded by the imagery of her grandparents in it. He brings her to see Paris’ art galleries and she asks to sight read on her own. Along the Seine, they share roasted chestnuts and Shinichi tells her that he will be away in the Netherlands next for work. No kiss but hand holding ensues.

Reaction:

Nodame says that Shinchi doesn’t get it. For the longest time (and pre-manga spoilers), I didn’t get Nodame either. I could see why she did not want a pity kiss but also demonstrated how difficult it was to apply Stresemann’s advice to clearly distinguish between romance and music. But they’re definitely more couplely, with all those couplely ups and downs, in this season than the previous one. It was also rather quick how her relations with French shota and Yoda recovered though I was surprised that Nodame knew the French word for mongoose and at Charles’ surprise at getting called Yoda – surely someone must have called him that before!

The art gallery visit showed another flash of Nodame’s independent spirit, with her asking Shinichi to leave her be (and giving her lectures) – showing that she needs ‘me’ time too and is not always Shinichi-dependent like during the second round of the Maradona competition. All the same, her erojiji reaction to imagining Shinchi as Michaelangelo’s David shows how some things haven’t changed. The anime doesn’t bring out half of manga-Nodame’s perviness (like her constant sniffing of his used shirts) which makes the epithet of Weirdo Forest oh so fitting.

©2012 hontou ni sou omou?. All Rights Reserved.

Haremettes attack from the front and rear

First off, Ep 24 wasn’t the final episode but should have been before Ep 9 instead. A funny piece, based on Ch 21, about Nodame, Chiaki, Mine and Masumi’s trip to the sea prior to the Nagano festival – the main ‘plot’ point being that Nodame finds out about Chiaki’s fear of the sea and boats.

Ep 23 didn’t hold too many surprises. Chiaki and the Rising Star Orchestra had a great performance, answering Sakuma’s original question about what Chiaki was trying to do in Japan. Chiaki goes on a quest to the ends of Japan to retrieve Nodame. Who has recovered her mojo after admitting that she enjoyed performing. And the Maradona judge Auclair, via Harisen, has given her an opportunity to study in Paris. Which Chiaki somehow ends up going to instead of Vienna.

Chiaki and Nodame’s reunion was particularly sweet. I’m really looking forward to seeing how their relationship develops and how they develop as musicians in Europe. A bit of bummer that Animax Asia doesn’t seem to be scheduling the Paris season (which I’m planning to catch anyway due to the evocation of the Shizu-sama Doctrine) but I suppose this is where BitTorrent will ride to my rescue.

Series Review

The classical music premise and context had initially caused me to dismiss this series completely out of hand. But, like Hikaru no Go, it was surprisingly interesting and even raised my interest in an area which was my interest was weak.

I was also surprised by how much I grew to like both the leads and the entire cast. I was initially weary about Chiaki’s overbearing arrogance. But he’s pretty much justified in his attitude given his talent, hard work and complicated family history. Nodame was a real weirdo but quickly endeared herself to me, not least due to the power of Kawasumi Ayako. But, despite learning about her backstory, she surprised me throughout by insisting on playing her way and, crucially, not bending to Chiaki’s will at the crucial moment of Ep 22.

Putting the overall plot and characters together, I’m inclined to read two big themes into this series. First, the theme of self-overcoming. Probably because I have been damaged by too much Nietzsche from my undergrad days. The self was clearly the biggest obstacle for Chiaki. A little less clear WRT Nodame but hopefully we’ll get to work through that in Paris and beyond. I’ve always been attracted to this type of anime where the main obstacle is not Out There but Within, and where real evil is absent (recalling one of the main charm points of Cardcaptor Sakura). And yet, Nodame Cantabile goes a step further by showing (rather than telling – as most shounen shows tend to) how one can self-overcome through encounters with others rather than The Other.

Second, I seem to see a lot of the struggle for recognition. Probably because I have Axel Honneth on my mind. Chiaki’s whole thrust seems to be the best that he can be (without the horrible shounen bravado). Others have recognized his talent, like Chairwoman Mina, Maestro Stresseman, Critic Sakuma, Kai Dowin and so on. But it seems that Chiaki is set on something bigger and, yet, at the same time more personal. Intriguingly, we’ve yet to see or hear anything about his relationship with his absent father. Do I detect a hint of Gendou Ikari here? For our title chara, recognition obviously will need to come from Chiaki. And her dream of them being a golden pair looks so big and yet so personal at the same time. Hearing that, I can’t help but cheer for her and yet I can’t fathom how she’ll be able to achieve it, given the enormous strides that Chiaki is making. Perhaps Auclair in Paris can do for her what Harisen managed to do for her which Chiaki could not.

On a separate note, I’m glad I did not watch the live action as both seem to have affected Garten’s view of the anime for the worse. Personally I’m not that bothered about the lack of movement when the orchestras were playing but if you’ve had the live action to compare against, it’s probably inevitable it won’t look good. On the other hand, I’ve already taken a quick look at the manga and found the anime to be largely faithful with good coverage. Except, crucially, Ch 52 was rushed through the ED. But reading the chapter has filled in some of the blanks and answered some of my question marks over Nodame’s back story especially her early incident and family background.

Since I’ve had feedback from my commenters that the Paris-hen will feel rushed, I gather that I can fill in the blanks by going full steam ahead with the manga and then just enjoy whatever the anime will throw up and use manga knowledge to fill in whatever wasn’t animated. Being forewarned and not being a very strong manga-to-anime completionist, I’m hoping that this approach will be yield a better experience than sitting through the anime feeling puzzled.

©2012 hontou ni sou omou?. All Rights Reserved.

Gives you crabs?

Pressed for time and lots to catch up on so just some brief points from last week’s Animax Asia broadcast. Screencaps from Memento.

Ep 19:

• Hypnosis was a bit convenient but was made palatable by how it was foreshadowed in Ep 14 during the visit back to Uncle Take’s house and that hypnotherapy was credited for Rachmaninov’s recovery following the disastrous reception to his First Symphony.
• Man, Kaori is hot and LOL too much information moment. I can understand Stresemann’s discontent with the fact that Viera has such a beautiful wife.

Who you gonna call?

Ep 20:

• Nodame’s surprisingly good performance in the first round, her surprisingly bad performance in the second round and then another sparkling performance in the next round shows how dependent her performance is on her mood but I still don’t quite get what’s the basis of her mood swings. There’s no single factor that seems to determine it e.g. whether she has listened to a piece before, whether she likes the piece per say or whether Chiaki calls or not.
• LOL at Takahashi telling Chiaki to just take it off already. Actually I’m a little surprised that, so far, he’s only other openly gay chara in this series.

That’s why mobile phones should be on manner mode!

Ep 21:

• Nodame remains an enigma to me; the grave of the fireflies reference is funny but I don’t get what she’s doing or how that helps her pull off her performances.
• Oh, the Scarlett O’Hara outfit was just awful but somehow sooo fitting.
• Was absolutely chuffed how Nodame’s greatest strength actually turned out to be her greatest obstacle at the very last hurdle of the competition.

Some things (-3-) don’t change

• It was pretty much touch and go, but I’m glad Nodame didn’t win; it was clearly a bridge too far.
• I’m also glad that Nodame didn’t agree to Chiaki’s offer to come with him to Europe; that would have been just too far for Nodame’s independent streak. After struggling so hard for a third party to recognize her abilities so that Chiaki will be forced to recognize her abilities, that last thing she’d want is his pity as consolation prize. What a gal!
• Oh man, Kiyora is so hawt. I really want to hear the full track for Sarasate’s Carmen Fantasy on the OST.

©2012 hontou ni sou omou?. All Rights Reserved.