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Nodame Cantabile Paris 02

Summary:

Shinichi enters the harsh and challenging Platini conducting competition and Nodame happens to be in the same town with Frank for an anime festival. He meets fellow competitors Katahira Hajime and Jean Donnadieu; the latter is proclaimed by harpy girlfriend Yuuko to be Vieira's most promising student. Shinichi does well for the first preliminary round with Hadyn's London symphony and scores perfectly catching mistakes in the second preliminaries.

But, in the third preliminaries, Shinichi's efforts to outdo Jean on the same piece causes him to over-reach and lose control of the sound. Nodame manages to drag him to see the performances on the second day of the third prelims. Her delight at Hajime's jumping conducting spurs him to want to let her enjoy his music as much as well as teaching him that he needs to enjoy the music from his heart. He manages to make it to the finals and asks Nodame to draw the lot, she picks a Tchaikovsky piece that he's loved as a child and Shinichi wins first place; Jean asks Shinichi to inform Vieira, who still remembers him, and acknowledges Shinichi as his senior. Meanwhile Elise is up to no good with Operation Desert Prometheus.

Reaction:

This episode covered a lot of ground (Ch 56-60) at a crackin' pace but did not feel rushed at all. I liked how Roland imagined the black feathers and white roses of Shinichi and Jean respectively; it really spoke volumes about their respective strengths but also their weaknesses - a true maestro should really be able to make magic regardless of the type of piece. It was also nice to see Shinichi feel intimidated by Jean's conducting of the Merry Pranks, made him less arrogant and more human - also nicely setting up how the Wilford French horn lead (later) recognized Shinichi's integrity.

The episode was also a great showcase of how Nodame is very good for Shinchi, eventually pulling him out of his funk after the third prelims (her first try was a bit of a disaster though), reminding him what the whole business is about as well as having the luck of the draw for the final piece. I had assumed that they had become a couple at the end of the first season but it seems that they have some way to go. However I don't think it's fair to characterise their current status as a total reset; he listens to her more, indulges her whims a bit more and also has started to see in erotic terms: D. Well, sometimes anyway.

Related posts:

1. Nodame Cantabile Paris 03
2. Nodame Cantabile Paris 04
3. Nodame Cantabile Paris 06