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Nodame Cantabile Paris 04

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.

Related posts:

1. Nodame Cantabile Paris 01
2. Nodame Cantabile Paris 10
3. Nodame Cantabile Paris 03