Nodame Cantabile

[zoot]

Originally Posted by humbug23

I didn't know why at first, since I found out that it was staying exactly true to the manga with those panning still scenes.

I think most scenes in manga are still. :)

The music was good, but it was their performing of it that made it interesting to me--I liked the piano duet near the beginning, but most of the orchestral stuff was boring.

I was wondering if they were going to add Nodame to the orchestra at some point, since they made a point to say "there's no piano in an orchestra" (... "now there is!") and the OP shows a piano in front of the orchestra. It would have brought her back into the show. Unfortunately, it didn't happen ...

Originally Posted by mdauben

While it's true that Chiaki was hadly as "unique" as Nodame, I personally found his gradual development and change under the influence of Nodame to be quite interesting to watch. His spontaious cleaning of Nodame and her appartment, fo example, cracked me up, and in general he was a necessary "straight man" for much of Nodame's humor. It was his reactions to her that really drove the humor home. They were a pair that worked together to make the anime as funny as it was.

That bit was at the very beginning. There was just nothing like that later on.

It's a pretty common problem: if a writer can only think up three or four funny scenes, he'll put two or three of them in the very beginning to grab people's attention ... and then have nothing left for the rest. There were some funny bits later on, but nothing like the beginning.

[SeijiSensei]

Personally, I liked how the show became more serious as it progressed. I was much more interested to see how Chiaki's conducting ventures and Noda's efforts to become a serious pianist would pan out. Frankly I didn't like a lot of the humor in the early going because it relied too much on slapstick. I see NC as more of a drama about personal growth than either a comedy or a romance despite the usual efforts to put shows in genre boxes.

I've also written in this thread about how impressive I thought many of the performance animations were. I'd agree that the overall look of the show wasn't particularly artistic or innovative, but the story carried me along. There were few shows this year that I anticipated watching as much as Nodame Cantabile.

[Tiamat's Disciple]

The anime followed the manga wregarding the changes in the two main characters. Both Chiaki and Nodame go through some really radical changes. I mean nodame hates the piano really, yet in the end goes to paris to learn it.

Chiaki is a closed book terrified of flying, but by the end he's more open, relaxed and also goes off to paris.

The series was handled great, with the exception of the last episode >.<

Nodame isn't a typical comedy anime, it tends more towards the slice of life/romance/drama, with comedy elements added where they're needed. This would of been the best series of 2007 if they hadn't ruined the last episode

[Westlo]

To you what was so bad about the last episode? Didn't follow the manga closely enough or just bad period?

[Tiamat's Disciple]

it shouldnt of been the last ending, as i said earlier in the thread the events with chiaki, nodame and nodame's family are important because they help show how nodame got the personality she has. Plus they're some of the funniest of the manga so far. Especially chiaki's family deciding where he's going, and nodame's mum going after chiaki with a tape measuer.

They mangarised this and put it as still shots at the end, but for me that ruined the episode. They should of made made another episode to cover those events, if only cause they're bloody funny, and would of given the series a better end.

The show was great, don't get me wrong, i loved it. But those last few minutes ruined it for me, and knocked it down in my ratings a bit. Still worth watching though, fave scene has to chiaki force feeding nodame >.<

[Blaat]

Originally Posted by Taliesin

Adding the family scene, although funny would have made the ending highly anti-climatic therefore ruined the ending completely.

Lets face it the point was whether or not Nodame and Chiaki would end up together and from an anime perspective its yes. So the anime ended on that emotional getting together part*. Adding the family scene, although funny would have made the ending highly anti-climatic therefore ruined it completely.

Which might have been the reason why we have 23 episodes instead of 24 or 26.

*And yes I'm aware they weren't really together until deep in the Paris arc, but the anime viewer doesn't know that.

[mdauben]

Originally Posted by zoot

That bit was at the very beginning. There was just nothing like that later on.

Well, I disagree. That was the firs thing that popped into my mind, but I though that there were a lot of funny Chiaki/Nodame moments (and some funny moments with just Chiaki, too) throught the whole series, but in the end I suppose that was very subjective. I liked the anime all the way through, you didn't.

[Tiamat's Disciple]

Originally Posted by Blaat

Lets face it the point was whether or not Nodame and Chiaki would end up together and from an anime perspective its yes. So the anime ended on that emotional getting together part*. Adding the family scene, although funny would have made the ending highly anti-climatic therefore ruined it completely.

Which might have been the reason why we have 23 episodes instead of 24 or 26.

*And yes I'm aware they weren't really together until deep in the Paris arc, but the anime viewer doesn't know that.

The fact they mangarised those parts and added them to the end of the episode would already have been anti climatic, however i dont think it would of been. It would of been a good way of ending the series, and a better opening for a possible second season/ova.

Just a thought aswell, nothing in the last epiusode really points to them getting together IMO. Though that could just be because ive read the manga, so it's influencing me. But i got the impression that they were still at the almost a couple stage. If you watch the magarised ending it's in there aswell.

[Teletha]

Originally Posted by Taliesin

The fact they mangarised those parts and added them to the end of the episode would already have been anti climatic, however i dont think it would of been. It would of been a good way of ending the series, and a better opening for a possible second season/ova.

Just a thought aswell, nothing in the last epiusode really points to them getting together IMO. Though that could just be because ive read the manga, so it's influencing me. But i got the impression that they were still at the almost a couple stage. If you watch the magarised ending it's in there aswell.

See, I think the ended it fine. The scene with Nodame's dad and Chiaki was more important. The scenes were still there anyway. I don't think the fact why Nodame is weird is that relevant. The live action put them in, but then they also took out everything about Chiaki's family which I thought was worse.

Originally Posted by mdauben

Despite the name of the series, I always thought Chiaki was the main character.

I agree that Chiaki is more the main character then Nodame. I really like her, but I think too much of her just being weird with nobody to react to her being weird wouldn't be funny. The best part of the story is how Nodame and Chiaki interact with each other. That is where the humor lies, not with Nodame doing strange stuff. Though obviously she does do stuff that is funny.

Originally Posted by zoot

I was wondering if they were going to add Nodame to the orchestra at some point, since they made a point to say "there's no piano in an orchestra" (... "now there is!") and the OP shows a piano in front of the orchestra. It would have brought her back into the show. Unfortunately, it didn't happen ...

even in the manga now they aren't on even footing. She is still constantly trying to catch up to him. I think expecting her to show up and be in an orchestra with him so soon would just be poor writing. Nodame is very talented, but she obviously doesn't have what it takes to play in an orchestra yet. That's the point of her going to Paris. To learn. She's not there yet. That is a scene that needs to be into the future, when both are equals in music. It also is hugely relevant to their relationship and storyline, that they want to eventually play together.

[Blaat]

Originally Posted by Taliesin

The fact they mangarised those parts and added them to the end of the episode would already have been anti climatic, however i dont think it would of been. It would of been a good way of ending the series, and a better opening for a possible second season/ova.

The credits were rolling during that, so the show was already at a closure however having a 24th episode featuring his family and then boarding the plane going to Paris, now that would have definitely be anti-climatic

Originally Posted by Taliesin

Just a thought aswell, nothing in the last epiusode really points to them getting together IMO. Though that could just be because ive read the manga, so it's influencing me. But i got the impression that they were still at the almost a couple stage. If you watch the magarised ending it's in there aswell.

Well I haven't read the manga when I saw the ending and I thought they ended up together. I was actually surprised during the Paris arc when Nodame was still denying his feelings.

I really think the ending is great, because its good closure to the series if they never decide to animate the Paris arc yet at the same time they can easily continue with the series. If you compare that with most manga based anime series that end prematurely, and there's plenty of them, most of those shows have a really crappy ending IMO.

[Westlo]

As a non manga reader I thought the anime ending was fine, as for the left out scenes of Nodame's family it's not like they couldn't animate those scenes at the start of a second season anyway right?

I'll be very happy if a Nodame Cantabile sequel is announced, would be awesome if it replaces Library War (starting April) in the Noitamina block sometime next year

[zoot]

Originally Posted by mdauben

I liked the anime all the way through, you didn't.

FYI, I didn't hate it--it just felt very generic (5/10), compared to the first couple episodes (~8/10). It's the fall that makes the rest disappointing--it's hard to be disappointed when a show starts out that way to begin with.

[janfive]

wow...the last dozen posts has made this into a poll of rating the ending of NC anime

The ending was fine. I don't understand all the whining about not animating the few stills projected at the closing credits would mean anything at all. I think it was great, clogging up the ending with it would make that episode uneven in its presentation of "closure" as one post pointed out. Cutting the other scenes (the father-"boyfriend" talk, the piano piece) to give space for the scenes pictured in the stills (which is funny but not relevant enough to merit additional 5 min.) would even do more harm than good since all it does is giving an epilogue not worthy of an additional episode, smart move in showing it at the closing credits in the end instead. By doing it that it also presents itself as a preview of the inevitable second season (since I heard the series did well in the tv ratings in Japan). I hope that the second season would be as fine and as faithful to the manga original and done by the same animators.

[Imion]

So I'm not gonna read any of the posts before because I know the series is finished and I'd be spoilered to death if I did. Yes, yes I didn't see all of it yet, only ~half and yet I ... I just need to express my feelings and thoughts on this anime because, honestly, it is amongst those which did impress and move me the most.

So there I was a few days ago, it has been a busy year and I had missed 3 1/2 seasons of new anime, of new series that might grab my attention and drag me down to chain me to my computer screen and watch. I've made my selection among those many, many series and in fact the first one I downloaded was Nodame Cantabile. Call it a hunch, call it luck, call it good sense for quality (just to point that out, my knowledge about producers/artists/etc is pretty outdated at best.. so I wouldn't be able to tell from producer names it's good), call it whatever you like, it doesn't really matter. Your see, my taste in anime strongly varies, I *do* like the pure entertainment type, full of action, humor, maybe ecchii, may it be stuff like Mai Hime/Otome or such, I love somewhat "mysterious" niche stuff like Madlax and I don't even mind watching stuff like Bleach.
As time went by though that what is called slice of life grew on me and I enjoyed series like Honey & Clover or Assatte no Houkou very much, just to give two examples.

But Nodame.. you see, I have to admit that I went into watching it with certain hopes, just nothing specific. Basically hoping for something not-so-squishy but fun.
What I got was way, way beyond that. Episode by episode it fascinated me more and more, with every piece of fantastic music they performed, with every song on the piano, violin or by the orchestra the story blended more and more, deeper and deeper into it. Story, characters and music, they already became one for me, one single piece, impossible to take apart. The sheer passion of the characters, passion strong enough to burn its way through the screen right into the minds of viewers, passion for music intense enough to convince, no, to overwhelm everyone. Nodame as a whole carries so much emotions through its music and, obviously by this also through its characters it makes me want to play the piano myself, play the violin, damn it, any instrument, just to lose myself in the music like that, feel what they feel, play what they play. This of course is just a dream, considering that I'm pretty much tone deaf when it comes to playing instruments, but a nice one and I believe nothing never been appealed to it like that before, honestly. To bring this down to more seizable terms, Nodame Cantabile is simply a masterpiece. It brings together music and a silent, yet appealing storyline to accompy it, with realistic characters, acting in a realistic environment, full of passion and energy.
Setting aside a few moments of slapstick it is consistent in this and doesn't even try to collect a few extra viewers along the way by any measures. It's just there as it is, not trying to convince you of anything. Watch it or leave it, that's how it is. And I say watch it, for heavens sake, watch it!

[Soshen]

Kanjisub release special episode of nodame cantabile
Nodame and Chiaki summer tales.
Have fun with it

[Westlo]

Thanks for that I enjoyed watching it.

[TinyRedLeaf]

Thanks for subbing the special episode. An interesting side-story with the characteristic humour that hooked me to the series in the first place.

Why did they create this episode? Is it meant to be a DVD-special?

[SeijiSensei]

I think so. I asked about this in an earlier posting in this thread. There appears to be another special as well.

[Troilism]

awesome, so it looks to be a beach special from those screenies...Gonna enjoy watching it considering how charming the whole series has been...Just a question, does the manga continue off from where the anime left off?

[SuperKnuckles]

Originally Posted by Troilism

awesome, so it looks to be a beach special from those screenies...Gonna enjoy watching it considering how charming the whole series has been...Just a question, does the manga continue off from where the anime left off?

Yeah, I hear the manga goes into the future. So if there's enough material, there might be a sequel. I'm not holding my breath for that to happen in a year or two.


As for the special, that was just hilarious. It's probably the funniest Nodame episode I can remember. The show could have worked better if it was a full comedy, dammit!