Nodame Cantabile: The Classical Music Journey of Love

I was wondering which J-drama I should tackle next, and only one came to mind- Nodame Cantabile.   

I LOVE THIS DRAMA!!! When I say LOVE, I mean LOOOOVVVEEEE IT.  It is perhaps the best drama that I have watched, and that is saying a lot considering all the dramas I have watched.  Let’s just call it the best J-drama, I have watched.  

This drama focuses on the world of classical music, but not in the mundane and somewhat restricted way that one would expect.  I know that some people think that the classical music world, is filled with elitist snobs who think themselves better than others.  Even though that is not the case, it is understandable why that perception exists due to the way some classical music aficionados behave.  Nodame Cantabile strips away all of those boundaries and transforms the seemingly stuffy world of classical music to one that is open and humorous.  It takes you  into the musical world of comedy, laughs and entertainment from 0 to 60 seconds.  It's wonderful.

Our drama begins with the introduction of our protagonist Chiaki Shinichi (Tamaki Hiroshi).  He's a final year student at a musical academy in Japan.  He excels as a pianist and violinist, gaining him the admiration of the rest of the students in the school.  He has a stunning reputation, but is very aloof.  Yet, despite his great skills and enormous talent, he doesn’t seem to care much about what he is doing.  He just goes through the motions of in his piano playing and it seems to hold no joy.   

This, of course, earns him the ire of his music instructor, Eto-sensei (Toyohara Kosuke) nicknamed paper fan, because he likes to hit his students with a paper fan. Apropos, no?  Eto-sensei gets fed up with Chiaki and dismisses him as his student.

Chiaki then finds himself under the tutelage of Tanioka-sensei (Nishimura Masahiko).  He is known to have the least developed students in the school, basically the ones with no real hope of excelling musically in the future, so this is quite a blow to Chiaki’s pride.  However, things take an interesting turn, when Chiaki meets one of Tanioka-sensei’s student’s, Noda Megumi (Ueno Juri), who has nicknamed herself Nodame. 

Nodame is a bubbly, carefree, anime obsessed young woman, who's dream in to become a piano teacher to children.  Just like everyone else in the school, she is awe struck by Chiaki and can't help but get stars in her eyes (quite literally I might add) when she meets him.  The two are assigned to play a musical piece together “Mozart's Sonata in D major for two Pianos,” since Tanioka-sensei believes Chiaki can help Nodame improve her skills.  But alas they cannot find the harmony as Nodame has a very unique style of playing, she doesn’t look at musical scores, but rather plays by ear and according to how she feels.  In short, this means she is a musical genius, but is more interested in having fun, and playing music her way, rather than how it was written.  The two make an interesting pair.

From there, the fun exchanges and interactions between Nodame and Chiaki begin, including Chiaki repeatedly cleaning Nodame's room.  HA HA!  He helps her on her journey of becoming a more focused and dedicated pianist, while she helps him to rediscover his dream of being a conductor.  They are definitely an odd pair, but suit each other very well.  As their relationship grows and develops, many hilarious and plain old stupid situations occur, which just leave you shaking your head, yet you cannot turn away because it's such a wonderful tale that you just don't want to stop watching. 

 

Though Nodame and Chiaki’s relationship takes centre stage, there are several other characters that are endearing.  The character Franz Strezemann (Takenaka Naoto) who eventually becomes Chiaki’s mentor is one of the silliest and most amusing characters in the drama.  He is not the typical instructor one would expect and I love his unique brand of quirky.  Also, all of the members of the “S Oke” followed by the “Rising Star Oke” are intriguing and humorous as well.    

Based on the Japanese Manga of the same name, Nodame Cantabile incorporates some elements of the live-action genre.  Although most of the time I find live-action adaptation plain annoying and foolish, this actually works for Nodame Cantabile.  Since this drama begins and ends in the world of silly, live-action elements only enhance the silliness of the drama.  It all fits right in.  Nodame Cantabile orginially aired in 2006, then it was followed by two television specials in 2008, with the entire tale culminating in a two part movie in 2009 and 2010, which allowed for the entire tale of the Nodame and Chiaki's journey to be covered in great detail.  Furthermore, the fact that the drama was able to continue with more extensions of the tale over a five year period, demonstrates the caliber of the production and the fanbase that it has.  

It is an amusing journey to take, and funny to watch Chiaki become so attached to Nodame without ever realising that he is falling for her.  Nodame on the other hand is so blatant about her feelings, casually stating in day to day conversation comments such as "I Love You" as if it's the most natural thing in the world.  She even reaches the point of calling herself Chiaki’s wife.  In the regular world we would call her a stalker, in Nodameverse, it’s adorable and typical Nodame.   

The storyline is not the only thing appealing about Nodame Cantabile.  The classical music pieces throughout this drama were AMAZING!!!  I enjoyed all of the pieces especially the first piece they played together “Mozart's Sonata in D major for twoPianos”  and then another piano piece together “Rachmaninoff's Piano Concerto No. 2”.  Hey, I even enjoyed the non-Classical selections such as Nodame's Fart Exercise.  Leave it to Nodame to create something like that.  LOL!!! The musical tone added multiple layers to the drama and set it sailing to phenomenal heights.

So Nodame Cantabile gets a whopping 5 out of 5 on the Bel Scale.

According to Bel:  Let the music guide you.