There is a reason that this episode let the Piano concerto No. 2 play for eight minutes.

For the most part I have enjoyed Nodame Cantabile very much. It hasn’t had the emotional impact that I had hoped for, but it has been one of the shows that I most look forward to watching. I’m not quite sure why I look forward to watching the show. Although, I have a good idea about it.

I don’t feel any deep attachment to the characters. The story doesn’t really move me all that much. Some may say that it is too much to ask so soon in the series. However, after eleven episodes that shouldn’t be the case. I suppose that the real problem may be with the way I’m watching the show.

I shall explain.

In my last post on NC, I remarked that after a few episodes we hadn’t learned much about the characters. We didn’t know about their past and only a bit about their motivations. Currently, it isn’t that we don’t know anything. The problem is that the story doesn’t make the characterization blatantly obvious. The characters are fairly simple, and the show only gives up a little bit about them at any single instance. Subtlety is actually something that I prize in a good story, and I totally missed what was going on with NC.

Like the Piano Concerto No. 2, Nodame Cantabile has a melodious slow progression at first and slowly builds, drops, and then builds some more. If this concerto has three parts we would probably be somewhere in the middle of the second, possibly leaning towards the end. Of course, I base that mostly on episode count.

Music plays a central role in the story. One cannot say that the show is about the technicalities of music creation. The show is focused on the effects of the music on people. More than that, the story seeks to show that making music is a metaphor for living. It has a rhythm about it.

“Let’s make beautiful music together…”, or at least that’s what it’s trying to do.

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Episode 11

We all know this is going to be a love story. It better be a goddamn love story!