The following post first appeared on my old blog: Chibi no Nothing

I had been planning to watch Toki wo Kakeru Shoujo (The Girl Who Leapt Through Time) for a couple of weeks. To be honest it was the name of the movie alone that drew me to it. I watched the first few minutes of it a week ago, but I was caught up in some other activity that I do not recall, which made me put off watching the show for a while. I finally got around to sitting down for roughly ninety minutes in order to watch the movie.

I don’t watch many feature length anime. This has to do with both availability and time. It is a lot easier to sit for twenty or thirty minutes indulging in a little procrastination while not feeling too bad for the experience than it is to sit for ninety.

For that matter, there is only one reason that I actually managed to watch the entire show. I have plenty of things that I should be doing, given that school is about to start again soon. However, the movie starts out showing the main character Makoto who is plainly a fun character in general.

I’m not too concerned with the technical merits of the voice acting. I’m not speaking for the character design either, which seem to be rather ordinary. The animation quality was impressive. That did not sway my opinion very much as I have come to expect better quality in feature length anime. I simply liked this character. She was fun straight forward and easy to grasp. Those are not necessarily adjectives that I would generally give as positive attributes. In the context of the story it was exactly what was needed. She gains an incredible power that allows her to leap through time, and she uses it to achieve relatively mundane tasks.

Watching her realize that she had the power to fly back in time then seeing what she did with it was done perfectly as far as animation and story telling go. We could see her mind working as she comprehended the situation. We could also see how she totally missed the incredible depth and vast potential she had at her disposal.

What I liked the most was exactly that she did not use her time leaping ability to save the world or change the destiny of all man kind. Her outlook was entirely superficial at first. At its peak it only extended to her friends at school. She was in ever sense of the word a “kid” about the whole thing.

The movie had its less light moments. They worked in a little drama and romance toward the end of the movie. The message, “time waits for no one” seemed to be appropriate. Throughout the movie Makoto tried to change aspects of event to get a desired goal. There just was no way for her to create the perfect history. It would seem fate was the real message.

I would have really liked to take this post on some type of emotional diatribe about how time can both heal and cause great distress. It just doesn’t jive with the movie. I simply wasn’t too moved by it. Please do not misunderstand me on that last comment I thoroughly enjoyed watching it.

My one thought while watching Toki wo Kakeru Shoujo wasn’t about time travel or changing fate. I couldn’t seem to shake the thought that I would really like to see a show based on Makoto just being Makoto all day and nothing more.

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About the person in the lab room: I think it was Makoto who was in the lab and pushed herself.

Also, I’m trying out bloggers new polling widget. Please vote, if it isn’t too much trouble. It’s on the right side near the top.

It’s always a little difficult to do a final thoughts post on a series I liked. I probably should say something mushy here like, “It’s like saying goodbye to an old friend.” In reality the feeling is much more along the lines of, “What now?” I don’t usually wrap my thoughts up when I finish a show. It’s more like a progression into the next thing. It possibly has to do with my personality, or maybe it does not. What was the last show I did this for? I think it Gankutsuou or was it Honey & Clover. I’m not sure.

Nodame didn’t cause much fuss in the blogging community, as far as I could tell. Others liked it, but not many placed it in the highest regards when posting about it. There were not many complaints, but there was not much adulation either.

In my opinion, that reception was rightly deserved. The show could have been better. I don’t think many would disagree that Noda’s character could have been deeper. She was a simple character, no doubt. At times she was literally compared to an animal. However, given that she received that treatment in the story, what was her real role? Noda’s story doesn’t come out until the very end of the series. It is in the final few episodes that we are told what exactly happened to her.

The story revolves around them both, but for the most part it is Chiaki’s story. It’s he whose character is developed throughout the story. We spend a great deal of time with Chiaki. We know what drives Chiaki. We know what Chiaki fears. We also can see his developing feelings for Nodame. Still, what was Noda’s role in the story other than to offer comedy?

Despite being the main character of the story it is very hard to empathize with Chiaki. There just isn’t anything there to connect with. Who else can we “know” in the story? Where is the character that resonates with us? It can’t be Mine? What about Stresemann? No, they will not do for us. We need something to latch onto. We need something distant but also familiar.

There just isn’t a character in the story for that. We have to accept that the story isn’t what we wanted. It isn’t the story of two people coming together and the journey they take. Nodame Cantabile is simply about overcoming obstacles in a literal sense. Noda isn’t a classical love interest.

She isn’t Julieto to Chiaki’s Romeo.

She isn’t Hagu to Chiaki’s Yuta.

Still, Noda is the character that I liked. She was simple. There wasn’t any pretense with her. She was the character that I identified with. What we see from examination is that she wasn’t necessary to the main story. She made the ending romantic, but was a background harmony the rest of the time. Though the show was much more pleasant because of her.

Yet, the argument can be made that one note cannot move people. A single rhythm does not make a song. The soundings of a single instrument’s progressions, while beautiful, will eventually become monotonous without others to accompany it.

In an almost insulting way it could be construed that she was put in the story because we are just too ignorant and untalented to enjoy a show just about Chiaki. His intelligence was too deep; his talents were too vast. Nodame brought Chiaki down to earth. He became accessible. He wasn’t the magnificent conductor when he was with Noda. He was the child scared of flying. Nodame made Chiaki normal, just for our sake.

All things considered, I would have preferred a simple love story. Damn it.

The following post first appeared on my old blog: Chibi no Nothing

This is where I usually say something like, “I didn’t think this show was that good but I changed my mind.” However, Nodame has at least consistently pleased me with an interesting cast and story. It really is a good show. I noted in previous posts that I wasn’t sure what to make of it. Nodame has been a rather peculiar experience given its relation to another, arguably better, show.

“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.”
- me in Nodame Cantabile – I was the last chair coronet in sixth grade

[ yeah, I just quoted myself =P ]

The “music as a metaphor” thing is really laid on thick. Virtually every concert that Chiaki conducts freezes the audience as if they become instantly aware of the grandness they are witnessing. We see the same thing when Nodame plays.

Analytically speaking, music has a lot to do with the physical nature of the human ear. Our ear drum can only vibrate at a certain range of frequencies. Sound waves propagating through the air both attenuate and interact with each other. By the time they reach us the resulting sound may be a jumble of noise. On top of that, not all people can hear all things, and it is very common to lose some ability to hear as one grows older, I’ve written about this type of thing before. It has always been the job of the composer to understand these things, but the conductor has a different role in my opinion. After all, the conductor works less with the music and more with the musicians.

One of the aspects of NC that has been evident to me from the very beginning is how they utilize Chiaki. It would be hard to say that Chiaki’s gift was his talent for music, because it is evident that he had worked extremely hard to gain that “talent.” However, through that work he had gained the respect of his peers. This seemed to come effortlessly to him. To some extent he doesn’t seem to be aware how much those around him have respect for him. More than that, he does not seem too concerned with it, or maybe he’s simply oblivious.

The people around him want to experience Chiaki the way they experience their music.

Oddly, Nodame is not like this at all. She sees Chiaki’s success as a burden. It is something that will eventually take him away from her. Yet, she eventually urges him forward. I think she probably could have done it without hypnosis, but that wouldn’t have been as fun. It’s hard to make out what is going on with her. It would seem that she has a simple school girl crush on Chiaki, but we see an relatively pure intent to be with him and also help him pursue his goals. Slowly, she is wearing him down as she removes many of the social walls he had erected.

I find myself more interested in these two with every episode, Chiaki and Nodame. That isn’t odd in the least as these two are the main characters. They are both flawed characters. Nodame is completely naïve. Possibly it is that ignorance that drives her determination to make it to whatever goal it is she has set her mind upon. Chiaki in some ways is as unaware and naïve as Nodame. He isn’t that way in a worldly sense. It is his ignorance of himself that meets and matches Nodame. In a sense they are very much alike; yet, it would be very easy to list their opposing traits.

The following post first appeared on my old blog: Chibi no Nothing

Everyone gets dragged along to Nagi’s grandfathers estate for no apparent reason other than to continue the randomness of the show.

Hayate learns that he is even more worthless than we had thought. Maria gives a little bare shoulder fan service. Nagi yells. Nagi blushes. Nagi yells some more. Hayate shows that he is filled with determination to protect Nagi from her aggressors. Nagi blushes.

This is all pretty much SOP for this show, but there is one scene that made this episode particularly good. Basically, Nagi will inherit her grandfathers estate. However, her grandfather has set a condition on which anyone who makes Nagi cry and apologize will get everything.

Why? Who knows, it’s just some more randomness.

Methinks I enjoy this too much.

Such a divergent contrast…