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!

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.

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.