NODAME CANTABILE

DESCRIPTION

CAST

CHAPTERS

ANIME ComedyNodame Cantabile
ANIME ComedyNodame Cantabile: Paris-hen
OVA AdventurePuriGorota: Uchuu no Yuujou Daibouken
MANGA MusicNodaCan BS
ANIME ComedyNodame Cantabile Finale

REVIEWS

• 

  infinitely

  83/100
  Nodame Cantabile is a sweet lesson on life, love, and music with some of the most loveable characters on the scene

  Nodame Cantabile

  Series experience:
 I saw the anime (all three seasons) stuff a few years back

  Short review: Nodame Cantabile is an adorable slice of life/drama series with a heartwarming romance. Having an ensemble of characters you want to root for, you learn about music and life, and it’s fun all the way. It’s doesn’t hurt that it’s one of the funniest manga as well.

  Full review:

  Warning: review contains spoilers

  When I saw the anime way back when, I immediately fell in love with it. It has a really simple premise, and it moves along kind of slowly, but the characters’ development is quite captivating. The manga moves along the same way, through Nodame and Chiaki’s university years, then all the way to when they move to Paris. Our leads push each other in a really unique way and bring out the best in each other, and that’s what moves the plot along. It’s fun to watch Nodame, Chiaki, and even their friends develop because of each other - not only in music, but also with interpersonal relationships. With a relaxed, ambling-along-the-path plot, all the orchestras and competitions and concerts make you proud with each step that the characters, main and supporting alike, take.

  Speaking of the characters, Nodame and Chiaki may be the focus of the manga, but you’ll find yourself loving their classmates and fellow orchestra members, as well as their eventual housemates. In the style of many a jousei manga, relationships happen so naturally - there’s no unnecessary angst or drama. They may be slow at getting there, but when they reach their potential, it’s worth it. We see different personalities when it comes to dealing with relationships and music and more importantly, growth.

  As for the art, Tomoko Ninomiya boasts a really distinct art style - you’d recognize that they’re her drawings easily. However, there have been critics who have mentioned that some of the side characters are hard to tell apart, which could be an issue for shoujo/jousei authors since characters are more realistic in terms of hair styles/colors. That being said, though, the art is still done well enough to convey the music and the emotions of the characters. This isn’t exactly easy because music is an aural experience, but Tomoko Ninomiya manages to express that through her art.

  Overall, it’s difficult for one to word exactly why Nodame Cantabile is a must-have experience. It’s not a heavy, exciting, action plot, but it’s still a wonderful story about love, friendship, and overcoming obstacles to achieve success. Given that the series is about music and the anime practically follows the entire manga, I’d suggest the anime over the manga.

  Plot 7.5/10

  Art 7.5/10

  Characters 10/10


  Overall personal enjoyment 9/10

  Top 3 fave characters

  Chiaki - the resident handsome genius, but with the oddest flaws. everything that happens around him is laughable but he manages to perform so amazingly I love him
  Nodame - what an adorable main character! for a few days after I read this I wanted to react to things with Bokya!!! / Gyabon!! or some other expressions she had. her own determination inspired me to practice my own piano playing again and I love her dynamic with everyone and how she changed all the characters a bit somehow
  Yasunori Kuroki - our gloomy oboist is so cute :< one of the most talented members who is part of the Japan cast and the Paris cast as well, we get to see him grow out of his unrequited love and shy personality into a confident performer with a successful relationship

  Others: Miki Kiyora, Tanya Vishneva, Mine Ryuutarou, Paul Dubois (for da lols)

  

  Thank you for reading!

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• 

  GGShang

  75/100
  A very enjoyable, yet ultimately unfulfilling story

  Before I get into the meat of this review, I want to just say that I did really enjoy my time reading this manga (or at least the first 80%). It was lighthearted and fun, the comedy was enjoyable (mostly slapstick-esque) and characters were overall endearing. So if you just want to read a casual manga and not worry too much about the finer details, then Nodame Cantabile is a great read. However, there are just a few too many problems that come up near the end that I want to address, which is the purpose for this review. So let's get into them.

  This review does contain minor spoilers

  To give the briefest overview, Nodame Cantabile is a mainly character oriented story focusing on Chiaki and Nodame, their relationship and their ultimate goal of becoming better conductors and musicians respectively. And this is where I found my first issue with the manga. It's not that the setup is bad or that these goals are plain and overdone. It's more of a problem with the fact that the character motivations for the two leads seems to jump all over the place, especially for Chiaki. I found myself having to sit down and think hard about what it is that Chiaki really wants at every point in the story. Does he want to become a famous conductor and study under his role model? Does he want to be able to stand up on his own merit and not live under his dad's shadow? Does he want to get better so he can conduct a performance with Nodame? The answer to all these questions is yes, but the story seems to move between the three haphazardly as the plot requires. While it's not strange for a person to have multiple goals in mind, it does get confusing to juggle them all within the setup of a story. Nodame is much more straightforward in this respect, but the thing that bothers me is that the resolution of her goals is never fully put to rest. Her whole character arc is trying to decide between what she wants to do vs what other people want her to do, and while she does make a choice in the end, it feels more as if the author made the other side of the conflict disappear rather than resolve it. By the end of the manga I found myself wondering if these characters actually fulfilled their character arcs or not, which is never a good sign.

  Staying along with the two main characters (and even a lot of the side characters), the second thing that I found lacking in the story was the practical absence of tension. Our two leads in this story are basically infallible in their endeavors. Nothing ever goes wrong in what they pursue and they achieve everything they set out for. Now, this isn't necessarily bad depending on what you're going for, but it makes the story far less compelling to me. When characters you root for fail, it leaves you wanting to seem them rise up to the challenge again and overcome it. But when a character never fails, there is no draw to future conflicts the character might have, since they are probably going to overcome it with no problems again. This is not to say that the characters don't try hard for what they want since they obviously do, but once again, a little failure here and there can really make a plot/character arc more compelling. Another reason why there is an overall lack of tension throughout the whole of the story is because issues are solved at blazing fast speeds. Every side character that is introduced that has some sort of minor character arc has it completed within two or three chapters. In a lot of ways it makes me wonder why introduce those characters and give them arcs if you're not going to spend time to make me want to care about them. Even some major plot points that should have lasting effects on characters get solved quickly. Of course all of this is very much subjective, but I would prefer to have a slightly more dramatic story overall seeing as though all the pieces are already here rather than have the surface level, easily resolved tension present.

  And with that, the last major issue I have is that there are a few major plot lines that end up feeling extremely unfulfilling. The biggest one by far is the plot line regarding Chiaki's father. Now, I don't want to spoil too much of it, but let's just say that they don't have the best relationship. And throughout the story there are big signs showing the effects of Chiaki's father on him and his relationships: Chiaki begins to act like his father at times and he can see others exhibiting the traits that he hates so much from his father. And following the logic set up by the story you would expect that his father plays a large role in the ending few arcs... but nothing ever comes of it. Once again, a lot of it is just left unresolved and unaddressed. And it's a real shame because that felt like one of the three major conflicts within Chiaki's whole character arc.

  So if there was one word to describe my feelings towards Nodame Cantabile it would be 'disappointing'. Not because the story was bad, but because the story never reaches its full potential. Now, you could argue that the story is exactly what it wants to be, and I would normally agree had the story not set itself up perfectly to tell even more. Things happen too quickly for tension to build, plot points are brought up and never resolved and the characters are just a little too perfect yet unfocused to be fully satisfying.

  So then, is Nodame Cantabile a good manga? Yes, and no, depending on what you like and look for. But hey, isn't that the case with everything? So if you're looking for a fun time, then go check it out, but if you want to read something with a story story, then maybe search somewhere else.

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