Nodame Cantabile

Nodame Cantabile #01 Japanese manga cover

I've already finished my final college exams in this semester (whew!). By the way, what I'm currently reading since around three weeks ago is Nodame Cantabile. Nodame Cantabile is a manga created by Tomoko Ninomiya. It was first appeared in the magazine Kiss from 2001 and currently ongoing. The manga tells about two aspiring musicians who went both into same music university.

Shinichi Chiaki, born into a musical clan is a well-organized, popular and a top student at Momogaoka College Music. He learns how to play music using piano or violin and he can be a good cook too. He dreams is to go to Europe and be a conductor ever since he was young and met Sebastiano Viera in Europe. Unfortunately, Chiaki is stuck to Japan because of his childhood trauma. On the other hand, Megumi Noda or known as Nodame is the opposite of Chiaki. She is an eccentric and a-not-so-ordinary girl who is a slob, has a messy room, and disorganized. But Nodame is a pianist and rather play in ear (or in other words, she plays music based on what kind of music she hears or inventing her own composition depending on her mood.). She doesn't have a goal at first until she met Chiaki in the apartment. Later on, Nodame always follow Chiaki then claiming him as her husband.

It all started out when Chiaki is pressured to move to conducting class from his piano class thanks to his adviser especially the mean teacher who hit Chiaki whenever there's a mistake. Another problem is, he has a phobia on flying which he wouldn't be able to go to Europe. Until he met Nodame, the two both into piano class and starts their wacky relationship.

Anyone who appreciate classical music like Beethoven or Mozart could really have an advantage for liking this manga. If not, at least you'll later trying to like classical music by seeing Nodame's quirks to Chiaki and her few weird words she says like "Mukyaa!" or "Gyabooo!". And in reality, it's a heartwarming to see Chiaki and Nodame struggle hard to accomplish their own goal and later having a good relationship. Also, we have to mention other characters who some of them have a hilarious motivation or expression like the violinist, fellow student Ryutarou Mine, silent oboe-player Yasunori Kuroki and the infamous pervert-conductor Franz von Stressemann.

Anyway, the manga version has twenty three volumes and inside contains 136 chapters, plus two additional one-shot chapters featuring Nodame and Chiaki's childhood. The art style is clean but what is disappointing is that you can't imagine what can you hear music mentioned in the manga (unless if you actually listen to them by searching in Youtube or buy music CD's containing classical orchestras). The plot isn't complicated and actually pretty awesome. This is also a worth reading because there is also anime and live action version of it. The live action of Nodame Cantabile was featured in GMA 7 around almost half a year ago but they didn't finish it which is too sad for Filipino viewers who like to follow the next episodes. Animax Asia once aired the anime version but it's unknown when it will be air in local TV and what channel will be on air (on TV 5? GMA? C'mon it's a short episode!).

Overall, Nodame Cantabile is a great manga, anime and live-action. I like Nodame's humor especially when she tries to hang out with Chiaki like sneaking to his apartment. Plus, I also began to like classical music. It doesn't matter whether you're good at any musical instrument or not.The important thing is to listen what kind of music every character plays.

Oh yeah, I forgot. Merry Christmas to all!