Nodame Cantabile Finale – First Episode Review

Episode Summary: Chiaki and Nodame are going about their lives in Paris. Chiaki has become fairly successful as a conductor, while Nodame's music school practice has seen her improve by leaps and bounds. Her ultimate goal is, of course, to play a piano concerto with Chiaki conducting, but this dream takes a hit the next time Nodame attends one of his concerts and Chiaki is not only conducting, but playing the piano himself. She feels betrayed since he knows she wants to play with him.

At their apartment the mood between them becomes tense, and Nodame spends more and more time practicing away from home. She wants to enter a piano competition, but her teacher discourages her, instead assigning her more and more pieces to study and practice for homework. Out of spite, Nodame practices even more than required and studies even more pieces than assigned. Another teacher warns her piano teacher that discouraging her at this juncture may end up erasing all of the progress that has been made. Soon, Nodame gets a phone call -- she's being asked to give a salon concert.

Thoughts: I don't necessarily think of myself as an apologist when it comes to anime, but perhaps I should; more and more I find myself speaking out in defense of series that I really like when I feel that they're being unfairly criticized. Nodame Cantabile: Paris Chapter was one such series that I never felt got fair treatment from critics or other fans, mainly because it committed the "crime" of having a somewhat different tone from its predecessor. I think the one criticism that I can agree with is that the season felt rushed; I certainly would have liked to have one or two more episodes so that some of the characters could have been fleshed-out more and some events could have been digested more easily. But to grade the second season lower because it wasn't as funny or because it didn't feature an endless string of Nodame and Chiaki lovey-dovey moments is an act that I find to be, at best, overly-simplistic.

I notice that the one thing most romance stories neglect is the after story. What happens after the main couple accepts fate and becomes an item? For most series, that's the end, the culmination of everything that has happened to that point. "And they lived happily ever after." But perhaps the finest thing about Nodame is that the existence and acknowledgement of the main characters' feelings for each-other isn't the end of the story, because both Nodame and Chiaki are characters with lives and goals that could potentially take them far away from the other, and that was where season 2 succeeded. Sure, it wasn't all about fun and games, there was less time for Nodame to let loose with her uniquely bizarre personality (although her participation in the Christmas pageant was priceless) and Chiaki was dealing with his own issues establishing himself as a conductor, but that was the point; Paris Chapter was about character development, pure and simple, with both characters learning to balance their personal lives with their personal growth and reinforcing their feelings toward one-another along the way.

The reason that I spent so much time discussing the previous season of Nodame is because this season faces many of the same challenges as that season. The season is limited to 11 episodes (why the TV station couldn't allow just one more episode is kind of beyond me, but whatever) and the director, who was blamed for many of season 2's supposed shortcomings, is the same. My hope is that the production team will know where to focus its efforts; while fans of the manga may be sad to see some favorite sub-plot or side-story culled, it may be best for the fate of the final product for the anime to streamline itself and focus on what's more important to address the story's overall themes. It's another of my pet peeves to hear fans complaining that an anime didn't match the manga. Without going too far into the whys and wherefores, what I'll say is that as long as the anime feels well-paced and there's some satisfaction to be had from the ending, some alterations don't really bother me.

I think what I'm looking for this season is just more Nodame. Last season felt a lot like Chiaki's show with the conducting competition and his establishment as head of the local orchestra, and while I'm really glad that he received that kind of substantial character development (since otherwise he tends to seem like kind of an ass) I'm anxious to see Nodame really shine. I'm operating under the assumption that the main scope of the story this time around is Nodame's progression towards her goal of playing the piano in Chiaki's orchestra, something which has gotten me pretty excited to see how it all happens. But I also don't want their relationship to suffer, or at the very least I want to see them work through their little spats in a realistic enough way that their reunion at the end (which is sure to come, don't doubt it) will feel genuine and satisfying rather than "oh crap we have to wrap this thing up -- deus ex machina!"

Truth be told, though, this anime series has been comfort food to me. Despite Nodame's bizarre nature, I honestly find her very identifiable because, underneath all her weird utterances (Gyabo!) and silly otaku obsessions, she is chock full of insecurities and actually has feelings. Whereas Chiaki tends to inadvertently insult her or hurt her feelings (in this case, being able to take on both roles in his orchestra and essentially say, however unintentionally, that he doesn't need Nodame), Nodame deals with things in her own way, sometimes immaturely and always based more on her feeling than on logical thought processes. She's cute but imperfect, a cue that many anime should learn to take because, I've found, the more perfect a character is, the less interesting they are and less likely I am to care about the show itself.

I think it goes without saying at this point that there's probably no chance of a new viewer being able to pick this series up cold. While Paris Chapter was enough of a fresh start, with a new locale and mostly new characters, that it wouldn't have been unreasonable for a viewer to start watching the series there, too much has happened in between then and now for a new viewer to get the whole scope of what's going on. Of course my solution would be for them to seek out seasons 1 and 2 and enjoy the comedy, the wonderful music, and the great characters. My fear is that the barrage of naysayers, mostly people who are butt hurt that season 2 wasn't an exact copy of season 1, will cause new fans to shy away or will influence them into thinking something that truly isn't the truth as far as I see it.

If all goes well, this should be a good send-off to a series that has done me well over the past few years. I hope that other fans will have the patience to let things unfold the way they will and not nitpick if it doesn't go exactly their way.

Pros:

• The continuation of the story promises some more action for Nodame this time around.
• I'll take character development over wacky humor any day.

Cons:

• The staff and format suggests pacing problems unless the storytelling is streamlined in some way.

Recommended? Yes, but those hoping to come in at this point should certainly seek out the previous 2 seasons to get up to speed.  Someone really needs to license this series, by the way.