While watching Gone in 60 Seconds, yes that old movie from like 7 years ago [has it really been that long...?], I decided to finally write the Nodame Cantabile review. Nodame Cantabile, a series written by Tomoko Ninomiya revolves around the life of Chiaki Shinchi, a classical music-major college student with an impossible fear of flying which disables him from studying abroad where all the greatest musicians and composers teach. The basic plot is about his troubles with what he
should do with his life. He wants to be a conductor, but he's a piano major. He wants to study abroad but he's afraid of flying. He wants to graduate peacefully, but there's Nodame. Enter Megumi Noda, another second-year college student who majors in piano. According to Chiaki, she has no talent nor any direction in life, which is a problem for him, since they got paired up to play a duet. Wait, rewind, I'll start from the beginning. Superstar musician Chiaki Shinchi is the top student at his music university. He aspires to become a great conductor like his role model Maestro Sebastiano Viera and is already on his way by become a great violin and piano player. One day, he gets into a rift with his teacher, the top piano teacher at his university, and gets kicked out of his class. He then gets reassigned to a new teacher who is supposedly supposed to only work with the "problem" students. One of this new teacher's students is Megumi Noda, a weird girl who's a brilliant piano player. In the first volume, Nodame and Chiaki have to play a duet as part of their class... which is difficult since Chiaki's all follow the music.... EXACTLY. And Nodame's quite the opposite, play what you feel! After that whole episode we can see how this story goes, wonderfully well, with a basic theme of music, and a dramatic plotline, that actually has a legitimate basis here and there. Not your usual shojo with big eyes and whatnot. It's simplistic artwork makes the series easily identifiable, but then there are those times when it looks a bit TOO plain. Translation and all is great as is expected from Del Rey. Presentation is really great, I love that glossy cover. Overall, this is a great series if you're not really the uber-romance type.
