Nodame Cantabile J-Drama: Episode 01

Say hello to Nodame. An exuberant young lass, she possesses a natural gift for the pianoforte. She views the world as if she is living in her own alternate reality. An odd duck, Nodame marches to her own drum. Yep, she is weird.

Let me introduce Chiaki. Intense and talented, Chiaki is far too jaded and cynical for his age. He has no room for incompetence. He hates sloppiness. He is arrogant but surprisingly self-aware. He has an extreme fear of airplanes and ships. Chiaki is classified as semi-weird.

The gods of music guide the two unlikely couple to a fated encounter. One-upped by his colleague, rejected by his teacher, and dumped by his girlfriend, Chiaki decides to drown his sorrows with the all-around-antidote of alcohol. Unconscious and undignified, he unwittingly plops himself down in the front of Nodame’s door. Inevitably, Nodame spots the poor dude. She takes him inside her abode. Thus, the beginning of the beautiful friendship. Sort-of.

Ever since Snoopycool doled out his scans of Nodame Cantabile, I was enchanted by this quirky manga. A live action or an anime adaptation was all I hoped. And dread. Can a live-action drama live up to expectations? A resounding yes. How about an anime? We’ll see come January.

The drama combines eccentricity, slaptick comedy, and whimsy in the halls of a Conservatory. Not to mention, the inclusion of good music. The result is outrageously giggle-inducing. Moments of bad acting (see Chiaki’s remembrance of his childhood trauma) and not-so-credible effects (see the airplane crash simulation) cannot deter me from enjoying the kooky antics of the Nodame crew.

This stuff is funny.

P.S. How can a piano and a ciggy be so sexy in the hands of talented musicians? It could be the contradicting symbols they represent. A piano conveys the so-called sensitivity. The ciggy portrays the rough edges. In reality, the perception is false yet my blinded mind accepts a rose-colored view. Call me a romantic. Or stupid.