neko’s thinkbox

Heyo~ It’s been a while. It’s not like I have plenty of time to spare. Actually, I’m lagging quite a lot in my studies; I’m at least two days behind my planned studying schedule. I was supposed to study philosophy these past two days, and I haven’t done anything yet. And now I have two days to entirely study three subjects. I’m so underestimating the finals, haha.

But I’m not going to waste any more words about that, I already ranted too much about my procrastinating habits. Since I’m doing nothing, I thought I could at least do something meaningful, so I started writing this little entry about an anime that I have been avidly watching these past few days, Nodame Cantabile.

Nice CG’ed hands. I really can’t complain about them - they actually do hit the notes we are hearing.

As I mentioned in an earlier entry, I had set my eyes on that series a few weeks ago already, the catchy opening tune immediately having caught my attention. However, my general lack of interest plus a lot of other distracting factors kept me from watching a whole episode. I think you’ll agree with me when I say that when you have nothing to do, everything can be so darn boring. But when you must do something you don’t want, let’s say studying, suddenly everything becomes interesting, and in most of the cases (at least in mine) you will do anything else but what you ought to do, even if it will compromise you. Well, this is how I got to watch the first episode, and I didn’t even really notice how it came to that. I guess it was some physics-oversaturation-induced brainfart. Nothing to complain about though, because now I started watching a wonderful piece of animation, mixed with a rich music culture, a lot of funny elements and a very thin slice of romance.

Before I started watching Nodame Cantabile, I think I was a bit… lethargic in my music choice. Even now I still am but… I kept listening to the same tracks over and over again, and I recall very well my playlist filled with Gundam music, back to Tsukihime, very rarely some JPop variety. Or, I’d just tune into the local radio station and let myself invade by the current mainstream crap (which I actually hate). Boredom, and lack of interest. But then there was Nodame, and my preferences made a 180 degree turn.

Yes, waterproof amps FTW. Rock hard!!

Although I have been playing the electric guitar for about 5 years (preceded by 6 years of piano), I was never really that much of a musician. Without bragging, I can pretend that I’m quite at ease when learning new instruments, so I’m not really someone who spends many hours per week playing them - actually, if I didn’t take weekly courses, I’d most probably play once a month, if ever. But to go as far as to really motivate myself to do something _more_ than what was required… No. Honestly speaking, to me it was more of an obligation than a hobby.

Anyway, when I started playing the piano about a decade ago (only because my mum wanted me to), I actually did regularly listen to classical. However, my interest in that soon vanished. I guess that was a natural reaction. I became a pubescent, and like many other kids my age, I sought rebellion through music, and I started listening to punk rock, and the likes. Noisy stuff, to annoy the parents, to be cool, cruise control etc. Either way, I can’t remember having listened to a full symphony ever since, for it was simply too boring, too soft, not loud enough.

Today, I ripped about 8 of 100 Mozart CD’s (from the 250 Year Premium Collection). More to come soon (thanks to my friendly dorm neighbor who sponsored them XD). My current winamp playlist is filled with piano concertos, symphonies, and stuff from Nodame Cantabile, which is mainly classical as well. How could it be? I, who never could stand such boring music, suddenly can’t get enough of it.

How come?

Pianissimo~

Nodame Cantabile is the second anime that incited me to start a new hobby (the first one being Hikaru no Go, although I already stopped playing Go a few years ago). The wonderful approach to classical in the anime suddenly made me realize how beautiful such music actually can be. Away from the murderous and/or funky guitar riffs and drum solos, and random mainstream crap on the radio. I needed this break badly, and fully welcomed this sound delight.

I can’t really describe why I find this particular combination of animation and the approach to classical music so convincing. I’d say that the interesting storyline, especially the characters, made it so attractive to me. On the one hand, our main character Chiaki is a musical genius, he can play the piano, the violin, and a rising star as an orchestra conductor. His flight and swimming phobia make it impossible for him to go to Europe to perfection his musical skills, so he has no other choice but to start his own orchestra in Japan. On the other hand, Nodame is a real… ditz. She’s unpopular, childish, clumsy and, well, quite a pain in the neck (especially for Chiaki). However, she’s also a piano ace, although she only plays by the ear and tends to play rather freestyle.

Even if Chiaki and Nodame’s musical abilities are somewhat compatible, they’re still a heterogenic mix. Their strong character contrasts make it nearly impossible for them to be together. Nodame’s carefreeness (and her one-sided love towards her Chiaki-senpai) often strikes our usually composed Chiaki’s nerves, which very often results in a hilarious outcome. But the awesomeness of the story is not only the merit of this crazy relationship between these two characters, but also the interactions with their environment. The teachers, the friends, the orchestras, all the important people take a huge part in our main characters’ development as well. There are a myriad of characters, but for some reason, I have grown accustomed to them so rapidly that I already remember most of them (although some have only been present in one or two episodes). It seems to me like they are all part of a huge family… an orchestra!

The genius and the klutz. Perfect match?

This is why it is highly interesting to follow the development of their individual stories. It’s pretty obvious that Chiaki and Nodame will end up together; however, I’m curious to know how exactly it is going to happen. As the story progresses, their bonds become tighter, and their hidden weaknesses start to show up. Chiaki’s bad dream, the pills falling on the ground. Nodame’s freaking out in front of Harisen when he hit her. We thought we knew a lot about our main characters (albeit in a superficial manner, especially for Nodame), but now things are getting interesting.

Their musical education happens in parallel to the progression of the story. The closer Chiaki and Nodame get, the more creative they become, the more they play together, and the more we want them to play. Same goes with the orchestra. I can’t stop watching episode 11 again and again, where Chiaki played that wonderful piano solo with Stresemann’s orchestra for over five minutes. I loved every second of it, and I absolutely didn’t mind the lengthiness of that part (over 7 minutes). No, I even wanted more of it, and I was quite disappointed when they proceeded to the end of the concert.

Apart from the story and the characters, there’s another factor that is important to successfully introduce the audience to classical music: the abundance of real composers of the godly likes of Mozart, Bach, Beethoven, Chopin and other popularities. The producers made the right choice to stick to the original symphonies and concertos instead of making up fake names (like the characters in the anime, say, Vieira, Stresemann - but as I said, this is unrelated to them). I was very surprised hearing and reading their names in the anime, and as it did for me, it must have triggered people’s interest as well. Granted, there are many who like listening to classical once in a while but who can’t always associate certain symphonies to any composer, and I can speak for myself, since I am a genuine newbie here. The hundreds of Mozart’s ‘Köchel-Verzeichnisse’ (KV’s or K’s) are very confusing to me, to be honest.
But, there might have been a tune that you might have heard somewhere, on TV, the radio, in a bus, train or car, be it today, yesterday, or ages ago. And then you hear it again in the anime, and you automatically can associate that hearing experience from the past. For instance, I already forgot which episode it was, but there was a certain tune which I often hear when my telephone call is put on hold. It was a trivial fact, but amusing enough to make me remember that. Or, in a more idyllic (not to say cliché) setting, waking up with the soft melody of the Peer Gynt ‘Morning’ symphony by Grieg, or the festival tune of Bizet’s first ‘Carmen’ movement, that’s also played after each race of a Formula 1 racing.

Never heard of Rachmaninoff before. Now I want moar!

The way the orchestra members are introduced in Nodame Cantabile also made me realize how important the different instruments are to an orchestra. Until now, I listened to this kind of music as a whole, but now I try to distinguish the different instruments and to follow their melodies throughout the performance. Chiaki’s endeavor also showed to me what a conductor really does. From what I had seen on TV until now, was a group of awesomely good instrument players playing symphonies, with often some old geezer posing in front of them and randomly waving his baton (please be careful of what you think now, sicko). Back then I thought, what for? I mean, they had all been practicing beforehand, so they would know how to play during the concert, and thus they wouldn’t need someone like a conductor to tell them how to play. But I was wrong. What might sound correct to an average person might sound utterly wrong to a maestro.
It doesn’t necessarily have to be a wrong note, but the slightest divergence already might trigger a reaction. The violins might be too loud, the flutes off-tempo, the contrabass off-tune, and what-not. The maestro’s reactions might not be as exaggerated like Chiaki’s, but I can imagine that he needs to listen to the whole thing very carefully to coordinate, to keep the different music streams in harmony. To pinpoint every single flaw in that bulk of music surely requires a perfect musical ear and a lot of concentration. Heck, I definitely wouldn’t be fit for such a position, for I wouldn’t be able to distinguish anything amongst all the tones. So much for the conductor. And I didn’t even know there was a concertmaster. The more you know…

So now, I’m totally into classical. Of course, I’m far from neglecting all other sorts of music, as I still listen to… well, erm… huh? Oh well. My old habit of sticking with one thing until I reach a state of oversaturation… I can’t help it. I did that with about every kind of music I liked, I think it’ll be a matter of time until I will let go of it, disgusted. Although, there’s a difference with classical, and it’s a good thing: there are so many more symphonies and concertos and composers I have yet to discover, beyond Mozart, Bach and others that I can’t be possibly end up listening to the same melody ad nauseum.
Heck, I even feel like playing the piano now (although I wouldn’t start taking courses again).

Spoilt for choice. I guess I’d take the xylophone, sounds fun ^^

Furthermore… it’s the perfect music I need to study. Usually I’d have some awesome songs I’d play over and over again, and sing along, losing my concentration, or thinking about the respective anime/dorama, or whatever. For some reason, I feel very calm with classical, and I can fully concentrate on my subjects. Mind you, it doesn’t prevent me from turning on the screen and waste my precious studying time with procrastinating. I’m doomed.

However, I do feel some regrets. By watching Nodame Cantabile, I broke ONCE AGAIN my ironclad Rule number 7, “Thou shalt not watch anime til thy entire series hath been downloaded”, in other words, as long as a series isn’t finished, I should not start watching it.
So once again, after Claymore, I’m struck with the long waiting times. Well, it really doesn’t feel like that right now during the finals (time passes by rather at light speed), but usually, waiting for a whole week can sometimes be mortifying. Ray of hope, apparently ep 19 has aired yesterday, so I’m hoping to watch the raw today, wee~~~

I knew there was a manga series before the anime (I ought to get that one as well someday). But what I didn’t expect though was a Nodame Cantabile TV Drama series. You can’t imagine my happiness after reading that info on Wikipedia, immediately headed over to d-addicts, yay batch torrents: drama, OSTs, character collections and stuff. Yay! I’m really eager to see how much the real life characters have in common with their anime counterparts. But I guess I’ll have to keep that for after the finals though… T_T

In the end, Nodame Cantabile is a wonderful anime, and definitely a must watch. It really surprised me to see that the mix of an awesome story, a flawless character development and a deep insight into the pretty unknown universe of classical music resulted in such a beautiful composition. This is why I absolutely recommend anyone to give it a try. Granted, the character designs are not to everyone’s tastes, but you will get used to it in no time, and what’s more, it often even adds to the fun in the many funny scenes of the anime. Some parts are even CG’d, which looks quite good during piano/orchestra play parts. You’re going to like it! GYABO~