14 January 2007: Nodame Cantabile
Nodame Cantabile caught my attention because Amazon.com has been pushing the manga on me for years. Also, AYAKO DOCTRINE. Seeing as how I was one of the few people to enjoy Piano a few years back, it was pretty much a no-brainer that I was going to give the Nodame Cantabile anime a try.
Nodame vexes her senpai, Chiaki.
Kawasumi Ayako voices the titular Noda "Nodame" Megumi, an unconventional pianist at a music school. This is a very chipper Ayako at work here—quite a welcome change of pace from what seems like a significant block of serious characters. For those of you who watched Piano, Nodame is the anti-Miu. Kawasumi Ayako probably does not play the piano here for Nodame, though; I'll be quite impressed if she's this accomplished.
Chiaki vexes Nodame.
Nodame Cantabile is basically Honey and Clover III. Both shows being J.C. Staff productions, I'm sure the familiarity is deliberate. Hopefully, Nodame Cantabile will be as good as Honey and Clover. I'm not too worried since the source material is supposed to be good, and I found the first episode to be entertaining and funny. No doubt there will be love triangles and more serious fare down the road, but I'm confident J.C. Staff will handle them with aplomb.
In related news: Dang, I'm going to start buying classical music CDs again, and it's going to be Nodame Cantabile's fault.
