In 2001, a photograph of a piano being played by a female music college student in a messy room was posted up on the bulletin board of a particular website. This website was run by Ninomiya Tomoko, a manga artist who was looking for ideas for a new serial publication at the time. The name [...]
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Hmm... For those of you who've been wondering what's been missing from Nodame Cantabile (the anime) fear not... for the obligatory beach episode is finally here!This short special feature (about 14 minutes in length including OP and ED) takes place just before Chiaki, Nodame and gang arrive at the music camp (episode 7 thereabouts). In fact, it starts out exactly as episode 7 did, with Nodame, Mine and Masumi annoying the hell out of Chiaki in Mine's car, only turns out that the gang stopped by the sea before their final destination, much to Chiaki's horror since he never did get over that fear of boats and the sea (alluded to in ep 1). And of course, Chiaki doesn't want to reveal his phobia to his adoring entourage, which of course still doesn't stop Nodame and Masumi in their lousy attempts at wooing him to and in the water, so cue hilarity.It's great watching all the things I loved about Nodame Cantabile again in this extra feature to the series again: hearing Kawasumi Ayako as Nodame and her signature Mukyaa~!, as well as Seki Tomokazu voicing a non-trashy role (here's looking at you, KimiAru), and pondering Masumi's actual gender for the umpteenth once again... and no CGI instrument-playing to confuse me in sight! Though it's hardly been a year since the series ended (so any sense of nostalgia seems to be a little too indulgent on my part), this was still a enjoyable 14 minutes for me as a fan. Now if only they'll eventually be doing anime specials on the Europe arc as they're doing with the live action...
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Need season 2 nao!
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  A Nodame Cantabile special focusing on the Europe arc was aired recently sometime around the new year, which was a surprise to me, since although I was a fan of the series(both anime and live action), I didn’t really keep tabs with the drama. The special itself is 2 hours long and there are currently [...]
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Nodame (Noda Megumi) played by Ueno Juri (Orange Days, Jodan ja nai!) and Chiaki Shinichi played by Tamaki Hiroshi (Atsu-hime, Great Teacher Onizuka) are back for the second night of the two part special. Along with Frank played by Wentz Eiji (Gegege no Kitaro, Lovely Complex) and Tanya played by Becky (Rondo, Stand Up!!), tonight they're joined by Takenaka Naoto (Romeo and Juliet, First Kiss) as Franz Stresemann. No plot summary because I don't want to spoil it for those who haven't watched the first part yet. Screen shots of the Special first night are here , the drama series, the anime , the Nodame Cantabile Character Book and the Special second night below.Thanks to siantut who released the softsubs for the concluding part of the two night special download them here, the RAW video bit torrent files can be downloaded here.
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Nodame (Noda Megumi) played by Ueno Juri (Orange Days, Jodan ja nai!) and Chiaki Shinichi played by Tamaki Hiroshi (Atsu-hime, Great Teacher Onizuka) are graduating from college with their friend Mine Ryutaro played by Eita (Orange Days, Lunch no Joou), then Nodame and Chiaki are off to Europe with a stop in Prague for a concert by Chiaki’s former instructor Sebastino Vieira. Then they head for Paris where it becomes apparent that Nodame can’t speak French. But at their apartment building Nodame learns to speak French when their neighbor and French otaku Frank played by Wentz Eiji (Gegege no Kitaro, Lovely Complex) plays a French dubbed anime favorite of Nodame. Tanya a Russian music student played by Becky (Rondo, Stand Up!!) is another of their neighbors and she has her eye on Chiaki.All the elements that made the award winning drama series are reunited and a very enjoyable two part sequel has begun. The characters are outstanding I particularly enjoyed Frank, and the train station scene loaded with French cosplayers on the way to see Nodame’s favorite mangaka. If you haven’t seen the drama I highly recommend that you grab it and watch it now it is one of my all time favorite dramas, manga and anime. This special could still be enjoyed even if you haven’t seen the series as it stands very well on its own, but the series is so great don’t deprive yourself.Download the RAW video bit torrent file here; the soft subs for part one of the special can be downloaded here. SARS-Fansubs will be releaseing a hardsub edition if you prefer them, I'll post links for that and for the soft subs for part of the special as they are released.
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Okay, that was brutal. I don't mean the actual show itself because that's actually pretty good. But what I had to go through just to watch/blog the episode was rough. First, it took 5 hours just to get the 2GB episode. After obtaining it, I realised that the first episode itself goes for 2 hours. That means spending an additional 6 hours just to watch, screencap, choose, and optimized the images. Thankfully today is Saturday and tomorrow is Sunday so I think I could finish blogging the first episode by Sunday. Not sure when I can do the second episode though. I'm glad that the episode worth it though. It's cheesy as usual but at least the series is very aware of how ridiculous the situation in the story can be. I'm also surprised at how the writers manage to squeeze in every single characters from the original series into this special. Even characters who are not supposed to be in the European arc of the story actually appear in this drama. Their roles are minimal though and it does not disrupt or change the story in any way. Anyway, I'll have to leave you with images and short summary for now since it's 4.45am here. I'll be back to add the impression and if time permits, full summary.
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Nodame Cantabile is probably one of my top (if not the top) anime of Winter 2007. I bought the manga since I really enjoyed the anime. I finally got a chance to read it on an airplane, which I can ride, and Chiaki can't! Ha ha.
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Episodes: 23 Genres: Comedy, drama, music, romance, shoujo, slice-of-life Studio: J.C. Staff OP: “Allegro Cantabile” by SUEMITSU & THE SUEMITH ED: “Konna ni Chikaku de…” by CRYSTAL KAY Official Site: http://www.nodame-anime.com/ Rating: 9.5/10 Impressions: Now this is what I call a good anime. I guess I kinda knew I was going to blog this before watching it, even though I said I wouldn’t. [...]
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