Article | I Was a Fan of Nodame Cantabile

 By Eurielle

Written January 17, 2022

Please do not copy or post to another site. Thank you. Enjoy reading.

(c) IMDb

Despite my frustrations with Chiaki, I continued reading Nodame Cantabile because of its wonderful, true-to-life cast and ensemble. Plus I learned to appreciate classical music more than ever.

Nodame Cantabile was about a pianist woman in a music college. She's eccentric, tends to lose focus, lazy, and a bit of a hoarder. Through her teacher, she met Chiaki-sempai, a musical genius who mainly plays piano. Their adventure together started when Nodame kept pestering Chiaki because of her "love" for him.

Now, you might ask, "Then why aren't you frustrated with Nodame instead?"

Well, I saw a little bit of myself in Nodame - the lazy, a bit of a hoarder side, that is. So, I understand her little bouts of laziness, not wanting to do any cleaning (she was a hoarder, but partly, it was her uncleanliness that always made her place looks like a hoarder's - she was too lazy to clean up after herself plus she foregoes bathing as well), and wanting to have fun. In a society wherein girls and women were expected to know how to clean up after themselves or others, Nodame was a sticking-out thumb. Although she could be serious, she knew that she should at least have fun while doing the things she liked.

She was the ultimate opposite of Chiaki. What I didn't like about him was that he was too arrogant, judgmental, and he looked down on Nodame's efforts more than a couple of times. I remembered something in the manga, how he thought he was the reason for Nodame's excellence in the piano - how, if he didn't ground her to practice and put more efforts in it, that she wouldn't be where she was in the present - and I thought, "what did you even do?" Yes, Chiaki encouraged her, sometimes through brutal means, but I never thought he really had that much influence on her. Nodame, as I mentioned before, always tried her best. If she got serious, she would do things to the best of her abilities. In truth, it wasn't Chiaki who molded her to become a great pianist, it was her teachers and peers, it was those whom she met throughout her journey. It was her will to change, to give her best, and to perform for those who appreciated her music. Chiaki was only one of them. That's why I thought he was arrogant for thinking it was only himself the reason for her change and efforts.

(c) dubbing wiki.nodame cantabile

"But isn't it because she wanted to be with Chiaki so she put a lot of effort?" you might ask, but think about it carefully. A person who wanted to change, they needed inspiration, but the effort shouldn't be put on the inspiration but on the person who changed, right? It was Nodame all along who put in the effort, and she even changed and made Chiaki's life better along the way. Her efforts were ten times larger, bigger, than that of Chiaki's, and she never made him feel bad about himself.

Either way, I really love the manga. I've read it a couple of times already. Then, I watched the Japanese live-action as well and even listened to all the classical music they played in the anime, which, again, I watched a couple of times. The anime followed the manga, more or less, so was the live-action, but with a bit of twist here and there. It was a great read/watch, and I recommended reading it. Chiaki was one, but there were other people in Nodame's lives that I thought to make it possible to grow - and everyone could focus on that alone and see how beautiful and magnificent this work was.

Picture references:

Nodame Cantabile . TV series . 2006 

Dubbing Wiki . Nodame Cantabile

Also, you might like to check out a list of classical pieces from the anime:

Musci Pieces | Nodame Cantabile