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Saturday, 24 February 2007 |
 | | ▪ | PUBLISHED BY: | | DEL REY | | | ▪ | ART/AUTHOR: | | TOMOKO NINOMIYA | | | | ▪ | FORMAT/COLOR: | | JAPANESE FORMAT / BW | | | ▪ | PAGES: | | 192 | | | ▪ | RATED: | | OT | | | ▪ | RELEASE DATE: | | 07/25/2006 | | | ▪ | REVIEW DATE: | | 02/25/2007 | | | ▪ | REVIEWED BY: | | SCOTT CAMPBELL |
Nodame Cantabile is a story about a number of interacting characters who are attending school to be later involved in careers in music. Noda Megumi, or “Nodame” for short, is an aspiring 3rd year piano student and one of the main characters of the series. She is unable to read sheet music but is an amazingly talented pianist none the less. Senior to her is Chiaki Shinichi, a 4th year piano student. He is the son of a famous pianist and aspires to one day be a conductor. Nodame looks up to him as a bit of a mentor, but also has a love interest for him, and subsequently clings to him all the time. The series is also host to a number of other music students and related characters, with their interactions stirring up hope or conflict.
In volume six, the Momogaoka Music University’s festival has come to a close and Classic Life magazine runs a big story on Shinichi’s amazing conducting performance. Despite this, he’s been feeling a lot of frustration since graduation – and not because he still has a fear of flying. Shinichi wonders what the future holds, and then a chance meeting leads the music prodigy to take on a whole new direction in life. Meanwhile, when Nodame visits Shinichi’s family, no one escapes without injury. Now the friendship between Nodame and Shinichi is threatened, and so is their possible life together. Only time will tell if these events could spell an end to Nodame’s dreams for the future.
The art of Nodame Cantabile has a very feminine, wispy feel to it. The style is simplistic and uncomplicated – but not in any way that makes it unique. It very much fits the look of a lot of social situation/romance manga that is more targeted towards female readers. The story seems to play at a mature level, revolving around situations and settings that occur when most of us are young adults, yet the text and conversations are almost childish because they lack a lot of basic mature language use. Characters subsequently often come off as being “dizzy” when really they are not intended to be portrayed that way. Conversations and interactions between characters are often hard to follow, as they seem to change direction at random. Their motivations for what they are saying seem unclear. The story has a hard time flowing - it feels like you can read through a number of pages and have read nothing of real significance that can tell you something meaningful about the characters or their relationships. Much of the conversation goes on about music exams, grades in school, and plans for the future in relation to employment. This series may appeal to music students, or readers with a lot of patience for very formal writing and situations – but the appeal is hard to stretch beyond that audience.
IN SUMMARY:
Nodame Cantabile requires patience to read due to its formality and little to no humor. It is important to mention that it won the Kodansha Manga of the Year Award – so perhaps its formalities make it at least unique in the world of manga. If you’re looking for something more complex and adult than the latest magical girl knock-off, Nodame Cantabile may be worth taking a look at. |
