Nodame Cantabile Paris Chapter

Nodame Cantabile Paris Chapter (のだめカンタービレ 巴里編) is an 11 episode follow up to the 2007 series Nodame Cantabile based on the manga of the same name by Ninomiya Tomoko.  The series originally aired during the Fall of 2008.

    The review of the original series can be found here.

     The Paris Chapter begins a bit after the end of the original series, Chiaki has overcome his fear of flying, with Nodame’s help, and both find them selves in Paris. Nodame has enrolled in a music conservatory in the city and Chiaki is planning on entering competitions to try and win the favor of his dream teacher, Franz von Stresemann. The couple, while admittedly in a relationship, are not officially together, at least not in the normal sense. They have adjoining rooms in Chiaki’s family estate in Paris, which is also a boarding house for other music students, yet Chiaki is still cold with Nodame. As this short series progresses we see Nodame struggling with the level of abilities found at the conservatory and she falls into a funk about her abilities. Chiaki on the other hand surprisingly wins a conductor contest and is forced into a contract with the company the evil Stresemann works for. At the same time Nodame and Chiaki’s relationship builds slowly and while it’s not to where Nodame wants it, Chiaki is more personal with her.

     This series was too short, which would be a detriment if there wasn’t going to be another series premiering in the next few months. The reason for the 11 episode series is unknown and a bit confusing. The series didn’t cover much in the way of story progression. It all seemed like build up for the next series, which will hopefully be longer. I was pleased when this series was announced, because I had enjoyed the original. While there is already a live action drama version of the series, I find the anime more entertaining. (Don’t get me wrong the drama is pretty good and well done). One thing I did miss were the zany side characters, of which are lacking in Paris. The side characters in this season seemed to be different sides of the same coin and I got confused as to who was who with a few of them. Part of this could be from the characters being based in reality, with normal hair colors and styles, making it hard to tell some of the characters from similar ethnic backgrounds apart from each other.

 

    Aside from there feelings it was a fun series to watch, as with the original it was fun to spend time with these lovable characters even if they didn’t do much. The series main focus seemed to be on Chiaki and his growing presence in the world of orchestra conducting. In the end we see his first successful concert with a ragtag Parisian orchestra.  And we see Nodame regain her confidence and make her own small impact on the European classical scene. The comedy was low key like it was in the original and the romance was low key as well, with one memorable moment were Nodame turns serious about her feelings and begins punishing Chiaki in Street Fighter fashion. One thing that stood out in this series was Nodame’s otaku tendencies. This might be deliberate in the writing to show that she is clinging more strongly to her national identity in a foreign land. It is also used as a way for her to more easily interact with some of the fellow students.

 

    All in all this series is worth viewing if you are a fan of the franchise, but it should mostly be viewed as a segue way into the next series, which will hopefully be more complete. There is a possibility that this series can also be used as an introduction into the story, as there are few references to the original series. For the most part you only need to know who Chiaki and Nodame are. Stresemann shows up rarely and after the first 2 episodes or so no one else from the original appears. They only touch lightly on Chiaki’s past problems and even less so on the events of the original series. The art style remains consistent with that of the original but there seems to be a lack of the orchestral suites played in part or whole as we found in the original series. Where the original took a lot of time showing the concerts this one only had a few moments. The CG generated hand movements of the orchestra members is also more noticeable in this series compared to the original. This may be due to less spending on that aspect than before, but it is more noticeable when they use motion capture effects to accurately portray the real use of the instruments, which is still cool that they take the time and consideration to show that.