Nodame Cantabile Episode 1 English Dub
Shay Silvertooth
Tomoko Ninomiya based the character of Megumi Noda on a real-life counterpart with the same name. Ninomiya first learned about the real Noda when the latter, a music college student at the time, posted a photograph of her messy room on a website Ninomiya managed. This inspired her to start a comedy series about a sloppy music student. Ninomiya consults with Noda about musical details, claiming to receive inspiration from her, and thanks Noda in the acknowledgments of every tankōbon volume of Nodame Cantabile.[4][5] Noda, currently a piano teacher in Fukuoka (the home-town of her fictional counterpart), composed the music and co-wrote (with Ninomiya) the lyrics for the "Fart Song" Nodame plays in the first episode of the anime series,[4] and visited Ninomiya upon the birth of her son.[6]
Music direction was by Daisuke Mogi with original music by Takayuki Hattori, with several works of classical music featured in each episode.[23] The orchestral music was performed by Nodame Orchestra, which consisted of members specially selected for the live-action drama with professional support from the Tokyo Metropolitan Symphony Orchestra. The Orchestra was conducted by James DePriest, Permanent Conductor of the Tokyo Metropolitan Orchestra, who would later have his name and likeness used in the Nodame storyline as the musical director of the fictional Roux-Marlet Orchestra. The opening theme for both the drama series and special was the first movement ("Andante Cantabile") from Beethoven's Symphony No. 7, and the ending theme was Gershwin's Rhapsody in Blue, both performed by the Nodame Orchestra conducted by Toshiaki Umeda.
An episode of PuriGorota: Uchū no Yūjō Daibōken (プリごろ太 宇宙の友情大冒険), the fictional anime series that Nodame watches, was created by J.C.Staff for the drama. The anime was written and directed by Ken'ichi Kasai, the director of the first season of the Nodame Cantabile anime. Segments of the PuriGorota anime were shown during episode 4 of the Nodame Cantabile drama, with the complete anime released as a DVD extra with the Nodame Cantabile anime series.
The first season was released on 8 DVDs between April and November 2007. A box set was released in February 2008 with an additional 15-minute original video animation (OVA), taking place between episodes 8 and 9. The series has been licensed in Russia[citation needed] and South Korea. The first DVD of the second season was released on 24 December 2008.
The live-action drama received the 2007 Japanese Drama Academy Awards for Best Drama, Best Lead Actress (Juri Ueno), Best Direction (Hideki Takeuchi), Best Music (Takayuki Hattori), and Best Title Song;[70] the show was also recognized overseas as Best Miniseries at the 2nd Seoul Drama Festival.[71] Juri Ueno also was named Best Newcomer at the Élan d'or Awards for her performance,[72] and the next year was named Best Actress at the International Drama Festival in Tokyo Awards for reprising her role as Nodame in the television special.[73] The New Year's Special in Europe received an average household rating of 20.3% and 21.0% for the two nights it was broadcast in Japan, making it them the highest-rated drama episodes of the week.[74] The first soundtrack album for the drama, Nodame Orchestra LIVE!, reached number seven on the Oricon album chart, breaking the record for highest ranked classical music album.[37]
The opening episode of the anime series broke the record for audience share for its time-slot.[75][76] The first DVD volume debuted at number 3 on the Oricon chart for anime the week it went on sale.[77]
The series aired on Fuji TV and associated stations in the Noitamina time slot. The first season was broadcast in 23 episodes from 11 January to 28 June 2007, and the second season was broadcast in 11 episodes from 8 October 2008 to 18 December 2008. The opening episode of season one broke the record for audience share for its time-slot.[2][3]
The first season was released on 8 DVDs between April and November 2007. The first DVD volume debuted at number 3 on the Oricon chart for anime the week it went on sale.[4] A box set was released in February 2008 with an additional 15-minute original video animation (OVA), taking place between episodes 8 and 9. An English Dub of this Series is being aired all over Asia on Animax Asia since July 7, 2010.
Popular piano student Shinichi Chiaki has almost given up his dream of becoming a conductor because his international career prospects are crippled by his fear of flying. His despair affects his playing, and he is transferred to a different teacher, Hajime Tanioka, who specializes in failing students. Tanioka introduces him to eccentric fellow student, Megumi "Nodame" Noda, and assigns them a Mozart sonata for two pianos. Chiaki quickly learns that while Nodame is capable of playing in a beautiful cantabile style, she can be sloppy and is a poor sight reader, preferring to learn by listening. After the two discover they are neighbors, Chiaki learns she is also very messy, and to his irritation finds himself cleaning her apartment and cooking her dinner. As they practice, he realizes she performs better when allowed to interpret loosely, and her joy in music when they perform for Tanioka inspires him to resume pursuing becoming a conductor. To his dismay, however, Nodame has fallen in love with him.
Nodame makes it to the final round, but an untimely fever from practicing too much sets her back as it now becomes a race against time to finish memorizing the pieces for the final round. Just when the pressure couldn't have been any heavier, she runs into a colleague from her childhood, Yuuto Segawa, a student at Nodame's first-attended piano class, Hanazakura, which in turn brings back her bad memories she had repressed. Chiaki, on the other hand, has his hands full with the new violinist, but attends the Maradona finals to observe Nodame and the other contestants. The episode ends with a cliffhanger, as Nodame suffers a memory slip and grinds to a halt in the middle of her final piece.
Back in Paris, Nodame spends her days quietly playing for children while her friends wonder if she will ever resume her studies or her career. Determined to put Nodame back on track, Chiaki asks her to play with him-- the same piece they played together when they first met. This episode also tells us what has happened to some of the characters they met in Paris.
Yeah, the dorama is great. It took me a little while to get used to, but eventually I came to love it. I loved Juri from the beginning. And it took me a few episodes to get used to Tamaki (because he looked too pissed in the first episodes), but eventually I thought he was great as well. And the Mine I picture in my head, is the live action Mine. Funny how that works. :p
In the anime I imagine Nodame is kind of cute, but not gorgeous, because Chiaki frequently dismisses her looks (as in this episode). This makes the romance between them a little sweeter. But you would have to have had your eyes poked out to think Ueno Juri is anything other than a stunning beauty. :love:
Also, I love the classical music so much that I want to go through and write down the names and composers for the pieces used in each episode and note which episode they were used in, since the anime itself does tell you what all the pieces are in those handy little text notes that pop up on screen. Thus my posts for the rewatch will contain the titles and composers of the pieces used, as well as my thoughts on them. I own the Nodame Cantabile 100 Best CD collection, so I can listen to all of the pieces used in full.
I remember having a neutral impression upon finishing the Nodame Cantabile anime adaptation (2007). It was a cute romance with some at-times-uncomfortable slapstick, but at least the classical music was good. So when I heard that Crunchyroll picked up the live action drama (2006), I decided on a whim to check out one episode, only to finish all 11 of them. This show had no business being this entertaining.
Sporting some stylish neon visuals and a fun, if not terribly original, scenario, Blood Lad hits the ground running with a quirky, spazzy protagonist and pop-culture-driven humor. The opening sequence promises a large cast of characters to add to the undead shenanigans, but with a rumored run of only ten episodes, it remains to be seen if this adaptation can successfully pull a satisfying supernatural comedy out of the manga source material.
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