Nodame Cantabile

I haven't really ventured much into Japanese dramas much, but I have heard a lot about the general idea of them. Instead of tear-jerking love stories and soap opera tragedies j-dramas are full of slapstick comedy and silliness. This particular drama is based in a music college that Chiaki attends. Originally bought up in Europe, he had to move back to Japan when his parents split up. Somewhere on the way though, his plane had an emergency landing and he feel out of a boat, so with those haunting memories he is now stuck in Japan (easily the worst bit of the plot, a plane crash AND drowning!). He's from the piano division and his known through out the school for his brilliant piano but also his astounding good-looks. Nodame is also plays piano at college but she's a freshman and labelled under-achiever. The two are set the task of playing a duet together and as they are neighbours begin to spend a lot of time together. Thus the two obviously, and quite suddenly, fall in love (really, it was like they blinked and suddenly appreciated one another!). But Chiaki doesn't want to be a pianist, he wants to conduct, so when a famous conductor comes to school Chiaki immediately wants to be his pupil. The madness that follows would have to be seen to be believed. The plot has innumerable flaws and the romance doesn't have enough drama in it but it is unbelievable funny. I just sometimes wonder if I'm laughing at bits that are supposed to be funny....

Like the acting for instance, I'm certain that some parts have been acted out to be deliberately humorous but I'm unsure about others. When Chiaki goes wide eyed and panicky thinking about riding a plane he honestly looks more like he just took some really strong drugs! Then Nodame with her creepy stalker face, sorry I meant her lovely in-love face.... If things like that were directed for comedic purposes then that's fine, maybe a bit over-done, but ok. If, however, they thought they were actually acting then the whole thing is a complete embarrassment. I'm sticking to the former. There is one other big problem; their English. You see, they do get some 'Europeans' make appearances in the show so they speak in English and there's Japanese subtitles. But actually listening to the drama it appears they say a few phrases of English and then just make the rest up!! Really annoying.
Because this is more of a comedy than ANY other drama I've watched there are even more eccentric characters than usual! There is one character, the percussionist, who I still don't even know the gender of!! There's an afro and a moustache but some people lightly imply it's a girl! I'm not really sure what to make of a character like that. Then there is the famous conductor I mentioned.... an absolute pervert and ridiculous person! He is constantly harassing any female characters who are in his sight. With Nodame being a complete idiot and Mine (the violinist) being a complete wierdo, Chiaki is LITERALLY the only character with any sensibility!! Which makes things a tad to crazy for me to keep up with!!
Completely crazy and comedic. It is hard sometimes to understand quite why things are happening and the fact that the two lead characters actually get along with each other ruins half the fun in my opinion. But the entirely unique characters make up for some lack of plot and the hilarious and broad sense of humour makes everything spectactular. No, it's not really spectacular, but watching Nodame faceplant the floor or the conductor get knocked out makes me laugh! And watching the straight-laced Chiaki be the one to deal with it all makes things even more funny! So don't watch it for tears of moments of aww inducing cuteness, watch it because it's fun to watch fictional characters mess things up!!

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