Nodame Cantabile
Nodame Cantabile
Tomoko Ninomiya
Over the weekend I finished volumes six, seven and eight of this series, and am still loving it. The series revolves around a group of students at a music college in Japan. Noda is a piano student, and a bit of a free spirt. She is terribly messy, a total mooch, and doesn't like to read music, preferring to learn pieces by ear. Chiaki is her next door neighbor, a terribly serious violin and conducting student who comes from a family of musicians, but is being pressured by his uncle to go into business. Noda is madly in love with Chiaki, who considers her somewhat of an odd pest, but puts up with her attentions kindly. As the series continues, more and more regular characters are introduced, turning this into a total soap opera for orchestra geeks. Because they are college students, some more mature topics such as drinking and implied sexuality do come up, but I think there is strong appeal here for musically inclined high school students. Personally, as a former band and orchestra geek, I love it and eagerly await further volumes.