jdrama: Nodame Cantabile Special, eps 1-2(complete)

[meganbmoore]

I spent most of this evening watching the four hour(!!!) Nodame Cantabile Special.  FOUR HOURS!!!  (And, you know, pausing to do things...)  Like the series itself, I find it hard to think of anything intelligent or coherent to say about it, so instead, just a few random comments.

Before I say anything else:  If there's anymore Nodame Cantabile Live

Comments

[fivil]

Mine/Kiyora is even less in the manga, so I liked that they tied in the crew back home in some way at least. (The author basically forgets about Mine and Kiyora for volumes and volumes. Sigh.)

My patience is running out regarding Chiaki, as well. How can a man be so friggin' clueless and in denial about how much he loves a girl, and how much he just goddamn needs her, it always amazes me and aggravates me, but also makes me squee harder when they do end up together.

Also, I like that Nodame kicked his ass at one point. It was *so* deserved.

I loved the new characters, especially Tanya and her eventual-romance (maybe?) with the oboe player boy who was beyond cute in this.

Overall, they again brought things to a nice ending and managed to cover around 6 vols of the manga admirably well. I'll be happy if there's more but I'm also content with this ending. (Actually I'd only welcome continuation IF the manga ends nicely.. Manga!Chiaki is regressing where I left the manga off and it makes me tear my hair off. XD)

[meganbmoore]

I could handle Chiaki's stupidity and the way it manifested itself in the series because there was progress being made. This just hit the reset button. If there were NEW problems and reasons, I'd be ok, but it's just the same old thing. It's like in HYD. The only reason I'd ever accept someone like Domyoji with someone like Makino is because he really does just love her that much, and he grows and changes because of it. HYD2 had some elements that felt a bit like a reset button being hit, but in actuality, he didn't lose the character growth, and it was a whole new set of problems causing completely different stupidity.

There are stories/pairings where I can handle(and sometimes even enjoy) the guy being that incredibly stupid over his love life and rarely seeming to make any progress, but this isn't one of them. This is the kind of story where I expect him to figure it out and get his act together already.

[wistfulmemory]

I really enjoyed the special, too. And FOUR hours! That's about half the length of a normal jdrama!

I loved the smackdown that Chiaki and Nodame got into and how they soon attracted a crowd that was cheering them on. That highly amused me.

I was assuming by how it ended that Chiaki had decided to say, "You know what? Screw it. I'm giving up and just going to go with the flow with Nodame." I really liked the hug that occurred in episode one after Chiaki won the conducting competition.

The music was wonderful, and I've been a fan of Dvorak's "From The New World" Symphony (the piece where they were finding the mistakes) for years.

[meganbmoore]

The problem I had was that, as much as I was enjoying it, about halfway through the first special I realized Chiaki had regressed to just a few eps into the series, despite the hugging and jealous spurts. It was like he forgot that he'd realized how much he loved and needed Nodame in spite of her weirdness, and the whole thing was him figuring it out AGAIN!!!

I just can't help but wonder if poor Nodame is going to have to go through that cycle every few months.

[janlake83]

i loved how nodame called frank-kun..... since i am now using it when i call for my dog frank.....

is it just me or the more chiaki resists the more its apparent he likes her......

and yeah there should have been more mine/kiyora.....

[meganbmoore]

Yeah, the more he resists the more obvious it is he cares. I just can't help thinking he'll just keep taking two steps back for every three steps forward.

[janlake83]

i thought that as well... hopefully nodame can help him get past that....

[kitkat_cat]

I was very disappointed with the lack of Kiyora/Mine and I couldn't believed that phone call was all we got!

I have given up on Chiaki and resorted to reading fanfic where he does het his head out of his bum and does something... what he needs is for Nodame is lose interest or at least, competition! He's just so repressed and talk about stuck in his ways!

Of course, reading the manga helps, a wee bit!

[meganbmoore]

Yeah...he seriously needs SOMETHING to happen to shake him out of it, but I don't think he will. I have the first volume of the manga, but, in all honesty, I think the main reason I haven't started reading yet is that I don't think I can handle that for endless volumes.