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May 19, 2009 
Original text at the nekoheadz.org forum
It’s impossible to review the Paris chapter of Nodame Cantabile without having watched the first one, and I imagine you won’t understand much of this if you haven’t watched it either, so go do that. It’s okay, this is the internet, these words will still be here when you get back… Oh, I’ve tried to keep from going into the story details too much, so if you haven’t seen the Paris Chapter you can read with ease.
If you are at all familiar with the series Nodame Cantabile, you know that it’s about one thing: music. Well, music and romance. Err, music, romance, overcoming fear, cross-dressing, more romance, a big paper fan, Puri Gorota, kotatsu, and a mongoose. And not necessarily in that order. But despite all of that, Nodame Cantabile is what many music anime series are not: it is actually about music. The songs take a prominent focus with brief descriptions to relate the viewer to the piece with time to actually listen to the songs. The characters are passionate and motivated in their pursuit of music, or rather Music with a capital M as it is the closest thing these characters have to a religion. Chiaki’s dogged determination to bring out the meaning of a piece and Nodame’s personal quest to come closer to Music are things anyone who’s pursued something in its purest form can understand and relate to. I could go on and on about how prominently music is featured in Nodame Cantabile, but I think you get the picture.
Astute readers will have noticed that I haven’t once mentioned the Paris Chapter. Two reasons for that: 1) I need to establish a reference point so you can see where this review is coming from, and 2) while Chiaki and Nodame have moved to Paris for the second season, the music seems to have gotten lost at the airport. Well, the music, the paper fan, the mongoose, pretty much everything but the romance has been stuck on a flight to Norway while our intrepid main characters are left to make do with their romance and carry-on bags.
The Paris chapter always seems to be in a rush to get back to the romantic focus for Chiaki and Nodame; an understandable need as without it I could get as much satisfaction out of the classical station on AM radio. But the problem arises from the fact that since music is such a pillar in the lives of every single character in the series, once you take the focus away it’s like watching TV through the neighbor’s window; you can see what’s happening but the experience is a bit hollow.
I’m being pretty harsh here, but the first season of Nodame always took the time to let us hear as much of the piece as it could with only a brief amount of dialogue taking place over it to help us better relate to the piece. The selection of pieces used in the show had a lot of thought behind it and nothing seemed to be picked at random. For the Paris chapter the musical segments are much shorter (without the attention to what parts are important to hear) while both the narratives and dialogue never shut up. You can tell me a piece has a frantic quality or is being played poorly, but if you won’t let me actually listen to it how am I supposed to know that? In the first season, it was like reading a Cliff Notes for a piece; the Paris chapter is like reading flavor text.
Actually, that half-assed approach to the music extended out to much of the rest of the Paris chapter: character interaction was rushed and the amount of time that passes is indeterminate. Two new orchestras are introduced but we are never allowed to enjoy any time with the members like we did with the S Oke and Rising Star Oke. Well, there’s that weird guy that can see auras and the bassoon playing mama’s boy, but much like the two neighbors in the apartment building, they really only exist as measuring sticks for Chiaki and Nodame. As if that doesn’t make things feel rushed enough as it is, one minute it’s a few months after Chiaki and Nodame arrive in Paris, the next it’s six months later and the characters seems as out of sorts in the face of this sudden time change as we are. Sure, there’s a brief little interlude about what’s happening, but it’s like being given a picture of a cloud as a description of the first trans-Atlantic flight. The founding blocks for both Chiaki’s and Nodame’s careers are put in place, but it happens so fast and so seemingly unimportant next to this episode’s misunderstanding-turned-relationship-ending-argument. Oh, I forgot to mention: there’s a lot more drama and it’s mostly that annoying drama that would be resolved if someone was more straightforward (yes, I recognize that Chiaki’s inability to address his feelings for Nodame is important; I’m talking about that kind of drama that takes flying leaps out of mild assumptions). I would be willing to cut the Paris chapter some slack since it’s only half as long as the first season, but I feel like if they’d just calmed down and “faced music head on” as the characters in the series do, they really could have pulled it off in 11 episodes.
In short, Nodame Cantabile - Paris Chapter brings us much more of the relationship between Chiaki and Nodame, but at what I feel was an unacceptable shift in focus away from the music. Don’t get me wrong, it’s worth watching if you enjoyed the first season and there are some truly great moments in the show, particularly if you happen to be a romantic sap; but don’t go in expecting the greatness of the first season. Well, with another season and some sort of movie in the works you pretty much have to watch it. If you happen to have a copious amount of free time you want to fill, I suggest watching the live action version. The live action version has a Paris chapter done right and in less time.
~Whim
PS – If you’re wondering where the number based scoring went, I threw it out the window.
PS2 – I watched this series in fansub form from ANBU, A-Keep, BSS, and C1. The live action version was fansubbed by SARS.
