Nodame Cantabile ep.08

March 1, 2007 | 16 Comments

This is a rather pleasant episode which basically explains Stresemann's motivation. He also seems a bit more generous than usual this time around, as evidenced by the present he gave to Nodame. Animation-wise, I feel that this episode is actually a lot more fluid in comparison to last week's episode. I know that people have been comparing the art style to Honey and Clover but it really doesn't come across that way to me until this episode. This particular shot reminds me of a similar shot where Morita chomps a bread out of Hagu's hand. At any rate, I'm just glad that it looks like the anime will be covering the Nagano part of the story. I was afraid that part will get a skip as well but thankfully that's not the case here.

The episode begins with Nodame using Chiaki's computer when Chiaki calls him that they must go to school. When he asks Nodame why she has to use his internet, she claims that Chiaki has fast connection and besides her telephone has been disconnected. When the two go outside, they realise it's raining. Unfortunately for Nodame, her umbrella has a lot of holes in it. Because of this, she tries to get under the same umbrella as Chiaki. Chiaki, however, refuses and proceeds to walk on his own, forcing Nodame to continually chase him. During the rehearsal, the S Orchestra complain about the hot, humid weather of the rehearsal room. Despite this, Chiaki wants them to go over their music one more time. Before they can do this, Stresemann appears and asks them to go to Goukon with him. The orchestra members immediately rejects him, reminding the guy that he abandoned them. The girls also believe that he just wants to harass them.

Stresemann, however, does not give up and instead holds Chiaki's hands up and tells the orchestra that whoever wants to go to Goukon can grab Chiaki's chest. Not surprisingly the girls turn wild and rush forward to get the opportunity to grope Chiaki. Chiaki is not happy that he has to come with the orchestra but Stresemann reminds him that as a student, he must follow his master. In retaliation, Chiaki demands the guy to teach him something good. The conversation between the two got interrupted when Nodame screams at them, wanting to come to Goukon as well. Unfortunately for her, she falls into a ditch while trying to catch up and ruins what she claims to be her new dress. Chiaki retorts that the dress is anything but new since Nodame has been wearing it for three days. Because of this, he orders her to go home and do her laundry. Much to Nodame's relief, however, Stresemann offers to buy her a new dress in Shibuya.

A few minutes later, Nodame appears with her new 'dress'. The guys are excited about this but Chiaki and Mine realise that the new dress is nothing more than just a swimsuit. As if that's not bad enough, Stresemann wants Nodame to play Yakyuken where the loser has to strip. Nodame at first refuses since she doesn't want to see Stresemann with his clothes off. However, she immediately accepts the challange when Stresemann tells her that Chiaki will take his clothes off if Stresemann lose. Upon seeing the crash act, Mine and Masumi can't help but wonder if this Stresemann is the real Stresemann because the guy can be quite nasty sometimes. Masumi heard from another student that Stresemann is actually a fake. Mine agrees, adding that even their own teachers think like that. Besides, what would a Maestro like him doing at their school. Much to Mine's surprise, however, Chiaki believes that this is the real Maestro.

Chiaki's justification is that he wouldn't have wanted to become the guy's student if he's not the real Stresemann. That night, however, Chiaki decides to use the internet to find out if Stresemann's arrival in Japan creates big news. Much to his horror, the font on his computer has been replaced with a font he's never seen before. Nodame admits that it's the font that she's created, "Misoji". Chiaki is not happy about this, demanding that Nodame change it back to the way it was or else he'll have a murder on his hand. When Nodame refuses, Chiaki punishes her by rolling her inside a futon and tied the futon up so she won't be able to go anywhere. After dealing with Nodame, Chiaki does a research on Stresemann and is surprised to find a headline which indicates that Stresemann has been missing after a public performance in London. Although his manager claims that he's simply on 'vacation', police has begin to search for him in Europe.

The next day, the students at Momogaoka music school are surprised when a helicopter lands in the school ground. The only person who's oblivious to this is Stresemann, who wants Chiaki to accompany him to a nightclub. Much to Stresemann's horror, however, he can hear the voice of a woman speaking German, telling him that they've been looking all over for him. Stresemann recognises her as "Elise" and immediately run away. Elise, however, is equally fast and orders his henchman to catch Stresemann. A few seconds later, the henchman informs her that Stresemann has been captured so Elise orders the henchman to tie Stresemann up and put him in the helicopter. Chiaki who is still surprised with the whole commotion decides to speak to Elise in German. Elise informs him that she's Stresemann's secretary/manager. She also informs Chiaki that the reason Stresemann is in this school is because of a woman: the director of this university.

Elise explains that Stresemann always carries the picture of the director and this is why she managed to track him here. In the aftermath, Stresemann is bound and gagged and is forcefully taken away from the school. Later on inside Uraken, Mine informs his friends that he's heard the director has been hospitalised for a while. He thinks that this means Stresemann never got to meet her. Mine, however, doesn't care that pervert Stresemann is finally gone. Chiaki, on the other hand, thinks that although Stresemann was a pervert, there are still many things that he'd like to learn from the Maestro. Upon seeing the picture of the director when she was young, Mine's father admits to being surprised that the director was a beautiful girl. He then reveals that he used to deliver a lot of foods to her and shows them a picture of a woman who looks like she's just eaten a lot. This makes everyone wonder if Stresemann was better off not seeing her.

A few days later, Chiaki still laments the fact that he's lost a teacher. Nodame tries to cheer him up by saying that she's still around but Chiaki thinks that only makes him depressed. Much to their shock, they find Stresemann waiting in front of a vending machine, wanting to borrow money from them. He claims that he had to hijack his own jet. This causes Chiaki to wonder why the guy wanted to go back to Japan badly. Mine theorises that the guy probably just wants to see the director. He heard from his father that she would be getting out of the hospital soon. Masumi, however, worries that Stresemann would leave as soon as he sees her. The next day when Chiaki is in the middle of conducting, Stresemann appears and asks the group why they are not playing the song as Chiaki asked. He also glares at Chiaki and orders him to study Brahms piece. Stresemann then enthusiastically encourages the orchestra to start again.

Chiaki's confusion about Stresemann's sudden change becomes clear when a woman enters the rehearsal room, congratulating the orchestra. Stresemann immediately greets the woman he refers to as "Mina". It appears that it's been 45 years since they last met. Mina is impressed that Stresemann has become a great conductor. She is also surprised that he decides to come in person while in her letter she simply asked him to introduce her to a great conductor. Stresemann then asks Mina to marry him but unfortunately for him Mina seems to think it's just a joke. That day, Stresemann suddenly becomes serious about conducting the S Orchestra, annoying Mine because he feels that Stresemann simply uses the orchestra to seduce the director. Masumi thinks it's great that Stresemann still loves Mina. Mine realises that the director is divorced so there are no obstacle for the two to get together.

The next day, Chiaki is informed by Stresemann that he'll conduct the S Orchestra again for a while. In the meantime, he wants Chiaki to study Rachmaninov piano concerto on his own. Chiaki protests this but Stresemann doesn't want to hear any of this and insists that Chiaki follows his order. Chiaki is unhappy that Stresemann decides to do this and thinks that he's only doing it to impressed the Momogaoka director. While fuming on his own, he's approached by Elise who wants to know why he's angry. Meanwhile, Nodame has just finished playing Chopin when Stresemann comes over and congratulates her. He thinks while it sounds different, it's still a good Chopin. He then asks Nodame about her future plan so Nodame admits that she wants to be a pre-school teacher and to marry Chiaki. Upon hearing this Stresemann tells her that if she stays as she is now, she can't be with Chiaki.

Meanwhile, Chiaki finds out from Elise that Stresemann was also a Piano student. However, he often skipped class because of his interest in girls. Because his family is rich and he had a brother who's an excellent Piano player, Stresemann didn't have the confidence and interest in Piano. This all change when Stresemann met Momodaira Minako, who was known as the "Madonna" and the top piano player at the college. Stresemann immediately fell head over hells with her. However, she was already known as a talented pianist and will quickly be out of his reach unless he could catch up with her. Unfortunately Minako then injured her finger so she decides to go back to Japan and married a writer she just met. Chiaki isn't sure about this and wonders if Stresemann is not still in love with Minako but Elise is pretty sure that this is not the case. When Chiaki asks her as to why Stresemann came to Japan, she tells him that it's because Minako asked him to come as an instructor.

Elise believes that Chiaki is the pupil that Stresemann has come to teach and finds it hard to believe that Stresemann would take on a pupil even though he never took one when others pleaded to him. Because of this, if Chiaki is not serious about studying, she demands that he returns Stresemann to her. Meanwhile, Stresemann is back in Minako's office asking why she asked him to come. Minako admits that she didn't expect Stresemann would come but it seems Stresemann already finds the student in question: Chiaki. She feels sorry for Chiaki because he can't leave Japan so she hopes there's something Stresemann can do for him. Stresemann tells her that there is another student he must take care of because she reminds him of himself when he was young. Cut to a shot of Nodame latching onto Chiaki while Stresemann saying that he hopes good things happen to them. The episode ends with Stresemann suggesting that they go on summer vacation to Nagano because there is a music festival there.

Impression:

Some of the best moments from the manga/live-action remain intact here. This includes Stresemann lifting Chiaki's arms, asking the girls to grope him if they want to go to Goukon. The same thing can be said about Stresemann forcing Chiaki to strip down after he lost against Nodame in a game of Yakyuken. The best joke, however, has to be the part where Chiaki tries to strangle Nodame with a mouse cable. In real life this will be classified as abuse but it's hard not to laugh here when Chiaki rolled Nodame into the futon. Having said that, I do wonder if other people object the hyper-violence that Chiaki displays in the series. Moving on to other topic, Elise is still quite rough and feisty as in the other versions except that this time around she doesn't even speak German language like in the live action version. It's probably for the best since the German in the live action version was kind of embarrassing in the first place.

This episode also marks the first real development for Nodame and Chiaki as a couple. Stresemann and Minako's story are clearly meant to be a previous generation's version of Nodame and Chiaki. The problem that I have with this comparison is that, I am not sure if Stresemann's problem with Minako had anything to do with his lack of talent. I thought it was just pure misfortune that Minako went back to Japan and married someone she met in the country. Of course, there's also a likelihood that her family forced her to marry a Japanese instead of a foreigner. Either way, I don't see why Stresemann thinks that it was due to his incompetence that he couldn't be with Minako. On the other hand, I agree that this is the situation that Nodame is in at the moment. Chiaki clearly doesn't have romantic interest in her yet. The only thing that keeps his attention on her is her talent. If she were to lose that, I think there's a likelihood that he won't pay attention to her. This is why she needs to lift her skills a bit.

Preview

On next week's episode: When I was at a band camp...

© memento 2003