Nodame Cantabile ep.13

April 20, 2007 | 15 Comments

You know, I never understands why Chiaki is popular amongst girls. Sure, he's supposedly handsome but he's also a screamer. Anyone who spends enough time with him will know that he goes "HiiiEEE!!" everytime he's afraid of something. Isn't it a major turn-off when someone that you like turns out to be a major screamer everytime there's something that scares him/her? Anyway, this episode was actually entertaining. That cheesy song that Moe/Kaoru get to sing in the Karaoke was comedy central. I can't remember a song that requires me to spell the alphabet apart from that "A, B, C, D" song that I learned when I was in kindergarden. But in this episode, you get to see two grown women spelling alphabet in a song and once they're done, a bunch of men went "Moee!!". I don't get it.

After the 2nd exam, Mine asks Chiaki if the later is going to perform in the graduation concert and much to Mine's annoyance, Chiaki is confident about this. Their conversation comes to an end when Nodame asks them to watch Moe's 2nd Exam performance. Much to Chiaki's surprise there are many S Orchestra members who are doing 2nd Exam. Nodame is wistful to hear this because although everyone became good players, it'll be a waste since S Orchestra will be gone. Chiaki thinks if the group wants to continue playing, they should just join civic orchestra as a hobby while they work. Upon hearing this, Mine suggests to Chiaki that they set up their own orchestra outside school. He reminds Chiaki about the summer festival, saying that he still in contact with one of them by exchanging letters. Unfortunately for Mine, his idea is rejected by Chiaki immediately. Despite this Mine is not giving up on the idea.

He confronts Chiaki, wanting to know what the guy will do if he stops conducting. Chiaki chooses not to answer the question and instead walk straight into a supermarket and purchase a large amount of canned foods. Nodame who is horrified to see this decides to treat Chiaki to a conveyer-belt Sushi. Chiaki who has never been to a conveyer-belt Sushi restaurant is annoyed that the Sushi rotates around the table. When he chooses his Sushi, it's Nodame who's shocked because Chiaki has chosen a 400 Yen Sushi. In addition to this, Chiaki is not impressed by the taste and only eats the meat part of the Sushi, leaving the Nori/rice part for Nodame. Nodame is stressed out about this, telling the guy that she too wants to eat the Sashimi. Upon hearing this, Chiaki picks several Gari (pickled ginger) and placed it on top of his untouched rice. He calls the creation "Gari-zushi". Eventually Nodame is frustrated by Chiaki's act and calls him on it.

She tells Chiaki that she'll never buy him Sushi again for sure. Chiaki, however, reminds her that she was the one who offered to buy him dinner and besides, he's the one who ended up paying for it. He thinks people don't usually go to Sushi restaurant if they only have 3000 Yen. Nodame retorts and tells him that the amount is usually enough to eat in conveyor belt restaurant. Upon hearing this Chiaki admits to himself that he thought Nodame was taking him to Uraken so she doesn't have to pay. He's surprised to know that she was concerned enough to take him out to eat. For the first time, Chiaki realises that Nodame is trying to take care of him and is worried about him. Because of this, Chiaki tells her about Hiroshi Asano, a conductor who is coming to instruct the A orchestra. Chiaki believes he can win the guy's favour. The guy would probably be busy so maybe he'll let Chiaki conduct the A Orchestra from time to time.

The next day, Mine continues to pester Chiaki about his intention to set up Orchestra together. Their conversation comes to a halt when the concert master from the summer music festival, Miki Kiyora, comes to the school. Kiyora apparently has come to Momogaoka because her instructor, Kai Dowin, will teach here as well. It seems he's been invited by the director of the school. Rumour has it that he and Stresemann fought over her when they were young. Kiyora then goes straight to the point, asking Chiaki to start an orchestra with her. Much to Mine's horror, Chiaki agrees right away. Kiyora is happy to hear this and tells Chiaki that she can get a lot of members from the festival to join the orchestra. She assures Chiaki that Oboe player, Kuroki, and Cello player, Kikuchi, would be more than willing to join if Chiaki asks for them. Chiaki is surprised to hear this so Kiyora explains that Chiaki is famour thanks to his exposure in "Dream Color Classic".

After Kiyora left, Mine asks Chiaki to allow him and his friend to join the orchestra. While Chiaki agrees to let Mine's friend to join, he gives Mine a pre-requisite: to be in the A Orchestra at the next exam. If he can do it, then Chiaki will let him join the orchestra. Mine agrees with this arrangement and runs off to practice. A few months later prior to his graduation concert, Masumi finds out that his accompanying partner has appendicities and therefore can't play with Masumi in the recital. Unfortunately for Masumi, none of the other students know how to play Andre Jolivet's Concerto. Thankfully Chiaki is an exception to this and he is quite willing to be Masumi's accompanying partner at the last minute. During the performance, Masumi remembers how he met Chiaki when the later stopped him from falling backwards while carrying a large drum. Ever since that day, Masumi has been in love with Chiaki.

After the performance is over, Chiaki decides to ask Masumi if he'd like to play in his new orchestra if Masumi has the time. Masumi gives Chiaki his answer by giving the poor guy a man hug. As for Chiaki's own performance, he excells in it as expected. That night, all S Orchestra members go out together to have graduation party. The two guys who like the Suzuki sisters try to impress them but unfortunately they are too busy fighting over who gets to serve Chiaki a beer. Since the guys are jealous of Chiaki, they try to embarrassed him by forcing Chiaki to play Taiko drum master. Chiaki doesn't seem to mind but before he can do it, Masumi already takes over. The same thing happens when the guys choose a Puri-Gorota song for Chiaki to sing in Karaoke. Meanwhile, Nodame has an encounter with Saiko when she goes to the Ladies' restroom. Saiko immediately slaps Nodame when the later calls her without using honorific.

Nodame, however, comes back for more and gives Saiko a bear hug and drunkenly calls her pretty and smells good. After some girl on girl grope, Saiko decides to drown Nodame's head in a cold water. At first Saiko wonders what Chiaki could possibly see in Nodame but upon seeing Nodame's large hand, she realises why Chiaki is fond of Nodame. As the night turns to dawn, Mine and the rest of the drunk S Orchestra sing farewell song before they go their separate ways. Chiaki who go home with Nodame wants to play game or sing Karaoke again. He admits to being annoyed that everyone was teasing him. He also thinks people dislike him but Nodame disagrees. Meanwhile, at a train station, Suzuki sisters are upset because Chiaki didn't ask them to join his new orchestra. Chiaki, however, explains that he doesn't want to create something that's an extension of S Orchestra. The episode ends with Chiaki and Nodame dancing Waltz on the street.

Impression:

Well, that was kind of good and not so good. I'm glad that we finally get to see Chiaki and Nodame dancing Waltz on the street since the live action version didn't show that scene. On the other hand, the live-action did a much better job with the S Orchestra farewell party. I just think the live action developed the S Orchestra members a lot better than the anime. In addition to this, the anime cut out Chiaki's important sentence about how when the Spring arrives, everyone would have move on to the next stage. That was one of the best lines in the manga and was even better when it was delivered in the live-action. Here it's completely non-existent. As for the Waltz scene in anime versus the 3 R☆S Orchestra's arrival in the live-action, I think both are equally good. However, since the live-action was not going to cover next week's anime story, they decided to introduce Kuroki and the others as soon as the S Orchestra arc is over.

It's also strange to see Kiyora not being Masumi's best friend in this version. I guess this is the effect of watching the live-action first before reading the manga or watching the anime. The Sushi place scene is still awesome regardless which version you see. I have to agree with Chiaki, you don't go to a Sushi restaurant, not even a conveyer belt one if you only bring 3000 Yen (around 30 dollars). That place sucks money faster than you know. I really miss this famous conveyer belt Sushi in Japan called Kappa Sushi. Unlike other conveyer belt restaurant, this one has family seats kind of area. That means you can go with 4-6 friends and have great time since you can talk to one another much easily than if you sit in a line one after another. Some of my best memory in Japan was going with my friends late at night and spend 1 to 2 hours there. Anyway, if you haven't seen it before, you must watch the Sushi video I included below.

Sushi: the Japanese tradition

ED Theme: 「Sagittarius」by SUEMITSU AND THE NODAME ORCHESTRA - AVI version (30.2MB) | PSP version

Preview

On next week's episode: Meet the Shinichis!!

© memento 2003