Nodame Cantabile in Europe: Special Lesson 1

January 5, 2008 | 33 Comments

Okay, that was brutal. I don't mean the actual show itself because that's actually pretty good. But what I had to go through just to watch/blog the episode was rough. First, it took 5 hours just to get the 2GB episode. After obtaining it, I realised that the first episode itself goes for 2 hours. That means spending an additional 6 hours just to watch, screencap, choose, and optimized the images. Thankfully the episode is worth the trouble. It's cheesy as usual but at least the series is very aware of how ridiculous the situation in the story can be. I'm also surprised at how the writers manage to squeeze in every single characters from the original series into this special. Even characters who are not supposed to be in the European arc of the story actually appear in this drama. Their roles are minimal though and it does not disrupt or change the story in any way.

Brief Summary:

After graduating from the Momogaoka music school and bidding goodbye to their friends, Chiaki and Nodame go to Paris. Their first night together is spent watching Viera-sensei performing and eating out at a restaurant, where Nodame accidentally orders Escargot (Snails in garlic butter sauce) because she can't speak French just yet. She, however, becomes offended when Chiaki makes fun of her inability to speak French and tells him that he's being arrogant now even though he was scared as a puppy during his flight. Later on, Chiaki realizes that Nodame hasn't had a chance to practice her French because she's been busy practicing her Piano and because he asked her to come with him earlier than her study schedule.

The next day, the two go sightseeing but Chiaki becomes frustrated when Nodame is mostly pre-occupied with foods instead. The two then go to the apartment owned by Chiaki's family and rented the rooms to help music students. It's in this apartment the two meet Frank (Eiji Wentz) and Tanya (Becky), music students from France and Russia, respectively. Frank actually met Nodame during the exam period so they already knew each other. Their closeness causes Chiaki to be a bit uncomfortable, especially when Frank kisses Nodame on the cheek. Frank, however, has a secret: he's an Otaku. The hardcore type who decorates his/her room with posters, have many figurines scattered around his computer desk. And oh, he's clearly a CLAMP fanboy judging from the CardCaptor Sakura and X posters in his bedroom.

Meanwhile, Nodame and Chiaki are sitting on a cafe so Nodame can practice her French. Unfortunately Nodame keep choosing phrases which either embarrasses Chiaki or makes others think that he's a rapist. Since Chiaki refuses to teach her how to speak French, Nodame decides to go to Frank's room and in the process finds out his anime obsession, especially with PuriGorota. Upon seeing PuriGorota in French, Nodame gets an idea to study French through anime so she ends up holing up in Frank's room for days. This causes Chiaki to worry and a bit jealous. But the truth is, he has nothing to worry about because after having to deal with Nodame staying at his place for days, Frank loses whatever crush he used to have on her.

Despite this, the two remains friends and decide to go to some kind of animation festival where the creator of PuriGorota will make his appearance. This pisses off Chiaki because he was hoping that Nodame will accompany him to Platini International Conducting Competition. Nodame promises that she'll try to come on the third primary but due to anger, Chiaki tells him to not even bother. The next day inside the train station, the two meet Jean Donnadieu, a French conducting student and his 'girlfriend', Yuuko. Yuuko and Nodame immediately dislike each other especially after Yuuko finds out that Chiaki will compete against Jean in the Platini competition. During the competition, Chiaki also meets another contestant, a Japanese guy by the name of Katahira Hajime. Despite the difference in performing style, Chiaki, Jean, and Hajime make it to the third primary.

Unfortunately, Chiaki's style and his tendency to overlord his orchestra members causes discontent amongst the orchestra members. As a result, everything falls apart when he has to perform Till. In order to cheer Chiaki up, Nodame decides to take him to a restaurant but they end up meeting Jean and the big-mouth Yuuko. When Yuuko starts insulting Chiaki, however, Jean tells her to stop it and decides to go away from the restaurant. That night, Chiaki lets Nodame sleep in his room, except that she gets the sofa and is rolled into a mattress with ducktape all over it so she can't go near him. The day after, Chiaki is surprised when he finds out that he makes it into the final round along with Jean and Hajime. When it comes to choosing the piece for their main performance, Jean's luck turns sour because he pick it himself instead of letting his ladyluck, Yuuko, to pick one for him. He gets Lalo, Symphonie espagnole, Op.21 out of the draw.

Chiaki, who asks Nodame to pick the draw for him gets lucky and obtains Tchaikovsky, Violin Concerto in D Major, Op.35. Later on it's revealed that Jean is actually Viera-sensei's student. He, however, is also surprised and upset when he finds out that Chiaki used to be Viera-sensei's student when he was 11. Despite having two students competing, Viera-sensei wishes the two of them the best. The night before the performance, Chiaki gets moral boost from all of the S/RS Orchestra ex-members. As a result, Chiaki gets into the final with a different attitude and wins the Platini competition. The next day, Nodame is awakened by Frank and Tanya, who reminds her that they have to go to school. Unknown to Nodame, Kuroki is also enrolled in the same school. Meanwhile, Chiaki is seen bidding goodbye to Jean/Hajime and walking away from the competition building when a man in black suit suddenly appears and assaulted him.

Impression:

I'm glad to see the brief opening involving most of the characters from the original series. I have forgotten how hilarious Masumi and Nodame's confrontations were until I saw it again here. This is one thing that is missing from the Europe chapter. Yuuko is just a one-off rival and is more annoying than funny while Franck, despite attempt from Eiji Wentz to make him more geeky, is not really a comic character. Anyway, I'm glad that Nodame finally stops taking Chiaki's crap and starts telling him how it is when he treats her like crap. His behaviour at the restaurant (which admittedly was alcohol-influenced but that still doesn't excuse him) was on a douchebag level. Good to see that he finally realizes that he wouldn't even be in Europe if it wasn't for Nodame. In other note, I love the outdoor night scenes as well as other outdoor scenes in this special. I think this is the advantage of having to shoot in overseas countries in that the viewers get to enjoy the sceneries that the characters see.

Eiji Wentz as Franck is okay. It's kind of amusing to see him as an Otaku. Did anyone spot that Honey and Clover manga on the online shop in his computer? Also, I think I saw Evangelion, Full Metal Alchemist, and other assorted figurines in his room along with those CardCaptor Sakura and X posters. The boy is clearly a CLAMP fanboy. Up to this day, I still don't understand why people like to call themselves Otaku and when they go to Japan too *facepalm*. As a note, people in Japan won't be impressed if they know you're an Otaku. They'll just give you a weird look and think you're one of those weirdos. Anyway, Eiji Wentz doesn't look remotely French. He probably would have look the part if his hair was cut short like Franck in the manga. Unfortunately, he still has that Japanese-styled haircut so he looks more like a Japanese playing a foreigner. Acting-wise, it's hard to say one way or another since his role is quite small.

Similarly, Becky also doesn't look Russian as Tanya although I admit there are times where she looks similar, profile-wise, to Tanya. It's probably the make-up, which is intentionally overdone. Tanya's story is a bit more interesting than Franck's though. It's kind of easy to relate to her struggle as a student in foreign country since I had similar experience. The difference is that I was lucky that other students who go to the school were not arrogant jerks who think everyone else is their competitor. As a result, we had a lot of fun together. It's hard to imagine going to school where the majority of your classmates see you as competitor and therefore would rather not befriend you. Having Nodame and Chiaki staying at the apartment is probably a nice change for her. On that note, while Nodame/Franck/Tanya friendship is not as funny and amusing as Nodame/Mine/Masumi, it certainly is one of the comic highlights on this arc. In general, however, the Europe arc is not as funny as the Japanese one.

It's great to see Chiaki looking a bit jealous for a change. Although it doesn't make sense since he seems so popular with girls and he knows how much Nodame is obsessed with him. Speaking of Chiaki, his control-freak nature is probably useful to help students who are unmotivated with their study but for others, it looks excessive and arrogant. While Tanya's comment about how the Japanese don't take vacation is meant to be for a joke, I thought there's some kind of truth to it and it's a bit sad. I'm also tired of seeing Chiaki treating Nodame like she's an object that he can use or discarded whenever he feels like it. His treatment of Nodame in the train station was very off-putting. He is lucky that despite his lousy treatment, Nodame stays around and his friends in Japan actually still care a lot about him. On that note, I wonder how he manages to speak to everyone on Japan and to Kikuchi in London and Kiyora in Wien? Is there some kind of super phone which allows you to speak to more than one party?

Jean is probably the only foreigner that they cast as one of the main supporting characters. Speaking of Jean, he looks the part but I can't help but feeling that he has no interest whatsoever in Yuuko. Most of the time he seems to treat her like she's his good luck charm. Still, in comparison to Yuuko, he's painted as a much better character in the series. It must be lousy to know that your teacher has another talented student that he never told you about and now you have to face off with this student in a competition. Yuuko, on the other hand, is painted as one of those snotty types who think that just because they have a famous significant others, they are better than others. It also makes me wonder if through Yuuko, Ninomiya Tomoko tries to make a social commentary about arrogant Japanese women who have foreigner boyfriends. At any rate, her character has to be one of the more annoying ones ever featured in this series. That's quite an achievement since I can't recall other characters being this annoying.

It's admirable how they manage to incorporate the original cast members like Kiyora and Mine (by giving them a long-distance romance problem) and Kikuchi (aka future Mayama in Honey and Clover live action). Speaking of Kikuchi, I was amused that once again he got 3 girls fighting over him. As for the music, I have to admit that I'm not as interested in the performances this time around. They feel flat and I'm just not a big fan of most of the musical composition that are included in this special (I especiall dislike Till). But then again, I am not a big classic music fan. There are several classical music that I like but in general, I don't go out of my way to seek them. I do like the piece that Nodame played at the apartment when she and Chiaki first arrived there. The Mozart piece that Jean performed and Chiaki's Tchaikovsky piece were also good. Apart from those three, however, there wasn't anything else that stands out. At least not like the performances in the original TV series.

© memento 2003