Cinnamon Ass

Our next main character is Mine, a punk violin player who hates the rigidity of classical music. After some coaching from Nodame and Chiaki, he obviously starts appreciating the classical tradition once more. Oh, and Chiaki’s ex gets a bit pushy after she gets turned down for the lead in The Magic Flute.

I thought this episode was a marked improvement on the first one, despite the ropey CG musicianship and the rather formulaic story. I think it’s because it really struck a chord with me as a “musician”, so I’m going to go off on a little digression about this.

Firstly, it’s interesting that Nodame Cantabile invokes the same reaction I feel at concerts and recitals at times; a slight annoyance I’m not involved. I find it very, very difficult to listen to classical music because I’d much rather be there playing it, and the montage moments that worked so well in Honey and Clover with Spitz and Sugao Shika don’t work that well for me here because the passive listening to music aggravates me! I know, it’s a little odd, but it’s something I’ll have to bear in mind as I watch the show.

Nodame’s playing-by-ear is something that worries me slightly for her character development. Chiaki notes that she plays music perfectly after one listen to a CD, but if she’s learning music simply by ear then she’s going to have difficulty making her own mark as a performer; Chiaki is obsessed with technical perfection (something I am guilty of as well, although I’m unfortunately not as talented a musician as Chiaki!), and although Nodame’s playing is almost perfect it’s not really her own. Perhaps she’s actually imbuing it with nuance or something like that, but the show’s given us no indication of that at this point. I’m probably just extrapolating too much from throwaway lines, though.

The issue raised here of playing “together” is an interesting one. In a recital situation like that, it’s of course essential that the soloist and accompanist/orchestra/whatever should try and help each other out as much as possible. However, Chiaki’s attitude isn’t exactly the way forward in my opinion; he’s got some valid points (I liked the masturbation comparison, mostly because it’s toilet humour but it’s also particularly apt!) but the accompanist and soloist should ideally work together on how the piece is going to be interpreted. Chiaki essentially lectures Mine until just before the violin jury, and while it all works out fine in the end I can’t help feel that it’s a bit too convenient that Chiaki is an uber-accompanist-conductor as well.

Anyhoo, I guess this show is my Beck as I’m theoretically more of a classical music nerd than rock (although I don’t ever listen to classical stuff for the reason outlined above!). Although Nodame is a much more conventional show than Beck in pacing, directorial style and narrative structure, it’s much more accessible as a result and I prefer the greater focus on music than in Beck; Beck is really about a boy’s life that just happens to involve a lot of rock music, but Nodame’s thinner characterisations are buoyed up by the script’s attitude and portrayal of the classical music world (Beck felt at times a bit too “fictional”, like what it’s supposed to be like to have a relatively successful band etc.)

Not quite sure what got me on to that tangent, but overall I think I quite like Nodame Cantabile, but I’m sure the show will have more to show me over the next few episodes to help me entirely make up my mind.

This entry was posted on Tuesday, January 23rd, 2007 at 8:19 am and is filed under Nodame Cantabile. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.