Thoughts about "Reversal Orchestra" Ep 1 - Winter 2023

When news of this drama first came out, my gut feeling was, this sounds a lot like "Nodame Cantabile". Not to mention that the character settings of the leads were almost identical i.e. a talented musician who struggles in life or has some emotional trauma to overcome vs. a conductor who has a sharp tongue, is good-looking, annoyingly cocky with a weakness. As such, I was a bit worried about this drama being a straight rip-off from Nodame or that it will be compared down to the finest detail with such a successful classical music-themed series.

Upon closer scrutiny of the storyline and after watching the first episode, these two dramas are luckily not carbon copies of each other. To begin with, "Reversal Orchestra" doesn't have an original novel or manga like "Nodame" so it has a bit more freedom in terms of how the story's direction could go. However, you can't deny that the marriage of classical music with the evergreen theme of how underdogs rise against the odds to turn their lives around with passion, talent and hard work is similar.

 

Frankly speaking, I don't foresee this drama deviating too much from this ultimate outcome: the struggling orchestra will get better under the leadership of its new conductor and concert master and achieve the seemingly insurmountable goal of performing at the new classical music concert hall in a few months' time. As such, if you can adjust your expectations accordingly instead of hoping for big surprises in the plot, I think that this should still be an enjoyable drama to watch just based on the first episode.

For a music-themed drama, the highlight would definitely be the performing scenes. In order to show the contrast between having no competent concert master to lead the half-hearted Kodama Orchestra (Tamakyo) and the violin prodigy Tanioka Hatsune (Kadowaki Mugi) taking the lead so effortlessly with her excellent skills, you have to be prepared for the "terrible" playing in the "before" stage. It really doesn't take a music expert to hear the difference and I think it could actually be more challenging for the cast or the Kanagawa Philharmonic Orchestra to play at that kind of level. Just like whar Tokiwa Asahi (Tanaka Kei) pointed out, if you listen to them play individually, it probably wouldn't sound that bad. However, when everything was jumbled together in such a disharmony, it was super jarring on the ears. And because of this very extremely bad level of playing for a so-called professional orchestra, the effect that Hatsune brought to Tamakyo almost immediately would have been very distinguishable for any viewer. Not only was the level of the performance greatly improved, I think what came across more strikingly for me was the joy noticeable from the music and the elated expressions on the cast members that it seemed like they were all having fun while immersed in making great music.

The thing is, it will probably take another few more episodes to get through the background stories of the key orchestra members before the main conflict takes centrestage. If everything can be settled by Ep 5, that should leave enough time for the rivalry between Tamakyo and the more established and cash-rich Takashina Philharmonic to develop. And since Takashina Philharmonic looks likely to be led by Mishima Shoichiro (Nagayama Kento) and that both he and Hatsune are violin players, it may turn out to be a one-on-one battle to see who is better as a violin soloist or can lead their orchestras better. I also wouldn't be surprised if a love triangle develops later between Hatsune, Asahi and Shoichiro towards the end especially since Shoichiro and Hatsune seemed to have something going on between them which ended some years ago. Hopefully, it wouldn't be too angsty or draggy or overly romantic. Keeping it light is probably the best way to go about it.

Coming to the characters and the casts' acting, some of them had clearly stood out a bit more due to the airtime they got. Kadowaki being a very versatile actress, went through a total change here from the chilling psycho killer last season to a somewhat socially awkward (she was very focused on her dream of becoming a top violinist and couldn't care about anything else) yet very endearing girl who loves her violin and music so much. Tanaka's character should have some background story explaining why he is so arrogant and abrasive at times towards other people but for now, I thought what was most memorable was his interaction with his father i.e. city mayor Tokiwa Shusuke (Namase Katsuhisa). It also made me chuckle when Shusuke's rival for the mayor race i.e. Motomiya Yuuichi was branded as a politician who is only good for his looks and nice-sounding voice - that being an obvious reference to Tsuda Kenjiro's characteristic low-toned voice. Tsunematsu Yuri was also pretty eye-catching as Hatsune's younger sister Kanna and their quarrel scene was cute and heartwarming to watch. If you've seen "Alice in Borderland 2" recently, it will probably be hard for you to reconcile the fact that Heiya and Kanna are played by the same person. 

For now, I should be continuing to watch this drama for the foreseeable future with the performing scenes being the biggest draw at the moment. I just hope that the character development will be comprehensive enough to flesh out these roles properly so that they can entice the viewers to stay on even if the story can be predictable. As a feel-good drama to watch mid-week, I think this is a pretty decent choice.