Title: Nodame Cantabile / のだめカンタービレ
Rating: 9 / 10
Recommended for:
Those who are fans of the original manga series and the cast members especially Ueno Juri and Tamaki Hiroshi and/or like school dramas with a classical music/musicians theme
* Disclaimer: I had read the original manga.
Liked:
- I can't remember how many times I've watched this drama since its first OA almost 20 years ago but with its release on Netflix recently, I found it hard to resist taking another look at this again. Especially considering the fact that I had read the original manga first before watching this drama, I was still entertained enough to watch this without having the need to press fast-forward or watch this at 1.5X playback speed.
- If you had read the post I wrote in August 2006 prior to the OA of this drama, I was pretty doubtful about whether this real-life drama adaptation would be good. Since I am a big fan of the manga, I didn't like the prospect of the drama ruining it for me. What's more, considering that I wasn't too familiar with Ueno Juri and Tamaki Hiroshi back then, I didn't have much confidence in them playing Nodame and Chiaki. However, all that turned out to be worry for nothing because they turned out to be so good at playing their respective roles so much that I became convinced they were the best choices after all.
Back then, I had also mentioned that Mizukawa Asami, Nagayama Eita and Uehara Misa would be good for their roles because they matched the images in the manga (at least from my perspective). Once I got to watch the drama, there were quite a number of others who also managed to bring their characters to life in a good way e.g. Koide Keisuke, Fukushi Seiji, Mukai Osamu and Takenaka Naoto. It will be a good walk down memory lane for those who want to see these actors back in their younger days.
- One key element of this drama's success was the classical music scenes. Be it the practice sessions or the actual performances, they were a joy to sit through even for those who are unfamiliar with this genre. My personal favourites are S Orchestra's performance of "Rhapsody In Blue" and the Rising Star Orchestra's performances at Suntory Hall in the final episode.
Disliked:
- The only downside to being so familiar with the storyline and characters was the lack of surprise. As such, watching this felt a bit different from approaching a brand new story and could feel a tad boring for those like me because you would know what was going to come.
