Nodame Cantabile: Paris-Hen

Title:Nodame Cantabile: Paris-Hen
Nodame Cantabile: Paris Chapter
のだめカンタービレ 巴里編
Overall:Rent
Keywords: , , , , , , , , ,
Notables: Animation - JC Staff
Nodame and Chiaki travel to Paris to further their developments in music with each one facing their own challenges involving music, their neighbors, the culture, and even romance.
11 TV episodes. Animation Production by J.C. Staff.
[edit] The ↗Nodame Cantabile franchise:

Anime: Live Action: Series in a series:
OverallArtAnimationCharacter Design MusicSeries StoryEpisode StoryReviewer
Buy 8 8 8 9 8 8 Dreamer [series:1906#2279]
Ahh, some more Nodame goodness! I thoroughly loved the first season so picking this one up was a no-brainer. How was it?

Art, Animation & Character Designs
Artwork seemed to have improved ever so slightly from the first season. Or maybe it was just my imagination. Either way, it wasn't bad.... mainly in the character designs. (See my review on the first season here).

Music
The OP wasn't bad but not my tastes. It was a.... well, not sure how to classify it. Almost sounded like something that would be sung on stage at something like a ritz-carlton....?? The soundtrack had plenty of classical pieces much like the first season but not nearly as much. Still greatly enjoyable.

Series and Episode Story
So we almost start up where the first season leaves off. Near the end of the first season, there was talk of going to Paris for schooling. So here we are in the second season and the 1st episode opens up to them (Nodame and Chiaki) hitting a taxi from an airport in Paris.

In this round, we don't have as much in the classical music department as the first since of course, we're shorter on episodes. But also, the series leans a bit more towards progressing the plot and skips alot of musical performances we might normally see. The relationship between Nodami and Chiaki also starts developing a bit more as Chiaki slowly begins to realize and reciprocates Nodami's love.

Overall, this series is still an excellent buy. Plot is good, characters are good and of course, the music is excellent.

Last updated Wednesday, May 18 2011. Created Wednesday, May 18 2011.
Rent 8 8 8 9 8 9 Silence [series:1906#2939]
Nodame continues her antiques with Chiaki in Paris. This time she works harder and becomes a more promising pianist. Chiaki also starts to be more honest with himself and begins to accept Nodame. With their love blossoming, this series is certainly more interesting story wise.

However, the wonderful music that made Nodame Cantabile one of my favourites does not take up as much time. And 11 episodes is too short. With so little time, not much can happen, and indeed, not much did. Chiaki just goes around touring the world, and we do not get to see any of it. When he lands a job with a professional orchestra that is in the ditches, things did not get exceptional either. The time just went by in a breeze. Ah... still, I want more Nodame.

Last updated Thursday, December 03 2009. Created Thursday, December 03 2009.
Rent 9 9 8 7 8 6 Ggultra2764 [series:1906#1552]
I was greatly disappointed with this latest season of Nodame Cantabile. Mainly, my problem was with the episode length. Being at 11 episodes, events felt rushed and compressed which made it hard for me to connect with the developments that took place with plot and characters, especially as this season features some major developments in the bond between Nodame and Chiaki. With so much going on throughout the 11 episodes, you don't get much in the way of breathing room in order to take in events that have just taken place making things feel unnatural. But at the very least, the humor coming off character quirks and characters responding to different pressures when learning and preparing music is still around to keep things going in each episode.

I especially got fits over the limited time that musical scenes lasted. While the animation in these scenes are a great improvement over season 1 as there is more movement and less still shots, the time focused on them is much less. Nodame Cantabile's main focus is how music shapes the lives of the characters in this series. With music scenes either reduced in time or taken out entirely, the series felt less focused on music and more shaped like a typical romantic comedy.

As it is, Nodame Cantabile: Paris is a step down from what I got out of the mix of music and comedy from the last season. It's still worthwhile for the character comedy and improved musical performance animations. But, it doesn't feel like the complete package thanks to the limited episode length.

Last updated Thursday, December 25 2008. Created Saturday, November 01 2008.
Rent Stretch [series:1906#628]
(Rent- or Watch+)

(All episodes watched):

This series picks up where the last one left off, except the principal characters are now in Paris. The first series seemed to become unfocused and a little tiresome towards the end, but this one seems to be on target again and I'm enjoying it. I'm pleased to see the eccentric character "Milch" Stresemann is back. The thought did occur to me that in order to differentiate characters it would be very helpful if it was possible to visually tell westerners and orientals apart. Though it's an amusing and enjoyable show, I can't help feeling that NC Paris is so very slice-of-life that few startling or intriguing events take place. As a result, I often feel that if it got just slightly more tedious, I might actually find it boring. The episode where Shinichi discovers just how pathetic the orchestra he's been hired to conduct is seemed to "up" the excitement considerably, which seemed good news, but afterwards he does nothing radical (at least for two episodes), which returns the level of tension to the usual state. The new cast of supporting characters in Paris seem less distinctive than those back in Japan. Still, I have learned a good deal about how classical music is managed and performed. I always assumed that the "Conductor" was God, with virtually absolute power over the musicians of a orchestra; I'd never heard of the role of "Concert Master". Learning something is generally good. In the end, I think I liked this second season about the same as the first. On a number of occasions episodes turned out to be a good deal more fun than I was expecting. There was no radical conclusion and yet another season could easily be added on.

Last updated Saturday, February 07 2009. Created Thursday, October 30 2008.

Other Sites
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Official Japanese Language Web Site http://www.nodame-anime.com/

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