Nodame Cantabile

Nodame Cantabile is one wacky, zany show music. You've got your two characters with very different personalities, played by the bad hair dude from Last Christmas and Ueno Juri. Ahh, Euno Juri stole the show in Swing Girls and in this show, she plays Nodame, the energizer bunny of the show as opposed to our 'cool' hero. Watching Swing Girls, you could tell she has the X factor and its pretty obvious in this show. She doesn't have the gravure looks or supermodel body but goddamn she can act.


I like how she gives Nodame her own unique mannerisms like her hunchback piano playing or her baka looking smile and child like innocence. While this is obviously based on a shoujo manga, I find that its very enjoyable and not too shoujo, unlike Hana Yori Dango. In fact, I would equate it with KareKano or Yawara, shoujo shows that are watchable by guys. Or maybe its because of the fast pacing of the show or the abundance of slapstick jokes.


Then there's the swing girl aspect of the show. A bunch of underdogs are going to get together to form a band. Its this part of the show that I'm more concerned about. Japanese shows are damn good at doing underdog stories but at the same time, it can bevery cliched and boring like My Boss My Hero ep 8.


But I'm pretty sure it gonna work cause there's a lot of characters and they'll be plenty of stories to tell. Speaking of characters, that Strazemann character is loud out funny, especially when he tries speaking Japanese like a gaijin and Nodame ends up speaking gaijin nihongo as well. Toyohara Kosuke and Nishimura Mashiko play two music teachers and hopefully both of them will get a lot of comedy stuff in this show.


If you're watching only one show this season, its gotta be Nodame or Sailor Fuku to Kikanjuu which I will talk about after the subs come out. Did I mention how happy I am to see Ueno Juri in a dorama?:)