Nodame Cantabile

I absolutely LOVED this manga!!!! I should have read it a long time ago, as a huge fan of the live-action. Chiaki manages to be even MORE dreamy in the manga (despite Hiroshi Tamaki playing him in the live-action) and Nodame is definitely less annoying and even really cute in the manga. And their relationship is just so adorable. Aww. Side characters are also excellent and memorable, especially the R-S Oke members and Stresseman. It also expands on so much more than the live-action did (understandably) with many volumes taking place in Europe and Chiaki/Nodame's adventures there.I love music-themed manga so much. I do wish that the ending was a little stronger though and that it felt more "wrapped-up"... would have loved to see more of the Japanese gang and R-S Oke. I am a big fan of classical music and music in general so I really enjoyed it. The 2nd half of the manga has our lead couple visiting major music cities in Europe like Vienna, Prague, Berlin etc... I had just visited those places when I was reading this manga so it was very nice, lol. Another thing that is really impressive is just that it is a manga about music. You can't hear the symphonies and concertos that they play in this manga, but you can feeeeeeeeel it.

Read or watch, either one you will be happy. The real question is, should you read or watch? Differences 1. Audio - If you watch the Anime, you get to listen to the pieces and it gives you a much better understanding of the feelings of the various pieces and technical difficulty of playing them. Unless you go out of your way to find the specific piece and listen to it, you can't fully get it with the manga. 2. Drama - The manga has little to no drama, there isn't any competing affections or heartbreaks. Its very simple and lighthearted. The Anime focuses much more on therelationships and creating drama around them. Certain characters are much more prevalent, like the R*S Orchestra Folks. 3. Length - The anime is about 2x the length. Manga is much shorter, most of the "music playing" is covered in a page or 2, you can only show so many musical notes and the artist dramatically playing their instrument in so many ways. The Anime has long musically segments with the actual music playing in the background. Manga: 8/10 VS Anime: 9/10 I prefer to have the matching audio, and I like the more dramatized version the anime presents. But the stories are nearly identical, so if you don't care for classical music and you are looking for more of a drama free read, go with the manga. Just pick one, because its a great story.

Ah, Nodame Cantabile. I'm a big fan of yours. The anime really got me hooked up-- from the first season, second, til the finale. It was really breathtaking. So I tried to give the manga a chance. Story: 10 I'm not gonna talk about the story though, it's completely stunning, because the manga and the anime is just the same. The story is unbelievably realistic, and as the story goes on, it doesn't forget about the main topic, which is music. To me, this is undeniably the best music-themed series ever. The story doesn't lack of musical knowledge, instead we're offered so many musics, in this case,classical music. It doesn't suck at delivering the main point and we got to enjoy the story quickly. Way to go. Art: 6 As for the art... I don't know whether it's just me or it looks kinda unstable. Sometimes they look so beautiful but sometimes they look kinda funny (lol). Well... I personally don't really like the art. See, it's like, so simple compared to all other mangas I've ever read. It doesn't show much of details, and it's not very neat either. Character: 10 The character relates to the story. So we have two main characters: the perfectionist Chiaki Shinichi and your genius Noda Megumi. Their character isn't something particularly new: a harsh guy meets an eccentric girl, the girl falls in love with the harsh guy, the harsh guy rejects, the girl stays persistent, the guy realizes the girl's pure feelings and he started to open his heart. This could sound really boring because this plot has been used for over than thousands series out there, but ChiakixNodame pairing didn't disappoint me. Well, at the beginning I was kinda disturbed because their relationship doesn't show any improvement, but I'm happy they didn't let me down. Their pairing is so, dunno, fresh, because there is also something that shocks us and prevents us from getting bored. And besides, their characters are also strong and are understandable by the readers. Then... aside from the two main characters, the other supporting charas also did their job well. We could... feel their presence, and their existence becomes more important to us as the story goes by, even though they're not the main players. Enjoyment: 8 I would like to give 10 if we could hear the music as we read the manga... but unfortunately we can't. Yes, that's the only weak point of this manga. This manga is about music, and if we dunno the music that is being played (sometimes Ninomiya uses uncommon classical musics, am I right), we can barely imagine the feeling. The situation. Well, the good thing is that only weakness means nothing in the anime. If you're kinda disturbed by not being able to 'hear', I suggest you to watch the anime. Now. Overall: 8 Aside from the flaws such as the unstable art and the silent music, this manga is pretty enjoyable. Well, the story itself is fabulous indeed. At least you could imagine the music being played, haha. Even though I highly recommend the anime series more than this manga, since you can enjoy it to the fullest.