Not everybody likes classical music. I’m one of them. Mozart, Bach, Chopin – you name it, chances are I can’t even tell them apart. And Nodame Cantabile is full of classical music. In fact, the entire anime revolves around a group of students in a university devoted to classical music. But, I think I can safely say that the music won’t detract from your enjoyment of the series … unless of course you really, really hate the music.

Chiaki Shinichi is a student at the university, who has dreams of becoming a conductor. He’s a perfectionist, cynic, has an ego the size of a house and he’s as arrogant as hell. He is also; however, a top-class piano player.

After having a fight with his teacher, he gets shoved into the reject class, where he meets Noda Megumi, a somewhat haphazard and unconventional piano student. Megumi also happens to stay in the flat next to Shinichi. Megumi promptly proclaims herself to be Shinichi’s girlfriend, a fact which irritates him no end, but he finds himself unable to leave her be and ends up tutoring her, cleaning her flat, cooking for her, and in general just looking after her.

As personalities, Megumi and Shinichi are almost exact opposites, and for a romantic comedy this makes them an almost perfect couple. Megumi by herself is one of the most comedic characters I’ve come across without managing to be irritating – although I might be part of only a small group who think so.

Personally though, I found her expressiveness and over the top reactions pretty funny.

The 23 episode anime is based on the manga created by Ninomiya Tomoko, which is currently at volume 20 and still ongoing – not that there is any need to worry. The anime series was concluded quite well. There is also a live-action drama series comprising of 11 episodes and 2 special episodes.

The animation for the series isn’t groundbreaking by any means. Artwork and characters are reconisable and manages to escape being too generic, so there’s no need to worry about confusing them with characters on other shows, something I am coming across more and more often. One thing I did note though was the habit of using still shots during performances. Given the number of minute and precise movements that would be involved while playing musical instruments, I wasn’t too surprised though.

The music, as stated earlier, consists of mostly classical pieces that are performed in the show. But the opening and ending themes are very memorable. In particular, the second closing theme (Sagittarius by Suemitsu and the Suemiths) quickly managed to become a personal favourite.

So in closing – even if you hate classical music I would recommend you give Nodame Cantabile a watch. The characters are quirky and unique and the show brings up a few good laughs – there is a lot to enjoy in this show.