badger11’s take on anime

It’s gotten to the point where I’m tired of Gershwin’s Rhapsody in Blue. I keep thinking of bad airline commercials and bad airline service. Rachmaninoff’s Piano Concerto Number 2 is very nice (I suppose that I’ll be checking iTunes store to see if they have it). I know I’ve heard Rachmaninoff before, but I don’t think I’ve given him much thought.

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I have to feel a little for Chiaki. Stuck on a road trip with Nodame, Mine, and Masumi all of whom, despite being musicians, can’t harmonize together. Funnily enough, these apparent soloists are heading to a music festival. While we know that Streseman is a famous conductor, it shows that he does have a fair amount of clout to get four of his students admitted. All of them from the second string orchestra (Nodame is after all, the S Oke mascot). Admittedly, Masumi was also part of the A Oke, so he’s not really a second string musician.

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I can’t believe I’m going to make comparisons to a Steinbeck novel. Not a bad episode, we learn about Streseman’s background and why a character like him is in Japan and teaching of all things. While it appears that Streseman is out to impress an old flame, it is a little more deeper than that. I think the interesting point in this episode is when the school president makes the comment how its nice to hear the S orchestra play with passion. Considering that all of the members of the S Oke were underachievers until Streseman picked them, plus each member’s realization that they hadn’t played in an orchestra, it’s no wonder that they would have passion for music. If the school president feels that way about the S Oke, what about the A Oke? Could it be filled with overachievers who expected to get into A Oke and are playing with less evident passion than the S Oke? That’s not to say they don’t have any passion for music, but if she’s making a comment like that about the S Oke, then I wonder what she would think about the A Oke.

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It took a few moments to realize that the voice-over at the beginning of this episode was Mine. It took a few more moments to remember that he was reciting lines from a beginner’s book to orchestras. And we finally get to see the show’s punching bag in the form of Okochi Mamoru, a student from the Conducting department. In the live action, Okochi was introduced not only as a rival to Chiaki but as a Chiaki clone. We’d see him in the background imitating Chiaki’s mannerisms and at one point he tries to find out what brands of clothes Chiaki wears. Okochi was also one of my favorite secondary characters in the live action just because he’d routinely take abuse. Its interesting that I have no qualms about Okochi getting knocked silly, but the physical abuse that Nodame takes is starting to wear thin with me. It almost seems be verging into domestic abuse territory.

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Apparently Nodame has a mean right jab as she cold-cocks Streseman. Because she convinces everyone to let Chiaki conduct, we get to see that, as a conductor, he is adept at the technical side of conducting. Despite the complaining, even Masumi notices that the orchestra is still not up to the task. Being technically accurate doesn’t substitute for experience and the tricks of getting the best performance out of the musicians. While both Chiaki and Streseman both have the ability and the respect for the music, its obvious that Streseman also has respect for the musicians, something that we will undoubtedly see Chiaki learn over the course of the show’s run.

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This show is turning out to be quite the little gem of the season for me. Granted, there hasn’t been much in the way of storyline until now. The episodes so far have focused on introducing the main characters. On the surface, this episode isn’t really any different from the previous three, introducing us to von Streseman, the new head of the conducting department that Chiaki wants to transfer into. Streseman is appears to be the show’s antagonist, setting Streseman against Chiaki.

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