Having just posted my view on the ongoing managa series, it is only appropriate to rave about the anime show as well. And the show exceeds my expectations as a fan of the Nodame Cantabile manga. The director, Kenichi Kasai, stays fateful to the storyline in the manga. But he decides to animate and show characters playing music, and made the music itself a major component of the show. Episode 11 exemplifies this approach. Shinichi is being showcased as the piano player in a major piano concerto piece by Rachmaninoff, with the orchestra conducted by Stresseman. While the music is being played out, a music critic gives his “live” take on the performance. In doing so, the director enlightens befuddled viewers like myself. The music itself is simply breathtaking, and you can’t comprehend or appreciate the beauty of the music by just reading about it in the manga. In other words, the director recognized the inherent opportunities in this form of media, and brought the music front and center to the viewers. Bravo!
Archive for June, 2007
Bravo for Nodame Cantabile TV Series
Friday, June 8th, 2007Nodame Cantabile, Revisited
Friday, June 8th, 2007Back in 2005, I wrote up a review on Amazon regarding Nodame Cantabile (NC), when the first volume was released by newly formed Del Rey. Two years and eight volumes later, it’s worth the time to write a followup to that review, as my initial Manga post in this blog.
Tomoko Ninomiya continues to impress me with her ability to keep the characters entertaining, in a frenetic way, while making the series interesting to follow. All the major characters, set in a music university setting, have grown bit by bit, volume by volume. Volume 9 takes place where a cast of characters, including the protagonist Shinichi, finally graduates, and thereby bringing the series to a close and a new beginning at the same time. By this latest volume, the author has exposed the weaknesses of the major characters in the series, and seriously resolved many of them, elevating these characters to a higher planes of personal development. The author does a truly terrific job in laying the foundations for these developments, and astute readers can see where the series is headed.
NC is an original manga series, and an enjoyable one too. It is, in my view, one of the best manga series available in English.
Geneon Bountiful Bargains Remix at TRSI!!!
Tuesday, June 5th, 2007
The 10 for $50, or 25 for $100 Geneon sale is here again! Woot! This sale is designed to help the manufacturer get rid of their inventory on older merchandise. And considering that these prices include shipping, that’s a really nice deal! This deal is limited to a list of Geneon CDs, DVDs, and UMDs. Sale ends June 23.
I went ahead and just placed an order: L/R v. 1-4 plus box, Patlabor Movie 3 SE, RaXephon CD v. 1, Starship Operators v. 1-3, and Tsukihime CD v. 1. Looking forward to getting this from TRSI. 
Batman Giveaway Sale at Forbidden Planet NYC
Monday, June 4th, 2007NYC’s Foridden Planet had a recent contest offering a $2400 Batman lifesized statue as prize. I entered the contest myself, but had no interest in winning the prize (taxes would be quite a bit due to the value of the item). But what I WAS interested in was the 25% off sale for all items purchased with the ticket stub.
Call me a procrastinator, but I finally got around to using the ticket stub yesterday (Sunday), the very last day of the sale. and sure enough, some of the booties I was eyeing were long gone. T_T I was prepared to spend $300, but ended up paying only $65, including sales tax, for Chaos Gate Jingai Makyo: Kaze no Ushiro wo Ayumumomo 1/10 scale figure plus the Bome: Gunbuster Noriko figure. Not a bad haul, eh? 
Simply Heroic
Monday, June 4th, 2007One show I’m really enjoying right now is Heroic Age, a sci-fi story where humans aka the “Bronze Tribe” are threatened with extinction by a dominant race called the “Silver Tribe.” Following a prophecy handed down by the “Gold Tribe,” Queen Deianeira searches for the Fifth Nodos, who is prophecized to save humanity by fighting the Silver Tribe.
The story takes place in space, and features a lot of space battles reminiscent of Macross. The computer graphics for the ships are truly amazing, and very enjoyable to watch. The designs of the Nodos (mecha) are similar to that of Magic Knight Rayearth mechas. The character style is straight from Gundam Destiny, except that the bodies look rather anorexic. >_<
The music soundtrack is top notch. During space battles, they use music created with a full blown orchestra. The ending song, “Azurite” by Tae Urakabe is a beautiful love ballad featuring a guitar and piano (interesting combo that somehow works).
Heroic Age is an epic show that is exciting to watch. I can’t wait to see how it all ends.
More info available at Anime News Network.
