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NEWS: Nodame Cantabile Breaks Late Night Record


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scortia



Joined: 27 Mar 2006
Posts: 174
PostPosted: Mon Jan 15, 2007 6:37 pm Reply with quote
Wow. Impressive. It could be thanks to the popularity that the live action series brought recently. I haven't heard of too many manga that was created as a live-action BEFORE the anime version came out. :p
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Josh7289



Joined: 27 Aug 2005
Posts: 1252
PostPosted: Mon Jan 15, 2007 7:04 pm Reply with quote
scortia wrote:
Wow. Impressive. It could be thanks to the popularity that the live action series brought recently. I haven't heard of too many manga that was created as a live-action BEFORE the anime version came out. :p


Death Note is the only one I knew of.
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hashihime



Joined: 02 May 2006
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PostPosted: Mon Jan 15, 2007 7:05 pm Reply with quote
In fact, the original Animate TV story in Japanese says that it broke the record for the first episode of a late-night anime, not for any episode.

Still a great achievement for what looks from the first episode like a great anime. NANA had some much higher ratings when it used to come on just before midnight, and Hataraki Man has rated higher, too, I believe, coming on in the same time slot as Nodame.

Yes, the dorama gave the ND anime a big boost. But the main thing is that now women have some anime to watch, and shows like the three mentioned are tapping a big new anime audience.
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subaru



Joined: 26 Sep 2005
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PostPosted: Mon Jan 15, 2007 9:30 pm Reply with quote
Josh7289 wrote:
scortia wrote:
Wow. Impressive. It could be thanks to the popularity that the live action series brought recently. I haven't heard of too many manga that was created as a live-action BEFORE the anime version came out. :p


Death Note is the only one I knew of.


there are quite a few.... Nana, GTO, Kindaichi Shonen no Jikenbou...... H2 (correct me if I'm wrong)
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whoisfriend



Joined: 06 Oct 2006
Posts: 369
PostPosted: Mon Jan 15, 2007 10:21 pm Reply with quote
subaru wrote:
Josh7289 wrote:
scortia wrote:
Wow. Impressive. It could be thanks to the popularity that the live action series brought recently. I haven't heard of too many manga that was created as a live-action BEFORE the anime version came out. :p


Death Note is the only one I knew of.


there are quite a few.... Nana, GTO, Kindaichi Shonen no Jikenbou...... H2 (correct me if I'm wrong)


I was going to mention GTO. Also, Nana and Death Note had movies, not live action series. The Gokusen also had a live action series before the anime was made if I recall correctly. And the new Miina anime is based off of the anime show featured in Densha Otoko (which everyone should watch).
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Malintex Terek
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PostPosted: Tue Jan 16, 2007 1:40 am Reply with quote
Very well, if a more in-depth response is required I will be more than happy to gift ANN's most deserving discussion topic a minscule piece of my highly sharpened and educationally fortified mind;

I am thoroughly surprised by such an upsurge of interest in Nodame Cantabile, for in-spite of its acclaim as an accomplished and highly entertaining Japanese drama, the anime was frankly quite dull and uninteresting. Such is likely related to the poor production values; while we have an "all star" voice actor/actress cast in place, the animation suffered from frame jumps, freezes, a full spectrum of muted colours, positively hideous character designs and a deceptive musical score.

I say deceptive because the placement of the Beethoven/Mozart music treatise in the first episode sound deliberate, as in, fake. Not to mention the finger-key choreography for the show wasn't synchronized fully with the music, which isn't shocking in and of itself given a typical anime's propensity to avoid full concurrence with "lip flaps" at that.

As such, I believe the anime is benefitting only from the success of the J-drama and not to its own personal merits; it is a widely accepted heuristic that Japan has a hardy appetite for "more of the same" in regard to shows, drama, and manga, but in this case the animated rendition of Nodame Cantabile is so exceedingly poor I would recommend Westerners to avoid it like a noble would bubonic plague in Medieval Europe.

Even from a musician's perspective, this show only lightly touches upon music culture, as it it were written by an outsider to a symphonic lifestyle attempting to conceptualize and translate the complicated intricacies of a musician's passion into general-feed entertainment. The footprint of a good writer is the lack thereof; to make this alienation so painfully obvious is not the halmark of a drama deserving of ubiquitous praise.
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Leebo



Joined: 14 Nov 2005
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PostPosted: Tue Jan 16, 2007 6:25 am Reply with quote
Quote:

I am thoroughly surprised by such an upsurge of interest in Nodame Cantabile, for in-spite of its acclaim as an accomplished and highly entertaining Japanese drama, the anime was frankly quite dull and uninteresting. Such is likely related to the poor production values; while we have an "all star" voice actor/actress cast in place, the animation suffered from frame jumps, freezes, a full spectrum of muted colours, positively hideous character designs and a deceptive musical score.


I personally loved the character designs, and the overall similar artistic style that is present in Honey and Clover. Regarding the animation, I never expected the show to have such a blockbuster budget that they would animate every piano piece accurately; it would be awesome, but it's not necessarily required for enjoyment, given the medium.

You are surprised that it got such good ratings for its first episode, given the alleged weaknesses you point out, but how were the people who were interested in it and boosted its ratings supposed to know about these things beforehand? Logically, they would notice now and ratings would suffer later.

And that brings me to my last point... which is that this was the first episode. I liked the characters; I liked the art; I liked the concept. The animation isn't movie-quality, but I'm willing to forgive that. The other issues, such as how it touches on music culture and its pacing, are things that I wouldn't think of judging after a single episode.
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hikaru004



Joined: 15 Mar 2004
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PostPosted: Tue Jan 16, 2007 10:57 am Reply with quote
I thought that the use of Mozart's "Sonata for 2 Pianos" was a good lesson for cooperation.

But I tend to disagree that the ratings will dip because of animation quality in the first episode. The story and the music should carry the series. Problems with animation can be corrected on the DVD release and with further episode release on TV. Synchronization shouldn't be that much of an issue imo since most people who watch this probably aren't musicians imo.
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Swissman



Joined: 11 May 2006
Posts: 766
Location: Switzerland
PostPosted: Tue Jan 16, 2007 4:32 pm Reply with quote
subaru wrote:
Josh7289 wrote:
scortia wrote:
Wow. Impressive. It could be thanks to the popularity that the live action series brought recently. I haven't heard of too many manga that was created as a live-action BEFORE the anime version came out. :p


Death Note is the only one I knew of.


there are quite a few.... Nana, GTO, Kindaichi Shonen no Jikenbou...... H2 (correct me if I'm wrong)

H2, the anime tv series, is from 1994, whereas the dorama is from recent years.
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CloverKuroba



Joined: 02 Nov 2006
Posts: 506
PostPosted: Tue Jan 16, 2007 7:02 pm Reply with quote
Malintex Terek wrote:
Very well, if a more in-depth response is required I will be more than happy to gift ANN's most deserving discussion topic a minscule piece of my highly sharpened and educationally fortified mind;

I am thoroughly surprised by such an upsurge of interest in Nodame Cantabile, for in-spite of its acclaim as an accomplished and highly entertaining Japanese drama, the anime was frankly quite dull and uninteresting. Such is likely related to the poor production values; while we have an "all star" voice actor/actress cast in place, the animation suffered from frame jumps, freezes, a full spectrum of muted colours, positively hideous character designs and a deceptive musical score.

I say deceptive because the placement of the Beethoven/Mozart music treatise in the first episode sound deliberate, as in, fake. Not to mention the finger-key choreography for the show wasn't synchronized fully with the music, which isn't shocking in and of itself given a typical anime's propensity to avoid full concurrence with "lip flaps" at that.

As such, I believe the anime is benefitting only from the success of the J-drama and not to its own personal merits; it is a widely accepted heuristic that Japan has a hardy appetite for "more of the same" in regard to shows, drama, and manga, but in this case the animated rendition of Nodame Cantabile is so exceedingly poor I would recommend Westerners to avoid it like a noble would bubonic plague in Medieval Europe.

Even from a musician's perspective, this show only lightly touches upon music culture, as it it were written by an outsider to a symphonic lifestyle attempting to conceptualize and translate the complicated intricacies of a musician's passion into general-feed entertainment. The footprint of a good writer is the lack thereof; to make this alienation so painfully obvious is not the halmark of a drama deserving of ubiquitous praise.


I disagree. I found the Nodame anime to be an enjoyable show; a music anime worth watching unlike La Corda d'oro. It was funny, the opening and ending themes being nice, and very Honey and Clover like- and in my case, not a bad thing at all. I like the manga, so I may be slightly bias. But in my opinion, this anime is in no way dull or uninteresting. It's a pleasant suprise amidst a poor-looking anime season.
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HellKorn



Joined: 03 Oct 2006
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Location: Columbus, OH
PostPosted: Tue Jan 16, 2007 7:29 pm Reply with quote
I'm pleasantly surprised at this news. By any luck it might give more recognition to Nodame Cantabile in the anime/manga fandom, and following a season that was rather lacking in substance, its certainly a warm welcome.

Malintex Terek wrote:
Very well, if a more in-depth response is required I will be more than happy to gift ANN's most deserving discussion topic a minscule piece of my highly sharpened and educationally fortified mind;


And here I thought I was egotistical.

Oh, thou highest educated mind has a typo here and there as well.

Quote:
I am thoroughly surprised by such an upsurge of interest in Nodame Cantabile, for in-spite of its acclaim as an accomplished and highly entertaining Japanese drama, the anime was frankly quite dull and uninteresting. Such is likely related to the poor production values; while we have an "all star" voice actor/actress cast in place, the animation suffered from frame jumps, freezes, a full spectrum of muted colours, positively hideous character designs and a deceptive musical score.


Firstly, I like how you state certain aspects as facts.

Secondly, I like how you think a television animated series from Japan is going to have outstanding animation. Believe it or not, a lot of the animation produced from anime is not going to be spectacular. In the case of Nodame Cantabile, while the animation is nothing amazing, it is sufficient enough to showcase the movement of the characters. It should also be noted that there won't be a massive drop in quality in subsequent episodes because the studio didn't pour a fourth of their budget into the first one.

Thirdly, I like how you think the character designs are hideous. While it really is all subjective, the character designs are a refreshing break from all of the loli-tastic material anime fans have been given in recent times. Hell, I would estimate that the character designs and the art in general won't become downright distorted and completely ridiculous, like that it another recent, popular anime known as Higurashi no Naku Koro ni.

Fourthly, for its musical score...

Quote:
I say deceptive because the placement of the Beethoven/Mozart music treatise in the first episode sound deliberate, as in, fake.


Oh Lord, save us, the creative staff behind the production aren't classical music snobs.

Quote:
Not to mention the finger-key choreography for the show wasn't synchronized fully with the music, which isn't shocking in and of itself given a typical anime's propensity to avoid full concurrence with "lip flaps" at that.


... So why are you then complaining about this? They at least made at effort, certainly, with the further use of 3-D. (Perhaps roto-scoping?)

Quote:
As such, I believe the anime is benefitting only from the success of the J-drama and not to its own personal merits; it is a widely accepted heuristic that Japan has a hardy appetite for "more of the same" in regard to shows, drama, and manga, but in this case the animated rendition of Nodame Cantabile is so exceedingly poor I would recommend Westerners to avoid it like a noble would bubonic plague in Medieval Europe.


You're making it sound as though the anime is absolute trash, while, believe it or not, there are people who disagree with you. You are also basing this only on one single episode shown so far. So, will your insulting judgment remain should the ratings for Nodame Cantabile remain high in the following weeks and throughout its run, as well as the fact that the manga is apparently receiving enough attention and praise for its merits?

Quote:
Even from a musician's perspective, this show only lightly touches upon music culture, as it it were written by an outsider to a symphonic lifestyle attempting to conceptualize and translate the complicated intricacies of a musician's passion into general-feed entertainment. The footprint of a good writer is the lack thereof; to make this alienation so painfully obvious is not the halmark of a drama deserving of ubiquitous praise.


While I can't say this fully having only read the first seven volumes of the manga, Nodame Cantabile isn't just simply about music. There are other such themes, as well as characterization and even *gasp* humor to make it worthwhile to watch.

Basically, the bottom line is: don't be a Scrooge.
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Malintex Terek
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PostPosted: Tue Jan 16, 2007 8:04 pm Reply with quote
Leebo wrote:

You are surprised that it got such good ratings for its first episode, given the alleged weaknesses you point out, but how were the people who were interested in it and boosted its ratings supposed to know about these things beforehand? Logically, they would notice now and ratings would suffer later.


Yes, I was a bit taken aback to learn that the January 11 showing was indeed the first episode, since I had not expected a processed version of the show to appear at my usual source so quickly. However, my comments are still applicable because Nodame Cantabile did not merely cause a stir, it broke the record of a firmly established, long running and outrageously popular anime series.

This is why I am attributing the large response as a direct result of the Japanese drama's popularity; as an illustrative example, observe Fuji TV and its treatment of the (formerly) top anime in all Japan, One Piece, was kicked off of its prime time (Sunday at eight p.m.) airing slot in favour of 'reality television' and 'Japanese drama'; at the time, OP was raking in decent ratings (though not the historical highest) and currently achieves lower ratings on its 'Magical Sunday' timeslot that aims at a children's demographic. Fuji has not gone back on the move because the interest in Japanese drama and 'reality television' is so strong in spite of OP's heaving breathing it's in Fuji's interest to keep it on the stagnating timeslot.

hikaru004 wrote:
I thought that the use of Mozart's "Sonata for 2 Pianos" was a good lesson for cooperation.


If you were directing that at my quip, I believe this is an indication of a need for clarification; my criticism was that the differences in recording quality/style for the Mozart and Beethoven pieces were obvious when the pieces in question were played, and they sounded incongruent with the background music.

hikaru004 wrote:

Problems with animation can be corrected on the DVD release and with further episode release on TV.


With such high viewer attendance for the first episode, a "first impression" has already been imprinted, so corrections on expensive DVDs in the far future or even edits for upcoming episodes will likely have less effect on viewership than producing a dynamic first episode to reel in those who were already hooked from the related media.
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Patachu
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Joined: 08 Jul 2004
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PostPosted: Tue Jan 16, 2007 9:57 pm Reply with quote
hikaru004 wrote:
I thought that the use of Mozart's "Sonata for 2 Pianos" was a good lesson for cooperation.

But I tend to disagree that the ratings will dip because of animation quality in the first episode. The story and the music should carry the series. Problems with animation can be corrected on the DVD release and with further episode release on TV. Synchronization shouldn't be that much of an issue imo since most people who watch this probably aren't musicians imo.


I agree about the syncing thing. Laypersons and actual musicians alike know that all fictional instrumental performances are faked anyway. So they just learn to live with it (like me) or avoid anything related to their field of expertise (I know some critic got uppity about the movie Copying Beethoven because they weren't using period performance technique). Rolling Eyes

Even something intensely anal like Yuki Nagato's fingerwork in Episode 11 of Haruhi, the animators were only able to sustain for a few seconds at a time before having to change angles.

Anyway, I've turned it into kind of a fun game; I watch stuff like Shine and The Pianist and Amadeus and the Nodame live-action and chuckle inwardly everytime they do one of those cuts from the performer to the hands and it's obviously not the same person. And I think to myself, "Well yes, I could TOTALLY do those hand motions better because I actually know the music, but also, I am not a Famous Actor."
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Leebo



Joined: 14 Nov 2005
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PostPosted: Tue Jan 16, 2007 10:49 pm Reply with quote
Quote:
Yes, I was a bit taken aback to learn that the January 11 showing was indeed the first episode, since I had not expected a processed version of the show to appear at my usual source so quickly. However, my comments are still applicable because Nodame Cantabile did not merely cause a stir, it broke the record of a firmly established, long running and outrageously popular anime series.


hashihime said it was the record for a first episode, so the fact that Hajime no Ippo was long-running doesn't change its first episode ratings.

Anyway, my point is... how could the alleged negative aspects have any effect on first episode ratings? You said that you were surprised that the ratings were so good despite the flaws... but the people who watched it wouldn't know about the flaws until they finished!
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hikaru004



Joined: 15 Mar 2004
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PostPosted: Wed Jan 17, 2007 12:13 am Reply with quote
I dunno...

But at 12:45AM (time of broadcast), you'd have to be a videophile to be looking for problems in animation imo unless you recorded it for later viewing. Smile

Being a first episode of a popular franchise, it can only get better. Think positive. Smile
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