Before I get into the meat of this review, I want to just say that I did really enjoy my time reading this manga (or at least the first 80%). It was lighthearted and fun, the comedy was enjoyable (mostly slapstick-esque) and characters were overall endearing. So if you just want to read a casual manga and not worry too much about the finer details, then Nodame Cantabile is a great read. However, there are just a few too many problems that come up near the end that I want to address, which is the purpose for this review. So let's get into them.

This review does contain minor spoilers

To give the briefest overview, Nodame Cantabile is a mainly character oriented story focusing on Chiaki and Nodame, their relationship and their ultimate goal of becoming better conductors and musicians respectively. And this is where I found my first issue with the manga. It's not that the setup is bad or that these goals are plain and overdone. It's more of a problem with the fact that the character motivations for the two leads seems to jump all over the place, especially for Chiaki. I found myself having to sit down and think hard about what it is that Chiaki really wants at every point in the story. Does he want to become a famous conductor and study under his role model? Does he want to be able to stand up on his own merit and not live under his dad's shadow? Does he want to get better so he can conduct a performance with Nodame? The answer to all these questions is yes, but the story seems to move between the three haphazardly as the plot requires. While it's not strange for a person to have multiple goals in mind, it does get confusing to juggle them all within the setup of a story. Nodame is much more straightforward in this respect, but the thing that bothers me is that the resolution of her goals is never fully put to rest. Her whole character arc is trying to decide between what she wants to do vs what other people want her to do, and while she does make a choice in the end, it feels more as if the author made the other side of the conflict disappear rather than resolve it. By the end of the manga I found myself wondering if these characters actually fulfilled their character arcs or not, which is never a good sign.

Staying along with the two main characters (and even a lot of the side characters), the second thing that I found lacking in the story was the practical absence of tension. Our two leads in this story are basically infallible in their endeavors. Nothing ever goes wrong in what they pursue and they achieve everything they set out for. Now, this isn't necessarily bad depending on what you're going for, but it makes the story far less compelling to me. When characters you root for fail, it leaves you wanting to seem them rise up to the challenge again and overcome it. But when a character never fails, there is no draw to future conflicts the character might have, since they are probably going to overcome it with no problems again. This is not to say that the characters don't try hard for what they want since they obviously do, but once again, a little failure here and there can really make a plot/character arc more compelling. Another reason why there is an overall lack of tension throughout the whole of the story is because issues are solved at blazing fast speeds. Every side character that is introduced that has some sort of minor character arc has it completed within two or three chapters. In a lot of ways it makes me wonder why introduce those characters and give them arcs if you're not going to spend time to make me want to care about them. Even some major plot points that should have lasting effects on characters get solved quickly. Of course all of this is very much subjective, but I would prefer to have a slightly more dramatic story overall seeing as though all the pieces are already here rather than have the surface level, easily resolved tension present.

And with that, the last major issue I have is that there are a few major plot lines that end up feeling extremely unfulfilling. The biggest one by far is the plot line regarding Chiaki's father. Now, I don't want to spoil too much of it, but let's just say that they don't have the best relationship. And throughout the story there are big signs showing the effects of Chiaki's father on him and his relationships: Chiaki begins to act like his father at times and he can see others exhibiting the traits that he hates so much from his father. And following the logic set up by the story you would expect that his father plays a large role in the ending few arcs... but nothing ever comes of it. Once again, a lot of it is just left unresolved and unaddressed. And it's a real shame because that felt like one of the three major conflicts within Chiaki's whole character arc.

So if there was one word to describe my feelings towards Nodame Cantabile it would be 'disappointing'. Not because the story was bad, but because the story never reaches its full potential. Now, you could argue that the story is exactly what it wants to be, and I would normally agree had the story not set itself up perfectly to tell even more. Things happen too quickly for tension to build, plot points are brought up and never resolved and the characters are just a little too perfect yet unfocused to be fully satisfying.

So then, is Nodame Cantabile a good manga? Yes, and no, depending on what you like and look for. But hey, isn't that the case with everything? So if you're looking for a fun time, then go check it out, but if you want to read something with a story story, then maybe search somewhere else.