I decided to catch up with Nodame Cantabile again, probably because I was watching (and weeping over) Immortal Beloved yesterday. Beethoven is without a doubt one of my favorite composers ever. Despite being extremely incompetent at the actual delivery of a lot of these pieces, playing through the passion and the feeling in many of his sonatas when I was in middle/high really turned music into a big part of my life; something I came to depend on and cling to.

Anyways, the plot development in Lesson 124 of Nodame Cantabile is flat out awesome. I really felt for Nodame when she finally expressed how she felt about being left behind, while Chiaki’s been trekking around and moving on to great things. Since Nodame’s dream has always been to perform with Chiaki, things have been rather one-sided. Yes, Nodame had a lot of catching up to do in terms of her musical training. Yes, Chiaki dropped some sort of cryptic line hinting at his motivations for acting the way he has; still, Nodame hasn’t really had her big moment while Chiaki’s had many. So I was incredibly glad when Stresemann finally stepped in and said, forget Chiaki, just come with me! I can’t wait for her to finally be able to shine (although I’m wondering in the back of my mind if this screws up Auclair’s plans for Nodame). I’m also rather intrigued by the parallel allusion to the devil (even if that magic circle was a bit tacky xD;) and am dying to find out where the story goes from here.

The other thing that strucked me, that I loved in this chapter is the presence of the older men in this story, the Auclairs and the Stresemanns. That one scene where you see Auclair sitting in the empty room, realizing that Nodame was going to miss her lesson for the first time in years, was incredibly poignant. Yet at the same time there was the contrasting storyline with Stresemann, an older man who is both insanely talented and knowledgeable being able to step in during crisis mode and extend a helping hand, an opportunity that many young musicians might never be able to attain. That offer from Stresemann really captures for me all the random chances and wonderful opportunities that life may throw at you – but you have to know enough to grab onto them with all your teeth. For all these things I found this chapter and these characters to be amazingly powerful, which just makes me love this series all the more.

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